<![CDATA[ART IS CHANGE: Strategies & Skills for Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers]]>863525e5-eba1-5a11-b809-6b95a1b298d1Fri, 10 Apr 2026 16:55:17 +0000Captivate.fmBill Clevelandhttps://artwork.captivate.fm/362c9c06-a890-4a4e-b701-677c277d6513/E9TxTrtrUdiIoqThBslZlXYS.jpgART IS CHANGE: Strategies & Skills for Activist Artists & Cultural OrganizersBill ClevelandBill ClevelandCan your art help dismantle injustice, shift systems, or spark healing in places like homeless shelters, emergency rooms, or city planning meetings? If you’re passionate about making a real difference through creativity, ART IS CHANGE (formerly known as Change the Story / Change the World) is your front-row seat to the real-world impact of art and social change. Hosted by author, musician, and researcher Bill Cleveland, each episode brings you deep into the lives and work of activist artists and cultural organizers who are doing more than dreaming—they’re transforming communities around the world. You’ll discover: • Proven strategies for thriving as an artist for change in complex, real-world settings • How to build meaningful, lasting partnerships that support your mission and your art • Lessons from global leaders creating cultural blueprints for justice, empathy, and resilience ▶️ Start with fan-favorite Episodes 86 and 87: Lessons From an Art and Change Pioneer—a double-dose of inspiration and practical insight.- https://change-the-story-chan.captivate.fm/episode/bighart-bigstory-redux/https://change-the-story-chan.captivate.fmtrueepisodicnopodcast172: Jordan Seaberry - What Use is Art Making When Freedom is Under Pressure?172: Jordan Seaberry - What Use is Art Making When Freedom is Under Pressure?What use is art making

when freedom is under pressure?

From the Center for the Study of Art and Community? This is Art is Change, a chronicle of art and social change where activist artists and cultural organizers share the strategies and skills they need to thrive as creative community leaders. My name is Bill Cleveland

This episode is part of a special Art In Action series we're producing in partnership with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation Democracy and the Arts program. In these episodes, we'll be speaking with artists, cultural organizers and arts leaders who are navigating and challenging current efforts to to limit free creative expression and free speech.

Together, we'll explore what freedom of expression means in practice, not as an abstract right, but as a lived responsibility at the heart of democratic life.

This show features my conversation with painter, organizer, educator and “root waterer” Jordan Seaberry,about what happens when art moves beyond decoration and entertainment and becomes a powerful civic practice for listening, organizing and building people power. Jordan's work, which spans painting, policy, comics, teaching and movement building, is all grounded in the conviction that human creativity is not extra.

Along the way, we follow Jordan's journey from the south side of Chicago to the Rhode Island School of Design, otherwise known as RISD, to Oregon organizing around prisoners rights, studying at Roger Williams University School of Law, and helping lead the US Department of Art and Culture.

In it we will learn about:

* How Jordan's life as a painter and organizer came together from RISD disillusionment to grassroots organizing, law school teaching and cultural strategy.

* Why listening is central to both art art and organizing. Whether the canvas becomes an ear or an organizer helps someone rehear their own life with dignity

* How artists can generate real civic power by joining movements, helping build alternative systems, and challenging dominant institutions from both inside and the street.

Notable Mentions

People

Jordan Seaberry — Painter, organizer, educator, and co-director at the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, whose practice bridges painting, policy, comics, and movement work.

Adam Horowitz — Founding leader in the creation of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture’s people-powered national framework.

Arlene Goldbard — Writer, speaker, and longtime cultural activist who helped shape USDAC’s founding vision.

Gabriel Baez — Cultural organizer and early USDAC leader involved in its national development.

Jonathan Highfield — RISD faculty member and an important mentor in Jordan’s political and intellectual formation.

Carlton Turner — Artist, organizer, and co-founder of Sipp Culture, building rural cultural infrastructure in Mississippi.

Brandi Turner — Co-director of Sipp Culture and key partner in its community-rooted cultural work.

Dan Denvir — Host of The Dig, the podcast Jordan names as a useful guide in making sense of the current political moment.

Nadine Bloch — Activist, trainer, and creative strategist with Beautiful Trouble, mentioned in connection with artists against authoritarianism work.

Michelle Alexander — Civil rights advocate and author of The New Jim Crow, one of the books Jordan cites as deeply influential.

Richard Powers — Novelist and author of Bewilderment and The Overstory, both named in Jordan’s recommendations.

Jon Fogel — Author of Punishment-Free Parenting, which Jordan connects to broader questions of punishment and power.

Kathryn Bigelow — Director of A House of Dynamite, the film Jordan references in thinking about the state and the individual.

Organizations

U.S. Department of Arts and Culture — A people-powered, non-governmental “performance piece” that prefigures what a real federal department of arts and culture could do in support of cultural democracy.

Charles F. Kettering Foundation — Partner on the Art in Action series through its work connecting democracy, public life, and the arts.

Democracy and the Arts at the Kettering Foundation — Kettering’s focus area for integrating the power of the arts into democratic life locally, nationally, and internationally.

Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) — Jordan’s alma mater and now one of the places where he teaches.

Jordan Seaberry at RISD — RISD faculty profile outlining his work as a painter, organizer, and educator.

Roger Williams University School of Law — The law school where Jordan studied while deepening the connection between art, policy, and public life.

“Radical Imagination, Radical Listening” at RWU Law — Profile of Jordan’s path through Roger Williams and the role legal study played in his work.

Sipp Culture — Mississippi-based cultural organization founded by Carlton and Brandi Turner, named here as a powerful example of alternative system building through art, food, land, and community.

Beautiful Trouble — Creative strategy hub for activists and organizers, referenced in connection with USDAC collaborations.

The Nonviolence Institute — Providence-based organization where Jordan served as director of public policy.

Publications, media, and resources

The Dig — Socialist podcast Jordan cites as part of his effort to understand the current political landscape.

Bewilderment — Richard Powers novel exploring empathy, climate grief, and the human relationship to the living world.

The Overstory — Powers’s earlier novel, invoked here as part of the same moral and ecological terrain.

A House of Dynamite — Kathryn Bigelow’s Netflix political thriller, which Jordan reads as a study in how governments can reduce ordinary people to pieces on a strategic board.

The New Jim Crow — Michelle Alexander’s landmark book on mass incarceration and racialized punishment in the United States.

Punishment-Free Parenting — Jon Fogel’s book, which Jordan links to deeper questions about discipline, punishment, and retribution.

Related episode

Art Is Change, Episode 78 featuring Carlton Turner — Bill notes this earlier conversation in connection with Sipp Culture and Mississippi-rooted cultural organizing

]]>What use is art making

when freedom is under pressure?

From the Center for the Study of Art and Community? This is Art is Change, a chronicle of art and social change where activist artists and cultural organizers share the strategies and skills they need to thrive as creative community leaders. My name is Bill Cleveland

This episode is part of a special Art In Action series we're producing in partnership with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation Democracy and the Arts program. In these episodes, we'll be speaking with artists, cultural organizers and arts leaders who are navigating and challenging current efforts to to limit free creative expression and free speech.

Together, we'll explore what freedom of expression means in practice, not as an abstract right, but as a lived responsibility at the heart of democratic life.

This show features my conversation with painter, organizer, educator and “root waterer” Jordan Seaberry,about what happens when art moves beyond decoration and entertainment and becomes a powerful civic practice for listening, organizing and building people power. Jordan's work, which spans painting, policy, comics, teaching and movement building, is all grounded in the conviction that human creativity is not extra.

Along the way, we follow Jordan's journey from the south side of Chicago to the Rhode Island School of Design, otherwise known as RISD, to Oregon organizing around prisoners rights, studying at Roger Williams University School of Law, and helping lead the US Department of Art and Culture.

In it we will learn about:

* How Jordan's life as a painter and organizer came together from RISD disillusionment to grassroots organizing, law school teaching and cultural strategy.

* Why listening is central to both art art and organizing. Whether the canvas becomes an ear or an organizer helps someone rehear their own life with dignity

* How artists can generate real civic power by joining movements, helping build alternative systems, and challenging dominant institutions from both inside and the street.

Notable Mentions

People

Jordan Seaberry — Painter, organizer, educator, and co-director at the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, whose practice bridges painting, policy, comics, and movement work.

Adam Horowitz — Founding leader in the creation of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture’s people-powered national framework.

Arlene Goldbard — Writer, speaker, and longtime cultural activist who helped shape USDAC’s founding vision.

Gabriel Baez — Cultural organizer and early USDAC leader involved in its national development.

Jonathan Highfield — RISD faculty member and an important mentor in Jordan’s political and intellectual formation.

Carlton Turner — Artist, organizer, and co-founder of Sipp Culture, building rural cultural infrastructure in Mississippi.

Brandi Turner — Co-director of Sipp Culture and key partner in its community-rooted cultural work.

Dan Denvir — Host of The Dig, the podcast Jordan names as a useful guide in making sense of the current political moment.

Nadine Bloch — Activist, trainer, and creative strategist with Beautiful Trouble, mentioned in connection with artists against authoritarianism work.

Michelle Alexander — Civil rights advocate and author of The New Jim Crow, one of the books Jordan cites as deeply influential.

Richard Powers — Novelist and author of Bewilderment and The Overstory, both named in Jordan’s recommendations.

Jon Fogel — Author of Punishment-Free Parenting, which Jordan connects to broader questions of punishment and power.

Kathryn Bigelow — Director of A House of Dynamite, the film Jordan references in thinking about the state and the individual.

Organizations

U.S. Department of Arts and Culture — A people-powered, non-governmental “performance piece” that prefigures what a real federal department of arts and culture could do in support of cultural democracy.

Charles F. Kettering Foundation — Partner on the Art in Action series through its work connecting democracy, public life, and the arts.

Democracy and the Arts at the Kettering Foundation — Kettering’s focus area for integrating the power of the arts into democratic life locally, nationally, and internationally.

Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) — Jordan’s alma mater and now one of the places where he teaches.

Jordan Seaberry at RISD — RISD faculty profile outlining his work as a painter, organizer, and educator.

Roger Williams University School of Law — The law school where Jordan studied while deepening the connection between art, policy, and public life.

“Radical Imagination, Radical Listening” at RWU Law — Profile of Jordan’s path through Roger Williams and the role legal study played in his work.

Sipp Culture — Mississippi-based cultural organization founded by Carlton and Brandi Turner, named here as a powerful example of alternative system building through art, food, land, and community.

Beautiful Trouble — Creative strategy hub for activists and organizers, referenced in connection with USDAC collaborations.

The Nonviolence Institute — Providence-based organization where Jordan served as director of public policy.

Publications, media, and resources

The Dig — Socialist podcast Jordan cites as part of his effort to understand the current political landscape.

Bewilderment — Richard Powers novel exploring empathy, climate grief, and the human relationship to the living world.

The Overstory — Powers’s earlier novel, invoked here as part of the same moral and ecological terrain.

A House of Dynamite — Kathryn Bigelow’s Netflix political thriller, which Jordan reads as a study in how governments can reduce ordinary people to pieces on a strategic board.

The New Jim Crow — Michelle Alexander’s landmark book on mass incarceration and racialized punishment in the United States.

Punishment-Free Parenting — Jon Fogel’s book, which Jordan links to deeper questions about discipline, punishment, and retribution.

Related episode

Art Is Change, Episode 78 featuring Carlton Turner — Bill notes this earlier conversation in connection with Sipp Culture and Mississippi-rooted cultural organizing

]]>26711021-59a0-4c1e-9f8f-703902fbcbe7Wed, 08 Apr 2026 04:45:00 -070055:59truefull172172171: Artist Proof Studio - What Can We Learn From Activist Artists in South Africa171: Artist Proof Studio - What Can We Learn From Activist Artists in South AfricaWhat does it actually take to build

a democracy the people own?

The Artist Proof story takes us to Johannesburg, where a print studio becomes a living laboratory for a new society. We also hear about:

• A court built as art, where law and lived experience meet in the same space

• A collective studio where artists divided by apartheid learn to work, argue, and make meaning together

• A fire, a death, and a return to the ashes—where broken pieces become the raw material for rebuilding

What emerges isn’t a heroic artist story. It’s something quieter and more durable: a way of working where creativity becomes infrastructure—where access, collaboration, and persistence slowly reshape how people see themselves and each other. Not a moment. A practice. Not a symbol. A system.

Stay with this. There’s something here about how change really happens—how culture does the long work that politics alone can’t finish.

NOTABLE MENTIONS

Organizations & Places

  • Artist Proof Studio
  • A Johannesburg-based printmaking and training center founded in 1991, focused on access, collaboration, and professional development for emerging artists across South Africa and the continent.
  • Constitution Hill
  • Historic site of South Africa’s Constitutional Court, built on a former prison complex and integrating art into its architecture as part of democratic nation-building.

People

  • Kim Berman
  • Artist, educator, and co-founder of Artist Proof Studio, known for her work in printmaking and arts education tied to social transformation.
  • Nelson Mandela
  • Anti-apartheid leader and South Africa’s first democratically elected president, whose release in 1990 marked a turning point in the country’s transition.
  • Albert Lutuli
  • Nobel Peace Prize laureate and president of the African National Congress, imprisoned during apartheid.
  • Joe Slovo
  • Key leader in the anti-apartheid struggle and later a government minister in democratic South Africa.
  • Mahatma Gandhi
  • Lived and organized in South Africa early in his career; his imprisonment there shaped his philosophy of nonviolent resistance.

Events

  • Human Rights Day
  • Commemorated on March 21, marking the Sharpeville Massacre and honoring the struggle for human rights in South Africa.
  • End of Apartheid
  • The dismantling of South Africa’s system of racial segregation and the transition to democratic governance in the early 1990s.

Institutions & Media


*****

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>What does it actually take to build

a democracy the people own?

The Artist Proof story takes us to Johannesburg, where a print studio becomes a living laboratory for a new society. We also hear about:

• A court built as art, where law and lived experience meet in the same space

• A collective studio where artists divided by apartheid learn to work, argue, and make meaning together

• A fire, a death, and a return to the ashes—where broken pieces become the raw material for rebuilding

What emerges isn’t a heroic artist story. It’s something quieter and more durable: a way of working where creativity becomes infrastructure—where access, collaboration, and persistence slowly reshape how people see themselves and each other. Not a moment. A practice. Not a symbol. A system.

Stay with this. There’s something here about how change really happens—how culture does the long work that politics alone can’t finish.

NOTABLE MENTIONS

Organizations & Places

  • Artist Proof Studio
  • A Johannesburg-based printmaking and training center founded in 1991, focused on access, collaboration, and professional development for emerging artists across South Africa and the continent.
  • Constitution Hill
  • Historic site of South Africa’s Constitutional Court, built on a former prison complex and integrating art into its architecture as part of democratic nation-building.

People

  • Kim Berman
  • Artist, educator, and co-founder of Artist Proof Studio, known for her work in printmaking and arts education tied to social transformation.
  • Nelson Mandela
  • Anti-apartheid leader and South Africa’s first democratically elected president, whose release in 1990 marked a turning point in the country’s transition.
  • Albert Lutuli
  • Nobel Peace Prize laureate and president of the African National Congress, imprisoned during apartheid.
  • Joe Slovo
  • Key leader in the anti-apartheid struggle and later a government minister in democratic South Africa.
  • Mahatma Gandhi
  • Lived and organized in South Africa early in his career; his imprisonment there shaped his philosophy of nonviolent resistance.

Events

  • Human Rights Day
  • Commemorated on March 21, marking the Sharpeville Massacre and honoring the struggle for human rights in South Africa.
  • End of Apartheid
  • The dismantling of South Africa’s system of racial segregation and the transition to democratic governance in the early 1990s.

Institutions & Media


*****

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>ef16f6ff-e780-4e4c-8085-b91eb2f9778bWed, 01 Apr 2026 04:45:00 -070015:03truefull171171170: Is Community Based-art Making at the Heart of Cultural Democracy?170: Is Community Based-art Making at the Heart of Cultural Democracy?Is Community-Based Artmaking

at the Heart of Cultural Democracy?

In this conversation, community arts organizer, educator and theater maker Matt Schwarzman describes his mission to make collaborative art making a regular, normal, expected part of everyday life. A movement that has quietly grown for decades, but now faces a new test in a time of democratic strain.

Along the way, he traces his influences from John o' Neill and the Free Southern the to the grassroots cultural movements of the 1980s and 90s that helped shape a generation of artists who see culture not as decoration but as civic infrastructure.

Matt's journey winds through several decades of cultural organizing from sea to era arts jobs in Philadelphia to community organizing in Oakland and youth theater in post Katrina New Orleans.

Across these projects, a single thread emerges the idea that community arts is a learnable, cross sector civic practice, an amalgam of organizing, teaching and art making.

In our conversation, we talk about:

  1. The influence of seminal cultural leaders like John O'Neal, whose minimalist storytelling and story circle methodology help build national networks of cultural democracy
  2. How youth arts programs can serve as modern rites of passage that help young people claim civic voice and leadership
  3. And how storytelling, imagination and collective creation are foundational skills for sustaining democratic life.

Notable Mentions

People

Mat Schwarzman – Trinity City Arts

Community arts organizer, educator, theater maker, and co-creator of Trinity City Comics and A Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Arts.

John O’Neal – SNCC Digital Gateway

Playwright, storyteller, organizer, and founder of Junebug Productions; a key influence on Schwarzman’s understanding of cultural democracy and story circles.

Keith Knight – K Chronicles

Cartoonist and collaborator with Mat Schwarzman on A Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Arts.

Rhodessa Jones – Cornell Arts & Sciences

Performer, teacher, and co-artistic director of Cultural Odyssey, cited in the episode through her theater work with formerly incarcerated women.

Rinku Sen

Organizer, strategist, and writer whose work at the Center for Third World Organizing helped shape Schwarzman’s understanding of community organizing.

Gary Delgado – American University

Organizer, scholar, and founder of the Center for Third World Organizing; one of the people Schwarzman credits with teaching him organizing practice.

Steve Prince – Studio Website

Artist and educator who worked with Trinity City Arts and helped mentor youth comic-makers on Trinity City Comics.

Judith Malina – The Living Theatre

Co-founder of the Living Theatre, referenced for her writing on the artist’s role during periods of counter-revolution.

Octavia E. Butler – Hachette author page

Visionary novelist whose Afrofuturist imagination and Parable novels deeply influence Schwarzman’s current work.

Robert M. Sapolsky – Stanford Profile

Neuroscientist and writer whose work on behavior, biology, and violence informs Schwarzman’s thinking.

Places

New Orleans / Bolbancha

Schwarzman’s home base and the setting for much of his current work; he names it as Bolbancha, “the place of many tongues.”

Philadelphia

City where Schwarzman began his paid community arts work at Big Small Theater and connected with the Painted Bride Art Center.

Oakland

Where Schwarzman trained in organizing through the Center for Third World Organizing and developed the East Bay Institute for Urban Arts.

Alameda, California

Bill Cleveland’s home base, acknowledged in the episode as Ohlone land.

San Francisco Bay Area

The broader region where Schwarzman worked at New College of California and built his arts-and-organizing practice.

Events

Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA)

Federal jobs program that helped support the arts position Schwarzman took in Philadelphia in the mid-1980s.

Hurricane Katrina

The storm whose aftermath shaped Schwarzman’s New Orleans youth theater work, including the Creative Forces Youth Theater Company.

Chicago Conference of the Alliance for Cultural Democracy Archive

Referenced in the episode as one of the gatherings that connected Schwarzman to a wider national arts-and-democracy network.

Junebug Productions: Our Story

The institutional home for John O’Neal’s post–Free Southern Theater work, including the Junebug Jabbo Jones performances mentioned in the episode.

Publications

A Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Arts, 2nd Edition

Comics-illustrated guide co-authored by Mat Schwarzman and Keith Knight, designed to demystify community-based arts practice.

Parable of the Sower

Octavia Butler’s novel, cited by Schwarzman as a major influence on Trinity City Comics and his interest in Afrofuturism.

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Robert Sapolsky’s wide-ranging study of the biological roots of behavior, referenced in the conversation as a current fascination.

Do Dogs Laugh?

Jake Page’s popular science book on canine behavior, cited by Schwarzman in relation to theater, performance, and social roles.

Acknowledgements

From Freesound.org

beautiful or ominous music box.wav by xtrgamr -- https://freesound.org/s/268511/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Eerie Horror Background Music with Ominous Dark Atmosphere by Matio888 -- https://freesound.org/s/793481/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Audio Exerpt:

"Don't Start Talking...Junebug Jabbo Jones”Stevenson J. Palfi's 1985 television adaptation of playwright/actor John O' Neal's bravura one-man theater piece.

"Don’t Start Me Talking Or I'll Tell You Everything Know. Sayings From the Life and Writings of Junebug Jabbo Jones” was created by O' Neal as the final production of the Free Southern Theater, which had been formed in 1963 to be a cultural arm of the Civil Rights Movement.

The play was developed in the community workshop-feedback style with O'Neal's principle collaborator, the theater director Steven Kent,

#ANALOGLAB.ORG

#ANALOG LAB

#SOUTHEAST MEDIA PRODUCTION...]]>Is Community-Based Artmaking

at the Heart of Cultural Democracy?

In this conversation, community arts organizer, educator and theater maker Matt Schwarzman describes his mission to make collaborative art making a regular, normal, expected part of everyday life. A movement that has quietly grown for decades, but now faces a new test in a time of democratic strain.

Along the way, he traces his influences from John o' Neill and the Free Southern the to the grassroots cultural movements of the 1980s and 90s that helped shape a generation of artists who see culture not as decoration but as civic infrastructure.

Matt's journey winds through several decades of cultural organizing from sea to era arts jobs in Philadelphia to community organizing in Oakland and youth theater in post Katrina New Orleans.

Across these projects, a single thread emerges the idea that community arts is a learnable, cross sector civic practice, an amalgam of organizing, teaching and art making.

In our conversation, we talk about:

  1. The influence of seminal cultural leaders like John O'Neal, whose minimalist storytelling and story circle methodology help build national networks of cultural democracy
  2. How youth arts programs can serve as modern rites of passage that help young people claim civic voice and leadership
  3. And how storytelling, imagination and collective creation are foundational skills for sustaining democratic life.

Notable Mentions

People

Mat Schwarzman – Trinity City Arts

Community arts organizer, educator, theater maker, and co-creator of Trinity City Comics and A Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Arts.

John O’Neal – SNCC Digital Gateway

Playwright, storyteller, organizer, and founder of Junebug Productions; a key influence on Schwarzman’s understanding of cultural democracy and story circles.

Keith Knight – K Chronicles

Cartoonist and collaborator with Mat Schwarzman on A Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Arts.

Rhodessa Jones – Cornell Arts & Sciences

Performer, teacher, and co-artistic director of Cultural Odyssey, cited in the episode through her theater work with formerly incarcerated women.

Rinku Sen

Organizer, strategist, and writer whose work at the Center for Third World Organizing helped shape Schwarzman’s understanding of community organizing.

Gary Delgado – American University

Organizer, scholar, and founder of the Center for Third World Organizing; one of the people Schwarzman credits with teaching him organizing practice.

Steve Prince – Studio Website

Artist and educator who worked with Trinity City Arts and helped mentor youth comic-makers on Trinity City Comics.

Judith Malina – The Living Theatre

Co-founder of the Living Theatre, referenced for her writing on the artist’s role during periods of counter-revolution.

Octavia E. Butler – Hachette author page

Visionary novelist whose Afrofuturist imagination and Parable novels deeply influence Schwarzman’s current work.

Robert M. Sapolsky – Stanford Profile

Neuroscientist and writer whose work on behavior, biology, and violence informs Schwarzman’s thinking.

Places

New Orleans / Bolbancha

Schwarzman’s home base and the setting for much of his current work; he names it as Bolbancha, “the place of many tongues.”

Philadelphia

City where Schwarzman began his paid community arts work at Big Small Theater and connected with the Painted Bride Art Center.

Oakland

Where Schwarzman trained in organizing through the Center for Third World Organizing and developed the East Bay Institute for Urban Arts.

Alameda, California

Bill Cleveland’s home base, acknowledged in the episode as Ohlone land.

San Francisco Bay Area

The broader region where Schwarzman worked at New College of California and built his arts-and-organizing practice.

Events

Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA)

Federal jobs program that helped support the arts position Schwarzman took in Philadelphia in the mid-1980s.

Hurricane Katrina

The storm whose aftermath shaped Schwarzman’s New Orleans youth theater work, including the Creative Forces Youth Theater Company.

Chicago Conference of the Alliance for Cultural Democracy Archive

Referenced in the episode as one of the gatherings that connected Schwarzman to a wider national arts-and-democracy network.

Junebug Productions: Our Story

The institutional home for John O’Neal’s post–Free Southern Theater work, including the Junebug Jabbo Jones performances mentioned in the episode.

Publications

A Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Arts, 2nd Edition

Comics-illustrated guide co-authored by Mat Schwarzman and Keith Knight, designed to demystify community-based arts practice.

Parable of the Sower

Octavia Butler’s novel, cited by Schwarzman as a major influence on Trinity City Comics and his interest in Afrofuturism.

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Robert Sapolsky’s wide-ranging study of the biological roots of behavior, referenced in the conversation as a current fascination.

Do Dogs Laugh?

Jake Page’s popular science book on canine behavior, cited by Schwarzman in relation to theater, performance, and social roles.

Acknowledgements

From Freesound.org

beautiful or ominous music box.wav by xtrgamr -- https://freesound.org/s/268511/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Eerie Horror Background Music with Ominous Dark Atmosphere by Matio888 -- https://freesound.org/s/793481/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Audio Exerpt:

"Don't Start Talking...Junebug Jabbo Jones”Stevenson J. Palfi's 1985 television adaptation of playwright/actor John O' Neal's bravura one-man theater piece.

"Don’t Start Me Talking Or I'll Tell You Everything Know. Sayings From the Life and Writings of Junebug Jabbo Jones” was created by O' Neal as the final production of the Free Southern Theater, which had been formed in 1963 to be a cultural arm of the Civil Rights Movement.

The play was developed in the community workshop-feedback style with O'Neal's principle collaborator, the theater director Steven Kent,

#ANALOGLAB.ORG

#ANALOG LAB

#SOUTHEAST MEDIA PRODUCTION LAB

#JUNEBUG PRODUCTIONS

#SE MEDIA PRESERVATION ALLIANCE

#NEW ORLEANS

#JUNEBUG

#FREE SOUTHERN THEATER

#JOHN O' NEAL

#STEVENSON PALFI

*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>a0216be3-dace-4ad3-85f4-55c4effdd6c7Wed, 25 Mar 2026 04:45:00 -070045:55truefull170170169: Joni Doherty: ART IN ACTION Is Fueling Free Expression & Democracy169: Joni Doherty: ART IN ACTION Is Fueling Free Expression & DemocracyWhat happens when artists step forward not just to create, but to defend the freedom to create?

In this opening episode of a new Art in Action series produced with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Bill Cleveland speaks with Joni Doherty, Senior Program Officer for Democracy and the Arts. Their conversation begins with a rediscovered 1964 speech by Martin Luther King Jr. in Dayton, Ohio, and unfolds into a powerful exploration of how artists today are confronting censorship, recovering buried histories, and expanding the civic imagination.

As Doherty explains, the arts are not merely decoration for democracy—they are one of its most powerful engines.

Through stories of collaboration between artists, poets, dancers, and community leaders in Dayton, the conversation reveals how creative work can become a living civic process, one that helps communities reflect on their past, confront their present, and imagine new futures.

In this episode we explore:

  • How an almost forgotten Martin Luther King Jr. speech sparked a multi—disciplinary arts movement in Dayton, Ohio.
  • How artists are confronting censorship and cultural erasure by reclaiming hidden histories and expanding the frame of what we see.
  • Why artistic creativity may be one of democracy’s most powerful tools—what Cleveland calls a kind of “creative cold fusion.”

Listen in as Joni Doherty shares how artists, community leaders, and cultural institutions are working together to defend freedom of expression, and why the work of imagination is essential to the future of democracy.

Notable Mentions

People

Joni Doherty – Senior Program Officer for Democracy and the Arts at the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, working to build collaborations between artists and civic institutions that strengthen democratic life.

Bill Cleveland – Artist, writer, and host of Art Is Change, known for documenting the role of community-based arts in social transformation.

Martin Luther King Jr. – Civil rights leader whose philosophy of nonviolent resistance and moral courage continues to inspire movements for justice and democratic freedom.

Bing Davis – Dayton based visual artist and community arts leader whose work explores African American history, identity, and cultural resilience.

Sharon L. Davies – President and CEO of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, leading initiatives focused on democracy, civic engagement, and innovation.

Debbie Blunden-Diggs – Executive Director and Artistic Director of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, one of the nation’s leading modern dance organizations.

Sarah Lewis – Art historian and author whose work explores perception, race, and representation in visual culture.

Sierra Leone -Governor’s Award winner, poet and writer Sierra Leone is the president, artistic director and cofounder of OFP Theatre and Production Company. For more than a decade, Ohio has benefitted from Sierra's vision of creative urban arts as a powerful artistic medium to bring communities together across racial, cultural, ideological, and economic divides.

Organizations

Charles F. Kettering Foundation — A nonpartisan research foundation focused on affirming and advancing inclusive democracy and countering authoritarianism..

Democracy and the Arts at the Kettering Foundation — One of the Kettering Foundation’s five focus areas. The Democracy and the Arts program integrates the unique power of the arts into the foundation’s and partners with Art Is Change for the Art in Action podcast series.

Dayton Art Institute A major regional art museum that hosts exhibitions and community arts programming.

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company – One of the nation’s premier modern dance companies, known for work rooted in African American cultural traditions.

EboNia Gallery — A gallery owned by Willis “Bing” Davis that exhibits contemporary African—American artwork. Located in the Wright—Dunbar District in Dayton, it co—hosted the Visual Voices exhibition discussed in the podcast.

Smithsonian Institution – The United States’ national museum and research complex, referenced in the conversation in relation to debates over cultural representation and censorship.

Events & Historical References

Cold Fusion Announcement (1989) – A controversial scientific claim made by chemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons that nuclear fusion had been achieved at room temperature.

The Third Reich – Nazi Germany (1933—1945), referenced as an example of authoritarian regimes suppressing artistic freedom.

Stalinist Russia – Period of Soviet rule marked by strict political control and censorship of artistic expression.

Cambodian Genocide – Under the Khmer Rouge regime (1975—1979), artists,

intellectuals, and cultural practitioners were systematically persecuted.

Publications

The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America – A book by Sarah Lewis that examines hos visual culture and perception shape racial understanding and historical memory.

Visual Voices: An Exhibition of African American Artists Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s 1964 Dayton Speech — A catalog that includes all of the works in the exhibition discussed in the podcast.

Visual Voices: Storytelling Through Poetry — An anthology of ekphrastic poems created in response to the artwork in Visual Voices: An Exhibition of African American Artists Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s 1964 Dayton Speech..

*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>What happens when artists step forward not just to create, but to defend the freedom to create?

In this opening episode of a new Art in Action series produced with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Bill Cleveland speaks with Joni Doherty, Senior Program Officer for Democracy and the Arts. Their conversation begins with a rediscovered 1964 speech by Martin Luther King Jr. in Dayton, Ohio, and unfolds into a powerful exploration of how artists today are confronting censorship, recovering buried histories, and expanding the civic imagination.

As Doherty explains, the arts are not merely decoration for democracy—they are one of its most powerful engines.

Through stories of collaboration between artists, poets, dancers, and community leaders in Dayton, the conversation reveals how creative work can become a living civic process, one that helps communities reflect on their past, confront their present, and imagine new futures.

In this episode we explore:

  • How an almost forgotten Martin Luther King Jr. speech sparked a multi—disciplinary arts movement in Dayton, Ohio.
  • How artists are confronting censorship and cultural erasure by reclaiming hidden histories and expanding the frame of what we see.
  • Why artistic creativity may be one of democracy’s most powerful tools—what Cleveland calls a kind of “creative cold fusion.”

Listen in as Joni Doherty shares how artists, community leaders, and cultural institutions are working together to defend freedom of expression, and why the work of imagination is essential to the future of democracy.

Notable Mentions

People

Joni Doherty – Senior Program Officer for Democracy and the Arts at the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, working to build collaborations between artists and civic institutions that strengthen democratic life.

Bill Cleveland – Artist, writer, and host of Art Is Change, known for documenting the role of community-based arts in social transformation.

Martin Luther King Jr. – Civil rights leader whose philosophy of nonviolent resistance and moral courage continues to inspire movements for justice and democratic freedom.

Bing Davis – Dayton based visual artist and community arts leader whose work explores African American history, identity, and cultural resilience.

Sharon L. Davies – President and CEO of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, leading initiatives focused on democracy, civic engagement, and innovation.

Debbie Blunden-Diggs – Executive Director and Artistic Director of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, one of the nation’s leading modern dance organizations.

Sarah Lewis – Art historian and author whose work explores perception, race, and representation in visual culture.

Sierra Leone -Governor’s Award winner, poet and writer Sierra Leone is the president, artistic director and cofounder of OFP Theatre and Production Company. For more than a decade, Ohio has benefitted from Sierra's vision of creative urban arts as a powerful artistic medium to bring communities together across racial, cultural, ideological, and economic divides.

Organizations

Charles F. Kettering Foundation — A nonpartisan research foundation focused on affirming and advancing inclusive democracy and countering authoritarianism..

Democracy and the Arts at the Kettering Foundation — One of the Kettering Foundation’s five focus areas. The Democracy and the Arts program integrates the unique power of the arts into the foundation’s and partners with Art Is Change for the Art in Action podcast series.

Dayton Art Institute A major regional art museum that hosts exhibitions and community arts programming.

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company – One of the nation’s premier modern dance companies, known for work rooted in African American cultural traditions.

EboNia Gallery — A gallery owned by Willis “Bing” Davis that exhibits contemporary African—American artwork. Located in the Wright—Dunbar District in Dayton, it co—hosted the Visual Voices exhibition discussed in the podcast.

Smithsonian Institution – The United States’ national museum and research complex, referenced in the conversation in relation to debates over cultural representation and censorship.

Events & Historical References

Cold Fusion Announcement (1989) – A controversial scientific claim made by chemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons that nuclear fusion had been achieved at room temperature.

The Third Reich – Nazi Germany (1933—1945), referenced as an example of authoritarian regimes suppressing artistic freedom.

Stalinist Russia – Period of Soviet rule marked by strict political control and censorship of artistic expression.

Cambodian Genocide – Under the Khmer Rouge regime (1975—1979), artists,

intellectuals, and cultural practitioners were systematically persecuted.

Publications

The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America – A book by Sarah Lewis that examines hos visual culture and perception shape racial understanding and historical memory.

Visual Voices: An Exhibition of African American Artists Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s 1964 Dayton Speech — A catalog that includes all of the works in the exhibition discussed in the podcast.

Visual Voices: Storytelling Through Poetry — An anthology of ekphrastic poems created in response to the artwork in Visual Voices: An Exhibition of African American Artists Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s 1964 Dayton Speech..

*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>fbbeccb9-ecad-492c-9811-63df8f75030fWed, 18 Mar 2026 04:45:00 -070040:17truefull169169168: Arts Freedom Weather Report - The MAGA Squeeze Is Provoking Creative Resistance168: Arts Freedom Weather Report - The MAGA Squeeze Is Provoking Creative ResistanceYou can feel it in the air.

Across museums, national parks, libraries, and cultural institutions, the pressure around what can be said — and what must disappear — is tightening.

But while federal policies attempt to narrow the public cultural space, artists, historians, librarians, educators, and cultural organizers are responding in real time — documenting what’s being erased, refusing complicity, and building new civic infrastructure.

In this report, Bill Cleveland surveys the emerging landscape of creative resistance and cultural restriction across the United States.

From citizen historians documenting museum censorship at the Smithsonian to artists leaving politicized institutions like the Kennedy Center, the story unfolding is not just about politics — it’s about who controls public memory. In this episode you’ll hear

  • How citizen historians are systematically documenting changes to museum exhibits and historical interpretation — turning smartphones and metadata into tools of cultural preservation.
  • About artists and cultural leaders are increasingly walking away from institutions where political interference threatens artistic integrity.k
  • How libraries, classrooms, and community arts programs, cultural workers are developing creative strategies to defend access to history, literacy, and civic dialogue.

Notable Mentions

People

Marc Bamuthi Joseph – Kennedy Center Artist Profile

Former Vice President and Artistic Director of Social Impact at the Kennedy Center whose public remarks following his dismissal highlighted the cultural and political tensions surrounding leadership changes at the institution.

Amy Goodman – Democracy Now!

Journalist and host of the independent news program Democracy Now! which reported on the Kennedy Center controversy and broader cultural policy developments.

Kim Snyder – Filmmaker Website

Documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on civic life, social justice, and democratic culture, including her film examining librarian resistance to book bans.

Rep. Brendan Boyle – U.S. House of Representatives

Congressman representing Pennsylvania who has advocated for restoring historical interpretation about slavery at the President’s House historic site in Philadelphia.

Organizations & Initiatives

Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian – Smithsonian Magazine Coverage

Volunteer effort documenting exhibit labels and interpretive texts across Smithsonian museums to preserve records of historical interpretation.

Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery

Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C., referenced in the episode in connection with efforts to document removed or revised exhibit texts.

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

National cultural institution that has become a focal point for debates about political influence in arts institutions.

National Park Service

Federal agency responsible for interpretive materials at national historic sites where historical narratives have recently been subject to review and dispute.

Reuters – International News Agency

News organization that reported on federal reviews of museum exhibits, park signage, and historical interpretation.

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)

Public television network distributing documentary work addressing civic and cultural issues.

Publications / Media

Democracy Now! – Independent News Program

Daily news program covering political developments affecting arts institutions and cultural policy.

The Librarians – PBS Documentary Film

Documentary film directed by Kim Snyder examining the rise of book bans and the librarians pushing back.

Cultural Events

Young Worker March on Washington – Coverage in The Nation

Youth labor mobilization addressing affordability, housing, healthcare, and worker rights, highlighting the economic pressures shaping the lives of many artists and cultural workers.

Punk in the Park Festival

Touring punk festival whose 2026 events were canceled after bands withdrew in response to controversy surrounding political donations by the festival’s promoter.

Acknowledgements (FreeSound.Org)

thunder1.wav by fastson -- https://freesound.org/s/57778/ -- License: Attribution 3.0

Hello User: Bright Cheery Intro Music by jjmarsan -- https://freesound.org/s/476070/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

photo press Conference.WAV by klankbeeld -- https://freesound.org/s/179209/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Dream-Drifting by audiomirage -- https://freesound.org/s/665193/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Upbeat Punk Rock - bpm 150 loop by DenKyschuk -- https://freesound.org/s/753195/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0

Over the Water - Variations 1 by PodcastAC -- https://freesound.org/s/645881/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>You can feel it in the air.

Across museums, national parks, libraries, and cultural institutions, the pressure around what can be said — and what must disappear — is tightening.

But while federal policies attempt to narrow the public cultural space, artists, historians, librarians, educators, and cultural organizers are responding in real time — documenting what’s being erased, refusing complicity, and building new civic infrastructure.

In this report, Bill Cleveland surveys the emerging landscape of creative resistance and cultural restriction across the United States.

From citizen historians documenting museum censorship at the Smithsonian to artists leaving politicized institutions like the Kennedy Center, the story unfolding is not just about politics — it’s about who controls public memory. In this episode you’ll hear

  • How citizen historians are systematically documenting changes to museum exhibits and historical interpretation — turning smartphones and metadata into tools of cultural preservation.
  • About artists and cultural leaders are increasingly walking away from institutions where political interference threatens artistic integrity.k
  • How libraries, classrooms, and community arts programs, cultural workers are developing creative strategies to defend access to history, literacy, and civic dialogue.

Notable Mentions

People

Marc Bamuthi Joseph – Kennedy Center Artist Profile

Former Vice President and Artistic Director of Social Impact at the Kennedy Center whose public remarks following his dismissal highlighted the cultural and political tensions surrounding leadership changes at the institution.

Amy Goodman – Democracy Now!

Journalist and host of the independent news program Democracy Now! which reported on the Kennedy Center controversy and broader cultural policy developments.

Kim Snyder – Filmmaker Website

Documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on civic life, social justice, and democratic culture, including her film examining librarian resistance to book bans.

Rep. Brendan Boyle – U.S. House of Representatives

Congressman representing Pennsylvania who has advocated for restoring historical interpretation about slavery at the President’s House historic site in Philadelphia.

Organizations & Initiatives

Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian – Smithsonian Magazine Coverage

Volunteer effort documenting exhibit labels and interpretive texts across Smithsonian museums to preserve records of historical interpretation.

Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery

Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C., referenced in the episode in connection with efforts to document removed or revised exhibit texts.

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

National cultural institution that has become a focal point for debates about political influence in arts institutions.

National Park Service

Federal agency responsible for interpretive materials at national historic sites where historical narratives have recently been subject to review and dispute.

Reuters – International News Agency

News organization that reported on federal reviews of museum exhibits, park signage, and historical interpretation.

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)

Public television network distributing documentary work addressing civic and cultural issues.

Publications / Media

Democracy Now! – Independent News Program

Daily news program covering political developments affecting arts institutions and cultural policy.

The Librarians – PBS Documentary Film

Documentary film directed by Kim Snyder examining the rise of book bans and the librarians pushing back.

Cultural Events

Young Worker March on Washington – Coverage in The Nation

Youth labor mobilization addressing affordability, housing, healthcare, and worker rights, highlighting the economic pressures shaping the lives of many artists and cultural workers.

Punk in the Park Festival

Touring punk festival whose 2026 events were canceled after bands withdrew in response to controversy surrounding political donations by the festival’s promoter.

Acknowledgements (FreeSound.Org)

thunder1.wav by fastson -- https://freesound.org/s/57778/ -- License: Attribution 3.0

Hello User: Bright Cheery Intro Music by jjmarsan -- https://freesound.org/s/476070/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

photo press Conference.WAV by klankbeeld -- https://freesound.org/s/179209/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Dream-Drifting by audiomirage -- https://freesound.org/s/665193/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Upbeat Punk Rock - bpm 150 loop by DenKyschuk -- https://freesound.org/s/753195/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0

Over the Water - Variations 1 by PodcastAC -- https://freesound.org/s/645881/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>0486709a-e826-4cca-8e15-3fbb6799ea3dWed, 11 Mar 2026 04:45:00 -070024:55truefull168168167: Arts ON Prescription: Radical Art & Social Change in Healthcare167: Arts ON Prescription: Radical Art & Social Change in HealthcareArts On Prescription: What if your doctor prescribed an arts-based treatment for what ails you and your health insurance paid for it.

YEAH RIGHT! Actually, Yeah, right, and REALLY! In this episode we learn all about it in Arts on Prescription: A Field Guide for U. S. Communities

BIO's

Dr. Tasha Golden directs research for the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins Medicine. As a national leader in arts + public health, Dr. Golden studies the impacts of arts & culture, music, aesthetics, and social norms on well-being, health research, and professional practice. She has authored many publications related to arts and health, served as an advisor on several national health initiatives, and is adjunct faculty for the University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Medicine.

In addition to her research, Golden is a career artist and entrepreneur. As singer-songwriter for the critically acclaimed band Ellery, she toured full-time in the U.S. and abroad, and her songs appear in feature films and TV dramas (ABC, SHOWTIME, FOX, NETFLIX, etc). She is also a published poet and has taught university courses in public health as well as in writing, rhetoric, and literature. Holding a Ph.D. in Public Health Sciences, Dr. Golden draws on her diverse background to develop innovative, interdisciplinary presentations and partnerships that advance health, health equity, creativity, and well-being.

Dr. Golden is also the founder of Project Uncaged: an arts-based health intervention for incarcerated teen women that amplifies their voices in community and policy discourses. These young folx are among her greatest teachers.

Jill Sonke, PhD, is director of research initiatives in the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida (UF), director of national research and impact for the One Nation/One Project initiative, and co-director of the EpiArts Lab, a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab. She is an affiliated faculty member in the UF School of Theatre & Dance, the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases, the Center for African Studies, the STEM Translational Communication Center, and the One Health Center, and is an editorial board member for Health Promotion Practice journal. She served in the pandemic as a senior advisor to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Vaccine Confidence and Demand Team on the COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Task Force and currently serves on the steering committee of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, established by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Steinhardt School at New York University, Community Jameel, and CULTURUNNERS.

With 28 years of experience and leadership in the field of arts in health and a PhD in arts in public health from Ulster University in Northern Ireland, Jill is active in research and policy advocacy nationally and internationally. She is an artist and a mixed methods researcher with a current focus on population-level health outcomes associated with arts and cultural participation, arts in public health, and the arts in health communication. Notable Mentions

Notable Mentions

Arts On Prescription: A Field Guide for US Communities.: A roadmap for communities to develop programs that integrate arts, culture, and nature resources into local health and social care systems. prescription

Anne Basting, Creative Care: Basting pioneers a radical change in how we interact with older loved ones, especially those experiencing dementia, as she introduces a proven method that uses the creative arts to bring light and joy to the lives of elders.

Atlantic Fellowship:Through seven global, interconnected programs, Atlantic Fellows collaborate across borders and disciplines to address the root causes of inequity.

Veronica Rojas is an Atlantic Fellow who works in different art programs in the San Francisco Bay Area that either serve adults with developmental disabilities or older adults, many with dementia. She is both a practicing and teaching artist.

Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida (UF): Using creativity to advance health, wellness, and equity as a trained arts in health professional. Promote health one creative moment at a time.International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins Medicine,

Tennessee Whiskey, Tasha Golden, from Over Land, Over Sea

Interlochen Arts Academy: “A global community of like-minded artists, you'll discover a high school for the arts (grades 9-12) you may only have dreamed about.”

Mass Cultural Council, CultureRX: Mission - To build a public infrastructure that supports the role of cultural experiences as a protective factor in the health and well-being of all people in the Commonwealth.

United Kingdom, National Health Service, social prescribing infrastructure is an approach that connects people to activities, groups, and services in their community to meet the practical, social and emotional needs that affect their health and wellbeing.. Alan Siegel advocate for social prescribing

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield in New Jersey/New Jersey Performing Arts Center: Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey has made a $3 million gift to NJPAC to support new arts and wellness programming both at the Arts Center and throughout Newark. Health Organization's definition of health, World Health Organization published a social prescribing toolkit.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York/Social Prescribing: On Wednesday, October 4, 2023, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in partnership with Social Prescribing USA, hosted an in-person event discussing how medical prescriptions for patients to participate in community activities such as walking in nature, creating and viewing art, joining social groups, and volunteering can improve public health.

Quebec, Mediateur Culturel, For several years, the City of Quebec has been developing cultural mediation projects between professional artists and citizens. By bringing art into their living environment and involving them in the creative process, cultural mediation places citizens at the heart of the artistic process. Here are the works of art created so far in all the boroughs of Quebec.

Dr. Daisy Fancourt, is a British researcher who is an Associate Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at University College London.[3][4][5] Her research focuses on the effects of social factors on health, including loneliness, social isolation, community assets, arts and cultural engagement, and social prescribing.[6

Social Prescribing USA: “Our mission is to make social...]]>Arts On Prescription: What if your doctor prescribed an arts-based treatment for what ails you and your health insurance paid for it.

YEAH RIGHT! Actually, Yeah, right, and REALLY! In this episode we learn all about it in Arts on Prescription: A Field Guide for U. S. Communities

BIO's

Dr. Tasha Golden directs research for the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins Medicine. As a national leader in arts + public health, Dr. Golden studies the impacts of arts & culture, music, aesthetics, and social norms on well-being, health research, and professional practice. She has authored many publications related to arts and health, served as an advisor on several national health initiatives, and is adjunct faculty for the University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Medicine.

In addition to her research, Golden is a career artist and entrepreneur. As singer-songwriter for the critically acclaimed band Ellery, she toured full-time in the U.S. and abroad, and her songs appear in feature films and TV dramas (ABC, SHOWTIME, FOX, NETFLIX, etc). She is also a published poet and has taught university courses in public health as well as in writing, rhetoric, and literature. Holding a Ph.D. in Public Health Sciences, Dr. Golden draws on her diverse background to develop innovative, interdisciplinary presentations and partnerships that advance health, health equity, creativity, and well-being.

Dr. Golden is also the founder of Project Uncaged: an arts-based health intervention for incarcerated teen women that amplifies their voices in community and policy discourses. These young folx are among her greatest teachers.

Jill Sonke, PhD, is director of research initiatives in the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida (UF), director of national research and impact for the One Nation/One Project initiative, and co-director of the EpiArts Lab, a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab. She is an affiliated faculty member in the UF School of Theatre & Dance, the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases, the Center for African Studies, the STEM Translational Communication Center, and the One Health Center, and is an editorial board member for Health Promotion Practice journal. She served in the pandemic as a senior advisor to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Vaccine Confidence and Demand Team on the COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Task Force and currently serves on the steering committee of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, established by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Steinhardt School at New York University, Community Jameel, and CULTURUNNERS.

With 28 years of experience and leadership in the field of arts in health and a PhD in arts in public health from Ulster University in Northern Ireland, Jill is active in research and policy advocacy nationally and internationally. She is an artist and a mixed methods researcher with a current focus on population-level health outcomes associated with arts and cultural participation, arts in public health, and the arts in health communication. Notable Mentions

Notable Mentions

Arts On Prescription: A Field Guide for US Communities.: A roadmap for communities to develop programs that integrate arts, culture, and nature resources into local health and social care systems. prescription

Anne Basting, Creative Care: Basting pioneers a radical change in how we interact with older loved ones, especially those experiencing dementia, as she introduces a proven method that uses the creative arts to bring light and joy to the lives of elders.

Atlantic Fellowship:Through seven global, interconnected programs, Atlantic Fellows collaborate across borders and disciplines to address the root causes of inequity.

Veronica Rojas is an Atlantic Fellow who works in different art programs in the San Francisco Bay Area that either serve adults with developmental disabilities or older adults, many with dementia. She is both a practicing and teaching artist.

Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida (UF): Using creativity to advance health, wellness, and equity as a trained arts in health professional. Promote health one creative moment at a time.International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins Medicine,

Tennessee Whiskey, Tasha Golden, from Over Land, Over Sea

Interlochen Arts Academy: “A global community of like-minded artists, you'll discover a high school for the arts (grades 9-12) you may only have dreamed about.”

Mass Cultural Council, CultureRX: Mission - To build a public infrastructure that supports the role of cultural experiences as a protective factor in the health and well-being of all people in the Commonwealth.

United Kingdom, National Health Service, social prescribing infrastructure is an approach that connects people to activities, groups, and services in their community to meet the practical, social and emotional needs that affect their health and wellbeing.. Alan Siegel advocate for social prescribing

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield in New Jersey/New Jersey Performing Arts Center: Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey has made a $3 million gift to NJPAC to support new arts and wellness programming both at the Arts Center and throughout Newark. Health Organization's definition of health, World Health Organization published a social prescribing toolkit.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York/Social Prescribing: On Wednesday, October 4, 2023, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in partnership with Social Prescribing USA, hosted an in-person event discussing how medical prescriptions for patients to participate in community activities such as walking in nature, creating and viewing art, joining social groups, and volunteering can improve public health.

Quebec, Mediateur Culturel, For several years, the City of Quebec has been developing cultural mediation projects between professional artists and citizens. By bringing art into their living environment and involving them in the creative process, cultural mediation places citizens at the heart of the artistic process. Here are the works of art created so far in all the boroughs of Quebec.

Dr. Daisy Fancourt, is a British researcher who is an Associate Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at University College London.[3][4][5] Her research focuses on the effects of social factors on health, including loneliness, social isolation, community assets, arts and cultural engagement, and social prescribing.[6

Social Prescribing USA: “Our mission is to make social prescribing available to every American by 2035. Our team of volunteers aims to act as the movement’s catalyst.”

NeuroArts Blueprint:This action plan explains how to grow and share the scientific knowledge showing art to be an extraordinary tool for promoting health and wellbeing in individuals and communities.

OPPORTUNITY: Renée Fleming Foundation and NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative are proud to announce a groundbreaking program to encourage collaborative neuroarts research between early career artists and scientists. Watch our January 8 informational webinar on the awards here!

Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey and the Nap Ministry ; This book “is a clarion call for our generation. In this pioneering book, Tricia Hersey invites us all to opt out of “grind culture” and embrace our basic and sacred human right to self-care, relaxation, and rest.”

Laziness Does Not Exist, Devin Price: This book “explores the psychological underpinnings of the “laziness lie,” including its origins from the Puritans and how it has continued to proliferate as digital work tools have blurred the boundaries between work and life.”

*******

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>da4b6ecf-6fef-486f-8b7a-bc4d2aafa780Wed, 04 Mar 2026 04:45:00 -070001:04:45truefull167167166: The Wedding - What Can We Learn From Activist Artists in Northern Ireland?166: The Wedding - What Can We Learn From Activist Artists in Northern Ireland?How can a play devised by enemies, performed in four locations across a peace wall in the middle of a war zone help provoke lasting peace?


In November 1999, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, a community play called The Wedding brought Protestants and Catholics together to rehearse a shared future in the fragile aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement. It wasn’t a feel-good arts project. It was risky, volatile, negotiated truth performed in living rooms and kitchen houses on both sides of the peace line.

In this episode, we revisit that moment — not as nostalgia, but as a live question for a divided United States struggling to imagine a coherent democratic future.

In this episode, we explore three critical lessons from Belfast that feel urgently relevant today:

  1. Proximity changes people. Intimacy — not abstraction — makes caricature impossible.
  2. Shared labor builds trust before shared opinion. Competence together can precede consensus.
  3. Hope is not a feeling. It’s a container built through practice. Democracy survives inside structured collaboration, not slogans.

Listen in for a return to Belfast — and a serious invitation to consider what it would mean to rehearse the future together, here and now.

NOTABLE MENTIONS

People

Bill Cleveland

Host of Art Is Change and author of Art and Upheaval.

David Trimble

Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party and key political figure in the Good Friday Agreement.

George J. Mitchell

U.S. Senator and American peace envoy who chaired the negotiations leading to the Good Friday Agreement.

Joe Egan

Belfast theater director and key figure in the development of The Wedding.

Martin Lynch

Playwright and co-creator of The Wedding, known for community-based theater work in Northern Ireland.

Organizations & Initiatives

Ulster Unionist Party

Political party central to the post-Agreement negotiations referenced in the episode.

The Good Friday Agreement (1998)

The landmark peace accord that helped end decades of violence known as The Troubles.

Community Arts Forum (CAFÉ)

Belfast-based organization that supported cross-community arts initiatives including The Wedding.

The Shankill–Short Strand Peace Line

One of Belfast’s “peace walls” dividing Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods.

Publications

Art and Upheaval by Bill Cleveland

Book documenting community-based cultural work in conflict zones, including three chapters on The Wedding.

The Troubles (Northern Ireland conflict)

Historical overview of the 30-year conflict referenced throughout the episode.

*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>How can a play devised by enemies, performed in four locations across a peace wall in the middle of a war zone help provoke lasting peace?


In November 1999, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, a community play called The Wedding brought Protestants and Catholics together to rehearse a shared future in the fragile aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement. It wasn’t a feel-good arts project. It was risky, volatile, negotiated truth performed in living rooms and kitchen houses on both sides of the peace line.

In this episode, we revisit that moment — not as nostalgia, but as a live question for a divided United States struggling to imagine a coherent democratic future.

In this episode, we explore three critical lessons from Belfast that feel urgently relevant today:

  1. Proximity changes people. Intimacy — not abstraction — makes caricature impossible.
  2. Shared labor builds trust before shared opinion. Competence together can precede consensus.
  3. Hope is not a feeling. It’s a container built through practice. Democracy survives inside structured collaboration, not slogans.

Listen in for a return to Belfast — and a serious invitation to consider what it would mean to rehearse the future together, here and now.

NOTABLE MENTIONS

People

Bill Cleveland

Host of Art Is Change and author of Art and Upheaval.

David Trimble

Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party and key political figure in the Good Friday Agreement.

George J. Mitchell

U.S. Senator and American peace envoy who chaired the negotiations leading to the Good Friday Agreement.

Joe Egan

Belfast theater director and key figure in the development of The Wedding.

Martin Lynch

Playwright and co-creator of The Wedding, known for community-based theater work in Northern Ireland.

Organizations & Initiatives

Ulster Unionist Party

Political party central to the post-Agreement negotiations referenced in the episode.

The Good Friday Agreement (1998)

The landmark peace accord that helped end decades of violence known as The Troubles.

Community Arts Forum (CAFÉ)

Belfast-based organization that supported cross-community arts initiatives including The Wedding.

The Shankill–Short Strand Peace Line

One of Belfast’s “peace walls” dividing Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods.

Publications

Art and Upheaval by Bill Cleveland

Book documenting community-based cultural work in conflict zones, including three chapters on The Wedding.

The Troubles (Northern Ireland conflict)

Historical overview of the 30-year conflict referenced throughout the episode.

*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>a75abd4a-deb3-4dbd-ab17-27862177c336Wed, 25 Feb 2026 05:00:00 -070023:09truefull166166165: The Intercessor - Art, Faith, & Repair in the MAGA Maelstrom165: The Intercessor - Art, Faith, & Repair in the MAGA MaelstromIn this episode I talk with Arlene Goldbard about her new book that I think takes on a quiet but consequential democratic problem: how, in unstable times, the hunger for certainty can slide into surrender—of discernment, of agency, and responsibility.

Rather than offering answers or heroes, her book The Intercessor uses story to explore how people learn to stay in relationship, inquiry, and ethical choice without handing their power over to charismatic leaders, rigid belief systems, or the promise of spiritual or political shortcuts.

In this conversation, we explore three deeply relevant themes:

  1. Intercession as a practice of discernment, and learning how to listen without disappearing yourself in the process.
  2. How artists and cultural workers can function as bridges , helping communities resist the pull toward false certainty.
  3. And repair as a practiced skill, not an abstract ideal, but rather personal, communal, and spiritual repair that only happens when people remain accountable to one another.

You’re right to call that out. No reason to shrink the ecosystem. Here it is restored—full cast, fuller descriptions, URLs embedded in the titles, and organized by the four categories you’ve been using.

Notable Mentions

People

  1. Arlene Goldbard: Cultural critic, novelist, painter, and longtime leader in community-based arts. Author of The Intercessor and In the Camp of Angels of Freedom. Her work bridges spiritual inquiry, democratic practice, and cultural organizing.
  2. Rabbi Arthur Waskow: Founder of The Shalom Center and a central prophetic voice in Jewish Renewal. A pioneer in linking Jewish spiritual practice with social justice, environmental activism, and interfaith organizing.
  3. Rabbi David Wolfe-Blank: Influential Jewish Renewal teacher known for his mystical depth and pedagogical clarity. A formative guide for many Renewal leaders, including Goldbard.
  4. Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi: Founder of the Jewish Renewal movement. Brought Hasidic mysticism, experimentation, and interspiritual dialogue into contemporary Jewish life.
  5. Paulo Freire: Brazilian educator and author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. His concept of “conscientization” (critical consciousness) undergirds much community-based arts and democratic cultural practice.

Places

  1. ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal: The national umbrella organization for Jewish Renewal communities, ordination programs, and spiritual leadership training.
  2. The Shalom Center: A Jewish justice organization founded by Rabbi Arthur Waskow. Engages in interfaith social action rooted in prophetic Jewish tradition.
  3. Sefaria: A free, open-access digital library of Jewish texts. Provides bilingual access to Torah, Talmud, Pirkei Avot, and other foundational sources referenced in the episode.

Events

  1. October 7, 2023 Attacks and Israel–Gaza War (BBC Overview): Context for the rupture explored in the novel between Sarah and Yasmine—where love collides with ideology, family pressure, and geopolitical trauma.
  2. 2024 U.S. Presidential Election (Federal Election Commission Overview): The political backdrop near the novel’s close, underscoring its themes of fear, agency, democratic rehearsal, and moral discernment.

Publications

  1. The Intercessor: Arlene Goldbard’s novel-in-linked-stories exploring intercession as spiritual practice, discernment, ethical repair, and democratic rehearsal in troubled times.
  2. In the Camp of Angels of Freedom: Goldbard’s earlier book of portraits and reflections on spiritual and justice-oriented teachers who shaped her moral imagination.
  3. Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire: Foundational text articulating internalized oppression and participatory liberation—key intellectual grounding for community-based cultural work.
  4. Song of Songs (Shir HaShirim): Biblical love poetry invoked in the episode as an assignment in praise, eros, and relational repair—an ancient text that insists love sits at the center of existence.
  5. Pirkei Avot 2:16 (Ethics of the Fathers): Source of the teaching quoted at the close: “It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.” A succinct ethic of sustained democratic practice.
  6. Overview of the Talmud (My Jewish Learning): Explains the dialogic, argumentative structure of Jewish learning—where disputation itself becomes a form of worship and discernment.

*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>In this episode I talk with Arlene Goldbard about her new book that I think takes on a quiet but consequential democratic problem: how, in unstable times, the hunger for certainty can slide into surrender—of discernment, of agency, and responsibility.

Rather than offering answers or heroes, her book The Intercessor uses story to explore how people learn to stay in relationship, inquiry, and ethical choice without handing their power over to charismatic leaders, rigid belief systems, or the promise of spiritual or political shortcuts.

In this conversation, we explore three deeply relevant themes:

  1. Intercession as a practice of discernment, and learning how to listen without disappearing yourself in the process.
  2. How artists and cultural workers can function as bridges , helping communities resist the pull toward false certainty.
  3. And repair as a practiced skill, not an abstract ideal, but rather personal, communal, and spiritual repair that only happens when people remain accountable to one another.

You’re right to call that out. No reason to shrink the ecosystem. Here it is restored—full cast, fuller descriptions, URLs embedded in the titles, and organized by the four categories you’ve been using.

Notable Mentions

People

  1. Arlene Goldbard: Cultural critic, novelist, painter, and longtime leader in community-based arts. Author of The Intercessor and In the Camp of Angels of Freedom. Her work bridges spiritual inquiry, democratic practice, and cultural organizing.
  2. Rabbi Arthur Waskow: Founder of The Shalom Center and a central prophetic voice in Jewish Renewal. A pioneer in linking Jewish spiritual practice with social justice, environmental activism, and interfaith organizing.
  3. Rabbi David Wolfe-Blank: Influential Jewish Renewal teacher known for his mystical depth and pedagogical clarity. A formative guide for many Renewal leaders, including Goldbard.
  4. Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi: Founder of the Jewish Renewal movement. Brought Hasidic mysticism, experimentation, and interspiritual dialogue into contemporary Jewish life.
  5. Paulo Freire: Brazilian educator and author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. His concept of “conscientization” (critical consciousness) undergirds much community-based arts and democratic cultural practice.

Places

  1. ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal: The national umbrella organization for Jewish Renewal communities, ordination programs, and spiritual leadership training.
  2. The Shalom Center: A Jewish justice organization founded by Rabbi Arthur Waskow. Engages in interfaith social action rooted in prophetic Jewish tradition.
  3. Sefaria: A free, open-access digital library of Jewish texts. Provides bilingual access to Torah, Talmud, Pirkei Avot, and other foundational sources referenced in the episode.

Events

  1. October 7, 2023 Attacks and Israel–Gaza War (BBC Overview): Context for the rupture explored in the novel between Sarah and Yasmine—where love collides with ideology, family pressure, and geopolitical trauma.
  2. 2024 U.S. Presidential Election (Federal Election Commission Overview): The political backdrop near the novel’s close, underscoring its themes of fear, agency, democratic rehearsal, and moral discernment.

Publications

  1. The Intercessor: Arlene Goldbard’s novel-in-linked-stories exploring intercession as spiritual practice, discernment, ethical repair, and democratic rehearsal in troubled times.
  2. In the Camp of Angels of Freedom: Goldbard’s earlier book of portraits and reflections on spiritual and justice-oriented teachers who shaped her moral imagination.
  3. Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire: Foundational text articulating internalized oppression and participatory liberation—key intellectual grounding for community-based cultural work.
  4. Song of Songs (Shir HaShirim): Biblical love poetry invoked in the episode as an assignment in praise, eros, and relational repair—an ancient text that insists love sits at the center of existence.
  5. Pirkei Avot 2:16 (Ethics of the Fathers): Source of the teaching quoted at the close: “It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.” A succinct ethic of sustained democratic practice.
  6. Overview of the Talmud (My Jewish Learning): Explains the dialogic, argumentative structure of Jewish learning—where disputation itself becomes a form of worship and discernment.

*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>5ce9db81-b7b1-4580-b551-851cb9b8b102Wed, 18 Feb 2026 04:45:00 -070047:08truefull165165164: Meeting The Moment - Tactics & Tools for Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers164: Meeting The Moment - Tactics & Tools for Activist Artists & Cultural OrganizersWhat Arts-Based Tool & Tactics

are Emerging to Meeting the MAGA Storm?


This is the Arts Freedom weather report for February 11, 2026. In this episode you'll hear how

  1. Artists across the country are turning public space into sites of creative resistance
  2. Why local place based cultural responses in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and beyond are becoming frontline laboratories for cultural democratic practice
  3. And how innovative artist led networks and cultural organizers are teaching resistance as a craft.

NOTABLE MENTIONS

People

Bill Cleveland

Host of ART IS CHANGE and founder of the Center for the Study of Art & Community.

Renee Macklin Goode

Minneapolis poet and community member whose killing sparked mass protest, mourning, and cultural resistance. (Minnesota Public Radio)

Nadya Tolokonnikova

Artist and founding member of Pussy Riot; creator of Police State, referenced in connection with durational performance responding to ICE raids and militarization. (Museum of Modern Art)

Daniel C. Walker

Artist whose work G Is for Genocide appeared in the New York exhibition Don’t Look: A Defense of Free Expression.

Khan Nguyen Hong Gu

Artist whose Miami Beach window installation protesting Gaza was removed; cited as an example of censorship pressure. (Artforum)

Madeline Drunot

Denver-based artist whose Little Saigon project became a flashpoint for debate over representation and censorship.

Organizations, Networks & Initiatives

Center for the Study of Art & Community

Producing organization for ART IS CHANGE.

Fall of Freedom Initiative

Grassroots cultural protest effort coordinating hundreds of creative resistance actions nationwide.

NYC Resistance Salon

Artist-led network using digital billboards and public installations for political dissent.

Banned Book Brigade

Activist effort highlighting censorship through public performance and visual protest. (PEN America contextual resource)

New York Public Library

Site of Banned Book Brigade actions and symbolic defense of intellectual freedom.

Pioneer Works

Brooklyn cultural center that hosted benefit performances supporting civil liberties.

Center for Artistic Activism

Organization providing the Artivist Toolbox—practical guidance for artists engaging power strategically.

Beautiful Trouble

Global training and documentation hub for creative resistance tactics and movement strategy.

Community Arts Network Archive

Historic archive documenting debates, essays, and first-person accounts from the community arts field.

Interference Archive

Brooklyn-based archive preserving posters, zines, and material culture of social movements.

Animating Democracy

National initiative documenting how arts intersect with civic life and democratic practice.

Natalie Karg Gallery

New York gallery that hosted Don’t Look: A Defense of Free Expression.

Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (MOCA)

Initial site of Tolokonnikova’s Police State performance.

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Later site of Police State, as the work’s themes collided with real-time events.

Think Again: An Artist Activist Collaborative

Collective using mobile billboards and public art to engage civic discourse.

Chinatown Art Brigade

Artist-organizer collective linking cultural storytelling to housing justice and anti-displacement work.

Artist Rapid Response Team

Network designing banners and protest visuals that travel across movements and geographies.

Publications & Field Resources

Artivist Toolbox – Center for Artistic Activism

A practical, field-tested toolkit breaking down real campaigns, tactics, risks, and outcomes for artists engaging power. Referenced in the episode as a field manual, not inspiration wallpaper.

Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution

Foundational handbook and ongoing living resource documenting creative resistance tactics, principles, and case studies from movements around the world.

Beautiful Trouble Toolbox

The continually updated, digital extension of the book—cataloging methods like humor, spectacle, narrative framing, and symbolic leverage.

Community Arts Network Archive

Extensive archive of essays, project notes, debates, and first-person accounts from the community arts field, capturing the moment when practitioners were still arguing their practice into existence.

Interference Archive Collection

Public archive preserving posters, zines, banners, and printed matter from social movements—treated not as nostalgia, but as evidence and usable history.

Animating Democracy Resource Library

Long-running documentation project translating cultural action into civic and institutional language without stripping it of meaning; central to understanding arts-based democratic practice.

Banned Books Resource Guide – PEN America

Contextual resource grounding the Banned Book Brigade actions referenced in the episode within the larger national landscape of censorship and free expression.


*****


Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building...]]>What Arts-Based Tool & Tactics

are Emerging to Meeting the MAGA Storm?


This is the Arts Freedom weather report for February 11, 2026. In this episode you'll hear how

  1. Artists across the country are turning public space into sites of creative resistance
  2. Why local place based cultural responses in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and beyond are becoming frontline laboratories for cultural democratic practice
  3. And how innovative artist led networks and cultural organizers are teaching resistance as a craft.

NOTABLE MENTIONS

People

Bill Cleveland

Host of ART IS CHANGE and founder of the Center for the Study of Art & Community.

Renee Macklin Goode

Minneapolis poet and community member whose killing sparked mass protest, mourning, and cultural resistance. (Minnesota Public Radio)

Nadya Tolokonnikova

Artist and founding member of Pussy Riot; creator of Police State, referenced in connection with durational performance responding to ICE raids and militarization. (Museum of Modern Art)

Daniel C. Walker

Artist whose work G Is for Genocide appeared in the New York exhibition Don’t Look: A Defense of Free Expression.

Khan Nguyen Hong Gu

Artist whose Miami Beach window installation protesting Gaza was removed; cited as an example of censorship pressure. (Artforum)

Madeline Drunot

Denver-based artist whose Little Saigon project became a flashpoint for debate over representation and censorship.

Organizations, Networks & Initiatives

Center for the Study of Art & Community

Producing organization for ART IS CHANGE.

Fall of Freedom Initiative

Grassroots cultural protest effort coordinating hundreds of creative resistance actions nationwide.

NYC Resistance Salon

Artist-led network using digital billboards and public installations for political dissent.

Banned Book Brigade

Activist effort highlighting censorship through public performance and visual protest. (PEN America contextual resource)

New York Public Library

Site of Banned Book Brigade actions and symbolic defense of intellectual freedom.

Pioneer Works

Brooklyn cultural center that hosted benefit performances supporting civil liberties.

Center for Artistic Activism

Organization providing the Artivist Toolbox—practical guidance for artists engaging power strategically.

Beautiful Trouble

Global training and documentation hub for creative resistance tactics and movement strategy.

Community Arts Network Archive

Historic archive documenting debates, essays, and first-person accounts from the community arts field.

Interference Archive

Brooklyn-based archive preserving posters, zines, and material culture of social movements.

Animating Democracy

National initiative documenting how arts intersect with civic life and democratic practice.

Natalie Karg Gallery

New York gallery that hosted Don’t Look: A Defense of Free Expression.

Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (MOCA)

Initial site of Tolokonnikova’s Police State performance.

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Later site of Police State, as the work’s themes collided with real-time events.

Think Again: An Artist Activist Collaborative

Collective using mobile billboards and public art to engage civic discourse.

Chinatown Art Brigade

Artist-organizer collective linking cultural storytelling to housing justice and anti-displacement work.

Artist Rapid Response Team

Network designing banners and protest visuals that travel across movements and geographies.

Publications & Field Resources

Artivist Toolbox – Center for Artistic Activism

A practical, field-tested toolkit breaking down real campaigns, tactics, risks, and outcomes for artists engaging power. Referenced in the episode as a field manual, not inspiration wallpaper.

Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution

Foundational handbook and ongoing living resource documenting creative resistance tactics, principles, and case studies from movements around the world.

Beautiful Trouble Toolbox

The continually updated, digital extension of the book—cataloging methods like humor, spectacle, narrative framing, and symbolic leverage.

Community Arts Network Archive

Extensive archive of essays, project notes, debates, and first-person accounts from the community arts field, capturing the moment when practitioners were still arguing their practice into existence.

Interference Archive Collection

Public archive preserving posters, zines, banners, and printed matter from social movements—treated not as nostalgia, but as evidence and usable history.

Animating Democracy Resource Library

Long-running documentation project translating cultural action into civic and institutional language without stripping it of meaning; central to understanding arts-based democratic practice.

Banned Books Resource Guide – PEN America

Contextual resource grounding the Banned Book Brigade actions referenced in the episode within the larger national landscape of censorship and free expression.


*****


Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>19ab2ce5-fded-4865-bac0-c8362838f487Wed, 11 Feb 2026 04:45:00 -070018:17truefull164164163: Arts Freedom Weather Report: MINNEAPOLIS JAN. 2026163: Arts Freedom Weather Report: MINNEAPOLIS JAN. 2026What does it look like when artists and cultural organizers respond to authoritarian pressure—not with silence or fear, but with imagination, strategy, and collective action?


This January 2026 Arts Freedom Weather Report comes from Minneapolis, a city once again at the epicenter of grief, rage, courage, and creative resistance. In the wake of multiple killings, intensified ICE activity, and federal misinformation, communities across Minnesota are responding not only with protest—but with song, ritual, writing, mutual aid, and rapid-response cultural organizing.

In this episode, we explore three urgent realities shaping this moment:

  1. How culture becomes infrastructure for democracy when institutions fail—through singing vigils, collective mourning, and grassroots artistic action.
  2. What decentralized resistance actually looks like on the ground, as hundreds of small, uncoordinated acts add up to something powerful and sustained.
  3. How imagination, grief, and creative practice help people endure and act, especially in communities long accustomed to state violence and surveillance.

Listen in for an on-the-ground report from Minneapolis that shows how artists, organizers, and neighbors are transforming fear into solidarity—and keeping democratic culture alive under pressure.

NOTABLE MENTIONS

People

Bill Cleveland

Host of ART IS CHANGE and founder of the Center for the Study of Art & Community.

Renee Macklin Goode

Minneapolis poet and mother whose life and work are honored in this episode. (Minnesota Public Radio)

Gregory Bovino

U.S. Border Patrol official referenced in discussion of federal enforcement escalation in Minnesota.

Hannah Arendt

Political theorist cited for her insights into authoritarianism, fear, and the erosion of civic imagination.

Christopher Fry

British poet and playwright; excerpt from The Sleep of Prisoners is referenced during the episode.

Marquis Bowie

Minneapolis-based poet, teaching artist, and cultural healer whose reflections on grief, writing, and survival appear in this conversation. (MN Artists / MPR)

Organizations & Groups

Center for the Study of Art & Community

Producing organization for ART IS CHANGE.

Resistance Revival Chorus

National movement using collective singing as protest, courage-building, and democratic practice.

Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church

Host site for large-scale community singing and resistance gatherings in Minneapolis.

Unidos MN

Latino-led organization providing community safety training, constitutional observers, and mutual aid.

Minnesota Arts & Cultural Coalition

Statewide coalition organizing legal briefings, advocacy, and shared resources for arts organizations.

Forecast Public Art

Minneapolis-based organization providing rapid-response grants and support to artists and cultural leaders.

Minneapolis Arts Commission

City commission supporting and advising on arts policy and cultural resources

Publications

Mad Dog 30/30 by Marquis Bowie

Poetry collection by Minneapolis poet and teaching artist Marquis Bowie, exploring grief, rage, tenderness, survival, and Black interior life. The book is referenced in the episode in connection with Bowie’s role as a cultural healer and witness in moments of community trauma.

The Sleep of Prisoners by Christopher Fry

Verse play referenced through an excerpt read during the episode, reflecting on war, conscience, and moral reckoning.ence, and moral reckoning.

Places & Contextual References

George Floyd Square

Referenced as part of the geographic and emotional landscape shaping current events. (New York Times)

San Pablo Lutheran Church

Site of memorial services and community gathering following Renee Nicole Goode’s death.

Acknowledgements:

From FreeSound.org

Winterstorm II: A Cinematic and ambient soundscape by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/552032/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Winterstorm II: A Cinematic and ambient soundscape by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/552032/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Chord Swell - Gmin by Moqally -- https://freesound.org/s/843450/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>What does it look like when artists and cultural organizers respond to authoritarian pressure—not with silence or fear, but with imagination, strategy, and collective action?


This January 2026 Arts Freedom Weather Report comes from Minneapolis, a city once again at the epicenter of grief, rage, courage, and creative resistance. In the wake of multiple killings, intensified ICE activity, and federal misinformation, communities across Minnesota are responding not only with protest—but with song, ritual, writing, mutual aid, and rapid-response cultural organizing.

In this episode, we explore three urgent realities shaping this moment:

  1. How culture becomes infrastructure for democracy when institutions fail—through singing vigils, collective mourning, and grassroots artistic action.
  2. What decentralized resistance actually looks like on the ground, as hundreds of small, uncoordinated acts add up to something powerful and sustained.
  3. How imagination, grief, and creative practice help people endure and act, especially in communities long accustomed to state violence and surveillance.

Listen in for an on-the-ground report from Minneapolis that shows how artists, organizers, and neighbors are transforming fear into solidarity—and keeping democratic culture alive under pressure.

NOTABLE MENTIONS

People

Bill Cleveland

Host of ART IS CHANGE and founder of the Center for the Study of Art & Community.

Renee Macklin Goode

Minneapolis poet and mother whose life and work are honored in this episode. (Minnesota Public Radio)

Gregory Bovino

U.S. Border Patrol official referenced in discussion of federal enforcement escalation in Minnesota.

Hannah Arendt

Political theorist cited for her insights into authoritarianism, fear, and the erosion of civic imagination.

Christopher Fry

British poet and playwright; excerpt from The Sleep of Prisoners is referenced during the episode.

Marquis Bowie

Minneapolis-based poet, teaching artist, and cultural healer whose reflections on grief, writing, and survival appear in this conversation. (MN Artists / MPR)

Organizations & Groups

Center for the Study of Art & Community

Producing organization for ART IS CHANGE.

Resistance Revival Chorus

National movement using collective singing as protest, courage-building, and democratic practice.

Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church

Host site for large-scale community singing and resistance gatherings in Minneapolis.

Unidos MN

Latino-led organization providing community safety training, constitutional observers, and mutual aid.

Minnesota Arts & Cultural Coalition

Statewide coalition organizing legal briefings, advocacy, and shared resources for arts organizations.

Forecast Public Art

Minneapolis-based organization providing rapid-response grants and support to artists and cultural leaders.

Minneapolis Arts Commission

City commission supporting and advising on arts policy and cultural resources

Publications

Mad Dog 30/30 by Marquis Bowie

Poetry collection by Minneapolis poet and teaching artist Marquis Bowie, exploring grief, rage, tenderness, survival, and Black interior life. The book is referenced in the episode in connection with Bowie’s role as a cultural healer and witness in moments of community trauma.

The Sleep of Prisoners by Christopher Fry

Verse play referenced through an excerpt read during the episode, reflecting on war, conscience, and moral reckoning.ence, and moral reckoning.

Places & Contextual References

George Floyd Square

Referenced as part of the geographic and emotional landscape shaping current events. (New York Times)

San Pablo Lutheran Church

Site of memorial services and community gathering following Renee Nicole Goode’s death.

Acknowledgements:

From FreeSound.org

Winterstorm II: A Cinematic and ambient soundscape by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/552032/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Winterstorm II: A Cinematic and ambient soundscape by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/552032/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Chord Swell - Gmin by Moqally -- https://freesound.org/s/843450/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>cb26d28f-3d13-4b41-a068-28e450140399Wed, 04 Feb 2026 03:45:00 -070026:16truefull163163162: Alan Jenkins: These Art & Social Change Superpowers Can Help Save Democracy162: Alan Jenkins: These Art & Social Change Superpowers Can Help Save DemocracySo if democracy is under pressure, what role do stories, culture, and imagination play in defending it?


In this episode, we're joined by Alan Jenkins, civil rights lawyer, former Ford foundation program director, Harvard Law School professor, and now comic book author, for a wide ranging conversation about story making and telling as a tool for social change. From Supreme Court litigation to graphic novels, Alan Jenkins traces how law, narrative, and culture intersect when democracy is at stake.

So in our conversation, we explore three big ideas I think matter a lot right now:

  1. First, why is story inseparable from power?And how law, policy, and culture work together, whether we acknowledge it or not, to shape public belief and behavior.
  2. Next, how popular culture and art have historically been used to confront authoritarianism. From Superman and Captain America to global protest movements that borrow symbol, humor, and myth.
  3. And finally, what hybrid 21st century leadership looks like and why flexibility, empathy, and imagination may be as important as specialized expertise in this moment.

NOTABLE MENTIONS

People

Bill Cleveland

Host of ART IS CHANGE and founder of the Center for the Study of Art & Community.

Alan Jenkins

Harvard Law School professor; former civil rights and DOJ lawyer; former Director of Human Rights at the Ford Foundation; co-author of 1/6: The Graphic Novel.

Anthony S. Fauci

Former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; referenced in discussion of ACT UP and activist pressure shaping public institutions.

Charles Lindbergh

Aviator and political figure cited in discussion of American isolationism and authoritarian sympathies prior to World War II.

Pablo Picasso

Artist whose painting Guernica is referenced as a defining cultural response to fascist violence.

Organizations & Institutions

Harvard Law School

Institution where Alan Jenkins teaches courses on civil rights law, narrative, and Supreme Court jurisprudence.

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund

Civil rights organization where Jenkins worked early in his legal career.

United States Department of Justice

Referenced in connection with Jenkins’s Supreme Court litigation experience.

Ford Foundation

Global philanthropy where Jenkins served as Director of Human Rights.

Pop Culture Collaborative

Organization that supported research on popular culture and resistance to authoritarianism referenced in the episode.

Western States Center

Organization that produced the civic action guide accompanying 1/6: The Graphic Novel.

San Diego State University

Institution that developed an educational guide for teaching with 1/6: The Graphic Novel.


Works, Events & Cultural References

1/6: The Graphic Novel

Graphic novel co-created by Alan Jenkins imagining a future in which the January 6 insurrection succeeded.

Seven Things Artists, Entertainers, and Creatives Can Do to Protect Democracy

Alan Jenkins' article describing seven strategies that creatives in the arts can use to protect democracy from Eastern Europe to Southeast Asia to West Africa to Latin America.

January 6, 2021 United States Capitol Attack

Historical event central to the episode’s discussion of democracy, narrative, and authoritarianism.

ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power)

Activist movement referenced for its strategic use of protest, narrative framing, and moral urgency.

Superman

Comic book character cited as an early example of popular culture advancing social justice narratives.

Captain America

Referenced for his first appearance punching Adolf Hitler—months before U.S. entry into WWII.

The Hunger Games

Film and book series referenced for its three-finger salute adopted by real-world protest movements.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Graphic memoir referenced for its portrayal of authoritarianism and women’s lives during the Iranian Revolution.

Guernica by Pablo Picasso

Iconic painting referenced as a lasting artistic indictment of fascist violence.

*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>So if democracy is under pressure, what role do stories, culture, and imagination play in defending it?


In this episode, we're joined by Alan Jenkins, civil rights lawyer, former Ford foundation program director, Harvard Law School professor, and now comic book author, for a wide ranging conversation about story making and telling as a tool for social change. From Supreme Court litigation to graphic novels, Alan Jenkins traces how law, narrative, and culture intersect when democracy is at stake.

So in our conversation, we explore three big ideas I think matter a lot right now:

  1. First, why is story inseparable from power?And how law, policy, and culture work together, whether we acknowledge it or not, to shape public belief and behavior.
  2. Next, how popular culture and art have historically been used to confront authoritarianism. From Superman and Captain America to global protest movements that borrow symbol, humor, and myth.
  3. And finally, what hybrid 21st century leadership looks like and why flexibility, empathy, and imagination may be as important as specialized expertise in this moment.

NOTABLE MENTIONS

People

Bill Cleveland

Host of ART IS CHANGE and founder of the Center for the Study of Art & Community.

Alan Jenkins

Harvard Law School professor; former civil rights and DOJ lawyer; former Director of Human Rights at the Ford Foundation; co-author of 1/6: The Graphic Novel.

Anthony S. Fauci

Former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; referenced in discussion of ACT UP and activist pressure shaping public institutions.

Charles Lindbergh

Aviator and political figure cited in discussion of American isolationism and authoritarian sympathies prior to World War II.

Pablo Picasso

Artist whose painting Guernica is referenced as a defining cultural response to fascist violence.

Organizations & Institutions

Harvard Law School

Institution where Alan Jenkins teaches courses on civil rights law, narrative, and Supreme Court jurisprudence.

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund

Civil rights organization where Jenkins worked early in his legal career.

United States Department of Justice

Referenced in connection with Jenkins’s Supreme Court litigation experience.

Ford Foundation

Global philanthropy where Jenkins served as Director of Human Rights.

Pop Culture Collaborative

Organization that supported research on popular culture and resistance to authoritarianism referenced in the episode.

Western States Center

Organization that produced the civic action guide accompanying 1/6: The Graphic Novel.

San Diego State University

Institution that developed an educational guide for teaching with 1/6: The Graphic Novel.


Works, Events & Cultural References

1/6: The Graphic Novel

Graphic novel co-created by Alan Jenkins imagining a future in which the January 6 insurrection succeeded.

Seven Things Artists, Entertainers, and Creatives Can Do to Protect Democracy

Alan Jenkins' article describing seven strategies that creatives in the arts can use to protect democracy from Eastern Europe to Southeast Asia to West Africa to Latin America.

January 6, 2021 United States Capitol Attack

Historical event central to the episode’s discussion of democracy, narrative, and authoritarianism.

ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power)

Activist movement referenced for its strategic use of protest, narrative framing, and moral urgency.

Superman

Comic book character cited as an early example of popular culture advancing social justice narratives.

Captain America

Referenced for his first appearance punching Adolf Hitler—months before U.S. entry into WWII.

The Hunger Games

Film and book series referenced for its three-finger salute adopted by real-world protest movements.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Graphic memoir referenced for its portrayal of authoritarianism and women’s lives during the Iranian Revolution.

Guernica by Pablo Picasso

Iconic painting referenced as a lasting artistic indictment of fascist violence.

*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>95d16767-fef4-42c0-943b-1aa56af26f07Wed, 28 Jan 2026 04:45:00 -070043:17truefull162162161: The Arts Freedom Weather Report - January 2026161: The Arts Freedom Weather Report - January 2026When unchecked power rewrites the story of America,

who gets to live, who gets to speak,

and who quietly disappears?

In this episode of ART IS CHANGE, Bill Cleveland shares next chapter in the continuing Weather Report, (now called the Arts Freedom Weather Report) Rather than chasing single headlines or isolated outrages, this episode steps back to examine the cultural climate shaping 2026: how small policy shifts stack up, how institutions quietly recalibrate under authoritarian pressure, and how artists and cultural organizations are responding in real time.

In this show, we explore three critical dynamics shaping the arts and democracy right now:

  1. How culture is being strategically targeted and weaponized — through funding shifts, legal pressure, and narrative control.
  2. What’s actually happening on the ground at the NEA, in public media, museums, universities, and courts.
  3. How artists and organizers are responding with preparation, creativity, and discipline, treating resistance as a learned practice rather than a spontaneous reaction.

Listen in as we establish a cultural baseline for 2026 — one we’ll return to again and again — and map the early warning signs, fault lines, and sources of strength shaping the struggle for artistic freedom and democratic life.

NOTABLE MENTIONS

People

Bill Cleveland

Host of ART IS CHANGE and founder of the Center for the Study of Art & Community.

Renee Nicole Goode

Minneapolis poet, mother, and community member whose work and life are honored at the close of the episode. (Minnesota Public Radio)

Sonia De Los Santos

Singer-songwriter and educator who stepped away from a Kennedy Center performance, citing concerns that the space no longer felt welcoming.

Stephen Schwartz

Composer of Wicked who withdrew from a Kennedy Center gala in protest of politicization.

Béla Fleck

Banjo innovator who canceled Kennedy Center appearances rather than participate in a politicized cultural space.

Chuck Redd

Jazz vibraphonist and bandleader who canceled his long-running Kennedy Center Christmas Eve jam.

The Cookers

Jazz ensemble that canceled its New Year’s Eve engagement at the Kennedy Center.

Wayne Tucker

Trumpeter and composer who withdrew from Kennedy Center programming.

Doug Varone

Choreographer whose company stepped away from scheduled Kennedy Center performances.

Organizations & Institutions

Center for the Study of Art & Community

Producing organization for ART IS CHANGE.

National Endowment for the Arts

Federal arts agency examined throughout the episode for structural and policy shifts.

American Alliance of Museums

Reported widespread loss of federal funding and program contraction across U.S. museums.

Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Public media funder affected by the 2025 Rescissions Act.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

Legal organization representing arts groups challenging unconstitutional funding restrictions.

Theater Communications Group

National advocacy organization involved in litigation defending artistic freedom.

National Queer Theater

Plaintiff in the successful lawsuit challenging NEA viewpoint discrimination.

Rhode Island Latino Arts

Arts organization involved in the NEA lawsuit.

The Theater Offensive

Boston-based theater organization and plaintiff in the NEA lawsuit.

Laws, Policies & Frameworks

Project 2025

Conservative blueprint for reshaping federal agencies and executive authority.

Executive Order 14168

Order challenged for restricting arts funding tied to “gender ideology.” (Federal Register)

Rescissions Act of 2025

Legislation cutting federal support for public media. (Congressional record)

Ohio Senate Bill 1

State legislation restricting DEI initiatives and chilling arts and humanities education.

Movements & Practice-Based Resistance

National Artists Safety Survey

Anonymous survey developed by the Artists at Risk Connection documenting censorship, harassment, and threats against artists and arts organizations.

Beautiful Trouble

Global network training artists and organizers in creative, strategic resistance.

Center for Artistic Activism

Organization helping artists design interventions that apply pressure where power actually lives.

Free DC

DC-based movement integrating music, ritual, and performance into organizing, including Go-Go traditions.

No Kings

Movement centering culture, humor, and performance to assert democracy as a lived practice.

Acknowledgements:

From FreeSound.org

03419 swirly swooshes.wav by Robinhood76 -- https://freesound.org/s/160611/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0

Ambient 19_Cello Song by PodcastAC -- https://freesound.org/s/720336/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Desolation Wilderness - Rain and Thunder - In Tent by PodcastAC -- https://freesound.org/s/822507/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Ambient 20_Float by PodcastAC -- https://freesound.org/s/720339/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Winterstorm I: A Cinematic and ambient soundscape by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/541062/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Darkest Thursday – A Haunting Electronic Masterpiece by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/558271/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

WonkTone_125bpm01_LoopCache_AbstractPercussion.wav by aikighost -- https://freesound.org/s/199050/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Ominous by ViraMiller --...]]>When unchecked power rewrites the story of America,

who gets to live, who gets to speak,

and who quietly disappears?

In this episode of ART IS CHANGE, Bill Cleveland shares next chapter in the continuing Weather Report, (now called the Arts Freedom Weather Report) Rather than chasing single headlines or isolated outrages, this episode steps back to examine the cultural climate shaping 2026: how small policy shifts stack up, how institutions quietly recalibrate under authoritarian pressure, and how artists and cultural organizations are responding in real time.

In this show, we explore three critical dynamics shaping the arts and democracy right now:

  1. How culture is being strategically targeted and weaponized — through funding shifts, legal pressure, and narrative control.
  2. What’s actually happening on the ground at the NEA, in public media, museums, universities, and courts.
  3. How artists and organizers are responding with preparation, creativity, and discipline, treating resistance as a learned practice rather than a spontaneous reaction.

Listen in as we establish a cultural baseline for 2026 — one we’ll return to again and again — and map the early warning signs, fault lines, and sources of strength shaping the struggle for artistic freedom and democratic life.

NOTABLE MENTIONS

People

Bill Cleveland

Host of ART IS CHANGE and founder of the Center for the Study of Art & Community.

Renee Nicole Goode

Minneapolis poet, mother, and community member whose work and life are honored at the close of the episode. (Minnesota Public Radio)

Sonia De Los Santos

Singer-songwriter and educator who stepped away from a Kennedy Center performance, citing concerns that the space no longer felt welcoming.

Stephen Schwartz

Composer of Wicked who withdrew from a Kennedy Center gala in protest of politicization.

Béla Fleck

Banjo innovator who canceled Kennedy Center appearances rather than participate in a politicized cultural space.

Chuck Redd

Jazz vibraphonist and bandleader who canceled his long-running Kennedy Center Christmas Eve jam.

The Cookers

Jazz ensemble that canceled its New Year’s Eve engagement at the Kennedy Center.

Wayne Tucker

Trumpeter and composer who withdrew from Kennedy Center programming.

Doug Varone

Choreographer whose company stepped away from scheduled Kennedy Center performances.

Organizations & Institutions

Center for the Study of Art & Community

Producing organization for ART IS CHANGE.

National Endowment for the Arts

Federal arts agency examined throughout the episode for structural and policy shifts.

American Alliance of Museums

Reported widespread loss of federal funding and program contraction across U.S. museums.

Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Public media funder affected by the 2025 Rescissions Act.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

Legal organization representing arts groups challenging unconstitutional funding restrictions.

Theater Communications Group

National advocacy organization involved in litigation defending artistic freedom.

National Queer Theater

Plaintiff in the successful lawsuit challenging NEA viewpoint discrimination.

Rhode Island Latino Arts

Arts organization involved in the NEA lawsuit.

The Theater Offensive

Boston-based theater organization and plaintiff in the NEA lawsuit.

Laws, Policies & Frameworks

Project 2025

Conservative blueprint for reshaping federal agencies and executive authority.

Executive Order 14168

Order challenged for restricting arts funding tied to “gender ideology.” (Federal Register)

Rescissions Act of 2025

Legislation cutting federal support for public media. (Congressional record)

Ohio Senate Bill 1

State legislation restricting DEI initiatives and chilling arts and humanities education.

Movements & Practice-Based Resistance

National Artists Safety Survey

Anonymous survey developed by the Artists at Risk Connection documenting censorship, harassment, and threats against artists and arts organizations.

Beautiful Trouble

Global network training artists and organizers in creative, strategic resistance.

Center for Artistic Activism

Organization helping artists design interventions that apply pressure where power actually lives.

Free DC

DC-based movement integrating music, ritual, and performance into organizing, including Go-Go traditions.

No Kings

Movement centering culture, humor, and performance to assert democracy as a lived practice.

Acknowledgements:

From FreeSound.org

03419 swirly swooshes.wav by Robinhood76 -- https://freesound.org/s/160611/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0

Ambient 19_Cello Song by PodcastAC -- https://freesound.org/s/720336/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Desolation Wilderness - Rain and Thunder - In Tent by PodcastAC -- https://freesound.org/s/822507/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Ambient 20_Float by PodcastAC -- https://freesound.org/s/720339/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Winterstorm I: A Cinematic and ambient soundscape by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/541062/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Darkest Thursday – A Haunting Electronic Masterpiece by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/558271/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

WonkTone_125bpm01_LoopCache_AbstractPercussion.wav by aikighost -- https://freesound.org/s/199050/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Ominous by ViraMiller -- https://freesound.org/s/742117/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Applause 1.mp3 by FunWithSound -- https://freesound.org/s/381355/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Creepy music by Victor_Natas -- https://freesound.org/s/551567/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Insirish by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/724797/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Stardust, Minimalist Piano Background Music That Evokes Emotion by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/546087/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>f2d11188-bacc-4a54-a31d-0e7ef403a25cWed, 21 Jan 2026 05:30:00 -070023:50truefull161161160: METRA - A Climate Revolution With Songs160: METRA - A Climate Revolution With SongsWhat if a Musical Could Help us Tell the Truth

About Climate Change?


In this episode, Bill Cleveland sits down with theater director Emily Hartford and composer–storyteller Ned Hardford to explore Metra: A Climate Revolution with Songs—a nine-episode musical audio drama that reimagines an ancient Greek myth as a near-future climate story.

What starts as a conversation about craft opens into deeper territory: imagination as resistance, music as pedagogy, and why genuinely new stories don’t come from algorithms—they come from people doing long, human work together.

In it, we explore three big questions at the heart of Metra and the moment we’re living in now:

  1. How music, story, and the human voice reach places that facts, lectures, and policy arguments can’t
  2. What it looks like to tell a climate story without fear-mongering or “disaster porn,”
  3. How artists can build work that others can actually use,—turning art-making into cultural infrastructure rather than a one-off production.

Listen in to discover how art, music, and story can help us practice a different future—and why Metra just might be the kind of narrative infrastructure we need right now.

People

Bill Cleveland

Host of Change the Story / Change the World and founder of the Center for the Study of Art & Community.

Emily Hartford

Theater director, writer, and producer; founding member of Flux Theater Ensemble and co-creator of Metra.

Ned Hartford

Composer, songwriter, audio engineer, and co-creator of Metra, focused on musical storytelling and audio drama.

Alan Lomax

Folklorist and field-recording pioneer whose work capturing the emotional power of the human voice is referenced in the episode.

Enoch Rutherford

Old-time banjo player recorded by Alan Lomax in Virginia; referenced through a story of lineage, listening, and musical transmission.

Bill McKibben

Climate activist and author referenced for framing distributed solar power as a metaphor for bottom-up social change.

adrienne maree brown

Writer and activist whose work on emergence and collective power informs Metra’s worldview.

Martin Buber

Philosopher referenced for his concept of relational connection (I–Thou), via the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Organizations & Collectives

Flux Theater Ensemble

New York–based theater company where Metra was developed and premiered, known for ensemble-driven creation and an aesthetic of liberation.

Gideon Media

Audio production studio that supported the transition of Metra from stage work to musical audio drama.

Third Act

Climate and democracy organization referenced in connection with Ned Hartford’s activism.

New York Communities for Change

Grassroots organization cited as part of the movement ecosystem influencing the creators’ thinking.

Climate Defenders

Climate justice organization referenced as an example of movement-based learning and narrative change.

Works & Publications

Metra: A Climate Revolution with Songs

Official project site for the nine-episode musical audio drama.

Metamorphoses by Ovid

Source text for the myth of Erysichthon and Metra.

Here Comes the Sun by Bill McKibben

Referenced for its account of decentralized solar power as a model for social transformation.

The Overton Window

Political concept discussed in relation to climate disinformation and long-term narrative shifts.

Antidote by Karen Russell

Novel recommended by Emily Hartford for its imaginative interrogation of manifest destiny and power.

The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Recent book recommendation connecting ecology, reciprocity, and community.

Wendell Berry

Writer recommended for his grounding reflections on land, ethics, and community.

]]>What if a Musical Could Help us Tell the Truth

About Climate Change?


In this episode, Bill Cleveland sits down with theater director Emily Hartford and composer–storyteller Ned Hardford to explore Metra: A Climate Revolution with Songs—a nine-episode musical audio drama that reimagines an ancient Greek myth as a near-future climate story.

What starts as a conversation about craft opens into deeper territory: imagination as resistance, music as pedagogy, and why genuinely new stories don’t come from algorithms—they come from people doing long, human work together.

In it, we explore three big questions at the heart of Metra and the moment we’re living in now:

  1. How music, story, and the human voice reach places that facts, lectures, and policy arguments can’t
  2. What it looks like to tell a climate story without fear-mongering or “disaster porn,”
  3. How artists can build work that others can actually use,—turning art-making into cultural infrastructure rather than a one-off production.

Listen in to discover how art, music, and story can help us practice a different future—and why Metra just might be the kind of narrative infrastructure we need right now.

People

Bill Cleveland

Host of Change the Story / Change the World and founder of the Center for the Study of Art & Community.

Emily Hartford

Theater director, writer, and producer; founding member of Flux Theater Ensemble and co-creator of Metra.

Ned Hartford

Composer, songwriter, audio engineer, and co-creator of Metra, focused on musical storytelling and audio drama.

Alan Lomax

Folklorist and field-recording pioneer whose work capturing the emotional power of the human voice is referenced in the episode.

Enoch Rutherford

Old-time banjo player recorded by Alan Lomax in Virginia; referenced through a story of lineage, listening, and musical transmission.

Bill McKibben

Climate activist and author referenced for framing distributed solar power as a metaphor for bottom-up social change.

adrienne maree brown

Writer and activist whose work on emergence and collective power informs Metra’s worldview.

Martin Buber

Philosopher referenced for his concept of relational connection (I–Thou), via the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Organizations & Collectives

Flux Theater Ensemble

New York–based theater company where Metra was developed and premiered, known for ensemble-driven creation and an aesthetic of liberation.

Gideon Media

Audio production studio that supported the transition of Metra from stage work to musical audio drama.

Third Act

Climate and democracy organization referenced in connection with Ned Hartford’s activism.

New York Communities for Change

Grassroots organization cited as part of the movement ecosystem influencing the creators’ thinking.

Climate Defenders

Climate justice organization referenced as an example of movement-based learning and narrative change.

Works & Publications

Metra: A Climate Revolution with Songs

Official project site for the nine-episode musical audio drama.

Metamorphoses by Ovid

Source text for the myth of Erysichthon and Metra.

Here Comes the Sun by Bill McKibben

Referenced for its account of decentralized solar power as a model for social transformation.

The Overton Window

Political concept discussed in relation to climate disinformation and long-term narrative shifts.

Antidote by Karen Russell

Novel recommended by Emily Hartford for its imaginative interrogation of manifest destiny and power.

The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Recent book recommendation connecting ecology, reciprocity, and community.

Wendell Berry

Writer recommended for his grounding reflections on land, ethics, and community.

]]>248a2645-a563-40a8-92f3-ee49fcfd944cWed, 14 Jan 2026 04:45:00 -070048:30truefull160160159 What Can We Learn From Activist Artists in Australia: PART 2159 What Can We Learn From Activist Artists in Australia: PART 2BIGhART is Australia's leading

arts & social change organization.


Making art, Building communities, Driving change.

30 years in operation,

62 communities engaged,

47 awards won,

550 artists contributed,

9, 500 people participated,

2. 6 million audience members.

Can a skateboard ramp in the rainforest spark a global movement for justice, creativity, and environmental protection?

In Part Two of our BIGhART Series, we ride along with Scott Rankin and the BIGhART team as they blend skate culture, Indigenous wisdom, and creative process into a powerful force for social change.

Listen to Part One Here

Whether it’s fighting for the endangered Tarkine rainforest or giving marginalized youth a platform to be seen and heard, BIGhART shows how art, patience, and deep listening can radically transform the world around us. If you’re wondering what change-making really looks like, this story will challenge and inspire you.

  1. Explore how skateboarding becomes both an art form and a mental health lifeline for young people at the edge of society.
  2. Hear how BIGhART’s long game—projects that unfold over decades—challenges quick-fix activism by centering deep community invitation and legacy-building.
  3. Learn why creativity rooted in respect, reciprocity, and humility is essential to confronting cultural wounds, environmental destruction, and systems of injustice.

Scott Rankin BIO

Scott Rankin co-founded Big hART with friend John Bakes in 1992. As CEO and Creative Director, Scott leads the overarching vision for all Big hART projects – from pilot through to legacy. A leader and teacher in the field of social and cultural innovation, Scott provides daily mentorship and knowledge transfer to all Big hART staff so that they can in turn lead our projects with confidence.

An award winning writer and director in his own right, Scott’s works have been included many times in major arts festivals. His reputation is built on a quarter of a century of work, creating, funding and directing large-scale projects in diverse communities with high needs, in isolated settings.

Big hART is Scott’s passionate contribution to the arts and society.

Notable Mentions:

BIGhART:

Ngapartji Ngapartji: Big hART designed the Ngapartji Ngapartji project to raise awareness of Indigenous language loss, and the lack of an national Indigenous languages policy.

Tasmania is an island state of Australia.[15] It is located 240 kilometres (150 miles) to the south of the Australian mainland, separated from it by the Bass Strait, with the archipelago containing the southernmost point of the country.

Vaslav Nijinsky was a Russian[4] ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish ancestry.[5] He is regarded as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century.[3]

Albert Namatjira: 28 July 1902 – 8 August 1959) was an Arrernte painter from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia, widely considered one of the most notable Australian artists.

Namatjira Project: Namatjira Project began as a collaboration with members of the Namatjira family and the Hermannsburg community in Central Australia in 2009.The long-term project has centered around an award-winning theatre performance, Namatjira, seen by 50,000 people, telling the story of Albert Namatjira, with his family on stage.

Skate of Mind is a grassroots, national touring collective of skaters, filmmakers, photographers, and artists. We run community engagement events, workshops, music, art, digital art, projection, and soundscape design in regional communities.

SKATE is a groundbreaking new work in development fusing the art of skateboarding with percussion and projection. A breathtaking sensory experience for all the family, SKATE sees a cast of talented male and female skateboarders perform jaw-dropping feats and create infectious rhythms with their skateboards.

Element Skateboards

Winnie the Pooh: Winnie-the-Pooh (also known as Edward Bear, Pooh Bear or simply Pooh) is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard.

Ngangkari (a traditional aboriginal healer)

The Acoustic Life of Sheds: Acoustic Life of Sheds invites leading composers, musicians and artists to celebrate these architectural embodiments of rural, industrial or maritime culture as memory sound- shells by reimagining them for audiences in the landscape or on the foreshore.

Project O: Project O is a prevention initiative driving change for young women in rural, regional and high needs communities.

Acknowledgements:

Music

Studio (Ernabella School Hall) recording of music from the stage show 'Ngapartji Ngapartji'. 1 Ngayunya Wantiriyalku I Shall Be Released

Performed by Makinti Minutjukur, Unurupa Kulyuru, Rhoda Tjitayi, Renita Stanley, Andrew MacGregor, Sara Luither, Beth Sometimes, Steve Fraser. Written by Bob Dylan - Translated by Lorna Wilson, Tom Holder, Dora (Amanyi) Haggie, Rhoda Tjitayi, Unurupa Kulyuru, Beth Sometimes. Recorded by Steve Fraser.

Dream-Shifting - by Steven F Allen

https://freesound.org/people/audiomirage/

https://soundclick.com/AuDioChosisStevenFAllenAuDioMiRage

*******

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and...]]>BIGhART is Australia's leading

arts & social change organization.


Making art, Building communities, Driving change.

30 years in operation,

62 communities engaged,

47 awards won,

550 artists contributed,

9, 500 people participated,

2. 6 million audience members.

Can a skateboard ramp in the rainforest spark a global movement for justice, creativity, and environmental protection?

In Part Two of our BIGhART Series, we ride along with Scott Rankin and the BIGhART team as they blend skate culture, Indigenous wisdom, and creative process into a powerful force for social change.

Listen to Part One Here

Whether it’s fighting for the endangered Tarkine rainforest or giving marginalized youth a platform to be seen and heard, BIGhART shows how art, patience, and deep listening can radically transform the world around us. If you’re wondering what change-making really looks like, this story will challenge and inspire you.

  1. Explore how skateboarding becomes both an art form and a mental health lifeline for young people at the edge of society.
  2. Hear how BIGhART’s long game—projects that unfold over decades—challenges quick-fix activism by centering deep community invitation and legacy-building.
  3. Learn why creativity rooted in respect, reciprocity, and humility is essential to confronting cultural wounds, environmental destruction, and systems of injustice.

Scott Rankin BIO

Scott Rankin co-founded Big hART with friend John Bakes in 1992. As CEO and Creative Director, Scott leads the overarching vision for all Big hART projects – from pilot through to legacy. A leader and teacher in the field of social and cultural innovation, Scott provides daily mentorship and knowledge transfer to all Big hART staff so that they can in turn lead our projects with confidence.

An award winning writer and director in his own right, Scott’s works have been included many times in major arts festivals. His reputation is built on a quarter of a century of work, creating, funding and directing large-scale projects in diverse communities with high needs, in isolated settings.

Big hART is Scott’s passionate contribution to the arts and society.

Notable Mentions:

BIGhART:

Ngapartji Ngapartji: Big hART designed the Ngapartji Ngapartji project to raise awareness of Indigenous language loss, and the lack of an national Indigenous languages policy.

Tasmania is an island state of Australia.[15] It is located 240 kilometres (150 miles) to the south of the Australian mainland, separated from it by the Bass Strait, with the archipelago containing the southernmost point of the country.

Vaslav Nijinsky was a Russian[4] ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish ancestry.[5] He is regarded as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century.[3]

Albert Namatjira: 28 July 1902 – 8 August 1959) was an Arrernte painter from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia, widely considered one of the most notable Australian artists.

Namatjira Project: Namatjira Project began as a collaboration with members of the Namatjira family and the Hermannsburg community in Central Australia in 2009.The long-term project has centered around an award-winning theatre performance, Namatjira, seen by 50,000 people, telling the story of Albert Namatjira, with his family on stage.

Skate of Mind is a grassroots, national touring collective of skaters, filmmakers, photographers, and artists. We run community engagement events, workshops, music, art, digital art, projection, and soundscape design in regional communities.

SKATE is a groundbreaking new work in development fusing the art of skateboarding with percussion and projection. A breathtaking sensory experience for all the family, SKATE sees a cast of talented male and female skateboarders perform jaw-dropping feats and create infectious rhythms with their skateboards.

Element Skateboards

Winnie the Pooh: Winnie-the-Pooh (also known as Edward Bear, Pooh Bear or simply Pooh) is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard.

Ngangkari (a traditional aboriginal healer)

The Acoustic Life of Sheds: Acoustic Life of Sheds invites leading composers, musicians and artists to celebrate these architectural embodiments of rural, industrial or maritime culture as memory sound- shells by reimagining them for audiences in the landscape or on the foreshore.

Project O: Project O is a prevention initiative driving change for young women in rural, regional and high needs communities.

Acknowledgements:

Music

Studio (Ernabella School Hall) recording of music from the stage show 'Ngapartji Ngapartji'. 1 Ngayunya Wantiriyalku I Shall Be Released

Performed by Makinti Minutjukur, Unurupa Kulyuru, Rhoda Tjitayi, Renita Stanley, Andrew MacGregor, Sara Luither, Beth Sometimes, Steve Fraser. Written by Bob Dylan - Translated by Lorna Wilson, Tom Holder, Dora (Amanyi) Haggie, Rhoda Tjitayi, Unurupa Kulyuru, Beth Sometimes. Recorded by Steve Fraser.

Dream-Shifting - by Steven F Allen

https://freesound.org/people/audiomirage/

https://soundclick.com/AuDioChosisStevenFAllenAuDioMiRage

*******

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>a992aeed-53b4-490d-9c01-91b916fae244Wed, 07 Jan 2026 04:45:00 -070031:33truefull159159158 Goodbye Leni Sloan: Artist, Activist, Catalyst158 Goodbye Leni Sloan: Artist, Activist, CatalystAdios Leni

This isn’t a regular ART IS CHANGE episode. It’s a pause. A moment to mark the passing of Leni Sloan—artist, activist, catalytic troublemaker, and beloved friend.

In this special reflection, Bill Cleveland shares stories that trace Leni’s life across stages and communities—from a daring Bicentennial musical about minstrelsy, to decades of cultural work uncovering erased Black histories, to his role as a catalytic force inside institutions that needed shaking awake. This is a portrait not just of what Leni made, but how he moved through the world.

You’ll hear about a man who believed history lives in bodies, that culture breathes through people, and that the real work is connection—between past and present, pain and joy, the visible and the forgotten. It’s a meditation on art as lineage, memory, and moral practice, told with humor, tenderness, and deep respect.

Listen in as we honor Leni Sloan’s life, legacy, and enduring presence—and let his stories remind us why telling the whole truth, especially the hard parts, is how we stay human.

Other Episodes with Leni Sloan

Multiple early and foundational episodes of this podcast include extended conversations with Leni on art, history, humility, and social change.

  1. L. O. Sloan - Adventures of a Gunrunner for the Arts Part 1
  2. L. o. Sloan - Adventures of a Gunrunner for the Arts Part 2
  3. Building Blocks of Effective Art and Social Change Practice: W/ Leni Sloan, Barbara Shaffer Bacon, and Bill Cleveland

NOTABLE MENTIONS

People

Bill Cleveland: Founder of the Center for the Study of Art & Community and host of Change the Story / Change the World. Longtime collaborator and close friend of Leni Sloan, offering this remembrance.

Leni Sloan (Lenwood O. Sloan): Playwright, director, cultural strategist, and community arts leader whose work bridged history, performance, policy, and community storytelling for more than four decades.

Laurie Meadof: Friend and colleague and internationally recognized artist organizer who shared the news of Leni Sloan’s passing with Bill Cleveland.

Barbara Schaffer Bacon: National leader in arts-based civic practice and longtime collaborator with Leni Sloan, referenced in connection with recent podcast conversations.

Bert Williams: Groundbreaking African American performer whose life and legacy anchor Sloan’s musical play The Wake.

Katherine Dunham: Pioneering dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist referenced as part of the lineage of artists Leni now metaphorically joins “on the other stage.”

Productions, Works & Cultural Projects

The Wake (musical play): Leni Sloan’s U.S. Bicentennial-era musical exploring minstrelsy, race, and American identity through the imagined gathering of Bert Williams and fellow performers.

Vu Du Macbeth: The historic 1936 Federal Theatre Project production revived and transformed by Leni Sloan.

Organizations & Institutions

Center for the Study of Art & Community: Host organization for the podcast and long-term home of conversations about art, democracy, and community change.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA): Federal arts agency where Leni Sloan worked and influenced national cultural policy.

California Arts Council: State arts agency connected to Sloan’s public-sector cultural leadership.

San Francisco Arts Commission: Municipal arts agency where Sloan contributed to public arts strategy and cultural equity efforts.

*****

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>Adios Leni

This isn’t a regular ART IS CHANGE episode. It’s a pause. A moment to mark the passing of Leni Sloan—artist, activist, catalytic troublemaker, and beloved friend.

In this special reflection, Bill Cleveland shares stories that trace Leni’s life across stages and communities—from a daring Bicentennial musical about minstrelsy, to decades of cultural work uncovering erased Black histories, to his role as a catalytic force inside institutions that needed shaking awake. This is a portrait not just of what Leni made, but how he moved through the world.

You’ll hear about a man who believed history lives in bodies, that culture breathes through people, and that the real work is connection—between past and present, pain and joy, the visible and the forgotten. It’s a meditation on art as lineage, memory, and moral practice, told with humor, tenderness, and deep respect.

Listen in as we honor Leni Sloan’s life, legacy, and enduring presence—and let his stories remind us why telling the whole truth, especially the hard parts, is how we stay human.

Other Episodes with Leni Sloan

Multiple early and foundational episodes of this podcast include extended conversations with Leni on art, history, humility, and social change.

  1. L. O. Sloan - Adventures of a Gunrunner for the Arts Part 1
  2. L. o. Sloan - Adventures of a Gunrunner for the Arts Part 2
  3. Building Blocks of Effective Art and Social Change Practice: W/ Leni Sloan, Barbara Shaffer Bacon, and Bill Cleveland

NOTABLE MENTIONS

People

Bill Cleveland: Founder of the Center for the Study of Art & Community and host of Change the Story / Change the World. Longtime collaborator and close friend of Leni Sloan, offering this remembrance.

Leni Sloan (Lenwood O. Sloan): Playwright, director, cultural strategist, and community arts leader whose work bridged history, performance, policy, and community storytelling for more than four decades.

Laurie Meadof: Friend and colleague and internationally recognized artist organizer who shared the news of Leni Sloan’s passing with Bill Cleveland.

Barbara Schaffer Bacon: National leader in arts-based civic practice and longtime collaborator with Leni Sloan, referenced in connection with recent podcast conversations.

Bert Williams: Groundbreaking African American performer whose life and legacy anchor Sloan’s musical play The Wake.

Katherine Dunham: Pioneering dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist referenced as part of the lineage of artists Leni now metaphorically joins “on the other stage.”

Productions, Works & Cultural Projects

The Wake (musical play): Leni Sloan’s U.S. Bicentennial-era musical exploring minstrelsy, race, and American identity through the imagined gathering of Bert Williams and fellow performers.

Vu Du Macbeth: The historic 1936 Federal Theatre Project production revived and transformed by Leni Sloan.

Organizations & Institutions

Center for the Study of Art & Community: Host organization for the podcast and long-term home of conversations about art, democracy, and community change.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA): Federal arts agency where Leni Sloan worked and influenced national cultural policy.

California Arts Council: State arts agency connected to Sloan’s public-sector cultural leadership.

San Francisco Arts Commission: Municipal arts agency where Sloan contributed to public arts strategy and cultural equity efforts.

*****

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>72472ae3-28a7-47be-9f3b-fe758a8164faTue, 30 Dec 2025 04:45:00 -070015:09truefull158158157 What Can We Learn From Activist Artists in Australia? Part 1157 What Can We Learn From Activist Artists in Australia? Part 1When I describe BIGhART to folks in the U.S. they

accuse me of making it up.

What if telling a story could rewrite history, heal generational trauma, and reclaim a community’s stolen legacy?

In a world where the voices of marginalized communities are often silenced or distorted, this episode explores how the arts—through projects like BIGhART and the Ngapartji Ngapartji and Namatjira initiatives—can become powerful instruments of cultural justice, truth-telling, and transformation. If you’ve ever wondered how creativity can confront systems of power and elevate unheard voices, this story offers living proof.

In this episode we:

  1. Discover how a small arts organization in Australia sparked a global movement for Indigenous rights, language preservation, and youth empowerment.
  2. Learn how performance, storytelling, and community-led creativity dismantled colonial narratives and reclaimed stolen intellectual property.
  3. Be inspired by Scott Rankin’s vision of sacred, process-centered artistry that goes beyond performance to become a force for healing, justice, and deep social change.

BIO

Scott co-founded Big hART with friend John Bakes in 1992. As CEO and Creative Director, Scott leads the overarching vision for all Big hART projects – from pilot through to legacy. A leader and teacher in the field of social and cultural innovation, Scott provides daily mentorship and knowledge transfer to all Big hART staff so that they can in turn lead our projects with confidence.

An award winning writer and director in his own right, Scott’s works have been included many times in major arts festivals. His reputation is built on a quarter of a century of work, creating, funding and directing large-scale projects in diverse communities with high needs, in isolated settings.

Big hART is Scott’s passionate contribution to the arts and society.

Notable Mentions

BIGhART: Authentic, high-quality art made with communities.

Big hART brings virtuosic artists into communities to collaborate and create authentic stories which illuminate local injustice. We present these stories to mainstream audiences to help raise awareness. This builds public support for change and helps to protect vulnerable people.

Everyone, everywhere has the right to thrive.

Big hART works with communities experiencing high levels of need. Rather than focusing on the problem, our unique non-welfare projects build on community assets, strengthening vulnerable individuals, and creating long term attitudinal shifts. Our hope is for all communities to flourish.

Positive, generational change begins as a cultural shift.

Big hART designs and delivers transformative projects to address complex social issues. Our cultural approaches are evaluated and acknowledged as best practice. Decision makers seeking better solutions can use our award winning projects to help develop new and better policy. We aim to drive generational change.

Ngapartji Ngapartji: Big hART designed the Ngapartji Ngapartji project to raise awareness of Indigenous language loss, and the lack of an national Indigenous languages policy. In order to create visibility around these issues, we launched a language and culture teaching portal, offered audiences the chance to learn Pitjantjatjara through a small teaching show, created short teaching films, as well as music and CDs with a Pitjantjatjara choir. We made a high profile documentary, and finally, a large award winning touring show for national festivals. By creating this range of art products, we attracted exceptional media and gained high level political interest in the issue. This assisted in driving a new Indigenous language policy and increased funding to help prevent language loss.

Trevor Jamieson is a veteran of stage and screen with over 25 years of experience in the entertainment industry, and a long time creative partner with BIGhART. He is known as an Actor, Dancer, Musician and Storyteller and his portrait, taken by Brett Canet-Gibson, took out the People’s Choice award for the 2017 National Portrait gallery exhibition in Canberra.

Trevor is not only an accomplished actor but is also known for his ability on the guitar and didgeridoo. Trevor has also received acclaim for his dance performances across the globe.Trevor was announced as a Permanent Ambassador for the Revelation Perth International Film Festival in 2017.Some of Trevor’s screen work includes Storm Boy; Thalu: Dreamtime is Now; Boys in the Trees. His stage credits include the Australian tour of The Season; the Sydney Theatre Company’s The Secret River; and the performance of Namatjira at Southbank, London in front of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

Art and Upheaval: Artists on the World's Frontlines - Citizen artists successfully rebuild the social infrastructure in six communities devastated by war, repression and dislocation. Author William Cleveland tells remarkable stories from Northern Ireland, Cambodia, South Africa, United States (Watts, Los Angeles), aboriginal Australia, and Serbia, about artists who resolve conflict, heal unspeakable trauma, give voice to the forgotten and disappeared, and restitch the cultural fabric of their communities.

Pitjantjatjara: The Pitjantjatjara (/ˌpɪtʃəntʃəˈtʃɑːrə/;[1] Pitjantjatjara: [ˈpɪɟanɟaɟaɾa] or [ˈpɪɟanɟaɾa]) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are varieties of the Western Desert language).

They refer to themselves as aṉangu (people). The Pitjantjatjara live mostly in the northwest of South Australia, extending across the border into the Northern Territory to just south of Lake Amadeus, and west a short distance into Western Australia. The land is an inseparable and important part of their identity, and every part of it is rich with stories and meaning to aṉangu.[2]

They have, for the most part, given up their nomadic hunting and gathering lifestyle but have retained their language and much of their culture in synergy with increasing influences from the broader Australian community.

Today there are still about 4,000 aṉangu living scattered in small communities and outstations across their traditional lands, forming one of the most successful joint land arrangements in Australia with Aboriginal traditional owners.

Melbourne International Arts Festival: Melbourne International Arts Festival, formerly Spoleto Festival Melbourne – Festival of the Three Worlds, then Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, becoming commonly known as Melbourne Festival, was a major international arts festival held in When I describe BIGhART to folks in the U.S. they

accuse me of making it up.

What if telling a story could rewrite history, heal generational trauma, and reclaim a community’s stolen legacy?

In a world where the voices of marginalized communities are often silenced or distorted, this episode explores how the arts—through projects like BIGhART and the Ngapartji Ngapartji and Namatjira initiatives—can become powerful instruments of cultural justice, truth-telling, and transformation. If you’ve ever wondered how creativity can confront systems of power and elevate unheard voices, this story offers living proof.

In this episode we:

  1. Discover how a small arts organization in Australia sparked a global movement for Indigenous rights, language preservation, and youth empowerment.
  2. Learn how performance, storytelling, and community-led creativity dismantled colonial narratives and reclaimed stolen intellectual property.
  3. Be inspired by Scott Rankin’s vision of sacred, process-centered artistry that goes beyond performance to become a force for healing, justice, and deep social change.

BIO

Scott co-founded Big hART with friend John Bakes in 1992. As CEO and Creative Director, Scott leads the overarching vision for all Big hART projects – from pilot through to legacy. A leader and teacher in the field of social and cultural innovation, Scott provides daily mentorship and knowledge transfer to all Big hART staff so that they can in turn lead our projects with confidence.

An award winning writer and director in his own right, Scott’s works have been included many times in major arts festivals. His reputation is built on a quarter of a century of work, creating, funding and directing large-scale projects in diverse communities with high needs, in isolated settings.

Big hART is Scott’s passionate contribution to the arts and society.

Notable Mentions

BIGhART: Authentic, high-quality art made with communities.

Big hART brings virtuosic artists into communities to collaborate and create authentic stories which illuminate local injustice. We present these stories to mainstream audiences to help raise awareness. This builds public support for change and helps to protect vulnerable people.

Everyone, everywhere has the right to thrive.

Big hART works with communities experiencing high levels of need. Rather than focusing on the problem, our unique non-welfare projects build on community assets, strengthening vulnerable individuals, and creating long term attitudinal shifts. Our hope is for all communities to flourish.

Positive, generational change begins as a cultural shift.

Big hART designs and delivers transformative projects to address complex social issues. Our cultural approaches are evaluated and acknowledged as best practice. Decision makers seeking better solutions can use our award winning projects to help develop new and better policy. We aim to drive generational change.

Ngapartji Ngapartji: Big hART designed the Ngapartji Ngapartji project to raise awareness of Indigenous language loss, and the lack of an national Indigenous languages policy. In order to create visibility around these issues, we launched a language and culture teaching portal, offered audiences the chance to learn Pitjantjatjara through a small teaching show, created short teaching films, as well as music and CDs with a Pitjantjatjara choir. We made a high profile documentary, and finally, a large award winning touring show for national festivals. By creating this range of art products, we attracted exceptional media and gained high level political interest in the issue. This assisted in driving a new Indigenous language policy and increased funding to help prevent language loss.

Trevor Jamieson is a veteran of stage and screen with over 25 years of experience in the entertainment industry, and a long time creative partner with BIGhART. He is known as an Actor, Dancer, Musician and Storyteller and his portrait, taken by Brett Canet-Gibson, took out the People’s Choice award for the 2017 National Portrait gallery exhibition in Canberra.

Trevor is not only an accomplished actor but is also known for his ability on the guitar and didgeridoo. Trevor has also received acclaim for his dance performances across the globe.Trevor was announced as a Permanent Ambassador for the Revelation Perth International Film Festival in 2017.Some of Trevor’s screen work includes Storm Boy; Thalu: Dreamtime is Now; Boys in the Trees. His stage credits include the Australian tour of The Season; the Sydney Theatre Company’s The Secret River; and the performance of Namatjira at Southbank, London in front of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

Art and Upheaval: Artists on the World's Frontlines - Citizen artists successfully rebuild the social infrastructure in six communities devastated by war, repression and dislocation. Author William Cleveland tells remarkable stories from Northern Ireland, Cambodia, South Africa, United States (Watts, Los Angeles), aboriginal Australia, and Serbia, about artists who resolve conflict, heal unspeakable trauma, give voice to the forgotten and disappeared, and restitch the cultural fabric of their communities.

Pitjantjatjara: The Pitjantjatjara (/ˌpɪtʃəntʃəˈtʃɑːrə/;[1] Pitjantjatjara: [ˈpɪɟanɟaɟaɾa] or [ˈpɪɟanɟaɾa]) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are varieties of the Western Desert language).

They refer to themselves as aṉangu (people). The Pitjantjatjara live mostly in the northwest of South Australia, extending across the border into the Northern Territory to just south of Lake Amadeus, and west a short distance into Western Australia. The land is an inseparable and important part of their identity, and every part of it is rich with stories and meaning to aṉangu.[2]

They have, for the most part, given up their nomadic hunting and gathering lifestyle but have retained their language and much of their culture in synergy with increasing influences from the broader Australian community.

Today there are still about 4,000 aṉangu living scattered in small communities and outstations across their traditional lands, forming one of the most successful joint land arrangements in Australia with Aboriginal traditional owners.

Melbourne International Arts Festival: Melbourne International Arts Festival, formerly Spoleto Festival Melbourne – Festival of the Three Worlds, then Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, becoming commonly known as Melbourne Festival, was a major international arts festival held in Melbourne, Australia, from 1986 to 2019. It was to be superseded by a new festival called Rising from 2020 (which was subsequently derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia).

Spinifex Country: The Pila Nguru, often referred to in English as the Spinifex people, are an Aboriginal Australian people of Western Australia, whose lands extend to the border with South Australia and to the north of the Nullarbor Plain.[1][2] The centre of their homeland is in the Great Victoria Desert, at Tjuntjunjarra, some 700 kilometres (430 mi) east of Kalgoorlie,[3] perhaps the remotest community in Australia.[4] Their country is sometimes referred to as Spinifex country.[5] The Pila Nguru were the last Australian people to have dropped the complete trappings of their traditional lifestyle.[6]

Alex Kelly: Alex Kelly is an Australian freelance artist, filmmaker and producer based in regional Australia. Kelly was born in regional NSW and grew up in a farming community near Wodonga in regional Victoria,[1]

Kelly has worked with diverse communities in Australia and around the world including Coober Pedy, Alice Springs, Amsterdam, Barcelona and the UK organising and lobbying for social change. She has been involved in community development, the arts, media (communication), environmental protection and social justice projects.

Palawa people of Tasmania: The Aboriginal Tasmanians (Palawa kani: Palawa or Pakana[4]) are[5] the Aboriginal people of the Australian island of Tasmania, located south of the mainland. For much of the 20th century, the Tasmanian Aboriginal people were widely, and erroneously, thought of as being an extinct cultural and ethnic group that had been intentionally exterminated by white settlers.[6] Contemporary figures (2016) for the number of people of Tasmanian Aboriginal descent vary according to the criteria used to determine this identity, ranging from 6,000 to over 23,000.[1][2]

Edward Said: (1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian American academic, literary critic and political activist.[1] A professor of literature at Columbia University, he was among the founders of postcolonial studies.[2] Born in Mandatory Palestine, he was a citizen of the United States by way of his father, a U.S. Army veteran.

David Mamet is an American playwright, filmmaker, and author. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988). He first gained critical acclaim for a trio of off-Broadway 1970s plays: The Duck Variations, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and American Buffalo.[2] His plays Race and The Penitent, respectively, opened on Broadway in 2009 and previewed off-Broadway in 2017.

2f520e16-3a28-4597-9d08-b8e88cf1840aWed, 24 Dec 2025 04:45:00 -070047:12truefull157157156: Why Should Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers Care About Sustainability?156: Why Should Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers Care About Sustainability?Why does sustainability matter in activist art? When funding cycles are short, residencies are brief, and institutions often treat creative work as temporary or expendable, what does it mean to commit to change that lasts?

In this episode of Art Is Change, the sixth in our series on the building blocks of effective community arts practice, Bill Cleveland sits down with two legendary cultural leaders — Leni Sloan and Barbara Schaefer Bacon — to explore sustainability not as longevity for its own sake, but as ethical responsibility. From invisible lineages of community practice to the quiet power of relationships that outlast grants, they examine what truly endures when art engages deeply with communities.

Drawing on decades of experience as practitioners, funders, and advocates, this conversation 


If you are an artist, cultural organizer, funder, or community partner grappling with how to build work that matters beyond the life of a project, this episode offers hard-earned wisdom, moral clarity, and a powerful reminder: some forms of change are too important to be temporary.

NOTABLE MENTIONS

People

  • Lenwood “Leni” Sloan – Activist artist, cultural organizer, impresario, and long-time leader in community-based arts practice; featured guest on Art Is Change.
  • Barbara Schaffer Bacon
  • – Former Co-Director of Animating Democracy, a national initiative advancing arts-based civic dialogue and democratic practice.
  • Bill Cleveland
  • – Host of Art Is Change and Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community, with decades of experience in arts-based community development and cultural organizing.
  • Liz Lerman
  • – Choreographer, civic artist, and thought leader whose work has profoundly shaped community-based and socially engaged dance practice.
  • John O’Neal
  • – Playwright, performer, and cultural organizer; co-founder of the Free Southern Theater and founder of Junebug Productions, a cornerstone of African American community-based theater.
  • M. C. Richards
  • – Poet, potter, educator, and author whose writings on creativity, discipline, and teaching have deeply influenced generations of artists.

Organizations

  • Center for the Study of Art and Communit– A national resource supporting artists, organizations, and institutions working at the intersection of art, community, and social change.
  • Animating Democracy– A program of Americans for the Arts dedicated to advancing arts-based civic engagement, dialogue, and democratic practice.
  • Americans for the Arts– A leading U.S. nonprofit organization supporting arts advocacy, research, and policy nationwide.
  • Junebug Productions– New Orleans–based theater and cultural organization dedicated to artistic excellence, community engagement, and African American cultural traditions.
  • Sankofa African American Theatre Company
  • – Harrisburg-based community theater rooted in African American history, storytelling, and civic engagement.

Events / Concepts

  • Day With(out) Art– An annual global action initiated by Visual AIDS, aligning with World AIDS Day to highlight the impact of AIDS on artists and communities through exhibitions, programs, and public dialogue.
  • Community Cultural Development– A field of practice placing culture at the center of community life, social justice, and civic engagement; overview provided by the UMass Arts Extension Service, a long-standing authority in the field.

Historical / Lineage References


Acknowledgements

From FreeSound.org

Hello User: Bright Cheery Intro Music by jjmarsan -- https://freesound.org/s/476070/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Bosch’s Garden – Mythical Game Music for Fantasy and AI Projects by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/647212/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Project Nine - Time is of the Essence: Minimalist Tune by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/662378/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

240625_2767-6_FR_Children_singing by kevp888 -- https://freesound.org/s/745207/ -- License: Attribution 

4.0custom_lexi_brain_blast_pew_sine_sweep_sound_V2_FINAL_06232025 by Artninja -- https://freesound.org/s/813190/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>Why does sustainability matter in activist art? When funding cycles are short, residencies are brief, and institutions often treat creative work as temporary or expendable, what does it mean to commit to change that lasts?

In this episode of Art Is Change, the sixth in our series on the building blocks of effective community arts practice, Bill Cleveland sits down with two legendary cultural leaders — Leni Sloan and Barbara Schaefer Bacon — to explore sustainability not as longevity for its own sake, but as ethical responsibility. From invisible lineages of community practice to the quiet power of relationships that outlast grants, they examine what truly endures when art engages deeply with communities.

Drawing on decades of experience as practitioners, funders, and advocates, this conversation 

  • challenges conventional ideas of growth, impact, and institutional survival.
  • asks whether sustainability lies in organizations, practices, relationships, 
  • or something more elusive — trust, memory, and the transmission of creative values across generations.

If you are an artist, cultural organizer, funder, or community partner grappling with how to build work that matters beyond the life of a project, this episode offers hard-earned wisdom, moral clarity, and a powerful reminder: some forms of change are too important to be temporary.

NOTABLE MENTIONS

People

  • Lenwood “Leni” Sloan – Activist artist, cultural organizer, impresario, and long-time leader in community-based arts practice; featured guest on Art Is Change.
  • Barbara Schaffer Bacon
  • – Former Co-Director of Animating Democracy, a national initiative advancing arts-based civic dialogue and democratic practice.
  • Bill Cleveland
  • – Host of Art Is Change and Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community, with decades of experience in arts-based community development and cultural organizing.
  • Liz Lerman
  • – Choreographer, civic artist, and thought leader whose work has profoundly shaped community-based and socially engaged dance practice.
  • John O’Neal
  • – Playwright, performer, and cultural organizer; co-founder of the Free Southern Theater and founder of Junebug Productions, a cornerstone of African American community-based theater.
  • M. C. Richards
  • – Poet, potter, educator, and author whose writings on creativity, discipline, and teaching have deeply influenced generations of artists.

Organizations

  • Center for the Study of Art and Communit– A national resource supporting artists, organizations, and institutions working at the intersection of art, community, and social change.
  • Animating Democracy– A program of Americans for the Arts dedicated to advancing arts-based civic engagement, dialogue, and democratic practice.
  • Americans for the Arts– A leading U.S. nonprofit organization supporting arts advocacy, research, and policy nationwide.
  • Junebug Productions– New Orleans–based theater and cultural organization dedicated to artistic excellence, community engagement, and African American cultural traditions.
  • Sankofa African American Theatre Company
  • – Harrisburg-based community theater rooted in African American history, storytelling, and civic engagement.

Events / Concepts

  • Day With(out) Art– An annual global action initiated by Visual AIDS, aligning with World AIDS Day to highlight the impact of AIDS on artists and communities through exhibitions, programs, and public dialogue.
  • Community Cultural Development– A field of practice placing culture at the center of community life, social justice, and civic engagement; overview provided by the UMass Arts Extension Service, a long-standing authority in the field.

Historical / Lineage References


Acknowledgements

From FreeSound.org

Hello User: Bright Cheery Intro Music by jjmarsan -- https://freesound.org/s/476070/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Bosch’s Garden – Mythical Game Music for Fantasy and AI Projects by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/647212/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Project Nine - Time is of the Essence: Minimalist Tune by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/662378/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

240625_2767-6_FR_Children_singing by kevp888 -- https://freesound.org/s/745207/ -- License: Attribution 

4.0custom_lexi_brain_blast_pew_sine_sweep_sound_V2_FINAL_06232025 by Artninja -- https://freesound.org/s/813190/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>dfd2e676-68f8-4d88-baae-0fecdcf31b01Wed, 17 Dec 2025 04:45:00 -070020:42truefull156156155: Why Are Humility & Failure Essential to Art and Social Change Success?155: Why Are Humility & Failure Essential to Art and Social Change Success?This episode digs into one of the trickiest—and most revealing—corners of community-based arts work: the way humility and failure shape everything we do, from a 12-line role in Richard II to a city-wide public-art firestorm.

Leni Sloan, Barbara Shaffer Bacon and Bill Cleveland tumble into stories that peel back the glossy surface of “successful” arts practice:

  • the actor with decades of experience learning cadence from an 18-year-old,
  • the choreographer who turned military restrictions into creative fuel,
  • the prison poet who left a Broadway star speechless.

And threaded through it all is this question: how do we stay porous enough—humble enough—to learn what the work is actually teaching us?

Together they talk about the kind of failure that doesn’t end a project but opens it—cracks the thing apart so the next, truer version can breathe. And they remind us that in this art-and-community dance, no one is ever done learning, not even the masters.

Listen in as we explore why humility is not soft, and failure is not fatal—they’re simply part of the craft.

And stick around: the next episode asks the big follow-up question—what responsibility do we carry for sustaining access to creative resources once communities have experienced their transformative power?

To donate to Spoon Jackson's Fund:

Use this Venmo account @Cheryl-Cotterill or send a check to:

Cheryl Cotterill

Attorney at Law

1770 Post Street #207

San Francisco, CA 94115

NOTABLE MENTIONS

People

Leni Sloan

Actor, director, community-arts practitioner, and co-conversationalist in this episode, reflecting on humility, failure, and learning within community-engaged art. 

Barbara Schaffer Bacon

Co-director of Animating Democracy and long-time leader in arts-based community development; contributes insight into constraints, ethics, and readiness in community practice. 

Lori Woolery

Director formerly with Cornerstone Theater Company and a leader of community-based productions at The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park. 

Liz Lerman

Choreographer, educator, and founder of the Dance Exchange, known for pioneering community-based performance projects including The Shipyard Project. 

Robert Frost

Poet quoted for the line “Freedom is riding easy in the harness,” used here to illuminate creative constraint. 

M.C. Richards

Potter, writer, and philosopher known for her disciplined practice of smashing imperfect pots—a metaphor for artistic rigor and humility. 

F. Murray Abraham

Award-winning actor involved in the Broadway production of Waiting for Godot, who visited San Quentin and sought insight from incarcerated actor Spoon Jackson. 

Spoon Jackson

Poet, educator, and long-incarcerated artist whose work in Arts-in-Corrections and performance in Waiting for Godot continues to inspire communities worldwide. Now eligible for review under California’s Racial Justice Act. 

Events & Projects

The Shipyard Project

A groundbreaking community dance and dialogue project led by Liz Lerman and the Dance Exchange in Portsmouth, NH, exploring the tensions around the naval shipyard’s potential closure. 

Sacramento “Indo Arch” Public Art Controversy (1980s)

A major debate around a celebrated new public artwork whose meaning shifted with geopolitical conflict, sparking weeks of city council deliberation. (General Sacramento public art reference: https://www.sacramento365.com/public-art/) 

San Quentin Production of Waiting for Godot

A culturally significant prison-based performance in which incarcerated actors, including Spoon Jackson, staged Beckett’s play for outside audiences and visiting artists like F. Murray Abraham. 

Creative Community Leadership Institute (CCLI) (archival)

A long-running community-arts training program in Minnesota whose curriculum underwent major revision after direct feedback from BIPOC participants. 

Organizations

Cornerstone Theater Company

A nationally recognized organization creating theater with and for communities across the U.S. 

The Public Theater

New York City’s home for Shakespeare in the Park and large-scale community productions involving hundreds of local participants. 

Dance Exchange

An interdisciplinary performance company exploring the intersection of art, community dialogue, and participatory practice. 

California Arts-in-Corrections Program

A statewide partnership providing arts education inside prisons, central to the development and visibility of artists like Spoon Jackson. 

California Racial Justice Act

Legislation allowing incarcerated individuals to seek relief when racial bias may have influenced their conviction or sentencing. 

Publications / Texts

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

The canonical absurdist play discussed in relation to San Quentin’s historic production. 

*****

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>This episode digs into one of the trickiest—and most revealing—corners of community-based arts work: the way humility and failure shape everything we do, from a 12-line role in Richard II to a city-wide public-art firestorm.

Leni Sloan, Barbara Shaffer Bacon and Bill Cleveland tumble into stories that peel back the glossy surface of “successful” arts practice:

  • the actor with decades of experience learning cadence from an 18-year-old,
  • the choreographer who turned military restrictions into creative fuel,
  • the prison poet who left a Broadway star speechless.

And threaded through it all is this question: how do we stay porous enough—humble enough—to learn what the work is actually teaching us?

Together they talk about the kind of failure that doesn’t end a project but opens it—cracks the thing apart so the next, truer version can breathe. And they remind us that in this art-and-community dance, no one is ever done learning, not even the masters.

Listen in as we explore why humility is not soft, and failure is not fatal—they’re simply part of the craft.

And stick around: the next episode asks the big follow-up question—what responsibility do we carry for sustaining access to creative resources once communities have experienced their transformative power?

To donate to Spoon Jackson's Fund:

Use this Venmo account @Cheryl-Cotterill or send a check to:

Cheryl Cotterill

Attorney at Law

1770 Post Street #207

San Francisco, CA 94115

NOTABLE MENTIONS

People

Leni Sloan

Actor, director, community-arts practitioner, and co-conversationalist in this episode, reflecting on humility, failure, and learning within community-engaged art. 

Barbara Schaffer Bacon

Co-director of Animating Democracy and long-time leader in arts-based community development; contributes insight into constraints, ethics, and readiness in community practice. 

Lori Woolery

Director formerly with Cornerstone Theater Company and a leader of community-based productions at The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park. 

Liz Lerman

Choreographer, educator, and founder of the Dance Exchange, known for pioneering community-based performance projects including The Shipyard Project. 

Robert Frost

Poet quoted for the line “Freedom is riding easy in the harness,” used here to illuminate creative constraint. 

M.C. Richards

Potter, writer, and philosopher known for her disciplined practice of smashing imperfect pots—a metaphor for artistic rigor and humility. 

F. Murray Abraham

Award-winning actor involved in the Broadway production of Waiting for Godot, who visited San Quentin and sought insight from incarcerated actor Spoon Jackson. 

Spoon Jackson

Poet, educator, and long-incarcerated artist whose work in Arts-in-Corrections and performance in Waiting for Godot continues to inspire communities worldwide. Now eligible for review under California’s Racial Justice Act. 

Events & Projects

The Shipyard Project

A groundbreaking community dance and dialogue project led by Liz Lerman and the Dance Exchange in Portsmouth, NH, exploring the tensions around the naval shipyard’s potential closure. 

Sacramento “Indo Arch” Public Art Controversy (1980s)

A major debate around a celebrated new public artwork whose meaning shifted with geopolitical conflict, sparking weeks of city council deliberation. (General Sacramento public art reference: https://www.sacramento365.com/public-art/) 

San Quentin Production of Waiting for Godot

A culturally significant prison-based performance in which incarcerated actors, including Spoon Jackson, staged Beckett’s play for outside audiences and visiting artists like F. Murray Abraham. 

Creative Community Leadership Institute (CCLI) (archival)

A long-running community-arts training program in Minnesota whose curriculum underwent major revision after direct feedback from BIPOC participants. 

Organizations

Cornerstone Theater Company

A nationally recognized organization creating theater with and for communities across the U.S. 

The Public Theater

New York City’s home for Shakespeare in the Park and large-scale community productions involving hundreds of local participants. 

Dance Exchange

An interdisciplinary performance company exploring the intersection of art, community dialogue, and participatory practice. 

California Arts-in-Corrections Program

A statewide partnership providing arts education inside prisons, central to the development and visibility of artists like Spoon Jackson. 

California Racial Justice Act

Legislation allowing incarcerated individuals to seek relief when racial bias may have influenced their conviction or sentencing. 

Publications / Texts

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

The canonical absurdist play discussed in relation to San Quentin’s historic production. 

*****

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>e8b90c65-796a-40fe-b1bb-866ebd57b56eWed, 10 Dec 2025 04:45:00 -070023:01truefull155155154: What are the Moral & Ethical Challenges Facing Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers?154: What are the Moral & Ethical Challenges Facing Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers?Budgets frozen. Institutions wobbling. Political earthquakes everywhere. In the middle of all that, many artists and cultural workers are stepping straight into the messy moral world of community change.

This episode is the fourth in our special series where we're unpacking the building blocks of effective art and social change practice,

This episode we explore: 

  • What happens when “good intentions” aren’t enough?
  • What do we owe the communities we hope to serve?
  • And how does an artist even begin to understand the ethical weight of their presence in places carrying trauma, tension, or long histories of power imbalance?

Notable Mentions

People

  • Bill Cleveland – Host of Art Is Change and Director of the Center for the Study of Art & Community.
  • Leni Sloan – Activist, performer, impresario, and cultural historian.
  • Barbara Schaffer Bacon – Educator, author, and longtime arts-and-democracy leader.
  • Confucius – Philosopher quoted on the cultural health of society.
  • Carol Bebelle – Co-founder of Ashé Cultural Arts Center in New Orleans.
  • Roberta Uno – Director and cultural organizer referenced via Project 2050.
  • Judy Munson – Composer for the series' theme and soundscapes.
  • Andre Neppe – Text editor for the series.

Organizations


Events

  • Pennsylvania Arts Residency Shutdowns – State-level budget freeze causing all residencies to wind down.
  • California Gerrymandering Ballot Vote – Referenced political event affecting democratic institutions.
  • White House East Wing Renovation – Described as symbolic cultural destabilization.
  • Northern Ireland Peace-Sector Encounters – Experiences working in sectarian communities.
  • Prison Songwriting Class – A pivotal ethical moment demonstrating the power of creative work.

Publications / Texts

  • Confucian Canon – Referenced philosophically regarding art and society.

*******

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>Budgets frozen. Institutions wobbling. Political earthquakes everywhere. In the middle of all that, many artists and cultural workers are stepping straight into the messy moral world of community change.

This episode is the fourth in our special series where we're unpacking the building blocks of effective art and social change practice,

This episode we explore: 

  • What happens when “good intentions” aren’t enough?
  • What do we owe the communities we hope to serve?
  • And how does an artist even begin to understand the ethical weight of their presence in places carrying trauma, tension, or long histories of power imbalance?

Notable Mentions

People

  • Bill Cleveland – Host of Art Is Change and Director of the Center for the Study of Art & Community.
  • Leni Sloan – Activist, performer, impresario, and cultural historian.
  • Barbara Schaffer Bacon – Educator, author, and longtime arts-and-democracy leader.
  • Confucius – Philosopher quoted on the cultural health of society.
  • Carol Bebelle – Co-founder of Ashé Cultural Arts Center in New Orleans.
  • Roberta Uno – Director and cultural organizer referenced via Project 2050.
  • Judy Munson – Composer for the series' theme and soundscapes.
  • Andre Neppe – Text editor for the series.

Organizations


Events

  • Pennsylvania Arts Residency Shutdowns – State-level budget freeze causing all residencies to wind down.
  • California Gerrymandering Ballot Vote – Referenced political event affecting democratic institutions.
  • White House East Wing Renovation – Described as symbolic cultural destabilization.
  • Northern Ireland Peace-Sector Encounters – Experiences working in sectarian communities.
  • Prison Songwriting Class – A pivotal ethical moment demonstrating the power of creative work.

Publications / Texts

  • Confucian Canon – Referenced philosophically regarding art and society.

*******

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>6a111de4-e23d-4def-a2ed-23b81fb1f626Wed, 03 Dec 2025 05:30:00 -070021:51truefull154154153: How Robert Farid Karimi Uses COMEDY & FOOD as a Powerful Strategy for Social Change153: How Robert Farid Karimi Uses COMEDY & FOOD as a Powerful Strategy for Social ChangeRobert Farid Karimi

The "inbetween" is often ignored. It is also the juicy territory that this week’s guest, comedian, chef, poet, educator, and activist Robert Farid Karimi has been investigating over the last couple of decades. like many of our guests Robert, who is also known as Mero Cocinero, Farid Mercury, the Peoples Chef, and even in some quarters, Betty Crocker's radical heir apparent, is not easily pegged. In the conversation that follows we explore some of the stories, ideas, and questions that animate his work. How can humor become a bridge in a conflict-ridden community? What is the role of the fool and gossip in the post truth era? What can community organizers learn from Mel Brooks and Cheech and Chong. Along the way we hear great stories and have a little fun.

Delicious Quotes

I feel for people who feel that they themselves are bridges because this, it's not easy work to hold, two sides of earth so that others can cross. A lot of times people they're not appreciating everything it took to keep everybody up.

…we say in Spanish, "chesme", gossip. And talking about how immigrants, how we transmit the information, especially when you come from cultures, where the official news is being controlled like Iran and Guatemala, like gossip is powerful. Chesme is powerful. So, I became this bridge by valuing the words of others as truth,

Humor to me was never about insulting or bringing others down. Humor for me was always, "How can you lift up the room? We've had a bad day. Why you gotta be a downer?" And I think growing up, that's why I valued it so much. That's why it became part of my toolkit.

They brought me in to General Mills, …and had me cooking where the Betty Crocker kitchen ladies cook. They stayed. The women who had worked all day stayed because they wanted to have a good time and laugh. My mother still says that's my best gig I've ever had cause I'm at the home of freaking Betty Crocker.

I changed Acting One so that it would incorporate play. I want them to start seeing their bodies as this thing, that's taking it all in and that they are not just actors. They are not just performers they are in the in-between. They are storytellers. And to make these stories, they need to understand their relationship to the system of life. And the final of the classes, they get to make fun of the class. They get to use all the skills to make fun of anything I've done, because the rationale is for me, humor is a great way to show that because you got to know what you know, to make fun of it.

I couldn't just walk into a community and go, “I'm going to save you all because I'm a person of color. Who's funny.” No. I had to go back to the kid that was listening, ...to the folks in the community. ..Then I could see how I could be of service.

Notable Mentions

Mero Cocinero, Farid Mercury, the Peoples Chef: Just three of Mr. Karimi's many alter egos.

Change the Story / Change the World: This podcast, a Chronicle of Art & Community Transformation

Afrika Bambaataa: Lance Taylor (born in April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (/ˌæfrɪkə bæmˈbɑːtə/),[2][3] is an American DJ, rapper, and producer from the South Bronx, New York.[4][3] He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of hip hop culture.[5] Afrika Bambaataa is one of the originators of breakbeat DJing.[1

Out North :Out North advances contemporary art in Anchorage supports underrepresented voices, and promotes cultural dialogue.

House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday[WC1] . [WC1]House Made of Dawn is a 1968 novel by N. Scott Momaday, widely credited as leading the way for the breakthrough of Native American literature into the mainstream. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969, and has also been noted for its significance in Native American anthropology.[2]

Galleria de la Raza: Founded in 1970, Galería de la Raza | Studio 24 is a non-profit dedicated to promoting Xicanx/Latinx art and culture. Our "creative place keeping" ethos is rooted in social inclusion and justice, where community arts are central to navigating the complex intersection of urban development, social inequality, affordable housing, and the historical-cultural legacies of communities of color.

Cornerstone.Theater: Cornerstone Theater Company collaborates with communities. Our work reflects complexity, disrupts assumptions, welcomes difference, and amplifies joy. We aim to advance a more compassionate, equitable, and just world.

"rasquache.": Rasquache is a term of Mesoamerican Nahuatl origin which initially had a negative connotation in Mexico as being an attitude that was lower class, impoverished and having bad taste. This definition was later redefined by Mexican and Chicano art movement, Rasquachismo, transforming social and economic instabilities into a style and a positive creative attitude.

Creative Capital:Creative Capital is a nonprofit organization that has awarded more than $50 million to artists for the creation of groundbreaking new work in the visual arts, performing arts, literature, film, technology, and multidisciplinary practices, including socially-engaged work in all forms. We also provide professional development programs, networking opportunities, and educational resources for arts communities around the world.

Diabetes of Democracy: Awarded the 2011 Arts and Humanities Seed Grant funded jointly by the Institute for Humanities Research  and the Herberger Institute Research Center in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts Diabetes for Democracy in South Phoenix examines the efficacy of the arts—specifically theatrical performance—in changing the dietary attitudes and behaviors of young people at higher risk for chronic diseases like diabetes.

Suzanne Lacy: Suzanne Lacy is renowned as a pioneer in socially engaged and public performance art. Her installations, videos, and performances deal with sexual violence, rural and urban poverty, incarceration, labor and aging. Lacy’s large-scale projects span the globe, including England, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Ireland and the U.S. 

Comic ReliefRobert Farid Karimi

The "inbetween" is often ignored. It is also the juicy territory that this week’s guest, comedian, chef, poet, educator, and activist Robert Farid Karimi has been investigating over the last couple of decades. like many of our guests Robert, who is also known as Mero Cocinero, Farid Mercury, the Peoples Chef, and even in some quarters, Betty Crocker's radical heir apparent, is not easily pegged. In the conversation that follows we explore some of the stories, ideas, and questions that animate his work. How can humor become a bridge in a conflict-ridden community? What is the role of the fool and gossip in the post truth era? What can community organizers learn from Mel Brooks and Cheech and Chong. Along the way we hear great stories and have a little fun.

Delicious Quotes

I feel for people who feel that they themselves are bridges because this, it's not easy work to hold, two sides of earth so that others can cross. A lot of times people they're not appreciating everything it took to keep everybody up.

…we say in Spanish, "chesme", gossip. And talking about how immigrants, how we transmit the information, especially when you come from cultures, where the official news is being controlled like Iran and Guatemala, like gossip is powerful. Chesme is powerful. So, I became this bridge by valuing the words of others as truth,

Humor to me was never about insulting or bringing others down. Humor for me was always, "How can you lift up the room? We've had a bad day. Why you gotta be a downer?" And I think growing up, that's why I valued it so much. That's why it became part of my toolkit.

They brought me in to General Mills, …and had me cooking where the Betty Crocker kitchen ladies cook. They stayed. The women who had worked all day stayed because they wanted to have a good time and laugh. My mother still says that's my best gig I've ever had cause I'm at the home of freaking Betty Crocker.

I changed Acting One so that it would incorporate play. I want them to start seeing their bodies as this thing, that's taking it all in and that they are not just actors. They are not just performers they are in the in-between. They are storytellers. And to make these stories, they need to understand their relationship to the system of life. And the final of the classes, they get to make fun of the class. They get to use all the skills to make fun of anything I've done, because the rationale is for me, humor is a great way to show that because you got to know what you know, to make fun of it.

I couldn't just walk into a community and go, “I'm going to save you all because I'm a person of color. Who's funny.” No. I had to go back to the kid that was listening, ...to the folks in the community. ..Then I could see how I could be of service.

Notable Mentions

Mero Cocinero, Farid Mercury, the Peoples Chef: Just three of Mr. Karimi's many alter egos.

Change the Story / Change the World: This podcast, a Chronicle of Art & Community Transformation

Afrika Bambaataa: Lance Taylor (born in April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (/ˌæfrɪkə bæmˈbɑːtə/),[2][3] is an American DJ, rapper, and producer from the South Bronx, New York.[4][3] He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of hip hop culture.[5] Afrika Bambaataa is one of the originators of breakbeat DJing.[1

Out North :Out North advances contemporary art in Anchorage supports underrepresented voices, and promotes cultural dialogue.

House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday[WC1] . [WC1]House Made of Dawn is a 1968 novel by N. Scott Momaday, widely credited as leading the way for the breakthrough of Native American literature into the mainstream. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969, and has also been noted for its significance in Native American anthropology.[2]

Galleria de la Raza: Founded in 1970, Galería de la Raza | Studio 24 is a non-profit dedicated to promoting Xicanx/Latinx art and culture. Our "creative place keeping" ethos is rooted in social inclusion and justice, where community arts are central to navigating the complex intersection of urban development, social inequality, affordable housing, and the historical-cultural legacies of communities of color.

Cornerstone.Theater: Cornerstone Theater Company collaborates with communities. Our work reflects complexity, disrupts assumptions, welcomes difference, and amplifies joy. We aim to advance a more compassionate, equitable, and just world.

"rasquache.": Rasquache is a term of Mesoamerican Nahuatl origin which initially had a negative connotation in Mexico as being an attitude that was lower class, impoverished and having bad taste. This definition was later redefined by Mexican and Chicano art movement, Rasquachismo, transforming social and economic instabilities into a style and a positive creative attitude.

Creative Capital:Creative Capital is a nonprofit organization that has awarded more than $50 million to artists for the creation of groundbreaking new work in the visual arts, performing arts, literature, film, technology, and multidisciplinary practices, including socially-engaged work in all forms. We also provide professional development programs, networking opportunities, and educational resources for arts communities around the world.

Diabetes of Democracy: Awarded the 2011 Arts and Humanities Seed Grant funded jointly by the Institute for Humanities Research  and the Herberger Institute Research Center in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts Diabetes for Democracy in South Phoenix examines the efficacy of the arts—specifically theatrical performance—in changing the dietary attitudes and behaviors of young people at higher risk for chronic diseases like diabetes.

Suzanne Lacy: Suzanne Lacy is renowned as a pioneer in socially engaged and public performance art. Her installations, videos, and performances deal with sexual violence, rural and urban poverty, incarceration, labor and aging. Lacy’s large-scale projects span the globe, including England, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Ireland and the U.S. 

Comic Relief[WC1] , [WC1]Comic Relief is a major charity based in the UK, with a vision of a just world, free from poverty.The organization's mission is to drive positive change through the power of entertainment.

Up in Smoke: Up in Smoke is a 1978 American buddy stoner comedy film directed by Lou Adler and starring Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Edie Adams, Strother Martin, Stacy Keach, and Tom Skerritt. It is Cheech & Chong's first feature-length film. While negatively received upon its release, Up in Smoke grossed over $104 million, is credited with establishing the stoner film genre, and is now considered a cult classic.

 Innovation Labs: Through keynotes, articles, workshops, seminars, and projects, we provide comprehensive insight into opportunities and challenges for companies and organizations in relation to new technologies, organizational development, innovation formats, and future business

Bridges Translations and Change: Art as Infrastructure in 21st Century America.: (1992) The essay was presented as a plea to America’s cultural community to get off the sidelines and join the fray. Atthattime,I(along with many others) asserted that what some were calling a “new world order” was in fact anew world condition--- that the recent spate of tumultuous events was not an unusual spike on the Richter scale of human affairs, but rather, a natural symptom of a globe that was in a perpetual state of accelerating change

*******

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>cc89634b-b60b-43ed-9811-646c6460c43dWed, 26 Nov 2025 04:45:00 -070054:25truefull153153152: Art, Agency, & Fear: How Artmaking Can Help Crush the MAGA Monsters at the Door152: Art, Agency, & Fear: How Artmaking Can Help Crush the MAGA Monsters at the DoorWhat if the scariest threat we face isn’t some monster outside—but the quiet, invisible loss of our own power to act?

In a world wired to exploit our fear, reclaiming our agency has never been more urgent—or more human. This episode dives deep into how fear hijacks our brains, and how imagination and creativity can reconnect us to each other and to our own capacity for action. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, this is the grounding message you need.

  • Discover why making things—from pots to poems—can literally rewire your brain and restore hope.
  • Learn how shared creativity offers an ancient antidote to the MAGA Fear Machine.
  • Hear why artists and makers are uniquely positioned to help shift us from panic to possibility.

Join us as we explore how reclaiming your creative spark can tip the balance from fear to agency—one act of making at a time.

Notable Mentions

 Events / Concepts Fight–Flight–Freeze Response – The brain’s survival-based reaction to fear, narrowing our thinking and heightening stress responses.

  • The Deep State – Used here as a metaphor for politically charged fear narratives in American culture.
  • Zombie Apocalypse – A metaphor representing panic-driven narratives that fuel division and fear.
  • Neuroplasticity – The brain’s ability to rewire itself in response to experiences like storytelling and making art.

2. Organizations

·     The Center for the Study of Art & Community – Producer of Art is Change, the center supports artists and cultural workers in community transformation.

  • Art is Change (Podcast) – A series focused on how arts and imagination intersect with democracy, agency, and resistance.
  • Freesound.org – A collaborative sound library providing many of the podcast’s creative sound effects.

3. Publications / Knowledge Resources

·     Neuroscience of Creativity & Agency – Explains how artistic practice stimulates brain function and fosters resilience.


*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>What if the scariest threat we face isn’t some monster outside—but the quiet, invisible loss of our own power to act?

In a world wired to exploit our fear, reclaiming our agency has never been more urgent—or more human. This episode dives deep into how fear hijacks our brains, and how imagination and creativity can reconnect us to each other and to our own capacity for action. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, this is the grounding message you need.

  • Discover why making things—from pots to poems—can literally rewire your brain and restore hope.
  • Learn how shared creativity offers an ancient antidote to the MAGA Fear Machine.
  • Hear why artists and makers are uniquely positioned to help shift us from panic to possibility.

Join us as we explore how reclaiming your creative spark can tip the balance from fear to agency—one act of making at a time.

Notable Mentions

 Events / Concepts Fight–Flight–Freeze Response – The brain’s survival-based reaction to fear, narrowing our thinking and heightening stress responses.

  • The Deep State – Used here as a metaphor for politically charged fear narratives in American culture.
  • Zombie Apocalypse – A metaphor representing panic-driven narratives that fuel division and fear.
  • Neuroplasticity – The brain’s ability to rewire itself in response to experiences like storytelling and making art.

2. Organizations

·     The Center for the Study of Art & Community – Producer of Art is Change, the center supports artists and cultural workers in community transformation.

  • Art is Change (Podcast) – A series focused on how arts and imagination intersect with democracy, agency, and resistance.
  • Freesound.org – A collaborative sound library providing many of the podcast’s creative sound effects.

3. Publications / Knowledge Resources

·     Neuroscience of Creativity & Agency – Explains how artistic practice stimulates brain function and fosters resilience.


*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>fb620264-62e2-49cc-9de9-05031c59e35bWed, 19 Nov 2025 04:45:00 -070011:00truefull152152151: Should Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers be Running for Office - Tom Tresser Says, "ABSOLUTELY!"151: Should Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers be Running for Office - Tom Tresser Says, "ABSOLUTELY!"What if the solution to our democracy’s crisis isn’t another white paper or study—but an artist running for office?


In this episode, civic organizer and “public defender” Tom Tresser reveals why he feels America’s nonprofit and creative sectors are missing in action when it comes to power, policy, and public trust. As arts funding shrinks and disinformation grows, Tom challenges creatives to stop “staying in their lane” and instead step up as leaders in civic life.

In it we’ll:

• Learn how a small, unfunded coalition stopped the 2016 Olympics from coming to Chicago—and why that matters for creative change agents everwhere

• We’ll also Discover why Tom thinks creative people are uniquely qualified to solve society’s most funky problems—and how artistic skills and political strategies are cut from the same cloth

And inspired by a radical, hopeful model for building civic power from the ground up, rooted in creative intelligence, story making, and community action.

Notable Mentions

The 100K Project: Tom Tresser's initiative that seeks to train, and propel 100,000 people from the arts, nonprofit, social services, education, and science sectors (and their supporters) to run for local office or help those with our values run as champions of service, science, justice, equity, peace, creativity, and the public sector.

People

Bill Cleveland: Host of Art Is Change and long-time practitioner in arts-based community development and civic storytelling.

Tom Tresser: Chicago civic organizer, public defender of the public sector, and co-founder of No Games Chicago.

Richard M. Daley: Former Chicago mayor behind the 2016 Olympic bid effort.

Barack Obama: Then–senator and later president who supported Chicago’s Olympic bid.

Sam Zell: Billionaire and owner of the Chicago Tribune, a supporter of the Olympic bid.

Senator Jesse Helms: Conservative senator known for attacks on the NEA.

Pat Robertson: Christian Coalition founder and major force in culture-war politics.

Andres Serrano: Artist whose work Piss Christ became central to NEA controversies.

The NEA Four: Performance artists whose denied NEA grants fueled national censorship debate.

Frederick Douglass: Abolitionist and civic educator cited as a model for grassroots truth-telling.

Paul Wellstone: U.S. senator whose “organize–advocate–run” triangle influences Tresser’s civic theory.

Oprah Winfrey: Chicago cultural icon who supported the 2016 Olympic bid.

Barbara Steveni: British artist and co-founder of the pioneering Artist Placement Group.

Judy Munson: Composer of the Art Is Change theme and soundscape.

Andre Nebe: Text editor for this episode.

Events

Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid: Major civic initiative defeated by grassroots organizing.

IOC Host City Vote – Copenhagen 2009: IOC meeting where Chicago was eliminated in the first round.

NEA Culture Wars: National battle over arts funding, censorship, and cultural values.

Performing Arts Communities Campaign to Save the NEA (1991): Chicago-based advocacy mobilizing artists and audiences.

The 100K Project: National initiative to train 100,000 creative people to run for local office.

Opening of the Civic Lab (2013): Launch of a civic makerspace for democratic literacy and organizing.

Organizations

Center for the Study of Art & Community: Producer of Art Is Change and national leader in arts-based civic engagement.

Art Is Change Podcast: The podcast exploring arts, culture, and democracy.

League of Chicago Theatres: Chicago’s principal theater service organization.

National Endowment for the Arts: Federal arts funder often at the center of political battles.

Christian Coalition: Conservative political organization active in culture-war campaigns.

Focus on the Family: Christian advocacy group active in the arts-funding debates.

No Games Chicago: Volunteer coalition that stopped Chicago’s Olympic bid.

International Olympic Committee: Governing body of the Olympic Games.

The Civic Lab: Civic makerspace founded by Tom Tresser.

National Guild for Community Arts Education: Partner for civic leadership training for creatives.

PBS: Public broadcasting network referenced in arts-funding discussions.

Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts: U.S. national arts institution.

Harvard Project Zero: Research center whose “studio thinking” informs the leadership model.

Americans for the Arts: National arts advocacy organization.

Freesound.org: Community sound library used for audio effects.

Publications

No Games Chicago (Routledge): Tresser’s book on defeating the Olympic bid.

Oxford Economics Research on Olympic Mega-Projects: Analysis of the economic and civic impacts of hosting the Olympics.

Christian Coalition Fundraising Letters (Archive): Historic mailers used in culture-war fundraising.

Artist Placement Group Documentation (Tate): Archival record of the groundbreaking UK socially engaged art model.

]]>What if the solution to our democracy’s crisis isn’t another white paper or study—but an artist running for office?


In this episode, civic organizer and “public defender” Tom Tresser reveals why he feels America’s nonprofit and creative sectors are missing in action when it comes to power, policy, and public trust. As arts funding shrinks and disinformation grows, Tom challenges creatives to stop “staying in their lane” and instead step up as leaders in civic life.

In it we’ll:

• Learn how a small, unfunded coalition stopped the 2016 Olympics from coming to Chicago—and why that matters for creative change agents everwhere

• We’ll also Discover why Tom thinks creative people are uniquely qualified to solve society’s most funky problems—and how artistic skills and political strategies are cut from the same cloth

And inspired by a radical, hopeful model for building civic power from the ground up, rooted in creative intelligence, story making, and community action.

Notable Mentions

The 100K Project: Tom Tresser's initiative that seeks to train, and propel 100,000 people from the arts, nonprofit, social services, education, and science sectors (and their supporters) to run for local office or help those with our values run as champions of service, science, justice, equity, peace, creativity, and the public sector.

People

Bill Cleveland: Host of Art Is Change and long-time practitioner in arts-based community development and civic storytelling.

Tom Tresser: Chicago civic organizer, public defender of the public sector, and co-founder of No Games Chicago.

Richard M. Daley: Former Chicago mayor behind the 2016 Olympic bid effort.

Barack Obama: Then–senator and later president who supported Chicago’s Olympic bid.

Sam Zell: Billionaire and owner of the Chicago Tribune, a supporter of the Olympic bid.

Senator Jesse Helms: Conservative senator known for attacks on the NEA.

Pat Robertson: Christian Coalition founder and major force in culture-war politics.

Andres Serrano: Artist whose work Piss Christ became central to NEA controversies.

The NEA Four: Performance artists whose denied NEA grants fueled national censorship debate.

Frederick Douglass: Abolitionist and civic educator cited as a model for grassroots truth-telling.

Paul Wellstone: U.S. senator whose “organize–advocate–run” triangle influences Tresser’s civic theory.

Oprah Winfrey: Chicago cultural icon who supported the 2016 Olympic bid.

Barbara Steveni: British artist and co-founder of the pioneering Artist Placement Group.

Judy Munson: Composer of the Art Is Change theme and soundscape.

Andre Nebe: Text editor for this episode.

Events

Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid: Major civic initiative defeated by grassroots organizing.

IOC Host City Vote – Copenhagen 2009: IOC meeting where Chicago was eliminated in the first round.

NEA Culture Wars: National battle over arts funding, censorship, and cultural values.

Performing Arts Communities Campaign to Save the NEA (1991): Chicago-based advocacy mobilizing artists and audiences.

The 100K Project: National initiative to train 100,000 creative people to run for local office.

Opening of the Civic Lab (2013): Launch of a civic makerspace for democratic literacy and organizing.

Organizations

Center for the Study of Art & Community: Producer of Art Is Change and national leader in arts-based civic engagement.

Art Is Change Podcast: The podcast exploring arts, culture, and democracy.

League of Chicago Theatres: Chicago’s principal theater service organization.

National Endowment for the Arts: Federal arts funder often at the center of political battles.

Christian Coalition: Conservative political organization active in culture-war campaigns.

Focus on the Family: Christian advocacy group active in the arts-funding debates.

No Games Chicago: Volunteer coalition that stopped Chicago’s Olympic bid.

International Olympic Committee: Governing body of the Olympic Games.

The Civic Lab: Civic makerspace founded by Tom Tresser.

National Guild for Community Arts Education: Partner for civic leadership training for creatives.

PBS: Public broadcasting network referenced in arts-funding discussions.

Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts: U.S. national arts institution.

Harvard Project Zero: Research center whose “studio thinking” informs the leadership model.

Americans for the Arts: National arts advocacy organization.

Freesound.org: Community sound library used for audio effects.

Publications

No Games Chicago (Routledge): Tresser’s book on defeating the Olympic bid.

Oxford Economics Research on Olympic Mega-Projects: Analysis of the economic and civic impacts of hosting the Olympics.

Christian Coalition Fundraising Letters (Archive): Historic mailers used in culture-war fundraising.

Artist Placement Group Documentation (Tate): Archival record of the groundbreaking UK socially engaged art model.

]]>4b88a522-b46e-4763-8099-c04a03d4953bWed, 12 Nov 2025 04:45:00 -070051:41truefull151151150: What Can We Learn from Activist Artists in Singapore?150: What Can We Learn from Activist Artists in Singapore?What happens when a tiny city-state with tight state control becomes a hub for community-driven, arts-based transformation?

Meet ArtsWok, a Singapore-based organization helping people talk about the hardest things—grief, inequality, identity, and even death—with art as the medium and hope as the mission

In a place known more for order than outspokenness, how do artists create room for deep conversation and community healing? In this episode, ArtsWok co-founder Su-Lin Ngiam takes us inside the intricate work of bridging Singapore’s diverse communities—whether that’s confronting mortality in a high-rise courtyard or staging inclusive youth theater across cultural divides. Her work invites us to reimagine activism not as confrontation, but as creative facilitation rooted in care.

Listen in to hear:

  • How ArtsWok uses everything from inflatable theaters to site-specific installations to hold space for taboo topics in the heart of tightly regulated Singapore.
  • Why conversations about death—like in their Both Sides Now project—are actually powerful doorways to deeper, more connected lives.
  • What it means to be an “intermediary” in art, navigating across sectors, beliefs, and disciplines to build trust, spark dialogue, and catalyze change

Tune in now to hear how Su-Lin and ArtsWok are turning art into a tool for civic dialogue, human connection, and societal renewal—one courageous conversation at a time.

Delicious Quotes

What does the ArtsWok Collaborative do?

I like to say that we're agents of hope. That we're really here to inject hope in society, or at least we try to, and it's about the bridging difference be it between people or ideas or uncomfortable topics.

How do your very public arts practices advance your issue-based community work?

…we want it to be out there where people can see, they can hear --- really bringing a taboo issue out into the open, making what's invisible, visible, unheard, heard. And the arts are great for doing that and creating spaces that can do that

What is Go-Li?

It's (Drama Box’s) inflatable theater … we have used that structure in our projects as well, … It's tour-able, so you can bring it to different communities, and you pop up and cause you're not allowed to be there permanently, then you deflate the structure, and you move on. And it becomes some kind of an icon as well.

People recognize it, and “Oh, okay, these guys are here. The artists are here.” And it's about creating safe space as well because it's open, but it's covered, but yet you can walk in and out so you can have conversations about difficult things or people can be vulnerable.

What is Both Sides Now?

...we have presented this project for seven years. …essentially, we're out there engaging community saying, "Have you thought about death?" …it's an important part of living to think about that. In fact, it's very much two sides of the same coin. …
how we live our lives will determine how we end. So, it's really all quite related, but of course, it can be quite taboo, and it's a painful topic. Loss, in general, is hard to talk about, but I think that's something we really need to talk about more as societies.

 

What role does negotiation play in the cultural life of Singapore?

We are artists. We are here to question and provoke. And having said that, we have things like censorship in Singapore in terms of, so, all our scripts, plays, have to be submitted for a license. … there is a process of negotiation that, as artists, we then undergo with the state or with authorities, and it's that process of dialogue.
And whether or not we choose to, to then, adapt our place or our work or choose another creative way to talk about it or present it. That's up to the artists, But I think what is meaningful is that process of negotiation and how we negotiate, and that impacts the way we practice, and it makes us more creative in a way. Then it is about finding the vocabularies and being patient. That change takes time.
]]>What happens when a tiny city-state with tight state control becomes a hub for community-driven, arts-based transformation?

Meet ArtsWok, a Singapore-based organization helping people talk about the hardest things—grief, inequality, identity, and even death—with art as the medium and hope as the mission

In a place known more for order than outspokenness, how do artists create room for deep conversation and community healing? In this episode, ArtsWok co-founder Su-Lin Ngiam takes us inside the intricate work of bridging Singapore’s diverse communities—whether that’s confronting mortality in a high-rise courtyard or staging inclusive youth theater across cultural divides. Her work invites us to reimagine activism not as confrontation, but as creative facilitation rooted in care.

Listen in to hear:

  • How ArtsWok uses everything from inflatable theaters to site-specific installations to hold space for taboo topics in the heart of tightly regulated Singapore.
  • Why conversations about death—like in their Both Sides Now project—are actually powerful doorways to deeper, more connected lives.
  • What it means to be an “intermediary” in art, navigating across sectors, beliefs, and disciplines to build trust, spark dialogue, and catalyze change

Tune in now to hear how Su-Lin and ArtsWok are turning art into a tool for civic dialogue, human connection, and societal renewal—one courageous conversation at a time.

Delicious Quotes

What does the ArtsWok Collaborative do?

I like to say that we're agents of hope. That we're really here to inject hope in society, or at least we try to, and it's about the bridging difference be it between people or ideas or uncomfortable topics.

How do your very public arts practices advance your issue-based community work?

…we want it to be out there where people can see, they can hear --- really bringing a taboo issue out into the open, making what's invisible, visible, unheard, heard. And the arts are great for doing that and creating spaces that can do that

What is Go-Li?

It's (Drama Box’s) inflatable theater … we have used that structure in our projects as well, … It's tour-able, so you can bring it to different communities, and you pop up and cause you're not allowed to be there permanently, then you deflate the structure, and you move on. And it becomes some kind of an icon as well.

People recognize it, and “Oh, okay, these guys are here. The artists are here.” And it's about creating safe space as well because it's open, but it's covered, but yet you can walk in and out so you can have conversations about difficult things or people can be vulnerable.

What is Both Sides Now?

...we have presented this project for seven years. …essentially, we're out there engaging community saying, "Have you thought about death?" …it's an important part of living to think about that. In fact, it's very much two sides of the same coin. …
how we live our lives will determine how we end. So, it's really all quite related, but of course, it can be quite taboo, and it's a painful topic. Loss, in general, is hard to talk about, but I think that's something we really need to talk about more as societies.

 

What role does negotiation play in the cultural life of Singapore?

We are artists. We are here to question and provoke. And having said that, we have things like censorship in Singapore in terms of, so, all our scripts, plays, have to be submitted for a license. … there is a process of negotiation that, as artists, we then undergo with the state or with authorities, and it's that process of dialogue.
And whether or not we choose to, to then, adapt our place or our work or choose another creative way to talk about it or present it. That's up to the artists, But I think what is meaningful is that process of negotiation and how we negotiate, and that impacts the way we practice, and it makes us more creative in a way. Then it is about finding the vocabularies and being patient. That change takes time.
]]>cf64553a-caa9-42ff-8978-658e38e40e57Wed, 05 Nov 2025 04:45:00 -070038:15truefull150150149: What Can We Learn From Activist Artists In Serbia?149: What Can We Learn From Activist Artists In Serbia?DAH SAYS: "In today’s world, we can oppose destruction and violence with the creation of meaning "


The Economist Magazine's Intelligence Unit places, Serbia, and Singapore, among the 46 countries that are considered Flawed Democracies along with United States of America. 

As our three countries grow more alike in surprising ways, it felt like the right moment to revisit two powerful episodes featuring activist artists from Serbia and Singapore.

First up is our 2022 Change the Story Change the World with conversation with Dijana Milosevic, the Director of Belgrade’s Dah Teatar.  

Imagine mounting a guerrilla theater performance in a bombed-out city square, in the middle of war, while armed soldiers look on—and still holding on to your art, your convictions, and your humanity. That is the story of Dah Teatar, a theater collective from Belgrade that has survived war, sanctions, shifting regimes, and censorship—and kept creating powerful, justice-driven work.

In this episode of ART IS CHANGE, we dive back into the history and present of Dah Teatar through a rich conversation with co‑founder Dijana Milošević. We revisit their 1992 This Babylonian Confusion street performance, and then catch up on how the company has restructured, relocated, responded to climate concerns, and carried forward their practice of “being with” communities. Along the way, Dijana shares stories of bus‑based public theater, performances among trees, and how art continues to navigate complexity, contradiction, and resistance in Serbia today.

You’ll hear:

  • How Dah anchored themselves in relationship and material constraints during the war years, moving from classic theater into street performance in real time.
  • The evolution of the company from ensemble-based actors to a more horizontal, administrative structure that can sustain creative risk.
  • Their project Invisible City, performed inside buses, bringing stories rooted in neighborhood life to ordinary passengers—not just theatergoers.
  • Their more recent project Dancing Trees, where trees become collaborators, audiences move into the forest, and performance becomes site, sound, memory, and activism.
  • Reflections on censorship, environmental struggle, national narratives, cross‑community healing, and the role of artists in turbulent times.

Tune in to follow Dah’s journey across decades of upheaval and resilience—and be inspired by how a theater company, rooted in place and poetic defiance, continues to bridge divides between people and environment.

Change the Story Collection

Be sure to check out our CHANGE THE STORY COLLECTION OF ARCHIVED EPISODES on: Justice Arts, Art & Healing, Cultural Organizing, Arts Ed./Children & Youth, Community Arts Training, Music for Change, Theater for Change, Change Making Media. BIO

Dijana Milošević is an award-winning theater director, writer and lecturer. She co-founded the DAH Theater Research Center in Belgrade, and has been its lead director for over 25 years.

Dijana has served as the artistic director of theater festivals, the president of the Association of Independent Theaters, the president of the board of BITEF Theater, and a member of the board of directors of the national International Theater Institute (ITI). She has been involved with several peacebuilding initiatives and collaborates with feminist-activist groups.

DAH Theater has performed nationally and internationally under Dijana’s directing. She has also directed plays by other theater companies around the world.

She is a well-known lecturer, who has taught at world-famous universities. She writes articles and essays about theater as well as society. She has won prestigious scholarships such as Fulbright and Arts Link. She is a professor at the Institute for Artistic Play in Belgrade.

Notable Mentions

Dah Teatar Research Center for Culture and Social Change: DAH Theatre is an independent, professional, contemporary theatre troupe and artistic collective that uses modern theatre techniques to create engaging art and initiate positive social change, both locally and globally.  Mission: In today’s world, we can oppose destruction and violence with the creation of meaning.” Through dedicated teamwork, we create bold dramatic art to provoke, inspire, and incite personal and social transformation.

Art and Upheaval - Artists on the World’s Frontlines: Author William Cleveland shares remarkable stories from Northern Ireland, Cambodia, South Africa, United States (Watts, Los Angeles), aboriginal Australia, and Serbia, about artists who resolve conflict, heal unspeakable trauma, give voice to the forgotten and disappeared, and restitch the cultural fabric of their communities.

This Babylonian Confusion: The Dah Teatar project “This Babylonian Confusion” is a result of a montage of the actors’ materials and the songs of Bertold Brecht. This performance was created from the need of the artists to place themselves in their duty- as artists in “dark times.” Four actors using the characters of Angels say their share against war, nationalism and destruction. [1992]

Slobodan Milošivić: was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who served as the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997. Formerly a high-ranking member of the League of Communists of Serbia (SKS) during the 1980s, he led the Socialist Party of Serbia from its foundation in 1990 until 2003. After Milošević's death, the ICTY and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals found that he was a part of a joint criminal enterprise which used violence to remove Croats, Bosniaks, and Albanians from large parts of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. 

Bertolt Brecht: was one of the most influential playwrights of the 20th century. His works include The Threepenny Opera (1928) with composer Kurt Weill, Mother Courage and Her Children (1941), The Good Person of Szechwan (1943), and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1958). A member of the Independent Social Democratic Party, Brecht wrote theater criticism for a Socialist newspaper from 1919 to 1921. His plays were banned in Germany in the 1930s, and in 1933, he went into exile, first in Denmark and then Finland. He moved to Santa Monica, California, in 1941, hoping to write for Hollywood, but he drew the attention of the House Un-American Activities Committee. 

The Story of Tea: The central theme of the performance is the train that will finally take three sisters to the place of their dreams- Moscow, or missed opportunities and gambled chances, inspired and provoked by the other important themes of DAH Theater’s ‘three sisters.’ 

Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov is a play by the Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov. It was written in 1900 and first performed in 1901 at the DAH SAYS: "In today’s world, we can oppose destruction and violence with the creation of meaning "


The Economist Magazine's Intelligence Unit places, Serbia, and Singapore, among the 46 countries that are considered Flawed Democracies along with United States of America. 

As our three countries grow more alike in surprising ways, it felt like the right moment to revisit two powerful episodes featuring activist artists from Serbia and Singapore.

First up is our 2022 Change the Story Change the World with conversation with Dijana Milosevic, the Director of Belgrade’s Dah Teatar.  

Imagine mounting a guerrilla theater performance in a bombed-out city square, in the middle of war, while armed soldiers look on—and still holding on to your art, your convictions, and your humanity. That is the story of Dah Teatar, a theater collective from Belgrade that has survived war, sanctions, shifting regimes, and censorship—and kept creating powerful, justice-driven work.

In this episode of ART IS CHANGE, we dive back into the history and present of Dah Teatar through a rich conversation with co‑founder Dijana Milošević. We revisit their 1992 This Babylonian Confusion street performance, and then catch up on how the company has restructured, relocated, responded to climate concerns, and carried forward their practice of “being with” communities. Along the way, Dijana shares stories of bus‑based public theater, performances among trees, and how art continues to navigate complexity, contradiction, and resistance in Serbia today.

You’ll hear:

  • How Dah anchored themselves in relationship and material constraints during the war years, moving from classic theater into street performance in real time.
  • The evolution of the company from ensemble-based actors to a more horizontal, administrative structure that can sustain creative risk.
  • Their project Invisible City, performed inside buses, bringing stories rooted in neighborhood life to ordinary passengers—not just theatergoers.
  • Their more recent project Dancing Trees, where trees become collaborators, audiences move into the forest, and performance becomes site, sound, memory, and activism.
  • Reflections on censorship, environmental struggle, national narratives, cross‑community healing, and the role of artists in turbulent times.

Tune in to follow Dah’s journey across decades of upheaval and resilience—and be inspired by how a theater company, rooted in place and poetic defiance, continues to bridge divides between people and environment.

Change the Story Collection

Be sure to check out our CHANGE THE STORY COLLECTION OF ARCHIVED EPISODES on: Justice Arts, Art & Healing, Cultural Organizing, Arts Ed./Children & Youth, Community Arts Training, Music for Change, Theater for Change, Change Making Media. BIO

Dijana Milošević is an award-winning theater director, writer and lecturer. She co-founded the DAH Theater Research Center in Belgrade, and has been its lead director for over 25 years.

Dijana has served as the artistic director of theater festivals, the president of the Association of Independent Theaters, the president of the board of BITEF Theater, and a member of the board of directors of the national International Theater Institute (ITI). She has been involved with several peacebuilding initiatives and collaborates with feminist-activist groups.

DAH Theater has performed nationally and internationally under Dijana’s directing. She has also directed plays by other theater companies around the world.

She is a well-known lecturer, who has taught at world-famous universities. She writes articles and essays about theater as well as society. She has won prestigious scholarships such as Fulbright and Arts Link. She is a professor at the Institute for Artistic Play in Belgrade.

Notable Mentions

Dah Teatar Research Center for Culture and Social Change: DAH Theatre is an independent, professional, contemporary theatre troupe and artistic collective that uses modern theatre techniques to create engaging art and initiate positive social change, both locally and globally.  Mission: In today’s world, we can oppose destruction and violence with the creation of meaning.” Through dedicated teamwork, we create bold dramatic art to provoke, inspire, and incite personal and social transformation.

Art and Upheaval - Artists on the World’s Frontlines: Author William Cleveland shares remarkable stories from Northern Ireland, Cambodia, South Africa, United States (Watts, Los Angeles), aboriginal Australia, and Serbia, about artists who resolve conflict, heal unspeakable trauma, give voice to the forgotten and disappeared, and restitch the cultural fabric of their communities.

This Babylonian Confusion: The Dah Teatar project “This Babylonian Confusion” is a result of a montage of the actors’ materials and the songs of Bertold Brecht. This performance was created from the need of the artists to place themselves in their duty- as artists in “dark times.” Four actors using the characters of Angels say their share against war, nationalism and destruction. [1992]

Slobodan Milošivić: was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who served as the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997. Formerly a high-ranking member of the League of Communists of Serbia (SKS) during the 1980s, he led the Socialist Party of Serbia from its foundation in 1990 until 2003. After Milošević's death, the ICTY and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals found that he was a part of a joint criminal enterprise which used violence to remove Croats, Bosniaks, and Albanians from large parts of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. 

Bertolt Brecht: was one of the most influential playwrights of the 20th century. His works include The Threepenny Opera (1928) with composer Kurt Weill, Mother Courage and Her Children (1941), The Good Person of Szechwan (1943), and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1958). A member of the Independent Social Democratic Party, Brecht wrote theater criticism for a Socialist newspaper from 1919 to 1921. His plays were banned in Germany in the 1930s, and in 1933, he went into exile, first in Denmark and then Finland. He moved to Santa Monica, California, in 1941, hoping to write for Hollywood, but he drew the attention of the House Un-American Activities Committee. 

The Story of Tea: The central theme of the performance is the train that will finally take three sisters to the place of their dreams- Moscow, or missed opportunities and gambled chances, inspired and provoked by the other important themes of DAH Theater’s ‘three sisters.’ 

Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov is a play by the Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov. It was written in 1900 and first performed in 1901 at the Moscow Art Theatre. The play is sometimes included on the short list of Chekhov's outstanding plays, along with The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull and Uncle Vanya.[1]

Rio Tinto: Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian multinational company that is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP).[5][6]  In May 2020, to expand the Brockman 4 mine,

Rio Tinto has been widely criticised by environmental groups as well as the government of Norway for the environmental impacts of its mining activities: claims of severe environmental damages related to Rio Tinto's engagement in the Grasberg mine in Indonesia led the Government Pension Fund of Norway to exclude Rio Tinto from its investment portfolio.[15]

Academic observers have also expressed concern regarding Rio Tinto's operations in Papua New Guinea, which they allege were one catalyst of the Bougainville separatist crisis.[16] There have also been concerns over corruption: in July 2017 the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced the launch of a fraud and corruption investigation into the company's business practices in Guinea.[17]

Ana Brnabić: born 28 September 1975) is a Serbian politician serving as the prime minister of Serbia since 2017. She is the first woman and first openly gay person to hold the office.[1] 

Women in Black: Women in Black is a world-wide network of women committed to peace with justice and actively opposed to injustice, war, militarism and other forms of violence. As women experiencing these things in different ways in different regions of the world, we support each other’s movements. An important focus is challenging the militarist policies of our own governments. We are not an organisation, but a means of communicating and a formula for action.

Explorez Festival: Theater, dance, music and visual arts with a social impact in an international perspective. Since 2016, ZID has been organizing the international crossover festival ExploreZ where the city of Amsterdam is a stage for the city’s residents, artists and (inter) national theater makers. Each festival has its own theme, which is current for the makers and for social developments both locally and internationally.

25 Glasses of Wine: A lecture-performance featuring DAH Theater’s director, using autobiographical texts to discuss the work of a theater troupe and their adventures in the historical-political context of ‘a country which no longer exists

Dennis Barnett (Coe College): With an interest in works in translation, Professor Barnett has edited two collections of essays about theatre in Eastern Europe including one devoted to DAH Theatre in Belgrade, Serbia. He leads May Term in Serbia giving students an opportunity to train with the group of artist-activists. 

Invisible City: A Dah performance in the city bus system, and on-going project, ‘In/visible City’ is meant to render visible both the cultural richness of ethnic diversity and the multi-ethnic structure of Serbian cities.

Dancing Trees: Dah’s Dancing Trees is a site-specific dance theatre show created in collaboration with the Belgrade Dance Institute. This visually poetic performance explores the importance of trees preservation and includes wider scope of action connecting climate changes and arts.

Creative Europe: The Creative Europe programme 2021-2027 has a budget of € 2.44 billion. Creative Europe invests in actions that reinforce cultural diversity and respond to the needs and challenges of the cultural and creative sectors. 

Erasmus+ is the EU's programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe that has, in some cases provided support for sport related arts programs.

The Hidden Life of Trees: In The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben shares his deep love of woods and forests and explains the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in the woodland and the amazing scientific processes behind the wonders of which we are blissfully unaware. (from Goodreads)

ITAC: International Teaching Artists Collaborative: The first world wide network of artists who work in community and educational settings.

Students Park: Actually, its proper name is Academic Park, but Belgrade slang has been successfully neglecting the fact since the 1970s….

Conundrum of the Revolution: Rosa Luxembourg – ‘Red Rosa’ is an inspiration for revolt, against everything inhuman, violent, and exploitative, still today when revolt is not readily visible. Rosa presents us with the question- where is rebellion, is it possible?

The Wedding Community Play: The Wedding Community Play Project is an ingeniously crafted, thought-provoking and highly enjoyable piece of work, described by its producers as "the most unusual play structure ever performed in Belfast". The Wedding actually appropriates the most familiar and popular form of drama of the late 20th century - soap opera - and brings it to life by setting its story in the homes, streets and public spaces of the city. (Irish Times)

The Troubles: The Troubles (eb2f40dc-651d-4d80-80e7-c2447cfab712Wed, 29 Oct 2025 04:45:00 -070058:33truefull149149148 ; Five Arts Superpowers for Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers to Make Change NOW!148 ; Five Arts Superpowers for Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers to Make Change NOW!When everything feels like it’s unraveling, how do we know art still matters? In this episode, we explore the question:

What use is art in a world on fire?

Across movements, across generations—from Ella Baker’s quiet revolution to Beckett’s unexpected presence in a prison theater—this episode offers three simple, potent reminders of how art works in times of chaos: to notice, to connect, and to rebuild trust. Whether you’re an artist, organizer, or simply someone searching for clarity, you’ll find resonance in these stories.


Press play to be reminded that in uncertain times, art doesn’t just survive—it leads. Listen now and carry these three truths forward into your community.

Notable Mentions:

People

Bill Cleveland: Host of Art Is Change and Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community. (Learn more)

Ella Baker: Civil rights activist whose words inspired Ella’s Song. (Learn more)

Bernice Johnson Reagon: Composer of Ella’s Song and founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock. (Learn more)

Judy Munson: Composer and sound designer for the podcast. (Learn more)

Donald Trump: Referenced in the context of political polarization. (Learn more)

Samuel Beckett: Playwright of Waiting for Godot; supported San Quentin production. (Learn more)

Jan Jönson: Swedish director who brought Beckett’s play to San Quentin. (Learn more)

Jim Carlson: Prison arts advocate involved in the San Quentin project. (Learn more)

Barney Rosset: Beckett’s U.S. publisher. (Learn more)

Donald James: Actor who played Vladimir in the San Quentin production. (Learn more)

Reginald Wilson: Actor who played Estragon in the San Quentin production. (Learn more)

Brian Boyd: Author of On the Origin of Stories. (Learn more)

Voltaire: Philosopher often linked with the quote popularized by Spider-Man. (Learn more)

Events & Projects

Waiting for Godot at San Quentin: 1988 prison arts project with lifers performing Beckett’s play. (Learn more)

Federal Theatre Project: New Deal arts program (1935–1939) employing 15,000 artists. (Learn more)

A Bright and Dangerous Spark: Ongoing inquiry into art, imagination, and story. (Learn more)

Organizations

Center for the Study of Art and Community: Research and training org focused on arts-based community development. (Learn more)

Art Is Change Podcast: Podcast chronicling activist artists and community change. (Learn more)

Sweet Honey in the Rock: A cappella group known for justice-centered performances. (Learn more)

Freesound.org: Free collaborative database of sound effects. (Learn more)

Virginia Tech Theater for Social Change: Theater degree program hosting Bill’s talk. (Learn more)

San Quentin Arts Program: Historic prison-based arts education program. (Learn more)

Publications & Media

Ella’s Song: Anthem written by Bernice Johnson Reagon inspired by Ella Baker. (Learn more)

On the Origin of Stories: Brian Boyd’s work on storytelling and evolution. (Learn more)

Waiting for Godot: Beckett’s classic existential play. (Learn more)

Spider-Man (Uncle Ben Quote): Comic/movie franchise popularizing 'with great power comes great responsibility.' (Learn more)

League of Creative Champions: Metaphor for five key 'superpowers' artists bring to social change. (Learn more)

Acknowledgements

FX From FreeSound.org

Gastly sounds by menvafaan -- https://freesound.org/s/169665/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 3.0

Music for a Podcast or Animation, or...? by Dave_Girtsman -- https://freesound.org/s/676422/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Thinking of Driving: Gentle Piano Music for Emotional Scenes by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/532774/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

linewin6.wav by awrecording.it -- https://freesound.org/s/547658/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Simple Waiting BeepBox Loop by qubodup -- https://freesound.org/s/737525/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Cash Register by kiddpark -- https://freesound.org/s/201159/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Bosch’s Garden – Mythical Game Music for Fantasy and AI Projects by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/647212/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

campfire medium nearby slight forest slap echo +distant people laughing.flac by kyles -- https://freesound.org/s/453783/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Musical - Native American Day of the Dead Celebtration with Pipes, Whip Cracks, Drums.wav by jaegrover -- https://freesound.org/s/262876/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Whoosh_Electric_01.wav by LittleRobotSoundFactory -- https://freesound.org/s/274210/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Bosch’s Garden – Mythical Game Music for Fantasy and AI Projects by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/647212/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

April Showers: Sweet Lo-Fi Piano Vibes by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/608392/ -- License: Attribution 4.0


*****

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in...]]>When everything feels like it’s unraveling, how do we know art still matters? In this episode, we explore the question:

What use is art in a world on fire?

Across movements, across generations—from Ella Baker’s quiet revolution to Beckett’s unexpected presence in a prison theater—this episode offers three simple, potent reminders of how art works in times of chaos: to notice, to connect, and to rebuild trust. Whether you’re an artist, organizer, or simply someone searching for clarity, you’ll find resonance in these stories.

  • Discover how art helps us pay attention—to our world, our neighbors, and ourselves.
  • Understand the power of creative trust—what happens when making becomes a shared act of listening.
  • Explore how storytelling and performance can bridge divides, even behind bars or across ideologies.

Press play to be reminded that in uncertain times, art doesn’t just survive—it leads. Listen now and carry these three truths forward into your community.

Notable Mentions:

People

Bill Cleveland: Host of Art Is Change and Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community. (Learn more)

Ella Baker: Civil rights activist whose words inspired Ella’s Song. (Learn more)

Bernice Johnson Reagon: Composer of Ella’s Song and founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock. (Learn more)

Judy Munson: Composer and sound designer for the podcast. (Learn more)

Donald Trump: Referenced in the context of political polarization. (Learn more)

Samuel Beckett: Playwright of Waiting for Godot; supported San Quentin production. (Learn more)

Jan Jönson: Swedish director who brought Beckett’s play to San Quentin. (Learn more)

Jim Carlson: Prison arts advocate involved in the San Quentin project. (Learn more)

Barney Rosset: Beckett’s U.S. publisher. (Learn more)

Donald James: Actor who played Vladimir in the San Quentin production. (Learn more)

Reginald Wilson: Actor who played Estragon in the San Quentin production. (Learn more)

Brian Boyd: Author of On the Origin of Stories. (Learn more)

Voltaire: Philosopher often linked with the quote popularized by Spider-Man. (Learn more)

Events & Projects

Waiting for Godot at San Quentin: 1988 prison arts project with lifers performing Beckett’s play. (Learn more)

Federal Theatre Project: New Deal arts program (1935–1939) employing 15,000 artists. (Learn more)

A Bright and Dangerous Spark: Ongoing inquiry into art, imagination, and story. (Learn more)

Organizations

Center for the Study of Art and Community: Research and training org focused on arts-based community development. (Learn more)

Art Is Change Podcast: Podcast chronicling activist artists and community change. (Learn more)

Sweet Honey in the Rock: A cappella group known for justice-centered performances. (Learn more)

Freesound.org: Free collaborative database of sound effects. (Learn more)

Virginia Tech Theater for Social Change: Theater degree program hosting Bill’s talk. (Learn more)

San Quentin Arts Program: Historic prison-based arts education program. (Learn more)

Publications & Media

Ella’s Song: Anthem written by Bernice Johnson Reagon inspired by Ella Baker. (Learn more)

On the Origin of Stories: Brian Boyd’s work on storytelling and evolution. (Learn more)

Waiting for Godot: Beckett’s classic existential play. (Learn more)

Spider-Man (Uncle Ben Quote): Comic/movie franchise popularizing 'with great power comes great responsibility.' (Learn more)

League of Creative Champions: Metaphor for five key 'superpowers' artists bring to social change. (Learn more)

Acknowledgements

FX From FreeSound.org

Gastly sounds by menvafaan -- https://freesound.org/s/169665/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 3.0

Music for a Podcast or Animation, or...? by Dave_Girtsman -- https://freesound.org/s/676422/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Thinking of Driving: Gentle Piano Music for Emotional Scenes by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/532774/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

linewin6.wav by awrecording.it -- https://freesound.org/s/547658/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Simple Waiting BeepBox Loop by qubodup -- https://freesound.org/s/737525/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Cash Register by kiddpark -- https://freesound.org/s/201159/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Bosch’s Garden – Mythical Game Music for Fantasy and AI Projects by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/647212/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

campfire medium nearby slight forest slap echo +distant people laughing.flac by kyles -- https://freesound.org/s/453783/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Musical - Native American Day of the Dead Celebtration with Pipes, Whip Cracks, Drums.wav by jaegrover -- https://freesound.org/s/262876/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Whoosh_Electric_01.wav by LittleRobotSoundFactory -- https://freesound.org/s/274210/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Bosch’s Garden – Mythical Game Music for Fantasy and AI Projects by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/647212/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

April Showers: Sweet Lo-Fi Piano Vibes by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/608392/ -- License: Attribution 4.0


*****

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>84b41b90-3b74-412e-b391-70b11ddc404cWed, 22 Oct 2025 04:45:00 -070031:40truefull148148147: Emma Addams: Can a Quilt Change how Congress Listens— & How you Practice Democracy at Home?147: Emma Addams: Can a Quilt Change how Congress Listens— & How you Practice Democracy at Home?Can a Quilt Change how Congress Listens—

& How you Practice Democracy at Home?


If you’re exhausted by performative politics and digital outrage, this episode offers a deeply grounded alternative. Discover how everyday acts of creation and conversation can rebuild civic trust—and how women across America are using quilting to stitch together a more ethical and inclusive democracy, one square at a time.

  • Learn how to transform local conflict into creative fuel for durable, democratic collaboration.
  • Hear the inspiring story of how one woman’s quiet act of stitching sparked a national movement of peaceful persuasion.
  • Get practical insights on reclaiming civic power in your community—without burning out or tuning out.

Listen now to discover how storytelling, solitude, and stitching can help reweave the civic fabric—starting exactly where you are.

Notable Mentions

Here is a categorized, hyperlinked list of all people, events, organizations, and publications mentioned in the transcript.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 People

Bill Cleveland ; Host of Art Is Change, founder of the Center for the Study of Art and Community, and lifelong activist/artist in cultural organizing.

Emma Petty Adams: Co-Executive Director of Mormon Women for Ethical Government; leads cross-partisan, grassroots advocacy focused on ethical government and peacebuilding.

Jessica Preece: Political science professor and MWEG member who initiated the “Quilting for the Constitution” project from Provo, Utah.

Mr. Dwyer: U.S. History teacher at Hayward High School who inspired Emma’s early civic development.

Harry C. Boyte: Democracy scholar and founder of Public Work, a strong advocate of citizenship as a democratic practice.

Chad Ford: Author of 7 Times 70, a book exploring conflict transformation through a spiritual lens.

Max Richter: Renowned composer whose album Voices is inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Eleanor Roosevelt: Chaired the drafting committee of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights following WWII.

Rep. Kathy Manning (note: possibly misidentified as “Fauci” in transcript) Democratic U.S. Representative from North Carolina who displayed a quilt in her office.

Rep. Blake Moore: Republican U.S. Representative from Utah who used a quilt from the campaign in his office.


📅 Events

Quilting for the Constitution: A national arts-advocacy campaign led by MWEG members and allies; 62 quilts with civic messages delivered to 56 congressional offices in D.C. in May 2023.

Freedom Quilting Bee: A 1960s Black-led cooperative in Alabama that used quilting to support civil rights and community economic development.


Organizations

Mormon Women for Ethical Government (MWEG): A nonpartisan organization of women (mostly but not exclusively LDS) working for ethical, peaceful, and principled governance across the U.S.

Center for the Study of Art and Community: Founded by Bill Cleveland, supports the work of artists and cultural organizers in advancing democratic and creative community change.

Fox 13 News Utah: Regional news outlet that covered the D.C. quilt delivery in a televised segment.

United Nations: Drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the inspiration behind Max Richter’s musical work.

Home Depot: Surprisingly helpful co-sponsor: one organizer built a mobile quilt clothesline display with materials purchased locally during the campaign.


📚 Publications

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948): Foundational U.N. document outlining global standards for human dignity and freedom; source text for Voices.

American Covenant by Yuval Levin: A book about the Constitution as not just a governing framework but a civic operating manual for American renewal.

7 Times 70 by Chad Ford: Explores the teachings of Jesus as a model for deep, lasting conflict transformation.

Voices by Max Richter (album): A musical composition that blends minimalist orchestration with recordings of people reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Kindertotenlieder by Gustav Mahler: “Songs on the Death of Children”—a deeply emotional orchestral song cycle that Emma Petty Adams referenced as a vehicle for understanding grief.


*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>Can a Quilt Change how Congress Listens—

& How you Practice Democracy at Home?


If you’re exhausted by performative politics and digital outrage, this episode offers a deeply grounded alternative. Discover how everyday acts of creation and conversation can rebuild civic trust—and how women across America are using quilting to stitch together a more ethical and inclusive democracy, one square at a time.

  • Learn how to transform local conflict into creative fuel for durable, democratic collaboration.
  • Hear the inspiring story of how one woman’s quiet act of stitching sparked a national movement of peaceful persuasion.
  • Get practical insights on reclaiming civic power in your community—without burning out or tuning out.

Listen now to discover how storytelling, solitude, and stitching can help reweave the civic fabric—starting exactly where you are.

Notable Mentions

Here is a categorized, hyperlinked list of all people, events, organizations, and publications mentioned in the transcript.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 People

Bill Cleveland ; Host of Art Is Change, founder of the Center for the Study of Art and Community, and lifelong activist/artist in cultural organizing.

Emma Petty Adams: Co-Executive Director of Mormon Women for Ethical Government; leads cross-partisan, grassroots advocacy focused on ethical government and peacebuilding.

Jessica Preece: Political science professor and MWEG member who initiated the “Quilting for the Constitution” project from Provo, Utah.

Mr. Dwyer: U.S. History teacher at Hayward High School who inspired Emma’s early civic development.

Harry C. Boyte: Democracy scholar and founder of Public Work, a strong advocate of citizenship as a democratic practice.

Chad Ford: Author of 7 Times 70, a book exploring conflict transformation through a spiritual lens.

Max Richter: Renowned composer whose album Voices is inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Eleanor Roosevelt: Chaired the drafting committee of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights following WWII.

Rep. Kathy Manning (note: possibly misidentified as “Fauci” in transcript) Democratic U.S. Representative from North Carolina who displayed a quilt in her office.

Rep. Blake Moore: Republican U.S. Representative from Utah who used a quilt from the campaign in his office.


📅 Events

Quilting for the Constitution: A national arts-advocacy campaign led by MWEG members and allies; 62 quilts with civic messages delivered to 56 congressional offices in D.C. in May 2023.

Freedom Quilting Bee: A 1960s Black-led cooperative in Alabama that used quilting to support civil rights and community economic development.


Organizations

Mormon Women for Ethical Government (MWEG): A nonpartisan organization of women (mostly but not exclusively LDS) working for ethical, peaceful, and principled governance across the U.S.

Center for the Study of Art and Community: Founded by Bill Cleveland, supports the work of artists and cultural organizers in advancing democratic and creative community change.

Fox 13 News Utah: Regional news outlet that covered the D.C. quilt delivery in a televised segment.

United Nations: Drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the inspiration behind Max Richter’s musical work.

Home Depot: Surprisingly helpful co-sponsor: one organizer built a mobile quilt clothesline display with materials purchased locally during the campaign.


📚 Publications

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948): Foundational U.N. document outlining global standards for human dignity and freedom; source text for Voices.

American Covenant by Yuval Levin: A book about the Constitution as not just a governing framework but a civic operating manual for American renewal.

7 Times 70 by Chad Ford: Explores the teachings of Jesus as a model for deep, lasting conflict transformation.

Voices by Max Richter (album): A musical composition that blends minimalist orchestration with recordings of people reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Kindertotenlieder by Gustav Mahler: “Songs on the Death of Children”—a deeply emotional orchestral song cycle that Emma Petty Adams referenced as a vehicle for understanding grief.


*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>ca6f0dd0-affb-4594-8737-44ca2c4196afWed, 15 Oct 2025 04:45:00 -070048:54truefull147147146: How is the Government Threatening Activist Artists and Arts Organization?146: How is the Government Threatening Activist Artists and Arts Organization?What Threats are There to Activist Artists and Cultural Organizers & What Can You Do About Them?

Today on our weather report, we're wading into stormy waters, namely threats to activist artists and arts organizations coming not from creeps and trolls on the Internet, but from our own government.

So this week we're focusing on what's happening to creative change agents out there and on what might be coming.

Yep, we're talking about funding being yanked, but also loyalty style clauses slipped into grants and organizations being told to sit down and shut up or else. Over the next 20 minutes or so, we'll take a quick walk through

  1. What's already taking place,
  2. What might be coming
  3. And what we can do about it.
  4. We'll also share how some organizations and programs are stepping up to defend the field.

Acknowledgements

From FreeSound.org

WINDDsgn_Hurricane wind in the forest area.Designed_EM.mp3 by newlocknew -- https://freesound.org/s/680138/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0

Thunder Claps, Single Clap 01 by PNMCarrieRailfan -- https://freesound.org/s/682351/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0

Darkest Thursday – A Haunting Electronic Masterpiece by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/558271/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

78 PULSE: A Dark and Ominous Soundscape for Mysteries and Suspense by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/541944/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

improvised non-chill 2 by waveplaySFX -- https://freesound.org/s/238525/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

improvised non-chill 2 by waveplaySFX -- https://freesound.org/s/238525/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Loud knock on door.WAV by simonk24 -- https://freesound.org/s/666218/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Fog Horn.wav by CGEffex -- https://freesound.org/s/94678/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Bosch’s Garden – Mythical Game Music for Fantasy and AI Projects by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/647212/ -- License: Attribution 4.0


Gonna be gone by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/640853/ -- License: Attribution

Links referenced in this episode:

  1. centerforstudyofartandcommunity.org
  2. nationalendowmentforthearts.gov
  3. rhodeislandlatinoarts.org
  4. nationalqueertheater.org
  5. newmexicoarts.org
  6. georgesoros.com
  7. reidhofmann.org
  8. fordfoundation.org
  9. macfound.org
  10. schmidtfamilyfoundation.org
  11. americansforthearts.org
  12. artsactionfund.org
  13. americanallianceofmuseums.org
  14. internationalcenterfornonprofitlaw.org
  15. councilofnonprofits.org
  16. goodwinlaw.com
  17. allianceforjustice.org
  18. tenenbaumlegal.com

*****

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>What Threats are There to Activist Artists and Cultural Organizers & What Can You Do About Them?

Today on our weather report, we're wading into stormy waters, namely threats to activist artists and arts organizations coming not from creeps and trolls on the Internet, but from our own government.

So this week we're focusing on what's happening to creative change agents out there and on what might be coming.

Yep, we're talking about funding being yanked, but also loyalty style clauses slipped into grants and organizations being told to sit down and shut up or else. Over the next 20 minutes or so, we'll take a quick walk through

  1. What's already taking place,
  2. What might be coming
  3. And what we can do about it.
  4. We'll also share how some organizations and programs are stepping up to defend the field.

Acknowledgements

From FreeSound.org

WINDDsgn_Hurricane wind in the forest area.Designed_EM.mp3 by newlocknew -- https://freesound.org/s/680138/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0

Thunder Claps, Single Clap 01 by PNMCarrieRailfan -- https://freesound.org/s/682351/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0

Darkest Thursday – A Haunting Electronic Masterpiece by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/558271/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

78 PULSE: A Dark and Ominous Soundscape for Mysteries and Suspense by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/541944/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

improvised non-chill 2 by waveplaySFX -- https://freesound.org/s/238525/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

improvised non-chill 2 by waveplaySFX -- https://freesound.org/s/238525/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Loud knock on door.WAV by simonk24 -- https://freesound.org/s/666218/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Fog Horn.wav by CGEffex -- https://freesound.org/s/94678/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Bosch’s Garden – Mythical Game Music for Fantasy and AI Projects by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/647212/ -- License: Attribution 4.0


Gonna be gone by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/640853/ -- License: Attribution

Links referenced in this episode:

  1. centerforstudyofartandcommunity.org
  2. nationalendowmentforthearts.gov
  3. rhodeislandlatinoarts.org
  4. nationalqueertheater.org
  5. newmexicoarts.org
  6. georgesoros.com
  7. reidhofmann.org
  8. fordfoundation.org
  9. macfound.org
  10. schmidtfamilyfoundation.org
  11. americansforthearts.org
  12. artsactionfund.org
  13. americanallianceofmuseums.org
  14. internationalcenterfornonprofitlaw.org
  15. councilofnonprofits.org
  16. goodwinlaw.com
  17. allianceforjustice.org
  18. tenenbaumlegal.com

*****

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>8582265f-2998-4114-8705-7126bba911cfWed, 08 Oct 2025 05:45:00 -070015:43truefull146146145: Liz Sunde Brings Music To Life: Activist Artists Making Music, Making Change, & Thriving145: Liz Sunde Brings Music To Life: Activist Artists Making Music, Making Change, & ThrivingWhat if your art could both heal your

community & pay your bills? 

If you’re a musician or creative itching to drive real-world change without sacrificing your livelihood, this episode maps a path: how Music to Life evolved from a songwriting contest into a rigorous accelerator that helps artists design, fund, and measure community projects—so you can make change while making a living. 

  • Learn how Music To Life helps musicians turn a community cause into a sustainable enterprise
  • See real models you can adapt: Vanessa Lively’s Home Street Music built 500+ song circles, 230 sessions, & raised ~$200K serving unhoused neighbors in Austin.
  • Learn about proven impact from Benny Esguerra’s mobile studio that measured violence reduction  to poet-healer Myles Bullen co-facilitating prison education to process tough emotions and build trust.

Tune in to hear strategies & stories that helped artists step off the stage and into community change—without abandoning the craft that got them there. 

Notable Mentions

People

  • Liz Sunde – Co-founder and Executive Director of Music to Life, an organization empowering socially conscious musicians to become change agents in their communities .
  • Bill Cleveland – Host of Art Is Change and Director of the Center for the Study of Art & Community, long-time advocate for artists as community leaders .
  • Paul Stookey – Renowned singer-songwriter, member of the legendary folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, and co-founder of Music to Life .
  • Vanessa Lively – Austin-based singer-songwriter and founder of Home Street Music, a program using music circles to support people experiencing homelessness .
  • Dick Crispo – Artist who co-created the longest indoor mural in the world at Soledad Prison, known for his community arts practice .
  • Beny Esguerra – Toronto-based musician and educator, founder of the Mobile Studio Project using music to reduce gang violence through recording sessions .
  • Myles Bullen – Indigenous poet/ rap artist from Maine, who collaborated with University of Maine Augusta faculty on prison-based education blending poetry and Holocaust studies .
  • Barbara Schaffer Bacon – Arts leader and consultant, co-director of Animating Democracy at Americans for the Arts, key in helping Music to Life secure Mellon Foundation support .
  • John Lewis – Late U.S. Congressman and civil rights icon, famous for urging people to make “good trouble” in the fight for justice .

Events


Organizations


Publications

  • Braiding Sweetgrass – Book by Robin Wall Kimmerer blending indigenous wisdom, botany, and ecological philosophy .
  • Seabiscuit: An American Legend – Laura Hillenbrand’s best-selling biography of the Depression-era racehorse and its unlikely champions .

*****

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>What if your art could both heal your

community & pay your bills? 

If you’re a musician or creative itching to drive real-world change without sacrificing your livelihood, this episode maps a path: how Music to Life evolved from a songwriting contest into a rigorous accelerator that helps artists design, fund, and measure community projects—so you can make change while making a living. 

  • Learn how Music To Life helps musicians turn a community cause into a sustainable enterprise
  • See real models you can adapt: Vanessa Lively’s Home Street Music built 500+ song circles, 230 sessions, & raised ~$200K serving unhoused neighbors in Austin.
  • Learn about proven impact from Benny Esguerra’s mobile studio that measured violence reduction  to poet-healer Myles Bullen co-facilitating prison education to process tough emotions and build trust.

Tune in to hear strategies & stories that helped artists step off the stage and into community change—without abandoning the craft that got them there. 

Notable Mentions

People

  • Liz Sunde – Co-founder and Executive Director of Music to Life, an organization empowering socially conscious musicians to become change agents in their communities .
  • Bill Cleveland – Host of Art Is Change and Director of the Center for the Study of Art & Community, long-time advocate for artists as community leaders .
  • Paul Stookey – Renowned singer-songwriter, member of the legendary folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, and co-founder of Music to Life .
  • Vanessa Lively – Austin-based singer-songwriter and founder of Home Street Music, a program using music circles to support people experiencing homelessness .
  • Dick Crispo – Artist who co-created the longest indoor mural in the world at Soledad Prison, known for his community arts practice .
  • Beny Esguerra – Toronto-based musician and educator, founder of the Mobile Studio Project using music to reduce gang violence through recording sessions .
  • Myles Bullen – Indigenous poet/ rap artist from Maine, who collaborated with University of Maine Augusta faculty on prison-based education blending poetry and Holocaust studies .
  • Barbara Schaffer Bacon – Arts leader and consultant, co-director of Animating Democracy at Americans for the Arts, key in helping Music to Life secure Mellon Foundation support .
  • John Lewis – Late U.S. Congressman and civil rights icon, famous for urging people to make “good trouble” in the fight for justice .

Events


Organizations


Publications

  • Braiding Sweetgrass – Book by Robin Wall Kimmerer blending indigenous wisdom, botany, and ecological philosophy .
  • Seabiscuit: An American Legend – Laura Hillenbrand’s best-selling biography of the Depression-era racehorse and its unlikely champions .

*****

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>6068ef28-bed5-4f40-b661-806c73022facWed, 01 Oct 2025 04:45:00 -070053:52truefull145145144: Solar Story Circle: How Narrative Powers Democracy & Social Change144: Solar Story Circle: How Narrative Powers Democracy & Social ChangeWhat if the solution to the climate crisis and the key to democratic renewal were powered by the same thing?

In this episode of Art is Change, we'll explore Bill McKiibben new book, Here Comes the Sun, and draw a powerful parallel between the emerging solar energy story and narrative of as a force for democracy and social change.

What if stories could be fuel just like solar energy?

What if the narratives we share could help shift the tide against authoritarian fear?

In this episode of Art is Change, we draw the connection between hopeful breakthroughs on the climate front and the power of story making in the fight for democracy. The provocation for these audacious questions is Bill McKibben's new book, Here Comes the Sun, which isn't just another climate manifesto. It backs hope with data.

  1. In it, we'll hear how ordinary farmers in places like Pakistan are transforming energy access without big subsidies, . Just affordability, imagination and a DIY spirit.
  2. Then we'll explore how mythic stories of fear and scarcity get reinforced and how we might actively replace them with notions of abundance, possibility and connection.
  3. And finally, we'll consider how something as simple as story circles neighbors telling each other what they see and feel can be a solar array of for democracy, act one, here comes the sun with a vengeance.

Notable Mentions

Here’s a list of all the people, events, organizations, and publications mentioned during the show.

1. People

Bill Cleveland – Host of Art is Change podcast and Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community .

Bill McKibben – Environmentalist, author, and founder of 350.org, often called one of the “grandfathers” of the climate movement. His new book Here Comes the Sun anchors the episode .

Chris Hayes – Journalist and host of MSNBC’s Why Is This Happening? podcast, where he discussed McKibben’s ideas .

John O’Neal – Playwright, director, and co-founder of the Free Southern Theater. He pioneered the use of story circles as a tool for community dialogue and activism .

Judy Munson – Composer responsible for the Art is Change theme and soundscapes .

2. Events

Civil Rights Movement (1960s) – Movement for racial justice in the U.S., where story circles were used to amplify voices and fuel activism .

Hattiesburg, Mississippi Civil Rights organizing – Example of story circles transformed into community theater during the movement .

Milestone, Mississippi civil rights activities – Community where Free Southern Theater and story circles had significant impact .

Bogalusa, Louisiana civil rights struggles – A flashpoint for grassroots civil rights activism, amplified through story circles .

Swamp Gravy – A community-based theater project in Georgia, born from story circles .

The Laramie Project – A play created from community interviews after the murder of Matthew Shepard, showing the transformative power of story sharing .

3. Organizations

Center for the Study of Art and Community – Produces Art is Change and supports artists and cultural organizers working at the intersection of art and social change .

Free Southern Theater – Founded in 1963 in Mississippi, used theater and story circles to support civil rights activism .

Koch Industries – Used as an example of fossil fuel industry resistance to renewable energy transitions .

Freesound.org – Online database of free sound effects, used in the podcast .

4. Publications

Here Comes the Sun (2024) – Bill McKibben’s latest book, subtitled A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization. It documents the global solar energy revolution and its democratic implications .

Why Is This Happening? Podcast – Chris Hayes’ program, where he discussed McKibben’s solar revolution narrative .

*****

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>What if the solution to the climate crisis and the key to democratic renewal were powered by the same thing?

In this episode of Art is Change, we'll explore Bill McKiibben new book, Here Comes the Sun, and draw a powerful parallel between the emerging solar energy story and narrative of as a force for democracy and social change.

What if stories could be fuel just like solar energy?

What if the narratives we share could help shift the tide against authoritarian fear?

In this episode of Art is Change, we draw the connection between hopeful breakthroughs on the climate front and the power of story making in the fight for democracy. The provocation for these audacious questions is Bill McKibben's new book, Here Comes the Sun, which isn't just another climate manifesto. It backs hope with data.

  1. In it, we'll hear how ordinary farmers in places like Pakistan are transforming energy access without big subsidies, . Just affordability, imagination and a DIY spirit.
  2. Then we'll explore how mythic stories of fear and scarcity get reinforced and how we might actively replace them with notions of abundance, possibility and connection.
  3. And finally, we'll consider how something as simple as story circles neighbors telling each other what they see and feel can be a solar array of for democracy, act one, here comes the sun with a vengeance.

Notable Mentions

Here’s a list of all the people, events, organizations, and publications mentioned during the show.

1. People

Bill Cleveland – Host of Art is Change podcast and Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community .

Bill McKibben – Environmentalist, author, and founder of 350.org, often called one of the “grandfathers” of the climate movement. His new book Here Comes the Sun anchors the episode .

Chris Hayes – Journalist and host of MSNBC’s Why Is This Happening? podcast, where he discussed McKibben’s ideas .

John O’Neal – Playwright, director, and co-founder of the Free Southern Theater. He pioneered the use of story circles as a tool for community dialogue and activism .

Judy Munson – Composer responsible for the Art is Change theme and soundscapes .

2. Events

Civil Rights Movement (1960s) – Movement for racial justice in the U.S., where story circles were used to amplify voices and fuel activism .

Hattiesburg, Mississippi Civil Rights organizing – Example of story circles transformed into community theater during the movement .

Milestone, Mississippi civil rights activities – Community where Free Southern Theater and story circles had significant impact .

Bogalusa, Louisiana civil rights struggles – A flashpoint for grassroots civil rights activism, amplified through story circles .

Swamp Gravy – A community-based theater project in Georgia, born from story circles .

The Laramie Project – A play created from community interviews after the murder of Matthew Shepard, showing the transformative power of story sharing .

3. Organizations

Center for the Study of Art and Community – Produces Art is Change and supports artists and cultural organizers working at the intersection of art and social change .

Free Southern Theater – Founded in 1963 in Mississippi, used theater and story circles to support civil rights activism .

Koch Industries – Used as an example of fossil fuel industry resistance to renewable energy transitions .

Freesound.org – Online database of free sound effects, used in the podcast .

4. Publications

Here Comes the Sun (2024) – Bill McKibben’s latest book, subtitled A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization. It documents the global solar energy revolution and its democratic implications .

Why Is This Happening? Podcast – Chris Hayes’ program, where he discussed McKibben’s solar revolution narrative .

*****

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>fd7b97e3-fc71-4ac1-b685-e666567883d6Wed, 24 Sep 2025 04:45:00 -070025:05truefull144144143: Alma & Frank: Designing Creative Futures One Story at a Time143: Alma & Frank: Designing Creative Futures One Story at a TimeWhat if art could open the door to a new life after prison? What if creative work wasn't just healing,

but a literal job offer?


In a time when reentry programs are scarce and trust is hard to rebuild, this episode, the second of our two part series on the work of California Lawyers for the Arts, introduces Designing Creative Futures, a groundbreaking initiative that uses the power of the arts to help formerly incarcerated individuals reclaim their future. With stories from inside and outside the system, we explore how mentorship, hands on creativity and belief in potential can lead to lasting change.

In it, we'll hear how a coalition led by California Lawyers for the arts helped over 200 individuals find not just reentry internships, but purpose.

We'll learn how mentorship and woodworking in prison and Designing Creative Futures on the outside helped one man, Frank Quiros, discover his calling and build a new life.

And we'll discover how storytelling, craft and persistence are reshaping re entry with dignity, creativity and impact

Notable Mentions

People

  • Bill Cleveland – Host of Art Is Change, community arts practitioner, and long-time leader in arts and social change .
  • Alma Robinson – Longtime Executive Director of California Lawyers for the Arts; spearheaded the Designing Creative Futures reentry initiative .
  • Frank Quiroz – Formerly incarcerated artist who rebuilt his life through woodworking, pottery, and arts internships via Designing Creative Futures .
  • Governor Gavin Newsom – California governor who announced early releases during COVID to mitigate prison overcrowding .
  • Ms. Larkey – Daughter of musician Carole King, connected with the People’s Pottery Project .
  • Carole King – Iconic singer-songwriter; her daughter was involved in supporting the People’s Pottery Project .
  • Jack Reedy – Woodworking mentor and teacher at Taft Correctional Facility who profoundly influenced Frank’s artistic and personal growth .
  • Sergeant Rodriguez – Prison staff member who supported incarcerated woodworkers in shipping their creations home .
  • Frank Hernández (Gro) – Artist associated with Self Help Graphics, part of its influential legacy .
  • Patssi Valdez – Chicana artist and founding member of the Asco collective, connected to Self Help Graphics .
  • Marvea – Director at Self Help Graphics who helped connect Frank to work at LACMA .

Events

  • COVID-19 Early Releases in California (2020) – Governor Newsom’s plan to release up to 8,000 incarcerated individuals due to overcrowding and health risks .
  • NEA Our Town Grant (2020) – $100,000 awarded to California Lawyers for the Arts to pilot Designing Creative Futures .
  • California State Contract (2022) – $3 million contract expanding Designing Creative Futures placements to Los Angeles and the Bay Area .
  • Geffen Galleries Opening at LACMA (2025) – $898 million expansion project at LACMA, featuring new sustainable exhibition design using reclaimed trees .

Organizations


Publications

  • Wood Magazine – Popular woodworking magazine brought into prison classrooms by mentor Jack Reedy .
  • Fine Woodworking – Influential woodworking publication also shared with incarcerated students .
  • Les Misérables by Victor Hugo – Classic novel frequently read by Frank during incarceration, symbolizing resilience and redemption .

*****

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>What if art could open the door to a new life after prison? What if creative work wasn't just healing,

but a literal job offer?


In a time when reentry programs are scarce and trust is hard to rebuild, this episode, the second of our two part series on the work of California Lawyers for the Arts, introduces Designing Creative Futures, a groundbreaking initiative that uses the power of the arts to help formerly incarcerated individuals reclaim their future. With stories from inside and outside the system, we explore how mentorship, hands on creativity and belief in potential can lead to lasting change.

In it, we'll hear how a coalition led by California Lawyers for the arts helped over 200 individuals find not just reentry internships, but purpose.

We'll learn how mentorship and woodworking in prison and Designing Creative Futures on the outside helped one man, Frank Quiros, discover his calling and build a new life.

And we'll discover how storytelling, craft and persistence are reshaping re entry with dignity, creativity and impact

Notable Mentions

People

  • Bill Cleveland – Host of Art Is Change, community arts practitioner, and long-time leader in arts and social change .
  • Alma Robinson – Longtime Executive Director of California Lawyers for the Arts; spearheaded the Designing Creative Futures reentry initiative .
  • Frank Quiroz – Formerly incarcerated artist who rebuilt his life through woodworking, pottery, and arts internships via Designing Creative Futures .
  • Governor Gavin Newsom – California governor who announced early releases during COVID to mitigate prison overcrowding .
  • Ms. Larkey – Daughter of musician Carole King, connected with the People’s Pottery Project .
  • Carole King – Iconic singer-songwriter; her daughter was involved in supporting the People’s Pottery Project .
  • Jack Reedy – Woodworking mentor and teacher at Taft Correctional Facility who profoundly influenced Frank’s artistic and personal growth .
  • Sergeant Rodriguez – Prison staff member who supported incarcerated woodworkers in shipping their creations home .
  • Frank Hernández (Gro) – Artist associated with Self Help Graphics, part of its influential legacy .
  • Patssi Valdez – Chicana artist and founding member of the Asco collective, connected to Self Help Graphics .
  • Marvea – Director at Self Help Graphics who helped connect Frank to work at LACMA .

Events

  • COVID-19 Early Releases in California (2020) – Governor Newsom’s plan to release up to 8,000 incarcerated individuals due to overcrowding and health risks .
  • NEA Our Town Grant (2020) – $100,000 awarded to California Lawyers for the Arts to pilot Designing Creative Futures .
  • California State Contract (2022) – $3 million contract expanding Designing Creative Futures placements to Los Angeles and the Bay Area .
  • Geffen Galleries Opening at LACMA (2025) – $898 million expansion project at LACMA, featuring new sustainable exhibition design using reclaimed trees .

Organizations


Publications

  • Wood Magazine – Popular woodworking magazine brought into prison classrooms by mentor Jack Reedy .
  • Fine Woodworking – Influential woodworking publication also shared with incarcerated students .
  • Les Misérables by Victor Hugo – Classic novel frequently read by Frank during incarceration, symbolizing resilience and redemption .

*****

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>d82d62cd-f735-4430-8ca3-cc1fe9d81b4aWed, 17 Sep 2025 05:00:00 -070034:01truefull143143142: Alma Robinson: How Do You Build an Art & Social Change Movement That Lasts Decades142: Alma Robinson: How Do You Build an Art & Social Change Movement That Lasts DecadesIn this episode, we sit down with Alma Robinson, the longtime executive director of California Lawyers for the Arts. From cultural repatriation to youth advocacy to resurrecting a legendary prison arts program, Alma has been at the heart of a quiet revolution, mobilizing artists and legal advocates to shape a more just creative society.

  • In it we'll hear how Alma's early work on cultural restoration and restitution shaped a lifelong commitment to public service
  • We also learn why creative youth development and artists' residencies in prisons are critical tools in community healing.
  • And discover how art, law and grassroots action can work together to preserve heritage, fight displacement, and expand opportunity.

So. If you've ever wondered how deep systems change actually happens, or how artists and activists can forge powerful, unexpected alliances, this conversation is for you. Part one. Whose story is this? Anyway, Alma Robinson, welcome to the show. So. What's going on with you these days? 

]]>In this episode, we sit down with Alma Robinson, the longtime executive director of California Lawyers for the Arts. From cultural repatriation to youth advocacy to resurrecting a legendary prison arts program, Alma has been at the heart of a quiet revolution, mobilizing artists and legal advocates to shape a more just creative society.

  • In it we'll hear how Alma's early work on cultural restoration and restitution shaped a lifelong commitment to public service
  • We also learn why creative youth development and artists' residencies in prisons are critical tools in community healing.
  • And discover how art, law and grassroots action can work together to preserve heritage, fight displacement, and expand opportunity.

So. If you've ever wondered how deep systems change actually happens, or how artists and activists can forge powerful, unexpected alliances, this conversation is for you. Part one. Whose story is this? Anyway, Alma Robinson, welcome to the show. So. What's going on with you these days? 

]]>95bc086b-143e-4cee-a182-01215921df5eWed, 10 Sep 2025 04:45:00 -070047:37truefull142142141: Art and Resistance: Smithsonian, FREE DC, LA, and Beyond141: Art and Resistance: Smithsonian, FREE DC, LA, and BeyondWhat happens when a president tries

to get the WOKE out of museums?

In this episode of ART IS CHANGE we follow the latest political attacks on the Smithsonian and other cultural institutions and explore how activist artists and institutions around the country are turning up the volume in response.

From DC Block parties powered by Go Go beats to high stakes opera in Detroit, artists and cultural leaders are stepping into the fray.

With escalating pressure from the Trump administration targeting exhibits in institutions and leaders, creatives across the country are beginning to push back.

In this Artists Change weather report:

  • We explore how Executive Order 14253 is being used to reshape cultural institutions under the guise of American greatness.
  • We'll hear the story of Free DC's music fueled protest movement reclaiming public space and voice,
  • and discover how cultural organizers in LA and beyond are responding with art, activism and coordinated statements of defiance.

Notable Mentions

Here’s a clickable reference guide including people, events, organizations, and publications mentioned in the episode, each with a brief description and embedded hyperlink for further reading.

People

  1. Francine Prose Author and critic, noted here for warning that whitewashing history erodes democratic truth.
  2. Samuel Redman History professor at UMass Amherst, quoted on the unprecedented legal ambiguity of executive interference in museum operations.
  3. Justice Yadi Yad Johnson Community organizer and member of Long Live GoGo, using music to empower D.C. residents during unrest.
  4. Erika Hirugami Curator of the Abolish ICE Mercado de Arte in Los Angeles, which raised funds for immigrant rights.
  5. Thalía Gochez Photographer whose group show in LA helped raise money for legal defense efforts.
  6. Patrick Martinez LA-based visual artist known for protest-themed signage.
  7. Lalo Alcaraz Political cartoonist and satirist who released posters in support of labor leaders.
  8. Kiyo Gutiérrez Artist who used the LA River as a canvas for immigrant justice messaging.
  9. Nadya Tolokonnikova Co-founder of Pussy Riot, whose performance Police State became a metaphor for escalating ICE raids in LA.

Events

  1. Executive Order 14253 said to enforce cultural alignment with “American greatness,” used to justify censorship at museums.
  2. Free D.C. Go-Go Protests Music-based protest events reclaiming public space and demanding home rule for the District of Columbia.
  3. National Guard and ICE Raids in LA Referenced context for artists’ responses during federal crackdowns on immigrant communities.
  4. Detroit Opera’s Production of The Central Park Five An operatic retelling of the wrongful conviction of five Black and Latino teenagers. The opera won a Pulitzer Prize and became a form of cultural resistance.

Organizations

  1. Smithsonian Institution America’s national museum complex, under political scrutiny in the podcast for allegedly “woke” exhibits.
  2. National Museum of African American History and Culture A Smithsonian museum specifically called out in political attacks for its portrayal of race and slavery.
  3. Kennedy Center National performing arts venue whose programming has reportedly shifted under political pressure.
  4. Long Live GoGo Cultural movement using Washington D.C.’s native music style as a tool for protest and unity.
  5. Japanese American National Museum LA-based institution that joined public statements against military deployment.
  6. Chinese American Museum Cultural museum in Los Angeles advocating against authoritarian presence.
  7. LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes Mexican-American cultural center that stood against federal overreach in LA.
  8. Grand Performances Outdoor arts presenter in LA supporting activist statements.
  9. MOCA - Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Hosted Nadya Tolokonnikova’s politically charged Police State performance.
  10. Detroit Opera Opera company that staged The Central Park Five amid political controversy.
  11. National Coalition Against Censorship Co-organizer of the “Collective Courage” statement defending artistic freedom.
  12. Vera List Center for Art and Politics New York-based academic hub for socially engaged art, co-organizer of the Collective Courage statement.
  13. The Center for the Study of Art and Community Podcast’s production home, supporting creative leaders working at the intersection of art and social change.

Publications

  1. The New Yorker Cited for commentary on cultural control and Trump’s branding of history.
  2. Albuquerque Journal Quoted Nadya Tolokonnikova on the real-life impact of her Police State performance.

*****

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>What happens when a president tries

to get the WOKE out of museums?

In this episode of ART IS CHANGE we follow the latest political attacks on the Smithsonian and other cultural institutions and explore how activist artists and institutions around the country are turning up the volume in response.

From DC Block parties powered by Go Go beats to high stakes opera in Detroit, artists and cultural leaders are stepping into the fray.

With escalating pressure from the Trump administration targeting exhibits in institutions and leaders, creatives across the country are beginning to push back.

In this Artists Change weather report:

  • We explore how Executive Order 14253 is being used to reshape cultural institutions under the guise of American greatness.
  • We'll hear the story of Free DC's music fueled protest movement reclaiming public space and voice,
  • and discover how cultural organizers in LA and beyond are responding with art, activism and coordinated statements of defiance.

Notable Mentions

Here’s a clickable reference guide including people, events, organizations, and publications mentioned in the episode, each with a brief description and embedded hyperlink for further reading.

People

  1. Francine Prose Author and critic, noted here for warning that whitewashing history erodes democratic truth.
  2. Samuel Redman History professor at UMass Amherst, quoted on the unprecedented legal ambiguity of executive interference in museum operations.
  3. Justice Yadi Yad Johnson Community organizer and member of Long Live GoGo, using music to empower D.C. residents during unrest.
  4. Erika Hirugami Curator of the Abolish ICE Mercado de Arte in Los Angeles, which raised funds for immigrant rights.
  5. Thalía Gochez Photographer whose group show in LA helped raise money for legal defense efforts.
  6. Patrick Martinez LA-based visual artist known for protest-themed signage.
  7. Lalo Alcaraz Political cartoonist and satirist who released posters in support of labor leaders.
  8. Kiyo Gutiérrez Artist who used the LA River as a canvas for immigrant justice messaging.
  9. Nadya Tolokonnikova Co-founder of Pussy Riot, whose performance Police State became a metaphor for escalating ICE raids in LA.

Events

  1. Executive Order 14253 said to enforce cultural alignment with “American greatness,” used to justify censorship at museums.
  2. Free D.C. Go-Go Protests Music-based protest events reclaiming public space and demanding home rule for the District of Columbia.
  3. National Guard and ICE Raids in LA Referenced context for artists’ responses during federal crackdowns on immigrant communities.
  4. Detroit Opera’s Production of The Central Park Five An operatic retelling of the wrongful conviction of five Black and Latino teenagers. The opera won a Pulitzer Prize and became a form of cultural resistance.

Organizations

  1. Smithsonian Institution America’s national museum complex, under political scrutiny in the podcast for allegedly “woke” exhibits.
  2. National Museum of African American History and Culture A Smithsonian museum specifically called out in political attacks for its portrayal of race and slavery.
  3. Kennedy Center National performing arts venue whose programming has reportedly shifted under political pressure.
  4. Long Live GoGo Cultural movement using Washington D.C.’s native music style as a tool for protest and unity.
  5. Japanese American National Museum LA-based institution that joined public statements against military deployment.
  6. Chinese American Museum Cultural museum in Los Angeles advocating against authoritarian presence.
  7. LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes Mexican-American cultural center that stood against federal overreach in LA.
  8. Grand Performances Outdoor arts presenter in LA supporting activist statements.
  9. MOCA - Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Hosted Nadya Tolokonnikova’s politically charged Police State performance.
  10. Detroit Opera Opera company that staged The Central Park Five amid political controversy.
  11. National Coalition Against Censorship Co-organizer of the “Collective Courage” statement defending artistic freedom.
  12. Vera List Center for Art and Politics New York-based academic hub for socially engaged art, co-organizer of the Collective Courage statement.
  13. The Center for the Study of Art and Community Podcast’s production home, supporting creative leaders working at the intersection of art and social change.

Publications

  1. The New Yorker Cited for commentary on cultural control and Trump’s branding of history.
  2. Albuquerque Journal Quoted Nadya Tolokonnikova on the real-life impact of her Police State performance.

*****

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>bfcda6fa-99a1-4d67-8e85-1e366c485c1bWed, 03 Sep 2025 04:45:00 -070014:31truefull141141140:: How can activist artists & cultural organizers help build the bridges we need to make democracy whole?140:: How can activist artists & cultural organizers help build the bridges we need to make democracy whole?What can a story of the building of a community bridge teach us today as we struggle to find common ground?

The answer, of course, is more than you can imagine, and then some.

And in this episode of Art is Change, we'll hear the story of just one of the many, many examples we can learn from.

Now, in this episode You'll hear

  • How one bold question sparked a mural project, reflecting a flood of voices and connection across race, age, and geography.
  • And how that mural project morphed from a visual illusion into a bridge between worlds.
  • And finally, when a forgotten commitment led to the mural's loss, how a community's response became a powerful act of healing and recovery.

This show is all about how art can heal, unite, and even kickstart conversations that matter. Plus, we’ll chat about a little hiccup in the project’s journey, when the mural faced some serious neglect, and how the community rallied to give it a second chance. Get ready, because this isn’t just art – it’s a testament to the power of collaboration and creativity!

]]>What can a story of the building of a community bridge teach us today as we struggle to find common ground?

The answer, of course, is more than you can imagine, and then some.

And in this episode of Art is Change, we'll hear the story of just one of the many, many examples we can learn from.

Now, in this episode You'll hear

  • How one bold question sparked a mural project, reflecting a flood of voices and connection across race, age, and geography.
  • And how that mural project morphed from a visual illusion into a bridge between worlds.
  • And finally, when a forgotten commitment led to the mural's loss, how a community's response became a powerful act of healing and recovery.

This show is all about how art can heal, unite, and even kickstart conversations that matter. Plus, we’ll chat about a little hiccup in the project’s journey, when the mural faced some serious neglect, and how the community rallied to give it a second chance. Get ready, because this isn’t just art – it’s a testament to the power of collaboration and creativity!

]]>b2c9c68a-daa6-48b8-b0e1-99c28f22c4e7Wed, 27 Aug 2025 04:45:00 -070017:46truefull140140139: What Does it take for a Community of Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers to Become a Real Force For Resistance & Change?139: What Does it take for a Community of Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers to Become a Real Force For Resistance & Change?What does it take for a community of activist artists & cultural organizers to become a real force for resistance & change?


And doing that, how do we create communities that can hold both joy and grief and stay resilient in these weird hard times and still fight for justice together?

This is Artist Change, a chronicle of art and social change, where activist artists and cultural organizers share the skills and strategies they need to thrive as creative community leaders.

You know, sometimes you meet someone and instantly you feel like they've been gathering people, feeding souls, and making space for real conversations their whole life. That's Wendy Shenefelt

In our conversation, she takes us on her journey from growing up in the Deep south in a transracial family to become a convener, a listener, and a leader in a 49 year old movement of artists and cultural workers fighting for justice. In this episode, we talk about:

  • How art can cut through the noise when the words aren't enough.
  • And what it takes to keep a community safe and connected in challenging times.
  • And why sometimes the smartest move for a movement is to work quietly behind the scenes.

So grab your coffee or sweet tea and join us for a conversation about joy, grief, resilience, and the power of gathering in the circle or on the porch or around the kitchen table. Part one. Roots and Roots. Welcome to the show. Wendy, just so you know, I look forward to all my conversations.

]]>What does it take for a community of activist artists & cultural organizers to become a real force for resistance & change?


And doing that, how do we create communities that can hold both joy and grief and stay resilient in these weird hard times and still fight for justice together?

This is Artist Change, a chronicle of art and social change, where activist artists and cultural organizers share the skills and strategies they need to thrive as creative community leaders.

You know, sometimes you meet someone and instantly you feel like they've been gathering people, feeding souls, and making space for real conversations their whole life. That's Wendy Shenefelt

In our conversation, she takes us on her journey from growing up in the Deep south in a transracial family to become a convener, a listener, and a leader in a 49 year old movement of artists and cultural workers fighting for justice. In this episode, we talk about:

  • How art can cut through the noise when the words aren't enough.
  • And what it takes to keep a community safe and connected in challenging times.
  • And why sometimes the smartest move for a movement is to work quietly behind the scenes.

So grab your coffee or sweet tea and join us for a conversation about joy, grief, resilience, and the power of gathering in the circle or on the porch or around the kitchen table. Part one. Roots and Roots. Welcome to the show. Wendy, just so you know, I look forward to all my conversations.

]]>788b8073-bb5c-4ca4-ade7-c73c1b73564fTue, 19 Aug 2025 05:45:00 -070050:01truefull139139138: Self-Care: Why it Matters for Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers!138: Self-Care: Why it Matters for Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers! If you’re a cultural worker navigating the messy, magical middle ground of art and activism, who’s taking care of you?

Now, if you’ve been with us over the last two episodes, you’ll know we’ve been tackling what we call the building blocks of effective community arts practice—those foundational elements that help artists not just make meaningful work, but do so in ways that are ethical, sustainable, and rooted in justice.

In Episode 1, we explored Accountability: To whom, and for what, are we truly responsible in our work?

In Episode 2, we examined Leadership: How do cultural workers lead without domination, and how do they grow others in the process?

And today, we turn inward—to a topic that is as personal as it is political: self-care.

Because the truth is, being a cultural activist is not just a calling—it’s also exhausting. In this conversation, my partners-in-crime—artist and historian Leni Sloan and cultural organizer Barbara Shaffer Bacon—and I dive into the real and raw question: How do we sustain ourselves in this work?

We’ll talk about the material needs often left unmet—like housing, healthcare, childcare—and why self-care isn’t just bubble baths, it’s a structural necessity. We’ll share stories about burnout, soul-feeding practices, and what it means to build and rely on an ecosystem of mutual care.

And as always, we’re not just reflecting—we’re passing on what we’ve learned over a collective century of practice. So whether you’re a parade leader, a prickly cactus, or a builder of the long tail, we hope this episode gives you room to breathe, reflect, and reimagine what sustainability can look like in the world of community-based art.

Let’s get into it.

Great! Below is a version of the requested list formatted specifically for show notes on Captivate.fm. It is optimized for readability, includes clickable hyperlinks, and presents the categories clearly to support podcast listeners looking to explore the episode’s references further.

Series: Building Blocks of Effective Community Arts Practice

Notable Mentions

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 

People

  • Bill Cleveland – Host of Art is Change and founder of the Center for the Study of Art and Community.
  • Leni Sloan – Artist, activist, and former NEA program director, known for arts policy and cultural leadership.
  • Barbara Schaffer Bacon – Educator, movement-builder, and co-director of Animating Democracy.
  • Linda Stout – Community organizer and founder of Spirit in Action, supporting sustainability for activists.
  • Liz Lerman – Choreographer and pioneer in community-based dance and social practice arts.
  • Grace Lee Boggs – Philosopher and activist who emphasized the importance of reflection in movement work.
  • Stephen Goldstein – Former director of the San Francisco Arts Commission.
  • Jack Davis – Late administrator who helped develop infrastructure for working artists.
  • Wendy Schenefelt – Executive Director of Alternate ROOTS, featured in the upcoming episode.

📅 

Events Referenced


🏛️ 

Organizations & Programs


📚 

Reports, Concepts & Initiatives

  • Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – Framework for understanding the basic needs of artists—housing, safety, health.
  • “Pay Equity: A Study of the Cultural Workforce in the Berkshires” – A report highlighting financial instability among arts workers.
  • “Shot for a Shot” Vaccine Campaign – Creative public health program for artists offering vaccinations and drinks in exchange for showing tattoos.
  • Invisible Artist Ecosystem – Describes informal networks of shared resources like gear, rehearsal space, and materials that sustain artistic communities.
  • Passion-Based Industry – Term used to describe the emotionally rewarding but financially unstable nature of community arts work.

📌 Want to learn more? Visit www.artandcommunity.com for resources, archives, and more information about the Art is Change podcast and related programs.

Acknowledgements

Form FreeSound.org

Raw data glitch 9 by Kronek9 -- https://freesound.org/s/676952/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Homage - Hypnotic and dreamy track comprised of a single minimalist ambient evolving synth by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/626466/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Bosch’s Garden – Mythical Game Music for Fantasy and AI Projects by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/647212/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists,]]> If you’re a cultural worker navigating the messy, magical middle ground of art and activism, who’s taking care of you?

Now, if you’ve been with us over the last two episodes, you’ll know we’ve been tackling what we call the building blocks of effective community arts practice—those foundational elements that help artists not just make meaningful work, but do so in ways that are ethical, sustainable, and rooted in justice.

In Episode 1, we explored Accountability: To whom, and for what, are we truly responsible in our work?

In Episode 2, we examined Leadership: How do cultural workers lead without domination, and how do they grow others in the process?

And today, we turn inward—to a topic that is as personal as it is political: self-care.

Because the truth is, being a cultural activist is not just a calling—it’s also exhausting. In this conversation, my partners-in-crime—artist and historian Leni Sloan and cultural organizer Barbara Shaffer Bacon—and I dive into the real and raw question: How do we sustain ourselves in this work?

We’ll talk about the material needs often left unmet—like housing, healthcare, childcare—and why self-care isn’t just bubble baths, it’s a structural necessity. We’ll share stories about burnout, soul-feeding practices, and what it means to build and rely on an ecosystem of mutual care.

And as always, we’re not just reflecting—we’re passing on what we’ve learned over a collective century of practice. So whether you’re a parade leader, a prickly cactus, or a builder of the long tail, we hope this episode gives you room to breathe, reflect, and reimagine what sustainability can look like in the world of community-based art.

Let’s get into it.

Great! Below is a version of the requested list formatted specifically for show notes on Captivate.fm. It is optimized for readability, includes clickable hyperlinks, and presents the categories clearly to support podcast listeners looking to explore the episode’s references further.

Series: Building Blocks of Effective Community Arts Practice

Notable Mentions

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 

People

  • Bill Cleveland – Host of Art is Change and founder of the Center for the Study of Art and Community.
  • Leni Sloan – Artist, activist, and former NEA program director, known for arts policy and cultural leadership.
  • Barbara Schaffer Bacon – Educator, movement-builder, and co-director of Animating Democracy.
  • Linda Stout – Community organizer and founder of Spirit in Action, supporting sustainability for activists.
  • Liz Lerman – Choreographer and pioneer in community-based dance and social practice arts.
  • Grace Lee Boggs – Philosopher and activist who emphasized the importance of reflection in movement work.
  • Stephen Goldstein – Former director of the San Francisco Arts Commission.
  • Jack Davis – Late administrator who helped develop infrastructure for working artists.
  • Wendy Schenefelt – Executive Director of Alternate ROOTS, featured in the upcoming episode.

📅 

Events Referenced


🏛️ 

Organizations & Programs


📚 

Reports, Concepts & Initiatives

  • Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – Framework for understanding the basic needs of artists—housing, safety, health.
  • “Pay Equity: A Study of the Cultural Workforce in the Berkshires” – A report highlighting financial instability among arts workers.
  • “Shot for a Shot” Vaccine Campaign – Creative public health program for artists offering vaccinations and drinks in exchange for showing tattoos.
  • Invisible Artist Ecosystem – Describes informal networks of shared resources like gear, rehearsal space, and materials that sustain artistic communities.
  • Passion-Based Industry – Term used to describe the emotionally rewarding but financially unstable nature of community arts work.

📌 Want to learn more? Visit www.artandcommunity.com for resources, archives, and more information about the Art is Change podcast and related programs.

Acknowledgements

Form FreeSound.org

Raw data glitch 9 by Kronek9 -- https://freesound.org/s/676952/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Homage - Hypnotic and dreamy track comprised of a single minimalist ambient evolving synth by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/626466/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Bosch’s Garden – Mythical Game Music for Fantasy and AI Projects by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/647212/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>de48cd3d-7b2e-4c6f-8199-d478bf174ca0Wed, 13 Aug 2025 04:45:00 -070020:45truefull138138137: Can Artist activists and cultural organizers become trusted community leaders?137: Can Artist activists and cultural organizers become trusted community leaders?Can an artist lead a community?

What does it take for cultural activists to become trusted stewards of change in divisive times?

In a world grappling with polarization and rising authoritarianism, the need for compassionate, imaginative leadership has never been more urgent. This episode dives into how artists and cultural workers already operating in community spaces can embrace roles as civic leaders—balancing creativity with responsibility and vision with service.

  • Discover how leadership can be reframed through metaphors like the wedding planner, the parade leader, and the soul shepherd.
  • Hear powerful stories of artistic ingenuity in places like death row and urban neighborhoods that reveal art’s transformative power.
  • Learn the foundational traits and practical strategies for leading with courage, communication, and care in culturally complex contexts.

Notable Mentions:

Here’s a categorized, hyperlinked list of the People, Events, Organizations, and Publications mentioned in the podcast episode,

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 

People

Bill Cleveland

Host of Art is Change podcast and founder of the Center for the Study of Art and Community, focused on arts-based social change.

Barbara Schaffer Bacon

Educator, author, and cultural advisor known for her work in community arts and co-director of Animating Democracy at Americans for the Arts.

Leni Sloan

Activist, performer, former NEA program director, and public arts strategist, known for subversive leadership through arts policy and programming.

Marty Pottenger

Theater artist and cultural organizer integrating art with social justice and civic engagement on issues like labor rights and police reform.

Hubert Massey

Detroit-based muralist and sculptor creating community-centered public art that reflects local culture and history.

Ruth Asawa

Japanese American visual artist and educator, interned during WWII, known for her wire sculptures and arts advocacy in education.

Lynelle Herrick (limited public information)

Artist who facilitated portrait painting classes on death row, creating a transformative creative community among incarcerated men.

Jane Golden

Founder of Mural Arts Philadelphia, pioneering large-scale public mural projects as tools for community storytelling and change.

Judy Baca

Renowned Chicana muralist and founder of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), creator of The Great Wall of Los Angeles.

Andres Serrano

Contemporary artist best known for the controversial photograph Piss Christ, which ignited national debates on public arts funding.

Holly Hughes and Tim Miller

Performance artists involved in the 1990s NEA funding controversy related to artistic expression and censorship.

Sidney R. Yates

Longtime U.S. Congressman and arts advocate who negotiated NEA budget deals during cultural controversies.

Randolph McCausland (Randy McCaus) (limited public bio)

Former deputy chairman of the NEA; advised on convening and planning as essential tools in arts leadership.

📅 

Events

Japanese American Internment Camps

WWII-era incarceration of Japanese Americans, referenced in Ruth Asawa’s origin story and artwork.

Sesquicentennial Celebrations (Pennsylvania)

Community commemorations of Pennsylvania’s 150th anniversary, used creatively by Leni Sloan to encourage inclusive local histories.

NEA “Culture Wars” Controversy (1990s)

Political conflict over federal arts funding sparked by works like Piss Christ and performances by the “NEA Four,” including Hughes and Miller.


🏛️ 

Organizations

Center for the Study of Art and Community

Producer of the Art is Change podcast; supports community-based art initiatives and leadership.

Animating Democracy (Americans for the Arts)

National program supporting art and civic dialogue, co-led by Barbara Schaffer Bacon.

Mural Arts Philadelphia

Nation’s largest public art program, transforming Philadelphia through collaborative mural projects.

SPARC (Social and Public Art Resource Center)

Los Angeles-based community arts center co-founded by Judy Baca to promote public art as social dialogue.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)

U.S. federal agency that funds and supports artistic excellence, creativity, and access, central to discussions of censorship and funding.

Horace Mann School (San Francisco)

Public school where Ruth Asawa led a transformative community arts initiative involving students as curators and storytellers.

Freesound.org

Online collaborative database of audio snippets and sound effects, used for production in the podcast.


📚 

Publications (Artworks / Projects / Phrases)

Piss Christ by Andres Serrano

Controversial 1987 photograph of a crucifix submerged in urine, sparking major arts funding debates.

The Great Wall of Los Angeles

Monumental mural led by Judy Baca, documenting overlooked histories of marginalized groups in California.

Gun Runner for the Arts (metaphorical)

A term coined by Leni Sloan to describe bold, risky cultural leadership; not an official publication but emblematic of arts activism.


Acknowledgements

From Freesound.org

horror ambience 26.wav by klankbeeld -- https://freesound.org/s/172036/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Cows mooing in a valley in the Pyrenees 2 by Virgile_Loiseau -- https://freesound.org/s/751736/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0


*****

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to...]]>Can an artist lead a community?

What does it take for cultural activists to become trusted stewards of change in divisive times?

In a world grappling with polarization and rising authoritarianism, the need for compassionate, imaginative leadership has never been more urgent. This episode dives into how artists and cultural workers already operating in community spaces can embrace roles as civic leaders—balancing creativity with responsibility and vision with service.

  • Discover how leadership can be reframed through metaphors like the wedding planner, the parade leader, and the soul shepherd.
  • Hear powerful stories of artistic ingenuity in places like death row and urban neighborhoods that reveal art’s transformative power.
  • Learn the foundational traits and practical strategies for leading with courage, communication, and care in culturally complex contexts.

Notable Mentions:

Here’s a categorized, hyperlinked list of the People, Events, Organizations, and Publications mentioned in the podcast episode,

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 

People

Bill Cleveland

Host of Art is Change podcast and founder of the Center for the Study of Art and Community, focused on arts-based social change.

Barbara Schaffer Bacon

Educator, author, and cultural advisor known for her work in community arts and co-director of Animating Democracy at Americans for the Arts.

Leni Sloan

Activist, performer, former NEA program director, and public arts strategist, known for subversive leadership through arts policy and programming.

Marty Pottenger

Theater artist and cultural organizer integrating art with social justice and civic engagement on issues like labor rights and police reform.

Hubert Massey

Detroit-based muralist and sculptor creating community-centered public art that reflects local culture and history.

Ruth Asawa

Japanese American visual artist and educator, interned during WWII, known for her wire sculptures and arts advocacy in education.

Lynelle Herrick (limited public information)

Artist who facilitated portrait painting classes on death row, creating a transformative creative community among incarcerated men.

Jane Golden

Founder of Mural Arts Philadelphia, pioneering large-scale public mural projects as tools for community storytelling and change.

Judy Baca

Renowned Chicana muralist and founder of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), creator of The Great Wall of Los Angeles.

Andres Serrano

Contemporary artist best known for the controversial photograph Piss Christ, which ignited national debates on public arts funding.

Holly Hughes and Tim Miller

Performance artists involved in the 1990s NEA funding controversy related to artistic expression and censorship.

Sidney R. Yates

Longtime U.S. Congressman and arts advocate who negotiated NEA budget deals during cultural controversies.

Randolph McCausland (Randy McCaus) (limited public bio)

Former deputy chairman of the NEA; advised on convening and planning as essential tools in arts leadership.

📅 

Events

Japanese American Internment Camps

WWII-era incarceration of Japanese Americans, referenced in Ruth Asawa’s origin story and artwork.

Sesquicentennial Celebrations (Pennsylvania)

Community commemorations of Pennsylvania’s 150th anniversary, used creatively by Leni Sloan to encourage inclusive local histories.

NEA “Culture Wars” Controversy (1990s)

Political conflict over federal arts funding sparked by works like Piss Christ and performances by the “NEA Four,” including Hughes and Miller.


🏛️ 

Organizations

Center for the Study of Art and Community

Producer of the Art is Change podcast; supports community-based art initiatives and leadership.

Animating Democracy (Americans for the Arts)

National program supporting art and civic dialogue, co-led by Barbara Schaffer Bacon.

Mural Arts Philadelphia

Nation’s largest public art program, transforming Philadelphia through collaborative mural projects.

SPARC (Social and Public Art Resource Center)

Los Angeles-based community arts center co-founded by Judy Baca to promote public art as social dialogue.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)

U.S. federal agency that funds and supports artistic excellence, creativity, and access, central to discussions of censorship and funding.

Horace Mann School (San Francisco)

Public school where Ruth Asawa led a transformative community arts initiative involving students as curators and storytellers.

Freesound.org

Online collaborative database of audio snippets and sound effects, used for production in the podcast.


📚 

Publications (Artworks / Projects / Phrases)

Piss Christ by Andres Serrano

Controversial 1987 photograph of a crucifix submerged in urine, sparking major arts funding debates.

The Great Wall of Los Angeles

Monumental mural led by Judy Baca, documenting overlooked histories of marginalized groups in California.

Gun Runner for the Arts (metaphorical)

A term coined by Leni Sloan to describe bold, risky cultural leadership; not an official publication but emblematic of arts activism.


Acknowledgements

From Freesound.org

horror ambience 26.wav by klankbeeld -- https://freesound.org/s/172036/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Cows mooing in a valley in the Pyrenees 2 by Virgile_Loiseau -- https://freesound.org/s/751736/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0


*****

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>4331e7a9-1a88-4355-9bc4-d35df45f06bbWed, 06 Aug 2025 04:45:00 -070023:16truefull137137136: What Are Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers Accountable to in Their Work?136: What Are Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers Accountable to in Their Work?To whom or what are artists and cultural organizers truly accountable—and why does it matter?

In an age where creative work increasingly intersects with social change, understanding accountability is crucial for artists striving to make a civic impact. Whether you’re creating in your own community or stepping into unfamiliar territory, this episode explores the moral and practical anchors that define responsible, effective, and meaningful community cultural engagement.

  • Learn how deep cultural competency and trust-building are essential for impactful community-based art.
  • Discover real-world examples, like Marty Pottenger’s transformative police poetry project, that reveal the power of accountability to inspire civic connection.
  • Gain insights into the layered responsibilities artists carry—from honoring their craft to serving diverse community stakeholders ethically.

Notable Mentions

🧑‍🎨 People

1. Bill Cleveland

Host of Art is Change and director of the Center for the Study of Art & Community; a key voice in community-based art and cultural development.

2. Jerry Stropnicky

Veteran theater director known for creating community theater frameworks; referenced for his “A Principles” guide in episode 135.

3. Barbara Schaffer Bacon

Educator, cultural advisor, and longtime advocate for arts-based civic engagement; co-host on this episode.

4. Leni Sloan

Cultural activist, performer, and historian, recognized for decades of work integrating art, identity, and democracy.

5. Marty Pottenger

Playwright, performer, and cultural organizer whose work blends theater with social justice themes like labor rights and police-community relations.

6. Chuck Davis

Founder of DanceAfrica, he was pivotal in bringing African dance to American audiences in respectful and celebratory ways.

7. Catherine Dunham

Influential dancer and anthropologist who brought African and Caribbean dance traditions into American theater and film.

8. Pearl Primus

A pioneering African-American choreographer and anthropologist, known for exploring African diasporic traditions in dance.

📅 Events

1. DanceAfrica

A vibrant festival of African and African-American dance, music, and culture hosted by the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM); discussed as an example of cultural appropriation and transformation.

2. No Kings Actions

Referenced as a current cultural movement or art action focused on community-led change and artistic protest (exact reference likely points to grassroots activist performances).

3. Dinner Down Main Street

A community arts event metaphor representing public engagement, celebration, and co-created civic dialogue.

🏢 Organizations

1. Center for the Study of Art and Community

The organization that produces Art is Change and supports creative community change projects through the arts.

2. Portland, Maine Police Department

Collaborated with Marty Pottenger in a creative initiative involving police officers writing and sharing poetry with the public.

3. Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)

Prestigious arts institution that hosts DanceAfrica; highlighted in a discussion on cultural translation and appropriation.

4. Freesound.org

A collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sound effects used in the podcast.

📚 Publications/Works

1. Art at Work

A cultural organizing initiative founded by Marty Pottenger that integrates art into municipal systems to build civic health and connection.

2. Police Poetry Calendar

Part of the Art at Work project in Portland, Maine, this calendar showcased poems written by police officers to build trust and humanize public servants.

Acknowledgements:

From Fresound.org

190621_0386_FR_AfricanDrums.wav by kevp888 -- https://freesound.org/s/475150/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Crowd Applause - Clapping Hands by imagefilm.berlin -- https://freesound.org/s/746442/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Acoustic Guitar - Sleepy - br ch 1 - 127bpm Bb.wav by afrodrumming -- https://freesound.org/s/187686/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

From a presentation by percussionist Terreon Gully at the on the compelling legacy of Katherine Dunham’s dance school in East St. Louis and its connections to jazz, dance, and African drumming. This event will explore how Dunham’s cultural movement shaped the region and influenced generations of musicians and artists.

https://www.youtube.com/live/VzWFU4oFK4I?si=jUcFPi4ClVMRP8wb


*****

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>To whom or what are artists and cultural organizers truly accountable—and why does it matter?

In an age where creative work increasingly intersects with social change, understanding accountability is crucial for artists striving to make a civic impact. Whether you’re creating in your own community or stepping into unfamiliar territory, this episode explores the moral and practical anchors that define responsible, effective, and meaningful community cultural engagement.

  • Learn how deep cultural competency and trust-building are essential for impactful community-based art.
  • Discover real-world examples, like Marty Pottenger’s transformative police poetry project, that reveal the power of accountability to inspire civic connection.
  • Gain insights into the layered responsibilities artists carry—from honoring their craft to serving diverse community stakeholders ethically.

Notable Mentions

🧑‍🎨 People

1. Bill Cleveland

Host of Art is Change and director of the Center for the Study of Art & Community; a key voice in community-based art and cultural development.

2. Jerry Stropnicky

Veteran theater director known for creating community theater frameworks; referenced for his “A Principles” guide in episode 135.

3. Barbara Schaffer Bacon

Educator, cultural advisor, and longtime advocate for arts-based civic engagement; co-host on this episode.

4. Leni Sloan

Cultural activist, performer, and historian, recognized for decades of work integrating art, identity, and democracy.

5. Marty Pottenger

Playwright, performer, and cultural organizer whose work blends theater with social justice themes like labor rights and police-community relations.

6. Chuck Davis

Founder of DanceAfrica, he was pivotal in bringing African dance to American audiences in respectful and celebratory ways.

7. Catherine Dunham

Influential dancer and anthropologist who brought African and Caribbean dance traditions into American theater and film.

8. Pearl Primus

A pioneering African-American choreographer and anthropologist, known for exploring African diasporic traditions in dance.

📅 Events

1. DanceAfrica

A vibrant festival of African and African-American dance, music, and culture hosted by the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM); discussed as an example of cultural appropriation and transformation.

2. No Kings Actions

Referenced as a current cultural movement or art action focused on community-led change and artistic protest (exact reference likely points to grassroots activist performances).

3. Dinner Down Main Street

A community arts event metaphor representing public engagement, celebration, and co-created civic dialogue.

🏢 Organizations

1. Center for the Study of Art and Community

The organization that produces Art is Change and supports creative community change projects through the arts.

2. Portland, Maine Police Department

Collaborated with Marty Pottenger in a creative initiative involving police officers writing and sharing poetry with the public.

3. Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)

Prestigious arts institution that hosts DanceAfrica; highlighted in a discussion on cultural translation and appropriation.

4. Freesound.org

A collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sound effects used in the podcast.

📚 Publications/Works

1. Art at Work

A cultural organizing initiative founded by Marty Pottenger that integrates art into municipal systems to build civic health and connection.

2. Police Poetry Calendar

Part of the Art at Work project in Portland, Maine, this calendar showcased poems written by police officers to build trust and humanize public servants.

Acknowledgements:

From Fresound.org

190621_0386_FR_AfricanDrums.wav by kevp888 -- https://freesound.org/s/475150/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Crowd Applause - Clapping Hands by imagefilm.berlin -- https://freesound.org/s/746442/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Acoustic Guitar - Sleepy - br ch 1 - 127bpm Bb.wav by afrodrumming -- https://freesound.org/s/187686/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

From a presentation by percussionist Terreon Gully at the on the compelling legacy of Katherine Dunham’s dance school in East St. Louis and its connections to jazz, dance, and African drumming. This event will explore how Dunham’s cultural movement shaped the region and influenced generations of musicians and artists.

https://www.youtube.com/live/VzWFU4oFK4I?si=jUcFPi4ClVMRP8wb


*****

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>d8526bec-d04f-4e1c-8da5-8c16e17ac2c4Wed, 30 Jul 2025 04:45:00 -070031:39truefull136136135: Jerry Stropnicky: Story, Civic Empathy, & Social Change135: Jerry Stropnicky: Story, Civic Empathy, & Social ChangeWhat happens when a theater director steps into a struggling town and ignites transformation through the power of shared stories?

In a world where communities face trauma, disconnection, and invisibility, this episode explores how the ancient impulse to gather and perform stories can foster healing, agency, and real-world change. If you’ve ever wondered how art can truly make a difference, this conversation reveals what it takes. In this episode we:

  • Learn how ensemble-based, community-driven theater projects have tackled crises like the opioid epidemic and flood response with lasting impact.
  • Hear firsthand how storymaking catalyzes civic empathy and even reshapes local policy, as told by someone who’s witnessed communities reclaim power through their own narratives.
  • Discover the 7 principles that guide ethical, effective, and deeply human community arts practice—from agency to accessibility.

Press play to experience how Jerry Stropnicky uses theater as a tool for justice, healing, and democracy—and be inspired to see your own community through a new lens.

Notable Mentions:

Here’s a comprehensive list of all people, events, organizations, and publications mentioned in your podcast transcript, each with clickable hyperlinks and a contextual description:

👥 People

Jerry Stropnicky Director, actor, and founding member of the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble in rural Pennsylvania 

Jo Carson: American playwright, storyteller, and collaborator with Stropnicky; known for works like Stories I Ain’t Told Nobody Yet ()

John Malkovich: Famous actor and Stropnicky’s college friend at Northwestern, sharing tales of selling office supplies together

Peter Brook: Legendary theater director Stropnicky observed in Paris at the International Centre for Theatre Research ()

Alvina Krause: Renowned acting teacher in Bloomsburg and inspirational founder of the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble ()

Bill Rauch: He was named the inaugural artistic director of the Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center (PACNYC) at the World Trade Center in 2018.[1]Previously, Rauch served as the fifth artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), Rauch is also the founder of the Cornerstone Theater Company,

Lori Woolery (Associate Director, Public Works) Leading figure in the Public Theater’s “Public Works” community-driven initiative in New York City ()

Bruce Springsteen: Iconic musician who generously granted permission for the song “The River” to be used in Touchstone Theater's community-based play Steel Bound, and supported the production of Susie Tanner's play Lady Beth.

John Landau: Springsteen’s manager who handled the licensing of “The River” via fax

Susie Tanner: Director in Long Beach working on a similar steelworkers’ play—won Bruce Springsteen’s support

Harry Boyte: Civic democracy advocate who emphasizes that practicing democracy is an active, embodied practice.

📅 Events & Performances

Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble Tours in Sub-Saharan Africa (c. 1990–91): Performance tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department through Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Botswana, Namibia—spurred Stropnicky’s pivot to storytelling theater

Harlan County, Kentucky Higher Ground Opioid Crises Response project: Community-based theater tackling America’s opioid crisis, credited with contributing to social change

Touchstone’s Theatre's “Steel Bound” & “Prometheus Redux”: Plays reflecting economic and social change in Bethlehem, PA’s steel community

🏛️ Organizations, Foundations & Agencies

Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble (BTE): Rural Pennsylvania-based ensemble theater that Stropnicky co-founded, specializing in devised, community-rooted work 

Ford Foundation: Major philanthropic organization that provided funding for Stropnicky’s African collaborators ()

USAID: U.S. international development agency which funded theater-for-development HIV/AIDS plays in Africa. Recently defunded by the Trump administration.

International Centre for Theatre Research: Peter Brook’s influential company in Paris, where Stropnicky studied

Touchstone Theatre (Bethlehem, PA): Venue where Stropnicky worked on “Steel Bound” and later “Prometheus Redux”

Public Theater (New York, NY): Home of Public Works—led by Lori Woolery, blending professional actors and community members

Swamp Gravy (Colquitt, GA): A pioneering community-driven “folk-life play” with widespread influence ()

📚 Publications & Theoretical Frameworks

Jo Carson’s Spider Speculations: Explores neuroscience and storytelling, especially the physiological/social power of narrative

Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed: Latin American methodology (Boal-inspired) influencing Theatre for Development work in Africa

Stropnicky’s “Seven A’s” framework: Agency, Authenticity, Artistry, Accuracy, Audacity, Audience, Accessibility: Seven guiding principles for designing community-centered theater

Bruce Springsteen’s The River: Culturally significant song integrated into community performances (with recorded permission)

Letters to the Editor Play: Script devised from 200 years of local newspaper letters; helped catalyze sustained community theater interest

“Under African Skies”: Educational play developed into a school tour thanks to Ford Foundation and Bloomsburg ensemble

*****

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into...]]>What happens when a theater director steps into a struggling town and ignites transformation through the power of shared stories?

In a world where communities face trauma, disconnection, and invisibility, this episode explores how the ancient impulse to gather and perform stories can foster healing, agency, and real-world change. If you’ve ever wondered how art can truly make a difference, this conversation reveals what it takes. In this episode we:

  • Learn how ensemble-based, community-driven theater projects have tackled crises like the opioid epidemic and flood response with lasting impact.
  • Hear firsthand how storymaking catalyzes civic empathy and even reshapes local policy, as told by someone who’s witnessed communities reclaim power through their own narratives.
  • Discover the 7 principles that guide ethical, effective, and deeply human community arts practice—from agency to accessibility.

Press play to experience how Jerry Stropnicky uses theater as a tool for justice, healing, and democracy—and be inspired to see your own community through a new lens.

Notable Mentions:

Here’s a comprehensive list of all people, events, organizations, and publications mentioned in your podcast transcript, each with clickable hyperlinks and a contextual description:

👥 People

Jerry Stropnicky Director, actor, and founding member of the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble in rural Pennsylvania 

Jo Carson: American playwright, storyteller, and collaborator with Stropnicky; known for works like Stories I Ain’t Told Nobody Yet ()

John Malkovich: Famous actor and Stropnicky’s college friend at Northwestern, sharing tales of selling office supplies together

Peter Brook: Legendary theater director Stropnicky observed in Paris at the International Centre for Theatre Research ()

Alvina Krause: Renowned acting teacher in Bloomsburg and inspirational founder of the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble ()

Bill Rauch: He was named the inaugural artistic director of the Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center (PACNYC) at the World Trade Center in 2018.[1]Previously, Rauch served as the fifth artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), Rauch is also the founder of the Cornerstone Theater Company,

Lori Woolery (Associate Director, Public Works) Leading figure in the Public Theater’s “Public Works” community-driven initiative in New York City ()

Bruce Springsteen: Iconic musician who generously granted permission for the song “The River” to be used in Touchstone Theater's community-based play Steel Bound, and supported the production of Susie Tanner's play Lady Beth.

John Landau: Springsteen’s manager who handled the licensing of “The River” via fax

Susie Tanner: Director in Long Beach working on a similar steelworkers’ play—won Bruce Springsteen’s support

Harry Boyte: Civic democracy advocate who emphasizes that practicing democracy is an active, embodied practice.

📅 Events & Performances

Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble Tours in Sub-Saharan Africa (c. 1990–91): Performance tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department through Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Botswana, Namibia—spurred Stropnicky’s pivot to storytelling theater

Harlan County, Kentucky Higher Ground Opioid Crises Response project: Community-based theater tackling America’s opioid crisis, credited with contributing to social change

Touchstone’s Theatre's “Steel Bound” & “Prometheus Redux”: Plays reflecting economic and social change in Bethlehem, PA’s steel community

🏛️ Organizations, Foundations & Agencies

Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble (BTE): Rural Pennsylvania-based ensemble theater that Stropnicky co-founded, specializing in devised, community-rooted work 

Ford Foundation: Major philanthropic organization that provided funding for Stropnicky’s African collaborators ()

USAID: U.S. international development agency which funded theater-for-development HIV/AIDS plays in Africa. Recently defunded by the Trump administration.

International Centre for Theatre Research: Peter Brook’s influential company in Paris, where Stropnicky studied

Touchstone Theatre (Bethlehem, PA): Venue where Stropnicky worked on “Steel Bound” and later “Prometheus Redux”

Public Theater (New York, NY): Home of Public Works—led by Lori Woolery, blending professional actors and community members

Swamp Gravy (Colquitt, GA): A pioneering community-driven “folk-life play” with widespread influence ()

📚 Publications & Theoretical Frameworks

Jo Carson’s Spider Speculations: Explores neuroscience and storytelling, especially the physiological/social power of narrative

Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed: Latin American methodology (Boal-inspired) influencing Theatre for Development work in Africa

Stropnicky’s “Seven A’s” framework: Agency, Authenticity, Artistry, Accuracy, Audacity, Audience, Accessibility: Seven guiding principles for designing community-centered theater

Bruce Springsteen’s The River: Culturally significant song integrated into community performances (with recorded permission)

Letters to the Editor Play: Script devised from 200 years of local newspaper letters; helped catalyze sustained community theater interest

“Under African Skies”: Educational play developed into a school tour thanks to Ford Foundation and Bloomsburg ensemble

*****

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>c950c855-4025-4a9b-bfca-bd0bd822e7cbWed, 23 Jul 2025 04:45:00 -070047:32truefull135135134: “How Do Activist Artists and Cultural Organizers Resist: Lessons from the Anti-Authoritarian Frontlines134: “How Do Activist Artists and Cultural Organizers Resist: Lessons from the Anti-Authoritarian FrontlinesWhat do the arts have to do with resisting authoritarianism? And how do we, as creative community leaders, keep pushing for democracy when the odds feel stacked against us?

If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by the news, discouraged by political setbacks, or unsure how artists and cultural organizers fit into this urgent fight, you’re not alone. This episode brings powerful insights from the 22nd Century Initiative Gathering in Atlanta—where movement leaders, activists, and artists came together to ask the big questions: How do we stop the rise of authoritarianism? And what does it look like to build a resilient, creative resistance?

  • Discover the proven strategies of nonviolent resistance that have toppled regimes and fortified democracies around the world.
  • Learn why loneliness fuels authoritarianism—and how art can be the antidote by reconnecting communities.
  • Hear how artists are not just reflecting change, but making it: organizing, blocking, bridging, and building democracy in real time.

Listen now to explore how you—as an artist, funder, or cultural leader—can be a strategic force in resisting authoritarianism and imagining a democratic future worth fighting for.

Here’s an expanded list of the key figures, events, organizations, and publications mentioned in the podcast transcript—now with richer context and updated hyperlinks for deeper exploration:

👤 1. People

  • Daniel Hunter – Founder and co-director of Choose Democracy, renowned civil resistance trainer and author of Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow 
  • Maria J. Stephan – Co-lead and Chief Organizer at the Horizons Project, political scientist and co-author of Why Civil Resistance Works 
  • Ash‑Lee Woodard Henderson – Co-Executive Director of the Highlander Research & Education Center, organizer in the Movement for Black Lives 
  • Emory Douglas – Minister of Culture and graphic artist for the Black Panther Party, his visuals became iconic protest art 
  • Lily Yeh – Founder of the Village of Arts and Humanities in Philadelphia, pioneer of community-based public art 

📅 2. Events & Movements

  • Civil Rights Movement – Legendary U.S. nonviolent struggle for racial justice, often cited as a model of civil resistance
  • Protests against Authoritarian Leaders – Global instances (e.g., Brazil’s Bolsonaro, Hungary’s Orban) illustrating the worldwide struggle to defend democracy 
  • 22CI Gathering – The Twenty‑Second Century Initiative conference focused on resisting authoritarianism and fostering democratic resilience

🏛️ 3. Organizations

  • Choose Democracy – Nonpartisan group preparing Americans to resist undemocratic power grabs through training and strategic organizing 
  • Horizons Project – Organizing initiative led by Julia Roig and Maria Stephan focused on bridging ideological divides and rebuilding democracy 
  • Highlander Research & Education Center – Historic training center advancing social justice, now co-led by Ash‑Lee Henderson 
  • Black Panther Party – Revolutionary Black Power organization known for community programs and Emory Douglas’s visual art 
  • Village of Arts and Humanities – North Philadelphia nonprofit transforming vacant lots through communal art projects 
  • Laundromat Project – New York–based initiative placing artists in everyday spaces to spark community-led cultural change 

📚 4. Publications & Works


*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>What do the arts have to do with resisting authoritarianism? And how do we, as creative community leaders, keep pushing for democracy when the odds feel stacked against us?

If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by the news, discouraged by political setbacks, or unsure how artists and cultural organizers fit into this urgent fight, you’re not alone. This episode brings powerful insights from the 22nd Century Initiative Gathering in Atlanta—where movement leaders, activists, and artists came together to ask the big questions: How do we stop the rise of authoritarianism? And what does it look like to build a resilient, creative resistance?

  • Discover the proven strategies of nonviolent resistance that have toppled regimes and fortified democracies around the world.
  • Learn why loneliness fuels authoritarianism—and how art can be the antidote by reconnecting communities.
  • Hear how artists are not just reflecting change, but making it: organizing, blocking, bridging, and building democracy in real time.

Listen now to explore how you—as an artist, funder, or cultural leader—can be a strategic force in resisting authoritarianism and imagining a democratic future worth fighting for.

Here’s an expanded list of the key figures, events, organizations, and publications mentioned in the podcast transcript—now with richer context and updated hyperlinks for deeper exploration:

👤 1. People

  • Daniel Hunter – Founder and co-director of Choose Democracy, renowned civil resistance trainer and author of Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow 
  • Maria J. Stephan – Co-lead and Chief Organizer at the Horizons Project, political scientist and co-author of Why Civil Resistance Works 
  • Ash‑Lee Woodard Henderson – Co-Executive Director of the Highlander Research & Education Center, organizer in the Movement for Black Lives 
  • Emory Douglas – Minister of Culture and graphic artist for the Black Panther Party, his visuals became iconic protest art 
  • Lily Yeh – Founder of the Village of Arts and Humanities in Philadelphia, pioneer of community-based public art 

📅 2. Events & Movements

  • Civil Rights Movement – Legendary U.S. nonviolent struggle for racial justice, often cited as a model of civil resistance
  • Protests against Authoritarian Leaders – Global instances (e.g., Brazil’s Bolsonaro, Hungary’s Orban) illustrating the worldwide struggle to defend democracy 
  • 22CI Gathering – The Twenty‑Second Century Initiative conference focused on resisting authoritarianism and fostering democratic resilience

🏛️ 3. Organizations

  • Choose Democracy – Nonpartisan group preparing Americans to resist undemocratic power grabs through training and strategic organizing 
  • Horizons Project – Organizing initiative led by Julia Roig and Maria Stephan focused on bridging ideological divides and rebuilding democracy 
  • Highlander Research & Education Center – Historic training center advancing social justice, now co-led by Ash‑Lee Henderson 
  • Black Panther Party – Revolutionary Black Power organization known for community programs and Emory Douglas’s visual art 
  • Village of Arts and Humanities – North Philadelphia nonprofit transforming vacant lots through communal art projects 
  • Laundromat Project – New York–based initiative placing artists in everyday spaces to spark community-led cultural change 

📚 4. Publications & Works


*******

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>e53bb720-7d3f-4434-98ad-5f0ce4e147d6Wed, 16 Jul 2025 04:45:00 -070022:43truefull134134133: Can Arts Festivals, Community Theater & Cultural Organizers Save Democracy?133: Can Arts Festivals, Community Theater & Cultural Organizers Save Democracy?What happens when community theater, political leadership, and grassroots organizing collide?

In today’s polarized climate, building authentic, inclusive community can feel impossible—especially across political, social, and cultural divides. But Kathie deNobriga has been doing exactly that for decades—as an artist, activist, and even as the mayor of a small Georgia town. Her story shows how creativity, collaboration, and a little humor can foster connection where we need it most.

  • Hear how Kathie’s winding journey from political theater to small-town leadership taught her the power of listening, laughter, and shared purpose.
  • Learn how grassroots festivals, community theater, and collaborative storytelling can become secret weapons for tolerance and social change.
  • Discover why humility, mistakes, and the occasional unruly neighbor (or cow) are essential ingredients for building real, resilient communities.

Tune in to hear how one artist-mayor is using creativity and conversation to rewrite the story of community—one gathering, one laugh, one story at a time.

Notable Mentions

👤 People

  1. Kathie deNobriga

Theater artist, cultural organizer, former mayor of Pine Lake, GA, and long-time member of Alternate ROOTS.

  1. Bill Cleveland

Host of the Art is Change podcast and Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community.

  1. Jo Carson

Theater collaborator and part of the early political theater collective referenced by deNobriga.

  1. Bob Leonard

Longtime community-based theater artist and academic, mentioned as a long-term collaborator with Kathie.

  1. Ashley Haze

A younger member of the Alternate ROOTS staff, representative of the intergenerational dialogue in the organization.

  1. Hannah Arendt

Political theorist cited in the conversation for her insights on loneliness and totalitarianism.

📅 Events

  1. Pine Lake October Arts Festival

Annual local arts festival organized in Pine Lake, GA, coordinated by Kathie as a civic-arts initiative.

  1. Spoleto Festival USA

Premier arts festival in Charleston, South Carolina that includes music, theater, and visual arts. Kathie attended and highlighted it for featuring Manual Cinema.

🏛️ Organizations

  1. Alternate ROOTS

A southern-based collective of artists and cultural organizers working at the intersection of art and activism. deNobriga is both a contributor and co-editor of their upcoming book.

  1. Manual Cinema

Chicago-based performance collective blending shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, and live performance. Their show The Fourth Witch was praised by Kathie.

  1. The Center for the Study of Art and Community

The podcast’s parent organization founded by Bill Cleveland, promoting creative community leadership.

  1. The Road Company (assumed to be related to or inspired by this group)

A political theater troupe in Johnson City, TN referenced in Kathie’s early work.

  1. Freesound.org

A collaborative database of Creative Commons-licensed sound effects, credited in the podcast’s production notes.

📚 Publications

  1. The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt

Landmark political analysis on how loneliness and social atomization contribute to the rise of totalitarian regimes.

  1. (Upcoming) Alternate ROOTS 50th Anniversary Book

A collective anthology currently in development, capturing the 50-year history of Alternate ROOTS. Scheduled for publication in 2026. Not yet available online.*****

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.\

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>What happens when community theater, political leadership, and grassroots organizing collide?

In today’s polarized climate, building authentic, inclusive community can feel impossible—especially across political, social, and cultural divides. But Kathie deNobriga has been doing exactly that for decades—as an artist, activist, and even as the mayor of a small Georgia town. Her story shows how creativity, collaboration, and a little humor can foster connection where we need it most.

  • Hear how Kathie’s winding journey from political theater to small-town leadership taught her the power of listening, laughter, and shared purpose.
  • Learn how grassroots festivals, community theater, and collaborative storytelling can become secret weapons for tolerance and social change.
  • Discover why humility, mistakes, and the occasional unruly neighbor (or cow) are essential ingredients for building real, resilient communities.

Tune in to hear how one artist-mayor is using creativity and conversation to rewrite the story of community—one gathering, one laugh, one story at a time.

Notable Mentions

👤 People

  1. Kathie deNobriga

Theater artist, cultural organizer, former mayor of Pine Lake, GA, and long-time member of Alternate ROOTS.

  1. Bill Cleveland

Host of the Art is Change podcast and Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community.

  1. Jo Carson

Theater collaborator and part of the early political theater collective referenced by deNobriga.

  1. Bob Leonard

Longtime community-based theater artist and academic, mentioned as a long-term collaborator with Kathie.

  1. Ashley Haze

A younger member of the Alternate ROOTS staff, representative of the intergenerational dialogue in the organization.

  1. Hannah Arendt

Political theorist cited in the conversation for her insights on loneliness and totalitarianism.

📅 Events

  1. Pine Lake October Arts Festival

Annual local arts festival organized in Pine Lake, GA, coordinated by Kathie as a civic-arts initiative.

  1. Spoleto Festival USA

Premier arts festival in Charleston, South Carolina that includes music, theater, and visual arts. Kathie attended and highlighted it for featuring Manual Cinema.

🏛️ Organizations

  1. Alternate ROOTS

A southern-based collective of artists and cultural organizers working at the intersection of art and activism. deNobriga is both a contributor and co-editor of their upcoming book.

  1. Manual Cinema

Chicago-based performance collective blending shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, and live performance. Their show The Fourth Witch was praised by Kathie.

  1. The Center for the Study of Art and Community

The podcast’s parent organization founded by Bill Cleveland, promoting creative community leadership.

  1. The Road Company (assumed to be related to or inspired by this group)

A political theater troupe in Johnson City, TN referenced in Kathie’s early work.

  1. Freesound.org

A collaborative database of Creative Commons-licensed sound effects, credited in the podcast’s production notes.

📚 Publications

  1. The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt

Landmark political analysis on how loneliness and social atomization contribute to the rise of totalitarian regimes.

  1. (Upcoming) Alternate ROOTS 50th Anniversary Book

A collective anthology currently in development, capturing the 50-year history of Alternate ROOTS. Scheduled for publication in 2026. Not yet available online.*****

Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.\

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>579df4a2-85f1-4d29-86d3-f6f55a4c7d08Wed, 09 Jul 2025 04:45:00 -070038:11truefull133133132: When the Arts Are Under Fire – Navigating Today’s Unfriendly Cultural Climate132: When the Arts Are Under Fire – Navigating Today’s Unfriendly Cultural ClimateWhat happens when your art, your activism or your organization’s mission makes you a political target?


If you’re an artist, nonprofit leader, cultural organizer, or anyone working at the intersection of creativity and social change, you already know the landscape is shifting—and not in your favor. From sudden grant revocations to legal threats and public media cuts, values-driven arts organizations are facing mounting political and financial pressure. In an environment where inclusion and cultural storytelling are under attack, understanding how to protect your work is no longer optional—it’s essential.

  • Discover how new federal policies and funding shifts are undermining equity-focused arts initiatives—and what that means for your organization’s future.
  • Learn the difference between the “Ironman” and “Atomic Blonde” survival strategies for nonprofits navigating politically hostile environments, and how to align your approach with your mission.
  • Gain actionable tools for crisis communication, narrative layering, and coalition building to defend your mission and your community when the pressure is on.

Listen now to learn how to safeguard your creative work and stay resilient in the face of rising political and legal threats to activist artists, cultural organizers and community cultural organizations.

Notable Mentions

1. People

  • Matthew Charles Davis – Public relations and crisis communications expert featured in the Grantmakers in the Arts webinar “Navigating Today’s Funder Challenges.” Former investigative journalist known for handling high‑profile media crises  .

2. Events

  • Navigating Today’s Funder Challenges: A Live, Expert Discussion – A Grantmakers in the Arts webinar held June 3, 2025, featuring experts (including Matthew Charles Davis) discussing legal, PR, and narrative strategies for nonprofit arts funding 
  • Grantmakers in the Arts 2025 Webinar Series – A continuing series of webinars for arts funders and nonprofit leaders organized by Grantmakers in the Arts ().

3. Organizations

  • Grantmakers in the Arts – National service organization offering resources, webinars, and research to support arts funders and grantees 
  • National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) – Federal agency providing funding and support for U.S. arts projects; mentioned regarding grant revocations.
  • Office of Management and Budget (OMB) – Executive office responsible for federal budget oversight; cited for budget freezes on grant approvals.
  • Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) – Federal agency funding public broadcasters like PBS and NPR, currently facing funding threats.
  • PBS – Public Broadcasting Service, funded partly through CPB; its federal support has been targeted.
  • NPR – National Public Radio, similarly reliant on CPB and under political scrutiny.
  • Kennedy Center – Leading performing arts center in D.C., shifting resources toward patriotic programming per internal memos.
  • Americans for the Arts – Advocacy group lobbying against federal arts funding cuts and supporting the arts sector.
  • Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) – Indigenous-focused arts institute facing funding threats in the FY 2026 budget.
  • LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation) – Community development nonprofit that adjusted its messaging to maintain federal funding, switching from “race/gender” to “social/economic disadvantage.”
  • Central Park SummerStage – Outdoor performance series in NYC; cited among organizations impacted by NEA grant cancellations.
  • Oakland Theater Project – East Bay arts organization whose federal grants were pulled unexpectedly.
  • San Francisco Jazz – Renowned music organization in San Francisco affected by NEA funding revocations.

4. Publications & Reports

  • Webinar “Navigating Today’s Funder Challenges” materials – Grantmakers in the Arts event materials referenced for crisis‑communication tools and best practices  .

*****

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>What happens when your art, your activism or your organization’s mission makes you a political target?


If you’re an artist, nonprofit leader, cultural organizer, or anyone working at the intersection of creativity and social change, you already know the landscape is shifting—and not in your favor. From sudden grant revocations to legal threats and public media cuts, values-driven arts organizations are facing mounting political and financial pressure. In an environment where inclusion and cultural storytelling are under attack, understanding how to protect your work is no longer optional—it’s essential.

  • Discover how new federal policies and funding shifts are undermining equity-focused arts initiatives—and what that means for your organization’s future.
  • Learn the difference between the “Ironman” and “Atomic Blonde” survival strategies for nonprofits navigating politically hostile environments, and how to align your approach with your mission.
  • Gain actionable tools for crisis communication, narrative layering, and coalition building to defend your mission and your community when the pressure is on.

Listen now to learn how to safeguard your creative work and stay resilient in the face of rising political and legal threats to activist artists, cultural organizers and community cultural organizations.

Notable Mentions

1. People

  • Matthew Charles Davis – Public relations and crisis communications expert featured in the Grantmakers in the Arts webinar “Navigating Today’s Funder Challenges.” Former investigative journalist known for handling high‑profile media crises  .

2. Events

  • Navigating Today’s Funder Challenges: A Live, Expert Discussion – A Grantmakers in the Arts webinar held June 3, 2025, featuring experts (including Matthew Charles Davis) discussing legal, PR, and narrative strategies for nonprofit arts funding 
  • Grantmakers in the Arts 2025 Webinar Series – A continuing series of webinars for arts funders and nonprofit leaders organized by Grantmakers in the Arts ().

3. Organizations

  • Grantmakers in the Arts – National service organization offering resources, webinars, and research to support arts funders and grantees 
  • National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) – Federal agency providing funding and support for U.S. arts projects; mentioned regarding grant revocations.
  • Office of Management and Budget (OMB) – Executive office responsible for federal budget oversight; cited for budget freezes on grant approvals.
  • Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) – Federal agency funding public broadcasters like PBS and NPR, currently facing funding threats.
  • PBS – Public Broadcasting Service, funded partly through CPB; its federal support has been targeted.
  • NPR – National Public Radio, similarly reliant on CPB and under political scrutiny.
  • Kennedy Center – Leading performing arts center in D.C., shifting resources toward patriotic programming per internal memos.
  • Americans for the Arts – Advocacy group lobbying against federal arts funding cuts and supporting the arts sector.
  • Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) – Indigenous-focused arts institute facing funding threats in the FY 2026 budget.
  • LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation) – Community development nonprofit that adjusted its messaging to maintain federal funding, switching from “race/gender” to “social/economic disadvantage.”
  • Central Park SummerStage – Outdoor performance series in NYC; cited among organizations impacted by NEA grant cancellations.
  • Oakland Theater Project – East Bay arts organization whose federal grants were pulled unexpectedly.
  • San Francisco Jazz – Renowned music organization in San Francisco affected by NEA funding revocations.

4. Publications & Reports

  • Webinar “Navigating Today’s Funder Challenges” materials – Grantmakers in the Arts event materials referenced for crisis‑communication tools and best practices  .

*****

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>0c7efdca-1445-424c-898f-0b72be46935fWed, 02 Jul 2025 04:45:00 -070019:21truefull132132131: Can Activist Artists Bring DEI Back From the Dead? Part 3131: Can Activist Artists Bring DEI Back From the Dead? Part 3What if the key to undoing bias and building empathy isn’t just policy or protest—but a complicated art and neuroscience dance that facilitates the rewiring the human brain?

In this final chapter of our three-part Breaking Ice series, we move from the stage to the synapse. After witnessing how theater can unearth hidden truths and foster real conversations, we now explore the neuroscience behind it all. What’s really happening inside us when we struggle with difference? And how can understanding the brain help advance the work of DEI?

  • Dive into the emerging science of imagination, fear, empathy, and storytelling—and what it reveals about our social behaviors.
  • Learn why art, especially performance, is such a powerful tool for reconfiguring how we perceive “the other.”
  • Hear a heartfelt, layperson’s journey into the brain’s wiring—and how Breaking Ice exemplifies the potential for rewiring hearts and minds through shared experience.

Spending time with the Breaking Ice theater based diversity, equity, and inclusion program gave rise to a question: How might new insights about how the brain works might help us better understand the how and why of our continuing struggle with difference? Here is what ensued. 

LISTEN TO Part 1 of this series

LISTEN TO Part 2 of this series

Change the Story / All Episodes 

Notable Mentions

Breaking Ice is the award-winning program of Pillsbury House Theatre that for over 20 years has been “breaking the ice” for courageous and productive dialogue around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. A diverse company of professional actors portrays real-life situations that are customized to meet the goals, needs and culture of each unique organization we serve.

Pillsbury House and Theater is a groundbreaking “new model for human service work that recognizes the power of the arts and culture to stimulate community participation, investment and ownership.”

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: was a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of "flow", a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity.[1][2] He was the Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University. He was also the former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College.[3]

The ART IS CHANGE Library for Learning, and Research

Change the Story Collections - Our full catalogue of Episodes in 12 Collections: Justice Arts, Art & Healing, Cultural Organizing, Arts Ed./Children & Youth, Community Arts Training, Music for Change, Theater for Change, Change Making Media, Creative Climate Action, Art of the Rural

Sources

Question 2: How does our environment influence what we think and believe? 

1.Lobel, T. (2014) Sensations: The New Science of Physical Intelligence, Simon & Schuster.

2 Eagleman, David. The Brain: The Story of You. Pg., 105, Vintage Books, 2017

Question 4: Why are stories important? 

3.Hamlin, JK, Wynn, K & Bloom, P (2007) “Social evaluation by preverbal infants.” Nature, 450(7169), 557-59.

Question 5: What is empathy and what does it have to do with artmaking?

4 Eagleman, David. The Brain: The Story of You. Pg., 143, Vintage Books, 2017

5 Ibid.

Question 11: If human cooperation and connection are so important, why do we struggle so with difference? 

6. How do children develop a sense of self? - The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/how-do-children- develop-a-sense-of-self-5611

7. Toddler | Preschool & Daycare | The Montessori Centre St Lucia. http://www.themontessoricentre.com/toddlers/

8. Eagleman, David. The Brain: The Story of You. Pg., 143, Vintage Books, 2017

Question 13: Why is play so important to human development? 

9 Asma, Steven The History of Imagination, pg., 84, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2017

10 Asma, Stephen, The Evolution of Imagination, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2017

Question 15: How Can human creativity help us out of this mess?

11 Boyd, Brian, On the Origin of Stories, Harvard University Press, Boston, 2010

*******

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>What if the key to undoing bias and building empathy isn’t just policy or protest—but a complicated art and neuroscience dance that facilitates the rewiring the human brain?

In this final chapter of our three-part Breaking Ice series, we move from the stage to the synapse. After witnessing how theater can unearth hidden truths and foster real conversations, we now explore the neuroscience behind it all. What’s really happening inside us when we struggle with difference? And how can understanding the brain help advance the work of DEI?

  • Dive into the emerging science of imagination, fear, empathy, and storytelling—and what it reveals about our social behaviors.
  • Learn why art, especially performance, is such a powerful tool for reconfiguring how we perceive “the other.”
  • Hear a heartfelt, layperson’s journey into the brain’s wiring—and how Breaking Ice exemplifies the potential for rewiring hearts and minds through shared experience.

Spending time with the Breaking Ice theater based diversity, equity, and inclusion program gave rise to a question: How might new insights about how the brain works might help us better understand the how and why of our continuing struggle with difference? Here is what ensued. 

LISTEN TO Part 1 of this series

LISTEN TO Part 2 of this series

Change the Story / All Episodes 

Notable Mentions

Breaking Ice is the award-winning program of Pillsbury House Theatre that for over 20 years has been “breaking the ice” for courageous and productive dialogue around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. A diverse company of professional actors portrays real-life situations that are customized to meet the goals, needs and culture of each unique organization we serve.

Pillsbury House and Theater is a groundbreaking “new model for human service work that recognizes the power of the arts and culture to stimulate community participation, investment and ownership.”

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: was a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of "flow", a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity.[1][2] He was the Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University. He was also the former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College.[3]

The ART IS CHANGE Library for Learning, and Research

Change the Story Collections - Our full catalogue of Episodes in 12 Collections: Justice Arts, Art & Healing, Cultural Organizing, Arts Ed./Children & Youth, Community Arts Training, Music for Change, Theater for Change, Change Making Media, Creative Climate Action, Art of the Rural

Sources

Question 2: How does our environment influence what we think and believe? 

1.Lobel, T. (2014) Sensations: The New Science of Physical Intelligence, Simon & Schuster.

2 Eagleman, David. The Brain: The Story of You. Pg., 105, Vintage Books, 2017

Question 4: Why are stories important? 

3.Hamlin, JK, Wynn, K & Bloom, P (2007) “Social evaluation by preverbal infants.” Nature, 450(7169), 557-59.

Question 5: What is empathy and what does it have to do with artmaking?

4 Eagleman, David. The Brain: The Story of You. Pg., 143, Vintage Books, 2017

5 Ibid.

Question 11: If human cooperation and connection are so important, why do we struggle so with difference? 

6. How do children develop a sense of self? - The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/how-do-children- develop-a-sense-of-self-5611

7. Toddler | Preschool & Daycare | The Montessori Centre St Lucia. http://www.themontessoricentre.com/toddlers/

8. Eagleman, David. The Brain: The Story of You. Pg., 143, Vintage Books, 2017

Question 13: Why is play so important to human development? 

9 Asma, Steven The History of Imagination, pg., 84, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2017

10 Asma, Stephen, The Evolution of Imagination, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2017

Question 15: How Can human creativity help us out of this mess?

11 Boyd, Brian, On the Origin of Stories, Harvard University Press, Boston, 2010

*******

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>2ed7a68d-3834-4b83-b275-993daa05ff13Wed, 25 Jun 2025 04:45:00 -070048:31truefull131131130: Can Theater Artists Bring DEI Back From the Dead? Part 2130: Can Theater Artists Bring DEI Back From the Dead? Part 2Can a scripted performance shift the way people feel—and act—about race, identity, and inclusion in their workplace?

This is Chapter Two of our three-part journey into the world of Breaking Ice, a theater-based DEI program pushing against the mounting tide of resistance and rollback. Building on the emotional groundwork laid in Part 1, we now go deeper into what happens after the curtain rises—when the performance ends and the real conversations begin.

  • Step inside the post-performance debrief: a high-stakes dialogue where vulnerability, pushback, and transformation collide.
  • Learn how Breaking Ice uses improvisation, humor, and empathy to defuse defensiveness and invite deeper understanding.
  • Hear powerful reflections from both cast and audience members as they confront their own assumptions—and open up to change.

If Part 1 opened your eyes, Part 2 will challenge your heart. Have a listen as Breaking Ice takes DEI off the page and into real lives, one courageous conversation at a time.

]]>Can a scripted performance shift the way people feel—and act—about race, identity, and inclusion in their workplace?

This is Chapter Two of our three-part journey into the world of Breaking Ice, a theater-based DEI program pushing against the mounting tide of resistance and rollback. Building on the emotional groundwork laid in Part 1, we now go deeper into what happens after the curtain rises—when the performance ends and the real conversations begin.

  • Step inside the post-performance debrief: a high-stakes dialogue where vulnerability, pushback, and transformation collide.
  • Learn how Breaking Ice uses improvisation, humor, and empathy to defuse defensiveness and invite deeper understanding.
  • Hear powerful reflections from both cast and audience members as they confront their own assumptions—and open up to change.

If Part 1 opened your eyes, Part 2 will challenge your heart. Have a listen as Breaking Ice takes DEI off the page and into real lives, one courageous conversation at a time.

]]>2c570282-72e6-48e8-9471-d4ab997e3ad8Wed, 18 Jun 2025 05:15:00 -070046:31truefull130130129 : Can Activist Theater Artists Bring DEI Back from the Dead? Part 1129 : Can Activist Theater Artists Bring DEI Back from the Dead? Part 1Can artists revive the powerful, but increasingly vilified, values of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in America?

As DEI initiatives face growing backlash and politicization, many wonder whether the ideals of inclusion and justice can still thrive. This show originally shared in 2023 is the first episode of a three-part series that invites listeners into a raw, eye-opening performance that uses the language of live theater to confront bias, spark honest dialogue, and explore how the arts can illuminate our shared humanity in even the most divided spaces.

  • Discover how Breaking Ice, a pioneering DEI theater program, turns lived workplace tension into transformative learning experiences.
  • Hear firsthand stories from healthcare professionals reckoning with identity, bias, and privilege in a system built on healing.
  • Learn how art can dismantle defensiveness and create space for courageous, necessary conversations in complex institutions.

Listen now to witness how storytelling and performance are cutting through silence to challenge division and inspire real change from the inside out.

*****

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>Can artists revive the powerful, but increasingly vilified, values of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in America?

As DEI initiatives face growing backlash and politicization, many wonder whether the ideals of inclusion and justice can still thrive. This show originally shared in 2023 is the first episode of a three-part series that invites listeners into a raw, eye-opening performance that uses the language of live theater to confront bias, spark honest dialogue, and explore how the arts can illuminate our shared humanity in even the most divided spaces.

  • Discover how Breaking Ice, a pioneering DEI theater program, turns lived workplace tension into transformative learning experiences.
  • Hear firsthand stories from healthcare professionals reckoning with identity, bias, and privilege in a system built on healing.
  • Learn how art can dismantle defensiveness and create space for courageous, necessary conversations in complex institutions.

Listen now to witness how storytelling and performance are cutting through silence to challenge division and inspire real change from the inside out.

*****

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>05b44478-b0d2-4cf6-881b-68227e8fb832Wed, 11 Jun 2025 04:45:00 -070046:11truefull129129128: Art IS Change: Want Proof That Art Makes Real Change? Start Here128: Art IS Change: Want Proof That Art Makes Real Change? Start HereWhat if changing a podcast title could spark a deeper, more powerful shift in how we understand the role of artists in shaping society?

Not likely, but if you’ve ever felt like your creative work is meaningful but invisible in the fight for justice and transformation, this episode digs deep into how storytelling isn’t just a method—it’s the foundation. We’re in a moment where the narratives driving political and cultural realities are being rewritten, and artists are at the heart of this seismic shift.

  • Discover why “Art is Change” isn’t just a rebrand—it’s a strategic move to make vital work more visible and more impactful.
  • Learn how artists across the world are using creativity to counter dominant, damaging narratives and reclaim public imagination.
  • Hear real stories of transformation, from mosaic-filled lots in Philly to clown-led protests in Serbia, showing how art actively reshapes communities.

Tune in to uncover how changing the story—and the title—can change the world, one bold act of creativity at a time.

Notable Mentions

People

On ART IS CHANGE:


******

  • Bill Cleveland – Host of the podcast, long-time community arts worker, founder of the Center for the Study of Art & Community. Learn more
  • Slobodan Milošević – Former Serbian leader during whose regime artists staged creative protests. Learn more

2. Events / Projects

  • Village of Arts and Humanities – Community arts organization in North Philadelphia that evolved from Lily Yeh’s project. Learn more
  • Performing Our Future – A cultural organizing initiative based in Appalachia, Kentucky, through Appalshop. Learn more
  • Mass protests in Serbia – Referenced in the context of creative resistance during the Milošević regime. Learn more

3. Organizations

  • Appalshop – Media, arts, and education center in Appalachia. Learn more
  • Center for the Study of Art & Community – Host organization of the podcast and Bill Cleveland’s longtime initiative. Learn more

4. Publications / Ideas

  • Change the Story / Change the World – Original name of the podcast. Archived Episodes
  • Art is Change – New name of the podcast aimed at increasing clarity and discoverability. Listen here
  • The “Authoritarian Story” – Conceptual framing used in the episode to critique political narratives and elevate the counter-storytelling role of art. Read more on narrative power

*******

ART IS CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>What if changing a podcast title could spark a deeper, more powerful shift in how we understand the role of artists in shaping society?

Not likely, but if you’ve ever felt like your creative work is meaningful but invisible in the fight for justice and transformation, this episode digs deep into how storytelling isn’t just a method—it’s the foundation. We’re in a moment where the narratives driving political and cultural realities are being rewritten, and artists are at the heart of this seismic shift.

  • Discover why “Art is Change” isn’t just a rebrand—it’s a strategic move to make vital work more visible and more impactful.
  • Learn how artists across the world are using creativity to counter dominant, damaging narratives and reclaim public imagination.
  • Hear real stories of transformation, from mosaic-filled lots in Philly to clown-led protests in Serbia, showing how art actively reshapes communities.

Tune in to uncover how changing the story—and the title—can change the world, one bold act of creativity at a time.

Notable Mentions

People

On ART IS CHANGE:


******

  • Bill Cleveland – Host of the podcast, long-time community arts worker, founder of the Center for the Study of Art & Community. Learn more
  • Slobodan Milošević – Former Serbian leader during whose regime artists staged creative protests. Learn more

2. Events / Projects

  • Village of Arts and Humanities – Community arts organization in North Philadelphia that evolved from Lily Yeh’s project. Learn more
  • Performing Our Future – A cultural organizing initiative based in Appalachia, Kentucky, through Appalshop. Learn more
  • Mass protests in Serbia – Referenced in the context of creative resistance during the Milošević regime. Learn more

3. Organizations

  • Appalshop – Media, arts, and education center in Appalachia. Learn more
  • Center for the Study of Art & Community – Host organization of the podcast and Bill Cleveland’s longtime initiative. Learn more

4. Publications / Ideas

  • Change the Story / Change the World – Original name of the podcast. Archived Episodes
  • Art is Change – New name of the podcast aimed at increasing clarity and discoverability. Listen here
  • The “Authoritarian Story” – Conceptual framing used in the episode to critique political narratives and elevate the counter-storytelling role of art. Read more on narrative power

*******

ART IS CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>7e98be3b-dd2c-446c-afee-5fbe600de412Wed, 04 Jun 2025 05:45:00 -070018:37truefull41281284127: Why Arts Activism & Cultural Organizing are a Pro Democracy Imperative127: Why Arts Activism & Cultural Organizing are a Pro Democracy ImperativeHow can the transformative power of art and culture serve as the connective tissue in movements for democracy, justice, and deep societal change?

In our divided world , building genuine, arts animated cross-sector collaboration is more than a goal—it’s a necessity. This episode dives into how activist artists and cultural organizers can forge meaningful connections with their community social change partners and why our current systems often fail to support that.

  1. Discover the innovative approach of the Horizons Project and how it’s redefining movement-building through authentic relationship weaving.
  2. Learn why sharing stories and cultural engagement are crucial in combating authoritarianism and fostering a thriving democracy.
  3. Understand how vulnerability, play, and arts are not just tools, but essential strategies for social transformation and collective sense-making.

Tune in now to explore how Julia Roig and the Horizons Project are laying the groundwork for a new, interconnected way of organizing for democracy and justice.

Notable Mentions:

Here is a categorized list of all mentioned individuals, events, organizations, and publications, each accompanied by a brief description and a hyperlink for more in-depth information:

People

Julia Roig – Founder and Chief Network Weaver at The Horizons Project, focusing on bridging peacebuilding, social justice, and democracy.

Cristine Michie – Host of the PlayFull Podcast, where she discusses the role of play in social change.

Jarvis Williams – Pastor and speaker who discusses the paradoxes within institutions and the importance of authentic belonging.

Míriam Juan-Torres González – Moderator at the Othering & Belonging Institute, facilitating discussions on inclusive democracy.

🗓️ Events

PeaceCon 2023 – An annual conference hosted by the Alliance for Peacebuilding, focusing on peacebuilding strategies and collaborations.

National Week of Conversation 2023 – A series of events aimed at fostering dialogue and bridging divides in society.

🏢 Organizations

The Horizons Project – An initiative led by Julia Roig that aims to weave together efforts for a just, inclusive, and peaceful democracy.

Alliance for Peacebuilding – A network of organizations working to build sustainable peace and security worldwide.

Othering & Belonging Institute – A research institute at UC Berkeley dedicated to advancing inclusion and belonging for all.

Beyond Intractability – A knowledge base and community focused on addressing complex and intractable conflicts

📚 Publication

Narrative Engagement Across Difference (NEAD) Project – A research initiative exploring how narrative practices can foster collaboration across divides.

Collaborating Across Differences to Reduce Authoritarianism – A report detailing strategies for collaboration to counter authoritarianism.

Making Peace Visible Podcast – A podcast featuring discussions on peacebuilding, including an interview with Julia Roig.

PlayFull Podcast Episode with Julia Roig – An episode where Julia Roig discusses the importance of play in social change.

Acknowledgements:

Classical Loop Guitar 4 Chords by ValentinSosnitskiy -- https://freesound.org/s/568315/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Stardust, Minimalist Piano Background Music That Evokes Emotion by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/546087/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

78 PULSE: A Dark and Ominous Soundscape for Mysteries and Suspense by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/541944/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Cuckoo Clock, Breaking Down, A.wav by InspectorJ -- https://freesound.org/s/413410/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

]]>How can the transformative power of art and culture serve as the connective tissue in movements for democracy, justice, and deep societal change?

In our divided world , building genuine, arts animated cross-sector collaboration is more than a goal—it’s a necessity. This episode dives into how activist artists and cultural organizers can forge meaningful connections with their community social change partners and why our current systems often fail to support that.

  1. Discover the innovative approach of the Horizons Project and how it’s redefining movement-building through authentic relationship weaving.
  2. Learn why sharing stories and cultural engagement are crucial in combating authoritarianism and fostering a thriving democracy.
  3. Understand how vulnerability, play, and arts are not just tools, but essential strategies for social transformation and collective sense-making.

Tune in now to explore how Julia Roig and the Horizons Project are laying the groundwork for a new, interconnected way of organizing for democracy and justice.

Notable Mentions:

Here is a categorized list of all mentioned individuals, events, organizations, and publications, each accompanied by a brief description and a hyperlink for more in-depth information:

People

Julia Roig – Founder and Chief Network Weaver at The Horizons Project, focusing on bridging peacebuilding, social justice, and democracy.

Cristine Michie – Host of the PlayFull Podcast, where she discusses the role of play in social change.

Jarvis Williams – Pastor and speaker who discusses the paradoxes within institutions and the importance of authentic belonging.

Míriam Juan-Torres González – Moderator at the Othering & Belonging Institute, facilitating discussions on inclusive democracy.

🗓️ Events

PeaceCon 2023 – An annual conference hosted by the Alliance for Peacebuilding, focusing on peacebuilding strategies and collaborations.

National Week of Conversation 2023 – A series of events aimed at fostering dialogue and bridging divides in society.

🏢 Organizations

The Horizons Project – An initiative led by Julia Roig that aims to weave together efforts for a just, inclusive, and peaceful democracy.

Alliance for Peacebuilding – A network of organizations working to build sustainable peace and security worldwide.

Othering & Belonging Institute – A research institute at UC Berkeley dedicated to advancing inclusion and belonging for all.

Beyond Intractability – A knowledge base and community focused on addressing complex and intractable conflicts

📚 Publication

Narrative Engagement Across Difference (NEAD) Project – A research initiative exploring how narrative practices can foster collaboration across divides.

Collaborating Across Differences to Reduce Authoritarianism – A report detailing strategies for collaboration to counter authoritarianism.

Making Peace Visible Podcast – A podcast featuring discussions on peacebuilding, including an interview with Julia Roig.

PlayFull Podcast Episode with Julia Roig – An episode where Julia Roig discusses the importance of play in social change.

Acknowledgements:

Classical Loop Guitar 4 Chords by ValentinSosnitskiy -- https://freesound.org/s/568315/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Stardust, Minimalist Piano Background Music That Evokes Emotion by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/546087/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

78 PULSE: A Dark and Ominous Soundscape for Mysteries and Suspense by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/541944/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Cuckoo Clock, Breaking Down, A.wav by InspectorJ -- https://freesound.org/s/413410/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

]]>5302b58b-5665-4c93-8f5d-a0433713beedWed, 28 May 2025 05:45:00 -070042:14truefull41271274126: The CETA Arts Revolution Part 2: What Can Today's Activist Artists Learn From It?126: The CETA Arts Revolution Part 2: What Can Today's Activist Artists Learn From It?What if the secret to revitalizing today’s creative workforce lies in a forgotten 1970s government program?

In a time when society urgently seeks sustainable ways to support artists and strengthen communities, in this episode, the second of two, we revisit the CETA Arts Program—a bold experiment that transformed artists into public servants. You’ll hear how this unexpected initiative is influencing today’s creative policy landscape and how its legacy is being reimagined in pandemic-era artist relief efforts.

  • Learn how CETA’s community-centered structure inspired programs like Creatives Rebuild New York, blending public service with creative employment.
  • Discover the crucial real-world skills—like negotiation, humility, and adaptability—that artists must master but never learn in art school.
  • Hear compelling personal stories of missteps, breakthroughs, and the often invisible work of artists who repair, reimagine, and rebuild community infrastructure.

Tune in to uncover timeless lessons and practical tools from an unsung chapter in U.S. history that’s helping shape the future of art and civic engagement today.

Notable Mentions:

Here’s alist of People, Events, Organizations, and Publications mentioned in the episode, each with a brief description and clickable links to learn more. P

1. People

  • Virginia Maksymowicz – Sculptor, longtime CETA artist (1978–1979), and co-director of the CETA Arts Legacy Project based in Philadelphia 
  • Blaise Tobia – Photographer, CETA participant documenting the NYC project, professor at Drexel, and co-director of the CETA Arts Legacy Project 
  • Ted Berger – Arts advocate, former Executive Director of NYFA, and early leader in NYC’s CETA program 
  • John Kreidler – Architect of San Francisco’s first CETA Artists program in 1974, helped shape putting federal funds into art 
  • Ruth Asawa – Renowned sculptor and educator who helped launch the first CETA Arts experiment in San Francisco 
  • Sarah Calderón – Director of Creatives Rebuild New York who consulted with Virginia and Blaise on CETA models 
  • Molly Garfinkel – City Lore archivist who has supported the CETA Arts Legacy Project since 2017 

2. Events / Programs

  • CETA Artists Project (1978–1979) – Part of the federal Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, this was the largest artist employment initiative since the WPA. Artists served in community centers, schools, prisons—and shaped public life through art 
  • CETA Arts Legacy Project – An initiative by former CETA artists (Virginia, Blaise, and others) to document and preserve the CETA movement across the U.S. beginning around 2016–2017 
  • Creatives Rebuild New York (2021–2024) – A $125 million pandemic-era initiative combining artist employment slots and guaranteed income to support creative workers in New York 

3. Organizations


4. Publications

  • The Gift by Lewis Hyde – A classic reflection on the gift economy and why creativity transcends commodification; cited as an essential text for artists in the episode 
  • Artworkers News – A newsletter later renamed Art & Artists, published by FCA during the first CETA year to document artist assignments 

******

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>What if the secret to revitalizing today’s creative workforce lies in a forgotten 1970s government program?

In a time when society urgently seeks sustainable ways to support artists and strengthen communities, in this episode, the second of two, we revisit the CETA Arts Program—a bold experiment that transformed artists into public servants. You’ll hear how this unexpected initiative is influencing today’s creative policy landscape and how its legacy is being reimagined in pandemic-era artist relief efforts.

  • Learn how CETA’s community-centered structure inspired programs like Creatives Rebuild New York, blending public service with creative employment.
  • Discover the crucial real-world skills—like negotiation, humility, and adaptability—that artists must master but never learn in art school.
  • Hear compelling personal stories of missteps, breakthroughs, and the often invisible work of artists who repair, reimagine, and rebuild community infrastructure.

Tune in to uncover timeless lessons and practical tools from an unsung chapter in U.S. history that’s helping shape the future of art and civic engagement today.

Notable Mentions:

Here’s alist of People, Events, Organizations, and Publications mentioned in the episode, each with a brief description and clickable links to learn more. P

1. People

  • Virginia Maksymowicz – Sculptor, longtime CETA artist (1978–1979), and co-director of the CETA Arts Legacy Project based in Philadelphia 
  • Blaise Tobia – Photographer, CETA participant documenting the NYC project, professor at Drexel, and co-director of the CETA Arts Legacy Project 
  • Ted Berger – Arts advocate, former Executive Director of NYFA, and early leader in NYC’s CETA program 
  • John Kreidler – Architect of San Francisco’s first CETA Artists program in 1974, helped shape putting federal funds into art 
  • Ruth Asawa – Renowned sculptor and educator who helped launch the first CETA Arts experiment in San Francisco 
  • Sarah Calderón – Director of Creatives Rebuild New York who consulted with Virginia and Blaise on CETA models 
  • Molly Garfinkel – City Lore archivist who has supported the CETA Arts Legacy Project since 2017 

2. Events / Programs

  • CETA Artists Project (1978–1979) – Part of the federal Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, this was the largest artist employment initiative since the WPA. Artists served in community centers, schools, prisons—and shaped public life through art 
  • CETA Arts Legacy Project – An initiative by former CETA artists (Virginia, Blaise, and others) to document and preserve the CETA movement across the U.S. beginning around 2016–2017 
  • Creatives Rebuild New York (2021–2024) – A $125 million pandemic-era initiative combining artist employment slots and guaranteed income to support creative workers in New York 

3. Organizations


4. Publications

  • The Gift by Lewis Hyde – A classic reflection on the gift economy and why creativity transcends commodification; cited as an essential text for artists in the episode 
  • Artworkers News – A newsletter later renamed Art & Artists, published by FCA during the first CETA year to document artist assignments 

******

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>575620e9-84b6-4a09-b68b-9059417f1516Wed, 21 May 2025 04:30:00 -070033:30truefull41261264125: THE CETA ARTS REVOLUTION: What Can Today's Activist Artists & Organizers Learn from It?125: THE CETA ARTS REVOLUTION: What Can Today's Activist Artists & Organizers Learn from It?Did you know the U.S. once launched a massive jobs program that empowered over 20,000 artists, and creative support staff—and then let it vanish from collective memory?

For artists, educators, and community leaders seeking sustainable support for creative work, the forgotten story of the CETA Arts Program offers a powerful historical lesson. In a time of economic uncertainty, this 1970s initiative not only employed artists—it embedded them into the heart of local communities to spark cultural and social change.

  • Discover how two artists-turned-historians uncovered the lost legacy of a program that transformed the lives of thousands of creatives
  • Learn how government-backed art initiatives planted the seeds for enduring institutions like Brooklyn’s BACA Downtown and Philadelphia’s Painted Bride.
  • Hear powerful stories of artists bridging divides, inspiring youth, and reshaping neighborhoods—lessons that resonate powerfully today.

Tune in to uncover the hidden history of America’s largest investment in artists and why it still matters for the future of creative community work.

Notable Mentions

This is a list of the key figures, events, organizations, and publications discussed in the podcast episode, offering pathways for further exploration into the legacy of the CETA Arts Program.

People

Virginia Maksymowicz: An American sculptor known for installations that explore social issues, often incorporating the female form. She was a participant in the NYC CETA Artists Project and co-leads the CETA Arts Legacy Project.

Blaise Tobia: A contemporary photographer and professor emeritus at Drexel University. Tobia documented the NYC CETA Artists Project and collaborates with Maksymowicz on the CETA Arts Legacy Project.

Bill Cleveland: Host of the podcast “Change the Story / Change the World” and director of the Center for the Study of Art & Community.

Richard Nixon: The 37th President of the United States, who signed the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) into law in 1973.

Abe Beame: Mayor of New York City from 1974 to 1977, during the implementation of the CETA program.

Ernie Green: Assistant Secretary of Labor who announced CETA funding allocations to New York City.

Alan Lomax: Renowned folklorist and ethnomusicologist, referenced in the podcast for his approach to cultural documentation.

Jane Goldberg: A tap dancer and historian who collaborated with fellow CETA artist Charles “Cookie” Cook.

Charles “Cookie” Cook: A legendary tap dancer who partnered with Jane Goldberg during the CETA program.

Ellsworth Ausby: An artist known for integrating sculpture with performance, who initiated collaborative projects during the CETA era.

Charles “Chino” Garcia:Co-founder of En Foco, a Bronx-based photography organization that emerged during the CETA period.

Charlene Victor:Director of the Brooklyn Arts and Cultural Association, instrumental in transforming St. Boniface School into a cultural center with the help of CETA artists.

Rosita Enrique:Director of an afterschool program in the Bronx that collaborated with CETA artists to enhance arts education.

Tyrone “Cool” Jones:A student in East New York who discovered a passion for sculpture through CETA art programs.

🗓️ Events

Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA)

A federal program enacted in 1973 to provide job training and employment in public service, including the arts.

CETA Artists Project (1977–1980): A New York City initiative under CETA that employed artists across disciplines to work in community settings.

Fort Apache, The Bronx: A 1981 film depicting the challenges in the South Bronx, an area where CETA artists were active.

🏛️ Organizations

Cultural Council Foundation: A nonprofit that administered the CETA Artists Project in New York City, facilitating artist placements in community organizations.

En Foco: A Bronx-based nonprofit supporting photographers of diverse backgrounds, which collaborated with CETA artists.

Painted Bride Art Center: A Philadelphia arts venue that expanded its programming and staff through CETA funding.

Brandywine Workshop and Archives: A Philadelphia-based printmaking organization that grew significantly during the CETA era.

People’s Light and Theatre Company: A professional nonprofit theatre in Malvern, Pennsylvania, that benefited from CETA support in its early years.

New York Botanical Garden: A cultural institution in the Bronx that hosted CETA artists for community art projects.

High Rock Park: A Staten Island nature preserve where CETA artists conducted environmental art and education programs.

📚 Publications

Sculpture Magazine: A publication that has featured reviews of Virginia Maksymowicz’s work.

Artblog: An online platform that published an article on the collaborative work of Maksymowicz and Tobia.

******

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>Did you know the U.S. once launched a massive jobs program that empowered over 20,000 artists, and creative support staff—and then let it vanish from collective memory?

For artists, educators, and community leaders seeking sustainable support for creative work, the forgotten story of the CETA Arts Program offers a powerful historical lesson. In a time of economic uncertainty, this 1970s initiative not only employed artists—it embedded them into the heart of local communities to spark cultural and social change.

  • Discover how two artists-turned-historians uncovered the lost legacy of a program that transformed the lives of thousands of creatives
  • Learn how government-backed art initiatives planted the seeds for enduring institutions like Brooklyn’s BACA Downtown and Philadelphia’s Painted Bride.
  • Hear powerful stories of artists bridging divides, inspiring youth, and reshaping neighborhoods—lessons that resonate powerfully today.

Tune in to uncover the hidden history of America’s largest investment in artists and why it still matters for the future of creative community work.

Notable Mentions

This is a list of the key figures, events, organizations, and publications discussed in the podcast episode, offering pathways for further exploration into the legacy of the CETA Arts Program.

People

Virginia Maksymowicz: An American sculptor known for installations that explore social issues, often incorporating the female form. She was a participant in the NYC CETA Artists Project and co-leads the CETA Arts Legacy Project.

Blaise Tobia: A contemporary photographer and professor emeritus at Drexel University. Tobia documented the NYC CETA Artists Project and collaborates with Maksymowicz on the CETA Arts Legacy Project.

Bill Cleveland: Host of the podcast “Change the Story / Change the World” and director of the Center for the Study of Art & Community.

Richard Nixon: The 37th President of the United States, who signed the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) into law in 1973.

Abe Beame: Mayor of New York City from 1974 to 1977, during the implementation of the CETA program.

Ernie Green: Assistant Secretary of Labor who announced CETA funding allocations to New York City.

Alan Lomax: Renowned folklorist and ethnomusicologist, referenced in the podcast for his approach to cultural documentation.

Jane Goldberg: A tap dancer and historian who collaborated with fellow CETA artist Charles “Cookie” Cook.

Charles “Cookie” Cook: A legendary tap dancer who partnered with Jane Goldberg during the CETA program.

Ellsworth Ausby: An artist known for integrating sculpture with performance, who initiated collaborative projects during the CETA era.

Charles “Chino” Garcia:Co-founder of En Foco, a Bronx-based photography organization that emerged during the CETA period.

Charlene Victor:Director of the Brooklyn Arts and Cultural Association, instrumental in transforming St. Boniface School into a cultural center with the help of CETA artists.

Rosita Enrique:Director of an afterschool program in the Bronx that collaborated with CETA artists to enhance arts education.

Tyrone “Cool” Jones:A student in East New York who discovered a passion for sculpture through CETA art programs.

🗓️ Events

Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA)

A federal program enacted in 1973 to provide job training and employment in public service, including the arts.

CETA Artists Project (1977–1980): A New York City initiative under CETA that employed artists across disciplines to work in community settings.

Fort Apache, The Bronx: A 1981 film depicting the challenges in the South Bronx, an area where CETA artists were active.

🏛️ Organizations

Cultural Council Foundation: A nonprofit that administered the CETA Artists Project in New York City, facilitating artist placements in community organizations.

En Foco: A Bronx-based nonprofit supporting photographers of diverse backgrounds, which collaborated with CETA artists.

Painted Bride Art Center: A Philadelphia arts venue that expanded its programming and staff through CETA funding.

Brandywine Workshop and Archives: A Philadelphia-based printmaking organization that grew significantly during the CETA era.

People’s Light and Theatre Company: A professional nonprofit theatre in Malvern, Pennsylvania, that benefited from CETA support in its early years.

New York Botanical Garden: A cultural institution in the Bronx that hosted CETA artists for community art projects.

High Rock Park: A Staten Island nature preserve where CETA artists conducted environmental art and education programs.

📚 Publications

Sculpture Magazine: A publication that has featured reviews of Virginia Maksymowicz’s work.

Artblog: An online platform that published an article on the collaborative work of Maksymowicz and Tobia.

******

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>1bbd3be8-098d-422a-b61d-d2a6e45a6bd1Wed, 14 May 2025 04:15:00 -070038:28truefull41251254124: New Rules: 11 Unlikely Lessons for Activist Artists Navigating MAGA.124: New Rules: 11 Unlikely Lessons for Activist Artists Navigating MAGA.What can we learn from artists who survived the chaos of 1980s prisons—and how can their lessons help us resist authoritarianism today?

From the Center for the Study of Art & Community, this is Change the Story / Change the World: A chronicle of art and social change, where artivists share and learn the skills and strategies they need to thrive as creative community leaders. My name is Bill Cleveland. 

As censorship and threats escalate for activist artists and community leaders, navigating today’s polarized world demands more than passion. This episode draws powerful insights from prison arts programs to help creatives and organizers thrive amid rising societal conflict and control.

  • Discover 11 practical rules for building credibility, resilience, and respect in high-stakes, divided environments.
  • Learn why sustained relationships and long-term commitment are the foundation for real, transformative change.
  • Gain essential strategies for navigating us-versus-them traps, telling bold yet responsible stories, and protecting mental health in toxic climates.

Listen now to unlock time-tested survival strategies that can empower your activism, deepen your community work, and sustain your creative mission.

Notable Mentions

1. People

Bill Cleveland: Host of Change the Story, Change the World. Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community, he draws on decades of experience working with artists in prisons and conflict zones.

Jim Reeves: Author featured in previous episodes, discussed teaching and writing inside prisons.

Noel Raymond: Theater director and cultural leader, spoke about operating arts organizations under political duress.

Vern McKee: Incarcerated artist, president of Vacaville Prison’s Art and Musicians Guilds, who developed the core “Verne’s Rules” that guide arts engagement in high-stakes environments .

2. Events

California’s Arts-in-Corrections Program (1980-90's): A transformative initiative bringing arts education into state prisons during the 1980s, led by Bill Cleveland. A current program under the same name is being operated by the California Arts Council and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is carrying on the program

The Troubles (Northern Ireland): A period of political and sectarian conflict (late 1960s–1998) cited for comparison with the U.S. authoritarian climate.

Khmer Rouge Regime (Cambodia): Post-genocide rebuilding efforts included cultural recovery, referenced here as a parallel to U.S. challenges.

Serbia under Slobodan Milošević: Cited as a reference point for understanding repression and the role of art in recovery.

California Prison Lockdowns (1980s): Specific reference to increased suicide and stress during blocked access to arts programs.

3. Organizations

Center for the Study of Art and Community: Producer of the podcast, promotes creative engagement in communities and conflict zones.

Vacaville Prison Art & Musicians Guilds: Peer-led arts guilds operating inside the prison that played a critical role in early prison arts programming.

Freesound.org: Open source sound effects library used for podcast production.

4. Publications/Media

Change the Story, Change the World: The podcast series highlighting activist art and community practice.

The MAGA Machine: A term referencing the political and cultural fallout from the “Make America Great Again” movement, discussed as a rising source of censorship and pressure on arts practitioners.

*****

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.






]]>What can we learn from artists who survived the chaos of 1980s prisons—and how can their lessons help us resist authoritarianism today?

From the Center for the Study of Art & Community, this is Change the Story / Change the World: A chronicle of art and social change, where artivists share and learn the skills and strategies they need to thrive as creative community leaders. My name is Bill Cleveland. 

As censorship and threats escalate for activist artists and community leaders, navigating today’s polarized world demands more than passion. This episode draws powerful insights from prison arts programs to help creatives and organizers thrive amid rising societal conflict and control.

  • Discover 11 practical rules for building credibility, resilience, and respect in high-stakes, divided environments.
  • Learn why sustained relationships and long-term commitment are the foundation for real, transformative change.
  • Gain essential strategies for navigating us-versus-them traps, telling bold yet responsible stories, and protecting mental health in toxic climates.

Listen now to unlock time-tested survival strategies that can empower your activism, deepen your community work, and sustain your creative mission.

Notable Mentions

1. People

Bill Cleveland: Host of Change the Story, Change the World. Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community, he draws on decades of experience working with artists in prisons and conflict zones.

Jim Reeves: Author featured in previous episodes, discussed teaching and writing inside prisons.

Noel Raymond: Theater director and cultural leader, spoke about operating arts organizations under political duress.

Vern McKee: Incarcerated artist, president of Vacaville Prison’s Art and Musicians Guilds, who developed the core “Verne’s Rules” that guide arts engagement in high-stakes environments .

2. Events

California’s Arts-in-Corrections Program (1980-90's): A transformative initiative bringing arts education into state prisons during the 1980s, led by Bill Cleveland. A current program under the same name is being operated by the California Arts Council and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is carrying on the program

The Troubles (Northern Ireland): A period of political and sectarian conflict (late 1960s–1998) cited for comparison with the U.S. authoritarian climate.

Khmer Rouge Regime (Cambodia): Post-genocide rebuilding efforts included cultural recovery, referenced here as a parallel to U.S. challenges.

Serbia under Slobodan Milošević: Cited as a reference point for understanding repression and the role of art in recovery.

California Prison Lockdowns (1980s): Specific reference to increased suicide and stress during blocked access to arts programs.

3. Organizations

Center for the Study of Art and Community: Producer of the podcast, promotes creative engagement in communities and conflict zones.

Vacaville Prison Art & Musicians Guilds: Peer-led arts guilds operating inside the prison that played a critical role in early prison arts programming.

Freesound.org: Open source sound effects library used for podcast production.

4. Publications/Media

Change the Story, Change the World: The podcast series highlighting activist art and community practice.

The MAGA Machine: A term referencing the political and cultural fallout from the “Make America Great Again” movement, discussed as a rising source of censorship and pressure on arts practitioners.

*****

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.






]]>e04fe2ce-7e6d-4517-a036-8dc862c30002Wed, 07 May 2025 04:45:00 -070022:51truefull41241244123: How are Artists and Organizers Creating a Better World Together? Reprise123: How are Artists and Organizers Creating a Better World Together? RepriseCan the right song, painting, or museum exhibit spark real political change? What if culture is the missing strategy in today’s social movements?

From the Center for the Study of Art & Community, this is Change the Story / Change the World: A chronicle of art and social change, where activist artists and cultural organizers share and learn what they need to thrive as creative change agents. My name is Bill Cleveland.

If you’ve ever felt like your efforts for justice aren’t hitting deep enough, it might be because the culture hasn’t caught up with your message. In this episode, labor organizer and social change strategist Ken Grossinger shares how his journey from labor organizing to cultural advocacy revealed a truth many overlook: policy changes fade, but stories—and the art that tells them—have staying power. In this episode:

  • Discover how blending power analysis with artistic expression can amplify grassroots campaigns and drive long-term social change.
  • Hear powerful case studies—from a revolutionary museum exhibit in Louisville to a musical uprising in Alaska—that reveal how art can expose injustice and build movements.
  • Learn from real-world collaborations between artists and organizers that shift narratives, challenge power, and activate communities in ways no policy paper ever could.

Tune in now to hear how Ken Grossinger’s book ART WORKS and his work in communities across the U.S. show us why art isn’t just a reflection of justice—it’s how we get there.

BIO

Ken Grossinger, has been a leading strategist in movements for social and economic justice for thirty-five years, in unions, philanthropic and community organizations.

For two decades, Ken was one of the labor movement's leading strategists. He represented workers in the Service Employees International Union and then directed legislative field operations for the AFL-CIO, running large-scale issue campaigns including against the privatization of Social Security and for health care reform, economic and civil rights. Grossinger is widely regarded as an expert in pioneering national field strategies for labor and community organizations and is well known for building long-enduring alliances between the two.

Formerly a community organizer, Grossinger co-launched the Human SERVE Fund, a national advocate organization that initiated and led the successful decade-long fight for passage of the National Voter Registration Act, commonly known as Motor Voter.

Grossinger is active on several boards including the University of the District of Columbia (Trustee), Hirshhorn Museum (Trustee), People’s Action Institute (Director), Skylight Pictures (Director), and the CrossCurrents Foundation, (Chair).

Among other cultural projects, he co-executive produced the award-winning Netflix documentaries Social Dilemma and Bleeding Edge and served as Executive Producer of Boycott and the forthcoming film Borderland.

Ken is the author of ART WORKS: How Organizers and Artists are Creating a Better World Together, published by the New Press in July 2023. He lives part-time in Washington, DC., and Telluride, Colorado.

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>Can the right song, painting, or museum exhibit spark real political change? What if culture is the missing strategy in today’s social movements?

From the Center for the Study of Art & Community, this is Change the Story / Change the World: A chronicle of art and social change, where activist artists and cultural organizers share and learn what they need to thrive as creative change agents. My name is Bill Cleveland.

If you’ve ever felt like your efforts for justice aren’t hitting deep enough, it might be because the culture hasn’t caught up with your message. In this episode, labor organizer and social change strategist Ken Grossinger shares how his journey from labor organizing to cultural advocacy revealed a truth many overlook: policy changes fade, but stories—and the art that tells them—have staying power. In this episode:

  • Discover how blending power analysis with artistic expression can amplify grassroots campaigns and drive long-term social change.
  • Hear powerful case studies—from a revolutionary museum exhibit in Louisville to a musical uprising in Alaska—that reveal how art can expose injustice and build movements.
  • Learn from real-world collaborations between artists and organizers that shift narratives, challenge power, and activate communities in ways no policy paper ever could.

Tune in now to hear how Ken Grossinger’s book ART WORKS and his work in communities across the U.S. show us why art isn’t just a reflection of justice—it’s how we get there.

BIO

Ken Grossinger, has been a leading strategist in movements for social and economic justice for thirty-five years, in unions, philanthropic and community organizations.

For two decades, Ken was one of the labor movement's leading strategists. He represented workers in the Service Employees International Union and then directed legislative field operations for the AFL-CIO, running large-scale issue campaigns including against the privatization of Social Security and for health care reform, economic and civil rights. Grossinger is widely regarded as an expert in pioneering national field strategies for labor and community organizations and is well known for building long-enduring alliances between the two.

Formerly a community organizer, Grossinger co-launched the Human SERVE Fund, a national advocate organization that initiated and led the successful decade-long fight for passage of the National Voter Registration Act, commonly known as Motor Voter.

Grossinger is active on several boards including the University of the District of Columbia (Trustee), Hirshhorn Museum (Trustee), People’s Action Institute (Director), Skylight Pictures (Director), and the CrossCurrents Foundation, (Chair).

Among other cultural projects, he co-executive produced the award-winning Netflix documentaries Social Dilemma and Bleeding Edge and served as Executive Producer of Boycott and the forthcoming film Borderland.

Ken is the author of ART WORKS: How Organizers and Artists are Creating a Better World Together, published by the New Press in July 2023. He lives part-time in Washington, DC., and Telluride, Colorado.

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>b12a4686-748a-437c-867d-56636c541bc2Wed, 30 Apr 2025 04:00:00 -070001:00:10truefull41231234122: Change the Story Weather Report: A Neighborhood Cultural Center Navigates the MAGA Storm122: Change the Story Weather Report: A Neighborhood Cultural Center Navigates the MAGA StormThe MAGA storm system continues to exert a profound influence on community members, activist artists and cultural organizers living and working in Minneapolis' Powderhorn Central Community.

Bill Cleveland's dialogue with Noel Raymond reveals the complexities of navigating activism amidst the destabilizing forces fast moving Trumpian juggernaut. Raymond describes the fraught material emotional landscape faced by artists and cultural organizers, characterized by feelings of fear, rage, and disorientation.

Takeaways:

  • Understand why the disorientation that we're all experiencing is used as a tactic to prevent resistance, and that recognizing this helps us stay grounded.
  • Find out how an organization like Pillsbury House, uses the practice of sanctuary is a means of both safety and. And strategy.
  • Learn how creating spaces of safety and joy and cultural expression can be a powerful form of defiance and that the communities stories, whether they're in small circles or on stage, are a lifeline.

Other Key Points:

And when people tell their truths without mediation, they build solidarity and power and the possibility of change.

The discussion emphasizes the critical need for community support and the importance of creating safe spaces for artistic expression.

Through the lens of Pillsbury House's mission, the conversation underscores the power of storytelling as a tool for resistance and empowerment. Raymond's insights into the organization's efforts to center marginalized voices, particularly during moments of heightened tension, illuminate the intersection of art and activism.

As the episode unfolds, listeners are encouraged to reflect on their roles within their communities and the ways in which they can contribute to building solidarity and resilience in the face of adversity. Ultimately, this episode serves as both a poignant commentary on the challenges of the present and an inspiring call to action for those seeking to effect meaningful change.

Change the Story GoFundMe Campaign


Notable Mentions

In this episode, host Bill Cleveland sits down with Noel Raymond of Pillsbury House + Theatre to explore how artists and cultural organizers are navigating political backlash, erasure, and community survival in the heart of Minneapolis. Below is a curated list of the people, organizations, events, and references that came up during their powerful conversation.

People

Bill Cleveland: Host of Change the Story / Change the World and Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community.

Noel Raymond: Senior Director of Narrative Arts and Culture at Pillsbury House + Theatre, leading narrative strategy and performance-based organizing.

Mike Hoyt: Artist and cultural organizer at Pillsbury House + Theatre, noted for his community work and collaboration with Noel.

Judy Munsen: Composer of the podcast’s original theme and soundscape.

Events & Social Movements

Trans Day of Visibility: Annual event on March 31 to honor and raise awareness for the transgender community.

Drag Story Hour: Inclusive storytelling events for children hosted by drag performers to celebrate diversity and creativity.

Day Without Immigrants: Protest movement where immigrants stay home from work to demonstrate their vital contributions to society.

Story Circles: A democratic storytelling process used for healing, organizing, and performance creation.

Free Southern Theater: Civil Rights-era Black theater company dedicated to raising consciousness and community power through storytelling facilitated by Story Clircles.

Organizations & Institutions

Pillsbury House + Theatre: Minneapolis-based community anchor blending social services with professional arts to serve and empower local residents.

KRSM Radio: Community radio station in South Minneapolis offering space for local voices and independent media.

Minnesota Department of Health: Mentioned in relation to recent public health program defunding impacting marginalized communities.

ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement): Federal agency referenced in relation to traumatic immigration enforcement activity.

Tufts University: Referenced for a student whose detention by ICE sparked community trauma and activism.

Full Cycle: Former Pillsbury House youth-focused bike shop and training space — site of Pillsbury House’s new community facility.

Center for the Study of Art and Community: Podcast producer and longtime supporter of arts-based civic work.

Media & Tools Referenced

Change the Story / Change the World Podcast: A series exploring the intersection of art, justice, and community transformation.

GoFundMe: Mentioned as a means of supporting continued community-based media and resistance efforts.

FreeSound.org: Source of audio effects used in the podcast production.

Want to go deeper into this episode? Listen to the full podcast here or support the project through the GoFundMe link in the show notes. Let’s keep these stories alive and amplified.*

**********

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>The MAGA storm system continues to exert a profound influence on community members, activist artists and cultural organizers living and working in Minneapolis' Powderhorn Central Community.

Bill Cleveland's dialogue with Noel Raymond reveals the complexities of navigating activism amidst the destabilizing forces fast moving Trumpian juggernaut. Raymond describes the fraught material emotional landscape faced by artists and cultural organizers, characterized by feelings of fear, rage, and disorientation.

Takeaways:

  • Understand why the disorientation that we're all experiencing is used as a tactic to prevent resistance, and that recognizing this helps us stay grounded.
  • Find out how an organization like Pillsbury House, uses the practice of sanctuary is a means of both safety and. And strategy.
  • Learn how creating spaces of safety and joy and cultural expression can be a powerful form of defiance and that the communities stories, whether they're in small circles or on stage, are a lifeline.

Other Key Points:

And when people tell their truths without mediation, they build solidarity and power and the possibility of change.

The discussion emphasizes the critical need for community support and the importance of creating safe spaces for artistic expression.

Through the lens of Pillsbury House's mission, the conversation underscores the power of storytelling as a tool for resistance and empowerment. Raymond's insights into the organization's efforts to center marginalized voices, particularly during moments of heightened tension, illuminate the intersection of art and activism.

As the episode unfolds, listeners are encouraged to reflect on their roles within their communities and the ways in which they can contribute to building solidarity and resilience in the face of adversity. Ultimately, this episode serves as both a poignant commentary on the challenges of the present and an inspiring call to action for those seeking to effect meaningful change.

Change the Story GoFundMe Campaign


Notable Mentions

In this episode, host Bill Cleveland sits down with Noel Raymond of Pillsbury House + Theatre to explore how artists and cultural organizers are navigating political backlash, erasure, and community survival in the heart of Minneapolis. Below is a curated list of the people, organizations, events, and references that came up during their powerful conversation.

People

Bill Cleveland: Host of Change the Story / Change the World and Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community.

Noel Raymond: Senior Director of Narrative Arts and Culture at Pillsbury House + Theatre, leading narrative strategy and performance-based organizing.

Mike Hoyt: Artist and cultural organizer at Pillsbury House + Theatre, noted for his community work and collaboration with Noel.

Judy Munsen: Composer of the podcast’s original theme and soundscape.

Events & Social Movements

Trans Day of Visibility: Annual event on March 31 to honor and raise awareness for the transgender community.

Drag Story Hour: Inclusive storytelling events for children hosted by drag performers to celebrate diversity and creativity.

Day Without Immigrants: Protest movement where immigrants stay home from work to demonstrate their vital contributions to society.

Story Circles: A democratic storytelling process used for healing, organizing, and performance creation.

Free Southern Theater: Civil Rights-era Black theater company dedicated to raising consciousness and community power through storytelling facilitated by Story Clircles.

Organizations & Institutions

Pillsbury House + Theatre: Minneapolis-based community anchor blending social services with professional arts to serve and empower local residents.

KRSM Radio: Community radio station in South Minneapolis offering space for local voices and independent media.

Minnesota Department of Health: Mentioned in relation to recent public health program defunding impacting marginalized communities.

ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement): Federal agency referenced in relation to traumatic immigration enforcement activity.

Tufts University: Referenced for a student whose detention by ICE sparked community trauma and activism.

Full Cycle: Former Pillsbury House youth-focused bike shop and training space — site of Pillsbury House’s new community facility.

Center for the Study of Art and Community: Podcast producer and longtime supporter of arts-based civic work.

Media & Tools Referenced

Change the Story / Change the World Podcast: A series exploring the intersection of art, justice, and community transformation.

GoFundMe: Mentioned as a means of supporting continued community-based media and resistance efforts.

FreeSound.org: Source of audio effects used in the podcast production.

Want to go deeper into this episode? Listen to the full podcast here or support the project through the GoFundMe link in the show notes. Let’s keep these stories alive and amplified.*

**********

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>804bc176-bc8b-4364-bcf0-b1c765091fbaWed, 23 Apr 2025 04:30:00 -070024:31truefull41221224121: Talking Walls & Dancing Kites*: Powerful Lessons from a Prison Writing Classroom121: Talking Walls & Dancing Kites*: Powerful Lessons from a Prison Writing ClassroomWhat happens when a writer steps into a prison and discovers more than just stories behind bars? In this episode author and educator Jim Reese shares vivid stories and hard lessons from more than a decade working with incarcerated men.

In a world obsessed with punishment over understanding, this episode dives deep into the transformative power of writing in places most people never dare to go. If you’ve ever wondered whether creativity can truly change lives—on both sides of the prison walls—this conversation offers surprising answers.

  • Discover how inmates find their voices and reconnect with family and humanity through storytelling.
  • Hear how teaching in prisons reshaped Jim Reese’s understanding of justice, redemption, and the role of an artist.
  • Learn why authentic connection, vulnerability, and purpose can break barriers even in the most rigid environments.

Tune in explore how the written word is transforming lives and shifting mindsets—inside and outside the prison system.

* A "kite" In prison slang, a term for a written note or message. It's a way for inmates to communicate with each other or staff, especially when direct verbal communication is restricted. The term likely originated from the way inmates would attach folded notes to strings and "fly" them between cells, resembling a kite. 

Notable Mentions

Here’s a list of the people, events, organizations, and publications mentioned in the show with hyperlinks for more in-depth information:

People

Jim Reese: An American poet, professor, and advocate for arts in corrections. He is the Associate Professor of English at Mount Marty University and has taught creative writing at the Yankton Federal Prison Camp.

David Sedaris: A renowned humorist and author known for his sardonic wit and incisive social critiques. Jim Reese had the opportunity to open for Sedaris during a live performance.

Kyle Roberson: Supervisor of Education at Yankton Federal Prison Camp who collaborated with Jim Reese on the prison’s creative writing program.

Marquise Bowie: An inmate participant in the creative writing program at Yankton Federal Prison Camp who credited the program with aiding his healing process.

2. Events

Jim Reese Opening for David Sedaris: In October 2023, Jim Reese opened for David Sedaris at the Orpheum Theater Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

A Decade of Learning at Federal Prison Camp Yankton: Celebrating Jim Reese’s ten years of teaching creative writing at the Yankton Federal Prison Camp, highlighting the impact of arts in corrections.

3. Organizations

Mount Marty University: A Catholic liberal arts university in Yankton, South Dakota, where Jim Reese serves as Associate Professor of English.

Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP): A U.S. federal agency responsible for the administration of the federal prison system, which supported the creative writing program at Yankton Federal Prison Camp.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA): An independent federal agency that funds and supports artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation, which backed the artist-in-residence program at the prison.

4. Publications

4 P.M. Count: An annual journal edited by Jim Reese featuring creative writing and visual artwork by inmates at Yankton Federal Prison Camp.

Bone Chalk: A nonfiction book by Jim Reese published in 2020, offering insights into life, crime, and redemption in the American Midwest.

These Trespasses: A poetry collection by Jim Reese published in 2005, exploring themes of loss, love, and the human condition.

ghost on 3rd: A 2010 poetry collection by Jim Reese delving into the complexities of life in the Midwest.

Really Happy!: A 2014 poetry collection by Jim Reese that captures the nuances of everyday experiences.

Dancing Room Only: A 2024 collection of new and selected poems by Jim Reese, reflecting on the joys and sorrows of life.

GOFundMe -- Click Here. Thanks

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>What happens when a writer steps into a prison and discovers more than just stories behind bars? In this episode author and educator Jim Reese shares vivid stories and hard lessons from more than a decade working with incarcerated men.

In a world obsessed with punishment over understanding, this episode dives deep into the transformative power of writing in places most people never dare to go. If you’ve ever wondered whether creativity can truly change lives—on both sides of the prison walls—this conversation offers surprising answers.

  • Discover how inmates find their voices and reconnect with family and humanity through storytelling.
  • Hear how teaching in prisons reshaped Jim Reese’s understanding of justice, redemption, and the role of an artist.
  • Learn why authentic connection, vulnerability, and purpose can break barriers even in the most rigid environments.

Tune in explore how the written word is transforming lives and shifting mindsets—inside and outside the prison system.

* A "kite" In prison slang, a term for a written note or message. It's a way for inmates to communicate with each other or staff, especially when direct verbal communication is restricted. The term likely originated from the way inmates would attach folded notes to strings and "fly" them between cells, resembling a kite. 

Notable Mentions

Here’s a list of the people, events, organizations, and publications mentioned in the show with hyperlinks for more in-depth information:

People

Jim Reese: An American poet, professor, and advocate for arts in corrections. He is the Associate Professor of English at Mount Marty University and has taught creative writing at the Yankton Federal Prison Camp.

David Sedaris: A renowned humorist and author known for his sardonic wit and incisive social critiques. Jim Reese had the opportunity to open for Sedaris during a live performance.

Kyle Roberson: Supervisor of Education at Yankton Federal Prison Camp who collaborated with Jim Reese on the prison’s creative writing program.

Marquise Bowie: An inmate participant in the creative writing program at Yankton Federal Prison Camp who credited the program with aiding his healing process.

2. Events

Jim Reese Opening for David Sedaris: In October 2023, Jim Reese opened for David Sedaris at the Orpheum Theater Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

A Decade of Learning at Federal Prison Camp Yankton: Celebrating Jim Reese’s ten years of teaching creative writing at the Yankton Federal Prison Camp, highlighting the impact of arts in corrections.

3. Organizations

Mount Marty University: A Catholic liberal arts university in Yankton, South Dakota, where Jim Reese serves as Associate Professor of English.

Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP): A U.S. federal agency responsible for the administration of the federal prison system, which supported the creative writing program at Yankton Federal Prison Camp.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA): An independent federal agency that funds and supports artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation, which backed the artist-in-residence program at the prison.

4. Publications

4 P.M. Count: An annual journal edited by Jim Reese featuring creative writing and visual artwork by inmates at Yankton Federal Prison Camp.

Bone Chalk: A nonfiction book by Jim Reese published in 2020, offering insights into life, crime, and redemption in the American Midwest.

These Trespasses: A poetry collection by Jim Reese published in 2005, exploring themes of loss, love, and the human condition.

ghost on 3rd: A 2010 poetry collection by Jim Reese delving into the complexities of life in the Midwest.

Really Happy!: A 2014 poetry collection by Jim Reese that captures the nuances of everyday experiences.

Dancing Room Only: A 2024 collection of new and selected poems by Jim Reese, reflecting on the joys and sorrows of life.

GOFundMe -- Click Here. Thanks

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>f6535f4f-c5e0-46c1-ae2f-f71041b4d877Wed, 16 Apr 2025 04:00:00 -070047:53truefull41211214120: Change the Story Good Trouble Weather Report: Massachusetts120: Change the Story Good Trouble Weather Report: MassachusettsSummary

In this Change the Story, Good Trouble “Weather Report” episode, Michael Bobbit, Executive Director of the Mass Cultural Council, joins host BC to examine the turbulent climate for arts and social change under the Trump regime. From the erosion of DEI policies to looming threats against public arts funding, Bobbit underscores the urgent need for advocacy and proactive engagement across the arts sector. This compelling conversation offers both a diagnosis of the current cultural storm and a call to action for artists, organizers, and institutions to reclaim their power in the public square.

Bio

Michael J. Bobbitt is a distinguished theater artist. As the Executive Director of Mass Cultural Council, he is the highest- ranking public official in Massachusetts state government focused on arts and culture.Since 2021, he has led the Agency through several initiatives, including the development of its first Racial Equity Plan, d/Deaf & Disability Equity and Access Plan, and Native American & Indigenous Equity Plan; the launch of the nation’s first statewide Social Prescribing Initiative; the securing and distribution of $60.1 million in pandemic relief funding; and the design and implementation of a strategic plan for fiscal years 2o24-2026. Recently, Michael was listed as one of the Boston Business Journal’s Power 50 Movement Makers. He has been appointed by Governor Maura Healey to serve on both the Governor’s Advisory Council on Black Empowerment and the newly established Massachusetts Cultural Policy Development Advisory Council, and he recently received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa from Dean College. He is a proud alumnus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. 

He previously served as Artistic Director of the New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, MA; immediately prior to this he held the same position at the Adventure Theatre-MTC in Maryland for 12 years. While in Maryland Michael led the organization to be a respected regional theatre training company, and a nationally influential professional Theatre for Young Audiences.

Key Moments

[00:01:00] – Michael outlines how DEI is central to Mass Cultural Council’s mission—even if that means rejecting NEA funding.

[00:02:00] – Discussion on government funding’s symbolic and practical importance in ensuring access to the arts

[00:03:00] – Michael warns of the sector’s disorganization compared to housing and gun lobbyists, and calls for operationalizing advocacy.

[00:06:00] – “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu”: why the arts sector must get political.

[00:10:00] – Highlighting current efforts: Theater Offensive’s legal action, Center Stage’s resistance work.

[00:11:00] – Summary of Trump-era policies affecting arts and culture—defunding, executive orders, and anti-DEI initiatives.

[00:13:00] – Closing reflections and a call to action to remain engaged and support arts advocacy.

Takeaways

Advocacy is essential: Michael stresses that arts organizations must treat political engagement like fundraising or marketing.

DEI is non-negotiable: The Mass Cultural Council will not compromise on DEI, even if it jeopardizes federal funding.

Government funding sends a message: Beyond finances, it symbolizes societal support for the arts.

The threat is real and accelerating: Ongoing executive actions threaten arts institutions, immigrants, and vulnerable communities.

Artists must mobilize: This is a critical moment for the arts to reclaim its role in social justice and public discourse.

Please Join the Change the Story / Change the World GOFundMe Campaign

Notable Mentions

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 People

Michael Bobbit – Executive Director of the Mass Cultural Council and passionate advocate for arts and DEI.

BC (Podcast Host) – Host of Change the Story / Change the World, affiliated with the Center for the Study of Art & Community.

Mayor Michelle Wu – Mentioned for speaking before Congress regarding sanctuary cities.

Judy Munson – Composer behind the podcast’s theme and soundscape.

📅 Events

Elimination of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities (Feb 2025) – Disbanded as part of a broader rollback of cultural support.

Executive Order on “Divisive Ideology” (Mar 2025) – Aimed at restricting diversity narratives in federal institutions.

Takeover of the U.S. Institute of Peace (Mar 2025) – Raises concerns over peacebuilding independence.

Defunding of the National Endowment for Democracy (Feb 2025) – Cuts that threaten democratic arts engagement abroad.

🏢 Organizations

Mass Cultural Council – Massachusetts’ leading arts agency, led by Bobbit.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) – Federal agency under scrutiny for diversity-related restrictions.

Theater Offensive – Boston-based LGBTQ+ arts group engaged in legal challenges to the NEA.

Center Stage (Baltimore) – Mentioned for proactive resistance through arts.

Institute of Museum and Library Services – Facing closure under current administration.

U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) – Subject to federal control shifts.

National Endowment for Democracy (NED) – Facing defunding.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) – Involved in NEA-related lawsuits.

📚 Publications/Media

Change the Story / Change the World Podcast – Produced by the Center for the Study of Art and Community, focusing on arts and social change.

FreeSound.org – Source for audio effects in the podcast.

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>Summary

In this Change the Story, Good Trouble “Weather Report” episode, Michael Bobbit, Executive Director of the Mass Cultural Council, joins host BC to examine the turbulent climate for arts and social change under the Trump regime. From the erosion of DEI policies to looming threats against public arts funding, Bobbit underscores the urgent need for advocacy and proactive engagement across the arts sector. This compelling conversation offers both a diagnosis of the current cultural storm and a call to action for artists, organizers, and institutions to reclaim their power in the public square.

Bio

Michael J. Bobbitt is a distinguished theater artist. As the Executive Director of Mass Cultural Council, he is the highest- ranking public official in Massachusetts state government focused on arts and culture.Since 2021, he has led the Agency through several initiatives, including the development of its first Racial Equity Plan, d/Deaf & Disability Equity and Access Plan, and Native American & Indigenous Equity Plan; the launch of the nation’s first statewide Social Prescribing Initiative; the securing and distribution of $60.1 million in pandemic relief funding; and the design and implementation of a strategic plan for fiscal years 2o24-2026. Recently, Michael was listed as one of the Boston Business Journal’s Power 50 Movement Makers. He has been appointed by Governor Maura Healey to serve on both the Governor’s Advisory Council on Black Empowerment and the newly established Massachusetts Cultural Policy Development Advisory Council, and he recently received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa from Dean College. He is a proud alumnus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. 

He previously served as Artistic Director of the New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, MA; immediately prior to this he held the same position at the Adventure Theatre-MTC in Maryland for 12 years. While in Maryland Michael led the organization to be a respected regional theatre training company, and a nationally influential professional Theatre for Young Audiences.

Key Moments

[00:01:00] – Michael outlines how DEI is central to Mass Cultural Council’s mission—even if that means rejecting NEA funding.

[00:02:00] – Discussion on government funding’s symbolic and practical importance in ensuring access to the arts

[00:03:00] – Michael warns of the sector’s disorganization compared to housing and gun lobbyists, and calls for operationalizing advocacy.

[00:06:00] – “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu”: why the arts sector must get political.

[00:10:00] – Highlighting current efforts: Theater Offensive’s legal action, Center Stage’s resistance work.

[00:11:00] – Summary of Trump-era policies affecting arts and culture—defunding, executive orders, and anti-DEI initiatives.

[00:13:00] – Closing reflections and a call to action to remain engaged and support arts advocacy.

Takeaways

Advocacy is essential: Michael stresses that arts organizations must treat political engagement like fundraising or marketing.

DEI is non-negotiable: The Mass Cultural Council will not compromise on DEI, even if it jeopardizes federal funding.

Government funding sends a message: Beyond finances, it symbolizes societal support for the arts.

The threat is real and accelerating: Ongoing executive actions threaten arts institutions, immigrants, and vulnerable communities.

Artists must mobilize: This is a critical moment for the arts to reclaim its role in social justice and public discourse.

Please Join the Change the Story / Change the World GOFundMe Campaign

Notable Mentions

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 People

Michael Bobbit – Executive Director of the Mass Cultural Council and passionate advocate for arts and DEI.

BC (Podcast Host) – Host of Change the Story / Change the World, affiliated with the Center for the Study of Art & Community.

Mayor Michelle Wu – Mentioned for speaking before Congress regarding sanctuary cities.

Judy Munson – Composer behind the podcast’s theme and soundscape.

📅 Events

Elimination of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities (Feb 2025) – Disbanded as part of a broader rollback of cultural support.

Executive Order on “Divisive Ideology” (Mar 2025) – Aimed at restricting diversity narratives in federal institutions.

Takeover of the U.S. Institute of Peace (Mar 2025) – Raises concerns over peacebuilding independence.

Defunding of the National Endowment for Democracy (Feb 2025) – Cuts that threaten democratic arts engagement abroad.

🏢 Organizations

Mass Cultural Council – Massachusetts’ leading arts agency, led by Bobbit.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) – Federal agency under scrutiny for diversity-related restrictions.

Theater Offensive – Boston-based LGBTQ+ arts group engaged in legal challenges to the NEA.

Center Stage (Baltimore) – Mentioned for proactive resistance through arts.

Institute of Museum and Library Services – Facing closure under current administration.

U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) – Subject to federal control shifts.

National Endowment for Democracy (NED) – Facing defunding.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) – Involved in NEA-related lawsuits.

📚 Publications/Media

Change the Story / Change the World Podcast – Produced by the Center for the Study of Art and Community, focusing on arts and social change.

FreeSound.org – Source for audio effects in the podcast.

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>3354649e-1a97-40e9-a1cf-bec26b4cd782Wed, 09 Apr 2025 04:45:00 -070014:35truefull41201204119: How do Arts Leaders Become Community Change Agents?119: How do Arts Leaders Become Community Change Agents?Summary

In this powerful and personal conversation, MASS Cultural Council Executive Director, Michael Bobbitt explores the life-saving role of the arts, how creative work is inherently political, and the deep importance of joy, community, and innovation in building a better future. Drawing on his personal story, leadership journey, and groundbreaking initiatives, Bobbitt challenges arts organizations to think boldly and cross-sectorally in their work for social change.

Bio

Michael J. Bobbitt is a distinguished theater artist. As the Executive Director of Mass Cultural Council, he is the highest- ranking public official in Massachusetts state government focused on arts and culture.Since 2021, he has led the Agency through several initiatives, including the development of its first Racial Equity Plan, d/Deaf & Disability Equity and Access Plan, and Native American & Indigenous Equity Plan; the launch of the nation’s first statewide Social Prescribing Initiative; the securing and distribution of $60.1 million in pandemic relief funding; and the design and implementation of a strategic plan for fiscal years 2o24-2026. Recently, Michael was listed as one of the Boston Business Journal’s Power 50 Movement Makers. He has been appointed by Governor Maura Healey to serve on both the Governor’s Advisory Council on Black Empowerment and the newly established Massachusetts Cultural Policy Development Advisory Council, and he recently received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa from Dean College. He is a proud alumnus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. 

He previously served as Artistic Director of the New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, MA; immediately prior to this he held the same position at the Adventure Theatre-MTC in Maryland for 12 years. While in Maryland Michael led the organization to be a respected regional theatre training company, and a nationally influential professional Theatre for Young Audiences.

🗝️ Key Moments

[00:01:33] “Little Michael Bobbitt” — Michael shares how art saved him as a child and continues to inspire his work.

[00:04:00] Choosing vulnerability — Telling the whole story, not just the trauma.

[00:06:50] A call for Black Joy — Balancing narratives of trauma with celebration.

[00:12:58] From stage to strategy — Transitioning from theater to state leadership.

[00:16:48] Dean College Commencement — The unimagined power of creativity.

[00:24:21] A critique of the nonprofit arts model — "We’ve done it to ourselves."

[00:27:21] Arts prescriptions — Prescribing the arts for public health and healing.

[00:33:36] Sensory-friendly theater — From local inclusion to global Broadway.

[00:35:51] Reggae fairy tale — Celebrating Black culture through Bob Marley’s legacy.

[00:41:11] What’s next? — Creative benefits as workplace wellness tools.

🧠 Key Takeaways

Art is essential health care: Arts are not a luxury but a necessity for healing and growth, especially for marginalized communities

Joy is a radical act: Uplifting narratives and joyful representation are as vital as stories of struggle.

The arts must engage beyond themselves: Arts organizations must work across sectors—housing, healthcare, transportation—to demonstrate relevance and impact.

Creativity is a leadership skill: The creative process is a core tool for future-ready leadership across industries.

The sector needs bold innovation: Outdated management models are failing. It's time to reimagine the arts ecosystem with creativity at the center.

🔍 Notable Mentions

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 People

Michael Bobbitt – Executive Director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council and lifelong arts advocate.

Bill Cleveland – Host of Change the Story, Change the World, artist, writer, and community arts activist.

Sadella Marley – Daughter of Bob Marley; adapted his music into children's books.

Charlotte Gruman – Accessibility consultant, featured for her work on sensory-friendly performances at Goodman Theatre.

📅 Events

Dean College 2024 Commencement – Bobbitt’s keynote address on creativity and the unimagined.

Alternate ROOTS 50th Anniversary – Celebration of 50 years of radical arts activism in the South

🏛️ Organizations

Massachusetts Cultural Council – State agency supporting arts, culture, and creative communities under Bobbitt’s leadership.

Adventure Theatre MTC – Children's theater where Bobbitt piloted the first sensory-friendly productions.

Theater Development Fund (TDF) – Helped launch Broadway’s first sensory-friendly performances.

Alternate ROOTS – Southern-based arts collective committed to anti-racism and community-rooted art.

New Village Press – Publisher of Alternate ROOTS' 50th anniversary book.

Center for the Study of Art and Community – Podcast’s host organization.

Goodman Theatre – Chicago theater with robust accessibility and sensory-friendly programming.

📚 Publications

“We Are the World” and other 1980s music activism – Referenced for arts’ role in public awareness campaigns.

New Village Press – ROOTS 50 – Book compiling stories from Alternate ROOTS.

CultureRx – A Mass Cultural Council program connecting arts and health care.

Please Join the Change the Story Change the World GOFundME Campaign.


Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.https://gofund.me/dd0ab18c

]]>Summary

In this powerful and personal conversation, MASS Cultural Council Executive Director, Michael Bobbitt explores the life-saving role of the arts, how creative work is inherently political, and the deep importance of joy, community, and innovation in building a better future. Drawing on his personal story, leadership journey, and groundbreaking initiatives, Bobbitt challenges arts organizations to think boldly and cross-sectorally in their work for social change.

Bio

Michael J. Bobbitt is a distinguished theater artist. As the Executive Director of Mass Cultural Council, he is the highest- ranking public official in Massachusetts state government focused on arts and culture.Since 2021, he has led the Agency through several initiatives, including the development of its first Racial Equity Plan, d/Deaf & Disability Equity and Access Plan, and Native American & Indigenous Equity Plan; the launch of the nation’s first statewide Social Prescribing Initiative; the securing and distribution of $60.1 million in pandemic relief funding; and the design and implementation of a strategic plan for fiscal years 2o24-2026. Recently, Michael was listed as one of the Boston Business Journal’s Power 50 Movement Makers. He has been appointed by Governor Maura Healey to serve on both the Governor’s Advisory Council on Black Empowerment and the newly established Massachusetts Cultural Policy Development Advisory Council, and he recently received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa from Dean College. He is a proud alumnus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. 

He previously served as Artistic Director of the New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, MA; immediately prior to this he held the same position at the Adventure Theatre-MTC in Maryland for 12 years. While in Maryland Michael led the organization to be a respected regional theatre training company, and a nationally influential professional Theatre for Young Audiences.

🗝️ Key Moments

[00:01:33] “Little Michael Bobbitt” — Michael shares how art saved him as a child and continues to inspire his work.

[00:04:00] Choosing vulnerability — Telling the whole story, not just the trauma.

[00:06:50] A call for Black Joy — Balancing narratives of trauma with celebration.

[00:12:58] From stage to strategy — Transitioning from theater to state leadership.

[00:16:48] Dean College Commencement — The unimagined power of creativity.

[00:24:21] A critique of the nonprofit arts model — "We’ve done it to ourselves."

[00:27:21] Arts prescriptions — Prescribing the arts for public health and healing.

[00:33:36] Sensory-friendly theater — From local inclusion to global Broadway.

[00:35:51] Reggae fairy tale — Celebrating Black culture through Bob Marley’s legacy.

[00:41:11] What’s next? — Creative benefits as workplace wellness tools.

🧠 Key Takeaways

Art is essential health care: Arts are not a luxury but a necessity for healing and growth, especially for marginalized communities

Joy is a radical act: Uplifting narratives and joyful representation are as vital as stories of struggle.

The arts must engage beyond themselves: Arts organizations must work across sectors—housing, healthcare, transportation—to demonstrate relevance and impact.

Creativity is a leadership skill: The creative process is a core tool for future-ready leadership across industries.

The sector needs bold innovation: Outdated management models are failing. It's time to reimagine the arts ecosystem with creativity at the center.

🔍 Notable Mentions

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 People

Michael Bobbitt – Executive Director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council and lifelong arts advocate.

Bill Cleveland – Host of Change the Story, Change the World, artist, writer, and community arts activist.

Sadella Marley – Daughter of Bob Marley; adapted his music into children's books.

Charlotte Gruman – Accessibility consultant, featured for her work on sensory-friendly performances at Goodman Theatre.

📅 Events

Dean College 2024 Commencement – Bobbitt’s keynote address on creativity and the unimagined.

Alternate ROOTS 50th Anniversary – Celebration of 50 years of radical arts activism in the South

🏛️ Organizations

Massachusetts Cultural Council – State agency supporting arts, culture, and creative communities under Bobbitt’s leadership.

Adventure Theatre MTC – Children's theater where Bobbitt piloted the first sensory-friendly productions.

Theater Development Fund (TDF) – Helped launch Broadway’s first sensory-friendly performances.

Alternate ROOTS – Southern-based arts collective committed to anti-racism and community-rooted art.

New Village Press – Publisher of Alternate ROOTS' 50th anniversary book.

Center for the Study of Art and Community – Podcast’s host organization.

Goodman Theatre – Chicago theater with robust accessibility and sensory-friendly programming.

📚 Publications

“We Are the World” and other 1980s music activism – Referenced for arts’ role in public awareness campaigns.

New Village Press – ROOTS 50 – Book compiling stories from Alternate ROOTS.

CultureRx – A Mass Cultural Council program connecting arts and health care.

Please Join the Change the Story Change the World GOFundME Campaign.


Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.https://gofund.me/dd0ab18c

]]>8835cc08-33cb-4441-9af6-25d3809c214dWed, 02 Apr 2025 05:45:00 -070047:00truefull41191194118: CSCW's Art & Social Change Weather Report From Minneapolis118: CSCW's Art & Social Change Weather Report From MinneapolisSummary

Weather Report: The Art & Activism Forecast from Minneapolis

In this episode, we kick off a new Change the Story feature—The Weather Report—where we check in with creative change-makers across the country to get a pulse on how art and activism are faring in their communities.

First stop: Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Our guest is David O’Fallon, a longtime cultural leader with deep roots in the Twin Cities and beyond. From his early days with In the Heart of the Beast Theatre to leadership roles at the Kennedy Center, National Endowment for the Arts, and Minnesota Humanities Center, David brings a wide-angle lens to the intersection of arts, policy, and social change.

Together, we dig into how Minneapolis artists, activists, and community groups are navigating the storm—from the unresolved tensions of George Floyd Square to the challenges of rebuilding trust in the face of political upheaval and media manipulation. We talk about the power of creative communities to imagine and build new futures, the rebirth of the beloved May Day Parade, and an emerging movement to reclaim America’s story—on our terms.

Along the way, we hit on big themes: resistance, reckoning, and resurgence. How do artists and organizers hold space for healing and action? How do we keep showing up when systems are designed to wear us down? And what does it mean to embrace practical, tactical, coalition-building work—without getting lost in ideological purity?

David shares his work with a Black-led healing and writing group in George Floyd Square, his thoughts on the political climate’s impact on the arts, and a vision for a People’s Celebration of America in 2026, where all voices, all stories, and all struggles get their due.

This is about more than survival—it’s about finding the creative, collective courage to build what’s next.

👉 Listen in, and let’s get to work.

Support the Show! If this conversation resonated, help us keep these stories alive. Check out our GoFundMe and consider making a contribution.

🎧 Next up: We head to Massachusetts for another Weather Report—so stay tuned.

Takeaways:

Top Takeaways from This Episode

1. Art as a Tool for Social Change – In Minneapolis, artists and activists continue to use creativity to respond to political and cultural turmoil, demonstrating that art is both a means of expression and a force for resistance and healing.

2. The Legacy of George Floyd Square – The community remains in deep tension, navigating unresolved challenges while creating spaces for dialogue, healing, and storytelling.

3. Media & Misinformation Challenges – Local news outlets have been dominated by conservative media conglomerates, making it harder for communities to access diverse perspectives and truthful reporting.

4. The Return of the May Day Parade – Once an iconic Minneapolis tradition, the parade is being revived by a new, diverse coalition of organizers, showing the resilience of community-led cultural events.

5. Building the America That Must Be – Instead of accepting a narrow, exclusionary vision of American identity, communities must take ownership of their own narratives—leading to efforts like a People’s Celebration of America in 2026.

6. Practical Activism Over Purity – Movements don’t have to be perfect to be effective. The key is to focus on action, coalition-building, and local organizing rather than ideological disagreements.

7. Show Up & Keep Showing Up – Long-term social change happens through consistent presence and trust-building. It’s about digging in, listening, and doing the work—no shortcuts.

Notable Mentions

Here’s list of all the mentioned people, events, organizations, and publications mentioned in this episode.

People

1. David O’Fallon – A cultural leader and arts advocate who has worked with organizations like the Kennedy Center, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Minnesota Humanities Center.

2. George Floyd – A Black man whose murder by police in Minneapolis in 2020 sparked worldwide protests and ongoing social justice movements.

3. Sandy Spieler – A visionary artist known for her leadership in the In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre and the May Day Parade.

4. Timothy Snyder – A historian and author of On Tyranny, a book that explores lessons from history on resisting authoritarianism.

5. Ricardo Levins Morales – A political artist and activist, recently published a new book addressing social justice movements.

6. Marquis Bowie – A community leader and author involved in activism in George Floyd Square where he also leads a writers group.

Events

1. George Floyd Protests – A series of global demonstrations against police brutality and racial injustice, sparked by George Floyd’s murder.

2. May Day Parade – A long-standing Minneapolis cultural event featuring giant puppets and community-driven performances, originally connected to In the Heart of the Beast Theatre.

3. People’s Celebration of America (2026) – A proposed grassroots initiative to celebrate American diversity and history in response to government-driven narratives.

Organizations

1. Center for the Study of Art and Community – The producer of the Change the Story, Change the World podcast, focusing on the role of arts in social change.

2. In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre – A Minneapolis-based theater company known for its puppet performances and social justice activism.

3. Kennedy Center – A leading performing arts institution in Washington, D.C.

4. National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) – A U.S. government agency that supports arts projects nationwide.

5. Minnesota Humanities Center – A cultural organization promoting community engagement through the humanities.

6. Braver Angels – A nonprofit working to bridge partisan divides and restore civil discourse in the U.S.

7. Sinclair Broadcast Group – A major conservative media conglomerate that owns numerous local news stations.

8. Fox News – A major conservative-leaning news network in the U.S.

Publications

1. On Tyranny – A book by Timothy Snyder offering lessons on resisting authoritarianism.

2. Langston Hughes’ “Let America Be America Again” – A famous poem cited in the podcast, advocating for a just and inclusive America.

3. North of 80 (Substack) – David O’Fallon’s blog, featuring reflections on arts, activism, and social change.

4. The Land Knows the Way– Recently published book by Ricardo Levins Morales discussing grassroots activism and social justice movements.

This Podcast:

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of...]]>Summary

Weather Report: The Art & Activism Forecast from Minneapolis

In this episode, we kick off a new Change the Story feature—The Weather Report—where we check in with creative change-makers across the country to get a pulse on how art and activism are faring in their communities.

First stop: Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Our guest is David O’Fallon, a longtime cultural leader with deep roots in the Twin Cities and beyond. From his early days with In the Heart of the Beast Theatre to leadership roles at the Kennedy Center, National Endowment for the Arts, and Minnesota Humanities Center, David brings a wide-angle lens to the intersection of arts, policy, and social change.

Together, we dig into how Minneapolis artists, activists, and community groups are navigating the storm—from the unresolved tensions of George Floyd Square to the challenges of rebuilding trust in the face of political upheaval and media manipulation. We talk about the power of creative communities to imagine and build new futures, the rebirth of the beloved May Day Parade, and an emerging movement to reclaim America’s story—on our terms.

Along the way, we hit on big themes: resistance, reckoning, and resurgence. How do artists and organizers hold space for healing and action? How do we keep showing up when systems are designed to wear us down? And what does it mean to embrace practical, tactical, coalition-building work—without getting lost in ideological purity?

David shares his work with a Black-led healing and writing group in George Floyd Square, his thoughts on the political climate’s impact on the arts, and a vision for a People’s Celebration of America in 2026, where all voices, all stories, and all struggles get their due.

This is about more than survival—it’s about finding the creative, collective courage to build what’s next.

👉 Listen in, and let’s get to work.

Support the Show! If this conversation resonated, help us keep these stories alive. Check out our GoFundMe and consider making a contribution.

🎧 Next up: We head to Massachusetts for another Weather Report—so stay tuned.

Takeaways:

Top Takeaways from This Episode

1. Art as a Tool for Social Change – In Minneapolis, artists and activists continue to use creativity to respond to political and cultural turmoil, demonstrating that art is both a means of expression and a force for resistance and healing.

2. The Legacy of George Floyd Square – The community remains in deep tension, navigating unresolved challenges while creating spaces for dialogue, healing, and storytelling.

3. Media & Misinformation Challenges – Local news outlets have been dominated by conservative media conglomerates, making it harder for communities to access diverse perspectives and truthful reporting.

4. The Return of the May Day Parade – Once an iconic Minneapolis tradition, the parade is being revived by a new, diverse coalition of organizers, showing the resilience of community-led cultural events.

5. Building the America That Must Be – Instead of accepting a narrow, exclusionary vision of American identity, communities must take ownership of their own narratives—leading to efforts like a People’s Celebration of America in 2026.

6. Practical Activism Over Purity – Movements don’t have to be perfect to be effective. The key is to focus on action, coalition-building, and local organizing rather than ideological disagreements.

7. Show Up & Keep Showing Up – Long-term social change happens through consistent presence and trust-building. It’s about digging in, listening, and doing the work—no shortcuts.

Notable Mentions

Here’s list of all the mentioned people, events, organizations, and publications mentioned in this episode.

People

1. David O’Fallon – A cultural leader and arts advocate who has worked with organizations like the Kennedy Center, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Minnesota Humanities Center.

2. George Floyd – A Black man whose murder by police in Minneapolis in 2020 sparked worldwide protests and ongoing social justice movements.

3. Sandy Spieler – A visionary artist known for her leadership in the In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre and the May Day Parade.

4. Timothy Snyder – A historian and author of On Tyranny, a book that explores lessons from history on resisting authoritarianism.

5. Ricardo Levins Morales – A political artist and activist, recently published a new book addressing social justice movements.

6. Marquis Bowie – A community leader and author involved in activism in George Floyd Square where he also leads a writers group.

Events

1. George Floyd Protests – A series of global demonstrations against police brutality and racial injustice, sparked by George Floyd’s murder.

2. May Day Parade – A long-standing Minneapolis cultural event featuring giant puppets and community-driven performances, originally connected to In the Heart of the Beast Theatre.

3. People’s Celebration of America (2026) – A proposed grassroots initiative to celebrate American diversity and history in response to government-driven narratives.

Organizations

1. Center for the Study of Art and Community – The producer of the Change the Story, Change the World podcast, focusing on the role of arts in social change.

2. In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre – A Minneapolis-based theater company known for its puppet performances and social justice activism.

3. Kennedy Center – A leading performing arts institution in Washington, D.C.

4. National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) – A U.S. government agency that supports arts projects nationwide.

5. Minnesota Humanities Center – A cultural organization promoting community engagement through the humanities.

6. Braver Angels – A nonprofit working to bridge partisan divides and restore civil discourse in the U.S.

7. Sinclair Broadcast Group – A major conservative media conglomerate that owns numerous local news stations.

8. Fox News – A major conservative-leaning news network in the U.S.

Publications

1. On Tyranny – A book by Timothy Snyder offering lessons on resisting authoritarianism.

2. Langston Hughes’ “Let America Be America Again” – A famous poem cited in the podcast, advocating for a just and inclusive America.

3. North of 80 (Substack) – David O’Fallon’s blog, featuring reflections on arts, activism, and social change.

4. The Land Knows the Way– Recently published book by Ricardo Levins Morales discussing grassroots activism and social justice movements.

This Podcast:

Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

]]>a181e1d8-afdd-4d0b-a876-00e6cdafa52bWed, 19 Mar 2025 05:45:00 -070019:23truefull41181184117: How the Arts Can Thwart the Attention Bandits117: How the Arts Can Thwart the Attention BanditsChange the Story GoFundME Campaign

Along with many of our guests, we believe we have come to a place in the American story that calls for both pushing back AND pushing forward.

To do our part in this, we want to grow our audience, do more in-depth serial episodes, use our expanding archive to help artists learn about art and social change work.

Up to now, Change the Story has been a sweat equity work of passion. That said, making these changes will require some added assistance. So, if you believe that meeting the challenges that face us calls for a new set of stories powerful enough to change how we treat each other and the planet—then please, join our community of supporters by helping us Tell the Stories that are Changing the World.

Arts & the Attention Bandits: Summary/Intro

The central theme of this podcast episode revolves around the increasingly commodified nature of human attention, which has become a most valuable resource in contemporary society. I elucidate the profound implications of this phenomenon, particularly its impact on individual autonomy and decision-making. As we delve into the intricate dynamics of attention, we highlight the challenges faced by artists and other creative individuals in navigating an environment saturated with distractions and manipulations designed to capture their focus. Through a narrative that intertwines personal anecdotes with critical analysis, we explore the consequences of this attention economy, drawing parallels to historical shifts in labor dynamics. Ultimately, we advocate for a conscious engagement with our imaginative faculties as a means of reclaiming agency in a world that seeks to exploit our attention.

The Story:

In a profound examination of our times, the episode articulates the thesis that attention has transitioned from being merely a focus of interest to a precious resource subject to exploitation. Through a captivating storytelling approach, the episode unveils the complex relationship between attention and creativity in the modern era. It introduces Fletcher's story as a relatable lens through which to examine the incessant barrage of marketing tactics that aim to commandeer consumer attention. As Fletcher becomes ensnared in the frenzy of sales and promotions, he exemplifies the struggle many face in maintaining focus amid distractions.

In our discussion we draw on the insights of Chris Hayes book, The Sirens Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource, highlighting that the relentless quest for attention has parallels with the historical commodification of labor. The narrative compels listeners to reflect on the subtle yet profound ways in which their attention is captured and redirected, ultimately calling for a greater awareness of how such dynamics affect the creative processes and imaginative capacities of individuals, particularly artists.

The discourse broadens underscoring the necessity for individuals to nurture their imaginative capacities. By drawing attention to the importance of artistic expression as an antidote to the commodification of attention, the episode advocates for a renewed appreciation of creativity as a fundamental human trait that must be safeguarded. It posits that fostering imagination is not merely a personal endeavor but a collective necessity in reclaiming autonomy and shaping a more thoughtful engagement with the world.

The episode concludes with a call to action, encouraging listeners to reclaim their attention and cultivate their imaginative faculties as a form of resistance against the commercial exploitation of their cognitive resources.

Takeaways:

  • The commodification of attention has transformed it into a highly valuable resource, influencing our decisions and beliefs.
  • Artists and creative individuals possess the ability to resist the manipulative tactics employed by attention merchants, thereby reclaiming their narratives.
  • Chris Hayes' work highlights the urgent need to recognize how our attention is being captured and the implications this has for individual autonomy.
  • Our society is witnessing a failure of imagination, making individuals more susceptible to external influences that dictate their worldviews.

Milestones:

00:06 The Impact of Attention Economy

00:57 Fletcher's Unexpected Adventure

12:39 The Attention Bandits

12:55 The Attention Economy: A Shift in Focus

21:13 The Antidote: The Power of Imagination in the Attention Economy

23:16 The Power of Imagination

Defeating the Attention Bandits Collection

Those who train their imaginations, artists, storytellers, inventors, creators, makers of every type, develop an intuitive resistance to having their minds hijacked. They're not immune, but they're more aware. And they know how to take control of their own narratives instead of surrendering to someone else's.

In this Collection of Change the Story episodes we hear the stories of creative change agents who not only know this, but are putting it to good use in their communities, thwarting the attention bandits and helping their neighbors use their imaginations to decide and make real WHAT's NEXT! ENJOY

Notable Mentions

A list of people, places, organizations, and events mentioned in the transcript, along with hyperlinks for more information and brief descriptions of their relevance in the transcript.

People

1. Chris Hayes

• Description: An American journalist, commentator, and author, known for hosting All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC. His book The Sirens Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource is central to the discussion on the commodification of attention.

2. Odysseus (Mythological Figure) The Greek hero from The Odyssey by Homer, known for his encounter with the Sirens. Used as a metaphor for how attention can be hijacked.

Organizations

1. MSNBC: A major American news network. Chris Hayes hosts All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC.

2. Amazon: A multinational e-commerce and technology company. Highlighted as an example of an “attention-driven distribution system.”

5. Freesound: A collaborative database of free sound effects. Credited for sound effects in the podcast. Here are Freesound Credits:

Car, BMW M6, Start, Idle, Accelerate by Kinoton -- https://freesound.org/s/478597/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

001 - Walking Dog on Street, Dogs Barking in BG, Collar Sounds.wav by Trashcan_Studios -- https://freesound.org/s/574471/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Moscow Metro Station Buzzer/Chime 4 by chungus43A -- https://freesound.org/s/720571/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

crowd walla whole foods grocery store food court 1.wav by lwdickens -- https://freesound.org/s/269412/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0

    106 2 1 219. ElevenLabs_2025-02-14T00_49_51_Lamar Lincoln- Black Male_pvc_s50_sb49_se25_b merged.5 4 3 0 3 223.

Bosch’s Garden – Mythical Game Music for Fantasy and AI Projects by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/647212/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

2024.03.23 Rustling plastic packaging by TeamEnFil -- https://freesound.org/s/728584/ -- License: Attribution 4.0 2. The Odyssey: An ancient Greek epic poem by Homer. The Sirens are used as a metaphor for how companies and media capture human attention.

3. MAGA Patriots: A movement associated with supporters of Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again campaign.

Mentioned in this episode:

Help Us Tell the Stories We Need to Change the World

]]>Change the Story GoFundME Campaign

Along with many of our guests, we believe we have come to a place in the American story that calls for both pushing back AND pushing forward.

To do our part in this, we want to grow our audience, do more in-depth serial episodes, use our expanding archive to help artists learn about art and social change work.

Up to now, Change the Story has been a sweat equity work of passion. That said, making these changes will require some added assistance. So, if you believe that meeting the challenges that face us calls for a new set of stories powerful enough to change how we treat each other and the planet—then please, join our community of supporters by helping us Tell the Stories that are Changing the World.

Arts & the Attention Bandits: Summary/Intro

The central theme of this podcast episode revolves around the increasingly commodified nature of human attention, which has become a most valuable resource in contemporary society. I elucidate the profound implications of this phenomenon, particularly its impact on individual autonomy and decision-making. As we delve into the intricate dynamics of attention, we highlight the challenges faced by artists and other creative individuals in navigating an environment saturated with distractions and manipulations designed to capture their focus. Through a narrative that intertwines personal anecdotes with critical analysis, we explore the consequences of this attention economy, drawing parallels to historical shifts in labor dynamics. Ultimately, we advocate for a conscious engagement with our imaginative faculties as a means of reclaiming agency in a world that seeks to exploit our attention.

The Story:

In a profound examination of our times, the episode articulates the thesis that attention has transitioned from being merely a focus of interest to a precious resource subject to exploitation. Through a captivating storytelling approach, the episode unveils the complex relationship between attention and creativity in the modern era. It introduces Fletcher's story as a relatable lens through which to examine the incessant barrage of marketing tactics that aim to commandeer consumer attention. As Fletcher becomes ensnared in the frenzy of sales and promotions, he exemplifies the struggle many face in maintaining focus amid distractions.

In our discussion we draw on the insights of Chris Hayes book, The Sirens Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource, highlighting that the relentless quest for attention has parallels with the historical commodification of labor. The narrative compels listeners to reflect on the subtle yet profound ways in which their attention is captured and redirected, ultimately calling for a greater awareness of how such dynamics affect the creative processes and imaginative capacities of individuals, particularly artists.

The discourse broadens underscoring the necessity for individuals to nurture their imaginative capacities. By drawing attention to the importance of artistic expression as an antidote to the commodification of attention, the episode advocates for a renewed appreciation of creativity as a fundamental human trait that must be safeguarded. It posits that fostering imagination is not merely a personal endeavor but a collective necessity in reclaiming autonomy and shaping a more thoughtful engagement with the world.

The episode concludes with a call to action, encouraging listeners to reclaim their attention and cultivate their imaginative faculties as a form of resistance against the commercial exploitation of their cognitive resources.

Takeaways:

  • The commodification of attention has transformed it into a highly valuable resource, influencing our decisions and beliefs.
  • Artists and creative individuals possess the ability to resist the manipulative tactics employed by attention merchants, thereby reclaiming their narratives.
  • Chris Hayes' work highlights the urgent need to recognize how our attention is being captured and the implications this has for individual autonomy.
  • Our society is witnessing a failure of imagination, making individuals more susceptible to external influences that dictate their worldviews.

Milestones:

00:06 The Impact of Attention Economy

00:57 Fletcher's Unexpected Adventure

12:39 The Attention Bandits

12:55 The Attention Economy: A Shift in Focus

21:13 The Antidote: The Power of Imagination in the Attention Economy

23:16 The Power of Imagination

Defeating the Attention Bandits Collection

Those who train their imaginations, artists, storytellers, inventors, creators, makers of every type, develop an intuitive resistance to having their minds hijacked. They're not immune, but they're more aware. And they know how to take control of their own narratives instead of surrendering to someone else's.

In this Collection of Change the Story episodes we hear the stories of creative change agents who not only know this, but are putting it to good use in their communities, thwarting the attention bandits and helping their neighbors use their imaginations to decide and make real WHAT's NEXT! ENJOY

Notable Mentions

A list of people, places, organizations, and events mentioned in the transcript, along with hyperlinks for more information and brief descriptions of their relevance in the transcript.

People

1. Chris Hayes

• Description: An American journalist, commentator, and author, known for hosting All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC. His book The Sirens Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource is central to the discussion on the commodification of attention.

2. Odysseus (Mythological Figure) The Greek hero from The Odyssey by Homer, known for his encounter with the Sirens. Used as a metaphor for how attention can be hijacked.

Organizations

1. MSNBC: A major American news network. Chris Hayes hosts All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC.

2. Amazon: A multinational e-commerce and technology company. Highlighted as an example of an “attention-driven distribution system.”

5. Freesound: A collaborative database of free sound effects. Credited for sound effects in the podcast. Here are Freesound Credits:

Car, BMW M6, Start, Idle, Accelerate by Kinoton -- https://freesound.org/s/478597/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

001 - Walking Dog on Street, Dogs Barking in BG, Collar Sounds.wav by Trashcan_Studios -- https://freesound.org/s/574471/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Moscow Metro Station Buzzer/Chime 4 by chungus43A -- https://freesound.org/s/720571/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

crowd walla whole foods grocery store food court 1.wav by lwdickens -- https://freesound.org/s/269412/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0

    106 2 1 219. ElevenLabs_2025-02-14T00_49_51_Lamar Lincoln- Black Male_pvc_s50_sb49_se25_b merged.5 4 3 0 3 223.

Bosch’s Garden – Mythical Game Music for Fantasy and AI Projects by kjartan_abel -- https://freesound.org/s/647212/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

2024.03.23 Rustling plastic packaging by TeamEnFil -- https://freesound.org/s/728584/ -- License: Attribution 4.0 2. The Odyssey: An ancient Greek epic poem by Homer. The Sirens are used as a metaphor for how companies and media capture human attention.

3. MAGA Patriots: A movement associated with supporters of Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again campaign.

Mentioned in this episode:

Help Us Tell the Stories We Need to Change the World

]]>8b180f79-7875-4bbc-90ff-89c4c3304385Wed, 05 Mar 2025 06:00:00 -070029:27truefull41171174116: Henry Frank: Art & the 21st Century Man116: Henry Frank: Art & the 21st Century ManThank You For Listening

Its been 4 years and 116 episodes. Now, we’re at a turning point. Our listeners are asking for more—more in-depth storytelling, more tools for teaching and advocacy, and a broader reach. To make that happen, we’ve launched a GoFundMe campaign to help sustain and expand the podcast.

You know as well as anyone that the world needs these stories now more than ever. If you believe in the power of creative voices to shift narratives, spark action, and build a more just and humane world, we’d be honored if you’d consider supporting this effort—whether through a donation, spreading the word, or sharing the campaign with your networks.

Every bit helps us continue lifting up the artists and culture-makers who are changing the world. Now on with the show!

What is a 21st Century Man?

There's is a story going around that a new model male has emerged- a domineering, manifest destiny, means justify the ends, sharp elbows kind of a guy who knows what he wants and takes it. But of course, this "fresh new shinny manly script", is a boring, rusty remake, of a remake with a plot line we all know to well. Mainly because we are all living with its consequences. 

But don’t despair. There are other stories rising up of men who wield the power of compassion, forbearance, and humility. Men whose strength comes from knowing that there are no superhero’s and that our true superpowers come from our collective toil and our imaginations. 

In this show we share the incredible story of Henry Frank, a returned citizen who has become a true 21st Century Man ---a man who has navigated the treacherous waters of incarceration and emerged as a celebrated artist and cultural leader. His journey from a life sentence in San Quentin to becoming an influential figure underscores the emergence of a new archetype of masculinity, characterized not by domination but by compassion, humility, and collective empowerment. Throughout our discussion, we explore the intersections of art, community, and personal evolution, emphasizing the importance of storytelling in reimagining identities and fostering healing. As we recount Henry's inspiring saga, we invite listeners to reflect on the broader implications of his experiences and the potential for change within both individuals and communities.

Takeaways:

  • The emergence of a new male archetype, characterized by compassion and humility, is essential for societal progress.
  • Henry Frank's transformative journey from incarceration to becoming a cultural leader exemplifies the power of community and art.
  • Artistic expression serves as a vital tool for healing and personal growth within incarcerated individuals.
  • The role of educators and artists in prisons fosters hope and facilitates change in the lives of inmates.
  • Henry's commitment to giving back to the community illustrates the importance of mentorship and support for those still incarcerated.
  • The significance of storytelling in bridging gaps between different communities and fostering understanding is paramount.

]]>Thank You For Listening

Its been 4 years and 116 episodes. Now, we’re at a turning point. Our listeners are asking for more—more in-depth storytelling, more tools for teaching and advocacy, and a broader reach. To make that happen, we’ve launched a GoFundMe campaign to help sustain and expand the podcast.

You know as well as anyone that the world needs these stories now more than ever. If you believe in the power of creative voices to shift narratives, spark action, and build a more just and humane world, we’d be honored if you’d consider supporting this effort—whether through a donation, spreading the word, or sharing the campaign with your networks.

Every bit helps us continue lifting up the artists and culture-makers who are changing the world. Now on with the show!

What is a 21st Century Man?

There's is a story going around that a new model male has emerged- a domineering, manifest destiny, means justify the ends, sharp elbows kind of a guy who knows what he wants and takes it. But of course, this "fresh new shinny manly script", is a boring, rusty remake, of a remake with a plot line we all know to well. Mainly because we are all living with its consequences. 

But don’t despair. There are other stories rising up of men who wield the power of compassion, forbearance, and humility. Men whose strength comes from knowing that there are no superhero’s and that our true superpowers come from our collective toil and our imaginations. 

In this show we share the incredible story of Henry Frank, a returned citizen who has become a true 21st Century Man ---a man who has navigated the treacherous waters of incarceration and emerged as a celebrated artist and cultural leader. His journey from a life sentence in San Quentin to becoming an influential figure underscores the emergence of a new archetype of masculinity, characterized not by domination but by compassion, humility, and collective empowerment. Throughout our discussion, we explore the intersections of art, community, and personal evolution, emphasizing the importance of storytelling in reimagining identities and fostering healing. As we recount Henry's inspiring saga, we invite listeners to reflect on the broader implications of his experiences and the potential for change within both individuals and communities.

Takeaways:

  • The emergence of a new male archetype, characterized by compassion and humility, is essential for societal progress.
  • Henry Frank's transformative journey from incarceration to becoming a cultural leader exemplifies the power of community and art.
  • Artistic expression serves as a vital tool for healing and personal growth within incarcerated individuals.
  • The role of educators and artists in prisons fosters hope and facilitates change in the lives of inmates.
  • Henry's commitment to giving back to the community illustrates the importance of mentorship and support for those still incarcerated.
  • The significance of storytelling in bridging gaps between different communities and fostering understanding is paramount.

]]>984a3f3c-bfef-4459-8145-2d072e1493a1Wed, 19 Feb 2025 04:30:00 -070001:14:00truefull41161164115: Lynne Elizabeth: Breaking Ground for The New Village115: Lynne Elizabeth: Breaking Ground for The New VillageSummary

Can somethings as mundane a publishing be a revolutionary act. This podcast episode delves into the profound significance of mission centered publishing as illuminated through the life and work of Lynne Elizabeth, the founding director of New Village Press. Our conversation underscores the notion that books serve as instruments for social change, bridging divides and igniting action within communities. Lynne, who affectionately refers to her role as a "book doula," passionately discusses the transformative power of literature and the imperative of publishing with purpose. Throughout the dialogue, we explore the intersection of creativity and social justice, emphasizing how authors who are deeply embedded in their communities can shape narratives that inspire resilience and hope. This episode ultimately celebrates the magic inherent in storytelling and its potential to foster understanding and collaboration in an increasingly complex world.

The Story

The dialogue between Bill Cleveland and Lynne Elizabeth unfolds as an exploration of the intricacies of mission-driven publishing. Elizabeth articulates the unique position of New Village Press within the broader publishing landscape, highlighting its commitment to elevating voices often marginalized in mainstream narratives. The conversation reveals the serendipitous connections among authors and the familial bonds that develop within the New Village community. Elizabeth's insights into the collaborative nature of book publishing provide a glimpse into how her organization curates works that resonate with contemporary social issues, thereby fostering a dialogue about community engagement and activism through literature. The episode underscores the notion that books are not merely products but rather vessels of change, encouraging listeners to reflect on the role of storytelling in shaping societal values and inspiring collective action.

Notable Mentions

Publications:

1. Inspired and Outraged – By Alice Rothschild. A memoir of a physician’s journey into feminism, activism, and social justice, written in free verse.

2. Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Arts – By Mat Schwarzman and Keith Knight. A visually engaging book that introduces community-based arts as a tool for social change.

3. Root Shock – By Mindy Fullilove. A powerful examination of how urban renewal policies have devastated African American communities.

4. Urban Alchemy – By Mindy Fullilove. A guide on how cities can heal from the damage of urban renewal through community-driven design.

5. The Women’s Revolution – By Muriel Fox. A firsthand account of the fight for women’s rights from one of the founders of the National Organization for Women (NOW).

6. Place Making with Children and Youth – A book that highlights the importance of including young people in urban design and community planning.

7. Awakening Creativity: The Dandelion School – By Lily Yeh. A story about transforming an abandoned factory into a thriving school for migrant children in Beijing through the power of art.

8. Americans Who Tell the Truth – By Rob Shetterly. A portrait series and book featuring individuals who have made significant contributions to social justice.

9. Portraits of Peacemakers – By Rob Shetterly. A collection of portraits and stories of individuals who have worked towards peace and justice.

10. See Me – A book exploring the impact of prison theater workshops on inmates and facilitators.

11. Creative Instigation – By Fern Tiger. A guide on engaging communities in decision-making through innovative and inclusive methods.

12. Letters to Outriders – By Margaret Randall. A collection of correspondence with influential creatives resisting social and political conformity.

13. Barbara Benesh’s Upcoming Book on Eco Art – A forthcoming book about an ecological retreat center for artists in Czechia.

For more information about these books and other related publications, you can visit New Village Press.

People

1. Lynne Elizabeth – Founding director of New Village Press, a mission-driven nonprofit publisher focused on books that inspire social change.

More about Lynne Elizabeth

2. Bill Cleveland – Host of Change the Story, Change the World and director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community.

More about Bill Cleveland

3. Alice Rothschild – Physician, feminist, and author of Inspired and Outraged: The Making of a Feminist Physician.

More about Alice Rothschild

4. Lily Yeh – Internationally recognized artist and founder of Barefoot Artists, known for her community-based art projects.

More about Lily Yeh

5. Muriel Fox – Co-founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and author of The Women’s Revolution.

More about Muriel Fox

6. Mindy Fullilove – Psychiatrist, author, and urbanist known for books like Root Shock and Urban Alchemy.

More about Mindy Fullilove

7. Mat Schwarzman – Author of The Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Arts, focused on creative placemaking and community arts.

More about Mat Schwarzman

8. Jan Cohen-Cruz – Expert in community-based arts and author of See Me: The Impact of Theater-Based Workshops in Prisons.

More about Jan Cohen-Cruz

9. Rob Shetterly – Painter and activist, known for his Americans Who Tell the Truth portrait series.

More about Rob Shetterly

10. Keith Knight – Nationally recognized cartoonist and illustrator, also known for his work on The Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Arts.

More about Keith Knight

11. Linda Frye Burnham – Co-founder of the Community Arts Network and advocate for community-based arts.

More about Linda Frye Burnham

12. Margaret Randall – Poet, essayist, and activist with over 200 published works.

More about Margaret Randall

13. Barbara Benish – Eco-artist and founder of an environmental retreat center in the Czech Republic.

More about Barbara Benish

14. W.E.B. Du Bois – Civil rights activist and scholar who emphasized the importance of reading meaningful work.

More about W.E.B. Du Bois

Events

1. Hurricane Katrina (2005) – A catastrophic storm that impacted the launch of The Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Arts in New Orleans.

Summary

Can somethings as mundane a publishing be a revolutionary act. This podcast episode delves into the profound significance of mission centered publishing as illuminated through the life and work of Lynne Elizabeth, the founding director of New Village Press. Our conversation underscores the notion that books serve as instruments for social change, bridging divides and igniting action within communities. Lynne, who affectionately refers to her role as a "book doula," passionately discusses the transformative power of literature and the imperative of publishing with purpose. Throughout the dialogue, we explore the intersection of creativity and social justice, emphasizing how authors who are deeply embedded in their communities can shape narratives that inspire resilience and hope. This episode ultimately celebrates the magic inherent in storytelling and its potential to foster understanding and collaboration in an increasingly complex world.

The Story

The dialogue between Bill Cleveland and Lynne Elizabeth unfolds as an exploration of the intricacies of mission-driven publishing. Elizabeth articulates the unique position of New Village Press within the broader publishing landscape, highlighting its commitment to elevating voices often marginalized in mainstream narratives. The conversation reveals the serendipitous connections among authors and the familial bonds that develop within the New Village community. Elizabeth's insights into the collaborative nature of book publishing provide a glimpse into how her organization curates works that resonate with contemporary social issues, thereby fostering a dialogue about community engagement and activism through literature. The episode underscores the notion that books are not merely products but rather vessels of change, encouraging listeners to reflect on the role of storytelling in shaping societal values and inspiring collective action.

Notable Mentions

Publications:

1. Inspired and Outraged – By Alice Rothschild. A memoir of a physician’s journey into feminism, activism, and social justice, written in free verse.

2. Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Arts – By Mat Schwarzman and Keith Knight. A visually engaging book that introduces community-based arts as a tool for social change.

3. Root Shock – By Mindy Fullilove. A powerful examination of how urban renewal policies have devastated African American communities.

4. Urban Alchemy – By Mindy Fullilove. A guide on how cities can heal from the damage of urban renewal through community-driven design.

5. The Women’s Revolution – By Muriel Fox. A firsthand account of the fight for women’s rights from one of the founders of the National Organization for Women (NOW).

6. Place Making with Children and Youth – A book that highlights the importance of including young people in urban design and community planning.

7. Awakening Creativity: The Dandelion School – By Lily Yeh. A story about transforming an abandoned factory into a thriving school for migrant children in Beijing through the power of art.

8. Americans Who Tell the Truth – By Rob Shetterly. A portrait series and book featuring individuals who have made significant contributions to social justice.

9. Portraits of Peacemakers – By Rob Shetterly. A collection of portraits and stories of individuals who have worked towards peace and justice.

10. See Me – A book exploring the impact of prison theater workshops on inmates and facilitators.

11. Creative Instigation – By Fern Tiger. A guide on engaging communities in decision-making through innovative and inclusive methods.

12. Letters to Outriders – By Margaret Randall. A collection of correspondence with influential creatives resisting social and political conformity.

13. Barbara Benesh’s Upcoming Book on Eco Art – A forthcoming book about an ecological retreat center for artists in Czechia.

For more information about these books and other related publications, you can visit New Village Press.

People

1. Lynne Elizabeth – Founding director of New Village Press, a mission-driven nonprofit publisher focused on books that inspire social change.

More about Lynne Elizabeth

2. Bill Cleveland – Host of Change the Story, Change the World and director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community.

More about Bill Cleveland

3. Alice Rothschild – Physician, feminist, and author of Inspired and Outraged: The Making of a Feminist Physician.

More about Alice Rothschild

4. Lily Yeh – Internationally recognized artist and founder of Barefoot Artists, known for her community-based art projects.

More about Lily Yeh

5. Muriel Fox – Co-founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and author of The Women’s Revolution.

More about Muriel Fox

6. Mindy Fullilove – Psychiatrist, author, and urbanist known for books like Root Shock and Urban Alchemy.

More about Mindy Fullilove

7. Mat Schwarzman – Author of The Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Arts, focused on creative placemaking and community arts.

More about Mat Schwarzman

8. Jan Cohen-Cruz – Expert in community-based arts and author of See Me: The Impact of Theater-Based Workshops in Prisons.

More about Jan Cohen-Cruz

9. Rob Shetterly – Painter and activist, known for his Americans Who Tell the Truth portrait series.

More about Rob Shetterly

10. Keith Knight – Nationally recognized cartoonist and illustrator, also known for his work on The Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Arts.

More about Keith Knight

11. Linda Frye Burnham – Co-founder of the Community Arts Network and advocate for community-based arts.

More about Linda Frye Burnham

12. Margaret Randall – Poet, essayist, and activist with over 200 published works.

More about Margaret Randall

13. Barbara Benish – Eco-artist and founder of an environmental retreat center in the Czech Republic.

More about Barbara Benish

14. W.E.B. Du Bois – Civil rights activist and scholar who emphasized the importance of reading meaningful work.

More about W.E.B. Du Bois

Events

1. Hurricane Katrina (2005) – A catastrophic storm that impacted the launch of The Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Arts in New Orleans.

More about Hurricane Katrina

2. 20th Anniversary of Root Shock – Celebrating Mindy Fullilove’s influential book on urban displacement and community healing.

More about Root Shock

3. 275-Portrait Exhibition of Americans Who Tell the Truth – A nationwide exhibition featuring Rob Shetterly’s paintings of truth-tellers.

More about Americans Who Tell the Truth

4. 88th Birthday Celebration for Margaret Randall at City Lights – A literary event honoring Randall’s contributions to activism and literature.

More about City Lights

Organizations

1. New Village Press – Nonprofit publisher focused on books that inspire social change and community building.

Visit New Village Press

2. National Organization for Women (NOW) – Feminist organization co-founded by Muriel Fox, advocating for women’s rights.

Visit NOW

3. Barefoot Artists – Organization founded by Lily Yeh that uses art to transform communities.

Visit Barefoot Artists

4. Community Arts Network (CAN) – Former online resource for community-based arts, co-founded by Linda Frye Burnham.

Archive of CAN

5. Center for the Study of Art and Community – Organization led by Bill Cleveland focused on the intersection of art and social change.

Visit the Center for the Study of Art and Community

6. Americans Who Tell the Truth – Rob Shetterly’s portrait series featuring activists and changemakers.

Visit Americans Who Tell the Truth

7. Eos Institute for the Study of Sustainable Living – Environmental nonprofit founded by Lynne Elizabeth.

(No current website available; historical references may be found in academic articles or publications.)

8. Permaculture Institute – Organization dedicated to sustainable agriculture and ecological design.

Visit the Permaculture Institute

9. Architects / Designers / Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) – Organization advocating for socially responsible design and planning.

Visit ADPSR

]]>e67faaca-5835-44ee-b20e-88bcfb7a5cf4Thu, 06 Feb 2025 05:45:00 -070051:59truefull41151154114: A Conversation With Lily Yeh114: A Conversation With Lily YehLily Yeh, a globally celebrated artist and community arts pioneer, shares her transformative journey of using art to foster healing, hope, and resilience in marginalized communities around the world.

Drawing from her experiences in places like Philadelphia, Rwanda, and China, she emphasizes the power of collaboration and the importance of community engagement in creating meaningful public art. Yeh believes that true beauty and healing emerge not from imposing solutions, but from listening to and uplifting the voices of those directly affected by trauma. Her work illustrates how art can be a catalyst for change, enabling individuals to reclaim their narratives and build trust within their communities. Through heartfelt stories and profound insights, Yeh inspires listeners to embrace creativity as a means of collective healing and empowerment.

The Story

Lily Yeh’s inspiring journey as a community-based artist reveals the profound impact of art on healing and social change. Through her reflections, it becomes evident that her life’s work is dedicated to bringing hope and transformation to communities across the globe. Yeh’s unique approach to art emphasizes collaboration and community engagement, where the process of creating is as significant as the final artistic outcome. This philosophy is rooted in her belief that art can be a powerful catalyst for compassion, justice, and personal growth, particularly in places that have been overlooked or marginalized.

The conversation covers various aspects of Yeh's work, including her experiences in different countries—such as Rwanda, China, and her home city of Philadelphia—and how each community's stories shape the art she creates. Yeh highlights the importance of listening to local voices and incorporating their narratives into artistic projects, which fosters a sense of ownership and empowerment among participants. Her approach illustrates a deep understanding of the interconnectedness of human experiences, as she draws from her own ancestral heritage to connect with others on a fundamental level.

Additionally, Yeh discusses the challenges and rewards of her work, particularly the emotional aspects of engaging with communities that have experienced trauma. She shares powerful stories about her projects, including the creation of a memorial in Rwanda, where community members were invited to participate in the artistic process as a means of healing and remembrance. Ultimately, Yeh’s narrative serves as a reminder of the transformative power of art and its ability to unite people, foster resilience, and inspire hope in the face of adversity.

Takeaways:

  • Lily Yeh emphasizes the importance of community participation in art-making to foster trust and healing.
  • Art should not be viewed as merely decorative; it plays a vital role in transforming lives and narratives.
  • Lily's journey shows that the act of creating can be deeply empowering for marginalized communities.
  • The Dandelion School illustrates how art can build identity and confidence in young people.
  • Lily believes that wisdom comes from intuition and openness, rather than just accumulated knowledge.
  • Creating beauty in broken places can spark collective healing and allow for renewed hope.

Notable Mentions:

People

Lily Yeh: A globally celebrated artist and community leader, founder of the Village of Arts and Humanities in Philadelphia. Her work focuses on using art for community transformation. Learn more about Lily Yeh

Verena Wheelock: A community member in Asheville, North Carolina, involved in rebuilding after severe flooding, inspired by the metaphor of creating beauty from broken mosaics.

Rainer Maria Rilke: Renowned poet whose writings, particularly "Letters to a Young Poet," inspire Lily Yeh's philosophy on creativity and life. Learn more about Rainer Maria Rilke


Places

Village of Arts and Humanities, Philadelphia: A community arts center founded by Lily Yeh, fostering social change and urban revitalization through art.

Learn more about the Village of Arts and Humanities

Yellow River, China: A river central to ancient Chinese culture, mentioned as a spiritual connection for Lily Yeh. Learn more about the Yellow River

Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya: One of Africa's largest informal settlements, where Lily Yeh worked on community art projects. Learn more about Kibera

Rugerrero, Rwanda: A village with a genocide memorial that Lily Yeh helped design and create, promoting collective healing. Learn more about Rugerrero

Dandelion School, Beijing, China: A school for children of migrant workers, transformed into a space of learning and art by Lily Yeh's long-term involvement. Learn more about the Dandelion School

Asheville, North Carolina: The site of a new project by Lily Yeh, addressing community rebuilding after climate-change-related flooding. Learn more about Asheville


Events

Rwandan Genocide Memorial Creation (2004): Lily Yeh's transformative project in Rwanda, creating a space for mourning and healing. Learn more about the Rwandan genocide and memorials

Dandelion School Anniversary (2025): Marking 20 years of art and education collaboration at the Dandelion School.

Severe Flooding in Asheville, North Carolina: A recent environmental disaster that inspired Lily Yeh’s involvement in helping the community recover through art.



]]>Lily Yeh, a globally celebrated artist and community arts pioneer, shares her transformative journey of using art to foster healing, hope, and resilience in marginalized communities around the world.

Drawing from her experiences in places like Philadelphia, Rwanda, and China, she emphasizes the power of collaboration and the importance of community engagement in creating meaningful public art. Yeh believes that true beauty and healing emerge not from imposing solutions, but from listening to and uplifting the voices of those directly affected by trauma. Her work illustrates how art can be a catalyst for change, enabling individuals to reclaim their narratives and build trust within their communities. Through heartfelt stories and profound insights, Yeh inspires listeners to embrace creativity as a means of collective healing and empowerment.

The Story

Lily Yeh’s inspiring journey as a community-based artist reveals the profound impact of art on healing and social change. Through her reflections, it becomes evident that her life’s work is dedicated to bringing hope and transformation to communities across the globe. Yeh’s unique approach to art emphasizes collaboration and community engagement, where the process of creating is as significant as the final artistic outcome. This philosophy is rooted in her belief that art can be a powerful catalyst for compassion, justice, and personal growth, particularly in places that have been overlooked or marginalized.

The conversation covers various aspects of Yeh's work, including her experiences in different countries—such as Rwanda, China, and her home city of Philadelphia—and how each community's stories shape the art she creates. Yeh highlights the importance of listening to local voices and incorporating their narratives into artistic projects, which fosters a sense of ownership and empowerment among participants. Her approach illustrates a deep understanding of the interconnectedness of human experiences, as she draws from her own ancestral heritage to connect with others on a fundamental level.

Additionally, Yeh discusses the challenges and rewards of her work, particularly the emotional aspects of engaging with communities that have experienced trauma. She shares powerful stories about her projects, including the creation of a memorial in Rwanda, where community members were invited to participate in the artistic process as a means of healing and remembrance. Ultimately, Yeh’s narrative serves as a reminder of the transformative power of art and its ability to unite people, foster resilience, and inspire hope in the face of adversity.

Takeaways:

  • Lily Yeh emphasizes the importance of community participation in art-making to foster trust and healing.
  • Art should not be viewed as merely decorative; it plays a vital role in transforming lives and narratives.
  • Lily's journey shows that the act of creating can be deeply empowering for marginalized communities.
  • The Dandelion School illustrates how art can build identity and confidence in young people.
  • Lily believes that wisdom comes from intuition and openness, rather than just accumulated knowledge.
  • Creating beauty in broken places can spark collective healing and allow for renewed hope.

Notable Mentions:

People

Lily Yeh: A globally celebrated artist and community leader, founder of the Village of Arts and Humanities in Philadelphia. Her work focuses on using art for community transformation. Learn more about Lily Yeh

Verena Wheelock: A community member in Asheville, North Carolina, involved in rebuilding after severe flooding, inspired by the metaphor of creating beauty from broken mosaics.

Rainer Maria Rilke: Renowned poet whose writings, particularly "Letters to a Young Poet," inspire Lily Yeh's philosophy on creativity and life. Learn more about Rainer Maria Rilke


Places

Village of Arts and Humanities, Philadelphia: A community arts center founded by Lily Yeh, fostering social change and urban revitalization through art.

Learn more about the Village of Arts and Humanities

Yellow River, China: A river central to ancient Chinese culture, mentioned as a spiritual connection for Lily Yeh. Learn more about the Yellow River

Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya: One of Africa's largest informal settlements, where Lily Yeh worked on community art projects. Learn more about Kibera

Rugerrero, Rwanda: A village with a genocide memorial that Lily Yeh helped design and create, promoting collective healing. Learn more about Rugerrero

Dandelion School, Beijing, China: A school for children of migrant workers, transformed into a space of learning and art by Lily Yeh's long-term involvement. Learn more about the Dandelion School

Asheville, North Carolina: The site of a new project by Lily Yeh, addressing community rebuilding after climate-change-related flooding. Learn more about Asheville


Events

Rwandan Genocide Memorial Creation (2004): Lily Yeh's transformative project in Rwanda, creating a space for mourning and healing. Learn more about the Rwandan genocide and memorials

Dandelion School Anniversary (2025): Marking 20 years of art and education collaboration at the Dandelion School.

Severe Flooding in Asheville, North Carolina: A recent environmental disaster that inspired Lily Yeh’s involvement in helping the community recover through art.



]]>edac2fef-3785-44e5-8751-06a715cda02aWed, 22 Jan 2025 04:30:00 -070048:46truefull41141144113: Jack Bowers -A Do-gooder Opportunist in the Joint : A Jazz Improvisation in 4 Parts113: Jack Bowers -A Do-gooder Opportunist in the Joint : A Jazz Improvisation in 4 PartsSummary

This podcast episode features a compelling conversation between Bill Cleveland and Jack Bowers, highlighting the transformative power of arts programs within the prison system.

Bowers shares his experiences as a musician and educator at Soledad Prison, emphasizing how curiosity and opportunism led him to create profound connections and foster a vibrant creative community among incarcerated individuals. The discussion reveals the significant impact of art in mitigating the harsh realities of prison life, allowing participants to explore their identities and express themselves in ways that transcend their circumstances. Cleveland and Bowers reflect on the challenges and triumphs of building an arts program in a structured and often oppressive environment, illustrating the necessity of respect and collaboration among diverse groups. Ultimately, the episode serves as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the vital role of creativity in healing and transformation.

The Story

Bill Cleveland's conversation with Jack Bowers offers a unique glimpse into the world of Arts and Corrections, a movement that has redefined the relationship between art and incarceration. Through their discussion, Jack recounts his journey from a working musician to a significant figure in the California prison arts scene, highlighting how he embraced opportunities that led him to teach music and songwriting to inmates. This exploration is not just about the act of teaching; it delves deep into the emotional and psychological landscapes of both the artists and the incarcerated individuals they serve. Jack paints a vivid picture of how creativity became a crucial lifeline for inmates, providing them with a means of expression, connection, and ultimately, a path to personal transformation.

At the core of their dialogue is the profound impact that art can have in a prison setting. Jack reflects on the challenges he faced in establishing trust and building a community among inmates and staff, emphasizing the necessity of fostering a safe and supportive environment for creative exploration. This episode highlights the complex relationships that develop within such institutions, where art becomes a bridge between disparate worlds. Jack’s stories reveal the intricacies of navigating the prison system, where respect and permission from inmates and staff alike were essential for the arts program to thrive. The discussion also touches on the broader implications of what it means to be an artist in such a challenging environment, exploring themes of resilience, hope, and the importance of community.

As Jack shares his experiences, listeners are treated to an authentic performance of his song, “Soledad Morning,” which encapsulates the struggles and aspirations of those living in a correctional facility. The song serves as a poignant reminder of the realities faced by inmates, capturing the essence of longing and the fleeting nature of connection in a world defined by confinement. This episode not only celebrates the transformative power of art but also challenges listeners to reconsider their perceptions of prisons and the individuals within them. It is a powerful testament to the idea that creativity can flourish even in the most restrictive environments, offering hope and healing to those who need it most.

Takeaways:

  • Jack Bowers describes his journey as an opportunistic musician, highlighting the unexpected paths that led him to work in prisons.
  • The Arts and Corrections program created a unique environment where creativity thrived despite the challenges of prison life.
  • Building a sense of community and connection is essential for artists working in correctional settings.
  • Jack emphasizes the transformative power of art, illustrating how it can help mitigate the harsh realities of incarceration.
  • The complexities of prison life reveal profound insights about society and human connections that are often overlooked.
  • Both Bill and Jack reflect on the importance of curiosity and openness to new opportunities in shaping their artistic journeys.

Markers

  • 00:10 - Introducing Personal Stories in Art Education
  • 09:21 - The Journey of Arts and Corrections
  • 18:05 - Life Inside Soledad: Reflections on Incarceration and Art
  • 31:27 - Building the Oasis
  • 37:46 - The Journey of Creative Expression Inside Prison
  • 52:06 - Embracing Neurodivergence and Individuality

Notable Mentions

People

  1. Andrew Hill

  • Description: A celebrated jazz musician known for his innovative style and compositions. His work had a significant influence on Jack Bowers during their time together.
  • Further Information: Andrew Hill Biography

  1. Judith Tannenbaum

  • Description: A writer and artist deeply involved in prison arts programs, who authored works that captured the complexities of prison life and the transformative power of art.
  • Further Information: Judith Tannenbaum Profile

  1. Dick Crispo

·     At the ripe age of eleven, Dick Crispo had his first artwork displayed in a Carmel art gallery. From that moment on, Dick knew that he was destined for a life in the arts. Since then, Crispo has presented 76 one-man shows and won 36 awards for his artistry, including a gold medal from the Italian Academy of Works of Art. His work is part of more than 100 distinguished private and public collections, such as the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the Monterey Museum of Art, the Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, and Museo de Belle Arti Lugano in Switzerland.


Places

  1. Soledad Prison (Correctional Training Facility)

  • Description: A state prison in Soledad, California, where Jack Bowers and others developed extensive arts programs as part of the Arts-in-Corrections initiative.
  • Further Information: Soledad Prison Info

  1. San Quentin State Prison

  • Description: Another California state prison, referenced for its arts programs, including contributions by notable artists like Judith Tannenbaum.
  • Further Information: San Quentin Info


Events and Projects

  1. Arts-in-Corrections Program

  • Description: A groundbreaking initiative integrating arts education into California prisons to foster rehabilitation and community-building among incarcerated individuals.
  • Further Information: Arts-in-Corrections

  1. Art and the Prison Crisis (Documentary)

  • Description: An Academy Award-nominated film showcasing the transformative impact of the Arts-in-Corrections program.
  • Further Information: Art and the Prison Crisis Info

  1. Mural at Soledad Prison

  • Description: A mural painted along the central corridor of Soledad Prison by Dick Crispo and incarcerated artists, showcasing American landmarks and art as a way of seeing life.
  • Further Information: Soledad Prison Mural

  1. "Time Out" Anthology

  • Description: A collection of poetry by incarcerated individuals, published as part of the Arts-in-Corrections program.
  • Further Information: Time Out Anthology

]]>Summary

This podcast episode features a compelling conversation between Bill Cleveland and Jack Bowers, highlighting the transformative power of arts programs within the prison system.

Bowers shares his experiences as a musician and educator at Soledad Prison, emphasizing how curiosity and opportunism led him to create profound connections and foster a vibrant creative community among incarcerated individuals. The discussion reveals the significant impact of art in mitigating the harsh realities of prison life, allowing participants to explore their identities and express themselves in ways that transcend their circumstances. Cleveland and Bowers reflect on the challenges and triumphs of building an arts program in a structured and often oppressive environment, illustrating the necessity of respect and collaboration among diverse groups. Ultimately, the episode serves as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the vital role of creativity in healing and transformation.

The Story

Bill Cleveland's conversation with Jack Bowers offers a unique glimpse into the world of Arts and Corrections, a movement that has redefined the relationship between art and incarceration. Through their discussion, Jack recounts his journey from a working musician to a significant figure in the California prison arts scene, highlighting how he embraced opportunities that led him to teach music and songwriting to inmates. This exploration is not just about the act of teaching; it delves deep into the emotional and psychological landscapes of both the artists and the incarcerated individuals they serve. Jack paints a vivid picture of how creativity became a crucial lifeline for inmates, providing them with a means of expression, connection, and ultimately, a path to personal transformation.

At the core of their dialogue is the profound impact that art can have in a prison setting. Jack reflects on the challenges he faced in establishing trust and building a community among inmates and staff, emphasizing the necessity of fostering a safe and supportive environment for creative exploration. This episode highlights the complex relationships that develop within such institutions, where art becomes a bridge between disparate worlds. Jack’s stories reveal the intricacies of navigating the prison system, where respect and permission from inmates and staff alike were essential for the arts program to thrive. The discussion also touches on the broader implications of what it means to be an artist in such a challenging environment, exploring themes of resilience, hope, and the importance of community.

As Jack shares his experiences, listeners are treated to an authentic performance of his song, “Soledad Morning,” which encapsulates the struggles and aspirations of those living in a correctional facility. The song serves as a poignant reminder of the realities faced by inmates, capturing the essence of longing and the fleeting nature of connection in a world defined by confinement. This episode not only celebrates the transformative power of art but also challenges listeners to reconsider their perceptions of prisons and the individuals within them. It is a powerful testament to the idea that creativity can flourish even in the most restrictive environments, offering hope and healing to those who need it most.

Takeaways:

  • Jack Bowers describes his journey as an opportunistic musician, highlighting the unexpected paths that led him to work in prisons.
  • The Arts and Corrections program created a unique environment where creativity thrived despite the challenges of prison life.
  • Building a sense of community and connection is essential for artists working in correctional settings.
  • Jack emphasizes the transformative power of art, illustrating how it can help mitigate the harsh realities of incarceration.
  • The complexities of prison life reveal profound insights about society and human connections that are often overlooked.
  • Both Bill and Jack reflect on the importance of curiosity and openness to new opportunities in shaping their artistic journeys.

Markers

  • 00:10 - Introducing Personal Stories in Art Education
  • 09:21 - The Journey of Arts and Corrections
  • 18:05 - Life Inside Soledad: Reflections on Incarceration and Art
  • 31:27 - Building the Oasis
  • 37:46 - The Journey of Creative Expression Inside Prison
  • 52:06 - Embracing Neurodivergence and Individuality

Notable Mentions

People

  1. Andrew Hill

  • Description: A celebrated jazz musician known for his innovative style and compositions. His work had a significant influence on Jack Bowers during their time together.
  • Further Information: Andrew Hill Biography

  1. Judith Tannenbaum

  • Description: A writer and artist deeply involved in prison arts programs, who authored works that captured the complexities of prison life and the transformative power of art.
  • Further Information: Judith Tannenbaum Profile

  1. Dick Crispo

·     At the ripe age of eleven, Dick Crispo had his first artwork displayed in a Carmel art gallery. From that moment on, Dick knew that he was destined for a life in the arts. Since then, Crispo has presented 76 one-man shows and won 36 awards for his artistry, including a gold medal from the Italian Academy of Works of Art. His work is part of more than 100 distinguished private and public collections, such as the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the Monterey Museum of Art, the Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, and Museo de Belle Arti Lugano in Switzerland.


Places

  1. Soledad Prison (Correctional Training Facility)

  • Description: A state prison in Soledad, California, where Jack Bowers and others developed extensive arts programs as part of the Arts-in-Corrections initiative.
  • Further Information: Soledad Prison Info

  1. San Quentin State Prison

  • Description: Another California state prison, referenced for its arts programs, including contributions by notable artists like Judith Tannenbaum.
  • Further Information: San Quentin Info


Events and Projects

  1. Arts-in-Corrections Program

  • Description: A groundbreaking initiative integrating arts education into California prisons to foster rehabilitation and community-building among incarcerated individuals.
  • Further Information: Arts-in-Corrections

  1. Art and the Prison Crisis (Documentary)

  • Description: An Academy Award-nominated film showcasing the transformative impact of the Arts-in-Corrections program.
  • Further Information: Art and the Prison Crisis Info

  1. Mural at Soledad Prison

  • Description: A mural painted along the central corridor of Soledad Prison by Dick Crispo and incarcerated artists, showcasing American landmarks and art as a way of seeing life.
  • Further Information: Soledad Prison Mural

  1. "Time Out" Anthology

  • Description: A collection of poetry by incarcerated individuals, published as part of the Arts-in-Corrections program.
  • Further Information: Time Out Anthology

]]>ac405bfd-ea9f-4b2e-98d1-bc07386c41e3Wed, 08 Jan 2025 05:45:00 -070055:25truefull31131133112: Is Democracy a Creative Practice? 2112: Is Democracy a Creative Practice? 2Episode Summary

In this second of two episodes exploring democracy as a creative practice Bill Cleveland leads a rich discussion with theater workers Arnaldo Lopez, Ben Fink, and Scott Rankin, and labor organizer Ken Grossinger, who share how artistic endeavors can bridge differences, foster justice, and inspire community engagement. The conversation delves into the transformative power of storytelling and the role of cultural democracy in redefining citizenship and identity.

As the guests recount their experiences, they highlight the importance of trust and cooperation in collaborative projects that address social issues. Ultimately, this episode underscores the vital relationship between art and democracy, encouraging listeners to consider how creative practices can drive meaningful change in society.

Key Moments

  • 00:11 - Exploring Democracy as a Creative Practice
  • 01:08 - Exploring Art and Democracy
  • 16:20 - The Role of Art in Organizing
  • 28:05 - The Power of Cultural Change
  • 33:01 - The Flow of Change and Learning

The Story

The exploration of democracy as a creative practice takes center stage in this engaging podcast episode led by Bill Cleveland. The conversation invites listeners to consider the intricate relationship between art and democratic engagement, showcasing how creative expression can serve as a powerful tool for fostering community, dialogue, and social change. Throughout the episode, Cleveland draws on insights from a diverse range of guests—artists, theater practitioners, and labor organizers—who share their personal experiences and the transformative impact of art in their respective fields. This multifaceted dialogue not only highlights the challenges faced by contemporary democracies but also illuminates the potential for creative practices to bridge divides and cultivate understanding among disparate communities.

Guests such as Arnaldo Lopez and Ken Grossinger articulate the importance of storytelling in reclaiming democratic spaces and asserting the narratives of marginalized groups. Their contributions underscore the essential role that art plays in illuminating social injustices and inspiring collective action. The podcast does not shy away from addressing the complexities of cultural democracy, emphasizing the necessity for inclusive practices that honor and celebrate cultural differences. Cleveland thoughtfully weaves these narratives together, painting a rich tapestry of insights that challenge listeners to reflect on their own roles within the democratic process.

As the episode unfolds, it becomes clear that the journey towards a creative democracy is ongoing and requires active participation from all individuals. The discussions culminate in a compelling call to action, urging listeners to embrace their creative potential and engage in the collaborative efforts necessary for meaningful change. By fostering a deeper understanding of the interplay between art and democracy, the podcast presents a hopeful vision for the future—one where creative practices not only enrich our understanding of ourselves but also empower us to collectively shape the world around us. In this light, the episode serves as an inspiring reminder of the enduring power of art to catalyze social transformation and reinforce the fundamental ideals of democracy.

Takeaways

  • The podcast explores the role of art in fostering democracy and collaboration.
  • Art can serve as a powerful tool for reclaiming democratic spaces and identities.
  • Collaborative art-making helps bridge cultural differences and create common ground among communities.
  • Effective organizing requires integrating artistic practices to shift narratives and foster engagement.
  • Trust and cooperation are essential for successful collaborative artistic endeavors across diverse communities.
  • The evolution of storytelling in communities strengthens both creative and democratic practices.

Notable Mentions

People

  1. Carlton Turner is an artist, activist, and co-founder of Sipp Culture, an organization dedicated to building community resilience through art and culture in rural Mississippi. (See Also CSCW EP: 78)
  2. Leni Sloan is a performer and historian known for exploring themes of democracy and cultural transformation through his works. (See Also: CS/CW Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 100 and Episode 101 )
  3. Harry Boyte is a scholar and democracy advocate who explores the intersection of civic engagement and democratic practice in modern society. (See Also: CS/CW Episode 79)
  4. Barbara Schaeffer Bacon is a co-director of Animating Democracy, a program that brings art and civic engagement together to strengthen democracy. (See Also: CS/CW Episode 98, and Episode 99)
  5. Pam Korza is also a co-director of Animating Democracy, focusing on the role of culture in public dialogue and participatory democracy. (See Also: CS/CW Episode 98, and Episode 99 )
  6. Arnaldo Lopez Arnaldo is the Managing Director of Pregones Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, contributing significantly to cultural storytelling and community collaboration. (See Also: CS/CW EP 68 )
  7. Ben Fink is an editor and collaborator on "Art in a Democracy," focusing on the role of arts in multicultural and democratic dialogue. (See Also: CS/CW EP 68)
  8. Ken Grossinger is labor organizer turned arts advocate, Ken Grossinger is known for integrating cultural strategies into social and economic justice movements. (See Also CS/CW EP 96)
  9. Scott Rankin is the founder of BIGhART, an Australian organization that creates art to foster social change and community engagement. (See Also: CS/CW Episode 86 and Episode 87 )

Places

  1. Pregones Puerto Rican Traveling Theater is a Bronx-based theater company known for its culturally rich performances and collaborations promoting Puerto Rican heritage and diverse storytelling.
  2. Roadside Theater is a community-based theater company in Appalachia that uses storytelling to explore local culture and social issues.
  3. Junebug Productions is a New Orleans-based theater company focused on African American culture and social justice through performance art.
  4. BIGhART is Australia’s leading arts and social change organization, creating transformative projects in disadvantaged communities.
  5. Whitesburg, Kentucky is a small town in Appalachia, home to cultural organizations like Appalshop and a center for regional...]]>Episode Summary

    In this second of two episodes exploring democracy as a creative practice Bill Cleveland leads a rich discussion with theater workers Arnaldo Lopez, Ben Fink, and Scott Rankin, and labor organizer Ken Grossinger, who share how artistic endeavors can bridge differences, foster justice, and inspire community engagement. The conversation delves into the transformative power of storytelling and the role of cultural democracy in redefining citizenship and identity.

    As the guests recount their experiences, they highlight the importance of trust and cooperation in collaborative projects that address social issues. Ultimately, this episode underscores the vital relationship between art and democracy, encouraging listeners to consider how creative practices can drive meaningful change in society.

    Key Moments

    • 00:11 - Exploring Democracy as a Creative Practice
    • 01:08 - Exploring Art and Democracy
    • 16:20 - The Role of Art in Organizing
    • 28:05 - The Power of Cultural Change
    • 33:01 - The Flow of Change and Learning

    The Story

    The exploration of democracy as a creative practice takes center stage in this engaging podcast episode led by Bill Cleveland. The conversation invites listeners to consider the intricate relationship between art and democratic engagement, showcasing how creative expression can serve as a powerful tool for fostering community, dialogue, and social change. Throughout the episode, Cleveland draws on insights from a diverse range of guests—artists, theater practitioners, and labor organizers—who share their personal experiences and the transformative impact of art in their respective fields. This multifaceted dialogue not only highlights the challenges faced by contemporary democracies but also illuminates the potential for creative practices to bridge divides and cultivate understanding among disparate communities.

    Guests such as Arnaldo Lopez and Ken Grossinger articulate the importance of storytelling in reclaiming democratic spaces and asserting the narratives of marginalized groups. Their contributions underscore the essential role that art plays in illuminating social injustices and inspiring collective action. The podcast does not shy away from addressing the complexities of cultural democracy, emphasizing the necessity for inclusive practices that honor and celebrate cultural differences. Cleveland thoughtfully weaves these narratives together, painting a rich tapestry of insights that challenge listeners to reflect on their own roles within the democratic process.

    As the episode unfolds, it becomes clear that the journey towards a creative democracy is ongoing and requires active participation from all individuals. The discussions culminate in a compelling call to action, urging listeners to embrace their creative potential and engage in the collaborative efforts necessary for meaningful change. By fostering a deeper understanding of the interplay between art and democracy, the podcast presents a hopeful vision for the future—one where creative practices not only enrich our understanding of ourselves but also empower us to collectively shape the world around us. In this light, the episode serves as an inspiring reminder of the enduring power of art to catalyze social transformation and reinforce the fundamental ideals of democracy.

    Takeaways

    • The podcast explores the role of art in fostering democracy and collaboration.
    • Art can serve as a powerful tool for reclaiming democratic spaces and identities.
    • Collaborative art-making helps bridge cultural differences and create common ground among communities.
    • Effective organizing requires integrating artistic practices to shift narratives and foster engagement.
    • Trust and cooperation are essential for successful collaborative artistic endeavors across diverse communities.
    • The evolution of storytelling in communities strengthens both creative and democratic practices.

    Notable Mentions

    People

    1. Carlton Turner is an artist, activist, and co-founder of Sipp Culture, an organization dedicated to building community resilience through art and culture in rural Mississippi. (See Also CSCW EP: 78)
    2. Leni Sloan is a performer and historian known for exploring themes of democracy and cultural transformation through his works. (See Also: CS/CW Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 100 and Episode 101 )
    3. Harry Boyte is a scholar and democracy advocate who explores the intersection of civic engagement and democratic practice in modern society. (See Also: CS/CW Episode 79)
    4. Barbara Schaeffer Bacon is a co-director of Animating Democracy, a program that brings art and civic engagement together to strengthen democracy. (See Also: CS/CW Episode 98, and Episode 99)
    5. Pam Korza is also a co-director of Animating Democracy, focusing on the role of culture in public dialogue and participatory democracy. (See Also: CS/CW Episode 98, and Episode 99 )
    6. Arnaldo Lopez Arnaldo is the Managing Director of Pregones Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, contributing significantly to cultural storytelling and community collaboration. (See Also: CS/CW EP 68 )
    7. Ben Fink is an editor and collaborator on "Art in a Democracy," focusing on the role of arts in multicultural and democratic dialogue. (See Also: CS/CW EP 68)
    8. Ken Grossinger is labor organizer turned arts advocate, Ken Grossinger is known for integrating cultural strategies into social and economic justice movements. (See Also CS/CW EP 96)
    9. Scott Rankin is the founder of BIGhART, an Australian organization that creates art to foster social change and community engagement. (See Also: CS/CW Episode 86 and Episode 87 )

    Places

    1. Pregones Puerto Rican Traveling Theater is a Bronx-based theater company known for its culturally rich performances and collaborations promoting Puerto Rican heritage and diverse storytelling.
    2. Roadside Theater is a community-based theater company in Appalachia that uses storytelling to explore local culture and social issues.
    3. Junebug Productions is a New Orleans-based theater company focused on African American culture and social justice through performance art.
    4. BIGhART is Australia’s leading arts and social change organization, creating transformative projects in disadvantaged communities.
    5. Whitesburg, Kentucky is a small town in Appalachia, home to cultural organizations like Appalshop and a center for regional storytelling.

    Events and Projects

    1. Promise of a Love Song is a collaborative theatrical project interweaving stories from Pregones, Roadside, and Junebug Productions, exploring themes of identity and community.
    2. Art in a Democracy is a two-volume book collection of plays and essays examining the role of theater in fostering democratic values.
    3. Betsy: A Puerto Rican Appalachian Musical  is a unique musical collaboration between Pregones and Roadside, highlighting the intersection of Appalachian and Puerto Rican cultures.

    ]]>    36e3bd8d-a9f1-4130-b546-1ef98e2afe55Wed, 11 Dec 2024 05:45:00 -070041:44truefull31121123111: Is Democracy a Creative Practice?111: Is Democracy a Creative Practice?DEMOCRACY is a practice that we haven't been practicing. The gap between the story we've been telling ourselves about our participatory democracy and our actual experience leaves us unprepared for the Resistance and Reclamation project that we're about to undertake. To get better at Democracy, we need to treat it as a creative practice!

    This is the first of two episodes that explore the intricate relationship between art and democracy. This episode delves into the idea that democracy is not merely a system of voting, but a dynamic practice that requires active participation and creativity from its citizens.

    In his conversation with past guests, Bill Cleveland posits that our understanding of democracy is flawed, as too many citizens view it solely as a transactional process rather than a communal endeavor.

    Through insights gathered from creative change agents who have engaged deeply with the intersections of art and democratic practices, the episode illustrates how creative expression can act as a catalyst for civic engagement. The narrative reveals a pressing concern about the current state of American democracy, where apathy and division threaten the very fabric of communal life.

    Cleveland advocates for a renewed commitment to practicing democracy as a form of art, where citizens actively contribute to shaping their society, thereby enriching not only their own lives but also the collective experience of democracy itself.

    Takeaways:

    • Democracy is a practice that requires active participation, not just voting in elections.
    • The fragility of American democracy stems from a lack of understanding of its true nature.
    • Creative practices in democracy can help bridge divides and foster community engagement.
    • Sharing personal stories can play a crucial role in understanding and practicing democracy.
    • The connection between art and democracy emphasizes the importance of collective storytelling.
    • Democracy thrives when citizens engage in meaningful dialogues and collaborative efforts together.

    Chapters:

    • 00:11 - A New Direction in Storytelling
    • 00:41 - Democracy as a Creative Practice
    • 09:33 - The Role of Stories in Democracy
    • 16:18 - The Legacy of Lydia Hamilton Smith
    • 22:30 - Animating Democracy: The Role of Arts in Community Engagement
    • 25:47 - The Power of Creative Engagement in Social Issues
    • 32:29 - The Role of Arts in Cultural Democracy
    • 37:08 - The Role of the Culture Bearer
    • 46:31 - The Connection Between Civic Engagement and Creative Practice
    • 47:52 - The Impact of Citizenship Schools on Democracy

    Notable Mentions

    Individuals:

    1. Bill Cleveland – Center for the Study of Art and Community
    2. Leni Sloan – Leni Sloan bio
    3. Pam Korza – Animating Democracy
    4. Barbara Schaefer Bacon – Animating Democracy
    5. Harry Boyte – Humphrey Institute
    6. Carlton Turner – Mississippi Center for Cultural Production
    7. Lori Poirier – First Peoples Fund
    8. Murray Strom – Public Work Academy
    9. Moises Kaufman – Tectonic Theater Project
    10. Eve Ensler – The Vagina Monologues
    11. Rosie Perez – Rosie Perez Bio
    12. Bernice Robinson – Literacy Project Documentary

    Organizations:

    1. Animating Democracy – Animating Democracy
    2. Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) – SCLC Official Site
    3. Mississippi Center for Cultural Production – Mississippi Center for Cultural Production
    4. First Peoples Fund – First Peoples Fund
    5. Public Achievement – Public Achievement
    6. Tectonic Theater Project – Tectonic Theater Project
    7. AIDS Memorial Quilt – AIDS Memorial Quilt
    8. V-Day – V-Day Official
    9. The Laramie Project – Tectonic Theater Project - The Laramie Project
    10. University of Massachusetts Arts Extension Service – UMass Arts Extension Service

    Events:

    1. 2024 U.S. Elections – 2024 Elections Overview
    2. The AIDS Memorial Quilt Display on the National Mall – AIDS Memorial Quilt
    3. Vagina Monologues Performances – V-Day
    4. Culture Shift Conference – Culture Shift Conference
    5. The Citizenship Schools of the Civil Rights Movement – Highlander Research and Education Center
    6. Work Progress Administration (WPA) – WPA History

    Documents/Legislation:

    1. 13th Amendment – 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
    2. 14th Amendment – 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
    3. 15th Amendment – 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
    4. 19th Amendment – 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

    ]]>    DEMOCRACY is a practice that we haven't been practicing. The gap between the story we've been telling ourselves about our participatory democracy and our actual experience leaves us unprepared for the Resistance and Reclamation project that we're about to undertake. To get better at Democracy, we need to treat it as a creative practice!

    This is the first of two episodes that explore the intricate relationship between art and democracy. This episode delves into the idea that democracy is not merely a system of voting, but a dynamic practice that requires active participation and creativity from its citizens.

    In his conversation with past guests, Bill Cleveland posits that our understanding of democracy is flawed, as too many citizens view it solely as a transactional process rather than a communal endeavor.

    Through insights gathered from creative change agents who have engaged deeply with the intersections of art and democratic practices, the episode illustrates how creative expression can act as a catalyst for civic engagement. The narrative reveals a pressing concern about the current state of American democracy, where apathy and division threaten the very fabric of communal life.

    Cleveland advocates for a renewed commitment to practicing democracy as a form of art, where citizens actively contribute to shaping their society, thereby enriching not only their own lives but also the collective experience of democracy itself.

    Takeaways:

    • Democracy is a practice that requires active participation, not just voting in elections.
    • The fragility of American democracy stems from a lack of understanding of its true nature.
    • Creative practices in democracy can help bridge divides and foster community engagement.
    • Sharing personal stories can play a crucial role in understanding and practicing democracy.
    • The connection between art and democracy emphasizes the importance of collective storytelling.
    • Democracy thrives when citizens engage in meaningful dialogues and collaborative efforts together.

    Chapters:

    • 00:11 - A New Direction in Storytelling
    • 00:41 - Democracy as a Creative Practice
    • 09:33 - The Role of Stories in Democracy
    • 16:18 - The Legacy of Lydia Hamilton Smith
    • 22:30 - Animating Democracy: The Role of Arts in Community Engagement
    • 25:47 - The Power of Creative Engagement in Social Issues
    • 32:29 - The Role of Arts in Cultural Democracy
    • 37:08 - The Role of the Culture Bearer
    • 46:31 - The Connection Between Civic Engagement and Creative Practice
    • 47:52 - The Impact of Citizenship Schools on Democracy

    Notable Mentions

    Individuals:

    1. Bill Cleveland – Center for the Study of Art and Community
    2. Leni Sloan – Leni Sloan bio
    3. Pam Korza – Animating Democracy
    4. Barbara Schaefer Bacon – Animating Democracy
    5. Harry Boyte – Humphrey Institute
    6. Carlton Turner – Mississippi Center for Cultural Production
    7. Lori Poirier – First Peoples Fund
    8. Murray Strom – Public Work Academy
    9. Moises Kaufman – Tectonic Theater Project
    10. Eve Ensler – The Vagina Monologues
    11. Rosie Perez – Rosie Perez Bio
    12. Bernice Robinson – Literacy Project Documentary

    Organizations:

    1. Animating Democracy – Animating Democracy
    2. Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) – SCLC Official Site
    3. Mississippi Center for Cultural Production – Mississippi Center for Cultural Production
    4. First Peoples Fund – First Peoples Fund
    5. Public Achievement – Public Achievement
    6. Tectonic Theater Project – Tectonic Theater Project
    7. AIDS Memorial Quilt – AIDS Memorial Quilt
    8. V-Day – V-Day Official
    9. The Laramie Project – Tectonic Theater Project - The Laramie Project
    10. University of Massachusetts Arts Extension Service – UMass Arts Extension Service

    Events:

    1. 2024 U.S. Elections – 2024 Elections Overview
    2. The AIDS Memorial Quilt Display on the National Mall – AIDS Memorial Quilt
    3. Vagina Monologues Performances – V-Day
    4. Culture Shift Conference – Culture Shift Conference
    5. The Citizenship Schools of the Civil Rights Movement – Highlander Research and Education Center
    6. Work Progress Administration (WPA) – WPA History

    Documents/Legislation:

    1. 13th Amendment – 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
    2. 14th Amendment – 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
    3. 15th Amendment – 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
    4. 19th Amendment – 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

    ]]>    b03cd820-2e6c-4e2a-b0c2-c2df6300230bWed, 27 Nov 2024 05:45:00 -070051:20truefull31111113    110: Jeff Mather: Art, Community, & the Materialized Imagination110: Jeff Mather: Art, Community, & the Materialized ImaginationExplore creative community transformation with teaching artist Jeff Mather as he shares stories of art, collaboration, and social change in education.

    Jeff Mather's work as a teaching artist and public art digital storytelling alchemist underscores the vital role of art in fostering community resilience and engagement. The conversation with Bill Cleveland reveals how, despite the challenges posed by recent global events, Mather remains optimistic about the transformative potential of creative collaborations. By reflecting on his experiences in various educational and community settings, he illustrates how art can bridge divides, empower youth, and reinvigorate spaces that have been overlooked or abandoned. His dedication to involving students in the artistic process not only cultivates their creativity but also instills a sense of agency and responsibility for their environment.

    The episode captures the essence of Mather's philosophy: art is not merely an aesthetic endeavor but a powerful tool for social change. Mather recounts the impactful project in West Baltimore, where he worked with local youth to design and install an environmental sculpture in a park that had long been neglected. This initiative not only beautified the area but also engaged the community in a dialogue about safety, ownership, and the importance of reclaiming shared spaces. Mather's insights into the dynamics of teaching and collaboration highlight the necessity of recognizing and valuing each participant's unique contributions, which ultimately enriches the artistic outcome.

    Furthermore, the discussion delves into the challenges and rewards of community-based art practices, particularly in relation to trust-building and navigating complex social landscapes. Mather emphasizes the importance of entering communities with humility and a willingness to learn, rather than imposing external solutions. His experiences with Alternate Roots showcase the power of grassroots movements in advocating for social and economic justice through art. As the episode unfolds, it becomes evident that Mather's work embodies a vision of art as a communal endeavor—one that celebrates diversity, fosters connection, and cultivates a shared sense of purpose in navigating the challenges of our times.

    Key Moments

    00:18 The Turning Point: Reflections on Change and Future Challenges

    00:35 Reflections on Creative Change Agents

    13:59 Alternate ROOTS and Community Engagement

    22:55 The Impact of Community Engagement in Public Art

    31:14 Engaging with Community Through Art

    40:03 The Impact of Art and Community

    BIO

    Jeff is a community-based public artist and teaching artist in Georgia, (and South Carolina and Massachusetts and Utah), for over 30 years. He is the STEAM artist-in-residence at Drew Charter School 45 days each semester/90 days each year and has presented on his partnership work there at national and international conferences. He was a delegate and presenter at the 1st International Teaching Artist Conference in Olso in 2012 and at the ITAC3 in Edinburgh and at ITAC6 in Oslo. He is an ITAC Innovator, leading Think Tank webinars. He has been on the Georgia Council for the Arts registry of visiting artists since 1992. He has a BA degree in Proxemics from Hobart College. He served as president of the Atlanta Partnership for Arts in Learning, an arts infusion non-profit that he helped to co-found in 2001. He toured a program for nine years with a choreographer - and also a storytelling program with a master storyteller. Jeff has facilitated Learning Exchanges for teaching artists for Alternate ROOTS and for the Community Built Association. Jeff is also the lead artist for the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Access Program in northern Utah and runs interdisciplinary residencies there twice a year. He directed several experimental theater productions at the Center for Puppetry Arts and served as artist-in-residence for the Atlanta Symphony and the High Museum. He is best known for coaching large scale environmental sculpture projects. As a STEAM Artist-in-Residence he’s co-taught robotics, geometry, math, science, engineering, music, dance, and digital media.

    Notable Mentions

    Individuals

    1. Bill Cleveland – Host of the podcast episode.
    2. Jeff Mather – Teaching artist and public artist, guest of the episode.
    3. Eric Booth – Mentioned by Jeff as an influence in teaching artistry. (See CSCW EP 67)
    4. Ed Mack – Sculpture teacher at Jeff's high school in Wilton, Connecticut.
    5. Anne and Patrick Poirier – French conceptual artists Jeff worked with in New York City.
    6. Alice Lovelace – Key figure in Alternate ROOTS and seminal figure in the US community arts movement. (See CS/CW Episode 76)
    7. Bob Leonard – Key figure in Alternate ROOTS. (See CS/CW Episode 22)
    8. Normando Ismay  Key figure in Alternate ROOTS.  (See CS/CW Episode 89)
    9. Elise Witt – Key figure in Alternate ROOTS.  (See CS/CW Episode 46)
    10. Liz Lerman – Key figure in Alternate ROOTS.  (See CS/CW Episode 63)
    11. Ashley Milburn – From Culture Works in West Baltimore.
    12. Denise Johnson – From Culture Works in West Baltimore.
    13. Kenny Clemens – Young artist mentored by Jeff in Baltimore.
    14. Carlton Turner – Former Executive director of Alternate ROOTS worked with Jeff Mather with the Hidden Stream project.
    15. Lily Yeh – Artist known for her work in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood.
    16. Tom Dunn – Former public defender and teacher who partnered with Jeff on a digital storytelling project.
    17. Joe Lambert –Is the founder of the Story Center. He and his colleagues have trained thousands of story makers and teaching artists in digital storytelling.
    18. Paula Lark (Mama Paula) – Drummer, bass player, and storyteller who worked with Jeff on a classroom project.
    19. Marquetta Johnson – Textile artist and frequent collaborator with Jeff in Utah.
    20. Renee Fleming – Singer and author of Music and Mind.

    Organizations

    1. Center for the Study of Art and Community – Producer of the podcast "Change the Story, Change the World."
    2. Alternate ROOTS – A cultural organization based in the Southern USA focused on social and economic justice.
    3. Drew Charter School – A public school in Atlanta with a maker school model where Jeff worked.
    4. Georgia Council for the Arts – Supported Jeff’s teaching artist residency.
    5. NAEA (National Art Education Association) – Organization where Jeff presented.
    6. Culture Works – Organization in West Baltimore, led by Ashley Milburn and Denise Johnson.
    7. Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) – Known for its community arts program.
    8. International Teaching Artist Collaborative (ITAC) – Provided a grant to Jeff for a project on Tybee Island.
    9. High Museum in Atlanta – Produced a documentary on Marquetta...]]>Explore creative community transformation with teaching artist Jeff Mather as he shares stories of art, collaboration, and social change in education.

      Jeff Mather's work as a teaching artist and public art digital storytelling alchemist underscores the vital role of art in fostering community resilience and engagement. The conversation with Bill Cleveland reveals how, despite the challenges posed by recent global events, Mather remains optimistic about the transformative potential of creative collaborations. By reflecting on his experiences in various educational and community settings, he illustrates how art can bridge divides, empower youth, and reinvigorate spaces that have been overlooked or abandoned. His dedication to involving students in the artistic process not only cultivates their creativity but also instills a sense of agency and responsibility for their environment.

      The episode captures the essence of Mather's philosophy: art is not merely an aesthetic endeavor but a powerful tool for social change. Mather recounts the impactful project in West Baltimore, where he worked with local youth to design and install an environmental sculpture in a park that had long been neglected. This initiative not only beautified the area but also engaged the community in a dialogue about safety, ownership, and the importance of reclaiming shared spaces. Mather's insights into the dynamics of teaching and collaboration highlight the necessity of recognizing and valuing each participant's unique contributions, which ultimately enriches the artistic outcome.

      Furthermore, the discussion delves into the challenges and rewards of community-based art practices, particularly in relation to trust-building and navigating complex social landscapes. Mather emphasizes the importance of entering communities with humility and a willingness to learn, rather than imposing external solutions. His experiences with Alternate Roots showcase the power of grassroots movements in advocating for social and economic justice through art. As the episode unfolds, it becomes evident that Mather's work embodies a vision of art as a communal endeavor—one that celebrates diversity, fosters connection, and cultivates a shared sense of purpose in navigating the challenges of our times.

      Key Moments

      00:18 The Turning Point: Reflections on Change and Future Challenges

      00:35 Reflections on Creative Change Agents

      13:59 Alternate ROOTS and Community Engagement

      22:55 The Impact of Community Engagement in Public Art

      31:14 Engaging with Community Through Art

      40:03 The Impact of Art and Community

      BIO

      Jeff is a community-based public artist and teaching artist in Georgia, (and South Carolina and Massachusetts and Utah), for over 30 years. He is the STEAM artist-in-residence at Drew Charter School 45 days each semester/90 days each year and has presented on his partnership work there at national and international conferences. He was a delegate and presenter at the 1st International Teaching Artist Conference in Olso in 2012 and at the ITAC3 in Edinburgh and at ITAC6 in Oslo. He is an ITAC Innovator, leading Think Tank webinars. He has been on the Georgia Council for the Arts registry of visiting artists since 1992. He has a BA degree in Proxemics from Hobart College. He served as president of the Atlanta Partnership for Arts in Learning, an arts infusion non-profit that he helped to co-found in 2001. He toured a program for nine years with a choreographer - and also a storytelling program with a master storyteller. Jeff has facilitated Learning Exchanges for teaching artists for Alternate ROOTS and for the Community Built Association. Jeff is also the lead artist for the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Access Program in northern Utah and runs interdisciplinary residencies there twice a year. He directed several experimental theater productions at the Center for Puppetry Arts and served as artist-in-residence for the Atlanta Symphony and the High Museum. He is best known for coaching large scale environmental sculpture projects. As a STEAM Artist-in-Residence he’s co-taught robotics, geometry, math, science, engineering, music, dance, and digital media.

      Notable Mentions

      Individuals

      1. Bill Cleveland – Host of the podcast episode.
      2. Jeff Mather – Teaching artist and public artist, guest of the episode.
      3. Eric Booth – Mentioned by Jeff as an influence in teaching artistry. (See CSCW EP 67)
      4. Ed Mack – Sculpture teacher at Jeff's high school in Wilton, Connecticut.
      5. Anne and Patrick Poirier – French conceptual artists Jeff worked with in New York City.
      6. Alice Lovelace – Key figure in Alternate ROOTS and seminal figure in the US community arts movement. (See CS/CW Episode 76)
      7. Bob Leonard – Key figure in Alternate ROOTS. (See CS/CW Episode 22)
      8. Normando Ismay  Key figure in Alternate ROOTS.  (See CS/CW Episode 89)
      9. Elise Witt – Key figure in Alternate ROOTS.  (See CS/CW Episode 46)
      10. Liz Lerman – Key figure in Alternate ROOTS.  (See CS/CW Episode 63)
      11. Ashley Milburn – From Culture Works in West Baltimore.
      12. Denise Johnson – From Culture Works in West Baltimore.
      13. Kenny Clemens – Young artist mentored by Jeff in Baltimore.
      14. Carlton Turner – Former Executive director of Alternate ROOTS worked with Jeff Mather with the Hidden Stream project.
      15. Lily Yeh – Artist known for her work in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood.
      16. Tom Dunn – Former public defender and teacher who partnered with Jeff on a digital storytelling project.
      17. Joe Lambert –Is the founder of the Story Center. He and his colleagues have trained thousands of story makers and teaching artists in digital storytelling.
      18. Paula Lark (Mama Paula) – Drummer, bass player, and storyteller who worked with Jeff on a classroom project.
      19. Marquetta Johnson – Textile artist and frequent collaborator with Jeff in Utah.
      20. Renee Fleming – Singer and author of Music and Mind.

      Organizations

      1. Center for the Study of Art and Community – Producer of the podcast "Change the Story, Change the World."
      2. Alternate ROOTS – A cultural organization based in the Southern USA focused on social and economic justice.
      3. Drew Charter School – A public school in Atlanta with a maker school model where Jeff worked.
      4. Georgia Council for the Arts – Supported Jeff’s teaching artist residency.
      5. NAEA (National Art Education Association) – Organization where Jeff presented.
      6. Culture Works – Organization in West Baltimore, led by Ashley Milburn and Denise Johnson.
      7. Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) – Known for its community arts program.
      8. International Teaching Artist Collaborative (ITAC) – Provided a grant to Jeff for a project on Tybee Island.
      9. High Museum in Atlanta – Produced a documentary on Marquetta Johnson.

      Events and Projects

      1. Hidden Stream Park – A public art project led by Jeff in West Baltimore.
      2. ROOTS Fest in West Baltimore (2011) – Cultural festival by Alternate ROOTS celebrating local culture and activism.
      3. Something to Behold in West Baltimore – Online collection documenting the West Baltimore community development story.
      4. Digital Storytelling Partnership – Jeff’s digital storytelling project with the South Atlanta School of Law and Social Justice.
      5. Climate Crisis Project on Tybee Island – A STEAM project Jeff is developing, including a floating sculpture and data visualization.
      6. Skin and Bones Project – A co-residency with Marquetta Johnson involving textiles and structural art in Utah.
      7. Art for Social Justice Program – Program developed with Tom Dunn, involving five artist residencies in social justice.

      ]]>      429dd15f-d3ad-48e6-934a-5b96f518e0a9Wed, 13 Nov 2024 05:45:00 -070047:45truefull31101103109: Rebecca Rice: Giving Voice to the Invisible109: Rebecca Rice: Giving Voice to the InvisibleRebecca Rice, a pioneering community artist, transformed her personal experiences into a powerful advocacy for marginalized voices through art. Her journey began in a challenging neighborhood in Chicago, where she discovered her passion for performance and community engagement. This podcast explores her belief that every individual, regardless of their visibility, contributes to the intricate tapestry of human existence. Throughout her career, Rice emphasized the importance of creative collaboration, using theater as a means to address social issues such as domestic violence and racial justice. As she reflects on her work, listeners are invited to consider the profound impact of art in fostering understanding and change within communities.

      Rebecca Rice's profound journey as a community artist is explored through her reflections on art's power to transform lives, especially within marginalized communities. She perceives herself as an 'artist communicator,' emphasizing the importance of every individual’s story in shaping the broader human experience. Through her work, she has sought to give voice to those often overlooked—prisoners, youth, and the disabled—highlighting the reciprocal nature of her partnerships where the shared experiences of both artist and collaborators create a deeper understanding and artistic expression. Bill Cleveland, the host, reminisces about his mentorship under Rebecca, illustrating how her teachings transcend mere technical skill to delve into the moral and ethical dimensions of artistry. This rich dialogue not only honors Rebecca's legacy but also underscores the relevance of her insights on community arts and racial justice in today's societal landscape.

      The episode also delves into Rebecca's early influences and formative experiences that shaped her artistic philosophy. Growing up in a challenging environment on Chicago's West Side, she was introduced to community arts through Johnny Houston's program, which instilled in her a sense of capability and belonging. This program acted as a catalyst for her development as an artist, fostering her talent while teaching her the importance of dedication, hard work, and the value of creative expression irrespective of societal limitations. As Rebecca transitioned into the realm of political street theater and later into her tenure at Living Stage Theater, she began to intertwine her artistic endeavors with social activism, using theater as a vehicle for change and a platform for the stories of the oppressed. This evolution highlights the dynamic interplay between art and activism, showcasing how Rebecca's work was not just about performance but about empowering individuals and communities through creativity.

      Moreover, the discussion touches on the concept of 'creative trust' and how it serves as a foundation for successful artistic collaboration, especially within vulnerable populations. Rebecca articulates the necessity of creating a safe space where individuals can explore their creativity without the fear of judgment. This sanctuary-like environment allows participants to confront their internalized negativity and engage with their artistic voices authentically. The conversation also critiques the superficiality of multiculturalism in arts funding, advocating for deeper, more genuine engagement with communities rather than tokenistic approaches. Rebecca's insights push for a re-examination of the roles artists play within their communities, advocating for a shift in focus from individual acclaim to collective empowerment, ultimately striving to make art a fundamental and essential aspect of societal healing and growth.

      Takeaways:

      • Rebecca Rice emphasized the importance of every individual's contribution to the fabric of human existence, not just the prominent figures.
      • Art can serve as a transformative tool for personal empowerment and societal change, particularly in marginalized communities.
      • The Living Stage Theater Company focused on improvisational techniques to engage diverse audiences, including prisoners and youth.
      • Rebecca Rice's work with community arts highlighted the need for art to be inclusive and accessible to all individuals.
      • The collaboration between artists and community members can lead to profound insights and creative breakthroughs.
      • Rebecca Rice's approach to teaching stressed the importance of building trust and understanding the unique experiences of each participant.

      ]]>      Rebecca Rice, a pioneering community artist, transformed her personal experiences into a powerful advocacy for marginalized voices through art. Her journey began in a challenging neighborhood in Chicago, where she discovered her passion for performance and community engagement. This podcast explores her belief that every individual, regardless of their visibility, contributes to the intricate tapestry of human existence. Throughout her career, Rice emphasized the importance of creative collaboration, using theater as a means to address social issues such as domestic violence and racial justice. As she reflects on her work, listeners are invited to consider the profound impact of art in fostering understanding and change within communities.

      Rebecca Rice's profound journey as a community artist is explored through her reflections on art's power to transform lives, especially within marginalized communities. She perceives herself as an 'artist communicator,' emphasizing the importance of every individual’s story in shaping the broader human experience. Through her work, she has sought to give voice to those often overlooked—prisoners, youth, and the disabled—highlighting the reciprocal nature of her partnerships where the shared experiences of both artist and collaborators create a deeper understanding and artistic expression. Bill Cleveland, the host, reminisces about his mentorship under Rebecca, illustrating how her teachings transcend mere technical skill to delve into the moral and ethical dimensions of artistry. This rich dialogue not only honors Rebecca's legacy but also underscores the relevance of her insights on community arts and racial justice in today's societal landscape.

      The episode also delves into Rebecca's early influences and formative experiences that shaped her artistic philosophy. Growing up in a challenging environment on Chicago's West Side, she was introduced to community arts through Johnny Houston's program, which instilled in her a sense of capability and belonging. This program acted as a catalyst for her development as an artist, fostering her talent while teaching her the importance of dedication, hard work, and the value of creative expression irrespective of societal limitations. As Rebecca transitioned into the realm of political street theater and later into her tenure at Living Stage Theater, she began to intertwine her artistic endeavors with social activism, using theater as a vehicle for change and a platform for the stories of the oppressed. This evolution highlights the dynamic interplay between art and activism, showcasing how Rebecca's work was not just about performance but about empowering individuals and communities through creativity.

      Moreover, the discussion touches on the concept of 'creative trust' and how it serves as a foundation for successful artistic collaboration, especially within vulnerable populations. Rebecca articulates the necessity of creating a safe space where individuals can explore their creativity without the fear of judgment. This sanctuary-like environment allows participants to confront their internalized negativity and engage with their artistic voices authentically. The conversation also critiques the superficiality of multiculturalism in arts funding, advocating for deeper, more genuine engagement with communities rather than tokenistic approaches. Rebecca's insights push for a re-examination of the roles artists play within their communities, advocating for a shift in focus from individual acclaim to collective empowerment, ultimately striving to make art a fundamental and essential aspect of societal healing and growth.

      Takeaways:

      • Rebecca Rice emphasized the importance of every individual's contribution to the fabric of human existence, not just the prominent figures.
      • Art can serve as a transformative tool for personal empowerment and societal change, particularly in marginalized communities.
      • The Living Stage Theater Company focused on improvisational techniques to engage diverse audiences, including prisoners and youth.
      • Rebecca Rice's work with community arts highlighted the need for art to be inclusive and accessible to all individuals.
      • The collaboration between artists and community members can lead to profound insights and creative breakthroughs.
      • Rebecca Rice's approach to teaching stressed the importance of building trust and understanding the unique experiences of each participant.

      ]]>      94458faf-e86b-4e03-ae54-47e0323b53a1Mon, 28 Oct 2024 05:45:00 -070046:09truefull31091093      108: Billy Yalowitz: Art & Trust in Treacherous Times108: Billy Yalowitz: Art & Trust in Treacherous TimesGiven the differences in power, and definitions of success, how can arts and change collaborations between institutions of higher learning and their local communities be equitable and accountable? And how can change oriented artists practice effectively and ethically with a foot in each camp? Billy Yalowitz has had a career as a theater director and choreographer that I think provides provocative answers to both questions and more.

      This podcast features a rich conversation between Bill Cleveland and Billy Yalowitz, focusing on the intersection of community arts and social justice. At the heart of their discussion is the importance of facilitating equitable collaborations between artists and their communities, particularly in the context of higher education. Yalowitz shares insights from his diverse career as a theater director and choreographer, emphasizing the necessity of understanding one's own heritage and community narratives before engaging with others. The dialogue also explores the significance of storytelling as a means of empowerment and healing, particularly in marginalized communities. Ultimately, the episode highlights the transformative power of art in bridging divides and fostering mutual understanding across different cultural backgrounds.

      A key highlight of the episode is the Black Bottom Performance Project, where Yalowitz worked to amplify the voices of a community displaced by urban renewal. This project not only sought to reclaim lost stories but also fostered a sense of belonging among participants. Yalowitz emphasizes the importance of creating spaces for collective memory and narrative sharing, illustrating how art can bridge divides and facilitate healing. The project serves as a testament to the potential of community arts to address historical injustices and promote social cohesion, prompting listeners to consider the power of storytelling in their own lives.

      As the episode progresses, the discussion evolves into pressing contemporary issues, particularly climate justice and the disconnection from land that many communities experience. Yalowitz shares his ongoing work in the Hudson Valley, where he seeks to reconnect with his cultural roots while collaborating with indigenous peoples. This aspect of the conversation underscores the interconnectedness of social justice and environmental stewardship.

      Key Moments

      03:47 The Keys to the Kingdom: Billy's Building Project

      05:29 Exploring Identity and Community

      08:48 Golden's Bridge: A Cultural Sanctuary

      15:22 The Tradition of Community Arts

      21:40 The Legacy of Folk and Modern Dance

      26:05 The Black Bottom Performance Project

      27:23 Community Stories and Reparations

      32:15 Migrations and Hyphenations: An Israeli/Palestinian Sago

      36:25 The Birth Narrative and Twin, Twin Transfusion Syndrome

      41:54 Challenges and Breakthroughs in Rehearsal

      47:06 Land Amnesia and Climate Justice

      51:40 Reflections and Inspirations

      BIO

      Billy Yalowitz is a writer, director and community arts practitioner whose writings and interdisciplinary performance works draw from public history and chronicle grassroots movements for self-determination.

      Yalowitz’s interdisciplinary performance works have been presented off-Broadway and internationally. He has directed critically acclaimed and nationally profiled community-based performance-installations in Philadelphia neighborhoods since 1991. Yalowitz has been named “Best Unclassifiable Theater Artist” by Philadelphia’s City Paper, Best Choreographer by the Philadelphia Inquirer, and was nominated for a Barrymore Award for his work at People’s Light & Theater Company.  He was commissioned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art to create a performance-festival, The Fathering Circle.

      Yalowitz’s work has been featured in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/31/theater/newsandfeatures/31acto.html?_r=1,

      Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=9291, San Francisco Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, on National Public Radio, and profiled in Letting Go - Arts & Public History (Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, 2011), Brother Keepers: New Perspectives On Jewish Masculinity (Men’s Studies Press, 2010), White Men Challenging Racism (Duke Univ. Press, 2003) , and Body and Bible (Trinity, 1992). He has been awarded grants from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, James L. Knight Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and Woodrow Wilson Foundation, among others. 

      Yalowitz is an Associate Professor, and founder and co-director of the Community Arts Practices program at Tyler School of Art & Architecture , Temple University.

       Notable Mentions


      ]]>      Given the differences in power, and definitions of success, how can arts and change collaborations between institutions of higher learning and their local communities be equitable and accountable? And how can change oriented artists practice effectively and ethically with a foot in each camp? Billy Yalowitz has had a career as a theater director and choreographer that I think provides provocative answers to both questions and more.

      This podcast features a rich conversation between Bill Cleveland and Billy Yalowitz, focusing on the intersection of community arts and social justice. At the heart of their discussion is the importance of facilitating equitable collaborations between artists and their communities, particularly in the context of higher education. Yalowitz shares insights from his diverse career as a theater director and choreographer, emphasizing the necessity of understanding one's own heritage and community narratives before engaging with others. The dialogue also explores the significance of storytelling as a means of empowerment and healing, particularly in marginalized communities. Ultimately, the episode highlights the transformative power of art in bridging divides and fostering mutual understanding across different cultural backgrounds.

      A key highlight of the episode is the Black Bottom Performance Project, where Yalowitz worked to amplify the voices of a community displaced by urban renewal. This project not only sought to reclaim lost stories but also fostered a sense of belonging among participants. Yalowitz emphasizes the importance of creating spaces for collective memory and narrative sharing, illustrating how art can bridge divides and facilitate healing. The project serves as a testament to the potential of community arts to address historical injustices and promote social cohesion, prompting listeners to consider the power of storytelling in their own lives.

      As the episode progresses, the discussion evolves into pressing contemporary issues, particularly climate justice and the disconnection from land that many communities experience. Yalowitz shares his ongoing work in the Hudson Valley, where he seeks to reconnect with his cultural roots while collaborating with indigenous peoples. This aspect of the conversation underscores the interconnectedness of social justice and environmental stewardship.

      Key Moments

      03:47 The Keys to the Kingdom: Billy's Building Project

      05:29 Exploring Identity and Community

      08:48 Golden's Bridge: A Cultural Sanctuary

      15:22 The Tradition of Community Arts

      21:40 The Legacy of Folk and Modern Dance

      26:05 The Black Bottom Performance Project

      27:23 Community Stories and Reparations

      32:15 Migrations and Hyphenations: An Israeli/Palestinian Sago

      36:25 The Birth Narrative and Twin, Twin Transfusion Syndrome

      41:54 Challenges and Breakthroughs in Rehearsal

      47:06 Land Amnesia and Climate Justice

      51:40 Reflections and Inspirations

      BIO

      Billy Yalowitz is a writer, director and community arts practitioner whose writings and interdisciplinary performance works draw from public history and chronicle grassroots movements for self-determination.

      Yalowitz’s interdisciplinary performance works have been presented off-Broadway and internationally. He has directed critically acclaimed and nationally profiled community-based performance-installations in Philadelphia neighborhoods since 1991. Yalowitz has been named “Best Unclassifiable Theater Artist” by Philadelphia’s City Paper, Best Choreographer by the Philadelphia Inquirer, and was nominated for a Barrymore Award for his work at People’s Light & Theater Company.  He was commissioned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art to create a performance-festival, The Fathering Circle.

      Yalowitz’s work has been featured in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/31/theater/newsandfeatures/31acto.html?_r=1,

      Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=9291, San Francisco Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, on National Public Radio, and profiled in Letting Go - Arts & Public History (Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, 2011), Brother Keepers: New Perspectives On Jewish Masculinity (Men’s Studies Press, 2010), White Men Challenging Racism (Duke Univ. Press, 2003) , and Body and Bible (Trinity, 1992). He has been awarded grants from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, James L. Knight Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and Woodrow Wilson Foundation, among others. 

      Yalowitz is an Associate Professor, and founder and co-director of the Community Arts Practices program at Tyler School of Art & Architecture , Temple University.

       Notable Mentions


      ]]>      04ba12d5-80d4-4bb1-9ee0-14b3db7d3eaeWed, 16 Oct 2024 06:00:00 -070054:47truefull31081083      107: Laurie Meadoff: What Happens When Art & Humanity Pull Up A Chair?107: Laurie Meadoff: What Happens When Art & Humanity Pull Up A Chair?How do you describe a Laurie Meadoff? Start off with a big heart, add a piercing intellect, an insatiable curiosity, and a gargantuan exploding fireworks extravaganza of an imagination. Then add that she's a can't-sit-still, serial do-gooder problem solver who translates the word "NO" in any language, as the starting gun for the next story in the million chapter book she's been living, entitled There's no Such Thing as an Impossible Dream!

      In this episode of 'Change the Story, Change the World,' host Bill Cleveland introduces Laurie Meadoff, a transformative entrepreneurial force in community arts, youth development, and social change. Laurie reflects on her life's work, including founding the internationally recognized CityKids Foundation, producing Emmy-nominated series, and engaging in art-based change initiatives across the globe. The conversation explores her unique approach to social justice, cultural democracy, and health equity through creative endeavors. Meadoff shares stories of impactful moments, like connecting youth worldwide and encouraging new generations to channel their creativity for activism, ultimately underlining the importance of listening, community empowerment, and sustained social impact.

      00:00 Meet Laurie Meadoff: A Force of Nature

      03:59 Laurie's Journey and Impact

      06:16 Community Empowerment and Creativity

      08:42 The Power of Listening and Adaptability

      09:55 Art and Social Justice

      11:00 Personal Reflections and Global Impact

      18:25 Lean on Me: A Musical Interlude

      22:05 Chat the Planet: Bridging Global Youth

      28:53 Keith Haring's Legacy and City Kids

      30:11 Artivism in Chicago

      31:44 Take Back the Mic Africa

      35:16 The Role of Artists in Society

      39:06 Innovations in Health and Artivism

      41:02 The Power of Observation and Witness

      42:15 What You Going to Do About Hate?

      48:52 Reflections and Future Aspirations

      51:41 Closing Remarks and Resources

      BIO

      Laurie Meadoff is a leader, an innovator, and a change maker. Through artistic and expert use of her wide array of talents, Laurie has been able to make monumental strides toward a more tolerant and compassionate world through her media and community engagement strategies. Internationally acclaimed for her more than forty-five years of work and accomplishments, Laurie Inc. & Team's current clients list include:

      Take Back The Media /Amp.it, a digital media platform that helps content owners know ‘Who's Watching and Why’. Creator of double Emmy nominated "Take Back the Mic: Africa”. We are now building a state of the art film and television studio in Africa.

      Geoversity, Nature’s University in Panama, focusing on biocultural and indigenous leadership and environmental action.

      The UN Global Mental Health Task Force, alongside The CityKids Foundation, Deepak Chopra’s Chopra Foundation and Social Architects. We are committed to a world where mental health is universally recognized as a fundamental human right.

      Bodimetrics - the newest technology, addressing healthcare inequities by offering continuous blood oxygen and pressure with FDA-cleared medical devices.

      Rozana Health Diplomacy, an international organization promoting access to quality healthcare in Palestine and Israel, through joint initiatives between communities in conflict. 

      Laurie is committed to moving disruptive groundbreaking companies forward while networking with her social impact investors.  

      Laurie has always had her pulse on youth culture. Laurie launched Authentik Inc. with partners Tony Krantz, Derrick Ashong and Siobhan Kavanagh. Authentik Inc is an innovation firm based out of NY and LA. Authentik Inc helps top brands stay culturally and socially relevant for the next generation. The team of world-class producers, change agents and millennials work with businesses to revolutionize meaning, message and impact.  

      Authentik Inc has worked with various prominent C-suite clients including Sea World and Pepsi leading the direction for complete brand transformations. Laurie leads business development along with her group of global Authentikators. Most recently Laurie was a Co- Executive Producer for Earth’s Call at the Aspen Institute and Our Planet Our Future, a global call to action to people of all ages, faiths and cultures worldwide, to move the world together on climate change. 

      Laurie was Executive Producer and content developer and producer of a 13 part PBS series called Feel Grand with Jane Seymour focusing on health and well-being. She also produced a web series with Deepak Chopra called Timeless You.

      Additionally, Laurie was nominated for an Emmy in 2016 as an Executive Producer for The World Cup of Hip Hop, a groundbreaking online global music competition which was nominated in the ‘Original Interactive Programming’ category. 

      Laurie served as CEO of Cancer Schmancer, a groundbreaking women’s Health Advocacy organization founded by actress Fran Drescher. Laurie’s innovative work on behalf of women included the creation of Trash Cancer home parties produced by Humana focused on prevention, which reached over 28,000 people. Laurie also worked with her team to create Fran Vans, which screened women in need in both NYC and LA. 

      Laurie consulted for The Goldie Hawn Foundation with strategic planning for the launch of their social emotional learning program, MindUP. There, Laurie assembled the organization’s board, designed the marketing strategy, and co-produced a major fundraiser in New York City that resulted in palpable success for the Foundation. ​

      As CEO of Chat Ventures, she executive produced programming for Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, ABC, HBO Family, MTV and VH1 and a host of international broadcasters. In addition to overseeing creative and strategic vision for the company, Laurie then formulated Chat the Planet, a global dialogue initiative committed to using media and online dialogue tools as a means of breaking down barriers reaching 350 million homes worldwide. As a part of this endeavor, Laurie co-created and executive produced the Webby award-winning series Hometown Baghdad, which reached three million web viewers in the first week and aired on The Sundance Channel and National Geographic International in long form. With experience filming in South Africa, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Australia, and Jordan, Laurie’s ability to imaginatively and insightfully capture a diverse range of subjects is exemplified. Laurie has spoken globally and was a part of Cultural Diplomacy panels’ for the Brookings Institute in Doha for three years along with speaking in engagements in Hong Kong and India.

      Consulting for the Dalai Lama’s Connection for Change event, Laurie developed and produced Dinner Dialogues as a grass roots engagement tool for people to host salons targeted on the theme of wellness. She also helped produce major events for Deepak Chopra’s Alliance for the New Humanity for several years bringing the world’s top leaders together for shared dialogue. ​

      Laurie is the Founder and President Emeritus of The CityKids Foundation. Founded in 1985, The CityKids Foundation has worked to engage and motivate young people from diverse demographics to positively impact their lives, their communities and the world using their voices. Success came naturally to Laurie in her role here, as she organized and executed annual fundraising events with sponsorship from mammoth corporations including Pepsi, MasterCard, and Burger King and the presence of well-known personalities such as Demi Moore, Michael Bolton, Robert De Niro, Herbie Hancock, and Keith Haring to enhance publicity. As a byproduct of the foundation’s achievements, which included a nationally touring repertory of the members, Laurie co-created and executive produced with the Jim Henson Company, the Emmy-Nominated series featured on ABC, CityKids. As a result of Laurie’s vision, drive, and excellence in communication, her community and youth outreach initiatives through media and performance have endured and the relationships cultivated persist today. ​

      Laurie’s many awards and other distinctions include: ​

      Emmy Nomination for ‘The World Cup of Hip Hop’, 2016 

      2 Emmy nominations for ABC series, “CityKids” 

      Board of Governors, We are Family Foundation 2016 

      Dr. Joyce Yerwood “Lifetime-Maker” Award, 2012 

      Richard Manware Humanitarian Award, 2008 

      3 Webbys for Hometown Baghdad, 2008 

      Brookings Institute Cultural Diplomacy 2007, 2008 

      1 Gold Promax, History in the Making, 2004 

      2 Silver Promax, History in the Making, 2004 

      Aegis Award of Excellence, Bridge to Baghdad II, 2003

      Rockefeller Fellowship: Next Generation Leadership - Year long fellowship studying issues of globalization, racism, media, immigration and democracy, 1998.

      Guest commentator on NPR, CNN, The Oprah Show, LA Times, NY Times, BBC, Today Show, Good Morning America, Video Podcasts, Deepak Chopra, Sirius Radio, and a host of international broadcast programming. 

      Laurie received her Bachelor of Arts in Education and Art History and her Masters in Educational Theater from New York University. 

      Companies mentioned in this episode:

      • MTV
      • VH1
      • ABC
      • Sundance Channel
      • National Geographic
      • Brookings Institute
      • Laurie, Inc.
      • Team Authentic, Inc.
      • Cancer Schmanzer, Inc.
      • Earth's Call
      • Next Entertainment
      • The Start Fund
      • City Kids

      ]]>      How do you describe a Laurie Meadoff? Start off with a big heart, add a piercing intellect, an insatiable curiosity, and a gargantuan exploding fireworks extravaganza of an imagination. Then add that she's a can't-sit-still, serial do-gooder problem solver who translates the word "NO" in any language, as the starting gun for the next story in the million chapter book she's been living, entitled There's no Such Thing as an Impossible Dream!

      In this episode of 'Change the Story, Change the World,' host Bill Cleveland introduces Laurie Meadoff, a transformative entrepreneurial force in community arts, youth development, and social change. Laurie reflects on her life's work, including founding the internationally recognized CityKids Foundation, producing Emmy-nominated series, and engaging in art-based change initiatives across the globe. The conversation explores her unique approach to social justice, cultural democracy, and health equity through creative endeavors. Meadoff shares stories of impactful moments, like connecting youth worldwide and encouraging new generations to channel their creativity for activism, ultimately underlining the importance of listening, community empowerment, and sustained social impact.

      00:00 Meet Laurie Meadoff: A Force of Nature

      03:59 Laurie's Journey and Impact

      06:16 Community Empowerment and Creativity

      08:42 The Power of Listening and Adaptability

      09:55 Art and Social Justice

      11:00 Personal Reflections and Global Impact

      18:25 Lean on Me: A Musical Interlude

      22:05 Chat the Planet: Bridging Global Youth

      28:53 Keith Haring's Legacy and City Kids

      30:11 Artivism in Chicago

      31:44 Take Back the Mic Africa

      35:16 The Role of Artists in Society

      39:06 Innovations in Health and Artivism

      41:02 The Power of Observation and Witness

      42:15 What You Going to Do About Hate?

      48:52 Reflections and Future Aspirations

      51:41 Closing Remarks and Resources

      BIO

      Laurie Meadoff is a leader, an innovator, and a change maker. Through artistic and expert use of her wide array of talents, Laurie has been able to make monumental strides toward a more tolerant and compassionate world through her media and community engagement strategies. Internationally acclaimed for her more than forty-five years of work and accomplishments, Laurie Inc. & Team's current clients list include:

      Take Back The Media /Amp.it, a digital media platform that helps content owners know ‘Who's Watching and Why’. Creator of double Emmy nominated "Take Back the Mic: Africa”. We are now building a state of the art film and television studio in Africa.

      Geoversity, Nature’s University in Panama, focusing on biocultural and indigenous leadership and environmental action.

      The UN Global Mental Health Task Force, alongside The CityKids Foundation, Deepak Chopra’s Chopra Foundation and Social Architects. We are committed to a world where mental health is universally recognized as a fundamental human right.

      Bodimetrics - the newest technology, addressing healthcare inequities by offering continuous blood oxygen and pressure with FDA-cleared medical devices.

      Rozana Health Diplomacy, an international organization promoting access to quality healthcare in Palestine and Israel, through joint initiatives between communities in conflict. 

      Laurie is committed to moving disruptive groundbreaking companies forward while networking with her social impact investors.  

      Laurie has always had her pulse on youth culture. Laurie launched Authentik Inc. with partners Tony Krantz, Derrick Ashong and Siobhan Kavanagh. Authentik Inc is an innovation firm based out of NY and LA. Authentik Inc helps top brands stay culturally and socially relevant for the next generation. The team of world-class producers, change agents and millennials work with businesses to revolutionize meaning, message and impact.  

      Authentik Inc has worked with various prominent C-suite clients including Sea World and Pepsi leading the direction for complete brand transformations. Laurie leads business development along with her group of global Authentikators. Most recently Laurie was a Co- Executive Producer for Earth’s Call at the Aspen Institute and Our Planet Our Future, a global call to action to people of all ages, faiths and cultures worldwide, to move the world together on climate change. 

      Laurie was Executive Producer and content developer and producer of a 13 part PBS series called Feel Grand with Jane Seymour focusing on health and well-being. She also produced a web series with Deepak Chopra called Timeless You.

      Additionally, Laurie was nominated for an Emmy in 2016 as an Executive Producer for The World Cup of Hip Hop, a groundbreaking online global music competition which was nominated in the ‘Original Interactive Programming’ category. 

      Laurie served as CEO of Cancer Schmancer, a groundbreaking women’s Health Advocacy organization founded by actress Fran Drescher. Laurie’s innovative work on behalf of women included the creation of Trash Cancer home parties produced by Humana focused on prevention, which reached over 28,000 people. Laurie also worked with her team to create Fran Vans, which screened women in need in both NYC and LA. 

      Laurie consulted for The Goldie Hawn Foundation with strategic planning for the launch of their social emotional learning program, MindUP. There, Laurie assembled the organization’s board, designed the marketing strategy, and co-produced a major fundraiser in New York City that resulted in palpable success for the Foundation. ​

      As CEO of Chat Ventures, she executive produced programming for Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, ABC, HBO Family, MTV and VH1 and a host of international broadcasters. In addition to overseeing creative and strategic vision for the company, Laurie then formulated Chat the Planet, a global dialogue initiative committed to using media and online dialogue tools as a means of breaking down barriers reaching 350 million homes worldwide. As a part of this endeavor, Laurie co-created and executive produced the Webby award-winning series Hometown Baghdad, which reached three million web viewers in the first week and aired on The Sundance Channel and National Geographic International in long form. With experience filming in South Africa, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Australia, and Jordan, Laurie’s ability to imaginatively and insightfully capture a diverse range of subjects is exemplified. Laurie has spoken globally and was a part of Cultural Diplomacy panels’ for the Brookings Institute in Doha for three years along with speaking in engagements in Hong Kong and India.

      Consulting for the Dalai Lama’s Connection for Change event, Laurie developed and produced Dinner Dialogues as a grass roots engagement tool for people to host salons targeted on the theme of wellness. She also helped produce major events for Deepak Chopra’s Alliance for the New Humanity for several years bringing the world’s top leaders together for shared dialogue. ​

      Laurie is the Founder and President Emeritus of The CityKids Foundation. Founded in 1985, The CityKids Foundation has worked to engage and motivate young people from diverse demographics to positively impact their lives, their communities and the world using their voices. Success came naturally to Laurie in her role here, as she organized and executed annual fundraising events with sponsorship from mammoth corporations including Pepsi, MasterCard, and Burger King and the presence of well-known personalities such as Demi Moore, Michael Bolton, Robert De Niro, Herbie Hancock, and Keith Haring to enhance publicity. As a byproduct of the foundation’s achievements, which included a nationally touring repertory of the members, Laurie co-created and executive produced with the Jim Henson Company, the Emmy-Nominated series featured on ABC, CityKids. As a result of Laurie’s vision, drive, and excellence in communication, her community and youth outreach initiatives through media and performance have endured and the relationships cultivated persist today. ​

      Laurie’s many awards and other distinctions include: ​

      Emmy Nomination for ‘The World Cup of Hip Hop’, 2016 

      2 Emmy nominations for ABC series, “CityKids” 

      Board of Governors, We are Family Foundation 2016 

      Dr. Joyce Yerwood “Lifetime-Maker” Award, 2012 

      Richard Manware Humanitarian Award, 2008 

      3 Webbys for Hometown Baghdad, 2008 

      Brookings Institute Cultural Diplomacy 2007, 2008 

      1 Gold Promax, History in the Making, 2004 

      2 Silver Promax, History in the Making, 2004 

      Aegis Award of Excellence, Bridge to Baghdad II, 2003

      Rockefeller Fellowship: Next Generation Leadership - Year long fellowship studying issues of globalization, racism, media, immigration and democracy, 1998.

      Guest commentator on NPR, CNN, The Oprah Show, LA Times, NY Times, BBC, Today Show, Good Morning America, Video Podcasts, Deepak Chopra, Sirius Radio, and a host of international broadcast programming. 

      Laurie received her Bachelor of Arts in Education and Art History and her Masters in Educational Theater from New York University. 

      Companies mentioned in this episode:

      • MTV
      • VH1
      • ABC
      • Sundance Channel
      • National Geographic
      • Brookings Institute
      • Laurie, Inc.
      • Team Authentic, Inc.
      • Cancer Schmanzer, Inc.
      • Earth's Call
      • Next Entertainment
      • The Start Fund
      • City Kids

      ]]>      b9c48b05-cbf3-4e2d-b85b-83d82cae7223Wed, 02 Oct 2024 05:00:00 -070048:11truefull31071073      106: From Ignorance to Knowing: A Journey of Art, Science & Healing106: From Ignorance to Knowing: A Journey of Art, Science & HealingDr. Banerji: In this episode of 'Change the Story, Change the World,' Bill Cleveland explores the inspiring journey of Dr. Subhasis Banerji, a bioengineer from Singapore. Dr. Banerji shares how he utilized the interplay between art, science, and the human mind to help brain-injured and stroke patients recover.

      After suffering severe injuries himself, Dr. Banerji’s personal tale of recovery through a combination of physical therapy, yoga, and martial arts led him to develop SynPhne—a groundbreaking therapeutic device integrating real-time brain and muscle feedback for accelerated healing. The discussion also parallels the transformative power of creative practices in prison arts programs, highlighting the human capacity for self-recovery and growth. This episode sheds light on the significant overlap between artistic creativity and medical innovation, offering profound insights into the potential of the mind-body connection.

      00:00 Introduction to Change the Story, Change the World

      00:46 Meeting Dr. Banerji

      02:36 From Ignorance to Wisdom

      04:54 The Journey of Self-Healing

      08:31 Creating Synphne

      11:02 A Moment to Remember

      19:30 Common Ground

      24:51 Final Thoughts and Acknowledgements

      BIO 

      Dr. Subhasis Banerji: Founder, Inventor Director of SynPhNe. Subhasis has over 20 years of experience in developing cutting-edge technology, 5 years of practicing therapy and

      10 years in clinical research. His diverse background led him to invent and commercialize the world's first fully wearable and connected brain plasticity training tool that trains Brain and Body as parts of ONE system. SynPhNe™ is the outcome of his PhD (Biomechatronics) study. He is involved in research in biomechanics, neuroplasticity, movement analysis, learning mechanisms and ageing. He has been a yoga and martial arts practitioner for the past 25 years.

      Notable Mentions

      After four years of study, collaborative research, prototype building and testing Dr. Banerji and his partners at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University ultimately produced the therapy that he described to me when we met in Washington D.C.

      Put simply, SynPhNe accelerates Dr. Banerji’s painstaking visioning and learning process by reading brain and muscle signals, representing them graphically, and then teaching the patient how to self-correct the signals through their thought processes.

      The early 1980’s was a building period for the Arts-in-Corrections program. At each of our six pilot sites we had been scrambling to secure the spaces we needed to establish the stable and sustained learning environments that we knew would have the most positive and persistent impact on the prisoners who were flocking to the program. 

      Our guide, so to speak in this was the visionary poet and potter M. C. Richards who, in her book, Centering, articulated the transformative power embodied in the simple act of throwing a pot on a spinning wheel.

      These breakthroughs, the state Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, calls flow was something we all knew from our own work, but they seemed to be happening with particular intensity in our prison classrooms. 

      Acknowledgements

      Thanks to Dr. Banerji for sharing his story and for the whole Synphne team for their incredible work.

      Crowd walla whole foods grocery store food court 1.wav by lwdickens -- https://freesound.org/s/269412/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0

      prison soundscape stylised.wav by 7by7 -- https://freesound.org/s/72851/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

      ]]>      Dr. Banerji: In this episode of 'Change the Story, Change the World,' Bill Cleveland explores the inspiring journey of Dr. Subhasis Banerji, a bioengineer from Singapore. Dr. Banerji shares how he utilized the interplay between art, science, and the human mind to help brain-injured and stroke patients recover.

      After suffering severe injuries himself, Dr. Banerji’s personal tale of recovery through a combination of physical therapy, yoga, and martial arts led him to develop SynPhne—a groundbreaking therapeutic device integrating real-time brain and muscle feedback for accelerated healing. The discussion also parallels the transformative power of creative practices in prison arts programs, highlighting the human capacity for self-recovery and growth. This episode sheds light on the significant overlap between artistic creativity and medical innovation, offering profound insights into the potential of the mind-body connection.

      00:00 Introduction to Change the Story, Change the World

      00:46 Meeting Dr. Banerji

      02:36 From Ignorance to Wisdom

      04:54 The Journey of Self-Healing

      08:31 Creating Synphne

      11:02 A Moment to Remember

      19:30 Common Ground

      24:51 Final Thoughts and Acknowledgements

      BIO 

      Dr. Subhasis Banerji: Founder, Inventor Director of SynPhNe. Subhasis has over 20 years of experience in developing cutting-edge technology, 5 years of practicing therapy and

      10 years in clinical research. His diverse background led him to invent and commercialize the world's first fully wearable and connected brain plasticity training tool that trains Brain and Body as parts of ONE system. SynPhNe™ is the outcome of his PhD (Biomechatronics) study. He is involved in research in biomechanics, neuroplasticity, movement analysis, learning mechanisms and ageing. He has been a yoga and martial arts practitioner for the past 25 years.

      Notable Mentions

      After four years of study, collaborative research, prototype building and testing Dr. Banerji and his partners at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University ultimately produced the therapy that he described to me when we met in Washington D.C.

      Put simply, SynPhNe accelerates Dr. Banerji’s painstaking visioning and learning process by reading brain and muscle signals, representing them graphically, and then teaching the patient how to self-correct the signals through their thought processes.

      The early 1980’s was a building period for the Arts-in-Corrections program. At each of our six pilot sites we had been scrambling to secure the spaces we needed to establish the stable and sustained learning environments that we knew would have the most positive and persistent impact on the prisoners who were flocking to the program. 

      Our guide, so to speak in this was the visionary poet and potter M. C. Richards who, in her book, Centering, articulated the transformative power embodied in the simple act of throwing a pot on a spinning wheel.

      These breakthroughs, the state Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, calls flow was something we all knew from our own work, but they seemed to be happening with particular intensity in our prison classrooms. 

      Acknowledgements

      Thanks to Dr. Banerji for sharing his story and for the whole Synphne team for their incredible work.

      Crowd walla whole foods grocery store food court 1.wav by lwdickens -- https://freesound.org/s/269412/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0

      prison soundscape stylised.wav by 7by7 -- https://freesound.org/s/72851/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

      ]]>      57b1c038-642f-42d5-af3d-85434d3f356bWed, 18 Sep 2024 05:00:00 -070028:01truefull31061063      105: BIGhART BIGsTORY REDUX 2105: BIGhART BIGsTORY REDUX 2This is the second episode of a two part show we are rebroadcasting called BIGhART, BIGsTORY which tell the saga of a creative synergistic Australian force of nature called, of course BIGhART. 

      BIGhART is Australia's leading arts and social change organization.

      We make art, we build communities, we drive change.

      30 years in operation, 62 communities engaged, 47 awards won, 550 artists contributed, 9, 500 people participated, 2. 6 million audience members.

      BIO

      Scott Rankin co-founded Big hART with friend John Bakes in 1992. As CEO and Creative Director, Scott leads the overarching vision for all Big hART projects – from pilot through to legacy. A leader and teacher in the field of social and cultural innovation, Scott provides daily mentorship and knowledge transfer to all Big hART staff so that they can in turn lead our projects with confidence.

      An award winning writer and director in his own right, Scott’s works have been included many times in major arts festivals. His reputation is built on a quarter of a century of work, creating, funding and directing large-scale projects in diverse communities with high needs, in isolated settings.

      Big hART is Scott’s passionate contribution to the arts and society.

      Notable Mentions:

      BIGhART:

      Ngapartji Ngapartji: Big hART designed the Ngapartji Ngapartji project to raise awareness of Indigenous language loss, and the lack of an national Indigenous languages policy.

      Tasmania is an island state of Australia.[15] It is located 240 kilometres (150 miles) to the south of the Australian mainland, separated from it by the Bass Strait, with the archipelago containing the southernmost point of the country.

      Vaslav Nijinsky was a Russian[4] ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish ancestry.[5] He is regarded as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century.[3] 

      Albert Namatjira:  28 July 1902 – 8 August 1959) was an Arrernte painter from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia, widely considered one of the most notable Australian artists.

      Namatjira Project: Namatjira Project began as a collaboration with members of the Namatjira family and the Hermannsburg community in Central Australia in 2009.The long-term project has centered around an award-winning theatre performance, Namatjira, seen by 50,000 people, telling the story of Albert Namatjira, with his family on stage.

      Skate of Mind is a grassroots, national touring collective of skaters, filmmakers, photographers, and artists. We run community engagement events, workshops, music, art, digital art, projection, and soundscape design in regional communities.

      SKATE is a groundbreaking new work in development fusing the art of skateboarding with percussion and projection. A breathtaking sensory experience for all the family, SKATE sees a cast of talented male and female skateboarders perform jaw-dropping feats and create infectious rhythms with their skateboards.

      Element Skateboards

      Winnie the Pooh: Winnie-the-Pooh (also known as Edward Bear, Pooh Bear or simply Pooh) is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. 

      Ngangkari (a traditional aboriginal healer)

      The Acoustic Life of Sheds: Acoustic Life of Sheds invites leading composers, musicians and artists to celebrate these architectural embodiments of rural, industrial or maritime culture as memory sound- shells by reimagining them for audiences in the landscape or on the foreshore.

      Project O: Project O is a prevention initiative driving change for young women in rural, regional and high needs communities.

      Acknowledgements:

      Music

      Studio (Ernabella School Hall) recording of music from the stage show 'Ngapartji Ngapartji'. 1 Ngayunya Wantiriyalku I Shall Be Released

      Performed by Makinti Minutjukur, Unurupa Kulyuru, Rhoda Tjitayi, Renita Stanley, Andrew MacGregor, Sara Luither, Beth Sometimes, Steve Fraser. Written by Bob Dylan - Translated by Lorna Wilson, Tom Holder, Dora (Amanyi) Haggie, Rhoda Tjitayi, Unurupa Kulyuru, Beth Sometimes. Recorded by Steve Fraser.

      Dream-Shifting - by Steven F Allen

      https://freesound.org/people/audiomirage/

      https://soundclick.com/AuDioChosisStevenFAllenAuDioMiRage

      ]]>      This is the second episode of a two part show we are rebroadcasting called BIGhART, BIGsTORY which tell the saga of a creative synergistic Australian force of nature called, of course BIGhART. 

      BIGhART is Australia's leading arts and social change organization.

      We make art, we build communities, we drive change.

      30 years in operation, 62 communities engaged, 47 awards won, 550 artists contributed, 9, 500 people participated, 2. 6 million audience members.

      BIO

      Scott Rankin co-founded Big hART with friend John Bakes in 1992. As CEO and Creative Director, Scott leads the overarching vision for all Big hART projects – from pilot through to legacy. A leader and teacher in the field of social and cultural innovation, Scott provides daily mentorship and knowledge transfer to all Big hART staff so that they can in turn lead our projects with confidence.

      An award winning writer and director in his own right, Scott’s works have been included many times in major arts festivals. His reputation is built on a quarter of a century of work, creating, funding and directing large-scale projects in diverse communities with high needs, in isolated settings.

      Big hART is Scott’s passionate contribution to the arts and society.

      Notable Mentions:

      BIGhART:

      Ngapartji Ngapartji: Big hART designed the Ngapartji Ngapartji project to raise awareness of Indigenous language loss, and the lack of an national Indigenous languages policy.

      Tasmania is an island state of Australia.[15] It is located 240 kilometres (150 miles) to the south of the Australian mainland, separated from it by the Bass Strait, with the archipelago containing the southernmost point of the country.

      Vaslav Nijinsky was a Russian[4] ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish ancestry.[5] He is regarded as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century.[3] 

      Albert Namatjira:  28 July 1902 – 8 August 1959) was an Arrernte painter from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia, widely considered one of the most notable Australian artists.

      Namatjira Project: Namatjira Project began as a collaboration with members of the Namatjira family and the Hermannsburg community in Central Australia in 2009.The long-term project has centered around an award-winning theatre performance, Namatjira, seen by 50,000 people, telling the story of Albert Namatjira, with his family on stage.

      Skate of Mind is a grassroots, national touring collective of skaters, filmmakers, photographers, and artists. We run community engagement events, workshops, music, art, digital art, projection, and soundscape design in regional communities.

      SKATE is a groundbreaking new work in development fusing the art of skateboarding with percussion and projection. A breathtaking sensory experience for all the family, SKATE sees a cast of talented male and female skateboarders perform jaw-dropping feats and create infectious rhythms with their skateboards.

      Element Skateboards

      Winnie the Pooh: Winnie-the-Pooh (also known as Edward Bear, Pooh Bear or simply Pooh) is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. 

      Ngangkari (a traditional aboriginal healer)

      The Acoustic Life of Sheds: Acoustic Life of Sheds invites leading composers, musicians and artists to celebrate these architectural embodiments of rural, industrial or maritime culture as memory sound- shells by reimagining them for audiences in the landscape or on the foreshore.

      Project O: Project O is a prevention initiative driving change for young women in rural, regional and high needs communities.

      Acknowledgements:

      Music

      Studio (Ernabella School Hall) recording of music from the stage show 'Ngapartji Ngapartji'. 1 Ngayunya Wantiriyalku I Shall Be Released

      Performed by Makinti Minutjukur, Unurupa Kulyuru, Rhoda Tjitayi, Renita Stanley, Andrew MacGregor, Sara Luither, Beth Sometimes, Steve Fraser. Written by Bob Dylan - Translated by Lorna Wilson, Tom Holder, Dora (Amanyi) Haggie, Rhoda Tjitayi, Unurupa Kulyuru, Beth Sometimes. Recorded by Steve Fraser.

      Dream-Shifting - by Steven F Allen

      https://freesound.org/people/audiomirage/

      https://soundclick.com/AuDioChosisStevenFAllenAuDioMiRage

      ]]>      d6f59386-8ab4-40cd-8f1c-139348bf1713Tue, 03 Sep 2024 13:00:00 -070031:00truefull31051053      104: BIGhART BIGsTORY REDUX104: BIGhART BIGsTORY REDUXWhen I describe BIGhART to folks in the US they accuse me of making it up. In this episode re-broadcast Scott Rankin, BIGhART’s founder, describes how this expansive, constantly morphing, multi-disciplinary, thirty-year long enterprise became one of the world's leading arts and social change organizations.

      This is first of two episodes featuring Scott. You can listen to Chapter 2 HERE

      BIO

      Scott co-founded Big hART with friend John Bakes in 1992. As CEO and Creative Director, Scott leads the overarching vision for all Big hART projects – from pilot through to legacy. A leader and teacher in the field of social and cultural innovation, Scott provides daily mentorship and knowledge transfer to all Big hART staff so that they can in turn lead our projects with confidence.

      An award winning writer and director in his own right, Scott’s works have been included many times in major arts festivals. His reputation is built on a quarter of a century of work, creating, funding and directing large-scale projects in diverse communities with high needs, in isolated settings.

      Big hART is Scott’s passionate contribution to the arts and society.

      Notable Mentions

      BIGhART: Authentic, high-quality art made with communities.

      Big hART brings virtuosic artists into communities to collaborate and create authentic stories which illuminate local injustice. We present these stories to mainstream audiences to help raise awareness. This builds public support for change and helps to protect vulnerable people.

      Everyone, everywhere has the right to thrive.

      Big hART works with communities experiencing high levels of need. Rather than focusing on the problem, our unique non-welfare projects build on community assets, strengthening vulnerable individuals, and creating long term attitudinal shifts. Our hope is for all communities to flourish.

      Positive, generational change begins as a cultural shift.

      Big hART designs and delivers transformative projects to address complex social issues. Our cultural approaches are evaluated and acknowledged as best practice. Decision makers seeking better solutions can use our award winning projects to help develop new and better policy. We aim to drive generational change.

      Ngapartji Ngapartji: Big hART designed the Ngapartji Ngapartji project to raise awareness of Indigenous language loss, and the lack of an national Indigenous languages policy. In order to create visibility around these issues, we launched a language and culture teaching portal, offered audiences the chance to learn Pitjantjatjara through a small teaching show, created short teaching films, as well as music and CDs with a Pitjantjatjara choir. We made a high profile documentary, and finally, a large award winning touring show for national festivals. By creating this range of art products, we attracted exceptional media and gained high level political interest in the issue. This assisted in driving a new Indigenous language policy and increased funding to help prevent language loss.

      Trevor Jamieson is a veteran of stage and screen with over 25 years of experience in the entertainment industry, and a long time creative partner with BIGhART.   He is known as an Actor, Dancer, Musician and Storyteller and his portrait, taken by Brett Canet-Gibson, took out the People’s Choice award for the 2017 National Portrait gallery exhibition in Canberra.

      Trevor is not only an accomplished actor but is also known for his ability on the guitar and didgeridoo. Trevor has also received acclaim for his dance performances across the globe.Trevor was announced as a Permanent Ambassador for the Revelation Perth International Film Festival in 2017.Some of Trevor’s screen work includes Storm Boy; Thalu: Dreamtime is Now; Boys in the Trees. His stage credits include the Australian tour of The Season; the Sydney Theatre Company’s The Secret River; and the performance of Namatjira at Southbank, London in front of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

       Art and Upheaval:  Artists on the World's Frontlines - Citizen artists successfully rebuild the social infrastructure in six communities devastated by war, repression and dislocation. Author William Cleveland tells remarkable stories from Northern Ireland, Cambodia, South Africa, United States (Watts, Los Angeles), aboriginal Australia, and Serbia, about artists who resolve conflict, heal unspeakable trauma, give voice to the forgotten and disappeared, and restitch the cultural fabric of their communities.

      Pitjantjatjara: The Pitjantjatjara (/ˌpɪtʃəntʃəˈtʃɑːrə/;[1] Pitjantjatjara: [ˈpɪɟanɟaɟaɾa] or [ˈpɪɟanɟaɾa]) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are varieties of the Western Desert language).

      They refer to themselves as aṉangu (people). The Pitjantjatjara live mostly in the northwest of South Australia, extending across the border into the Northern Territory to just south of Lake Amadeus, and west a short distance into Western Australia. The land is an inseparable and important part of their identity, and every part of it is rich with stories and meaning to aṉangu.[2]

      They have, for the most part, given up their nomadic hunting and gathering lifestyle but have retained their language and much of their culture in synergy with increasing influences from the broader Australian community.

      Today there are still about 4,000 aṉangu living scattered in small communities and outstations across their traditional lands, forming one of the most successful joint land arrangements in Australia with Aboriginal traditional owners.

      Melbourne International Arts Festival: Melbourne International Arts Festival, formerly Spoleto Festival Melbourne – Festival of the Three Worlds, then Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, becoming commonly known as Melbourne Festival, was a major international arts festival held in Melbourne, Australia, from 1986 to 2019. It was to be superseded by a new festival called Rising from 2020 (which was subsequently derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia).

      Spinifex Country: The Pila Nguru, often referred to in English as the When I describe BIGhART to folks in the US they accuse me of making it up. In this episode re-broadcast Scott Rankin, BIGhART’s founder, describes how this expansive, constantly morphing, multi-disciplinary, thirty-year long enterprise became one of the world's leading arts and social change organizations.

      This is first of two episodes featuring Scott. You can listen to Chapter 2 HERE

      BIO

      Scott co-founded Big hART with friend John Bakes in 1992. As CEO and Creative Director, Scott leads the overarching vision for all Big hART projects – from pilot through to legacy. A leader and teacher in the field of social and cultural innovation, Scott provides daily mentorship and knowledge transfer to all Big hART staff so that they can in turn lead our projects with confidence.

      An award winning writer and director in his own right, Scott’s works have been included many times in major arts festivals. His reputation is built on a quarter of a century of work, creating, funding and directing large-scale projects in diverse communities with high needs, in isolated settings.

      Big hART is Scott’s passionate contribution to the arts and society.

      Notable Mentions

      BIGhART: Authentic, high-quality art made with communities.

      Big hART brings virtuosic artists into communities to collaborate and create authentic stories which illuminate local injustice. We present these stories to mainstream audiences to help raise awareness. This builds public support for change and helps to protect vulnerable people.

      Everyone, everywhere has the right to thrive.

      Big hART works with communities experiencing high levels of need. Rather than focusing on the problem, our unique non-welfare projects build on community assets, strengthening vulnerable individuals, and creating long term attitudinal shifts. Our hope is for all communities to flourish.

      Positive, generational change begins as a cultural shift.

      Big hART designs and delivers transformative projects to address complex social issues. Our cultural approaches are evaluated and acknowledged as best practice. Decision makers seeking better solutions can use our award winning projects to help develop new and better policy. We aim to drive generational change.

      Ngapartji Ngapartji: Big hART designed the Ngapartji Ngapartji project to raise awareness of Indigenous language loss, and the lack of an national Indigenous languages policy. In order to create visibility around these issues, we launched a language and culture teaching portal, offered audiences the chance to learn Pitjantjatjara through a small teaching show, created short teaching films, as well as music and CDs with a Pitjantjatjara choir. We made a high profile documentary, and finally, a large award winning touring show for national festivals. By creating this range of art products, we attracted exceptional media and gained high level political interest in the issue. This assisted in driving a new Indigenous language policy and increased funding to help prevent language loss.

      Trevor Jamieson is a veteran of stage and screen with over 25 years of experience in the entertainment industry, and a long time creative partner with BIGhART.   He is known as an Actor, Dancer, Musician and Storyteller and his portrait, taken by Brett Canet-Gibson, took out the People’s Choice award for the 2017 National Portrait gallery exhibition in Canberra.

      Trevor is not only an accomplished actor but is also known for his ability on the guitar and didgeridoo. Trevor has also received acclaim for his dance performances across the globe.Trevor was announced as a Permanent Ambassador for the Revelation Perth International Film Festival in 2017.Some of Trevor’s screen work includes Storm Boy; Thalu: Dreamtime is Now; Boys in the Trees. His stage credits include the Australian tour of The Season; the Sydney Theatre Company’s The Secret River; and the performance of Namatjira at Southbank, London in front of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

       Art and Upheaval:  Artists on the World's Frontlines - Citizen artists successfully rebuild the social infrastructure in six communities devastated by war, repression and dislocation. Author William Cleveland tells remarkable stories from Northern Ireland, Cambodia, South Africa, United States (Watts, Los Angeles), aboriginal Australia, and Serbia, about artists who resolve conflict, heal unspeakable trauma, give voice to the forgotten and disappeared, and restitch the cultural fabric of their communities.

      Pitjantjatjara: The Pitjantjatjara (/ˌpɪtʃəntʃəˈtʃɑːrə/;[1] Pitjantjatjara: [ˈpɪɟanɟaɟaɾa] or [ˈpɪɟanɟaɾa]) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are varieties of the Western Desert language).

      They refer to themselves as aṉangu (people). The Pitjantjatjara live mostly in the northwest of South Australia, extending across the border into the Northern Territory to just south of Lake Amadeus, and west a short distance into Western Australia. The land is an inseparable and important part of their identity, and every part of it is rich with stories and meaning to aṉangu.[2]

      They have, for the most part, given up their nomadic hunting and gathering lifestyle but have retained their language and much of their culture in synergy with increasing influences from the broader Australian community.

      Today there are still about 4,000 aṉangu living scattered in small communities and outstations across their traditional lands, forming one of the most successful joint land arrangements in Australia with Aboriginal traditional owners.

      Melbourne International Arts Festival: Melbourne International Arts Festival, formerly Spoleto Festival Melbourne – Festival of the Three Worlds, then Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, becoming commonly known as Melbourne Festival, was a major international arts festival held in Melbourne, Australia, from 1986 to 2019. It was to be superseded by a new festival called Rising from 2020 (which was subsequently derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia).

      Spinifex Country: The Pila Nguru, often referred to in English as the Spinifex people, are an Aboriginal Australian people of Western Australia, whose lands extend to the border with South Australia and to the north of the Nullarbor Plain.[1][2] The centre of their homeland is in the Great Victoria Desert, at Tjuntjunjarra, some 700 kilometres (430 mi) east of Kalgoorlie,[3] perhaps the remotest community in Australia.[4] Their country is sometimes referred to as Spinifex country.[5] The Pila Nguru were the last Australian people to have dropped the complete trappings of their traditional lifestyle.[6]

      Alex Kelly: Alex Kelly is an Australian freelance artist, filmmaker and producer based in regional Australia. Kelly was born in regional NSW and grew up in a farming community near Wodonga in regional Victoria,[1]

      Kelly has worked with diverse communities in Australia and around the world including Coober Pedy, Alice Springs, Amsterdam, Barcelona and the UK organising and lobbying for social change. She has been involved in community development, the arts, media (communication), environmental protection and social justice projects.

      Palawa people of Tasmania: The Aboriginal Tasmanians (Palawa kani: Palawa or Pakana[4]) are[5] the Aboriginal people of the Australian island of Tasmania, located south of the mainland. For much of the 20th century, the Tasmanian Aboriginal people were widely, and erroneously, thought of as being an extinct cultural and ethnic group that had been intentionally exterminated by white settlers.[6] Contemporary figures (2016) for the number of people of Tasmanian Aboriginal descent vary according to the criteria used to determine this identity, ranging from 6,000 to over 23,000.[1][2]             

      Edward Said: (1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian American academic, literary critic and political activist.[1] A professor of literature at Columbia University, he was among the founders of postcolonial studies.[2] Born in Mandatory Palestine, he was a citizen of the United States by way of his father, a U.S. Army veteran.

      David Mamet is an American playwright, filmmaker, and author. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988). He first gained critical acclaim for a trio of off-Broadway 1970s plays: The Duck Variations, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and American Buffalo.[2] His plays Race and The Penitent, respectively, opened on Broadway in 2009 and previewed off-Broadway in 2017.

      Tasmania is an island 615d811b-4cb7-4b54-830e-d27ab7e04b0cTue, 03 Sep 2024 13:00:00 -070050:20truefull31041043102: Cynthia Cohen: Art, Conflict, Peacebuilding, and Social Change102: Cynthia Cohen: Art, Conflict, Peacebuilding, and Social ChangeJoin us in a deep dive into the transformative power of art and conflict resolution with Cynthia Cohen. From powerful personal stories to groundbreaking projects, this episode is a testament to the power of creative peacebuilding.

      In this episode we explore artmaking and peacemaking as mutually supporting, synergistic community assets. Our conversation, with activist, writer, educator, and filmmaker Cynthia Cohen delves into her extensive career in arts, culture, and conflict transformation, highlighting her collaborative projects like 'Acting Together' and 'A Passion for Life.' Various global artistic and peace-building efforts are examined for their impact on communities. Throughout, themes of creative engagement, humility, ethical practices, and the critical role of storytelling in peacebuilding are intricately explored.

      00:00 Introduction and Tribute to Bernice Johnson Reagon

      00:38 Creative Peace Builders: Voices from Around the World

      05:40 Cynthia Cohen's Work and Philosophy

      08:55 A Passion for Life: Personal and Professional Journey

      13:42 Challenges and Ethical Dilemmas in Peacebuilding

      15:39 The Role of Arts in Conflict Transformation

      22:11 Act Two: How Does Peacebuilding Work?

      37:45 Community Responsibility and Indigenous Involvement

      38:20 The Influence of Cultural Workers

      39:40 Mentorship and Personal Growth

      40:02 Artists as Community Members

      41:15 Core Principles for Community Impact

      43:13 Challenges in Human Communication

      50:20 The Role of Arts in Conflict Transformation

      53:48 Personal Reflections and Influences

      57:28 The Power of Storytelling and Listening

      01:07:48 Concluding Thoughts and Recommendations

      As director of the program in Peacebuilding and the Arts, Cynthia Cohen lead action and reflection research projects, and wrote and taught about work at the nexus of the arts, culture, justice and peace.

      BIO

      Cynthia Cohen directed the Brandeis University/Theatre Without Borders collaboration "Acting Together on the World Stage," co-edited the Acting Together anthologies and co-created the project's documentary and toolkit.  She is a senior fellow at IMPACT, Inc. [https://impactart.org] a global nonprofit organization responsible for the dissemination of Acting Together resources. Cohen has written extensively on the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of peacebuilding, including the chapters "Creative Approaches to Reconciliation" and "Engaging With the Arts to Promote Coexistence" and an online book, "Working With Integrity: A Guidebook for Peacebuilders Asking Ethical Questions."

      Prior to the Acting Together project, Cohen directed the international fellowship program Recasting Reconciliation Through Culture and the Arts, which produced an anthology by that name. In addition, Cohen has worked as a dialogue facilitator with communities in the Middle East, Sri Lanka, Central America and the United States. Before her tenure at Brandeis, she directed a community-based, anti-racist oral history center in the Boston area. 

      Acknowledgements:

      The audio clips that open the episode are come from the Trailer for the documentary film Acting Together on the World Stage co-created by Cynthia Cohen and Allison Lund of Progressive Pictures.  

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      Join us in a deep dive into the transformative power of art and conflict resolution with Cynthia Cohen. From powerful personal stories to groundbreaking projects, this episode is a testament to the power of creative peacebuilding.

      In this episode we explore artmaking and peacemaking as mutually supporting, synergistic community assets. Our conversation, with activist, writer, educator, and filmmaker Cynthia Cohen delves into her extensive career in arts, culture, and conflict transformation, highlighting her collaborative projects like 'Acting Together' and 'A Passion for Life.' Various global artistic and peace-building efforts are examined for their impact on communities. Throughout, themes of creative engagement, humility, ethical practices, and the critical role of storytelling in peacebuilding are intricately explored.

      00:00 Introduction and Tribute to Bernice Johnson Reagon

      00:38 Creative Peace Builders: Voices from Around the World

      05:40 Cynthia Cohen's Work and Philosophy

      08:55 A Passion for Life: Personal and Professional Journey

      13:42 Challenges and Ethical Dilemmas in Peacebuilding

      15:39 The Role of Arts in Conflict Transformation

      22:11 Act Two: How Does Peacebuilding Work?

      37:45 Community Responsibility and Indigenous Involvement

      38:20 The Influence of Cultural Workers

      39:40 Mentorship and Personal Growth

      40:02 Artists as Community Members

      41:15 Core Principles for Community Impact

      43:13 Challenges in Human Communication

      50:20 The Role of Arts in Conflict Transformation

      53:48 Personal Reflections and Influences

      57:28 The Power of Storytelling and Listening

      01:07:48 Concluding Thoughts and Recommendations

      As director of the program in Peacebuilding and the Arts, Cynthia Cohen lead action and reflection research projects, and wrote and taught about work at the nexus of the arts, culture, justice and peace.

      BIO

      Cynthia Cohen directed the Brandeis University/Theatre Without Borders collaboration "Acting Together on the World Stage," co-edited the Acting Together anthologies and co-created the project's documentary and toolkit.  She is a senior fellow at IMPACT, Inc. [https://impactart.org] a global nonprofit organization responsible for the dissemination of Acting Together resources. Cohen has written extensively on the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of peacebuilding, including the chapters "Creative Approaches to Reconciliation" and "Engaging With the Arts to Promote Coexistence" and an online book, "Working With Integrity: A Guidebook for Peacebuilders Asking Ethical Questions."

      Prior to the Acting Together project, Cohen directed the international fellowship program Recasting Reconciliation Through Culture and the Arts, which produced an anthology by that name. In addition, Cohen has worked as a dialogue facilitator with communities in the Middle East, Sri Lanka, Central America and the United States. Before her tenure at Brandeis, she directed a community-based, anti-racist oral history center in the Boston area. 

      Acknowledgements:

      The audio clips that open the episode are come from the Trailer for the documentary film Acting Together on the World Stage co-created by Cynthia Cohen and Allison Lund of Progressive Pictures.  

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      e606f7c1-bb9c-48b2-b785-bae030418515Wed, 07 Aug 2024 05:30:00 -070055:22truefull31021023      103: Alternate Roots: 50 Years of Artist Activism & Cultural Organizing,103: Alternate Roots: 50 Years of Artist Activism & Cultural Organizing,Join Bill Cleveland in a special bonus episode as we explore the incredible 50-year journey of Alternate ROOTS a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to social and economic justice. Featuring insightful conversations with Roots staffers Aimee McCoy and Clarissa Crawford, this episode delves into the diverse contributions of artists in tackling community issues, the importance of membership, and the upcoming 2024 Roots Week. Don't miss this in-depth look at one of America's most influential arts organizations and their vibrant community impact.

      BONUS-BONUS: Alternate ROOTS Collection: This is a collection of Change the Story Episodes featuring 9 creative change agents who are associated one way or another with Alternate ROOTS. Check them out.

      Episode Milestones

      00:00 Introduction to Change the Story, Change the World

      00:10 The Longevity of Nonprofits and Alternate Roots

      00:56 Mission and Impact of Alternate Roots

      02:04 Celebrating 50 Years of Alternate Roots

      03:00 Roots Week 2024: Southern Soil Sankofa Seeds

      03:19 Meet the Guests: Amy McCoy and Clarissa Crawford

      05:14 The Role of Membership at Alternate Roots

      09:30 Roots Members as Change Agents

      12:58 Roots Week: A Gathering of Creativity and Community

      18:59 Exploring Power and Agency at Roots

      24:11 Challenges and Growth in Membership

      33:11 Looking Forward: Hopes for Roots Week

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      Join Bill Cleveland in a special bonus episode as we explore the incredible 50-year journey of Alternate ROOTS a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to social and economic justice. Featuring insightful conversations with Roots staffers Aimee McCoy and Clarissa Crawford, this episode delves into the diverse contributions of artists in tackling community issues, the importance of membership, and the upcoming 2024 Roots Week. Don't miss this in-depth look at one of America's most influential arts organizations and their vibrant community impact.

      BONUS-BONUS: Alternate ROOTS Collection: This is a collection of Change the Story Episodes featuring 9 creative change agents who are associated one way or another with Alternate ROOTS. Check them out.

      Episode Milestones

      00:00 Introduction to Change the Story, Change the World

      00:10 The Longevity of Nonprofits and Alternate Roots

      00:56 Mission and Impact of Alternate Roots

      02:04 Celebrating 50 Years of Alternate Roots

      03:00 Roots Week 2024: Southern Soil Sankofa Seeds

      03:19 Meet the Guests: Amy McCoy and Clarissa Crawford

      05:14 The Role of Membership at Alternate Roots

      09:30 Roots Members as Change Agents

      12:58 Roots Week: A Gathering of Creativity and Community

      18:59 Exploring Power and Agency at Roots

      24:11 Challenges and Growth in Membership

      33:11 Looking Forward: Hopes for Roots Week

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      b2455782-add8-497f-adb0-3dd9506763fdTue, 06 Aug 2024 14:15:00 -070039:10truebonus103103      101: 9 Reports Later: Why We Still Struggle with Race and Belonging—And How Public Art Can Change That – Part 2101: 9 Reports Later: Why We Still Struggle with Race and Belonging—And How Public Art Can Change That – Part 2 🌟 "Change the Story, Change the World" is back with the FURTHER, Further Adventures of Lenwood O. Sloan! Dive into our conversation on woke culture, historical monuments, and the power of public art. Don't miss this engaging episode! #Podcast #ArtAndCommunity #ChangeTheWorld 🎙️

      In this episode of 'Change the Story, Change the World,' Bill Cleveland continues his conversation with Lenwood O. Sloan. They discuss the abuse and current significance of Juneteenth, the replacement of Confederate monuments, and the various implications of the 14th Amendment over time. Sloan shares insights on public art as a means to foster community dialogue and how collective storytelling can contribute to social change. They also touch upon the importance of understanding democracy beyond voting, exploring citizenship, and communal responsibilities. Sloan's personal journey of resilience, particularly his experience relearning to walk, serves as a metaphor for social balance and gravity, further emphasizing the need for creative problem-solving and mutual respect within communities.

      00:00 Introduction and Recap

      00:36 Reflections on Woke and Juneteenth

      05:27 The Role of Public Art in Community Healing

      08:19 Navigating Historical Narratives and Monuments

      10:10 The Eighth Ward Monument Project

      13:59 The Importance of Storytelling in Art and Activism

      20:45 The Waystation Project and Artist Responsibilities

      26:40 Citizenship and Democracy

      BIO

      For the past 40 years, Lenwood Sloan has provided inspiration, leadership and technical assistance both in the public and private sector.

      On October 7, 2013, Mr. Sloan received the Distinguished Service Humanitarian award from Pennsylvania Humanities Council for his outstanding work in community organizing.

      He is currently an International Consultant collaborating with the U.S. Embassy in Brussels and the multi nation “Liberation Route” on a new international WWII heritage trail. He is creative consultant for the Cameron Museum of Wilmington, N. C. USCT project, collaborator on the innovative “Two Roads “ series for the Irish Cultural Center of New York,

      Throughout 2011 Sloan served as Pennsylvania’s film commissioner and was certified by the Association of Film commissioners international (AFCI). In that capacity, he directed the 60 million dollar film tax credit office.

      From 2005 to 2011, Mr. Sloan served as director of Pennsylvania’s Cultural and Heritage Tourism Program His portfolio included the Pa festival initiative, the Appalachian Regional Commission’s 13 state geo- tourism initiative, the artisans’ craft trails , the PA Civil War trails

      Lenwood Sloan has served as Director of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Presenting and Commissioning program , Deputy Director of Services to the field for the California Arts Council , Director of New Orleans Arts and Tourism partnership . He is recipient of the Louisiana Travel and Tourism leadership award for business innovations,

      His artistic credits include creating “art in the market place” programs for the Rouse Corporation in New Orleans, St. Louis, Boston, and Baltimore. In addition, he participated on the artistic team for five national public television documentaries, Treme- Untold Story, Emmy award winning Ethnic Notions, Stephen Foster, the internationally acclaimed Re-imaging Ireland, and the Emmy award winning Dance Black America.

      For the past 40 years, Lenwood Sloan has provided inspiration, leadership and technical assistance both in the public and private sector. On October 7, 2013, Mr. Sloan received the Distinguished Service Humanitarian award from Pennsylvania Humanities Council for his outstanding work in community organizing. He is currently an International Consultant collaborating with the U.S. Embassy in Brussels and the multi nation “Liberation Route” on a new international WWII heritage trail. He is creative consultant for the Cameron Museum of Wilmington, N. C. USCT project, collaborator on the innovative “Two Roads “ series for the Irish Cultural Center of New York, Throughout 2011 Sloan served as Pennsylvania’s film commissioner and was certified by the Association of Film commissioners international (AFCI). In that capacity, he directed the 60 million dollar film tax credit office. From 2005 to 2011, Mr. Sloan served as director of Pennsylvania’s Cultural and Heritage Tourism Program His portfolio included the Pa festival initiative, the Appalachian Regional Commission’s 13 state geo- tourism initiative, the artisans’ craft trails , the PA Civil War trails Lenwood Sloan has served as Director of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Presenting and Commissioning program , Deputy Director of Services to the field for the California Arts Council , Director of New Orleans Arts and Tourism partnership . He is recipient of the Louisiana Travel and Tourism leadership award for business innovations, His artistic credits include creating “art in the market place” programs for the Rouse Corporation in New Orleans, St. Louis, Boston, and Baltimore. In addition, he participated on the artistic team for five national public television documentaries, Treme- Untold Story, Emmy award winning Ethnic Notions, Stephen Foster, the internationally acclaimed Re-imaging Ireland, and the Emmy award winning Dance Black America.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>       🌟 "Change the Story, Change the World" is back with the FURTHER, Further Adventures of Lenwood O. Sloan! Dive into our conversation on woke culture, historical monuments, and the power of public art. Don't miss this engaging episode! #Podcast #ArtAndCommunity #ChangeTheWorld 🎙️

      In this episode of 'Change the Story, Change the World,' Bill Cleveland continues his conversation with Lenwood O. Sloan. They discuss the abuse and current significance of Juneteenth, the replacement of Confederate monuments, and the various implications of the 14th Amendment over time. Sloan shares insights on public art as a means to foster community dialogue and how collective storytelling can contribute to social change. They also touch upon the importance of understanding democracy beyond voting, exploring citizenship, and communal responsibilities. Sloan's personal journey of resilience, particularly his experience relearning to walk, serves as a metaphor for social balance and gravity, further emphasizing the need for creative problem-solving and mutual respect within communities.

      00:00 Introduction and Recap

      00:36 Reflections on Woke and Juneteenth

      05:27 The Role of Public Art in Community Healing

      08:19 Navigating Historical Narratives and Monuments

      10:10 The Eighth Ward Monument Project

      13:59 The Importance of Storytelling in Art and Activism

      20:45 The Waystation Project and Artist Responsibilities

      26:40 Citizenship and Democracy

      BIO

      For the past 40 years, Lenwood Sloan has provided inspiration, leadership and technical assistance both in the public and private sector.

      On October 7, 2013, Mr. Sloan received the Distinguished Service Humanitarian award from Pennsylvania Humanities Council for his outstanding work in community organizing.

      He is currently an International Consultant collaborating with the U.S. Embassy in Brussels and the multi nation “Liberation Route” on a new international WWII heritage trail. He is creative consultant for the Cameron Museum of Wilmington, N. C. USCT project, collaborator on the innovative “Two Roads “ series for the Irish Cultural Center of New York,

      Throughout 2011 Sloan served as Pennsylvania’s film commissioner and was certified by the Association of Film commissioners international (AFCI). In that capacity, he directed the 60 million dollar film tax credit office.

      From 2005 to 2011, Mr. Sloan served as director of Pennsylvania’s Cultural and Heritage Tourism Program His portfolio included the Pa festival initiative, the Appalachian Regional Commission’s 13 state geo- tourism initiative, the artisans’ craft trails , the PA Civil War trails

      Lenwood Sloan has served as Director of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Presenting and Commissioning program , Deputy Director of Services to the field for the California Arts Council , Director of New Orleans Arts and Tourism partnership . He is recipient of the Louisiana Travel and Tourism leadership award for business innovations,

      His artistic credits include creating “art in the market place” programs for the Rouse Corporation in New Orleans, St. Louis, Boston, and Baltimore. In addition, he participated on the artistic team for five national public television documentaries, Treme- Untold Story, Emmy award winning Ethnic Notions, Stephen Foster, the internationally acclaimed Re-imaging Ireland, and the Emmy award winning Dance Black America.

      For the past 40 years, Lenwood Sloan has provided inspiration, leadership and technical assistance both in the public and private sector. On October 7, 2013, Mr. Sloan received the Distinguished Service Humanitarian award from Pennsylvania Humanities Council for his outstanding work in community organizing. He is currently an International Consultant collaborating with the U.S. Embassy in Brussels and the multi nation “Liberation Route” on a new international WWII heritage trail. He is creative consultant for the Cameron Museum of Wilmington, N. C. USCT project, collaborator on the innovative “Two Roads “ series for the Irish Cultural Center of New York, Throughout 2011 Sloan served as Pennsylvania’s film commissioner and was certified by the Association of Film commissioners international (AFCI). In that capacity, he directed the 60 million dollar film tax credit office. From 2005 to 2011, Mr. Sloan served as director of Pennsylvania’s Cultural and Heritage Tourism Program His portfolio included the Pa festival initiative, the Appalachian Regional Commission’s 13 state geo- tourism initiative, the artisans’ craft trails , the PA Civil War trails Lenwood Sloan has served as Director of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Presenting and Commissioning program , Deputy Director of Services to the field for the California Arts Council , Director of New Orleans Arts and Tourism partnership . He is recipient of the Louisiana Travel and Tourism leadership award for business innovations, His artistic credits include creating “art in the market place” programs for the Rouse Corporation in New Orleans, St. Louis, Boston, and Baltimore. In addition, he participated on the artistic team for five national public television documentaries, Treme- Untold Story, Emmy award winning Ethnic Notions, Stephen Foster, the internationally acclaimed Re-imaging Ireland, and the Emmy award winning Dance Black America.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      d87b3d84-a1f6-413f-9a87-155f30eaf59eWed, 24 Jul 2024 05:45:00 -070032:56truefull31011013      100: 9 Reports Later: Why We Still Struggle With Race and Belonging—And How Public Art Can Change That – Part 1100: 9 Reports Later: Why We Still Struggle With Race and Belonging—And How Public Art Can Change That – Part 1Further Adventures of L. O. Sloan

      In this milestone 100th episode, Bill Cleveland engages in a deep, reflective, and often humorous conversation with his longtime friend and legendary activist, actor, dancer, playwright, impresario, and historian, Lenwood Sloan. The discussion spans many topics, including Sloan's incredible career in the arts, his reflections on social change, and the societal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The episode also touches on the roles of art and artists in activism and democracy, shining a spotlight on historical figures like Lydia Hamilton Smith and their untold contributions. The conversation serves as both a celebration of Sloan's legacy and a poignant commentary on current social issues.

      00:00 Introduction to the Episode

      00:33 A Rambling Conversation with Lenwood Sloan

      03:16 Reflections on Pain and Perseverance

      06:07 The Impact of COVID on Social Interactions

      08:06 The Power of Decision Making and Imagination

      18:43 Lydia Hamilton Smith: An Unsung Hero

      27:27 The Role of Art in Social Change

      31:52 Call to Action for Citizen Artists

      BIO

      For the past 40 years, Lenwood Sloan has provided inspiration, leadership and technical assistance both in the public and private sector.

      On October 7, 2013, Mr. Sloan received the Distinguished Service Humanitarian award from Pennsylvania Humanities Council for his outstanding work in community organizing.

      He is currently an International Consultant collaborating with the U.S. Embassy in Brussels and the multi nation “Liberation Route” on a new international WWII heritage trail. He is creative consultant for the Cameron Museum of Wilmington, N. C. USCT project, collaborator on the innovative “Two Roads “ series for the Irish Cultural Center of New York,

      Throughout 2011 Sloan served as Pennsylvania’s film commissioner and was certified by the Association of Film commissioners international (AFCI). In that capacity, he directed the 60 million dollar film tax credit office.

      From 2005 to 2011, Mr. Sloan served as director of Pennsylvania’s Cultural and Heritage Tourism Program His portfolio included the Pa festival initiative, the Appalachian Regional Commission’s 13 state geo- tourism initiative, the artisans’ craft trails , the PA Civil War trails

      Lenwood Sloan has served as Director of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Presenting and Commissioning program , Deputy Director of Services to the field for the California Arts Council , Director of New Orleans Arts and Tourism partnership . He is recipient of the Louisiana Travel and Tourism leadership award for business innovations,

      His artistic credits include creating “art in the market place” programs for the Rouse Corporation in New Orleans, St. Louis, Boston, and Baltimore. In addition, he participated on the artistic team for five national public television documentaries, Treme- Untold Story, Emmy award winning Ethnic Notions, Stephen Foster, the internationally acclaimed Re-imaging Ireland, and the Emmy award winning Dance Black America.

      For the past 40 years, Lenwood Sloan has provided inspiration, leadership and technical assistance both in the public and private sector. On October 7, 2013, Mr. Sloan received the Distinguished Service Humanitarian award from Pennsylvania Humanities Council for his outstanding work in community organizing. He is currently an International Consultant collaborating with the U.S. Embassy in Brussels and the multi nation “Liberation Route” on a new international WWII heritage trail. He is creative consultant for the Cameron Museum of Wilmington, N. C. USCT project, collaborator on the innovative “Two Roads “ series for the Irish Cultural Center of New York, Throughout 2011 Sloan served as Pennsylvania’s film commissioner and was certified by the Association of Film commissioners international (AFCI). In that capacity, he directed the 60 million dollar film tax credit office. From 2005 to 2011, Mr. Sloan served as director of Pennsylvania’s Cultural and Heritage Tourism Program His portfolio included the Pa festival initiative, the Appalachian Regional Commission’s 13 state geo- tourism initiative, the artisans’ craft trails , the PA Civil War trails Lenwood Sloan has served as Director of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Presenting and Commissioning program , Deputy Director of Services to the field for the California Arts Council , Director of New Orleans Arts and Tourism partnership . He is recipient of the Louisiana Travel and Tourism leadership award for business innovations, His artistic credits include creating “art in the market place” programs for the Rouse Corporation in New Orleans, St. Louis, Boston, and Baltimore. In addition, he participated on the artistic team for five national public television documentaries, Treme- Untold Story, Emmy award winning Ethnic Notions, Stephen Foster, the internationally acclaimed Re-imaging Ireland, and the Emmy award winning Dance Black America.

      Notable Mentions

      Robert Joffrey

       Alvin Ailey

      Ruth Asawa,

      Animating Democracy

      Lydia Hamilton Smith

      Thaddeus Stevens

      Reconstruction Amendments.

      19th Amendment

      Birth of a Nation

      culture wars

      Mapplethorpe (Robert)

      Ron Athey.

      Andre Serrano

      corn for porn.”

      Gettysburg Address

      Kim Chan

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      Further Adventures of L. O. Sloan

      In this milestone 100th episode, Bill Cleveland engages in a deep, reflective, and often humorous conversation with his longtime friend and legendary activist, actor, dancer, playwright, impresario, and historian, Lenwood Sloan. The discussion spans many topics, including Sloan's incredible career in the arts, his reflections on social change, and the societal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The episode also touches on the roles of art and artists in activism and democracy, shining a spotlight on historical figures like Lydia Hamilton Smith and their untold contributions. The conversation serves as both a celebration of Sloan's legacy and a poignant commentary on current social issues.

      00:00 Introduction to the Episode

      00:33 A Rambling Conversation with Lenwood Sloan

      03:16 Reflections on Pain and Perseverance

      06:07 The Impact of COVID on Social Interactions

      08:06 The Power of Decision Making and Imagination

      18:43 Lydia Hamilton Smith: An Unsung Hero

      27:27 The Role of Art in Social Change

      31:52 Call to Action for Citizen Artists

      BIO

      For the past 40 years, Lenwood Sloan has provided inspiration, leadership and technical assistance both in the public and private sector.

      On October 7, 2013, Mr. Sloan received the Distinguished Service Humanitarian award from Pennsylvania Humanities Council for his outstanding work in community organizing.

      He is currently an International Consultant collaborating with the U.S. Embassy in Brussels and the multi nation “Liberation Route” on a new international WWII heritage trail. He is creative consultant for the Cameron Museum of Wilmington, N. C. USCT project, collaborator on the innovative “Two Roads “ series for the Irish Cultural Center of New York,

      Throughout 2011 Sloan served as Pennsylvania’s film commissioner and was certified by the Association of Film commissioners international (AFCI). In that capacity, he directed the 60 million dollar film tax credit office.

      From 2005 to 2011, Mr. Sloan served as director of Pennsylvania’s Cultural and Heritage Tourism Program His portfolio included the Pa festival initiative, the Appalachian Regional Commission’s 13 state geo- tourism initiative, the artisans’ craft trails , the PA Civil War trails

      Lenwood Sloan has served as Director of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Presenting and Commissioning program , Deputy Director of Services to the field for the California Arts Council , Director of New Orleans Arts and Tourism partnership . He is recipient of the Louisiana Travel and Tourism leadership award for business innovations,

      His artistic credits include creating “art in the market place” programs for the Rouse Corporation in New Orleans, St. Louis, Boston, and Baltimore. In addition, he participated on the artistic team for five national public television documentaries, Treme- Untold Story, Emmy award winning Ethnic Notions, Stephen Foster, the internationally acclaimed Re-imaging Ireland, and the Emmy award winning Dance Black America.

      For the past 40 years, Lenwood Sloan has provided inspiration, leadership and technical assistance both in the public and private sector. On October 7, 2013, Mr. Sloan received the Distinguished Service Humanitarian award from Pennsylvania Humanities Council for his outstanding work in community organizing. He is currently an International Consultant collaborating with the U.S. Embassy in Brussels and the multi nation “Liberation Route” on a new international WWII heritage trail. He is creative consultant for the Cameron Museum of Wilmington, N. C. USCT project, collaborator on the innovative “Two Roads “ series for the Irish Cultural Center of New York, Throughout 2011 Sloan served as Pennsylvania’s film commissioner and was certified by the Association of Film commissioners international (AFCI). In that capacity, he directed the 60 million dollar film tax credit office. From 2005 to 2011, Mr. Sloan served as director of Pennsylvania’s Cultural and Heritage Tourism Program His portfolio included the Pa festival initiative, the Appalachian Regional Commission’s 13 state geo- tourism initiative, the artisans’ craft trails , the PA Civil War trails Lenwood Sloan has served as Director of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Presenting and Commissioning program , Deputy Director of Services to the field for the California Arts Council , Director of New Orleans Arts and Tourism partnership . He is recipient of the Louisiana Travel and Tourism leadership award for business innovations, His artistic credits include creating “art in the market place” programs for the Rouse Corporation in New Orleans, St. Louis, Boston, and Baltimore. In addition, he participated on the artistic team for five national public television documentaries, Treme- Untold Story, Emmy award winning Ethnic Notions, Stephen Foster, the internationally acclaimed Re-imaging Ireland, and the Emmy award winning Dance Black America.

      Notable Mentions

      Robert Joffrey

       Alvin Ailey

      Ruth Asawa,

      Animating Democracy

      Lydia Hamilton Smith

      Thaddeus Stevens

      Reconstruction Amendments.

      19th Amendment

      Birth of a Nation

      culture wars

      Mapplethorpe (Robert)

      Ron Athey.

      Andre Serrano

      corn for porn.”

      Gettysburg Address

      Kim Chan

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      1ce91e7d-27f8-452e-8c42-e497b4bc825bWed, 10 Jul 2024 05:00:00 -070037:04truefull31001003      99: Animating Democracy: Can Activist Artists and Cultural Organizing Help Save it - Part 299: Animating Democracy: Can Activist Artists and Cultural Organizing Help Save it - Part 2In this episode we continue our conversation with Barbara Schaffer Bacon and Pam Korza, co-directors of Animating Democracy. The discussion centers on the role of arts in fostering civic dialogue and community engagement, particularly around challenging social issues. We explore several case studies of arts-based community projects, including:

      1.    The restoration of a King Kamehameha statue in Hawaii, which became a catalyst for broader community dialogue.

      2.    The Shipyard Project in Portsmouth, New Hampshire by Liz Lerman Dance Exchange.

      3.    A community dialogue project in Lima, Ohio by Sojourn Theater.

      4.    Controversial exhibits at the Henry Gallery, Jewish Museum, and Andy Warhol Museum dealing with genomics, the Holocaust, and the terrible legacy of lynching.

      The conversation highlights how these projects built trust, facilitated difficult conversations, and led to long-term community impacts. We also discuss the evolution of this field over the past decades, current trends, and future prospects for arts-based civic engagement.

      Key moments:

      1.    Discussion of the King Kamehameha statue restoration (00:02:14)

      2.    Reflection on the Portsmouth shipyard project (00:18:27)

      3.    Explanation of the framework for assessing project outcomes (00:24:46)

      4.    Description of controversial museum exhibits (00:32:40)

      5.    Exploration of current trends and changes in the field (00:42:51)

      BIO's


      Pam Korza co-directs Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts that inspires, informs, promotes, and connects arts and culture as potent contributors to community, civic, and social change. She is a co-author and editor of Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change. She co-wrote Civic Dialogue, Arts & Culture, and the Arts & Civic Engagement Tool Kit and co-edited Critical Perspectives: Writings on Art & Civic Dialogue, as well as the five-book Case Studies from Animating Democracy. Pam is co-chair of the Assessing Practices in Public Scholarship research group for Imagining America (IA), a consortium of colleges and universities that advances public scholarship in the humanities, arts, and design and was a two-term member of IA’s National Advisory Board. She began her career with the Arts Extension Service (AES)/UMass where she coordinated the National Public Art Policy Project and co-wrote and edited Going Public: A field guide to developments in art in public places. She also directed the New England Film & Video Festival.

      Barbara Schaffer Bacon’s career launched in 1977 at the UMASS Arts Extension Service, a national leader in professional education for local arts managers, artists and civic leaders. Barbara served as director from 1984-90. She led Fundamentals and Advanced Local Arts Management seminars and contributed to the Fundamentals of Local Arts Management text book and The Cultural Planning Work Kit. In 1996 with Pam Korza, Barbara took a lead role to conduct research for and shape Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts. Animating Democracy shone an early and bright national light on arts and civic dialogue, built knowledge about quality practice, and created useful resources including Animating Democracy: The Artistic Imagination as a Force for Civic Dialogue; Civic Dialogue, Arts & Culture: Findings from Animating Democracy; Continuum Of Arts Impact: A Guide for Defining Social & Civic Outcomes & Indicators; Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change; and Trend or Tipping Point: Arts & Social Change Grantmaking. In 2022 Barbara stepped back from Animating Democracy leadership. She currently serves as a program consultant for the Barr Foundation Creative Commonwealth Initiative. Barbara recently completed more than 10 years of service as a member of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. A Belchertown, MA resident, she served on the Belchertown School Committee for 14 years. In 2018, Barbara received the Robert E. Gard Foundation Leadership Award. Key words:

      1.    Animating Democracy

      2.    Civic dialogue

      3.    Community engagement

      4.    Arts-based initiatives

      5.    Trust-building

      6.    Cultural traditions

      7.    Provocation

      8.    Cross-sector work

      9.    Creative placemaking

      10. Cultural activism

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      In this episode we continue our conversation with Barbara Schaffer Bacon and Pam Korza, co-directors of Animating Democracy. The discussion centers on the role of arts in fostering civic dialogue and community engagement, particularly around challenging social issues. We explore several case studies of arts-based community projects, including:

      1.    The restoration of a King Kamehameha statue in Hawaii, which became a catalyst for broader community dialogue.

      2.    The Shipyard Project in Portsmouth, New Hampshire by Liz Lerman Dance Exchange.

      3.    A community dialogue project in Lima, Ohio by Sojourn Theater.

      4.    Controversial exhibits at the Henry Gallery, Jewish Museum, and Andy Warhol Museum dealing with genomics, the Holocaust, and the terrible legacy of lynching.

      The conversation highlights how these projects built trust, facilitated difficult conversations, and led to long-term community impacts. We also discuss the evolution of this field over the past decades, current trends, and future prospects for arts-based civic engagement.

      Key moments:

      1.    Discussion of the King Kamehameha statue restoration (00:02:14)

      2.    Reflection on the Portsmouth shipyard project (00:18:27)

      3.    Explanation of the framework for assessing project outcomes (00:24:46)

      4.    Description of controversial museum exhibits (00:32:40)

      5.    Exploration of current trends and changes in the field (00:42:51)

      BIO's


      Pam Korza co-directs Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts that inspires, informs, promotes, and connects arts and culture as potent contributors to community, civic, and social change. She is a co-author and editor of Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change. She co-wrote Civic Dialogue, Arts & Culture, and the Arts & Civic Engagement Tool Kit and co-edited Critical Perspectives: Writings on Art & Civic Dialogue, as well as the five-book Case Studies from Animating Democracy. Pam is co-chair of the Assessing Practices in Public Scholarship research group for Imagining America (IA), a consortium of colleges and universities that advances public scholarship in the humanities, arts, and design and was a two-term member of IA’s National Advisory Board. She began her career with the Arts Extension Service (AES)/UMass where she coordinated the National Public Art Policy Project and co-wrote and edited Going Public: A field guide to developments in art in public places. She also directed the New England Film & Video Festival.

      Barbara Schaffer Bacon’s career launched in 1977 at the UMASS Arts Extension Service, a national leader in professional education for local arts managers, artists and civic leaders. Barbara served as director from 1984-90. She led Fundamentals and Advanced Local Arts Management seminars and contributed to the Fundamentals of Local Arts Management text book and The Cultural Planning Work Kit. In 1996 with Pam Korza, Barbara took a lead role to conduct research for and shape Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts. Animating Democracy shone an early and bright national light on arts and civic dialogue, built knowledge about quality practice, and created useful resources including Animating Democracy: The Artistic Imagination as a Force for Civic Dialogue; Civic Dialogue, Arts & Culture: Findings from Animating Democracy; Continuum Of Arts Impact: A Guide for Defining Social & Civic Outcomes & Indicators; Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change; and Trend or Tipping Point: Arts & Social Change Grantmaking. In 2022 Barbara stepped back from Animating Democracy leadership. She currently serves as a program consultant for the Barr Foundation Creative Commonwealth Initiative. Barbara recently completed more than 10 years of service as a member of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. A Belchertown, MA resident, she served on the Belchertown School Committee for 14 years. In 2018, Barbara received the Robert E. Gard Foundation Leadership Award. Key words:

      1.    Animating Democracy

      2.    Civic dialogue

      3.    Community engagement

      4.    Arts-based initiatives

      5.    Trust-building

      6.    Cultural traditions

      7.    Provocation

      8.    Cross-sector work

      9.    Creative placemaking

      10. Cultural activism

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      58b5fec3-4e49-48f1-8e18-44bfcc428ed1Wed, 26 Jun 2024 06:00:00 -070050:43truefull399993      98: Animating Democracy: Can Activist Artists and Cultural Organizing Help Save it - Part 198: Animating Democracy: Can Activist Artists and Cultural Organizing Help Save it - Part 1Animating Democracy

      Can the Arts Save Democracy? This episode explores how creative practices can reinvigorate American democracy by bridging societal divides. Featuring insights from Pam Korza and Barbara Schaefer Bacon, we delve into how Animating Democracy has supported arts-based civic dialogue and collective action in communities across the country. We highlight impactful projects such as Traces of the Trade, it underscores the transformative potential of engaging critical and often divisive community issues through the arts. This is a call to action for using creativity to address and heal deep-seated social issues.

      00:00 Introduction: American Democracy

      01:16 The Role of Art in Democracy

      03:24 Animating Democracy: An Arts Organization

      04:12 Exploring Belchertown and Personal Histories

      09:22 The Power of Community-Based Arts

      17:53 Iconic Projects: AIDS Memorial Quilt and Vagina Monologues

      22:08 The Laramie Project and Scaling Up

      25:20 Animating Democracy: Practical Implementation

      38:33 Traces of the Trade: A Risky but Impactful Project

      49:09 Conclusion and Call to Action

      BIO's


      Pam Korza co-directs Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts that inspires, informs, promotes, and connects arts and culture as potent contributors to community, civic, and social change. She is a co-author and editor of Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change. She co-wrote Civic Dialogue, Arts & Culture, and the Arts & Civic Engagement Tool Kit and co-edited Critical Perspectives: Writings on Art & Civic Dialogue, as well as the five-book Case Studies from Animating Democracy. Pam is co-chair of the Assessing Practices in Public Scholarship research group for Imagining America (IA), a consortium of colleges and universities that advances public scholarship in the humanities, arts, and design and was a two-term member of IA’s National Advisory Board. She began her career with the Arts Extension Service (AES)/UMass where she coordinated the National Public Art Policy Project and co-wrote and edited Going Public: A field guide to developments in art in public places. She also directed the New England Film & Video Festival.

      Barbara Schaffer Bacon’s career launched in 1977 at the UMASS Arts Extension Service, a national leader in professional education for local arts managers, artists and civic leaders. Barbara served as director from 1984-90. She led Fundamentals and Advanced Local Arts Management seminars and contributed to the Fundamentals of Local Arts Management text book and The Cultural Planning Work Kit. In 1996 with Pam Korza, Barbara took a lead role to conduct research for and shape Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts. Animating Democracy shone an early and bright national light on arts and civic dialogue, built knowledge about quality practice, and created useful resources including Animating Democracy: The Artistic Imagination as a Force for Civic Dialogue; Civic Dialogue, Arts & Culture: Findings from Animating Democracy; Continuum Of Arts Impact: A Guide for Defining Social & Civic Outcomes & Indicators; Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change; and Trend or Tipping Point: Arts & Social Change Grantmaking. In 2022 Barbara stepped back from Animating Democracy leadership. She currently serves as a program consultant for the Barr Foundation Creative Commonwealth Initiative. Barbara recently completed more than 10 years of service as a member of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. A Belchertown, MA resident, she served on the Belchertown School Committee for 14 years. In 2018, Barbara received the Robert E. Gard Foundation Leadership Award. 

      Notable Mentions:


      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      Animating Democracy

      Can the Arts Save Democracy? This episode explores how creative practices can reinvigorate American democracy by bridging societal divides. Featuring insights from Pam Korza and Barbara Schaefer Bacon, we delve into how Animating Democracy has supported arts-based civic dialogue and collective action in communities across the country. We highlight impactful projects such as Traces of the Trade, it underscores the transformative potential of engaging critical and often divisive community issues through the arts. This is a call to action for using creativity to address and heal deep-seated social issues.

      00:00 Introduction: American Democracy

      01:16 The Role of Art in Democracy

      03:24 Animating Democracy: An Arts Organization

      04:12 Exploring Belchertown and Personal Histories

      09:22 The Power of Community-Based Arts

      17:53 Iconic Projects: AIDS Memorial Quilt and Vagina Monologues

      22:08 The Laramie Project and Scaling Up

      25:20 Animating Democracy: Practical Implementation

      38:33 Traces of the Trade: A Risky but Impactful Project

      49:09 Conclusion and Call to Action

      BIO's


      Pam Korza co-directs Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts that inspires, informs, promotes, and connects arts and culture as potent contributors to community, civic, and social change. She is a co-author and editor of Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change. She co-wrote Civic Dialogue, Arts & Culture, and the Arts & Civic Engagement Tool Kit and co-edited Critical Perspectives: Writings on Art & Civic Dialogue, as well as the five-book Case Studies from Animating Democracy. Pam is co-chair of the Assessing Practices in Public Scholarship research group for Imagining America (IA), a consortium of colleges and universities that advances public scholarship in the humanities, arts, and design and was a two-term member of IA’s National Advisory Board. She began her career with the Arts Extension Service (AES)/UMass where she coordinated the National Public Art Policy Project and co-wrote and edited Going Public: A field guide to developments in art in public places. She also directed the New England Film & Video Festival.

      Barbara Schaffer Bacon’s career launched in 1977 at the UMASS Arts Extension Service, a national leader in professional education for local arts managers, artists and civic leaders. Barbara served as director from 1984-90. She led Fundamentals and Advanced Local Arts Management seminars and contributed to the Fundamentals of Local Arts Management text book and The Cultural Planning Work Kit. In 1996 with Pam Korza, Barbara took a lead role to conduct research for and shape Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts. Animating Democracy shone an early and bright national light on arts and civic dialogue, built knowledge about quality practice, and created useful resources including Animating Democracy: The Artistic Imagination as a Force for Civic Dialogue; Civic Dialogue, Arts & Culture: Findings from Animating Democracy; Continuum Of Arts Impact: A Guide for Defining Social & Civic Outcomes & Indicators; Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change; and Trend or Tipping Point: Arts & Social Change Grantmaking. In 2022 Barbara stepped back from Animating Democracy leadership. She currently serves as a program consultant for the Barr Foundation Creative Commonwealth Initiative. Barbara recently completed more than 10 years of service as a member of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. A Belchertown, MA resident, she served on the Belchertown School Committee for 14 years. In 2018, Barbara received the Robert E. Gard Foundation Leadership Award. 

      Notable Mentions:


      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      18842f13-4fa7-4dd7-8453-8af7b451d3e9Wed, 12 Jun 2024 05:45:00 -070051:02truefull398983      97: How Judith Marcuse Transformed a Life in Dance into a Movement for Social Change97: How Judith Marcuse Transformed a Life in Dance into a Movement for Social Change"I think unless we embody sensibilities, we connect the head, the heart and the body. We don't have a complete range of experience and expression are limited in what we think, feel and see, and so I have integrated the body into everything I've done. Judith Marcuse

      Judith Marcuse is one of Canada’s senior artist/producers with a career that spans over 40 years of professional work as a dancer, choreographer, director, producer, teacher, writer and lecturer in Canada and abroad. She has created over 100 original works for live performance by dance, theatre and opera companies; many projects for film and television; and has produced seven large-scale arts festivals. Her repertory contemporary dance company toured nationally and internationally for more than 15 years, while also creating innovative community and youth programs.

      A pioneer in the field of arts for social change, her work is internationally-recognized. The youth-centred, issue-based ICE, FIRE and EARTH projects, each five years long, included workshops, live touring and film productions, and extensive community outreach work. In 2006, Judith Marcuse produced EARTH: The World Urban Festival during the U.N.’s World Urban Forum, hosting performances and exhibitions of socially-engaged artists from around the world and audiences of some 20,000 people.

      Marcuse teaches and presents in university and other settings in Canada and abroad. She has received many honours, including Canada’s two major choreographic awards, the Chalmers and the Clifford E. Lee, and an honourary doctorate from Simon Fraser University.

      Judith Marcuse Dancing Towards Change: Art, Activism, and Social Transformation

      --------- EPISODE SUMMARY ---------

      “My earliest memories of dancing are intertwined with feelings of freedom and expression.”, a sentiment echoed by our esteemed guest, Judith Marcuse. As a pioneer in fusing art with social activism, Judith takes us on a captivating journey through her life, illustrating how the union of head, heart, and body can drive societal transformation. This episode sweeps across the vibrant dance scene of 1960s London, where Judith began her creative quest, and ventures into her profound work engaging communities through collective creativity. Her rich narrative serves as a testament to the influential role physical expression plays in advocacy and change, inspiring listeners to consider how their own passions might fuel meaningful action.

      Navigating the complexities of societal oppression and censorship, Judith opens up about her experiences touring globally and the innovative ways she's fostered dialogue and collaboration. She recounts captivating stories of running a dance company as a collective, highlighting the importance of safe spaces for conversation, especially when addressing life's most pressing challenges with the youth. This episode shares nsights into building partnerships that transcend cultural divides, using nonverbal communication to foster understanding, and the vital role of communal efforts in combating loneliness and igniting change.

      Rounding out our discussion, the transformative power of art in global collaborations takes center stage. Judith's experiences in Pakistan and South Africa, among other places, reveal art's profound impact on community change and personal growth. She shares the inspirational encounters that have shaped her perspective, stressing the importance of humility, active listening, and embracing diversity. The episode culminates with a look at the Tar Sands Songbook project and the International Center of Art for Social Change, championing the powerful potential of creativity when harnessed for the greater good.

      HIGHLIGHTS ---------

      0:03:03 - Life's Work (95 Seconds)

      0:09:56 - Artists Creating Change Through Collaboration (88 Seconds)

      0:18:06 - Youth-Led Initiatives on Tough Topics (102 Seconds)

      0:22:45 - Nonverbal Communication and Creative Survival Strategies (130 Seconds)

      0:31:25 - NGOs and Artists Collaborate for ClimateJustice (124 Seconds)

      0:35:22 - Tar Sands Songbook (80 Seconds)

      0:39:12 - Master's Program (116 Seconds)

      0:45:17 - Global Connections Changing Perspectives (67 Seconds)

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      "I think unless we embody sensibilities, we connect the head, the heart and the body. We don't have a complete range of experience and expression are limited in what we think, feel and see, and so I have integrated the body into everything I've done. Judith Marcuse

      Judith Marcuse is one of Canada’s senior artist/producers with a career that spans over 40 years of professional work as a dancer, choreographer, director, producer, teacher, writer and lecturer in Canada and abroad. She has created over 100 original works for live performance by dance, theatre and opera companies; many projects for film and television; and has produced seven large-scale arts festivals. Her repertory contemporary dance company toured nationally and internationally for more than 15 years, while also creating innovative community and youth programs.

      A pioneer in the field of arts for social change, her work is internationally-recognized. The youth-centred, issue-based ICE, FIRE and EARTH projects, each five years long, included workshops, live touring and film productions, and extensive community outreach work. In 2006, Judith Marcuse produced EARTH: The World Urban Festival during the U.N.’s World Urban Forum, hosting performances and exhibitions of socially-engaged artists from around the world and audiences of some 20,000 people.

      Marcuse teaches and presents in university and other settings in Canada and abroad. She has received many honours, including Canada’s two major choreographic awards, the Chalmers and the Clifford E. Lee, and an honourary doctorate from Simon Fraser University.

      Judith Marcuse Dancing Towards Change: Art, Activism, and Social Transformation

      --------- EPISODE SUMMARY ---------

      “My earliest memories of dancing are intertwined with feelings of freedom and expression.”, a sentiment echoed by our esteemed guest, Judith Marcuse. As a pioneer in fusing art with social activism, Judith takes us on a captivating journey through her life, illustrating how the union of head, heart, and body can drive societal transformation. This episode sweeps across the vibrant dance scene of 1960s London, where Judith began her creative quest, and ventures into her profound work engaging communities through collective creativity. Her rich narrative serves as a testament to the influential role physical expression plays in advocacy and change, inspiring listeners to consider how their own passions might fuel meaningful action.

      Navigating the complexities of societal oppression and censorship, Judith opens up about her experiences touring globally and the innovative ways she's fostered dialogue and collaboration. She recounts captivating stories of running a dance company as a collective, highlighting the importance of safe spaces for conversation, especially when addressing life's most pressing challenges with the youth. This episode shares nsights into building partnerships that transcend cultural divides, using nonverbal communication to foster understanding, and the vital role of communal efforts in combating loneliness and igniting change.

      Rounding out our discussion, the transformative power of art in global collaborations takes center stage. Judith's experiences in Pakistan and South Africa, among other places, reveal art's profound impact on community change and personal growth. She shares the inspirational encounters that have shaped her perspective, stressing the importance of humility, active listening, and embracing diversity. The episode culminates with a look at the Tar Sands Songbook project and the International Center of Art for Social Change, championing the powerful potential of creativity when harnessed for the greater good.

      HIGHLIGHTS ---------

      0:03:03 - Life's Work (95 Seconds)

      0:09:56 - Artists Creating Change Through Collaboration (88 Seconds)

      0:18:06 - Youth-Led Initiatives on Tough Topics (102 Seconds)

      0:22:45 - Nonverbal Communication and Creative Survival Strategies (130 Seconds)

      0:31:25 - NGOs and Artists Collaborate for ClimateJustice (124 Seconds)

      0:35:22 - Tar Sands Songbook (80 Seconds)

      0:39:12 - Master's Program (116 Seconds)

      0:45:17 - Global Connections Changing Perspectives (67 Seconds)

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      f16b6203-8d88-40d1-bf87-ea764479b59aWed, 29 May 2024 05:45:00 -070053:39truefull397973      96: How are Artist Activists and Organizers Creating a Better World Together? Reprise96: How are Artist Activists and Organizers Creating a Better World Together? RepriseCan the right song, painting, or museum exhibit spark real political change? What if culture is the missing strategy in today’s social movements?

      From the Center for the Study of Art & Community, this is Change the Story / Change the World: A chronicle of art and social change, where activist artists and cultural organizers share and learn what they need to thrive as creative change agents. My name is Bill Cleveland.

      If you’ve ever felt like your efforts for justice aren’t hitting deep enough, it might be because the culture hasn’t caught up with your message. In this episode, labor organizer and social change strategist Ken Grossinger shares how his journey from labor organizing to cultural advocacy revealed a truth many overlook: policy changes fade, but stories—and the art that tells them—have staying power. In this episode:

      • Discover how blending power analysis with artistic expression can amplify grassroots campaigns and drive long-term social change.
      • Hear powerful case studies—from a revolutionary museum exhibit in Louisville to a musical uprising in Alaska—that reveal how art can expose injustice and build movements.
      • Learn from real-world collaborations between artists and organizers that shift narratives, challenge power, and activate communities in ways no policy paper ever could.

      Tune in now to hear how Ken Grossinger’s book ART WORKS and his work in communities across the U.S. show us why art isn’t just a reflection of justice—it’s how we get there.

      BIO

      Ken Grossinger, has been a leading strategist in movements for social and economic justice for thirty-five years, in unions, philanthropic and community organizations.

      For two decades, Ken was one of the labor movement's leading strategists. He represented workers in the Service Employees International Union and then directed legislative field operations for the AFL-CIO, running large-scale issue campaigns including against the privatization of Social Security and for health care reform, economic and civil rights. Grossinger is widely regarded as an expert in pioneering national field strategies for labor and community organizations and is well known for building long-enduring alliances between the two.

      Formerly a community organizer, Grossinger co-launched the Human SERVE Fund, a national advocate organization that initiated and led the successful decade-long fight for passage of the National Voter Registration Act, commonly known as Motor Voter.

      Grossinger is active on several boards including the University of the District of Columbia (Trustee), Hirshhorn Museum (Trustee), People’s Action Institute (Director), Skylight Pictures (Director), and the CrossCurrents Foundation, (Chair).

      Among other cultural projects, he co-executive produced the award-winning Netflix documentaries Social Dilemma and Bleeding Edge and served as Executive Producer of Boycott and the forthcoming film Borderland.

      Ken is the author of ART WORKS: How Organizers and Artists are Creating a Better World Together, published by the New Press in July 2023. He lives part-time in Washington, DC., and Telluride, Colorado.

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      Can the right song, painting, or museum exhibit spark real political change? What if culture is the missing strategy in today’s social movements?

      From the Center for the Study of Art & Community, this is Change the Story / Change the World: A chronicle of art and social change, where activist artists and cultural organizers share and learn what they need to thrive as creative change agents. My name is Bill Cleveland.

      If you’ve ever felt like your efforts for justice aren’t hitting deep enough, it might be because the culture hasn’t caught up with your message. In this episode, labor organizer and social change strategist Ken Grossinger shares how his journey from labor organizing to cultural advocacy revealed a truth many overlook: policy changes fade, but stories—and the art that tells them—have staying power. In this episode:

      • Discover how blending power analysis with artistic expression can amplify grassroots campaigns and drive long-term social change.
      • Hear powerful case studies—from a revolutionary museum exhibit in Louisville to a musical uprising in Alaska—that reveal how art can expose injustice and build movements.
      • Learn from real-world collaborations between artists and organizers that shift narratives, challenge power, and activate communities in ways no policy paper ever could.

      Tune in now to hear how Ken Grossinger’s book ART WORKS and his work in communities across the U.S. show us why art isn’t just a reflection of justice—it’s how we get there.

      BIO

      Ken Grossinger, has been a leading strategist in movements for social and economic justice for thirty-five years, in unions, philanthropic and community organizations.

      For two decades, Ken was one of the labor movement's leading strategists. He represented workers in the Service Employees International Union and then directed legislative field operations for the AFL-CIO, running large-scale issue campaigns including against the privatization of Social Security and for health care reform, economic and civil rights. Grossinger is widely regarded as an expert in pioneering national field strategies for labor and community organizations and is well known for building long-enduring alliances between the two.

      Formerly a community organizer, Grossinger co-launched the Human SERVE Fund, a national advocate organization that initiated and led the successful decade-long fight for passage of the National Voter Registration Act, commonly known as Motor Voter.

      Grossinger is active on several boards including the University of the District of Columbia (Trustee), Hirshhorn Museum (Trustee), People’s Action Institute (Director), Skylight Pictures (Director), and the CrossCurrents Foundation, (Chair).

      Among other cultural projects, he co-executive produced the award-winning Netflix documentaries Social Dilemma and Bleeding Edge and served as Executive Producer of Boycott and the forthcoming film Borderland.

      Ken is the author of ART WORKS: How Organizers and Artists are Creating a Better World Together, published by the New Press in July 2023. He lives part-time in Washington, DC., and Telluride, Colorado.

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      bab94d9b-2283-4377-84ae-3d2e61a7923fWed, 08 May 2024 05:45:00 -070059:21truefull396963      95: Jose Antonio Aguirre on Cultural Organizing, and the Power of Public Art95: Jose Antonio Aguirre on Cultural Organizing, and the Power of Public ArtBorn and raised in Mexico City Jose Antonio Aguirre has become internationally recognized for his venetian glass mosaic, and carved limestone murals many of which explore the people, places, and stories he has encountered as an artist who exists in two cultures bound by the Mexican and American bi-national spaces he has occupied for four decades.

      The Journey of Jose Antonio Aguirre

      In this episode of 'Change the Story, Change the World' we explore the life and works of Jose Antonio Aguirre, a Mexican-American artist renowned for his public art in the forms of murals and mosaics. Born in Mexico City and eventually making his way to the United States, Aguirre's multifaceted career spans roles as a muralist, teacher, journalist, and cultural ambassador. His work, deeply influenced by his bi-national experience, celebrates cultural heritage and challenges viewers to consider social issues and their own identities. Notably, Aguirre collaborated with significant cultural and community institutions such as Self Help Graphics and Art in East Los Angeles and participated in the creation of the Cesar Chavez Memorial. His journey underscores the power of art in community building, heritage preservation, and social commentary, all while navigating the complexities of his adventurous life in the U.S.

      00:00 Welcome to Change the Story, Change the World

      00:12 Journey to Knowledge: The Power of Public Art

      01:30 Jose Antonio Aguirre: A Life in Art and Cultural Diplomacy

      04:10 The Chicano Art Movement and Self Help Graphics

      08:39 A Serendipitous Journey from Music to Muralism

      20:57 From Chicago to California: A New Chapter in Art

      31:49 The Evolution and Impact of the Mural Movement

      41:10 Closing Thoughts: The Role of Art in Society

      Bio

      As a visual artist, I am dedicated to nurturing the development and production of an ongoing body of art that utilizes a variety of traditional mediums, materials, and techniques in combination with an experimental approach to contemporary technology and social issues. I seek to explore the application of space within an installation, painting, print or public environment that invites the interaction of the viewer with the elements of the composition; the spectator is to be engaged as an active participant and not a passive observer. The nature of my art is dependent upon the exploration and exportation of images, icons, symbols, and signs that have been contained within the continuity of creative expression in Mexican art from 3000 years ago until today. The essence of my iconography is traced from my personal pre-Columbian roots and it’s mixing with religious symbols of Spanish colonization, and compounded by the contradictory reality of “modernism” in Mexico and the United States. The content is inspired by the duality of history and social experience; the color palette inspired by the richness of the folk artists hand and the local regions natural landscapes. Reflecting upon my place of origin (Mexico) and its impact on the recent history of my experience in the United States, I probe the aesthetics of an artist that exists in two cultures bound by bi-national implications. I create a visual imagery that provokes definitions and questions that attempt to integrate the tentative everyday experience of human nature and its social implications with the cultural diversity of living on the border of two worlds that exist in the time of expanding globalization.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      Born and raised in Mexico City Jose Antonio Aguirre has become internationally recognized for his venetian glass mosaic, and carved limestone murals many of which explore the people, places, and stories he has encountered as an artist who exists in two cultures bound by the Mexican and American bi-national spaces he has occupied for four decades.

      The Journey of Jose Antonio Aguirre

      In this episode of 'Change the Story, Change the World' we explore the life and works of Jose Antonio Aguirre, a Mexican-American artist renowned for his public art in the forms of murals and mosaics. Born in Mexico City and eventually making his way to the United States, Aguirre's multifaceted career spans roles as a muralist, teacher, journalist, and cultural ambassador. His work, deeply influenced by his bi-national experience, celebrates cultural heritage and challenges viewers to consider social issues and their own identities. Notably, Aguirre collaborated with significant cultural and community institutions such as Self Help Graphics and Art in East Los Angeles and participated in the creation of the Cesar Chavez Memorial. His journey underscores the power of art in community building, heritage preservation, and social commentary, all while navigating the complexities of his adventurous life in the U.S.

      00:00 Welcome to Change the Story, Change the World

      00:12 Journey to Knowledge: The Power of Public Art

      01:30 Jose Antonio Aguirre: A Life in Art and Cultural Diplomacy

      04:10 The Chicano Art Movement and Self Help Graphics

      08:39 A Serendipitous Journey from Music to Muralism

      20:57 From Chicago to California: A New Chapter in Art

      31:49 The Evolution and Impact of the Mural Movement

      41:10 Closing Thoughts: The Role of Art in Society

      Bio

      As a visual artist, I am dedicated to nurturing the development and production of an ongoing body of art that utilizes a variety of traditional mediums, materials, and techniques in combination with an experimental approach to contemporary technology and social issues. I seek to explore the application of space within an installation, painting, print or public environment that invites the interaction of the viewer with the elements of the composition; the spectator is to be engaged as an active participant and not a passive observer. The nature of my art is dependent upon the exploration and exportation of images, icons, symbols, and signs that have been contained within the continuity of creative expression in Mexican art from 3000 years ago until today. The essence of my iconography is traced from my personal pre-Columbian roots and it’s mixing with religious symbols of Spanish colonization, and compounded by the contradictory reality of “modernism” in Mexico and the United States. The content is inspired by the duality of history and social experience; the color palette inspired by the richness of the folk artists hand and the local regions natural landscapes. Reflecting upon my place of origin (Mexico) and its impact on the recent history of my experience in the United States, I probe the aesthetics of an artist that exists in two cultures bound by bi-national implications. I create a visual imagery that provokes definitions and questions that attempt to integrate the tentative everyday experience of human nature and its social implications with the cultural diversity of living on the border of two worlds that exist in the time of expanding globalization.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      db8473ec-9ec6-49c4-af3b-7e911ee8e5d8Wed, 24 Apr 2024 05:30:00 -070044:39truefull395953      94: Ash Hanson: Exclamation Points94: Ash Hanson: Exclamation PointsCan community theater help mend our broken and conflicted communities? In this episode Ash Hanson shares the story of what she and her many citizen collaborators have learned about how our place stories can help our communities not only heal but find new resilience and common ground.

      BIO

      Ash Hanson (she/her) has two decades of experience working with rural communities to activate stories, connect neighbors, and exercise collective imagination. She is the Creative Executive Officer (CEO) of Department of Public Transformation (DoPT) -- a nonprofit organizations that works at the intersection of creativity and civic life in rural communities. She is a member of the Center for Performance and Civic Practice Leadership Circle and she was an Artist-in-Residence in both the Planning Department at the City of Minneapolis and with the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, where she employed creative community engagement strategies for equitable participation in urban and rural planning and development processes. Previously, she was the Program Director for the Minnesota Theater Alliance—where she managed statewide regional networks and resource sharing—and the Program Director for Public Art Saint Paul—where she produced large-scale participatory public art events and projects, including the Saint Paul City Artist-in-Residence program. In addition to her work with DoPT, she is the founder of PlaceBase Productions, a theater company that creates original, site-specific musicals celebrating small-town life. She holds an MA in Applied Theater with a focus on Rural Community Development, and she was named an Obama Foundation Fellow and a Bush Fellow for her work with rural communities. She believes deeply in the power of play and exclamation points!

      To learn more about Department of Public Transformation visit www.publictransformation.org

      Notable Mentions

      Department of Public Transformation: We are an artist-led nonprofit organization that works to develop creative strategies for increased community connection, civic engagement, and equitable participation in rural places. We believe in the power of rural creativity in activating solutions to address community challenges.

      PlaceBase Productions: Some of America’s most inspiring stories are nestled in the communities of rural towns. PlaceBase Productions is using community theatre to bring these stories to life—and shift the narrative about what it means to live and work outside of big cities.

      Ignite Rural: Ignite Rural is an “at-home” artist residency operated by the Department of Public Transformation focused on uplifting and supporting emerging rural artists that engage in social/civic work. To be considered for the Ignite Rural program, artists must reside in rural communities with a population of 20,000 or less within the colonial state borders of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and the 23 Native Nations that share that geography with priority given to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and Native artists and culture bearers.

      Partnership Art. In 2015, SWMHP was one of six organizations that received funding through Artplace Amercia to participate in the Community Development Investments (CDI) Program. The CDI Program was launched to investigate and support place-based organization incorporating art and culture into our core work, allowing us to better fulfill our mission of creative thriving place to live, grow and work. The three-year journey with Artplace allowed our organization the opportunity to learn, share our journey, develop strong relationships and projects with the art and cultural sector, and better serve the communities of Southwest Minnesota. 

      Andrew Gaylord, Andrew Gaylord is a listener. If you ask him a question he’s more than likely to want to hear your answer than to give you his own. As one-half of PlaceBase productions he’s traveled across Minnesota collecting the stories of communities and spinning them into site-specific productions

      Sonia Kuftinek: Professor Kuftinec teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on Twin Cities theater, performance and social change, early modern theater and performance, critical literacy, storytelling, and drama. Her research includes community-based theater, conflict transformation, arts-based pedagogy, and the work of story to counter individual and historical amnesia. She has published widely in her areas of research including her award-winning "Staging America: Cornerstone and Community-Based Theater" and "Theatre, Facilitation and Nation Formation in the Balkans and Middle East" 

       Luverne Seifert: is Co-artistic director of Sod House Theater and has been acting professionally for over 30 years. He received a National Fox Fellowship for 2017, a Mcknight Fellowship for Theater Artists in 2003 and an Ivey Award in 2009 for his Performance as Phillip K Dick in 800 Words. He is currently a Senior Teaching Specialist in the Department of Theater Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota where he teaches beginning acting and physical performance. 

      SuperBloom: In May 2022, the Cuyama Valley was the stage for a community play about Cuyama, by Cuyamans, for Cuyamans. On this page you’ll find information about the cast, crew, and artists that made it happen, photos from the performance, as well as full-length videos and audio performances.

      En mayo de 2022, el valle de Cuyama fue el escenario de una obra de teatro comunitaria sobre Cuyama, por Cuyamans, para Cuyamans. En esta página encontrará información sobre el equipo y los artistas que lo hicieron posible, fotos de la actuación, así como videos completos y actuaciones de audio.

      Blue Sky Center: We are building models for resilient, thriving, and inclusive rural economies in the Cuyama Valley. As a place-based organization, our creative team prioritizes projects and collaborations that celebrate the abundance of Cuyama.

      Alex Barreto Hathaway earned his BA at the University of Minnesota under former Jeune Lune members and his thesis project exhibited Mask, Puppetry, and Street Theatre practices studied in Pernambuco, Brazil. Barreto Hathaway creates and performs with Twin Cities groups Open Eye, Exposed Brick, Red Bird, WLDRNSS (or Theatre Forever), Sod House, and Children’s Theatre, as well as touring summer performances in greater Minnesota. He is drawn to original work, mask and physical theatre, clown, stories that celebrate the Latinx experience, and productions that partner with local communities. 

      Citizen University: Citizen University’s mission is to build a culture of powerful, responsible citizenship across the country. We design gatherings, rituals, and workshops for people who are searching for new ways to strengthen civic culture in their hometown. In our programs, these civic catalysts explore ideas (like power + character = citizenship), pick up new tools, develop connections, and build a renewed sense of civic spirit. They’re sparking new ways of thinking about citizenship, deepening the resolve to take responsibility, and rekindling faith in our democracy and one another.

      social prescribing: In social prescribing, local agencies such as local charities, social care and health services refer people to a social prescribing link worker. Social prescribing link workers give people time, focusing on ‘what matters to me?’ to coproduce a simple personalised care and support plan, and support people to take control of their health and wellbeing. Social prescribing links people to a wide range of community groups and services. This may include creative]]>Can community theater help mend our broken and conflicted communities? In this episode Ash Hanson shares the story of what she and her many citizen collaborators have learned about how our place stories can help our communities not only heal but find new resilience and common ground.

      BIO

      Ash Hanson (she/her) has two decades of experience working with rural communities to activate stories, connect neighbors, and exercise collective imagination. She is the Creative Executive Officer (CEO) of Department of Public Transformation (DoPT) -- a nonprofit organizations that works at the intersection of creativity and civic life in rural communities. She is a member of the Center for Performance and Civic Practice Leadership Circle and she was an Artist-in-Residence in both the Planning Department at the City of Minneapolis and with the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, where she employed creative community engagement strategies for equitable participation in urban and rural planning and development processes. Previously, she was the Program Director for the Minnesota Theater Alliance—where she managed statewide regional networks and resource sharing—and the Program Director for Public Art Saint Paul—where she produced large-scale participatory public art events and projects, including the Saint Paul City Artist-in-Residence program. In addition to her work with DoPT, she is the founder of PlaceBase Productions, a theater company that creates original, site-specific musicals celebrating small-town life. She holds an MA in Applied Theater with a focus on Rural Community Development, and she was named an Obama Foundation Fellow and a Bush Fellow for her work with rural communities. She believes deeply in the power of play and exclamation points!

      To learn more about Department of Public Transformation visit www.publictransformation.org

      Notable Mentions

      Department of Public Transformation: We are an artist-led nonprofit organization that works to develop creative strategies for increased community connection, civic engagement, and equitable participation in rural places. We believe in the power of rural creativity in activating solutions to address community challenges.

      PlaceBase Productions: Some of America’s most inspiring stories are nestled in the communities of rural towns. PlaceBase Productions is using community theatre to bring these stories to life—and shift the narrative about what it means to live and work outside of big cities.

      Ignite Rural: Ignite Rural is an “at-home” artist residency operated by the Department of Public Transformation focused on uplifting and supporting emerging rural artists that engage in social/civic work. To be considered for the Ignite Rural program, artists must reside in rural communities with a population of 20,000 or less within the colonial state borders of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and the 23 Native Nations that share that geography with priority given to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and Native artists and culture bearers.

      Partnership Art. In 2015, SWMHP was one of six organizations that received funding through Artplace Amercia to participate in the Community Development Investments (CDI) Program. The CDI Program was launched to investigate and support place-based organization incorporating art and culture into our core work, allowing us to better fulfill our mission of creative thriving place to live, grow and work. The three-year journey with Artplace allowed our organization the opportunity to learn, share our journey, develop strong relationships and projects with the art and cultural sector, and better serve the communities of Southwest Minnesota. 

      Andrew Gaylord, Andrew Gaylord is a listener. If you ask him a question he’s more than likely to want to hear your answer than to give you his own. As one-half of PlaceBase productions he’s traveled across Minnesota collecting the stories of communities and spinning them into site-specific productions

      Sonia Kuftinek: Professor Kuftinec teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on Twin Cities theater, performance and social change, early modern theater and performance, critical literacy, storytelling, and drama. Her research includes community-based theater, conflict transformation, arts-based pedagogy, and the work of story to counter individual and historical amnesia. She has published widely in her areas of research including her award-winning "Staging America: Cornerstone and Community-Based Theater" and "Theatre, Facilitation and Nation Formation in the Balkans and Middle East" 

       Luverne Seifert: is Co-artistic director of Sod House Theater and has been acting professionally for over 30 years. He received a National Fox Fellowship for 2017, a Mcknight Fellowship for Theater Artists in 2003 and an Ivey Award in 2009 for his Performance as Phillip K Dick in 800 Words. He is currently a Senior Teaching Specialist in the Department of Theater Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota where he teaches beginning acting and physical performance. 

      SuperBloom: In May 2022, the Cuyama Valley was the stage for a community play about Cuyama, by Cuyamans, for Cuyamans. On this page you’ll find information about the cast, crew, and artists that made it happen, photos from the performance, as well as full-length videos and audio performances.

      En mayo de 2022, el valle de Cuyama fue el escenario de una obra de teatro comunitaria sobre Cuyama, por Cuyamans, para Cuyamans. En esta página encontrará información sobre el equipo y los artistas que lo hicieron posible, fotos de la actuación, así como videos completos y actuaciones de audio.

      Blue Sky Center: We are building models for resilient, thriving, and inclusive rural economies in the Cuyama Valley. As a place-based organization, our creative team prioritizes projects and collaborations that celebrate the abundance of Cuyama.

      Alex Barreto Hathaway earned his BA at the University of Minnesota under former Jeune Lune members and his thesis project exhibited Mask, Puppetry, and Street Theatre practices studied in Pernambuco, Brazil. Barreto Hathaway creates and performs with Twin Cities groups Open Eye, Exposed Brick, Red Bird, WLDRNSS (or Theatre Forever), Sod House, and Children’s Theatre, as well as touring summer performances in greater Minnesota. He is drawn to original work, mask and physical theatre, clown, stories that celebrate the Latinx experience, and productions that partner with local communities. 

      Citizen University: Citizen University’s mission is to build a culture of powerful, responsible citizenship across the country. We design gatherings, rituals, and workshops for people who are searching for new ways to strengthen civic culture in their hometown. In our programs, these civic catalysts explore ideas (like power + character = citizenship), pick up new tools, develop connections, and build a renewed sense of civic spirit. They’re sparking new ways of thinking about citizenship, deepening the resolve to take responsibility, and rekindling faith in our democracy and one another.

      social prescribing: In social prescribing, local agencies such as local charities, social care and health services refer people to a social prescribing link worker. Social prescribing link workers give people time, focusing on ‘what matters to me?’ to coproduce a simple personalised care and support plan, and support people to take control of their health and wellbeing. Social prescribing links people to a wide range of community groups and services. This may include creative activities such as art, dance, and singing or other activities such as knitting, cooking or sports, for social support and to improve wellbeing.

       (Change the Story / Change the World Episode (# 88) – Arts on Prescriptions. Social Prescribing and the Arts.

      Tasha Golden: Is an international speaker, trainer, and consultant; a career singer/songwriter; and a PhD health scientist. As an expert in arts and health, I leverage my background as both a performer and health scientist to help leaders and organizations think bigger and ignite change.

      Jill Sonke PhD, is the research director in the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida, the director of national research and impact for the One Nation/One Project initiative, and a codirector of the EpiArts Lab. She has written dozens of articles on the benefits of the arts and serves as a consulting editor for the Health Promotion Practice journal.

      Arts On Prescription, A Field Guide for U.S. Communities: offers a roadmap for communities to develop programs that formally integrate arts, culture, and nature resources into local health and social care systems.

       

       

       

      ]]>d14ed025-028b-4ab0-90e0-36dc80d59805Wed, 10 Apr 2024 05:30:00 -070051:26truefull394943      93: The Griot in the Prison Yard: Provoking Community Healing Through Story93: The Griot in the Prison Yard: Provoking Community Healing Through StoryMichael McCarty in my prison workshops, they say. “Storytelling, you're going to show us how to tell the Three Little Pigs?” I say, “Every living person has at least one story they need to tell. And (telling) that story will help them in their relationship with the people around them, and the world, and more importantly, with themselves.

      BIO

      Michael McCarty: Mother always told me stories. I began telling stories formally when I was in high school in Chicago (St. Ignatius) in the 60’s, stories of Africa and the struggles of African-Americans for freedom. In 1992 I met Joel ben Izzy from Berkeley, CA who was introduced to me as a professional storyteller. “You mean to tell me that people pay you to tell stories!?” I asked. I picked his brain and vowed that I was going to become a professional teller too, and my motto would be “Have mouth. Will run it.” A week or so later I asked myself what would I do as a profession if I was independently wealthy. Tell stories, was my answer.

      So I went to my local library and began collecting folk tales from different countries and reading books about storytelling. One day the Young Adult Librarian asked me why I was getting so many books of folk tales and asked if I was writing a paper. When I told him that I was a storyteller he said that he had a group of teenagers that wanted to learn storytelling. Could I give them a workshop? I said sure. The workshop was a success. Thus began my career. And I’ve been running my mouth around the country and around the world ever since.

      In 1996 I initiated the GRIOT Workshop in Leimert Park in Los Angeles. This is a place where anyone can come and get assistance in developing their storytelling skills. From 2004 until 2008 I was the Pacific Region Representative for the National Storytelling Network (NSN) Board of Directories.

      My life has been one heaven of a story: Student activist, Black Panther, US Army martial arts instructor, acupuncturist, world traveler, spiritual seeker, construction worker, storyteller, husband, father, crazy friend. Never a dull moment! I LOVE my life;-)

      Notable Mentions

      High John the Conqueror: John the Conqueror, also known as High John de Conqueror, John, Jack, and many other folk variants, is a folk hero from African-American folklore. He is associated with the roots of Ipomoea purga, the John the Conqueror root or John the Conqueroo, to which magical powers are ascribed in African-American folklore, especially among the Hoodoo tradition of folk magic.[

      Have mouth will run it: Michael D. McCarty’s web site

      Black Panther Party: Founded in 1966 in Oakland, California the Black Panther Party for Self Defense was the era’s most influential militant black power organization.  Its members confronted politicians challenged the police and protected black citizens from brutality. The party’s community service programs - called “survival programs” - provided food clothing and transportation. Rather than integrating American society members wanted to change it fundamentally. For them black power was a global revolution.

      Fred Hampton: Fredrick "Chairman Fred" Allen Hampton Sr. (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969) was an American activist. He came to prominence in his late teens and very early 20s in Chicago as deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party and chair of the Illinois chapter. 

      Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education: The Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education (CAJE), founded as the Coalition for Alternatives in Jewish Education, was a non-profit organization based in New York City. Its activities included an annual conference that drew ~2000 Jewish educators,[1][2] advocacy for Jewish educators, various education-related publications, and more. Its founding was the brainchild of Jerry Benjamin and Cherie Koller-Fox.[3]

      Joel Ben Izzy: It was back in 1983 that I graduated from Stanford with a self-designed degree in English, Creative Writing and Storytelling, and set off to travel the world, gathering and telling stories. Since then I have told stories and taught storytelling in some 36 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

      Peninnah Schram: In 1970 Peninnah Schram started recording books for the blind at the Jewish Braille Institute. That experience inspired her to begin to teach Jewish storytelling as a separate subject, and in 1974 she taught her first course on Jewish storytelling. The year 1974 heralded several other groundbreaking projects: She became “storyteller-in-residence” at The Jewish Museum, and she recorded three record albums and broadcast two storytelling series on radio. Some of this recorded material is now in the National Jewish Archive of Broadcasting.  

      Karen Golden: Karen is currently a teaching artist with the Los Angeles County Arts Commission (LAartsed.org) and the founding director of Creative Learning Place (creativelearningplace.com), an academic and arts center for home-schooled children. She is also an international touring artist with the Buenos Aires based company DreamOn Productions and she has brought her storytelling to 1000's of students in international schools in China, S. Korea, Hong Kong, and Peru. In 2020 she will be telling stories in Argentina and Columbia. 

      Kathleen Zundel: ONCE UPON A TIME...there was a storyteller named Kathleen Zundell whotraveled far and wide telling stories of fearless kids, feisty women, family foibles, and four-footed creatures. Her repertoire celebrated many cultures,stories with American Sign Language, and tales of the earth. 

      Pasadena storytellers (Community Storytellers): Community Storytellers is a storyswap group that was formed in 1981 by two special women named Peggy Prentice and Kathleen Zundell. Peggy and Kathleen are no longer with us but they left a wonderful format for bringing people together.

      Leslie Perry : It was an article of faith with this great “Story Man,” the title of his first book. Note he didn’t just refer to himself as a “storyteller,” but as a “story man;” it defined his entire being—not just the act of telling, but the act of being itself. It was who he was, not just what he did. More than any one I know, he became the story when he told it—he was just the vessel for the tale. (from Folkworks, in Memoriam)

      PF Sloan: P. F. Sloan, was an American singer and songwriter. During the mid-1960s, he wrote, performed, and produced...]]>Michael McCarty in my prison workshops, they say. “Storytelling, you're going to show us how to tell the Three Little Pigs?” I say, “Every living person has at least one story they need to tell. And (telling) that story will help them in their relationship with the people around them, and the world, and more importantly, with themselves.

      BIO

      Michael McCarty: Mother always told me stories. I began telling stories formally when I was in high school in Chicago (St. Ignatius) in the 60’s, stories of Africa and the struggles of African-Americans for freedom. In 1992 I met Joel ben Izzy from Berkeley, CA who was introduced to me as a professional storyteller. “You mean to tell me that people pay you to tell stories!?” I asked. I picked his brain and vowed that I was going to become a professional teller too, and my motto would be “Have mouth. Will run it.” A week or so later I asked myself what would I do as a profession if I was independently wealthy. Tell stories, was my answer.

      So I went to my local library and began collecting folk tales from different countries and reading books about storytelling. One day the Young Adult Librarian asked me why I was getting so many books of folk tales and asked if I was writing a paper. When I told him that I was a storyteller he said that he had a group of teenagers that wanted to learn storytelling. Could I give them a workshop? I said sure. The workshop was a success. Thus began my career. And I’ve been running my mouth around the country and around the world ever since.

      In 1996 I initiated the GRIOT Workshop in Leimert Park in Los Angeles. This is a place where anyone can come and get assistance in developing their storytelling skills. From 2004 until 2008 I was the Pacific Region Representative for the National Storytelling Network (NSN) Board of Directories.

      My life has been one heaven of a story: Student activist, Black Panther, US Army martial arts instructor, acupuncturist, world traveler, spiritual seeker, construction worker, storyteller, husband, father, crazy friend. Never a dull moment! I LOVE my life;-)

      Notable Mentions

      High John the Conqueror: John the Conqueror, also known as High John de Conqueror, John, Jack, and many other folk variants, is a folk hero from African-American folklore. He is associated with the roots of Ipomoea purga, the John the Conqueror root or John the Conqueroo, to which magical powers are ascribed in African-American folklore, especially among the Hoodoo tradition of folk magic.[

      Have mouth will run it: Michael D. McCarty’s web site

      Black Panther Party: Founded in 1966 in Oakland, California the Black Panther Party for Self Defense was the era’s most influential militant black power organization.  Its members confronted politicians challenged the police and protected black citizens from brutality. The party’s community service programs - called “survival programs” - provided food clothing and transportation. Rather than integrating American society members wanted to change it fundamentally. For them black power was a global revolution.

      Fred Hampton: Fredrick "Chairman Fred" Allen Hampton Sr. (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969) was an American activist. He came to prominence in his late teens and very early 20s in Chicago as deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party and chair of the Illinois chapter. 

      Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education: The Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education (CAJE), founded as the Coalition for Alternatives in Jewish Education, was a non-profit organization based in New York City. Its activities included an annual conference that drew ~2000 Jewish educators,[1][2] advocacy for Jewish educators, various education-related publications, and more. Its founding was the brainchild of Jerry Benjamin and Cherie Koller-Fox.[3]

      Joel Ben Izzy: It was back in 1983 that I graduated from Stanford with a self-designed degree in English, Creative Writing and Storytelling, and set off to travel the world, gathering and telling stories. Since then I have told stories and taught storytelling in some 36 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

      Peninnah Schram: In 1970 Peninnah Schram started recording books for the blind at the Jewish Braille Institute. That experience inspired her to begin to teach Jewish storytelling as a separate subject, and in 1974 she taught her first course on Jewish storytelling. The year 1974 heralded several other groundbreaking projects: She became “storyteller-in-residence” at The Jewish Museum, and she recorded three record albums and broadcast two storytelling series on radio. Some of this recorded material is now in the National Jewish Archive of Broadcasting.  

      Karen Golden: Karen is currently a teaching artist with the Los Angeles County Arts Commission (LAartsed.org) and the founding director of Creative Learning Place (creativelearningplace.com), an academic and arts center for home-schooled children. She is also an international touring artist with the Buenos Aires based company DreamOn Productions and she has brought her storytelling to 1000's of students in international schools in China, S. Korea, Hong Kong, and Peru. In 2020 she will be telling stories in Argentina and Columbia. 

      Kathleen Zundel: ONCE UPON A TIME...there was a storyteller named Kathleen Zundell whotraveled far and wide telling stories of fearless kids, feisty women, family foibles, and four-footed creatures. Her repertoire celebrated many cultures,stories with American Sign Language, and tales of the earth. 

      Pasadena storytellers (Community Storytellers): Community Storytellers is a storyswap group that was formed in 1981 by two special women named Peggy Prentice and Kathleen Zundell. Peggy and Kathleen are no longer with us but they left a wonderful format for bringing people together.

      Leslie Perry : It was an article of faith with this great “Story Man,” the title of his first book. Note he didn’t just refer to himself as a “storyteller,” but as a “story man;” it defined his entire being—not just the act of telling, but the act of being itself. It was who he was, not just what he did. More than any one I know, he became the story when he told it—he was just the vessel for the tale. (from Folkworks, in Memoriam)

      PF Sloan: P. F. Sloan, was an American singer and songwriter. During the mid-1960s, he wrote, performed, and produced many Billboard Top 20 hits for artists such as Barry McGuire, the Searchers, Jan and Dean, Herman's Hermits, Johnny Rivers, the Grass Roots, the Turtles, and the Mamas and the Papas.[2]

      Arts in Corrections: Administered by the California Arts Council in partnership with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, California's Arts in Corrections program is internationally recognized for its high-impact, innovative approach to addressing the state's critical public safety needs and rehabilitative priorities through the arts. 

      LA Dream Shapers: Our mission is to connect quality performing artists with children’s and family shows to elementary schools, libraries, preschools, cities, community organizations and families.  Dream Shapers has provided over 150,000 professional and highly acclaimed performing arts programs over the past 35 years .  

      NFL Live: A popular football focused sports talk show on ESPN

      The Monkey, and the Crocodile: A Jtaka tale with the moral that a wise enemy is better than a foolish friend.

      Jataka tale: The Jātaka (meaning "Birth Story," "related to a birth") are a voluminous body of literature native to the Indian subcontinent which mainly concern the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. Jataka stories were depicted on the railings and torans of the stupas. [1][2] According to Peter Skilling, this genre is "one of the oldest classes of Buddhist literature."[3] Some of these texts are also considered great works of literature in their own right.[4]

      The Story Factor by Annette Simmons: Over one hundred stories drawn from the front lines of business and government, as well as myths, fables, and parables from around the world, illustrate how story can be used to persuade, motivate, and inspire in ways that cold facts, bullet points, and directives can’t. These stories, combined with practical storytelling techniques show anyone how to become a more effective communicator. From “who I am” to “I-know-what-you’re thinking,” Simmons identifies the six stories you need to know how to tell and demonstrates how they can be applied.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>5d0fb051-ce12-4bec-b147-1a7057f77fceWed, 27 Mar 2024 05:45:00 -070054:43truefull393933      92: How Robert Farid Karimi Uses Food & Comedy as a Cultural Strategy for Social Change92: How Robert Farid Karimi Uses Food & Comedy as a Cultural Strategy for Social ChangeRobert Farid Karimi

      The "inbetween" is often ignored. It is also the juicy territory that this week’s guest, comedian, chef, poet, educator, and activist Robert Farid Karimi has been investigating over the last couple of decades. like many of our guests Robert, who is also known as Mero Cocinero, Farid Mercury, the Peoples Chef, and even in some quarters, Betty Crocker's radical heir apparent, Robert is not easily pegged. In the conversation that follows we explore some of the stories, ideas, and questions that animate his work. How can humor become a bridge in a conflict-ridden community? What is the role of the fool and gossip in the post truth era? What can community organizers learn from Mel Brooks and Cheech and Chong. Along the way we hear great stories and have a little fun.

      Delicious Quotes

      I feel for people who feel that they themselves are bridges because this, it's not easy work to hold, two sides of earth so that others can cross. A lot of times people they're not appreciating everything it took to keep everybody up.

      …we say in Spanish, "chesme", gossip. And talking about how immigrants, how we transmit the information, especially when you come from cultures, where the official news is being controlled like Iran and Guatemala, like gossip is powerful. Chesme is powerful. So, I became this bridge by valuing the words of others as truth,

      Humor to me was never about insulting or bringing others down. Humor for me was always, "How can you lift up the room? We've had a bad day. Why you gotta be a downer?" And I think growing up, that's why I valued it so much. That's why it became part of my toolkit.

      They brought me in to General Mills, …and had me cooking where the Betty Crocker kitchen ladies cook. They stayed. The women who had worked all day stayed because they wanted to have a good time and laugh. My mother still says that's my best gig I've ever had cause I'm at the home of freaking Betty Crocker.

      I changed Acting One so that it would incorporate play. I want them to start seeing their bodies as this thing, that's taking it all in and that they are not just actors. They are not just performers they are in the in-between. They are storytellers. And to make these stories, they need to understand their relationship to the system of life. And the final of the classes, they get to make fun of the class. They get to use all the skills to make fun of anything I've done, because the rationale is for me, humor is a great way to show that because you got to know what you know, to make fun of it.

      I couldn't just walk into a community and go, “I'm going to save you all because I'm a person of color. Who's funny.” No. I had to go back to the kid that was listening, ...to the folks in the community. ..Then I could see how I could be of service.

      Notable Mentions

      Mero Cocinero, Farid Mercury, the Peoples Chef: Just three of Mr. Karimi's many alter egos.

      Change the Story / Change the World: This podcast, a Chronicle of Art & Community Transformation

      Afrika Bambaataa: Lance Taylor (born in April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (/ˌæfrɪkə bæmˈbɑːtə/),[2][3] is an American DJ, rapper, and producer from the South Bronx, New York.[4][3] He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of hip hop culture.[5] Afrika Bambaataa is one of the originators of breakbeat DJing.[1

      Out North :Out North advances contemporary art in Anchorage supports underrepresented voices, and promotes cultural dialogue.

      House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday[WC1] . [WC1]House Made of Dawn is a 1968 novel by N. Scott Momaday, widely credited as leading the way for the breakthrough of Native American literature into the mainstream. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969, and has also been noted for its significance in Native American anthropology.[2]

      Galleria de la Raza: Founded in 1970, Galería de la Raza | Studio 24 is a non-profit dedicated to promoting Xicanx/Latinx art and culture. Our "creative place keeping" ethos is rooted in social inclusion and justice, where community arts are central to navigating the complex intersection of urban development, social inequality, affordable housing, and the historical-cultural legacies of communities of color.

      Cornerstone.Theater: Cornerstone Theater Company collaborates with communities. Our work reflects complexity, disrupts assumptions, welcomes difference, and amplifies joy. We aim to advance a more compassionate, equitable, and just world.

      "rasquache.": Rasquache is a term of Mesoamerican Nahuatl origin which initially had a negative connotation in Mexico as being an attitude that was lower class, impoverished and having bad taste. This definition was later redefined by Mexican and Chicano art movement, Rasquachismo, transforming social and economic instabilities into a style and a positive creative attitude.

      Creative Capital:Creative Capital is a nonprofit organization that has awarded more than $50 million to artists for the creation of groundbreaking new work in the visual arts, performing arts, literature, film, technology, and multidisciplinary practices, including socially-engaged work in all forms. We also provide professional development programs, networking opportunities, and educational resources for arts communities around the world.

      Diabetes of Democracy: Awarded the 2011 Arts and Humanities Seed Grant funded jointly by the Institute for Humanities Research  and the Herberger Institute Research Center in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts Diabetes for Democracy in South Phoenix examines the efficacy of the arts—specifically theatrical performance—in changing the dietary attitudes and behaviors of young people at higher risk for chronic diseases like diabetes.

      Suzanne Lacy: Suzanne Lacy is renowned as a pioneer in socially engaged and public performance art. Her installations, videos, and performances deal with sexual violence, rural and urban poverty, incarceration, labor and aging. Lacy’s large-scale projects span the]]>Robert Farid Karimi

      The "inbetween" is often ignored. It is also the juicy territory that this week’s guest, comedian, chef, poet, educator, and activist Robert Farid Karimi has been investigating over the last couple of decades. like many of our guests Robert, who is also known as Mero Cocinero, Farid Mercury, the Peoples Chef, and even in some quarters, Betty Crocker's radical heir apparent, Robert is not easily pegged. In the conversation that follows we explore some of the stories, ideas, and questions that animate his work. How can humor become a bridge in a conflict-ridden community? What is the role of the fool and gossip in the post truth era? What can community organizers learn from Mel Brooks and Cheech and Chong. Along the way we hear great stories and have a little fun.

      Delicious Quotes

      I feel for people who feel that they themselves are bridges because this, it's not easy work to hold, two sides of earth so that others can cross. A lot of times people they're not appreciating everything it took to keep everybody up.

      …we say in Spanish, "chesme", gossip. And talking about how immigrants, how we transmit the information, especially when you come from cultures, where the official news is being controlled like Iran and Guatemala, like gossip is powerful. Chesme is powerful. So, I became this bridge by valuing the words of others as truth,

      Humor to me was never about insulting or bringing others down. Humor for me was always, "How can you lift up the room? We've had a bad day. Why you gotta be a downer?" And I think growing up, that's why I valued it so much. That's why it became part of my toolkit.

      They brought me in to General Mills, …and had me cooking where the Betty Crocker kitchen ladies cook. They stayed. The women who had worked all day stayed because they wanted to have a good time and laugh. My mother still says that's my best gig I've ever had cause I'm at the home of freaking Betty Crocker.

      I changed Acting One so that it would incorporate play. I want them to start seeing their bodies as this thing, that's taking it all in and that they are not just actors. They are not just performers they are in the in-between. They are storytellers. And to make these stories, they need to understand their relationship to the system of life. And the final of the classes, they get to make fun of the class. They get to use all the skills to make fun of anything I've done, because the rationale is for me, humor is a great way to show that because you got to know what you know, to make fun of it.

      I couldn't just walk into a community and go, “I'm going to save you all because I'm a person of color. Who's funny.” No. I had to go back to the kid that was listening, ...to the folks in the community. ..Then I could see how I could be of service.

      Notable Mentions

      Mero Cocinero, Farid Mercury, the Peoples Chef: Just three of Mr. Karimi's many alter egos.

      Change the Story / Change the World: This podcast, a Chronicle of Art & Community Transformation

      Afrika Bambaataa: Lance Taylor (born in April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (/ˌæfrɪkə bæmˈbɑːtə/),[2][3] is an American DJ, rapper, and producer from the South Bronx, New York.[4][3] He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of hip hop culture.[5] Afrika Bambaataa is one of the originators of breakbeat DJing.[1

      Out North :Out North advances contemporary art in Anchorage supports underrepresented voices, and promotes cultural dialogue.

      House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday[WC1] . [WC1]House Made of Dawn is a 1968 novel by N. Scott Momaday, widely credited as leading the way for the breakthrough of Native American literature into the mainstream. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969, and has also been noted for its significance in Native American anthropology.[2]

      Galleria de la Raza: Founded in 1970, Galería de la Raza | Studio 24 is a non-profit dedicated to promoting Xicanx/Latinx art and culture. Our "creative place keeping" ethos is rooted in social inclusion and justice, where community arts are central to navigating the complex intersection of urban development, social inequality, affordable housing, and the historical-cultural legacies of communities of color.

      Cornerstone.Theater: Cornerstone Theater Company collaborates with communities. Our work reflects complexity, disrupts assumptions, welcomes difference, and amplifies joy. We aim to advance a more compassionate, equitable, and just world.

      "rasquache.": Rasquache is a term of Mesoamerican Nahuatl origin which initially had a negative connotation in Mexico as being an attitude that was lower class, impoverished and having bad taste. This definition was later redefined by Mexican and Chicano art movement, Rasquachismo, transforming social and economic instabilities into a style and a positive creative attitude.

      Creative Capital:Creative Capital is a nonprofit organization that has awarded more than $50 million to artists for the creation of groundbreaking new work in the visual arts, performing arts, literature, film, technology, and multidisciplinary practices, including socially-engaged work in all forms. We also provide professional development programs, networking opportunities, and educational resources for arts communities around the world.

      Diabetes of Democracy: Awarded the 2011 Arts and Humanities Seed Grant funded jointly by the Institute for Humanities Research  and the Herberger Institute Research Center in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts Diabetes for Democracy in South Phoenix examines the efficacy of the arts—specifically theatrical performance—in changing the dietary attitudes and behaviors of young people at higher risk for chronic diseases like diabetes.

      Suzanne Lacy: Suzanne Lacy is renowned as a pioneer in socially engaged and public performance art. Her installations, videos, and performances deal with sexual violence, rural and urban poverty, incarceration, labor and aging. Lacy’s large-scale projects span the globe, including England, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Ireland and the U.S. 

      Comic Relief[WC1] , [WC1]Comic Relief is a major charity based in the UK, with a vision of a just world, free from poverty.The organization's mission is to drive positive change through the power of entertainment.

      Up in Smoke: Up in Smoke is a 1978 American buddy stoner comedy film directed by Lou Adler and starring Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Edie Adams, Strother Martin, Stacy Keach, and Tom Skerritt. It is Cheech & Chong's first feature-length film. While negatively received upon its release, Up in Smoke grossed over $104 million, is credited with establishing the stoner film genre, and is now considered a cult classic.

       Innovation Labs: Through keynotes, articles, workshops, seminars, and projects, we provide comprehensive insight into opportunities and challenges for companies and organizations in relation to new technologies, organizational development, innovation formats, and future business

      Bridges Translations and Change: Art as Infrastructure in 21st Century America.: (1992) The essay was presented as a plea to America’s cultural community to get off the sidelines and join the fray. Atthattime,I(along with many others) asserted that what some were calling a “new world order” was in fact anew world condition--- that the recent spate of tumultuous events was not an unusual spike on the Richter scale of human affairs, but rather, a natural symptom of a globe that was in a perpetual state of accelerating change

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>1dd18281-1709-4de4-bf1b-2dad3be46263Wed, 13 Mar 2024 03:45:00 -070053:44truefull392923Robert Farid Karimi is not easily pegged. In our conversation we explore some of the stories, ideas, and questions that animate his work. How can humor become a bridge in a conflict-ridden community? What is the role of the fool and gossip in the post truth era? What can community organizers learn from Mel Brooks and Cheech and Chong.      91: How Salty Xi Jie Ng Uses Humor, Bunions, and Grandmas to Drive Art and Social Change - Part 291: How Salty Xi Jie Ng Uses Humor, Bunions, and Grandmas to Drive Art and Social Change - Part 2In this episode we continue down the path of the provocative and unexpected with Salty Xi Jie Ng. Along the way we will encounter the secret lives of art gallery security staff, a cooking show called Microwave Magic, bunion fetishes, and a very funny group of incarcerated artists. 

      BE SURE TO LISTEN TO EPISODE 36 - CITIZEN SCHOLAR OF THE COSMOS - ACT 1

      BIO

      Salty Xi Jie Ng co-creates semi-fictional paradigms for the real and imagined lives of humans within the poetics of the intimate vernacular. Often playing with relational possibilities, her interdisciplinary work is manifested from fantasy scores for the present and future that propose a collective re-imagining through humor, care, subversion, play, discomfort, a celebration of the eccentric, and a commitment to the deeply personal. Her practice dances across forms such as brief encounter, collaborative space, variety show, poem, conversation, meal, publication, film, performance.

      As a citizen scholar of the cosmos, Xi Jie explores aging, intimacy, food, lineage, identity, ritual and power, while questioning who artists are and what gets to be called art. Her research of everyday as performance bears fruit as tender presentations somewhere between art and life. Centering the body and its histories, she constructs portrayals of self and space that are ambiguous, raw, dream-like, absurd, mundane. At heart she is a cosmic clown, floating at the intersections of wonder and melancholy, existential meditation and devotional nonsense.

      Notable Mentions

      Grandma Reporter: We are a space for intimate exchange about: style, isolation, and adventure; aging bodies, wrinkles, bunions, caregiving, and death; considering the struggles of growing old in a young, technology-focused world; swimming as a magical way to keep fit in spite of on-land mobility challenges; food, genes, and other things passed through generations; lost loves, longings, and sex that evolves with age. Presenting perspectives that are tender, poignant, moving and humorous, we are energetically connecting our contributors, collaborators, and readers in a senior women’s culture movement.

      Salty Xi Jie Ng: The Cosmos Wait for You: Salty’s web site.

      The Inside Show: is a variety show produced at Columbia River Creative Initiatives, an artist-led creative platform in Columbia River Correctional Institution, a minimum security prison in Portland, Oregon. The show is produced in prison, where inmates take on roles of host, performer, writer, and cameraperson. This robust collaboration of eccentric possibilities challenges perceptions of incarcerated individuals and what happens ‘on the inside’. The show’s content includes Microwave Magic— a cooking segment where inmates showcase genius ways of making gourmet meals with minimal ingredients and a microwave; comedy sketches; a goofy sports roundtable; art segments; poignant discussions; braiding demos; musical acts and more.

      Change the Story / Change the World: A chronicle of art and community transformation.

      Bunion2Bunion: An artistic inquiry into our relationships with our bodies,

      ​inheritance, beauty, ugliness, defect measurement and DIY self-healing

      Walker Art Center: Walker Art Center presents contemporary visual arts and design exhibitions; dance, theater, and music performances; and film screenings. 

      University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, College of Visual and Performing Art. Galleries: CVPA, the College of Visual and Performing Arts, is a comprehensive college for art, design, and music—with bachelor's and master's programs that prepare students for careers in the arts and beyond. 

      Bill Seaman,: Seaman’s artworks often investigate a media-oriented poetics through various technological means – Recombinant Poetics.

      Golumpki’s are Polish cabbage rolls stuffed with a mixture of beef, pork, rice, and seasoning.

      Arts in Corrections Program in California: Arts in Corrections Program in California: Arts in Corrections is a partnership between the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the California Arts Council designed to have a positive impact on the social and emotional well-being of people experiencing incarceration, promoting healing and interpersonal transformation both inside and outside of the boundaries of their institutions.

      Columbia River Correctional Institution, Creative Initiatives: Columbia River Creative Initiatives is a series of artist run programs and classes held at the Columbia River Correctional Institution, a minimum security prison in Northeast Portland, Oregon.

      Open Signal: a media arts organization in Portland that is also on YouTube.

      Portland State University Art and Social Practice MFA Program: PSU’s Art and Social Practice MFA defines what it means to be an artist in society. In our three-year, flexible-residency program, you’ll combine individual research, group work, and experiential learning to find new ways to engage with your art and the community. Our program’s blend of critical and professional practice, progressive pedagogy, collaborative social engagement, and transdisciplinary exploration produces an immersive educational experience.

      Greek houses where the first floor is complete and the second unbuilt: Go to 5th answer down on page with the number 11 next to it.

      CS/CW EP: 4, Beth Thielen: Bookmakers at San Quentin. Not surprising, given "Q's" clientele. But no, we're talking about real books with real pages that are awe-inspiring works of art.

      CS/CW EP: 34, Henry Frank: Henry Frank was rotting in prison alone with no escape. Then, everything changed. In our conversation we talk about the heavy lift of imagining a different future, becoming an artist, discovering true friendship, and embracing his Yurok and Pomo cultures.

      Blood Tide, Eli Nixon: I’m working on “Bloodtide” a proposal for a new holiday in homage to horseshoe crabs. This proposal is accompanied by a manual for enacting the holiday in a multitude of horizontalist forms including: pageant, parade, feast, reparations and land return contributions, habitat restoration, tick checks, naturedrag, karaoke (altered lyrics)…and includes an illustrated field guide to quagmires and grapplings toward enacting primordially informed futures. 

      Organic Music Society. Published by : Avant-garde jazz trumpeter Don Cherry and textile artist Moki Cherry (née Karlsson) met in Sweden in the late sixties. They began to live and perform together, dubbing their mix of communal art, social and environmentalist activism, children’s education, and pan-ethnic expression “Organic Music.” Organic Music Societies, Blank Forms’ sixth anthology, is a special issue released in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name devoted to the couple’s multimedia collaborations.

      Stimming Dreaming: Stimming, Dreaming is an intimate presentation about stimming and other coping mechanisms that people with different needs resort to, to assist them in stimuli that may be different or difficult to process. Stimming, usually used by those who are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), involves repetitive or rigid actions that may appear...]]>In this episode we continue down the path of the provocative and unexpected with Salty Xi Jie Ng. Along the way we will encounter the secret lives of art gallery security staff, a cooking show called Microwave Magic, bunion fetishes, and a very funny group of incarcerated artists. 

      BE SURE TO LISTEN TO EPISODE 36 - CITIZEN SCHOLAR OF THE COSMOS - ACT 1

      BIO

      Salty Xi Jie Ng co-creates semi-fictional paradigms for the real and imagined lives of humans within the poetics of the intimate vernacular. Often playing with relational possibilities, her interdisciplinary work is manifested from fantasy scores for the present and future that propose a collective re-imagining through humor, care, subversion, play, discomfort, a celebration of the eccentric, and a commitment to the deeply personal. Her practice dances across forms such as brief encounter, collaborative space, variety show, poem, conversation, meal, publication, film, performance.

      As a citizen scholar of the cosmos, Xi Jie explores aging, intimacy, food, lineage, identity, ritual and power, while questioning who artists are and what gets to be called art. Her research of everyday as performance bears fruit as tender presentations somewhere between art and life. Centering the body and its histories, she constructs portrayals of self and space that are ambiguous, raw, dream-like, absurd, mundane. At heart she is a cosmic clown, floating at the intersections of wonder and melancholy, existential meditation and devotional nonsense.

      Notable Mentions

      Grandma Reporter: We are a space for intimate exchange about: style, isolation, and adventure; aging bodies, wrinkles, bunions, caregiving, and death; considering the struggles of growing old in a young, technology-focused world; swimming as a magical way to keep fit in spite of on-land mobility challenges; food, genes, and other things passed through generations; lost loves, longings, and sex that evolves with age. Presenting perspectives that are tender, poignant, moving and humorous, we are energetically connecting our contributors, collaborators, and readers in a senior women’s culture movement.

      Salty Xi Jie Ng: The Cosmos Wait for You: Salty’s web site.

      The Inside Show: is a variety show produced at Columbia River Creative Initiatives, an artist-led creative platform in Columbia River Correctional Institution, a minimum security prison in Portland, Oregon. The show is produced in prison, where inmates take on roles of host, performer, writer, and cameraperson. This robust collaboration of eccentric possibilities challenges perceptions of incarcerated individuals and what happens ‘on the inside’. The show’s content includes Microwave Magic— a cooking segment where inmates showcase genius ways of making gourmet meals with minimal ingredients and a microwave; comedy sketches; a goofy sports roundtable; art segments; poignant discussions; braiding demos; musical acts and more.

      Change the Story / Change the World: A chronicle of art and community transformation.

      Bunion2Bunion: An artistic inquiry into our relationships with our bodies,

      ​inheritance, beauty, ugliness, defect measurement and DIY self-healing

      Walker Art Center: Walker Art Center presents contemporary visual arts and design exhibitions; dance, theater, and music performances; and film screenings. 

      University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, College of Visual and Performing Art. Galleries: CVPA, the College of Visual and Performing Arts, is a comprehensive college for art, design, and music—with bachelor's and master's programs that prepare students for careers in the arts and beyond. 

      Bill Seaman,: Seaman’s artworks often investigate a media-oriented poetics through various technological means – Recombinant Poetics.

      Golumpki’s are Polish cabbage rolls stuffed with a mixture of beef, pork, rice, and seasoning.

      Arts in Corrections Program in California: Arts in Corrections Program in California: Arts in Corrections is a partnership between the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the California Arts Council designed to have a positive impact on the social and emotional well-being of people experiencing incarceration, promoting healing and interpersonal transformation both inside and outside of the boundaries of their institutions.

      Columbia River Correctional Institution, Creative Initiatives: Columbia River Creative Initiatives is a series of artist run programs and classes held at the Columbia River Correctional Institution, a minimum security prison in Northeast Portland, Oregon.

      Open Signal: a media arts organization in Portland that is also on YouTube.

      Portland State University Art and Social Practice MFA Program: PSU’s Art and Social Practice MFA defines what it means to be an artist in society. In our three-year, flexible-residency program, you’ll combine individual research, group work, and experiential learning to find new ways to engage with your art and the community. Our program’s blend of critical and professional practice, progressive pedagogy, collaborative social engagement, and transdisciplinary exploration produces an immersive educational experience.

      Greek houses where the first floor is complete and the second unbuilt: Go to 5th answer down on page with the number 11 next to it.

      CS/CW EP: 4, Beth Thielen: Bookmakers at San Quentin. Not surprising, given "Q's" clientele. But no, we're talking about real books with real pages that are awe-inspiring works of art.

      CS/CW EP: 34, Henry Frank: Henry Frank was rotting in prison alone with no escape. Then, everything changed. In our conversation we talk about the heavy lift of imagining a different future, becoming an artist, discovering true friendship, and embracing his Yurok and Pomo cultures.

      Blood Tide, Eli Nixon: I’m working on “Bloodtide” a proposal for a new holiday in homage to horseshoe crabs. This proposal is accompanied by a manual for enacting the holiday in a multitude of horizontalist forms including: pageant, parade, feast, reparations and land return contributions, habitat restoration, tick checks, naturedrag, karaoke (altered lyrics)…and includes an illustrated field guide to quagmires and grapplings toward enacting primordially informed futures. 

      Organic Music Society. Published by : Avant-garde jazz trumpeter Don Cherry and textile artist Moki Cherry (née Karlsson) met in Sweden in the late sixties. They began to live and perform together, dubbing their mix of communal art, social and environmentalist activism, children’s education, and pan-ethnic expression “Organic Music.” Organic Music Societies, Blank Forms’ sixth anthology, is a special issue released in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name devoted to the couple’s multimedia collaborations.

      Stimming Dreaming: Stimming, Dreaming is an intimate presentation about stimming and other coping mechanisms that people with different needs resort to, to assist them in stimuli that may be different or difficult to process. Stimming, usually used by those who are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), involves repetitive or rigid actions that may appear strange and even frightening to the people who are not aware or informed of these behaviours.

      freesound.org: Freesound is a collaborative database of Creative Commons Licensed sounds.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>e4df46cf-2d1e-4e9d-b004-a15866dd3c6bWed, 06 Mar 2024 03:45:00 -070032:34truefull391913In this episode we continue down the path of the provocative and unexpected with Salty. Along the way we will encounter the secret lives of art gallery security staff, a cooking show called Microwave Magic, bunion fetishes, and a very funny group of incarcerated artists.      90: Salty: Activist Artists and Cultural Organizers Changing the World Through Art - Part 190: Salty: Activist Artists and Cultural Organizers Changing the World Through Art - Part 1Episode

      Pull back the curtain on one of Salty's works and there's no telling what you will find -- a film, a party, an intimate discussion, a festival, a newspaper, a concert, a feast, and more often than, not an invitation to decide whether you want to participate as an audience member. or as part of the show.

      BIO

      Salty Xi Jie Ng co-creates semi-fictional paradigms for the real and imagined lives of humans within the poetics of the intimate vernacular. Often playing with relational possibilities, her interdisciplinary work is manifested from fantasy scores for the present and future that propose a collective re-imagining through humor, care, subversion, play, discomfort, a celebration of the eccentric, and a commitment to the deeply personal. Her practice dances across forms such as brief encounter, collaborative space, variety show, poem, conversation, meal, publication, film, performance. 

      As a citizen scholar of the cosmos, Xi Jie explores aging, intimacy, food, lineage, identity, ritual and power, while questioning who artists are and what gets to be called art. Her research of everyday as performance bears fruit as tender presentations somewhere between art and life. Centering the body and its histories, she constructs portrayals of self and space that are ambiguous, raw, dream-like, absurd, mundane. At heart she is a cosmic clown, floating at the intersections of wonder and melancholy, existential meditation and devotional nonsense.

      Notable Mentions

      Columbia River Correctional Institution, Creative Initiatives: Columbia River Creative Initiatives is a series of artist run programs and classes held at the Columbia River Correctional Institution, a minimum security prison in Northeast Portland, Oregon.

      Fred Armisen: is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He is best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2002 until 2013.[3] With his comedy partner Carrie Brownstein, Armisen was the co-creator and co-star of the IFC sketch comedy series Portlandia.

      The Inside Show: is a variety show produced at Columbia River Creative Initiatives, an artist-led creative platform in Columbia River Correctional Institution, a minimum security prison in Portland, Oregon. The show is produced in prison, where inmates take on roles of host, performer, writer, and cameraperson. This robust collaboration of eccentric possibilities challenges perceptions of incarcerated individuals and what happens ‘on the inside’. The show’s content includes Microwave Magic— a cooking segment where inmates showcase genius ways of making gourmet meals with minimal ingredients and a microwave; comedy sketches; a goofy sports roundtable; art segments; poignant discussions; braiding demos; musical acts and more.

      Salty Xi Jie Ng: The Cosmos Wait for You: Salty’s web site. 

      ArtsWok Collaborative (Singapore): We are an arts-based community development organisation that recognizes the creativity and agency within individuals and communities to generate change.We believe in collaborating to imagine and develop thriving communities in a sustainable society. Since 2012, we have done this through the creative producing of innovative projects that demonstrate the power of the arts for change, the capability development of growing practitioners in our field, and researching and advocating for arts-based community development.

      Being Ourselves Together (Salty’s essay): “In sharing and holding space with other living, breathing beings to make art, I work to create alchemical conditions for people to be themselves in a violent, dehumanizing, often cruel world. In some sense, that is all I can purport to offer in participatory or collaborative processes. By providing a space with sparks and prompts that challenge, magnify, see, or subvert the everyday and the issues we face, some kind of transmutation happens—in the same way that encountering any artwork changes us in small or profound ways, simply because we meet a new idea. In every collaborative project, energetic bodies with histories and personalities dance with each other, constellating their individual selves and the collective in mysterious ways.” Salty Xi Jie Ng

      Change the Story / Change the World: A chronicle of art and community transformation.

      Singapore Minstrel. Roy Payamal: Roy Payamal is the wildest busker of a country ranked the world’s most emotionless society. He takes his undermined line of work as a serious art- but is his faith impossible idealism or an admirable conviction? Singapore Minstrel is an invitation into his beautiful mind, a magical, trying universe where art and life dialogue in a tropical dream. 

      An old-time pioneer of the local scene, sometimes dubbed the ‘Silver Man’, Roy creates spectacular installations for his mind-boggling acts. His street colleagues are a troupe of offbeat, seasoned buskers– from a 70-year-old man who dances Gangnam Style with vitality, to a lovable guitarist trying to pass the busking auditions. The film flows kaleidoscopically from interviews to fantasy sequences, to raw footage of everyday life Roy captures on his mobile phone. 

      Street Found In 2021, artist Salty Xi Jie Ng edited and published STREET FOUND, a book of Roy Payamal’s writing and images. An event of the same name was organized on the final night of operations of the original Substation.

      Post Love: A fantasy-documentary on love and sex from the perspectives of elderly Singaporeans who were brought up in the conservative tradition of yesteryear.

      Portland State University Art and Social Practice MFA Program: PSU’s Art and Social Practice MFA defines what it means to be an artist in society. In our three-year, flexible-residency program, you’ll combine individual research, group work, and experiential learning to find new ways to engage with your art and the community. Our program’s blend of critical and professional practice, progressive pedagogy, collaborative social engagement, and transdisciplinary exploration produces an immersive educational experience.

      Options for Community Arts Training & Support: In recent years, an increasing number of artists and arts organizations have been joining in partnerships with other community sectors to advance the healthy development of their communities. The result is a proliferation of cross-sector collaborations and opportunities. In the fall of 2015, Intermedia Arts joined with Animating Democracy at Americans for the Arts to sponsor a study the Center for the Study of Art & Community designed to learn more about where community arts training is currently taking place and where there may be future interest. 

      "I am a beautiful beached whale by the Straights ," (film) The unique, gently sparkling universe of elderly women is traversed in this film with a surreal, intimate lens, through the everyday lives and intimate thoughts of the filmmaker’s grandmothers. These converse with meditative images of an elderly lady at a beach, twinkling on the shore of another cosmos.

      Hollywood Senior Center: Community for Positive Aging was founded as Hollywood Senior Center in 1973, a nonprofit committed to creating an uplifting and vibrant environment for adults 55 and older while providing a channel for intergenerational relationships and learning. For more than 45 years, CFPA has focused on offering a diverse range of services with the singular focus of empowering older...]]>Episode

      Pull back the curtain on one of Salty's works and there's no telling what you will find -- a film, a party, an intimate discussion, a festival, a newspaper, a concert, a feast, and more often than, not an invitation to decide whether you want to participate as an audience member. or as part of the show.

      BIO

      Salty Xi Jie Ng co-creates semi-fictional paradigms for the real and imagined lives of humans within the poetics of the intimate vernacular. Often playing with relational possibilities, her interdisciplinary work is manifested from fantasy scores for the present and future that propose a collective re-imagining through humor, care, subversion, play, discomfort, a celebration of the eccentric, and a commitment to the deeply personal. Her practice dances across forms such as brief encounter, collaborative space, variety show, poem, conversation, meal, publication, film, performance. 

      As a citizen scholar of the cosmos, Xi Jie explores aging, intimacy, food, lineage, identity, ritual and power, while questioning who artists are and what gets to be called art. Her research of everyday as performance bears fruit as tender presentations somewhere between art and life. Centering the body and its histories, she constructs portrayals of self and space that are ambiguous, raw, dream-like, absurd, mundane. At heart she is a cosmic clown, floating at the intersections of wonder and melancholy, existential meditation and devotional nonsense.

      Notable Mentions

      Columbia River Correctional Institution, Creative Initiatives: Columbia River Creative Initiatives is a series of artist run programs and classes held at the Columbia River Correctional Institution, a minimum security prison in Northeast Portland, Oregon.

      Fred Armisen: is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He is best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2002 until 2013.[3] With his comedy partner Carrie Brownstein, Armisen was the co-creator and co-star of the IFC sketch comedy series Portlandia.

      The Inside Show: is a variety show produced at Columbia River Creative Initiatives, an artist-led creative platform in Columbia River Correctional Institution, a minimum security prison in Portland, Oregon. The show is produced in prison, where inmates take on roles of host, performer, writer, and cameraperson. This robust collaboration of eccentric possibilities challenges perceptions of incarcerated individuals and what happens ‘on the inside’. The show’s content includes Microwave Magic— a cooking segment where inmates showcase genius ways of making gourmet meals with minimal ingredients and a microwave; comedy sketches; a goofy sports roundtable; art segments; poignant discussions; braiding demos; musical acts and more.

      Salty Xi Jie Ng: The Cosmos Wait for You: Salty’s web site. 

      ArtsWok Collaborative (Singapore): We are an arts-based community development organisation that recognizes the creativity and agency within individuals and communities to generate change.We believe in collaborating to imagine and develop thriving communities in a sustainable society. Since 2012, we have done this through the creative producing of innovative projects that demonstrate the power of the arts for change, the capability development of growing practitioners in our field, and researching and advocating for arts-based community development.

      Being Ourselves Together (Salty’s essay): “In sharing and holding space with other living, breathing beings to make art, I work to create alchemical conditions for people to be themselves in a violent, dehumanizing, often cruel world. In some sense, that is all I can purport to offer in participatory or collaborative processes. By providing a space with sparks and prompts that challenge, magnify, see, or subvert the everyday and the issues we face, some kind of transmutation happens—in the same way that encountering any artwork changes us in small or profound ways, simply because we meet a new idea. In every collaborative project, energetic bodies with histories and personalities dance with each other, constellating their individual selves and the collective in mysterious ways.” Salty Xi Jie Ng

      Change the Story / Change the World: A chronicle of art and community transformation.

      Singapore Minstrel. Roy Payamal: Roy Payamal is the wildest busker of a country ranked the world’s most emotionless society. He takes his undermined line of work as a serious art- but is his faith impossible idealism or an admirable conviction? Singapore Minstrel is an invitation into his beautiful mind, a magical, trying universe where art and life dialogue in a tropical dream. 

      An old-time pioneer of the local scene, sometimes dubbed the ‘Silver Man’, Roy creates spectacular installations for his mind-boggling acts. His street colleagues are a troupe of offbeat, seasoned buskers– from a 70-year-old man who dances Gangnam Style with vitality, to a lovable guitarist trying to pass the busking auditions. The film flows kaleidoscopically from interviews to fantasy sequences, to raw footage of everyday life Roy captures on his mobile phone. 

      Street Found In 2021, artist Salty Xi Jie Ng edited and published STREET FOUND, a book of Roy Payamal’s writing and images. An event of the same name was organized on the final night of operations of the original Substation.

      Post Love: A fantasy-documentary on love and sex from the perspectives of elderly Singaporeans who were brought up in the conservative tradition of yesteryear.

      Portland State University Art and Social Practice MFA Program: PSU’s Art and Social Practice MFA defines what it means to be an artist in society. In our three-year, flexible-residency program, you’ll combine individual research, group work, and experiential learning to find new ways to engage with your art and the community. Our program’s blend of critical and professional practice, progressive pedagogy, collaborative social engagement, and transdisciplinary exploration produces an immersive educational experience.

      Options for Community Arts Training & Support: In recent years, an increasing number of artists and arts organizations have been joining in partnerships with other community sectors to advance the healthy development of their communities. The result is a proliferation of cross-sector collaborations and opportunities. In the fall of 2015, Intermedia Arts joined with Animating Democracy at Americans for the Arts to sponsor a study the Center for the Study of Art & Community designed to learn more about where community arts training is currently taking place and where there may be future interest. 

      "I am a beautiful beached whale by the Straights ," (film) The unique, gently sparkling universe of elderly women is traversed in this film with a surreal, intimate lens, through the everyday lives and intimate thoughts of the filmmaker’s grandmothers. These converse with meditative images of an elderly lady at a beach, twinkling on the shore of another cosmos.

      Hollywood Senior Center: Community for Positive Aging was founded as Hollywood Senior Center in 1973, a nonprofit committed to creating an uplifting and vibrant environment for adults 55 and older while providing a channel for intergenerational relationships and learning. For more than 45 years, CFPA has focused on offering a diverse range of services with the singular focus of empowering older adults to live their lives with independence, and a sense of fulfillment. Community for Positive Aging is committed to addressing the social, cultural, environmental and economic needs that create barriers that impact the wellness of older adults.

      Grandma Reporter: We are a space for intimate exchange about: style, isolation, and adventure; aging bodies, wrinkles, bunions, caregiving, and death; considering the struggles of growing old in a young, technology-focused world; swimming as a magical way to keep fit in spite of on-land mobility challenges; food, genes, and other things passed through generations; lost loves, longings, and sex that evolves with age. Presenting perspectives that are tender, poignant, moving and humorous, we are energetically connecting our contributors, collaborators, and readers in a senior women’s culture movement.

      Audre Lorde: Uses of the Erotic - The Erotic as Power: [Paper delivered at the Fourth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Mount Holyoke College, August 25, 1978. Published as a pamphlet by Out & Out Books (available from The Crossing Press). Reprinted in SisterOutsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde, Crossing Press:1984]

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>fe579181-b906-4758-9c91-1847621ab873Wed, 28 Feb 2024 03:45:00 -070035:20truefull390903Pull back the curtain on one of Salty's works and there's no telling what you will find -- a film, a party, an intimate discussion, a festival, a newspaper, a concert, a feast, and more often than, not an invitation to decide whether you want to participate as an audience member. or as part of the show.      BONUS: 3 TRICKSTER SERIES: Bonus Episode: Normando PerformsBONUS: 3 TRICKSTER SERIES: Bonus Episode: Normando PerformsCACHIRU & Magdelina and Jose

      Since we published Episode 28 featuring Normando Ismay, the loving trickster we have had requests for some of Normando's performances. He has been kind enough to share two pieces that we are presenting here. The first is Normando's telling of a traditional South American Story called Cachiru adapted by Normando with his own accompaniment on quena and bombo.

      The second, called Magdelina and Jose,, is a love story set in Argentina during the period of state terrorism from 1976 to 1983, called the Dirty War. This was a time when 10's of thousands of political dissidents and their family members were hunted down and disappeared. This piece was written and performed by Normando Ismay along with Mike O'Dowd.

      ]]>      CACHIRU & Magdelina and Jose

      Since we published Episode 28 featuring Normando Ismay, the loving trickster we have had requests for some of Normando's performances. He has been kind enough to share two pieces that we are presenting here. The first is Normando's telling of a traditional South American Story called Cachiru adapted by Normando with his own accompaniment on quena and bombo.

      The second, called Magdelina and Jose,, is a love story set in Argentina during the period of state terrorism from 1976 to 1983, called the Dirty War. This was a time when 10's of thousands of political dissidents and their family members were hunted down and disappeared. This piece was written and performed by Normando Ismay along with Mike O'Dowd.

      ]]>      3cd28402-5b87-4dc3-ab57-26f3c9e81789Wed, 21 Feb 2024 03:45:00 -070027:47truebonus11WOW! After publishing Episode 28: Normando Ismay - A Loving Trickster requests have come for some of Normando's performances. Here are two: "Cachiru" & "Magdelina & Jose."      89: 3 TRICKSTER SERIES: From Crack Houses to Trickster Tales: Normando Ismay is Thriving as an Artist for Change89: 3 TRICKSTER SERIES: From Crack Houses to Trickster Tales: Normando Ismay is Thriving as an Artist for ChangeNormando Ismay – A Loving Trickster

      Normando Ismay was born in the city of All the Saints of the New Rioja in northwest Argentina. As a young adult, he came to the United States, settling in Atlanta to pursue a career as a visual artist. Since then, he has worked in a variety of media including metal, painting, sculpture and installation art.

      He built a barn-like structure in his backyard and began the operation of the Little Beirut Art Space, a gallery/performance venue for visual art exhibits, poetry readings, storytelling, film, music and dance.

      At this time, he also began an integration of visual and performing art, combining Andean flutes, drums and stories of magical realism into large- and small-scale performances and performance installations. Normando creates work in Spanish, English and in a bilingual blending. Some of his works include “The Last Inca”, about Pedro de Bohorquez who passes as an Inca and controls northwest Argentina; “Contralabias”, about a North American smuggler, the invention of lipstick and the birth of Argentina.  

      Normando’s large-scale performance installations accommodate other performing artists and combine paintings, signage, sculptures, video projections, masks, seating, lighting and a stage. Café Bizzoso, Café Cultural de Chamblee, The Condor’s Next Hotel, Bannaland, The Mattress Factory Lounge and Dumpsite, to name a few. 

      Normando’s work has been presented throughout Atlanta and the southeast, as well as in New York, Argentina and Europe. The New York Times, High Performance, the Atlanta Constitution, Art Papers, Mundo Hispanico, and other publications have written about his work. He has received grants from the City of Atlanta Bureau of Cultural Affairs, Fulton County Arts Council, Georgia Council for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1991 he received the Paul Robeson award in Cultural Democracy.

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      What is Cafe Bezzoso?

      Well, Cafe Bizzoso, it was a traveling performance space, an art installation specific to the site where I was creating it. Bizzoso came out of a proposal that I made to the Arts Festival of Atlanta. They had invited me to perform in this huge stage. … And it's like me and my solo storytelling act and my public is like twenty feet away from me like no intimacy possible because of that. So, I made him a proposal to build a small performance venue for storyteller’s poets. and like that, and they liked the idea

      Was the Crack Attack an art exhibition?

      And then two or three nights after that, Steve Seaberg hanging with me, and he was like uh, "We have to do something." You know, and we started making art about it. And we started filling up the lot and between my house and the crack house with art. And we kept working empty lot, and we'd turn it into a, do an art show. We called it the Crack Attack Show.

      Who was the Last Inca?

      Oh it's, it's, an amazing story straight out of history. And The Last Inca is the story of a Spanish soldier who ends up in Peru and he gets in trouble with the Viceroy and they banish him and to, send to a fort Copiapo in Chile, that they know, is about to fall to the indigenous people from there. And this young man goes there, and he builds a cannon out of wood. That was only good for like a couple of explosions. And then the Canon fell apart, but it wasn't enough to signal to the Araucanos that the Spaniards now had a cannon and they decided to leave. (And that just the beginning)

      Transcript

      BC: [00:00:00] Hello,

      Normando are you there?

      Normando ismay, could be described as having a transcendent spirit.

      Hello Normando,. Let's see.

      I think you're there somewhere. Oops. Not there.

      A painter. A poet. A pirate. A conjurer of stories.

      There you are.

       Uh, But above all a trickster, a serious trickster shapeshifter.

      Can you hear me?

      Who's enigmatic stories, some would say.

      NI: [00:00:32] Do you see me?

      BC: [00:00:33] are hard to believe.

      I do not see you.

      Yes. Hard to believe. But true.

      There. you are.

      my word. You haven't

      changed a bit

      NI: [00:00:42] I have

      BC: [00:00:43] a hundred years. It's good to see you.

      This is Change the Story / Change the World, a Chronicle of art and community transformation.

      Now. I've known Normando Ismay, since the time of corded telephones and dollar-a-gallon, fossil fuel. He's one of those people whose story needs absolutely no spin, just a little air and an ear tuned to listening and learning and laughing, which we did together at the end of April 2021.

      With me in Alameda, California, the ancestral home of the Ohlone people, and Armando, at his relatively new studio. I went to Taccoa, Georgia, the traditional lands of the Tsalaquwetiyi (Cherokee East)

      Along the way we're introduced to ephemeral places like Chilecito and the Mattress Factory. Cafes with names like Beirut. Bizzoso and Success, And an extraordinary cast of characters. That includes Papa Bizzoso, the one-time child, preacher Contralabias, the smuggler, the last Inca, Pedro Borjehas. And Danimite the drug dealer who's the comes in the legendary Atlanta crack attack.

      Part One Bizzoso, the Mattress, Factory and Chilicito

      I'd just like to give you a few questions to set the table and we'll see what happens. So the first one is what is your work? How do you describe your work in the world thus far?

       NI: [00:02:19] The first thing that I would have to say is my work. Isn't just one kind of work. You know, I've gone through all kinds of medias and work that I've done. I think it was Erich Frome a book I read of him and something that got me was about specialization and dependency. And I think at that point decided I wasn't going to specialize in anything and that's how I've approached my life. You know, working on new skills and sometimes making dramatic shifts in what I was doing. And. So it's hard for me to define what my work is in like a couple of words.

      BC: [00:03:11] Yes, I hear that. And actually, you have a lot in common with almost everybody I've talked to, which is A very strong intention to follow a winding path that is in service to something more than just a discipline or a skill, but something else. So if you Looked at the horizon line what have you been moving towards with these various paths?

       NI: [00:03:36] To live. Right. I always say, try my best, not to exploit or be exploited. And of course, you can't be a hundred percent on that. You will get exploited and you will exploit. Trying to keep a degree of honesty in that I think has been here where I've been hanging for years,

      BC: [00:04:00] yeah. Actually, that echoes what Alice Lovelace said when I asked her the same question; is to try really hard to learn from her mistakes and try not to repeat them with the goal of not causing bad trouble, but just good trouble. Yeah. I was thinking about your move for a long time. You established yourself both as a maker, creative person, but also as a location with Cafe Bizzoso also, and Little Beruit. And I'm wondering if you've imported those to your new space

       NI: [00:04:37] It does have elements of all of it, so there's the space.

      BC: [00:04:45] So the idea of Cafe Bizzoso so you know, it, it's not just a performance space, it means something to you. What does it, what does it mean?

      NI: [00:04:54] Well, Cafe Bizzoso, it was a traveling performance space, an art installation specific to the site where I was creating it. Little Beirut was a space. Bizzoso came out of a proposal that I made to the Arts Festival of Atlanta. They had invited me to perform in this huge stage. It was like four feet up in the air. And it's like me and my solo storytelling act and my public is like twenty feet away from me like no intimacy possible because of that. So, I made him a proposal to build a small performance venue for storyteller’s poets. and like that, and they liked the idea and fully funded it. And Cafe Bizzoso took over spaces, turned it into a performance space and then disappeared. it was uh, a really sort of quick, act.,

      BC: [00:06:02] What is the story of the name?

      NI: [00:06:04] it's stolen.

      BC: [00:06:05] yes. So, what's new.

      NI: [00:06:08] I had been working with performance spaces before Cafe Bizzoso. And it was funny because, you know, there was the Mattress Factory shows in Atlanta and...]]>Normando Ismay – A Loving Trickster

      Normando Ismay was born in the city of All the Saints of the New Rioja in northwest Argentina. As a young adult, he came to the United States, settling in Atlanta to pursue a career as a visual artist. Since then, he has worked in a variety of media including metal, painting, sculpture and installation art.

      He built a barn-like structure in his backyard and began the operation of the Little Beirut Art Space, a gallery/performance venue for visual art exhibits, poetry readings, storytelling, film, music and dance.

      At this time, he also began an integration of visual and performing art, combining Andean flutes, drums and stories of magical realism into large- and small-scale performances and performance installations. Normando creates work in Spanish, English and in a bilingual blending. Some of his works include “The Last Inca”, about Pedro de Bohorquez who passes as an Inca and controls northwest Argentina; “Contralabias”, about a North American smuggler, the invention of lipstick and the birth of Argentina.  

      Normando’s large-scale performance installations accommodate other performing artists and combine paintings, signage, sculptures, video projections, masks, seating, lighting and a stage. Café Bizzoso, Café Cultural de Chamblee, The Condor’s Next Hotel, Bannaland, The Mattress Factory Lounge and Dumpsite, to name a few. 

      Normando’s work has been presented throughout Atlanta and the southeast, as well as in New York, Argentina and Europe. The New York Times, High Performance, the Atlanta Constitution, Art Papers, Mundo Hispanico, and other publications have written about his work. He has received grants from the City of Atlanta Bureau of Cultural Affairs, Fulton County Arts Council, Georgia Council for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1991 he received the Paul Robeson award in Cultural Democracy.

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      What is Cafe Bezzoso?

      Well, Cafe Bizzoso, it was a traveling performance space, an art installation specific to the site where I was creating it. Bizzoso came out of a proposal that I made to the Arts Festival of Atlanta. They had invited me to perform in this huge stage. … And it's like me and my solo storytelling act and my public is like twenty feet away from me like no intimacy possible because of that. So, I made him a proposal to build a small performance venue for storyteller’s poets. and like that, and they liked the idea

      Was the Crack Attack an art exhibition?

      And then two or three nights after that, Steve Seaberg hanging with me, and he was like uh, "We have to do something." You know, and we started making art about it. And we started filling up the lot and between my house and the crack house with art. And we kept working empty lot, and we'd turn it into a, do an art show. We called it the Crack Attack Show.

      Who was the Last Inca?

      Oh it's, it's, an amazing story straight out of history. And The Last Inca is the story of a Spanish soldier who ends up in Peru and he gets in trouble with the Viceroy and they banish him and to, send to a fort Copiapo in Chile, that they know, is about to fall to the indigenous people from there. And this young man goes there, and he builds a cannon out of wood. That was only good for like a couple of explosions. And then the Canon fell apart, but it wasn't enough to signal to the Araucanos that the Spaniards now had a cannon and they decided to leave. (And that just the beginning)

      Transcript

      BC: [00:00:00] Hello,

      Normando are you there?

      Normando ismay, could be described as having a transcendent spirit.

      Hello Normando,. Let's see.

      I think you're there somewhere. Oops. Not there.

      A painter. A poet. A pirate. A conjurer of stories.

      There you are.

       Uh, But above all a trickster, a serious trickster shapeshifter.

      Can you hear me?

      Who's enigmatic stories, some would say.

      NI: [00:00:32] Do you see me?

      BC: [00:00:33] are hard to believe.

      I do not see you.

      Yes. Hard to believe. But true.

      There. you are.

      my word. You haven't

      changed a bit

      NI: [00:00:42] I have

      BC: [00:00:43] a hundred years. It's good to see you.

      This is Change the Story / Change the World, a Chronicle of art and community transformation.

      Now. I've known Normando Ismay, since the time of corded telephones and dollar-a-gallon, fossil fuel. He's one of those people whose story needs absolutely no spin, just a little air and an ear tuned to listening and learning and laughing, which we did together at the end of April 2021.

      With me in Alameda, California, the ancestral home of the Ohlone people, and Armando, at his relatively new studio. I went to Taccoa, Georgia, the traditional lands of the Tsalaquwetiyi (Cherokee East)

      Along the way we're introduced to ephemeral places like Chilecito and the Mattress Factory. Cafes with names like Beirut. Bizzoso and Success, And an extraordinary cast of characters. That includes Papa Bizzoso, the one-time child, preacher Contralabias, the smuggler, the last Inca, Pedro Borjehas. And Danimite the drug dealer who's the comes in the legendary Atlanta crack attack.

      Part One Bizzoso, the Mattress, Factory and Chilicito

      I'd just like to give you a few questions to set the table and we'll see what happens. So the first one is what is your work? How do you describe your work in the world thus far?

       NI: [00:02:19] The first thing that I would have to say is my work. Isn't just one kind of work. You know, I've gone through all kinds of medias and work that I've done. I think it was Erich Frome a book I read of him and something that got me was about specialization and dependency. And I think at that point decided I wasn't going to specialize in anything and that's how I've approached my life. You know, working on new skills and sometimes making dramatic shifts in what I was doing. And. So it's hard for me to define what my work is in like a couple of words.

      BC: [00:03:11] Yes, I hear that. And actually, you have a lot in common with almost everybody I've talked to, which is A very strong intention to follow a winding path that is in service to something more than just a discipline or a skill, but something else. So if you Looked at the horizon line what have you been moving towards with these various paths?

       NI: [00:03:36] To live. Right. I always say, try my best, not to exploit or be exploited. And of course, you can't be a hundred percent on that. You will get exploited and you will exploit. Trying to keep a degree of honesty in that I think has been here where I've been hanging for years,

      BC: [00:04:00] yeah. Actually, that echoes what Alice Lovelace said when I asked her the same question; is to try really hard to learn from her mistakes and try not to repeat them with the goal of not causing bad trouble, but just good trouble. Yeah. I was thinking about your move for a long time. You established yourself both as a maker, creative person, but also as a location with Cafe Bizzoso also, and Little Beruit. And I'm wondering if you've imported those to your new space

       NI: [00:04:37] It does have elements of all of it, so there's the space.

      BC: [00:04:45] So the idea of Cafe Bizzoso so you know, it, it's not just a performance space, it means something to you. What does it, what does it mean?

      NI: [00:04:54] Well, Cafe Bizzoso, it was a traveling performance space, an art installation specific to the site where I was creating it. Little Beirut was a space. Bizzoso came out of a proposal that I made to the Arts Festival of Atlanta. They had invited me to perform in this huge stage. It was like four feet up in the air. And it's like me and my solo storytelling act and my public is like twenty feet away from me like no intimacy possible because of that. So, I made him a proposal to build a small performance venue for storyteller’s poets. and like that, and they liked the idea and fully funded it. And Cafe Bizzoso took over spaces, turned it into a performance space and then disappeared. it was uh, a really sort of quick, act.,

      BC: [00:06:02] What is the story of the name?

      NI: [00:06:04] it's stolen.

      BC: [00:06:05] yes. So, what's new.

      NI: [00:06:08] I had been working with performance spaces before Cafe Bizzoso. And it was funny because, you know, there was the Mattress Factory shows in Atlanta and it was like there were huge warehouse shows with a couple of hundred artists. , I ended up building places that were places where people could sit. That was the first sort of adding of that. But of course, then I started adding performance spaces and I started adding food and stuff like that. So, there were several, the Mattress Lounge was one, Cafe Success. I had a couple of those.

      BC: [00:06:53] At this point in our zoom conversation, Normando turns and points to the back wall of his studio, which is covered with dozens of sculptures paintings and masks.

      NI: [00:07:04] And some of the artwork right up the top. There there's series of faces sort of like brown line of faces that came from one of the Cafe Success that I did in a big warehouse. And the, the pictures that you see up top are the autographed photographs of the people that came to the cafe and became successful and never came back.

      The funny thing is it that particular show got me into a group show that traveled to Sweden and there, I built a town inside the museum, the same techniques and stuff that I used with Cafe Bizzoso, in Sweden, there were a lot of people who had run away from Chile because of Pinochet at the time. So, I called it Chilicito little chili or loving Chile, and I felt that was necessary to make a statement about that. And it was also a statement about appropriation of culture. Because I had been in several museums in Europe that just blew me away. I was in a museum in Paris and there were things from my hometown, in Paris, that was, you know, touch the heart. What are these things doing here? What are these temples doing here? You know?

      BC: [00:08:34] So was that city and an attempt to bring hometown to, Sweden for the people who had to vacate their loving space,

      NI: [00:08:42] yeah, I think it was a statement about that. it was because there were a lot of people that came through at the time that I met that were part of that. that's how that piece came about.

      BC: [00:08:56] Part Two: The Birth of a Trickster.

      So, given all the different streams and pathways that you followed w how did you come to be this sort of three ring circus of an artist? What made you decide? Oh, this is what I want to do in my life. As a kid, were you a person who people said, oh There's a young artist just waiting to blossom or was it something you were encouraged to do?

      NI: [00:09:25] No. No, I remember my mother saying something like, "Art you want to be, you want to do art that's for rich people, not for you". What's what she told me. I think that statement from my mother was, in reference to what I was going to study in college. And I was good at math and good at chemistry and physics and stuff like that. So, I ended up studying biochemistry. It was weird because every once in a while, something would just burst through you know, I remember at one point I made a wood sculpture and it just came out of, nothing. And I just made a wood sculpture while I was still studying you know, college. In Argentina, the education system is different than here. So, you don't have what I got a general bachelor's path in education. And, pretty much, when you leave high school, you decide what your career is going to be.

      BC: [00:10:22] You have to declare.

      NI: [00:10:23] It's a European model and if you're studying biochemistry, that's going to be your focus. So, at one point I decided that I wanted more than that. And I had to become part of another college. Which was the college of literature. And I started studying literature at the same time. And that's where I started going back towards a creative style in my life. it really was linguistics that sort of opened up my, way of perceiving the world. It was actually structuralism did that., it was, Saussure.

      BC: [00:11:07] Ferdinand de Saussure was a Swiss linguist and philosopher whose ideas laid the foundation for many significant developments in linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century

      NI: [00:11:21] And I was pretty much an example of what his studies had been. You know, I was from many generations of Scots that I've lived in Argentina. So, when I came to the states, I spoke a really old English, an English that arrived in Argentina in the 1800’s. And I you know, I got laughed at a few times here and this day using inappropriate words.

       BC: [00:11:55] Not far off from the Appalachian

      NI: [00:11:57] And there's a reason why I really like southern talking, I like Appalachian talking you know. Because it has a richness that I don't find in other English-speaking areas.

      BC: [00:12:11] It's in service to the story. More than the structure of the sentence, it's lyrical.

       NI: [00:12:17] It has second person plural, which the rest of English doesn't, they, y’ all, that is a normal form in Spanish. So, I related that a lot.

      Once I was in a, an African-American neighborhood that was really close to where I lived and I used to produce a festival there too. I was hanging out with, a guy that I had done several years and worked with them. So, we were close you know, we done the same festival. And this woman came, and she was from Cabbagetown and Cabbagetown basically got populated by people from Appalachia.

      So, the way people spoke had a lot of relationship to Appalachian English. And she came and she asked my friend a question. And he looked at me and he couldn't get it. So, I translated. And then he answers her when I could tell she didn't understand him. So, I translated it back to her. Then she left because she got the direction she needed. And I like looked at my friend. and I said, "Do you realize what I just did?" I had interpreted many times from Spanish to English but never, never Appalachian.

      BC: [00:13:33] That's beautiful. So, that sort of brings to mind. When I look at your work and I'm just going to talk about paintings right now. The story is preeminent. The story is super important sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. You even say you, want to paint paintings where the story is manifest in a single painting. Could you talk about that and what that means for you?

      NI: [00:13:58] When I came to the States, I didn't have much control of English. It took me years before I got good enough to where I could tell a story in English. So, I focused on visual arts. At first, I started on crafts because, really quick I, started realizing that um, was going on in Argentina was going to last a long time. That the dictatorship was going to be in power and I wasn't going to be able to go back. So really that meant my education was out the door.

       And the first thing that I had to do was find a way to make money. So, I started with crafts. And I went to school and learned how to, form metals, which eventually led to a job in a jewelry store. And nobody in the class wanted a job as a polisher, but I went, yes, I'm doing it. And that was my entry into the jewelry world.

      There was a building in Atlanta, the Carnegie building, and there must have been about 10, 15 jewelry workshops there. And I started as a polisher and eventually I was setting diamonds and doing repair. And then it was a way to live at first.

      And I had gone to, to school and I had picked up this concept of making miniature sculptures, which is the art that I was doing at the time. So, I started working in a world that was a foot by a foot.

      That was my, art creating world at the time. And things started to change because I started interpreting and doing voiceover work. So, the jewelry worked at and make that much sense anymore. At some point around there, I had a studio in Nexus.

      BC: [00:15:55] The nexus center for the arts in Atlanta has been true to its namesake as a catalyst and incubator for artists and their ideas for the past 30 years. Back in Normando those early days. It was small and funky. Now it's much bigger with a new name. The Atlanta contemporary art center

      NI: [00:16:16] And I think that having a studio nexus sort of redirected me as an artist because now I was around other artists. I was learning all kinds of techniques from them. And I was getting interested in other forms of art.

      And it wasn't long that I was making installations, which was a form of art that I was very comfortable with. So, my art, creating the world, went from a foot by a foot to a fairly large footprint. And then I started volunteering to make sets in the theater at nexus. And Ian McCall was running that theater at the time. and he was bringing, what is it? PS 122. Is it called?

       BC: [00:17:08] Yeah. The legendary New York art space.

      NI: [00:17:11] He was bringing them, and I built a set for them, and it involved workshops and they suggested I take the workshops and work with them, do the exercises. And I enjoyed a lot. And at one point was sitting the front row and he went, "Speak to me."]]>927cb442-4d86-47a1-9a6a-4af3f90792d3Wed, 14 Feb 2024 03:45:00 -070043:33truefull389893Artists Vanquish Crack Dealer? No Way! Actually "Yes Way" and an incredible story that also includes Cafe Bezzoso, Chilecito, and The Last Inca In Jail.88: Pills Alone Won’t Heal Us! The Case for Art and Social Change in Healthcare88: Pills Alone Won’t Heal Us! The Case for Art and Social Change in HealthcareArts On Prescription: What if your doctor prescribed an arts-based treatment for what ails you and your health insurance paid for it. YEAH RIGHT! Actually, Yeah, right, and REALLY! In this episode we learn all about it in Arts on Prescription: A Field Guide for U. S. Communities

      ARTS ON PRESCRIPTION WEBINAR OPP: Looking for an opportunity to reimagine what health is and how we create it? TUNE IN HERE ON February 13th at 4pm (EST) for a transformative 45-minute webinar exploring the new resource, 'Arts on Prescription: A Field Guide for US Communities'.

      BIO's

      Dr. Tasha Golden directs research for the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins Medicine. As a national leader in arts + public health, Dr. Golden studies the impacts of arts & culture, music, aesthetics, and social norms on well-being, health research, and professional practice. She has authored many publications related to arts and health, served as an advisor on several national health initiatives, and is adjunct faculty for the University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Medicine.

      In addition to her research, Golden is a career artist and entrepreneur. As singer-songwriter for the critically acclaimed band Ellery, she toured full-time in the U.S. and abroad, and her songs appear in feature films and TV dramas (ABC, SHOWTIME, FOX, NETFLIX, etc). She is also a published poet and has taught university courses in public health as well as in writing, rhetoric, and literature. Holding a Ph.D. in Public Health Sciences, Dr. Golden draws on her diverse background to develop innovative, interdisciplinary presentations and partnerships that advance health, health equity, creativity, and well-being.

      Dr. Golden is also the founder of Project Uncaged: an arts-based health intervention for incarcerated teen women that amplifies their voices in community and policy discourses. These young folx are among her greatest teachers.

      Jill Sonke, PhD, is director of research initiatives in the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida (UF), director of national research and impact for the One Nation/One Project initiative, and co-director of the EpiArts Lab, a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab. She is an affiliated faculty member in the UF School of Theatre & Dance, the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases, the Center for African Studies, the STEM Translational Communication Center, and the One Health Center, and is an editorial board member for Health Promotion Practice journal. She served in the pandemic as a senior advisor to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Vaccine Confidence and Demand Team on the COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Task Force and currently serves on the steering committee of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, established by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Steinhardt School at New York University, Community Jameel, and CULTURUNNERS.

      With 28 years of experience and leadership in the field of arts in health and a PhD in arts in public health from Ulster University in Northern Ireland, Jill is active in research and policy advocacy nationally and internationally. She is an artist and a mixed methods researcher with a current focus on population-level health outcomes associated with arts and cultural participation, arts in public health, and the arts in health communication. Notable Mentions

      Notable Mentions

      Arts On Prescription: A Field Guide for US Communities.: A roadmap for communities to develop programs that integrate arts, culture, and nature resources into local health and social care systems. prescription

      Anne Basting, Creative Care: Basting pioneers a radical change in how we interact with older loved ones, especially those experiencing dementia, as she introduces a proven method that uses the creative arts to bring light and joy to the lives of elders.

      Atlantic Fellowship:Through seven global, interconnected programs, Atlantic Fellows collaborate across borders and disciplines to address the root causes of inequity.

      Veronica Rojas is an Atlantic Fellow who works in different art programs in the San Francisco Bay Area that either serve adults with developmental disabilities or older adults, many with dementia. She is both a practicing and teaching artist.

      Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida (UF): Using creativity to advance health, wellness, and equity as a trained arts in health professional. Promote health one creative moment at a time.International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins Medicine,

      Tennessee Whiskey, Tasha Golden, from Over Land, Over Sea

      Interlochen Arts Academy: “A global community of like-minded artists, you'll discover a high school for the arts (grades 9-12) you may only have dreamed about.”

      Mass Cultural Council, CultureRX: Mission - To build a public infrastructure that supports the role of cultural experiences as a protective factor in the health and well-being of all people in the Commonwealth.

      United Kingdom, National Health Service, social prescribing infrastructure is an approach that connects people to activities, groups, and services in their community to meet the practical, social and emotional needs that affect their health and wellbeing.. Alan Siegel advocate for social prescribing

      Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield in New Jersey/New Jersey Performing Arts Center: Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey has made a $3 million gift to NJPAC to support new arts and wellness programming both at the Arts Center and throughout Newark. Health Organization's definition of health, World Health Organization published a social prescribing toolkit.

      Federal Reserve Bank of New York/Social Prescribing: On Wednesday, October 4, 2023, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in partnership with Social Prescribing USA, hosted an in-person event discussing how medical prescriptions for patients to participate in community activities such as walking in nature, creating and viewing art, joining social groups, and volunteering can improve public health.

      Quebec, Mediateur Culturel, For several years, the City of Quebec has been developing cultural mediation projects between professional artists and citizens. By bringing art into their living environment and involving them in the creative process, cultural mediation places citizens at the heart of the artistic process. Here are the works of art created so far in all the boroughs of Quebec.

      Dr. Daisy Fancourt, is a British researcher who is an Associate Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at University College London.[3][4][5] Her research focuses on the effects of social factors on health, including loneliness, social isolation,...]]>Arts On Prescription: What if your doctor prescribed an arts-based treatment for what ails you and your health insurance paid for it. YEAH RIGHT! Actually, Yeah, right, and REALLY! In this episode we learn all about it in Arts on Prescription: A Field Guide for U. S. Communities

      ARTS ON PRESCRIPTION WEBINAR OPP: Looking for an opportunity to reimagine what health is and how we create it? TUNE IN HERE ON February 13th at 4pm (EST) for a transformative 45-minute webinar exploring the new resource, 'Arts on Prescription: A Field Guide for US Communities'.

      BIO's

      Dr. Tasha Golden directs research for the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins Medicine. As a national leader in arts + public health, Dr. Golden studies the impacts of arts & culture, music, aesthetics, and social norms on well-being, health research, and professional practice. She has authored many publications related to arts and health, served as an advisor on several national health initiatives, and is adjunct faculty for the University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Medicine.

      In addition to her research, Golden is a career artist and entrepreneur. As singer-songwriter for the critically acclaimed band Ellery, she toured full-time in the U.S. and abroad, and her songs appear in feature films and TV dramas (ABC, SHOWTIME, FOX, NETFLIX, etc). She is also a published poet and has taught university courses in public health as well as in writing, rhetoric, and literature. Holding a Ph.D. in Public Health Sciences, Dr. Golden draws on her diverse background to develop innovative, interdisciplinary presentations and partnerships that advance health, health equity, creativity, and well-being.

      Dr. Golden is also the founder of Project Uncaged: an arts-based health intervention for incarcerated teen women that amplifies their voices in community and policy discourses. These young folx are among her greatest teachers.

      Jill Sonke, PhD, is director of research initiatives in the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida (UF), director of national research and impact for the One Nation/One Project initiative, and co-director of the EpiArts Lab, a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab. She is an affiliated faculty member in the UF School of Theatre & Dance, the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases, the Center for African Studies, the STEM Translational Communication Center, and the One Health Center, and is an editorial board member for Health Promotion Practice journal. She served in the pandemic as a senior advisor to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Vaccine Confidence and Demand Team on the COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Task Force and currently serves on the steering committee of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, established by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Steinhardt School at New York University, Community Jameel, and CULTURUNNERS.

      With 28 years of experience and leadership in the field of arts in health and a PhD in arts in public health from Ulster University in Northern Ireland, Jill is active in research and policy advocacy nationally and internationally. She is an artist and a mixed methods researcher with a current focus on population-level health outcomes associated with arts and cultural participation, arts in public health, and the arts in health communication. Notable Mentions

      Notable Mentions

      Arts On Prescription: A Field Guide for US Communities.: A roadmap for communities to develop programs that integrate arts, culture, and nature resources into local health and social care systems. prescription

      Anne Basting, Creative Care: Basting pioneers a radical change in how we interact with older loved ones, especially those experiencing dementia, as she introduces a proven method that uses the creative arts to bring light and joy to the lives of elders.

      Atlantic Fellowship:Through seven global, interconnected programs, Atlantic Fellows collaborate across borders and disciplines to address the root causes of inequity.

      Veronica Rojas is an Atlantic Fellow who works in different art programs in the San Francisco Bay Area that either serve adults with developmental disabilities or older adults, many with dementia. She is both a practicing and teaching artist.

      Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida (UF): Using creativity to advance health, wellness, and equity as a trained arts in health professional. Promote health one creative moment at a time.International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins Medicine,

      Tennessee Whiskey, Tasha Golden, from Over Land, Over Sea

      Interlochen Arts Academy: “A global community of like-minded artists, you'll discover a high school for the arts (grades 9-12) you may only have dreamed about.”

      Mass Cultural Council, CultureRX: Mission - To build a public infrastructure that supports the role of cultural experiences as a protective factor in the health and well-being of all people in the Commonwealth.

      United Kingdom, National Health Service, social prescribing infrastructure is an approach that connects people to activities, groups, and services in their community to meet the practical, social and emotional needs that affect their health and wellbeing.. Alan Siegel advocate for social prescribing

      Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield in New Jersey/New Jersey Performing Arts Center: Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey has made a $3 million gift to NJPAC to support new arts and wellness programming both at the Arts Center and throughout Newark. Health Organization's definition of health, World Health Organization published a social prescribing toolkit.

      Federal Reserve Bank of New York/Social Prescribing: On Wednesday, October 4, 2023, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in partnership with Social Prescribing USA, hosted an in-person event discussing how medical prescriptions for patients to participate in community activities such as walking in nature, creating and viewing art, joining social groups, and volunteering can improve public health.

      Quebec, Mediateur Culturel, For several years, the City of Quebec has been developing cultural mediation projects between professional artists and citizens. By bringing art into their living environment and involving them in the creative process, cultural mediation places citizens at the heart of the artistic process. Here are the works of art created so far in all the boroughs of Quebec.

      Dr. Daisy Fancourt, is a British researcher who is an Associate Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at University College London.[3][4][5] Her research focuses on the effects of social factors on health, including loneliness, social isolation, community assets, arts and cultural engagement, and social prescribing.[6

      Social Prescribing USA: “Our mission is to make social prescribing available to every American by 2035. Our team of volunteers aims to act as the movement’s catalyst.”

      NeuroArts Blueprint:This action plan explains how to grow and share the scientific knowledge showing art to be an extraordinary tool for promoting health and wellbeing in individuals and communities.

      OPPORTUNITY: Renée Fleming Foundation and NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative are proud to announce a groundbreaking program to encourage collaborative neuroarts research between early career artists and scientists. Watch our January 8 informational webinar on the awards here!

      Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey and the Nap Ministry ; This book “is a clarion call for our generation. In this pioneering book, Tricia Hersey invites us all to opt out of “grind culture” and embrace our basic and sacred human right to self-care, relaxation, and rest.”

      Laziness Does Not Exist, Devin Price: This book “explores the psychological underpinnings of the “laziness lie,” including its origins from the Puritans and how it has continued to proliferate as digital work tools have blurred the boundaries between work and life.”

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>87ccb9e5-174c-447a-b4a8-f94e2a31c191Wed, 24 Jan 2024 05:45:00 -070001:00:45truefull388883      87: BIGhART – BIGsTORY: Skateboarding, Storytelling, & Environmental Justice – How Artist Activists Are Thriving and Driving Social Change – Part 287: BIGhART – BIGsTORY: Skateboarding, Storytelling, & Environmental Justice – How Artist Activists Are Thriving and Driving Social Change – Part 2BIGhART is Australia's leading arts and social change organization.

      We make art, we build communities, we drive change.

      30 years in operation, 62 communities engaged, 47 awards won, 550 artists contributed, 9, 500 people participated, 2. 6 million audience members.

      BIO

      Scott Rankin co-founded Big hART with friend John Bakes in 1992. As CEO and Creative Director, Scott leads the overarching vision for all Big hART projects – from pilot through to legacy. A leader and teacher in the field of social and cultural innovation, Scott provides daily mentorship and knowledge transfer to all Big hART staff so that they can in turn lead our projects with confidence.

      An award winning writer and director in his own right, Scott’s works have been included many times in major arts festivals. His reputation is built on a quarter of a century of work, creating, funding and directing large-scale projects in diverse communities with high needs, in isolated settings.

      Big hART is Scott’s passionate contribution to the arts and society.

      Notable Mentions:

      BIGhART:

      Ngapartji Ngapartji: Big hART designed the Ngapartji Ngapartji project to raise awareness of Indigenous language loss, and the lack of an national Indigenous languages policy.

      Tasmania is an island state of Australia.[15] It is located 240 kilometres (150 miles) to the south of the Australian mainland, separated from it by the Bass Strait, with the archipelago containing the southernmost point of the country.

      Vaslav Nijinsky was a Russian[4] ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish ancestry.[5] He is regarded as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century.[3] 

      Albert Namatjira:  28 July 1902 – 8 August 1959) was an Arrernte painter from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia, widely considered one of the most notable Australian artists.

      Namatjira Project: Namatjira Project began as a collaboration with members of the Namatjira family and the Hermannsburg community in Central Australia in 2009.The long-term project has centered around an award-winning theatre performance, Namatjira, seen by 50,000 people, telling the story of Albert Namatjira, with his family on stage.

      Skate of Mind is a grassroots, national touring collective of skaters, filmmakers, photographers, and artists. We run community engagement events, workshops, music, art, digital art, projection, and soundscape design in regional communities.

      SKATE is a groundbreaking new work in development fusing the art of skateboarding with percussion and projection. A breathtaking sensory experience for all the family, SKATE sees a cast of talented male and female skateboarders perform jaw-dropping feats and create infectious rhythms with their skateboards.

      Element Skateboards

      Winnie the Pooh: Winnie-the-Pooh (also known as Edward Bear, Pooh Bear or simply Pooh) is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. 

      Ngangkari (a traditional aboriginal healer)

      The Acoustic Life of Sheds: Acoustic Life of Sheds invites leading composers, musicians and artists to celebrate these architectural embodiments of rural, industrial or maritime culture as memory sound- shells by reimagining them for audiences in the landscape or on the foreshore.

      Project O: Project O is a prevention initiative driving change for young women in rural, regional and high needs communities.

      Acknowledgements:

      Music

      Studio (Ernabella School Hall) recording of music from the stage show 'Ngapartji Ngapartji'. 1 Ngayunya Wantiriyalku I Shall Be Released

      Performed by Makinti Minutjukur, Unurupa Kulyuru, Rhoda Tjitayi, Renita Stanley, Andrew MacGregor, Sara Luither, Beth Sometimes, Steve Fraser. Written by Bob Dylan - Translated by Lorna Wilson, Tom Holder, Dora (Amanyi) Haggie, Rhoda Tjitayi, Unurupa Kulyuru, Beth Sometimes. Recorded by Steve Fraser.

      Dream-Shifting - by Steven F Allen

      https://freesound.org/people/audiomirage/

      https://soundclick.com/AuDioChosisStevenFAllenAuDioMiRage

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      BIGhART is Australia's leading arts and social change organization.

      We make art, we build communities, we drive change.

      30 years in operation, 62 communities engaged, 47 awards won, 550 artists contributed, 9, 500 people participated, 2. 6 million audience members.

      BIO

      Scott Rankin co-founded Big hART with friend John Bakes in 1992. As CEO and Creative Director, Scott leads the overarching vision for all Big hART projects – from pilot through to legacy. A leader and teacher in the field of social and cultural innovation, Scott provides daily mentorship and knowledge transfer to all Big hART staff so that they can in turn lead our projects with confidence.

      An award winning writer and director in his own right, Scott’s works have been included many times in major arts festivals. His reputation is built on a quarter of a century of work, creating, funding and directing large-scale projects in diverse communities with high needs, in isolated settings.

      Big hART is Scott’s passionate contribution to the arts and society.

      Notable Mentions:

      BIGhART:

      Ngapartji Ngapartji: Big hART designed the Ngapartji Ngapartji project to raise awareness of Indigenous language loss, and the lack of an national Indigenous languages policy.

      Tasmania is an island state of Australia.[15] It is located 240 kilometres (150 miles) to the south of the Australian mainland, separated from it by the Bass Strait, with the archipelago containing the southernmost point of the country.

      Vaslav Nijinsky was a Russian[4] ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish ancestry.[5] He is regarded as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century.[3] 

      Albert Namatjira:  28 July 1902 – 8 August 1959) was an Arrernte painter from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia, widely considered one of the most notable Australian artists.

      Namatjira Project: Namatjira Project began as a collaboration with members of the Namatjira family and the Hermannsburg community in Central Australia in 2009.The long-term project has centered around an award-winning theatre performance, Namatjira, seen by 50,000 people, telling the story of Albert Namatjira, with his family on stage.

      Skate of Mind is a grassroots, national touring collective of skaters, filmmakers, photographers, and artists. We run community engagement events, workshops, music, art, digital art, projection, and soundscape design in regional communities.

      SKATE is a groundbreaking new work in development fusing the art of skateboarding with percussion and projection. A breathtaking sensory experience for all the family, SKATE sees a cast of talented male and female skateboarders perform jaw-dropping feats and create infectious rhythms with their skateboards.

      Element Skateboards

      Winnie the Pooh: Winnie-the-Pooh (also known as Edward Bear, Pooh Bear or simply Pooh) is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. 

      Ngangkari (a traditional aboriginal healer)

      The Acoustic Life of Sheds: Acoustic Life of Sheds invites leading composers, musicians and artists to celebrate these architectural embodiments of rural, industrial or maritime culture as memory sound- shells by reimagining them for audiences in the landscape or on the foreshore.

      Project O: Project O is a prevention initiative driving change for young women in rural, regional and high needs communities.

      Acknowledgements:

      Music

      Studio (Ernabella School Hall) recording of music from the stage show 'Ngapartji Ngapartji'. 1 Ngayunya Wantiriyalku I Shall Be Released

      Performed by Makinti Minutjukur, Unurupa Kulyuru, Rhoda Tjitayi, Renita Stanley, Andrew MacGregor, Sara Luither, Beth Sometimes, Steve Fraser. Written by Bob Dylan - Translated by Lorna Wilson, Tom Holder, Dora (Amanyi) Haggie, Rhoda Tjitayi, Unurupa Kulyuru, Beth Sometimes. Recorded by Steve Fraser.

      Dream-Shifting - by Steven F Allen

      https://freesound.org/people/audiomirage/

      https://soundclick.com/AuDioChosisStevenFAllenAuDioMiRage

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      ace2be24-c525-4997-a804-abcd3f11a8d4Wed, 10 Jan 2024 05:45:00 -070030:13truefull387873      86: BIGhART – BIGsTORY: Skateboarding, Storytelling, & Environmental Justice – How Artist Activists Are Thriving and Driving Social Change86: BIGhART – BIGsTORY: Skateboarding, Storytelling, & Environmental Justice – How Artist Activists Are Thriving and Driving Social ChangeScott Rankin: When I describe BIGhART to folks in the US they accuse me of making it up. In this episode Scott Rankin, BIGhART’s founder, describes how this expansive, constantly morphing, multi-disciplinary, thirty-year long enterprise became one of the world's leading arts and social change organizations.

      This is first of two episodes featuring Scott. You can listen to Chapter 2 HERE

      BIO

      Scott co-founded Big hART with friend John Bakes in 1992. As CEO and Creative Director, Scott leads the overarching vision for all Big hART projects – from pilot through to legacy. A leader and teacher in the field of social and cultural innovation, Scott provides daily mentorship and knowledge transfer to all Big hART staff so that they can in turn lead our projects with confidence.

      An award winning writer and director in his own right, Scott’s works have been included many times in major arts festivals. His reputation is built on a quarter of a century of work, creating, funding and directing large-scale projects in diverse communities with high needs, in isolated settings.

      Big hART is Scott’s passionate contribution to the arts and society.

      Notable Mentions

      BIGhART: Authentic, high-quality art made with communities.

      Big hART brings virtuosic artists into communities to collaborate and create authentic stories which illuminate local injustice. We present these stories to mainstream audiences to help raise awareness. This builds public support for change and helps to protect vulnerable people.

      Everyone, everywhere has the right to thrive.

      Big hART works with communities experiencing high levels of need. Rather than focusing on the problem, our unique non-welfare projects build on community assets, strengthening vulnerable individuals, and creating long term attitudinal shifts. Our hope is for all communities to flourish.

      Positive, generational change begins as a cultural shift.

      Big hART designs and delivers transformative projects to address complex social issues. Our cultural approaches are evaluated and acknowledged as best practice. Decision makers seeking better solutions can use our award winning projects to help develop new and better policy. We aim to drive generational change.

      Ngapartji Ngapartji: Big hART designed the Ngapartji Ngapartji project to raise awareness of Indigenous language loss, and the lack of an national Indigenous languages policy. In order to create visibility around these issues, we launched a language and culture teaching portal, offered audiences the chance to learn Pitjantjatjara through a small teaching show, created short teaching films, as well as music and CDs with a Pitjantjatjara choir. We made a high profile documentary, and finally, a large award winning touring show for national festivals. By creating this range of art products, we attracted exceptional media and gained high level political interest in the issue. This assisted in driving a new Indigenous language policy and increased funding to help prevent language loss.

      Trevor Jamieson is a veteran of stage and screen with over 25 years of experience in the entertainment industry, and a long time creative partner with BIGhART.   He is known as an Actor, Dancer, Musician and Storyteller and his portrait, taken by Brett Canet-Gibson, took out the People’s Choice award for the 2017 National Portrait gallery exhibition in Canberra.

      Trevor is not only an accomplished actor but is also known for his ability on the guitar and didgeridoo. Trevor has also received acclaim for his dance performances across the globe.Trevor was announced as a Permanent Ambassador for the Revelation Perth International Film Festival in 2017.Some of Trevor’s screen work includes Storm Boy; Thalu: Dreamtime is Now; Boys in the Trees. His stage credits include the Australian tour of The Season; the Sydney Theatre Company’s The Secret River; and the performance of Namatjira at Southbank, London in front of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

       Art and Upheaval:  Artists on the World's Frontlines - Citizen artists successfully rebuild the social infrastructure in six communities devastated by war, repression and dislocation. Author William Cleveland tells remarkable stories from Northern Ireland, Cambodia, South Africa, United States (Watts, Los Angeles), aboriginal Australia, and Serbia, about artists who resolve conflict, heal unspeakable trauma, give voice to the forgotten and disappeared, and restitch the cultural fabric of their communities.

      Pitjantjatjara: The Pitjantjatjara (/ˌpɪtʃəntʃəˈtʃɑːrə/;[1] Pitjantjatjara: [ˈpɪɟanɟaɟaɾa] or [ˈpɪɟanɟaɾa]) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are varieties of the Western Desert language).

      They refer to themselves as aṉangu (people). The Pitjantjatjara live mostly in the northwest of South Australia, extending across the border into the Northern Territory to just south of Lake Amadeus, and west a short distance into Western Australia. The land is an inseparable and important part of their identity, and every part of it is rich with stories and meaning to aṉangu.[2]

      They have, for the most part, given up their nomadic hunting and gathering lifestyle but have retained their language and much of their culture in synergy with increasing influences from the broader Australian community.

      Today there are still about 4,000 aṉangu living scattered in small communities and outstations across their traditional lands, forming one of the most successful joint land arrangements in Australia with Aboriginal traditional owners.

      Melbourne International Arts Festival: Melbourne International Arts Festival, formerly Spoleto Festival Melbourne – Festival of the Three Worlds, then Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, becoming commonly known as Melbourne Festival, was a major international arts festival held in Melbourne, Australia, from 1986 to 2019. It was to be superseded by a new festival called Rising from 2020 (which was subsequently derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia).

      Scott Rankin: When I describe BIGhART to folks in the US they accuse me of making it up. In this episode Scott Rankin, BIGhART’s founder, describes how this expansive, constantly morphing, multi-disciplinary, thirty-year long enterprise became one of the world's leading arts and social change organizations.

      This is first of two episodes featuring Scott. You can listen to Chapter 2 HERE

      BIO

      Scott co-founded Big hART with friend John Bakes in 1992. As CEO and Creative Director, Scott leads the overarching vision for all Big hART projects – from pilot through to legacy. A leader and teacher in the field of social and cultural innovation, Scott provides daily mentorship and knowledge transfer to all Big hART staff so that they can in turn lead our projects with confidence.

      An award winning writer and director in his own right, Scott’s works have been included many times in major arts festivals. His reputation is built on a quarter of a century of work, creating, funding and directing large-scale projects in diverse communities with high needs, in isolated settings.

      Big hART is Scott’s passionate contribution to the arts and society.

      Notable Mentions

      BIGhART: Authentic, high-quality art made with communities.

      Big hART brings virtuosic artists into communities to collaborate and create authentic stories which illuminate local injustice. We present these stories to mainstream audiences to help raise awareness. This builds public support for change and helps to protect vulnerable people.

      Everyone, everywhere has the right to thrive.

      Big hART works with communities experiencing high levels of need. Rather than focusing on the problem, our unique non-welfare projects build on community assets, strengthening vulnerable individuals, and creating long term attitudinal shifts. Our hope is for all communities to flourish.

      Positive, generational change begins as a cultural shift.

      Big hART designs and delivers transformative projects to address complex social issues. Our cultural approaches are evaluated and acknowledged as best practice. Decision makers seeking better solutions can use our award winning projects to help develop new and better policy. We aim to drive generational change.

      Ngapartji Ngapartji: Big hART designed the Ngapartji Ngapartji project to raise awareness of Indigenous language loss, and the lack of an national Indigenous languages policy. In order to create visibility around these issues, we launched a language and culture teaching portal, offered audiences the chance to learn Pitjantjatjara through a small teaching show, created short teaching films, as well as music and CDs with a Pitjantjatjara choir. We made a high profile documentary, and finally, a large award winning touring show for national festivals. By creating this range of art products, we attracted exceptional media and gained high level political interest in the issue. This assisted in driving a new Indigenous language policy and increased funding to help prevent language loss.

      Trevor Jamieson is a veteran of stage and screen with over 25 years of experience in the entertainment industry, and a long time creative partner with BIGhART.   He is known as an Actor, Dancer, Musician and Storyteller and his portrait, taken by Brett Canet-Gibson, took out the People’s Choice award for the 2017 National Portrait gallery exhibition in Canberra.

      Trevor is not only an accomplished actor but is also known for his ability on the guitar and didgeridoo. Trevor has also received acclaim for his dance performances across the globe.Trevor was announced as a Permanent Ambassador for the Revelation Perth International Film Festival in 2017.Some of Trevor’s screen work includes Storm Boy; Thalu: Dreamtime is Now; Boys in the Trees. His stage credits include the Australian tour of The Season; the Sydney Theatre Company’s The Secret River; and the performance of Namatjira at Southbank, London in front of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

       Art and Upheaval:  Artists on the World's Frontlines - Citizen artists successfully rebuild the social infrastructure in six communities devastated by war, repression and dislocation. Author William Cleveland tells remarkable stories from Northern Ireland, Cambodia, South Africa, United States (Watts, Los Angeles), aboriginal Australia, and Serbia, about artists who resolve conflict, heal unspeakable trauma, give voice to the forgotten and disappeared, and restitch the cultural fabric of their communities.

      Pitjantjatjara: The Pitjantjatjara (/ˌpɪtʃəntʃəˈtʃɑːrə/;[1] Pitjantjatjara: [ˈpɪɟanɟaɟaɾa] or [ˈpɪɟanɟaɾa]) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are varieties of the Western Desert language).

      They refer to themselves as aṉangu (people). The Pitjantjatjara live mostly in the northwest of South Australia, extending across the border into the Northern Territory to just south of Lake Amadeus, and west a short distance into Western Australia. The land is an inseparable and important part of their identity, and every part of it is rich with stories and meaning to aṉangu.[2]

      They have, for the most part, given up their nomadic hunting and gathering lifestyle but have retained their language and much of their culture in synergy with increasing influences from the broader Australian community.

      Today there are still about 4,000 aṉangu living scattered in small communities and outstations across their traditional lands, forming one of the most successful joint land arrangements in Australia with Aboriginal traditional owners.

      Melbourne International Arts Festival: Melbourne International Arts Festival, formerly Spoleto Festival Melbourne – Festival of the Three Worlds, then Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, becoming commonly known as Melbourne Festival, was a major international arts festival held in Melbourne, Australia, from 1986 to 2019. It was to be superseded by a new festival called Rising from 2020 (which was subsequently derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia).

      Spinifex Country: The Pila Nguru, often referred to in English as the Spinifex people, are an Aboriginal Australian people of Western Australia, whose lands extend to the border with South Australia and to the north of the Nullarbor Plain.[1][2] The centre of their homeland is in the Great Victoria Desert, at Tjuntjunjarra, some 700 kilometres (430 mi) east of Kalgoorlie,[3] perhaps the remotest community in Australia.[4] Their country is sometimes referred to as Spinifex country.[5] The Pila Nguru were the last Australian people to have dropped the complete trappings of their traditional lifestyle.[6]

      Alex Kelly: Alex Kelly is an Australian freelance artist, filmmaker and producer based in regional Australia. Kelly was born in regional NSW and grew up in a farming community near Wodonga in regional Victoria,[1]

      Kelly has worked with diverse communities in Australia and around the world including Coober Pedy, Alice Springs, Amsterdam, Barcelona and the UK organising and lobbying for social change. She has been involved in community development, the arts, media (communication), environmental protection and social justice projects.

      Palawa people of Tasmania: The Aboriginal Tasmanians (Palawa kani: Palawa or Pakana[4]) are[5] the Aboriginal people of the Australian island of Tasmania, located south of the mainland. For much of the 20th century, the Tasmanian Aboriginal people were widely, and erroneously, thought of as being an extinct cultural and ethnic group that had been intentionally exterminated by white settlers.[6] Contemporary figures (2016) for the number of people of Tasmanian Aboriginal descent vary according to the criteria used to determine this identity, ranging from 6,000 to over 23,000.[1][2]             

      Edward Said: (1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian American academic, literary critic and political activist.[1] A professor of literature at Columbia University, he was among the founders of postcolonial studies.[2] Born in Mandatory Palestine, he was a citizen of the United States by way of his father, a U.S. Army veteran.

      David Mamet is an American playwright, filmmaker, and author. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988). He first gained critical acclaim for a trio of off-Broadway 1970s plays: The Duck Variations, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and American Buffalo.[2] His plays Race and The Penitent, respectively, opened on 57f4cbb4-df62-4c1f-a7a6-436b566707f9Wed, 13 Dec 2023 05:45:00 -070046:45truefull38686385: Tisidra Jones: Strong and Starlike85: Tisidra Jones: Strong and StarlikeTisidra Jones: is a poster child for cross-sector, hybrid creative community leadership. Trained in theater, and music, and as a lawyer, Tisidra has built a company that uses all of these assets in service to people and organizations working for change.

      BIO

      Tisidra is a sought-after speaker, award-winning artist and lawyer who works at the intersection of inclusion, engagement and equal opportunity policies. Her methodology blends legal and policy research, sociological studies, and arts-based approaches to community and civic engagement. Tisidra's life, education, and professional experiences encompass rural communities, law, the arts, sociology, community engagement and multidisciplinary education. She has a B.A. in Music with a minor in the Sociology of Difference from George Mason University. She acquired her J.D. from the University of St. Thomas School of Law and is licensed to practice law in New York and Minnesota.

      Tisidra has worked with nonprofits in the arts or those serving communities of color primarily when new programs were being launched or designed. On the public-sector side, she has worked with local, state, federal and international government entities. She acquired expertise as it relates to small, minority-owned, and women-owned business inclusion policies and programs. Whether working for the government or a nonprofit, every position Tisidra has held required project management, program design, infrastructure creation and community engagement.

      Finding connections across sectors has been integral to the work that Tisidra has done. As a result, she has served on over 30 boards, advisory councils and community engagement committees across sectors. She has also curated cross-sector advisory committees for major initiatives. 

      Notable Mentions

      Strong and Starlight Consulting:

      INNOVATION | We are a company of creative individuals. Innovative ideas are at the core of who we are. So, we love having the opportunity to work with you as thought partners and a sounding board as you generate ideas.

      INFRASTRUCTURE | To get from idea to implementation, you cannot get there without crossing the sturdy bridge of infrastructure. We help you design the infrastructure needed to ensure that your ideas, once implemented, have the support, tools, policies, procedures, and capacity to be sustained. 

      IMPLEMENTATION | Once the infrastructure is completed, we leave you with the tools and recommendations to take you through a pilot period and beyond. We can also continue working with you through the pilot period and equipping the next team that will carry you beyond your launch.

      Creative Community Leadership Institute (CCLI) Established in 2002 CCLI was a community arts leadership development training program developed by Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, MN. Over its 22 year history the program supported a network of creative change agents who continue to use arts and culture to help build caring, capable, and sustainable communities. When Intermedia closed its doors in 2017 the program was suspended. The program re-emerged in 2021 under the auspices of Springboard for the Arts in St. Paul Minnesota, and Racing Magpie in Rapid City, South Dakota. The program supports the development of strong leaders capable of challenging and disrupting oppressive systems in their communities by approaching their work with a critical lens and commitment to recognizing systems of oppression and normalizing conversations about race and colonialism. CCLI serves Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota artists.

      Dred Scott Decision: Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) In this ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that enslaved people were not citizens of the United States and, therefore, could not expect any protection from the federal government or the courts. The opinion also stated that Congress had no authority to ban slavery from a Federal territory.

      Dred Scott: Born in Southampton, Virginia, in his youth, Dred Scott was known as “Sam.” He later changed his name to Dred Scott. He moved with his master to Huntsville, Alabama and later to St. Louis, Missouri. In 1831 his owner, Peter Blow, died and John Emerson, a surgeon in the U.S. Army, bought him. He accompanied his new master to Illinois (a free state) and Wisconsin (a territory). While in what is now Minnesota, around 1836 he met and married Harriett Robinson. In 1843 Emerson died and left his estate to his widow Irene Emerson, who refused Scott’s demand for his freedom. He then obtained the assistance of two attorneys who helped him to sue for his freedom in court.

      Harriet Scott: Harriet Robinson Scott was an enslaved person who is best remembered for being the second wife of Dred Scott. Harriet was born a slave on a Virginia plantation around 1820. From a young age she was a servant to Lawrence Taliaferro, a US Indian Agent. In 1834 Taliaferro left his home in Pennsylvania for a post as agent to the Sioux Nation at St. Peter’s Agency in the Wisconsin Territory. He took Harriet with him to his new post. In theory, slavery was prohibited in Wisconsin Territory under the terms of the Northwest Ordinance of 1789 and the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Yet many US Army officers stationed in the territory continued to buy, sell, and own slaves. While at St. Peter’s Agency, Harriet met her future husband, Dred Scott, who had come to nearby Fort Snelling in 1836 as a valet to the fort’s new doctor, John Emerson. The couple was married in either 1836 or 1837 in a ceremony performed by Taliaferro.

      Dred and Harriet Scott Days at Historic Fort Snelling: Historic Fort Snelling will honored Dred and Harriet Scott with a free program on Sunday, December 4, 2016.  Dred Scott, a slave who was brought to Fort Snelling in 1830 by Army surgeon John Emerson, met and married Harriet there. The couple lived in Minnesota for only a few years, but their time in a free territory at Fort Snelling was key to the lawsuit they later filed for their freedom. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected their claim in 1857, stating that as slaves they were not citizens and had no standing to sue — a ruling that helped precipitate the Civil War.

      The International Leadership Institute, The International Leadership Institute directs the efforts of professionals and others who share a commitment to social justice, representative democracy, and nurturing community leadership. The professionals who work through the Institute to improve their communities are widely experienced in international travel, providing technical assistance in diverse forms, from teaching to business consulting. The Institute relies upon the expertise of skilled professionals and upon cooperation with other organizations to identify and fill gaps in existing community service.

      Judge Lejeune Lange: he Honorable Judge LaJune Thomas Lange is a senior fellow with the Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice. A retired State of Minnesota trial court judge, Lange is an expert on legal and constitutional standards for discrimination in state and federal courts. She began her career with the Hennepin County Public Defender's Office as a trial lawyer until appointed to the Hennepin County Municipal Court in 1985. She became a district judge when the Municipal Court was merged with the District Court in 1986 and served on the District Court Bench until her recent retirement.

      Prison Abolition Movement: The prison-abolition movement is a collection of people and groups who are calling for deep, structural reforms to how we handle and even think about crime in our country. Leaders include Angela Davis and Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and organizations (such as Critical Resistance, INCITE!, the Movement for Black Lives, the National Lawyers Guild, and Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee—all of which, if not explicitly abolitionist, at least engage in abolitionist ethics), and there are converging or at least overlapping...]]>Tisidra Jones: is a poster child for cross-sector, hybrid creative community leadership. Trained in theater, and music, and as a lawyer, Tisidra has built a company that uses all of these assets in service to people and organizations working for change.

      BIO

      Tisidra is a sought-after speaker, award-winning artist and lawyer who works at the intersection of inclusion, engagement and equal opportunity policies. Her methodology blends legal and policy research, sociological studies, and arts-based approaches to community and civic engagement. Tisidra's life, education, and professional experiences encompass rural communities, law, the arts, sociology, community engagement and multidisciplinary education. She has a B.A. in Music with a minor in the Sociology of Difference from George Mason University. She acquired her J.D. from the University of St. Thomas School of Law and is licensed to practice law in New York and Minnesota.

      Tisidra has worked with nonprofits in the arts or those serving communities of color primarily when new programs were being launched or designed. On the public-sector side, she has worked with local, state, federal and international government entities. She acquired expertise as it relates to small, minority-owned, and women-owned business inclusion policies and programs. Whether working for the government or a nonprofit, every position Tisidra has held required project management, program design, infrastructure creation and community engagement.

      Finding connections across sectors has been integral to the work that Tisidra has done. As a result, she has served on over 30 boards, advisory councils and community engagement committees across sectors. She has also curated cross-sector advisory committees for major initiatives. 

      Notable Mentions

      Strong and Starlight Consulting:

      INNOVATION | We are a company of creative individuals. Innovative ideas are at the core of who we are. So, we love having the opportunity to work with you as thought partners and a sounding board as you generate ideas.

      INFRASTRUCTURE | To get from idea to implementation, you cannot get there without crossing the sturdy bridge of infrastructure. We help you design the infrastructure needed to ensure that your ideas, once implemented, have the support, tools, policies, procedures, and capacity to be sustained. 

      IMPLEMENTATION | Once the infrastructure is completed, we leave you with the tools and recommendations to take you through a pilot period and beyond. We can also continue working with you through the pilot period and equipping the next team that will carry you beyond your launch.

      Creative Community Leadership Institute (CCLI) Established in 2002 CCLI was a community arts leadership development training program developed by Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, MN. Over its 22 year history the program supported a network of creative change agents who continue to use arts and culture to help build caring, capable, and sustainable communities. When Intermedia closed its doors in 2017 the program was suspended. The program re-emerged in 2021 under the auspices of Springboard for the Arts in St. Paul Minnesota, and Racing Magpie in Rapid City, South Dakota. The program supports the development of strong leaders capable of challenging and disrupting oppressive systems in their communities by approaching their work with a critical lens and commitment to recognizing systems of oppression and normalizing conversations about race and colonialism. CCLI serves Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota artists.

      Dred Scott Decision: Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) In this ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that enslaved people were not citizens of the United States and, therefore, could not expect any protection from the federal government or the courts. The opinion also stated that Congress had no authority to ban slavery from a Federal territory.

      Dred Scott: Born in Southampton, Virginia, in his youth, Dred Scott was known as “Sam.” He later changed his name to Dred Scott. He moved with his master to Huntsville, Alabama and later to St. Louis, Missouri. In 1831 his owner, Peter Blow, died and John Emerson, a surgeon in the U.S. Army, bought him. He accompanied his new master to Illinois (a free state) and Wisconsin (a territory). While in what is now Minnesota, around 1836 he met and married Harriett Robinson. In 1843 Emerson died and left his estate to his widow Irene Emerson, who refused Scott’s demand for his freedom. He then obtained the assistance of two attorneys who helped him to sue for his freedom in court.

      Harriet Scott: Harriet Robinson Scott was an enslaved person who is best remembered for being the second wife of Dred Scott. Harriet was born a slave on a Virginia plantation around 1820. From a young age she was a servant to Lawrence Taliaferro, a US Indian Agent. In 1834 Taliaferro left his home in Pennsylvania for a post as agent to the Sioux Nation at St. Peter’s Agency in the Wisconsin Territory. He took Harriet with him to his new post. In theory, slavery was prohibited in Wisconsin Territory under the terms of the Northwest Ordinance of 1789 and the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Yet many US Army officers stationed in the territory continued to buy, sell, and own slaves. While at St. Peter’s Agency, Harriet met her future husband, Dred Scott, who had come to nearby Fort Snelling in 1836 as a valet to the fort’s new doctor, John Emerson. The couple was married in either 1836 or 1837 in a ceremony performed by Taliaferro.

      Dred and Harriet Scott Days at Historic Fort Snelling: Historic Fort Snelling will honored Dred and Harriet Scott with a free program on Sunday, December 4, 2016.  Dred Scott, a slave who was brought to Fort Snelling in 1830 by Army surgeon John Emerson, met and married Harriet there. The couple lived in Minnesota for only a few years, but their time in a free territory at Fort Snelling was key to the lawsuit they later filed for their freedom. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected their claim in 1857, stating that as slaves they were not citizens and had no standing to sue — a ruling that helped precipitate the Civil War.

      The International Leadership Institute, The International Leadership Institute directs the efforts of professionals and others who share a commitment to social justice, representative democracy, and nurturing community leadership. The professionals who work through the Institute to improve their communities are widely experienced in international travel, providing technical assistance in diverse forms, from teaching to business consulting. The Institute relies upon the expertise of skilled professionals and upon cooperation with other organizations to identify and fill gaps in existing community service.

      Judge Lejeune Lange: he Honorable Judge LaJune Thomas Lange is a senior fellow with the Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice. A retired State of Minnesota trial court judge, Lange is an expert on legal and constitutional standards for discrimination in state and federal courts. She began her career with the Hennepin County Public Defender's Office as a trial lawyer until appointed to the Hennepin County Municipal Court in 1985. She became a district judge when the Municipal Court was merged with the District Court in 1986 and served on the District Court Bench until her recent retirement.

      Prison Abolition Movement: The prison-abolition movement is a collection of people and groups who are calling for deep, structural reforms to how we handle and even think about crime in our country. Leaders include Angela Davis and Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and organizations (such as Critical Resistance, INCITE!, the Movement for Black Lives, the National Lawyers Guild, and Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee—all of which, if not explicitly abolitionist, at least engage in abolitionist ethics), and there are converging or at least overlapping political ideologies (anarchist, socialist, libertarian).

      Karen Rosenblum is Associate Professor Emerita of Sociology. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado, Boulder. During her thirty-five-year tenure at George Mason, she served as the founding Director of the Women’s Studies Program and as the university’s first Vice President of University Life. She has been the recipient of two Fulbright Lecturer awards: 2006 in Japan (the University of Tokyo and Japan Women's University) and 2012 in South Korea (Ewha Woman's University). She was awarded a University Teaching award in 1996 and the David King Teaching Award in 2015. Prof. Rosenblum was an instructional faculty member in the 2014 inaugural year of George Mason University’s campus in Songdo, South Korea. Since 2016, she has taught Contemporary Social Problems at Virginia Commonwealth University.

      The Meaning of Difference: By Karen Rosenblum is a collection of readings that offers an integrated and comparative examination of contemporary American constructions of race, sex, social class and sexual orientation. Instead of focusing on victimization and oppression, the book covers the positive aspects of being a member of a particular group. 

      Philip George Zimbardo (/zɪmˈbɑːrdoʊ/; born March 23, 1933) is an American psychologist and a professor emeritus at Stanford University.[1] He became known for his 1971 Stanford prison experiment, which was later severely criticized for both ethical and scientific reasons. He has authored various introductory psychology textbooks for college students, and other notable works, including The Lucifer Effect, The Time Paradox, and The Time Cure. He is also the founder and president of the Heroic Imagination Project.[2]

      The Stanford prison experiment (SPE) was a psychological experiment conducted in August 1971. It was a two-week simulation of a prison environment that examined the effects of situational variables on participants' reactions and behaviors. Stanford University psychology professor Philip Zimbardo led the research team who administered the study.[1]

      ]]>3c2c82f9-9af0-4c1b-8645-54fcbb884646Wed, 29 Nov 2023 05:00:00 -070042:47truefull385853      84: Henry’s Return: Further Adventures of an Activist Artist from San Quentin84: Henry’s Return: Further Adventures of an Activist Artist from San QuentinIn Episode 34 Henry Frank shared the story of his long trek from San Quentin as a lifer, to finding both freedom and a community eager to learn from him as an artist, teacher, and healer. Here are three amazing new chapters that that Henry shared about his continuing journey.

      Bio

      I am a descendant of the great nations of the Yurok and Pomo Tribes. I am a returning resident, former Arts In Corrections participant/clerk, and currently working for the William James Association as the Communications Administrator and Teaching Artist at California Medical Facility (CMF), High Desert State Prison (HDSP), and California Correctional Center (CCC). I use my art to amplify the voices of people of color (specifically Native Americans), people who are currently experiencing incarceration, and returning residents (aka formerly incarcerated) to expose the mistreatment, dehumanization, and desolation. These people have voices, my contribution is to make sure it is heard beyond the reservations and prison walls. My connection and coexistence within the natural world, my heritage, my culture, and incarceration experience inspire and shapes my artistic expression. I draw from my childhood, my spiritual practice, my memories/treatment from my incarceration and living as a Native American in a colonized based society. Art has freed and expanded my scope of humanity and myself, it has been a tool for introspection, connection, and expression.

      "Art has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It has let me express things within me that I could not ever put into words. It has given me healing, strength, insight, and patience. If it was not for artistic expression...I would not be the human being that I am today."

      Notable Mentions

      Red Tail Art: This is Henry Frank's artist website. Here is how he describes his practice: I enjoy bringing art into existence, I love the entire process, creating the backgrounds, finding the perfect image that fits the background, choosing the right colors to bring it to life, picking up the paintbrushes and mixing the colors and finally putting brush to canvas. It is very calming and relaxing, I go into a meditative state when I am the zone.

      The Museum of the American Indian: “Located in Marin County and situated on a site of an actual Miwok Village, the Museum is dedicated to providing the people of Northern California with programs and exhibits that deepen understanding and appreciation of Native American cultures.”

      Yurok People: “The mission of the Yurok Tribe is to exercise the aboriginal and sovereign rights of the Yurok People to continue forever our Tribal traditions of self-governance, cultural and spiritual preservation, stewardship of Yurok lands, waters and other natural endowments, balanced social and economic development, peace and reciprocity, and respect for the dignity and individual rights of all persons living within the jurisdiction of the Yurok Tribe, while honoring our Creator, our ancestors and our descendants.”

       Pomo People: “The Pomo are an indigenous people of California. The historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point. One small group, the Northeastern Pomo of the Stonyford vicinity of Colusa County, was separated from the core Pomo area by lands inhabited by Yuki and Wintuan speakers. “ Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomo

      William James Association: “The William James Association promotes work service in the arts, environment, education, and community development. Our work has been primarily centered around transformative arts experiences in nontraditional settings, serving men and women in and after prison and high-risk youth. Acting on the conviction that the fine arts enrich, heal and unite communities, the William James Association has brought exceptional artists into prisons throughout California and other states since 1977.”

      Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, “Napoleon Hill: Oliver Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American self-help author. He is best known for his book Think and Grow Rich (1937), which is among the 10 best-selling self-help books of all time.[1][2] Hill's works insisted that fervid expectations are essential to improving one's life.[3][4] Most of his books were promoted as expounding principles to achieve "success". Wilkipedia

      AKTA Lakota Museum and Cultural Center, Pine Ridge: "The land that makes up Pine Ridge Reservation is an integral part of the Lakota culture and the economic base of the reservation. The reservation is situated in southwestern South Dakota on the Nebraska state line, about 50 miles east of the Wyoming border. The area includes over 11,000 square miles contained in seven counties; Bennett, Custer, Fall River, Jackson and Oglala counties in South Dakota." 

      First Peoples Fund: “We believe art and culture are essential to life. Art embodies Native peoples’ culture, our understanding of who we are and where we come from. Artists and culture bearers give us the power to connect with our past and chart our future. We center the inherent rights and freedom of native peoples. We recognize that Native communities know what they need best to flourish. Native peoples are not defined by colonization or genocide, but by the strength and beauty of our own identities, cultures, and leadership.”Yurok Language Revitalization: “When the language revitalization effort began the use of old records helped new language learners. However, it was through hearing fluent speakers that many young learners fluency level increased. When the Yurok Tribe began to operate as a formal tribal government a language program was created.”

       Graton Rancheria: “The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria,[1] formerly known as the Federated Coast Miwok, is a federally recognized American Indian tribe of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo Indians.[2] The tribe was officially restored to...]]>In Episode 34 Henry Frank shared the story of his long trek from San Quentin as a lifer, to finding both freedom and a community eager to learn from him as an artist, teacher, and healer. Here are three amazing new chapters that that Henry shared about his continuing journey.

      Bio

      I am a descendant of the great nations of the Yurok and Pomo Tribes. I am a returning resident, former Arts In Corrections participant/clerk, and currently working for the William James Association as the Communications Administrator and Teaching Artist at California Medical Facility (CMF), High Desert State Prison (HDSP), and California Correctional Center (CCC). I use my art to amplify the voices of people of color (specifically Native Americans), people who are currently experiencing incarceration, and returning residents (aka formerly incarcerated) to expose the mistreatment, dehumanization, and desolation. These people have voices, my contribution is to make sure it is heard beyond the reservations and prison walls. My connection and coexistence within the natural world, my heritage, my culture, and incarceration experience inspire and shapes my artistic expression. I draw from my childhood, my spiritual practice, my memories/treatment from my incarceration and living as a Native American in a colonized based society. Art has freed and expanded my scope of humanity and myself, it has been a tool for introspection, connection, and expression.

      "Art has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It has let me express things within me that I could not ever put into words. It has given me healing, strength, insight, and patience. If it was not for artistic expression...I would not be the human being that I am today."

      Notable Mentions

      Red Tail Art: This is Henry Frank's artist website. Here is how he describes his practice: I enjoy bringing art into existence, I love the entire process, creating the backgrounds, finding the perfect image that fits the background, choosing the right colors to bring it to life, picking up the paintbrushes and mixing the colors and finally putting brush to canvas. It is very calming and relaxing, I go into a meditative state when I am the zone.

      The Museum of the American Indian: “Located in Marin County and situated on a site of an actual Miwok Village, the Museum is dedicated to providing the people of Northern California with programs and exhibits that deepen understanding and appreciation of Native American cultures.”

      Yurok People: “The mission of the Yurok Tribe is to exercise the aboriginal and sovereign rights of the Yurok People to continue forever our Tribal traditions of self-governance, cultural and spiritual preservation, stewardship of Yurok lands, waters and other natural endowments, balanced social and economic development, peace and reciprocity, and respect for the dignity and individual rights of all persons living within the jurisdiction of the Yurok Tribe, while honoring our Creator, our ancestors and our descendants.”

       Pomo People: “The Pomo are an indigenous people of California. The historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point. One small group, the Northeastern Pomo of the Stonyford vicinity of Colusa County, was separated from the core Pomo area by lands inhabited by Yuki and Wintuan speakers. “ Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomo

      William James Association: “The William James Association promotes work service in the arts, environment, education, and community development. Our work has been primarily centered around transformative arts experiences in nontraditional settings, serving men and women in and after prison and high-risk youth. Acting on the conviction that the fine arts enrich, heal and unite communities, the William James Association has brought exceptional artists into prisons throughout California and other states since 1977.”

      Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, “Napoleon Hill: Oliver Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American self-help author. He is best known for his book Think and Grow Rich (1937), which is among the 10 best-selling self-help books of all time.[1][2] Hill's works insisted that fervid expectations are essential to improving one's life.[3][4] Most of his books were promoted as expounding principles to achieve "success". Wilkipedia

      AKTA Lakota Museum and Cultural Center, Pine Ridge: "The land that makes up Pine Ridge Reservation is an integral part of the Lakota culture and the economic base of the reservation. The reservation is situated in southwestern South Dakota on the Nebraska state line, about 50 miles east of the Wyoming border. The area includes over 11,000 square miles contained in seven counties; Bennett, Custer, Fall River, Jackson and Oglala counties in South Dakota." 

      First Peoples Fund: “We believe art and culture are essential to life. Art embodies Native peoples’ culture, our understanding of who we are and where we come from. Artists and culture bearers give us the power to connect with our past and chart our future. We center the inherent rights and freedom of native peoples. We recognize that Native communities know what they need best to flourish. Native peoples are not defined by colonization or genocide, but by the strength and beauty of our own identities, cultures, and leadership.”Yurok Language Revitalization: “When the language revitalization effort began the use of old records helped new language learners. However, it was through hearing fluent speakers that many young learners fluency level increased. When the Yurok Tribe began to operate as a formal tribal government a language program was created.”

       Graton Rancheria: “The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria,[1] formerly known as the Federated Coast Miwok, is a federally recognized American Indian tribe of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo Indians.[2] The tribe was officially restored to federal recognition in 2000 by the U.S. government pursuant to the Graton Rancheria Restoration Act[3][4] “

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>bd02b853-5831-47ac-aa87-6f7f57450372Wed, 15 Nov 2023 05:45:00 -070031:09truefull384843      83: A Radical Mama: The Art and Power of Amoke Kubat’s Cultural Resistance83: A Radical Mama: The Art and Power of Amoke Kubat’s Cultural ResistanceÀmọ̀kẹ́ Kubat's work rises up in a dozen different overlapping directions. In North Minneapolis you'll likely hear her described as an organizer, a puppeteer, a healer, a priestess, a playwright, a counselor, a writer, a teacher, an actress, a curator, a storyteller, and more often than not, a provocateur.

      Bio:

      Amoke Kubat is an artist, weaver, sacred doll maker, and sometimes stand-up comedian, who uses her art to speak truth to power and hold a position of wellness in an America sick with inequality and inequity. In 2010, Amoke began developing her Art of Mothering workshops, which became the foundation of Yo Mama’s House: a cooperative for women who are artists, mothers, activists, and healers in North Minneapolis. Amoke used her residency to support the development of Yo Mama’s House by building relationships with researchers of African history, race studies, and other fields that might inform her work to reclaim Indigenous African sensibilities.

      Notable Mentions:

      Creative Community Leadership Institute (CCLI) Established in 2002 CCLI was a community arts leadership development training program developed by Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, MN. Over its 22 year history the program supported a network of creative change agents who continue to use arts and culture to help build caring, capable, and sustainable communities. When Intermedia closed its doors in 2017 the program was suspended. The program re-emerged in 2021 under the auspices of Springboard for the Arts in St. Paul Minnesota, and Racing Magpie in Rapid City, South Dakota. The program supports the development of strong leaders capable of challenging and disrupting oppressive systems in their communities by approaching their work with a critical lens and commitment to recognizing systems of oppression and normalizing conversations about race and colonialism. CCLI serves Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota artists.

      North Minneapolis: Northside is one of Minneapolis’ most diverse neighborhood areas. Prince spent a few important formative, guitar-strumming, piano-tapping years in the area. The local businesses, events and entrepreneurs are bringing a new life and energy to the area with a focus on community-led growth. These changes include a thriving cultural presence, often seen through food and artistic expression.

       Paul Wellstone: (July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002) was an American academic, author, and politician who represented Minnesota in the United States Senate from 1991 until he was killed in a plane crash near Eveleth, Minnesota, in 2002. Over the years, Wellstone worked with senators whose views were much more conservative than his, but he consistently championed the interests of the poor, the farmers, and the union workers against large banks, agribusiness, and multinational corporations.

      Yo Mama's House: Mission: Our philosophy and practice is to empower mothers by disrupting the devaluation of women’s invisible labor and increasing the recognition of the ART of Mothering. It is MOTHERS’ collective legacies of maternal wisdom and know how that informs, nurtures, and sustains women. Healthy mothers raise healthy children, families and communities. Arts

      Walker Arts Center: From the Walker Webpage: The Walker Art Center is a renowned multidisciplinary arts institution that presents, collects, and supports the creation of groundbreaking work across the visual and performing arts, moving image, and design. Guided by the belief that art has the power to bring joy and solace and the ability to unite people through dialogue and shared experiences, the Walker engages communities through a dynamic array of exhibitions, performances, events, and initiatives. 

      Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired Rocking Chair,

      Kulture Klub Collaborative: The mission of Kulture Klub Collaborative (KKC) is to provide a safe, consistent space for youth ages 16-24 experiencing homelessness to freely enjoy access to the arts. At KKC, we believe that everyone is an artist. We expose, educate, and empower youth through quality multidisciplinary art experiences. We use art and creativity as a positive force in their lives for personal growth, social justice, actionable compassion, and community improvement. Mama

      Center for Cultural Innovations, Ambitious Fund: AmbitioUS is an initiative of the Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI) encouraging the development of burgeoning alternative economies and fresh social contracts in ways that artists and cultural communities can achieve financial freedom. Art Center at the University of Minnesota. 

      Angry Black Woman and Well-intentioned White Girl. Angry Black Woman & Well-Intentioned White Girl explores the cultural impact surrounding “Minnesota Nice” and the misunderstanding it can cause in interracial interactions. This play “Goes there!” by expressing the daily “unsaids” between black and white women.The accusations and silences reflect our miseducation about each other - the superficial and deep conflicts around our womanhood, ethnicities, rights, power, and constant juxtaposition of roles within the politics of white male patriarchy.

       Minnesota Nice: While there's no official definition, the term typically refers to Minnesotans' tendency to be polite and friendly, yet emotionally reserved; our penchant for self-deprecation and unwillingness to draw attention to ourselves; and, most controversially, our maddening habit of substituting passive-aggressiveness for direct confrontation. Cities Detoxifying Masculinity

      Yoruba, Ori: Ori is regarded as an intermediary between every man and the divinity whom he worships. Each individual’s Ori is his personal divinity who regulates his life in conformity with the wishes of the divinities who exist for the general public interest. Whatever has not been sanctioned by one’s Ori cannot be done by the divinities

      Mr. Jamar Clark: Jamar Clark was 24 years old when he was killed by Minneapolis police on November 15, 2015. He was at a friend’s birthday party when his girlfriend got into an altercation that resulted in someone calling the paramedics and police. Jamar was near the ambulance as paramedics treated his girlfriend. An onlooker reported that for some unknown reason police asked Jamar to step away from the ambulance. A confrontation ensued between Jamar and two police officers, who attempted to detain him, forced him to the ground, and fatally shot him. Jamar was unarmed, and according to eyewitnesses, was not resisting arrest.

      The officers were not disciplined by the department, and no charges were brought against them. Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists and supporters protested for 18 days outside the police precinct, protesting against hiding information, demanding the release of police dashcam and bodycam videos containing material evidence that can settle the truth of police accounts of the incident.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a...]]>Àmọ̀kẹ́ Kubat's work rises up in a dozen different overlapping directions. In North Minneapolis you'll likely hear her described as an organizer, a puppeteer, a healer, a priestess, a playwright, a counselor, a writer, a teacher, an actress, a curator, a storyteller, and more often than not, a provocateur.

      Bio:

      Amoke Kubat is an artist, weaver, sacred doll maker, and sometimes stand-up comedian, who uses her art to speak truth to power and hold a position of wellness in an America sick with inequality and inequity. In 2010, Amoke began developing her Art of Mothering workshops, which became the foundation of Yo Mama’s House: a cooperative for women who are artists, mothers, activists, and healers in North Minneapolis. Amoke used her residency to support the development of Yo Mama’s House by building relationships with researchers of African history, race studies, and other fields that might inform her work to reclaim Indigenous African sensibilities.

      Notable Mentions:

      Creative Community Leadership Institute (CCLI) Established in 2002 CCLI was a community arts leadership development training program developed by Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, MN. Over its 22 year history the program supported a network of creative change agents who continue to use arts and culture to help build caring, capable, and sustainable communities. When Intermedia closed its doors in 2017 the program was suspended. The program re-emerged in 2021 under the auspices of Springboard for the Arts in St. Paul Minnesota, and Racing Magpie in Rapid City, South Dakota. The program supports the development of strong leaders capable of challenging and disrupting oppressive systems in their communities by approaching their work with a critical lens and commitment to recognizing systems of oppression and normalizing conversations about race and colonialism. CCLI serves Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota artists.

      North Minneapolis: Northside is one of Minneapolis’ most diverse neighborhood areas. Prince spent a few important formative, guitar-strumming, piano-tapping years in the area. The local businesses, events and entrepreneurs are bringing a new life and energy to the area with a focus on community-led growth. These changes include a thriving cultural presence, often seen through food and artistic expression.

       Paul Wellstone: (July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002) was an American academic, author, and politician who represented Minnesota in the United States Senate from 1991 until he was killed in a plane crash near Eveleth, Minnesota, in 2002. Over the years, Wellstone worked with senators whose views were much more conservative than his, but he consistently championed the interests of the poor, the farmers, and the union workers against large banks, agribusiness, and multinational corporations.

      Yo Mama's House: Mission: Our philosophy and practice is to empower mothers by disrupting the devaluation of women’s invisible labor and increasing the recognition of the ART of Mothering. It is MOTHERS’ collective legacies of maternal wisdom and know how that informs, nurtures, and sustains women. Healthy mothers raise healthy children, families and communities. Arts

      Walker Arts Center: From the Walker Webpage: The Walker Art Center is a renowned multidisciplinary arts institution that presents, collects, and supports the creation of groundbreaking work across the visual and performing arts, moving image, and design. Guided by the belief that art has the power to bring joy and solace and the ability to unite people through dialogue and shared experiences, the Walker engages communities through a dynamic array of exhibitions, performances, events, and initiatives. 

      Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired Rocking Chair,

      Kulture Klub Collaborative: The mission of Kulture Klub Collaborative (KKC) is to provide a safe, consistent space for youth ages 16-24 experiencing homelessness to freely enjoy access to the arts. At KKC, we believe that everyone is an artist. We expose, educate, and empower youth through quality multidisciplinary art experiences. We use art and creativity as a positive force in their lives for personal growth, social justice, actionable compassion, and community improvement. Mama

      Center for Cultural Innovations, Ambitious Fund: AmbitioUS is an initiative of the Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI) encouraging the development of burgeoning alternative economies and fresh social contracts in ways that artists and cultural communities can achieve financial freedom. Art Center at the University of Minnesota. 

      Angry Black Woman and Well-intentioned White Girl. Angry Black Woman & Well-Intentioned White Girl explores the cultural impact surrounding “Minnesota Nice” and the misunderstanding it can cause in interracial interactions. This play “Goes there!” by expressing the daily “unsaids” between black and white women.The accusations and silences reflect our miseducation about each other - the superficial and deep conflicts around our womanhood, ethnicities, rights, power, and constant juxtaposition of roles within the politics of white male patriarchy.

       Minnesota Nice: While there's no official definition, the term typically refers to Minnesotans' tendency to be polite and friendly, yet emotionally reserved; our penchant for self-deprecation and unwillingness to draw attention to ourselves; and, most controversially, our maddening habit of substituting passive-aggressiveness for direct confrontation. Cities Detoxifying Masculinity

      Yoruba, Ori: Ori is regarded as an intermediary between every man and the divinity whom he worships. Each individual’s Ori is his personal divinity who regulates his life in conformity with the wishes of the divinities who exist for the general public interest. Whatever has not been sanctioned by one’s Ori cannot be done by the divinities

      Mr. Jamar Clark: Jamar Clark was 24 years old when he was killed by Minneapolis police on November 15, 2015. He was at a friend’s birthday party when his girlfriend got into an altercation that resulted in someone calling the paramedics and police. Jamar was near the ambulance as paramedics treated his girlfriend. An onlooker reported that for some unknown reason police asked Jamar to step away from the ambulance. A confrontation ensued between Jamar and two police officers, who attempted to detain him, forced him to the ground, and fatally shot him. Jamar was unarmed, and according to eyewitnesses, was not resisting arrest.

      The officers were not disciplined by the department, and no charges were brought against them. Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists and supporters protested for 18 days outside the police precinct, protesting against hiding information, demanding the release of police dashcam and bodycam videos containing material evidence that can settle the truth of police accounts of the incident.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>58ecf1a5-d944-49e3-8a6d-318dc3792799Wed, 01 Nov 2023 05:00:00 -070034:36truefull383833      82: Barry Gillespie on Art, Joy, and Compassion as Tools for Social Change and Healing82: Barry Gillespie on Art, Joy, and Compassion as Tools for Social Change and HealingBio

      Barry Gillespie was introduced to meditation practice in 1978, through the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Ashram. In 2003 he began exploring Theravada Buddhist practice, sitting many long retreats at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA and Spirit Rock in Woodacre, CA. His principal teacher is Guy Armstrong. Barry is an affiliated teacher with the Insight Meditation Community of Colorado (IMCC). He teaches mainly in Boulder and at the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center.

      Contact Barry @

      https://www.barryhgillespie.com/buddha_dharma_talks.html

      Notable Mentions

      StoryStory: A book and a short movie by William Cleveland and Barry Marcus.

      Find the book @ https://issuu.com/williamcleveland/docs/story_story_full_issuu_pages

      Find the movie @ https://youtu.be/pwI0GGW8zTs?si=qwfYhmJRET7-FGps

      Buckhorn Center: An experimental therapeutic and cultural center, north of Toronto Canada that operated in the 1980’s.

      Swami Vishnu Devananda: Vishnudevananda Saraswati was an Indian yoga guru known for his teaching of asanas, a disciple of Sivananda Saraswati, and founder of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres and Ashrams. He established the Sivananda Yoga Teachers' Training Course, possibly the first yoga teacher training programs in the West. Wikipedia

      The Experience of Insight by Joseph Goldstein: a modern classic of unusually clear, practical instruction for the practice of Buddhist meditation: sitting and walking meditation, how one relates with the breath, feelings, thought, sense perceptions, consciousness, and everyday activities. Basic Buddhist topics such as the nature of karma, the four noble truths, the factors of enlightenment, dependent origination, and devotion are discussed.

      Pali Canon: The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language.[1] It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon.[2][3] It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school.[4]

      Mudita: s a dharmic concept of joy, particularly an especially sympathetic or vicarious joy—the pleasure that comes from delighting in other people's well-being.[1]

      metta, In metta meditation, we direct lovingkindness toward ourselves and then, in a sequence of expansion, towards somebody we love already. Somebody we are neutral towards. Somebody we have difficulty with. And ultimately toward all beings everywhere without distinction.

      Theravada Buddhist: Theravāda (/ˌtɛrəˈvɑːdə/,[note 1] lit. 'School of the Elders'[1][2]) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school.[1][2] The school's adherents, termed Theravādins, have preserved their version of Gautama Buddha's teaching or Buddha Dhamma in the Pāli Canon for over two millennia.[1][2][web 1]

      four Brahmavihārā’s: The brahmavihārā (sublime attitudes, lit. "abodes of brahma") (Pāli: cattāri brahmavihārā, Sinhala: චත්තාරි බ්‍රහ්මවිහාරා/සතර බ්‍රහ්ම විහරණ) are a series of four Buddhist virtues and the meditation practices made to cultivate them. They are also known as the four immeasurables (Pāli: appamaññā)[1] or four infinite minds (Chinese: 四無量心).[2] The brahmavihārā are:

      1.   loving-kindness or benevolence (mettā)

      2.   compassion (karuṇā)

      3.   empathetic joy (muditā)

      4.   equanimity (upekkhā)

      Spirit Rock in California: Set among 411 acres of serene oak woodlands in the secluded hills of West Marin County, California, Spirit Rock Meditation Center is a refuge from everyday life where it's truly possible to quiet the mind, soften the heart and see life in a new way.

      Bio

      Barry Gillespie was introduced to meditation practice in 1978, through the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Ashram. In 2003 he began exploring Theravada Buddhist practice, sitting many long retreats at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA and Spirit Rock in Woodacre, CA. His principal teacher is Guy Armstrong. Barry is an affiliated teacher with the Insight Meditation Community of Colorado (IMCC). He teaches mainly in Boulder and at the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center.

      Contact Barry @

      https://www.barryhgillespie.com/buddha_dharma_talks.html

      Notable Mentions

      StoryStory: A book and a short movie by William Cleveland and Barry Marcus.

      Find the book @ https://issuu.com/williamcleveland/docs/story_story_full_issuu_pages

      Find the movie @ https://youtu.be/pwI0GGW8zTs?si=qwfYhmJRET7-FGps

      Buckhorn Center: An experimental therapeutic and cultural center, north of Toronto Canada that operated in the 1980’s.

      Swami Vishnu Devananda: Vishnudevananda Saraswati was an Indian yoga guru known for his teaching of asanas, a disciple of Sivananda Saraswati, and founder of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres and Ashrams. He established the Sivananda Yoga Teachers' Training Course, possibly the first yoga teacher training programs in the West. Wikipedia

      The Experience of Insight by Joseph Goldstein: a modern classic of unusually clear, practical instruction for the practice of Buddhist meditation: sitting and walking meditation, how one relates with the breath, feelings, thought, sense perceptions, consciousness, and everyday activities. Basic Buddhist topics such as the nature of karma, the four noble truths, the factors of enlightenment, dependent origination, and devotion are discussed.

      Pali Canon: The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language.[1] It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon.[2][3] It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school.[4]

      Mudita: s a dharmic concept of joy, particularly an especially sympathetic or vicarious joy—the pleasure that comes from delighting in other people's well-being.[1]

      metta, In metta meditation, we direct lovingkindness toward ourselves and then, in a sequence of expansion, towards somebody we love already. Somebody we are neutral towards. Somebody we have difficulty with. And ultimately toward all beings everywhere without distinction.

      Theravada Buddhist: Theravāda (/ˌtɛrəˈvɑːdə/,[note 1] lit. 'School of the Elders'[1][2]) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school.[1][2] The school's adherents, termed Theravādins, have preserved their version of Gautama Buddha's teaching or Buddha Dhamma in the Pāli Canon for over two millennia.[1][2][web 1]

      four Brahmavihārā’s: The brahmavihārā (sublime attitudes, lit. "abodes of brahma") (Pāli: cattāri brahmavihārā, Sinhala: චත්තාරි බ්‍රහ්මවිහාරා/සතර බ්‍රහ්ම විහරණ) are a series of four Buddhist virtues and the meditation practices made to cultivate them. They are also known as the four immeasurables (Pāli: appamaññā)[1] or four infinite minds (Chinese: 四無量心).[2] The brahmavihārā are:

      1.   loving-kindness or benevolence (mettā)

      2.   compassion (karuṇā)

      3.   empathetic joy (muditā)

      4.   equanimity (upekkhā)

      Spirit Rock in California: Set among 411 acres of serene oak woodlands in the secluded hills of West Marin County, California, Spirit Rock Meditation Center is a refuge from everyday life where it's truly possible to quiet the mind, soften the heart and see life in a new way.

      Mary Oliver, Wild Geese:

      Sharon Salzberg's Loving Kindness.: “Throughout our lives we long to love ourselves more deeply and find a greater sense of connection with others. Our fear of intimacy—both with others and with ourselves—creates feelings of pain and longing. But these feelings can also awaken in us the desire for freedom and the willingness to take up the spiritual path.”

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>7874a354-550a-4239-96b1-fec141e0c4d6Wed, 18 Oct 2023 09:45:00 -070050:32truefull382823      81: The Book of Judith: Prison Truth Through Fiction81: The Book of Judith: Prison Truth Through FictionPrison Truth Through Fiction

      How do you prepare artists to teach in the foggy upside down netherworld of prison? This episode tells how California's Arts in Corrections program answered that question with a twist. Excerpted from the recently published, The Book of Judith (New Village Press) and tells the amazing story of how poet/teacher Judith Tannenbaum's crafted the story of a fictional prison to reveal the often confounding reality of prison life.

      The Book of Judith: Opening Hearts Through Poetry

      Edited by Spoon Jackson, Mark Foss, and Sara Press

      An homage to the life of poet, writer, and teaching artist Judith Tannenbaum (b. 1947 – d. 2019) and her impact on incarcerated and marginalized students. The book presents different aspects of Judith through a collection of original poetry, prose, essays, illustrations, and fiction from 33 contributors who knew her. Each piece of writing spotlights a voice that Judith’s teachings once touched, and these combined memories help form a clearer picture of her legacy.

      Five pencil drawings, inspired by those serving life sentences in prison without possibility of parole, separate the book into the following sections: Unfinished Conversations, After December, Looking and Listening, and Legacy. In Unfinished Conversations, contributors share their bond with Judith Tannenbaum through prose and excerpts from letters both real and imagined. In the second section, After December, poets reflect on the life, artistry, and legacy of Judith. The third section, Looking and Listening, focuses on the truth-seeking qualities that Judith brought to her work. The fourth section, Legacy, features work from winners of an award and a fellowship bestowed in her name.

      Click Here to Access 9 Stories Exploring

      the Work of Artists in Prison in our JUSTICE ARTS COLLECTION

      ]]>      Prison Truth Through Fiction

      How do you prepare artists to teach in the foggy upside down netherworld of prison? This episode tells how California's Arts in Corrections program answered that question with a twist. Excerpted from the recently published, The Book of Judith (New Village Press) and tells the amazing story of how poet/teacher Judith Tannenbaum's crafted the story of a fictional prison to reveal the often confounding reality of prison life.

      The Book of Judith: Opening Hearts Through Poetry

      Edited by Spoon Jackson, Mark Foss, and Sara Press

      An homage to the life of poet, writer, and teaching artist Judith Tannenbaum (b. 1947 – d. 2019) and her impact on incarcerated and marginalized students. The book presents different aspects of Judith through a collection of original poetry, prose, essays, illustrations, and fiction from 33 contributors who knew her. Each piece of writing spotlights a voice that Judith’s teachings once touched, and these combined memories help form a clearer picture of her legacy.

      Five pencil drawings, inspired by those serving life sentences in prison without possibility of parole, separate the book into the following sections: Unfinished Conversations, After December, Looking and Listening, and Legacy. In Unfinished Conversations, contributors share their bond with Judith Tannenbaum through prose and excerpts from letters both real and imagined. In the second section, After December, poets reflect on the life, artistry, and legacy of Judith. The third section, Looking and Listening, focuses on the truth-seeking qualities that Judith brought to her work. The fourth section, Legacy, features work from winners of an award and a fellowship bestowed in her name.

      Click Here to Access 9 Stories Exploring

      the Work of Artists in Prison in our JUSTICE ARTS COLLECTION

      ]]>      96d9fbd3-22f1-461f-b3b8-7597483b7e22Wed, 27 Sep 2023 05:45:00 -070037:13truefull381813      80: Art for Art’s Sake – NOT!—and What Activist Artist Alice Lovelace Built Instead80: Art for Art’s Sake – NOT!—and What Activist Artist Alice Lovelace Built InsteadIn our last conversation, (Episode 26) we shared Alice Lovelace's tumultuous history as a solo teaching artist and performer working with young writers all across the rural south. What follows is Alice's next chapter. In it she talks about building an extraordinary multi-disciplinary, cross-sector cultural institution that rises up from the funky detritus of the pandemic as a new beachhead of creative change in a small Georgia Community.

      BIO

      Alice Lovelace is a cultural worker, performance artist, teacher, poet, organizer, author, playwright, and arts administer. Since 1976 Atlanta has been her home of choice; a fertile ground for artistic growth and activism, and in 1978, she discovered the Neighborhood Arts Center and met Ebon Dooley (Leo Hale) and Toni Cade Bambara. Together, they organized poetry readings and classes while conducting meetings for the Southern Collective of African American Writers (SCAAW).

      In 1981, Ebon and Alice founded the nonprofit: Southeast Community Cultural Center located at the former Grant Park Elementary School and in 1984 opened the former school as The Arts Exchange – a studio space for artists, a theater, recording studio, two galleries, a dance studio, and home to the Atlanta Writers Resource Center. Between 1998 and 2000 Alice became executive director of Alternate ROOTS, an artists-led southern regional organization; and along with Dr. Lisa Delpit and actress Jane Fonda, she founded and stepped into the role of executive director of the Atlanta Partnership for Arts in Learning (APAL). Currently serving as the president of the board of ArtsXchange, Alice continues to serve the public need through programs implemented at the nonprofit’s newly renovate facility in East Point, GA. 

      Notable Mentions:

      Change the Story/ Change the World  https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/change-the-story-change-the-world/id1687938227

      ArtsXchange | Community Cultural Center | East Point, Georgia

       Morehouse School of Medicine - MSM - Atlanta

      Sipp Culture – Telling Our Story, Growing Our Future

      Maynard Jackson, first Black Mayor of Atlanta

      Neighborhood Arts Center History - Community Art in Atlanta, 1977-1987 ...

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      In our last conversation, (Episode 26) we shared Alice Lovelace's tumultuous history as a solo teaching artist and performer working with young writers all across the rural south. What follows is Alice's next chapter. In it she talks about building an extraordinary multi-disciplinary, cross-sector cultural institution that rises up from the funky detritus of the pandemic as a new beachhead of creative change in a small Georgia Community.

      BIO

      Alice Lovelace is a cultural worker, performance artist, teacher, poet, organizer, author, playwright, and arts administer. Since 1976 Atlanta has been her home of choice; a fertile ground for artistic growth and activism, and in 1978, she discovered the Neighborhood Arts Center and met Ebon Dooley (Leo Hale) and Toni Cade Bambara. Together, they organized poetry readings and classes while conducting meetings for the Southern Collective of African American Writers (SCAAW).

      In 1981, Ebon and Alice founded the nonprofit: Southeast Community Cultural Center located at the former Grant Park Elementary School and in 1984 opened the former school as The Arts Exchange – a studio space for artists, a theater, recording studio, two galleries, a dance studio, and home to the Atlanta Writers Resource Center. Between 1998 and 2000 Alice became executive director of Alternate ROOTS, an artists-led southern regional organization; and along with Dr. Lisa Delpit and actress Jane Fonda, she founded and stepped into the role of executive director of the Atlanta Partnership for Arts in Learning (APAL). Currently serving as the president of the board of ArtsXchange, Alice continues to serve the public need through programs implemented at the nonprofit’s newly renovate facility in East Point, GA. 

      Notable Mentions:

      Change the Story/ Change the World  https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/change-the-story-change-the-world/id1687938227

      ArtsXchange | Community Cultural Center | East Point, Georgia

       Morehouse School of Medicine - MSM - Atlanta

      Sipp Culture – Telling Our Story, Growing Our Future

      Maynard Jackson, first Black Mayor of Atlanta

      Neighborhood Arts Center History - Community Art in Atlanta, 1977-1987 ...

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      774f897e-836b-404e-85ce-e78766108e4bWed, 13 Sep 2023 05:00:00 -070035:08truefull380803      79: Harry Boyte: Democracy & Imagination79: Harry Boyte: Democracy & ImaginationThroughout his career, activist, organizer, educator, and author Harry Boyte. has asked a simple, but obviously challenging question: How can we make democracy an everyday practice for everyone? Given the warnings about the end of democracy, our discussion about role of culture in the labor and civil rights movements, and the inseparable nature of imagination and democracy is timely, to say the least.

      BIO

      Harry C. Boyte is a co-founder with Marie Ström of the Public Work Academy and Senior Scholar of Public Work Philosophy, both at Augsburg University. He also founded the international youth civic education initiative Public Achievement and the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the University of Minnesota, now merged into the Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship at Augsburg University. Boyte’s book, Awakening Democracy through Public Work, Vanderbilt University Press 2018, recounts lessons from more than 25 years of revitalizing the civic purposes of K-12, higher education, professions, and other settings. In the 1960s, Boyte was a Field Secretary for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization headed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and subsequently was a community and labor organizer in the South. Boyte has authored ten other books on democracy, citizenship, and community organizing and his articles and essays have appeared in more than 150 publications including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Political Theory, Chronicle of Higher Education, Policy Review, Dissent, and the Nation. 

      Notable Mentions

      Part One: Free Spaces


      Part Two: Citizens


       

      Part Three: “These don't seem like such bad kids.”


       

      Part Four: The Dignity and Value of Work


      ]]>      Throughout his career, activist, organizer, educator, and author Harry Boyte. has asked a simple, but obviously challenging question: How can we make democracy an everyday practice for everyone? Given the warnings about the end of democracy, our discussion about role of culture in the labor and civil rights movements, and the inseparable nature of imagination and democracy is timely, to say the least.

      BIO

      Harry C. Boyte is a co-founder with Marie Ström of the Public Work Academy and Senior Scholar of Public Work Philosophy, both at Augsburg University. He also founded the international youth civic education initiative Public Achievement and the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the University of Minnesota, now merged into the Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship at Augsburg University. Boyte’s book, Awakening Democracy through Public Work, Vanderbilt University Press 2018, recounts lessons from more than 25 years of revitalizing the civic purposes of K-12, higher education, professions, and other settings. In the 1960s, Boyte was a Field Secretary for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization headed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and subsequently was a community and labor organizer in the South. Boyte has authored ten other books on democracy, citizenship, and community organizing and his articles and essays have appeared in more than 150 publications including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Political Theory, Chronicle of Higher Education, Policy Review, Dissent, and the Nation. 

      Notable Mentions

      Part One: Free Spaces


      Part Two: Citizens


       

      Part Three: “These don't seem like such bad kids.”


       

      Part Four: The Dignity and Value of Work


      ]]>      84492c66-6b72-4824-83c6-d2ebae7f2d73Wed, 30 Aug 2023 04:45:00 -070048:48falsefull379793      78: Carlton Turner: SIPP Culture Rising -Reprise-78: Carlton Turner: SIPP Culture Rising -Reprise-Carlton Turner understands that when you can't feed yourself the imagination is the first thing to go And if you can't "see" a different future you can't make change. Sipp Culture is about feeding both the body and the mind's eye.

      BIO

      Carlton Turner is an artist, agriculturalist, researcher, and co-founder of the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (Sipp Culture). Sipp Culture uses food and story to support rural community development in his hometown of Utica, Mississippi where his family has been for eight generations. He currently serves on the board of First Peoples Fund, Imagining America, Project South and the National Black Food and Justice Alliance. Carlton is a member of the We Shall Overcome Fund Advisory Committee at the Highlander Center for Research and Education and is the former Executive Director of Alternate ROOTS and is a founding partner of the Intercultural Leadership Institute.

      Carlton is a current Interdisciplinary Research Fellow with the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and was named to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts YBCA100. He is also a former Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow and former Cultural Policy Fellow at the Creative Placemaking Institute at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design in the Arts.

      Carlton Turner is also co-founder and co-artistic director, along with his brother Maurice Turner, of the group M.U.G.A.B.E.E. (Men Under Guidance Acting Before Early Extinction). M.U.G.A.B.E.E. is a Mississippi-based performing arts group that blends of jazz, hip-hop, spoken word poetry and soul music together with non-traditional storytelling. His current work is River Sols, a new play being developed in collaboration with Pangea World Theater that explores race, identity, class, faith, and difference across African American and South Asian communities through embodiment of a river.

      He is also a member of the Rural Wealth Lab at RUPRI (Rural Policy Research Institute) and an advisor to the Kresge Foundation’s FreshLo Initiative. In 2018, Carlton was awarded the Sidney Yates Award for Advocacy in the Performing Arts by the Association of Performing Arts Professionals. Carlton has also received the M. Edgar Rosenblum award for outstanding contribution to Ensemble Theater (2011) and the Otto René Castillo Awards for Political Theatre (2015).

      Notable Mentions

      SIPP Culture: The Mississippi Center for Cultural Production is an approach and resource for cultivating thriving communities. Based in the rural South, “Sipp Culture” is honoring the history and building the future of our own community of Utica, MS. 

      Sipp Culture supports community development from the ground up through cultural production focused on self-determination and agency designed by us and for us. We believe that history, culture, and food affirm our individual and collective humanity. So, we are strengthening our local food system, advancing health equity, and supporting rural artistic voices – while activating the power of story – all to promote the legacy and vision of our hometown.

      Octavia Butler: OCTAVIA E. BUTLER was a renowned African American author who received a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work. Born in Pasadena in 1947, she was raised by her mother and her grandmother. She was the author of several award-winning novels including PARABLE OF THE SOWER (1993), which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and PARABLE OF THE TALENTS (1995) winner of the Nebula Award for the best science fiction novel published that year. She was acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists, and social observations in stories that range from the distant past to the far future.

      Maurice Turner: Maurice S. Turner, II is co-founder of Turner World Around Productions, Inc. and one-half of the group M.U.G.A.B.E.E. (Men Under Guidance Acting Before Early Extinction), an artistic ensemble composing and performing a blend of jazz, hip-hop, spoken word poetry, and soul music on a totally conscience tip. Maurice works with people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds facilitating workshops, which range from music production to Civil Rights. When not performing with M.U.G.A.B.E.E., Maurice is a trumpeter for hire. He has shared the stage with many great musicians, which include The Wynton Marsalis Septet, Ellis Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, Mulgrew Miller, Jon Faddis, Danny Barker, Wallace Roney, Stranger Malone, Donald Byrd, Keeter Betts, Elise Witt, Jimmy Heath, Ray Drummond, Chris “Daddy” Dave, Randy Brecker, and Bobby Rush to name a few. He also served as Musical Director for Uprooted: The Katrina Project, a piece focusing on the displaced citizens of New Orleans and the various struggles that were faced during the catastrophe.

      Bob Moses: Robert Parris Moses (January 23, 1935 – July 25, 2021) was an American educator and civil rights activist, known for his work as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on voter education and registration in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement, and his co-founding of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. As part of his work with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a coalition of the Mississippi branches of the four major civil rights organizations (SNCC, CORE, NAACP, SCLC), he was the main organizer for the Freedom Summer Project.

      In 1982 Moses received a MacArthur Fellowship and began developing the Algebra Project. The math literacy program emphasizes teaching algebra skills to minority students, based on broad-based community organizing and collaboration with parents, teachers and students, in order to improve college and job readiness.

      Hollis Watkins: is an activist who was part of the Civil Rights Movement activities in the state of Mississippi during the 1960s. He became a member and organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1961, was a county organizer for 1964's "Freedom Summer", and assisted the efforts of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to unseat the regular Mississippi delegation from their chairs at the 1964 Democratic Party national convention in Atlantic City. He founded Southern Echo, a group that gives support to other grass-roots organizations in Mississippi. He also is a founder of the Mississippi Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement.

      Danny Glover:  is an American actor, film director, and political activist. He is widely known for his lead role as Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film series. He also had leading roles in his films included The Color Purple, To Sleep with Anger, Predator 2, Angels in the Outfield, and Carlton Turner understands that when you can't feed yourself the imagination is the first thing to go And if you can't "see" a different future you can't make change. Sipp Culture is about feeding both the body and the mind's eye.

      BIO

      Carlton Turner is an artist, agriculturalist, researcher, and co-founder of the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (Sipp Culture). Sipp Culture uses food and story to support rural community development in his hometown of Utica, Mississippi where his family has been for eight generations. He currently serves on the board of First Peoples Fund, Imagining America, Project South and the National Black Food and Justice Alliance. Carlton is a member of the We Shall Overcome Fund Advisory Committee at the Highlander Center for Research and Education and is the former Executive Director of Alternate ROOTS and is a founding partner of the Intercultural Leadership Institute.

      Carlton is a current Interdisciplinary Research Fellow with the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and was named to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts YBCA100. He is also a former Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow and former Cultural Policy Fellow at the Creative Placemaking Institute at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design in the Arts.

      Carlton Turner is also co-founder and co-artistic director, along with his brother Maurice Turner, of the group M.U.G.A.B.E.E. (Men Under Guidance Acting Before Early Extinction). M.U.G.A.B.E.E. is a Mississippi-based performing arts group that blends of jazz, hip-hop, spoken word poetry and soul music together with non-traditional storytelling. His current work is River Sols, a new play being developed in collaboration with Pangea World Theater that explores race, identity, class, faith, and difference across African American and South Asian communities through embodiment of a river.

      He is also a member of the Rural Wealth Lab at RUPRI (Rural Policy Research Institute) and an advisor to the Kresge Foundation’s FreshLo Initiative. In 2018, Carlton was awarded the Sidney Yates Award for Advocacy in the Performing Arts by the Association of Performing Arts Professionals. Carlton has also received the M. Edgar Rosenblum award for outstanding contribution to Ensemble Theater (2011) and the Otto René Castillo Awards for Political Theatre (2015).

      Notable Mentions

      SIPP Culture: The Mississippi Center for Cultural Production is an approach and resource for cultivating thriving communities. Based in the rural South, “Sipp Culture” is honoring the history and building the future of our own community of Utica, MS. 

      Sipp Culture supports community development from the ground up through cultural production focused on self-determination and agency designed by us and for us. We believe that history, culture, and food affirm our individual and collective humanity. So, we are strengthening our local food system, advancing health equity, and supporting rural artistic voices – while activating the power of story – all to promote the legacy and vision of our hometown.

      Octavia Butler: OCTAVIA E. BUTLER was a renowned African American author who received a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work. Born in Pasadena in 1947, she was raised by her mother and her grandmother. She was the author of several award-winning novels including PARABLE OF THE SOWER (1993), which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and PARABLE OF THE TALENTS (1995) winner of the Nebula Award for the best science fiction novel published that year. She was acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists, and social observations in stories that range from the distant past to the far future.

      Maurice Turner: Maurice S. Turner, II is co-founder of Turner World Around Productions, Inc. and one-half of the group M.U.G.A.B.E.E. (Men Under Guidance Acting Before Early Extinction), an artistic ensemble composing and performing a blend of jazz, hip-hop, spoken word poetry, and soul music on a totally conscience tip. Maurice works with people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds facilitating workshops, which range from music production to Civil Rights. When not performing with M.U.G.A.B.E.E., Maurice is a trumpeter for hire. He has shared the stage with many great musicians, which include The Wynton Marsalis Septet, Ellis Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, Mulgrew Miller, Jon Faddis, Danny Barker, Wallace Roney, Stranger Malone, Donald Byrd, Keeter Betts, Elise Witt, Jimmy Heath, Ray Drummond, Chris “Daddy” Dave, Randy Brecker, and Bobby Rush to name a few. He also served as Musical Director for Uprooted: The Katrina Project, a piece focusing on the displaced citizens of New Orleans and the various struggles that were faced during the catastrophe.

      Bob Moses: Robert Parris Moses (January 23, 1935 – July 25, 2021) was an American educator and civil rights activist, known for his work as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on voter education and registration in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement, and his co-founding of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. As part of his work with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a coalition of the Mississippi branches of the four major civil rights organizations (SNCC, CORE, NAACP, SCLC), he was the main organizer for the Freedom Summer Project.

      In 1982 Moses received a MacArthur Fellowship and began developing the Algebra Project. The math literacy program emphasizes teaching algebra skills to minority students, based on broad-based community organizing and collaboration with parents, teachers and students, in order to improve college and job readiness.

      Hollis Watkins: is an activist who was part of the Civil Rights Movement activities in the state of Mississippi during the 1960s. He became a member and organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1961, was a county organizer for 1964's "Freedom Summer", and assisted the efforts of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to unseat the regular Mississippi delegation from their chairs at the 1964 Democratic Party national convention in Atlantic City. He founded Southern Echo, a group that gives support to other grass-roots organizations in Mississippi. He also is a founder of the Mississippi Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement.

      Danny Glover:  is an American actor, film director, and political activist. He is widely known for his lead role as Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film series. He also had leading roles in his films included The Color Purple, To Sleep with Anger, Predator 2, Angels in the Outfield, and Operation Dumbo Drop.. He is also an active supporter of various political causes.In 2022, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences would bestow the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Glover for his "decades-long advocacy for justice and human rights [which] reflects his dedication to recognizing our shared humanity on and off the screen".[2][3][4]

      C.C .Bryant:  Elected president of the Pike County branch of the NAACP in 1954, Curtis Conway Bryant (1917-2001) played a major role in early civil rights activism of southwest Mississippi. He campaigned to expand membership in the NAACP, led large voter registration drives, and endured jail and bombings of his family home and barber shop, both of which served as local centers for movement activities. Bryant described McComb's violent summer of 1964 as "hell on earth."

      John O'Neal: Actor, director, performer, writer, community and civil rights activist, and pioneer of African American theater John M. O'Neal, Jr. co-founded the Free Southern Theater in 1963 as the cultural and educational arm of the southern Civil Rights Movement. His work as playwright and social activist demonstrates how his philosophy of art and politics are complementary, not opposing terms. O'Neal's artistic style and vision has afforded him the opportunity to perform widely for audiences throughout North America and Europe.

      M.K. Wegman with 40+ years of experience in presenting and producing for non-profit visual and performing arts organizations is the recently retired President and CEO of the National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network, which supports national and international touring and commissioning. As an independent consultant, she works with artist-focused organizations in the performing and visual arts. She is one of the founders of the New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center and is an emeritus board member, a past Board Chair of Alternate ROOTS, was founding president of the National Association of Artists’ Organizations (NAAO).

      Kathy Randels: Kathy Randels has been generating performance art at the intersection of gender rebellion and community activism since her graduation from Northwestern in 1991. For roughly 20 years now, Randels has led ArtSpot Productions, an interdisciplinary performance ensemble in New Orleans A sense of spirit-guided indignation has led Randels to create and perform avant-garde, site-specific theater in the streets of New Orleans, her flooded-and-gutted childhood home, the levees of St. Bernard Parish (an industrial suburb being gulped up by the Gulf's rising tides), and in the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in the hamlet of St. Gabriel (The LCIW Drama Club for inmates, The Graduates for those released).

      Jose Torres Tama: José Torres-Tama is a published poet and playwright, journalist and photographer, renegade scholar and arts educator, visual and performance artist, cultural activist and Artistic Director of ArteFuturo Productions in New Orleans. He explores the effects of mass media on race relations, the underbelly of the “North American Dream” mythology, and the anti-immigrant hysteria currently gripping the United States of Amnesia, which seduces you to embrace forgetting that the origin story of this so-called beacon of democracy is soaked in white supremacists’ beliefs. 

      Students at the Center: SAC) is an independent program that since 1996 has worked within public schools in New Orleans. co-directed by educators Jim Randels and Kalamu ya Salaam The students of SAC participate through English and elective writing and social studies classes in their schools. We teach both regular and advanced core curriculum classes that are open to all students. In addition to the daily classes, since Hurricane Katrina, SAC graduates have worked as key staff members, serving as resource teachers in public school classrooms, organizers for youth involvement, and producers of youth media.

      Carol Bebelle: Is a poet and cofounder of Ashé Cultural Arts Center. She has championed arts, culture, and community in New Orleans for over four decades. With determination and entrepreneurship, alongside the late visual artist and Ashé cofounder Douglas Redd, Bebelle ignited the revitalization of Central City’s Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard. Ashé is a Yoruba word meaning “the power to make things happen and produce change.” 

      Ashe Cultural Arts Center: Our charge as issued by Mama Carol, is to “to fly in leaps and gusts of provocation, instigation, inspiration and aspiration...to call for and exhibit the higher standards of justice, integrity, and kindness for all...to be brilliant concoctors of opportunity, creators of vision, navigators of bs, advocates of culture, and defenders of children...to make real the majesty of dreams, to make plain the magic of being, to manifest the difference between perceiving and seeing!” Ashé Cultural Art Center’s innovative programming is designed to utilize culture in fostering human development and civic engagement. We maintain 10,000 square feet of gallery space and 20,000 square feet of performance space to create and preserve opportunities for the curation, exhibition, and commission of fine, folk, and fine-folk art.

      Alice Lovelace is a cultural worker, performance artist, teacher, poet, organizer, author, playwright, and arts administer. Since 1976 Atlanta has been her home of choice; a fertile ground for artistic growth and activism, and in 1978, she discovered the Neighborhood Arts Center and met Ebon Dooley (Leo Hale) and Toni Cade Bambara. Together, they organized poetry readings and classes while conducting meetings for the Southern Collective of African American Writers (SCAAW). Alice shared her stories and wisdom in Episode 23 of Change the Story / Change the World.

      Nayo Watkins:  Nayo Barbara Malcolm Watkins (1939-2008) was a poet, essayist, playwright, arts consultant, and cultural organizer in North Carolina, where she lived, and throughout the South. For over 40 years she worked with nonprofit organizations with a focus on arts as tools in community empowerment and social transformation.

      Kathy deNobriga: A founding member of Alternate ROOTS, a service organization for community-based artists in the South, deNobriga served as ROOTS' executive director and planning/development director for ten years. A current board member of Alternate ROOTS, deNobriga is a certified mediator in the State of Georgia, and after three terms as Council member deNobriga served as Mayor for the City of Pine Lake from 2012 to 2015.

      Bob Leonard: Bob Leonard is a theatremaker, writer, and teacher at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA. He directs the MFA program in Directing and Public Dialogue. His work includes ensemble developed new plays and events as an expression of the public voice; and interactive theater techniques in partnership with local initiatives on race to generate, express, and animate public dialogue and civic imagination. He is the founding artistic director of The Road Company, an ensemble based in Johnson City, Tennessee -1975 to 1998. He co-founded the Community Arts Network (CAN) and is a founding board member of Alternate ROOTS and the Network of Ensemble Theaters (NET). He is project director of the VTArtWorks Initiative to construct an on-line resource for and with the field of grassroots and community-based art making aimed at advancing social and economic justice. b51f231e-1737-48a0-9be9-9c299d9c0778Wed, 16 Aug 2023 05:45:00 -070001:04:59truefull37878377: How a Dancing Theologian Turned Improvisation into a Global Movement for Art, Healing, and Social Change77: How a Dancing Theologian Turned Improvisation into a Global Movement for Art, Healing, and Social ChangeOver the past four decades, this episode's guest, Cynthia Winton-Henry, and the worldwide community, she and her collaborator, Phil Porter, have helped to grow, have sparked a reconvening of the pre-historic circle of dance and song, and story that animated and nurtured the nascent human community.

      For more inspiring change maker stories also check out the Change the Story Collection

      BIO

      Cynthia Winton-Henry, M.Div, co-founded InterPlay (www.interplay.org) with Phil Porter in 1989. They mentor teachers around the world in best practices to build community and unlock the wisdom of the body using movement, story, stillness, and voice. Cynthia hosts weekly Online Dance Chapels at the Hidden Monastery at www.cynthiawinton-henry.com and teaches the initiations needed by gifted and sensitive bodies using her Self-Care Playbook in the Art of Ensoulment. She’s taught at Holy Names University’s Sophia Center and the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, and at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, where she received the Distinguished Alumni Award. Her books include Move: What the Body Wants by Woodlake Press, Chasing the Dance of Life published by Apocryphile Press and Dance: A Sacred Art by Skylight Press, and wrote the concluding essay "Grace Operatives: How Body Wisdom Changed the World" in Phenomonlogies of Grace edited by Marcus Bussey and Camilla Mozzini.

      Notable Mentions

      Interplay: InterPlay is an active, creative way to unlock the wisdom of the body

      Phil Porter: Phil is one of the founders of InterPlay. He is a teacher, performer, writer, and organizer. With Cynthia Winton-Henry he is the co-founder of WING IT! Performance Ensemble, and has written several books, some in collaboration with Cynthia, including Having It All: Body, Mind, Heart & Spirit Together Again at Last and The Slightly Mad Rantings of a Body Intellectual Part One. Phil is particularly interested in the use of InterPlay in organizational life and believes that InterPlay can be a powerful tool to create communities of diversity and peace.

      African Art in Motion: The exhibition was based on a concept of Robert Farris Thompson, associate professor of art history at Yale University, that African art can only be understood through a grasp of African dance and ritual and in the special language of body motion: implied, arrested, or expressed. T

      Ruth St. Dennis: was an American pioneer of modern dance, introducing eastern ideas into the art and paving the way for other women in dance. She was inspired by the Delsarte advocate Genevieve Stebbins. St. Denis was the co-founder in 1915 of the American Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts. She taught notable performers including Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey. In 1938, she founded the pioneering dance program at Adelphi University. She published several articles on spiritual dance and the mysticism of the body.

      Doug Adams: (1945 April 12 - 2007 July 24) was professor of Christianity and the Arts at Pacific School of Religion for 31 years and member of the core Graduate Theological Union faculty. Adams was an international scholar in religion and the arts, worship, dance and humor. He authored hundreds of articles and a dozen books, inspired and mentored thousands of students, and lectured and conducted workshops throughout the US.

      God Sex and Power A 1992 completely improvised performance directed by Phil Porter and Cynthia Winton-Henry, cofounders of InterPlay, with Beth Hoch Scott Galuteria, Amar Khalsa, David McCauley, and Debra Weir. This performance, part of San Francisco's Edge Festival, happened in the Mission District.

      Masankho Banda is an accomplished dancer, drummer and choreographer from Malawi. Using performing arts, Masankho motivates and inspires people of all ages to work together for peace, social justice and cultural understanding. He has personal experience of living under a totalitarian government where his father was imprisoned in 1980 for his efforts to maintain democracy and economic stability in Malawi.  

      Coke Tani is a movement and literary artist, spiritual companion, and teacher/facilitator. In addition to having co-led the Secrets of InterPlay & Life Practice Program, Coke served as InterPlay's first Liaison to Leaders of Color, where she introduced the expansion of InterPlay forms for embodied anti-racism education, and co-created InterPlay's first BIPOC Daylong Retreat. She holds an MSW, MFA and MDiv.

      Kira Allen: This Certified InterPlay leader is an author, collage artist, activist, advocate, and facilitator who specializes in working with Black, Indigenous, People of Color and Queer communities. She holds an M.A. in Transformative Arts from John F. Kennedy University, and a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from Mills College. Bearing witness to her own traumas and triumphs through a wide variety of modalities inspires her work with participants of all ages in: classrooms, homeless shelters, churches, non-profits and intimate circles inside people’s homes. 

      Soyinka Rahim (GSP) is a grassroots spiritual practitioner who is the founder and artistic director of BIBOLOVE.US which stands for "breathe in breathe out love." She was also the founder of OurThing Performing arts company, where she created the modern-day folk dance play An Altar Piece to Alter Peace, a multimedia, intergenerational performance piece for peace. 

      Bibolove.US practice is to “breathe in, breathe out love.us” using meditation, affirmation, visualization and movement we allow our bodies to overflow with peace, love, joy, health, happiness, grace, and ease, knowing Love has the power to conjure up our light, aligning our seven chakras, connecting hearts and souls in all our relations.

      Kelsey Blackwell Decolonizing the Body: Healing, Body-Centered Practices for Women of Color to Reclaim Confidence, Dignity, and Self-Worth: Kelsey Blackwell Decolonizing the Body: Healing, Body-Centered Practices for Women of Color to Reclaim Confidence, Dignity, and Self-Worth.

      Mairi Campbell: Mairi Campbell is a Scottish folk singer and musician. Campbell's songs and music have a rooted and powerful quality that range from the everyday to the universal, both in sound and subject matter. Campbell has been much praised for her singing voice and musical skills

      The Lea Rig: A much loved song by the Scotish poet Robert Burns, that has manifested as many versions and interpretations.

      Hazel Lobo: Hazel is an artist, activist whose passion is to create safe and nourishing spaces. PLAY continues to be an integral part in her work on gender, sexuality and restorative justice. Playing with communities at the margins in India have continued to give her the courage to show up]]>Over the past four decades, this episode's guest, Cynthia Winton-Henry, and the worldwide community, she and her collaborator, Phil Porter, have helped to grow, have sparked a reconvening of the pre-historic circle of dance and song, and story that animated and nurtured the nascent human community.

      For more inspiring change maker stories also check out the Change the Story Collection

      BIO

      Cynthia Winton-Henry, M.Div, co-founded InterPlay (www.interplay.org) with Phil Porter in 1989. They mentor teachers around the world in best practices to build community and unlock the wisdom of the body using movement, story, stillness, and voice. Cynthia hosts weekly Online Dance Chapels at the Hidden Monastery at www.cynthiawinton-henry.com and teaches the initiations needed by gifted and sensitive bodies using her Self-Care Playbook in the Art of Ensoulment. She’s taught at Holy Names University’s Sophia Center and the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, and at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, where she received the Distinguished Alumni Award. Her books include Move: What the Body Wants by Woodlake Press, Chasing the Dance of Life published by Apocryphile Press and Dance: A Sacred Art by Skylight Press, and wrote the concluding essay "Grace Operatives: How Body Wisdom Changed the World" in Phenomonlogies of Grace edited by Marcus Bussey and Camilla Mozzini.

      Notable Mentions

      Interplay: InterPlay is an active, creative way to unlock the wisdom of the body

      Phil Porter: Phil is one of the founders of InterPlay. He is a teacher, performer, writer, and organizer. With Cynthia Winton-Henry he is the co-founder of WING IT! Performance Ensemble, and has written several books, some in collaboration with Cynthia, including Having It All: Body, Mind, Heart & Spirit Together Again at Last and The Slightly Mad Rantings of a Body Intellectual Part One. Phil is particularly interested in the use of InterPlay in organizational life and believes that InterPlay can be a powerful tool to create communities of diversity and peace.

      African Art in Motion: The exhibition was based on a concept of Robert Farris Thompson, associate professor of art history at Yale University, that African art can only be understood through a grasp of African dance and ritual and in the special language of body motion: implied, arrested, or expressed. T

      Ruth St. Dennis: was an American pioneer of modern dance, introducing eastern ideas into the art and paving the way for other women in dance. She was inspired by the Delsarte advocate Genevieve Stebbins. St. Denis was the co-founder in 1915 of the American Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts. She taught notable performers including Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey. In 1938, she founded the pioneering dance program at Adelphi University. She published several articles on spiritual dance and the mysticism of the body.

      Doug Adams: (1945 April 12 - 2007 July 24) was professor of Christianity and the Arts at Pacific School of Religion for 31 years and member of the core Graduate Theological Union faculty. Adams was an international scholar in religion and the arts, worship, dance and humor. He authored hundreds of articles and a dozen books, inspired and mentored thousands of students, and lectured and conducted workshops throughout the US.

      God Sex and Power A 1992 completely improvised performance directed by Phil Porter and Cynthia Winton-Henry, cofounders of InterPlay, with Beth Hoch Scott Galuteria, Amar Khalsa, David McCauley, and Debra Weir. This performance, part of San Francisco's Edge Festival, happened in the Mission District.

      Masankho Banda is an accomplished dancer, drummer and choreographer from Malawi. Using performing arts, Masankho motivates and inspires people of all ages to work together for peace, social justice and cultural understanding. He has personal experience of living under a totalitarian government where his father was imprisoned in 1980 for his efforts to maintain democracy and economic stability in Malawi.  

      Coke Tani is a movement and literary artist, spiritual companion, and teacher/facilitator. In addition to having co-led the Secrets of InterPlay & Life Practice Program, Coke served as InterPlay's first Liaison to Leaders of Color, where she introduced the expansion of InterPlay forms for embodied anti-racism education, and co-created InterPlay's first BIPOC Daylong Retreat. She holds an MSW, MFA and MDiv.

      Kira Allen: This Certified InterPlay leader is an author, collage artist, activist, advocate, and facilitator who specializes in working with Black, Indigenous, People of Color and Queer communities. She holds an M.A. in Transformative Arts from John F. Kennedy University, and a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from Mills College. Bearing witness to her own traumas and triumphs through a wide variety of modalities inspires her work with participants of all ages in: classrooms, homeless shelters, churches, non-profits and intimate circles inside people’s homes. 

      Soyinka Rahim (GSP) is a grassroots spiritual practitioner who is the founder and artistic director of BIBOLOVE.US which stands for "breathe in breathe out love." She was also the founder of OurThing Performing arts company, where she created the modern-day folk dance play An Altar Piece to Alter Peace, a multimedia, intergenerational performance piece for peace. 

      Bibolove.US practice is to “breathe in, breathe out love.us” using meditation, affirmation, visualization and movement we allow our bodies to overflow with peace, love, joy, health, happiness, grace, and ease, knowing Love has the power to conjure up our light, aligning our seven chakras, connecting hearts and souls in all our relations.

      Kelsey Blackwell Decolonizing the Body: Healing, Body-Centered Practices for Women of Color to Reclaim Confidence, Dignity, and Self-Worth: Kelsey Blackwell Decolonizing the Body: Healing, Body-Centered Practices for Women of Color to Reclaim Confidence, Dignity, and Self-Worth.

      Mairi Campbell: Mairi Campbell is a Scottish folk singer and musician. Campbell's songs and music have a rooted and powerful quality that range from the everyday to the universal, both in sound and subject matter. Campbell has been much praised for her singing voice and musical skills

      The Lea Rig: A much loved song by the Scotish poet Robert Burns, that has manifested as many versions and interpretations.

      Hazel Lobo: Hazel is an artist, activist whose passion is to create safe and nourishing spaces. PLAY continues to be an integral part in her work on gender, sexuality and restorative justice. Playing with communities at the margins in India have continued to give her the courage to show up and lead play in different spaces and context with the common desire to belong to community.

      Prashant Olalekar together with the InterPlay India team played a pioneering role in actively promoting InterPlay in India and building bridges through Global Peace Exchanges. He is a Jesuit, peace activist, spiritual director, and educator.

      Secrets of Interplay: The Secrets of InterPlay for Helping Professionals is a time for self-care, self-reflection and skill-building. As Audre Lorde reminds us - “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>5b402f35-a9c2-4fca-857d-d5c3768ce440Wed, 02 Aug 2023 05:45:00 -070055:26truefull377773      76: Alice Lovelace: How to Thrive as an Activist Artist and Creative Change Agent76: Alice Lovelace: How to Thrive as an Activist Artist and Creative Change AgentEpisode 76: Alice Lovelace: How to Thrive as a Creative Change Agent (Reprise)

      Lately, we have heard from many artists and arts organizations who are joining the creative change movement. In response, we are revisiting Alice's story of creativity, chutzpah, and courage as a peaceful disrupter making serious change across the deep south under the most challenging conditions.

      For more inspiring change maker stories also check out the Change the Story Collection:

      Threshold Questions & Delicious Quotes

      What is "This Poem" really about?

      This poem is a cultural hybrid

      Travelin' everywhere

      Belongin' nowhere

      Irresponsible, Irreverent

      And totally irrelevant

      What do you mean by Peaceful Disrupter?

      I am never happy with the status quo. So, I'm always looking for ways to disrupt the status quo and to move it in a more progressive [way] or [by] empowering those who I see are being left behind.

      And that has to happen a lot, they have to be those who make other people uncomfortable, so that in their discomfort they actually deeply contemplate change. Because when we are comfortable, we don't contemplate change.

      ... I'm a peaceful disruptor. I don't get loud. I don't, I definitely look for opportunities to shift power and to shift the conversation...

      What does "asking permission" mean in a classroom?

      When I walk into a classroom, the first thing I say to my class is I asked permission to be there. And often the teachers don't understand that, but I will say to the students, “this is your community, and I am an interloper, and other adults have made a decision that I should be here, but the rightful decision-makers are you because you were the one who had the power to make this a success or to make it a failure”. So, I always ask their permission.

      How can you fight the power of the false narrative?

      I've never forgot the lesson of. Standing up to bullies, not getting into the stories people are telling about you, ...the moment that you try to speak to that story, all it's going to do is keep that story spinning. So, I would never address it.

      Music Attribution

      Variations on a theme 1 » The Rush (w/ drum) - Variations 1 (c) by PodcastAC

      This work is licensed under a

      Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

      You should have received a copy of the license along with this

      work. If not, see <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      Episode 76: Alice Lovelace: How to Thrive as a Creative Change Agent (Reprise)

      Lately, we have heard from many artists and arts organizations who are joining the creative change movement. In response, we are revisiting Alice's story of creativity, chutzpah, and courage as a peaceful disrupter making serious change across the deep south under the most challenging conditions.

      For more inspiring change maker stories also check out the Change the Story Collection:

      Threshold Questions & Delicious Quotes

      What is "This Poem" really about?

      This poem is a cultural hybrid

      Travelin' everywhere

      Belongin' nowhere

      Irresponsible, Irreverent

      And totally irrelevant

      What do you mean by Peaceful Disrupter?

      I am never happy with the status quo. So, I'm always looking for ways to disrupt the status quo and to move it in a more progressive [way] or [by] empowering those who I see are being left behind.

      And that has to happen a lot, they have to be those who make other people uncomfortable, so that in their discomfort they actually deeply contemplate change. Because when we are comfortable, we don't contemplate change.

      ... I'm a peaceful disruptor. I don't get loud. I don't, I definitely look for opportunities to shift power and to shift the conversation...

      What does "asking permission" mean in a classroom?

      When I walk into a classroom, the first thing I say to my class is I asked permission to be there. And often the teachers don't understand that, but I will say to the students, “this is your community, and I am an interloper, and other adults have made a decision that I should be here, but the rightful decision-makers are you because you were the one who had the power to make this a success or to make it a failure”. So, I always ask their permission.

      How can you fight the power of the false narrative?

      I've never forgot the lesson of. Standing up to bullies, not getting into the stories people are telling about you, ...the moment that you try to speak to that story, all it's going to do is keep that story spinning. So, I would never address it.

      Music Attribution

      Variations on a theme 1 » The Rush (w/ drum) - Variations 1 (c) by PodcastAC

      This work is licensed under a

      Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

      You should have received a copy of the license along with this

      work. If not, see <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      75558eaa-9902-4f94-9251-646b79e7150fWed, 19 Jul 2023 05:45:00 -070045:39truefull376763      75: Brain Dance: How the Arts Rewire Us for Justice and Belonging (Cultural Organizing + Neuroscience Connect)75: Brain Dance: How the Arts Rewire Us for Justice and Belonging (Cultural Organizing + Neuroscience Connect)Spending time with the Breaking Ice theater based diversity, equity, and inclusion program gave rise to a question: How might new insights about how the brain works might help us better understand the how and why of our continuing struggle with difference? Here is what ensued. 

      LISTEN TO Breaking Ice Chapter 1

      LISTEN TO Breaking Ice Chapter 2

      Change the Story / All Episodes 

      Change the Story Collections - Our full catalogue of Episodes in 12 Collections: Justice Arts, Art & Healing, Cultural Organizing, Arts Ed./Children & Youth, Community Arts Training, Music for Change, Theater for Change, Change Making Media, Creative Climate Action, Art of the Rural

      Notable Mentions

      Breaking Ice is the award-winning program of Pillsbury House Theatre that for over 20 years has been “breaking the ice” for courageous and productive dialogue around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. A diverse company of professional actors portrays real-life situations that are customized to meet the goals, needs and culture of each unique organization we serve.

      Pillsbury House and Theater is a groundbreaking “new model for human service work that recognizes the power of the arts and culture to stimulate community participation, investment and ownership.”

      Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: was a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of "flow", a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity.[1][2] He was the Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University. He was also the former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College.[3]

      Sources

      Question 2: How does our environment influence what we think and believe? 

      1.Lobel, T. (2014) Sensations: The New Science of Physical Intelligence, Simon & Schuster.

      2 Eagleman, David. The Brain: The Story of You. Pg., 105, Vintage Books, 2017

      Question 4: Why are stories important? 

      3.Hamlin, JK, Wynn, K & Bloom, P (2007) “Social evaluation by preverbal infants.” Nature, 450(7169), 557-59.

      Question 5: What is empathy and what does it have to do with artmaking?

      4 Eagleman, David. The Brain: The Story of You. Pg., 143, Vintage Books, 2017

      5 Ibid.

      Question 11: If human cooperation and connection are so important, why do we struggle so with difference? 

      6. How do children develop a sense of self? - The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/how-do-children- develop-a-sense-of-self-5611

      7. Toddler | Preschool & Daycare | The Montessori Centre St Lucia. http://www.themontessoricentre.com/toddlers/

      8. Eagleman, David. The Brain: The Story of You. Pg., 143, Vintage Books, 2017

      Question 13: Why is play so important to human development? 

      9 Asma, Steven The History of Imagination, pg., 84, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2017

      10 Asma, Stephen, The Evolution of Imagination, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2017

      Question 15: How Can human creativity help us out of this mess?

      11 Boyd, Brian, On the Origin of Stories, Harvard University Press, Boston, 2010

      *******


      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      Spending time with the Breaking Ice theater based diversity, equity, and inclusion program gave rise to a question: How might new insights about how the brain works might help us better understand the how and why of our continuing struggle with difference? Here is what ensued. 

      LISTEN TO Breaking Ice Chapter 1

      LISTEN TO Breaking Ice Chapter 2

      Change the Story / All Episodes 

      Change the Story Collections - Our full catalogue of Episodes in 12 Collections: Justice Arts, Art & Healing, Cultural Organizing, Arts Ed./Children & Youth, Community Arts Training, Music for Change, Theater for Change, Change Making Media, Creative Climate Action, Art of the Rural

      Notable Mentions

      Breaking Ice is the award-winning program of Pillsbury House Theatre that for over 20 years has been “breaking the ice” for courageous and productive dialogue around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. A diverse company of professional actors portrays real-life situations that are customized to meet the goals, needs and culture of each unique organization we serve.

      Pillsbury House and Theater is a groundbreaking “new model for human service work that recognizes the power of the arts and culture to stimulate community participation, investment and ownership.”

      Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: was a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of "flow", a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity.[1][2] He was the Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University. He was also the former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College.[3]

      Sources

      Question 2: How does our environment influence what we think and believe? 

      1.Lobel, T. (2014) Sensations: The New Science of Physical Intelligence, Simon & Schuster.

      2 Eagleman, David. The Brain: The Story of You. Pg., 105, Vintage Books, 2017

      Question 4: Why are stories important? 

      3.Hamlin, JK, Wynn, K & Bloom, P (2007) “Social evaluation by preverbal infants.” Nature, 450(7169), 557-59.

      Question 5: What is empathy and what does it have to do with artmaking?

      4 Eagleman, David. The Brain: The Story of You. Pg., 143, Vintage Books, 2017

      5 Ibid.

      Question 11: If human cooperation and connection are so important, why do we struggle so with difference? 

      6. How do children develop a sense of self? - The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/how-do-children- develop-a-sense-of-self-5611

      7. Toddler | Preschool & Daycare | The Montessori Centre St Lucia. http://www.themontessoricentre.com/toddlers/

      8. Eagleman, David. The Brain: The Story of You. Pg., 143, Vintage Books, 2017

      Question 13: Why is play so important to human development? 

      9 Asma, Steven The History of Imagination, pg., 84, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2017

      10 Asma, Stephen, The Evolution of Imagination, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2017

      Question 15: How Can human creativity help us out of this mess?

      11 Boyd, Brian, On the Origin of Stories, Harvard University Press, Boston, 2010

      *******


      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      72976e73-6b5e-4d37-872c-44cc140b6574Wed, 05 Jul 2023 05:00:00 -070046:56truefull375753      74: When Fear Meets Hope: Theater and Dialogue in Healthcare DEI (Arts Activism + Cultural Organizing) – Part 274: When Fear Meets Hope: Theater and Dialogue in Healthcare DEI (Arts Activism + Cultural Organizing) – Part 2Breaking Ice - Chapter 2

      Fear of judgement, the courage of sharing pain, or guilt, or confusion, owning that not knowing is not an excuse for hurting, that humility is hard, that learning hard things is harder, and accepting responsibility is a daily struggle. This is the rocky relational landscape being explored by five BreakIng Ice performers on a bare stage at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. louis, Missouri in the winter of 2019.

      LISTEN TO Breaking Ice Chapter 1

      Change the Story / All Episodes

      Change the Story Collections - Our full catalogue of Episodes in 12 Collections: Justice Arts, Art & Healing, Cultural Organizing, Arts Ed./Children & Youth, Community Arts Training, Music for Change, Theater for Change, Change Making Media, Creative Climate Action, Art of the Rural

      BIO's

      Noël Raymond holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Minnesota and a BFA from Ithaca College in New York. She currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Multicultural Development Center and the Burning House Group Theatre Company which she co-founded in 1993. She is also a company member of Carlyle Brown and Company. She has taught acting classes and theatre movement in multiple settings to children, college students and adults with developmental disabilities. Noël is an Equity actor who has performed with Pillsbury House Theatre, the Burning House Group, the Guthrie Theater, Penumbra Theatre, Bryant Lake Bowl, and Minnesota Festival Theatres in Minnesota as well as the Hangar Theatre in New York. Noël’s directing credits include Underneath the Lintel, An Almost Holy Picture, Far Away, Angels in America: Parts I and II, and [sic] at Pillsbury House Theatre, From Shadows to Light at Theatre Mu, The BI Show with MaMa mOsAiC, and multiple staged readings and workshops through the Playwrights’ Center, among others. Noël has served on numerous panels including TCG/American Theatre, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Playwright’s Center and United Arts, to name a few.

      Kurt Kwan has been creating performances and facilitating dialogues around issues of Diversity and Inclusion with the Breaking Ice company since 2001. He also manages the Late Nite and Naked Stages programs. As an actor he has performed with Ten Thousand Things, The Walker, Childrens Theatre Company, Mu Performing Arts, New York Asian American Writers, The History Theatre, and Theatre La Homme Dieu.

      Notable Mentions

      DEI programs: Diversity, equity, and inclusion (usually abbreviated DEI) refers to organizational frameworks which seek to promote "the fair treatment and full participation of all people", particularly groups "who have historically been underrepresented or subject to discrimination" on the basis of identity or disability.[1]

      Barnes Jewish Hospital is the largest hospital in the U.S. state of Missouri. Located in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, it is the adult teaching hospital for the Washington University School of Medicine and a major component of the Washington University Medical Center. In 2022, Barnes-Jewish was named one of the top twenty hospitals in the United States by U.S. News & World Report in its annual ranking.[1][2]

      Pillsbury House and Theater.  is a groundbreaking “new model for human service work that recognizes the power of the arts and culture to stimulate community participation, investment and ownership.” This is the first of two PH+T chapters. 

      Here are links to Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 of our episodes on Pillsbury’s history a and a Bonus Episode: Lorraine Hansberry at Pillsbury House - Theatre - Gifted & Black 

      Pillsbury United Communities Beginning in 1879 with Minneapolis’s first settlement house, Pillsbury United Communities co-creates enduring change toward a just society. Built with and for historically marginalized and underinvested groups across our community, our united system of programs, neighborhood centers, and social enterprises connects more than 55,000 individuals and their families each year. We are guided by a vision of thriving communities where every person has personal, social, and economic power.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      Breaking Ice - Chapter 2

      Fear of judgement, the courage of sharing pain, or guilt, or confusion, owning that not knowing is not an excuse for hurting, that humility is hard, that learning hard things is harder, and accepting responsibility is a daily struggle. This is the rocky relational landscape being explored by five BreakIng Ice performers on a bare stage at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. louis, Missouri in the winter of 2019.

      LISTEN TO Breaking Ice Chapter 1

      Change the Story / All Episodes

      Change the Story Collections - Our full catalogue of Episodes in 12 Collections: Justice Arts, Art & Healing, Cultural Organizing, Arts Ed./Children & Youth, Community Arts Training, Music for Change, Theater for Change, Change Making Media, Creative Climate Action, Art of the Rural

      BIO's

      Noël Raymond holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Minnesota and a BFA from Ithaca College in New York. She currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Multicultural Development Center and the Burning House Group Theatre Company which she co-founded in 1993. She is also a company member of Carlyle Brown and Company. She has taught acting classes and theatre movement in multiple settings to children, college students and adults with developmental disabilities. Noël is an Equity actor who has performed with Pillsbury House Theatre, the Burning House Group, the Guthrie Theater, Penumbra Theatre, Bryant Lake Bowl, and Minnesota Festival Theatres in Minnesota as well as the Hangar Theatre in New York. Noël’s directing credits include Underneath the Lintel, An Almost Holy Picture, Far Away, Angels in America: Parts I and II, and [sic] at Pillsbury House Theatre, From Shadows to Light at Theatre Mu, The BI Show with MaMa mOsAiC, and multiple staged readings and workshops through the Playwrights’ Center, among others. Noël has served on numerous panels including TCG/American Theatre, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Playwright’s Center and United Arts, to name a few.

      Kurt Kwan has been creating performances and facilitating dialogues around issues of Diversity and Inclusion with the Breaking Ice company since 2001. He also manages the Late Nite and Naked Stages programs. As an actor he has performed with Ten Thousand Things, The Walker, Childrens Theatre Company, Mu Performing Arts, New York Asian American Writers, The History Theatre, and Theatre La Homme Dieu.

      Notable Mentions

      DEI programs: Diversity, equity, and inclusion (usually abbreviated DEI) refers to organizational frameworks which seek to promote "the fair treatment and full participation of all people", particularly groups "who have historically been underrepresented or subject to discrimination" on the basis of identity or disability.[1]

      Barnes Jewish Hospital is the largest hospital in the U.S. state of Missouri. Located in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, it is the adult teaching hospital for the Washington University School of Medicine and a major component of the Washington University Medical Center. In 2022, Barnes-Jewish was named one of the top twenty hospitals in the United States by U.S. News & World Report in its annual ranking.[1][2]

      Pillsbury House and Theater.  is a groundbreaking “new model for human service work that recognizes the power of the arts and culture to stimulate community participation, investment and ownership.” This is the first of two PH+T chapters. 

      Here are links to Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 of our episodes on Pillsbury’s history a and a Bonus Episode: Lorraine Hansberry at Pillsbury House - Theatre - Gifted & Black 

      Pillsbury United Communities Beginning in 1879 with Minneapolis’s first settlement house, Pillsbury United Communities co-creates enduring change toward a just society. Built with and for historically marginalized and underinvested groups across our community, our united system of programs, neighborhood centers, and social enterprises connects more than 55,000 individuals and their families each year. We are guided by a vision of thriving communities where every person has personal, social, and economic power.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      03d445e9-4d26-4762-b110-319103457f04Wed, 21 Jun 2023 04:45:00 -070041:33truefull374743      73: When Fear Meets Hope: Theater and Dialogue in Healthcare DEI (Arts Activism + Cultural Organizing) – Part 173: When Fear Meets Hope: Theater and Dialogue in Healthcare DEI (Arts Activism + Cultural Organizing) – Part 1This episode and next will tell the story my time with Breaking Ice and share what I learned about the program's evolution and history, its impact, and its innovative approach helping workplaces large and small "cultivate courageous dialogue around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.

      BIO's

      Noël Raymond holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Minnesota and a BFA from Ithaca College in New York. She currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Multicultural Development Center and the Burning House Group Theatre Company which she co-founded in 1993. She is also a company member of Carlyle Brown and Company. She has taught acting classes and theatre movement in multiple settings to children, college students and adults with developmental disabilities. Noël is an Equity actor who has performed with Pillsbury House Theatre, the Burning House Group, the Guthrie Theater, Penumbra Theatre, Bryant Lake Bowl, and Minnesota Festival Theatres in Minnesota as well as the Hangar Theatre in New York. Noël’s directing credits include Underneath the Lintel, An Almost Holy Picture, Far Away, Angels in America: Parts I and II, and [sic] at Pillsbury House Theatre, From Shadows to Light at Theatre Mu, The BI Show with MaMa mOsAiC, and multiple staged readings and workshops through the Playwrights’ Center, among others. Noël has served on numerous panels including TCG/American Theatre, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Playwright’s Center and United Arts, to name a few.

      Kurt Kwan has been creating performances and facilitating dialogues around issues of Diversity and Inclusion with the Breaking Ice company since 2001. He also manages the Late Nite and Naked Stages programs. As an actor he has performed with Ten Thousand Things, The Walker, Childrens Theatre Company, Mu Performing Arts, New York Asian American Writers, The History Theatre, and Theatre La Homme Dieu.

      Notable Mentions

      DEI programs: Diversity, equity, and inclusion (usually abbreviated DEI) refers to organizational frameworks which seek to promote "the fair treatment and full participation of all people", particularly groups "who have historically been underrepresented or subject to discrimination" on the basis of identity or disability.[1]

      Barnes Jewish Hospital is the largest hospital in the U.S. state of Missouri. Located in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, it is the adult teaching hospital for the Washington University School of Medicine and a major component of the Washington University Medical Center. In 2022, Barnes-Jewish was named one of the top twenty hospitals in the United States by U.S. News & World Report in its annual ranking.[1][2]

      Pillsbury House and Theater.  is a groundbreaking “new model for human service work that recognizes the power of the arts and culture to stimulate community participation, investment and ownership.” This is the first of two PH+T chapters. 

      Here are links to Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 of our episodes on Pillsbury’s history a and a Bonus Episode: Lorraine Hansberry at Pillsbury House - Theatre - Gifted & Black 

      Pillsbury United Communities Beginning in 1879 with Minneapolis’s first settlement house, Pillsbury United Communities co-creates enduring change toward a just society. Built with and for historically marginalized and underinvested groups across our community, our united system of programs, neighborhood centers, and social enterprises connects more than 55,000 individuals and their families each year. We are guided by a vision of thriving communities where every person has personal, social, and economic power.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      This episode and next will tell the story my time with Breaking Ice and share what I learned about the program's evolution and history, its impact, and its innovative approach helping workplaces large and small "cultivate courageous dialogue around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.

      BIO's

      Noël Raymond holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Minnesota and a BFA from Ithaca College in New York. She currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Multicultural Development Center and the Burning House Group Theatre Company which she co-founded in 1993. She is also a company member of Carlyle Brown and Company. She has taught acting classes and theatre movement in multiple settings to children, college students and adults with developmental disabilities. Noël is an Equity actor who has performed with Pillsbury House Theatre, the Burning House Group, the Guthrie Theater, Penumbra Theatre, Bryant Lake Bowl, and Minnesota Festival Theatres in Minnesota as well as the Hangar Theatre in New York. Noël’s directing credits include Underneath the Lintel, An Almost Holy Picture, Far Away, Angels in America: Parts I and II, and [sic] at Pillsbury House Theatre, From Shadows to Light at Theatre Mu, The BI Show with MaMa mOsAiC, and multiple staged readings and workshops through the Playwrights’ Center, among others. Noël has served on numerous panels including TCG/American Theatre, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Playwright’s Center and United Arts, to name a few.

      Kurt Kwan has been creating performances and facilitating dialogues around issues of Diversity and Inclusion with the Breaking Ice company since 2001. He also manages the Late Nite and Naked Stages programs. As an actor he has performed with Ten Thousand Things, The Walker, Childrens Theatre Company, Mu Performing Arts, New York Asian American Writers, The History Theatre, and Theatre La Homme Dieu.

      Notable Mentions

      DEI programs: Diversity, equity, and inclusion (usually abbreviated DEI) refers to organizational frameworks which seek to promote "the fair treatment and full participation of all people", particularly groups "who have historically been underrepresented or subject to discrimination" on the basis of identity or disability.[1]

      Barnes Jewish Hospital is the largest hospital in the U.S. state of Missouri. Located in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, it is the adult teaching hospital for the Washington University School of Medicine and a major component of the Washington University Medical Center. In 2022, Barnes-Jewish was named one of the top twenty hospitals in the United States by U.S. News & World Report in its annual ranking.[1][2]

      Pillsbury House and Theater.  is a groundbreaking “new model for human service work that recognizes the power of the arts and culture to stimulate community participation, investment and ownership.” This is the first of two PH+T chapters. 

      Here are links to Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 of our episodes on Pillsbury’s history a and a Bonus Episode: Lorraine Hansberry at Pillsbury House - Theatre - Gifted & Black 

      Pillsbury United Communities Beginning in 1879 with Minneapolis’s first settlement house, Pillsbury United Communities co-creates enduring change toward a just society. Built with and for historically marginalized and underinvested groups across our community, our united system of programs, neighborhood centers, and social enterprises connects more than 55,000 individuals and their families each year. We are guided by a vision of thriving communities where every person has personal, social, and economic power.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      18318b86-6c09-4296-9ec1-9439c35dc627Wed, 07 Jun 2023 05:45:00 -070039:14truefull373733      72: A Culture of Care: Art, Neuroscience, and Belonging in Aging Communities – Part 272: A Culture of Care: Art, Neuroscience, and Belonging in Aging Communities – Part 2In Episode 71, Dominic Campbell talked about the community building power of Caribbean Carnival and working with cutting edge brain science at the Global Brain Health Institute. In this episode, Dominic Campbell explores questions like: What roles can artists can play at the intersection of science, healthcare, and policymaking? What conditions support radical collaborative thinking and design? And how can artists help scientists communicate with the real world, or as Dominic puts it “lab to table.”

      BIO

      Dominic Campbell is the originator and co-leader of Creative Aging International. As Ireland's Bealtaine Festival’s Director he steered the festivals growth and expansion over eight years. Formerly an Artistic Director of Ireland’s national celebration, St Patrick’s Festival, he transformed its three shows into ninety within four years growing production and managerial teams alongside the financial support required.

       Dominic went on to design and produce national celebrations marking the expansion of European Union in 2004 and Centenary celebrations for James Joyce. For “The Day Of Welcomes” marking EU expansion, he devised and produced 12 simultaneous festivals pairing EU expansion countries with Irish towns and cities engaging 2,500 artists from 32 countries.

      He mentored festivals in Wales (Gwanwynn), Scotland (Luminate), and has developed projects with partners in Australia and The Netherlands. In 2012 he established the first global conference on Creativity In Older Age opened by Irish President Michael D Higgins. 

      In 2016 he became an inaugural Atlantic Fellow for Equity and Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute a project between Trinity College Dublin and University College Southern California an ambitious worldwide program seeking social and public health solutions to reduce the scale and adverse impact of dementia.

      Recognized by The Irish Times as one of the top ten key cultural influencers in Ireland he seeks strategic and business partners to develop Creative Aging International.

      Notable Mentions

      Change the Story Collection: Creative Aging: In the rapidly growing creative care field, the arts are increasingly seen as a powerful and effective prescription for reducing isolation, healing, trauma, promoting vital and essential social connections, mitigating, and delaying the symptoms of dementia, and also changing the way we all think about aging. The artists in this collection are working communities, healthcare facilities, and laboratories to advance new insights and ideas about creative aging alongside neuroscientists, public health professionals, architects, journalists, economists, psychologists, educators, and other artists

      Global Brain Health Institute: The Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) is dedicated to protecting the world’s aging populations from threats to brain health. “We strive to improve brain health for populations across the world, reaching into local communities and across our global network. GBHI brings together a powerful mix of disciplines, professions, backgrounds, skills, perspectives, and approaches to develop new science-based solutions. “

      The Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health: The Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health program at GBHI provides innovative training, networking, and support to emerging leaders focused on improving brain health and reducing the impact of dementia in their local communities and on a global scale. It is one of seven global Atlantic Fellows programs to advance fairer, healthier, and more inclusive societies.

      Veronica Rojas: Veronica was a guest on Change the Story / Change the World in April of 2023. She has shown her work nationally and internationally. She has been a Visual Aid Grant recipient and has been nominated to The Eureka Fellowship Grant and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant. In 2011 Veronica got the Jerome Caja Terrible Beauty Award. Veronicas’ paintings have been reviewed in Artweek Magazine, Bay Area Express, Metro Active and the TV program Latin Eyes. Currently, Veronica is an Atlantic Fellow for Brain Health and Equity at the Global Brain Health Institute.

      Barbara Steveni: was the co-founder and director of the Artist Placement Group (APG), which ran from the 1960s to the 1990s. The APG's goal was to refocus art outside galleries and museums. It instead installed artists in industrial and government organizations to both learn about and to have a voice in these worlds and then, where possible, organize exhibitions of work related to those experiences. Its work was a key precursor of the now widely-applied artist in residency concept.

      Kunle Adewale is an artist by profession and a graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife Nialegeria with specialization in painting and art history. He studied Civic Leadership from Tulane University, New Orleans and Arts in Medicine, from University of Florida. With over a decade experience as an artist and educationist, Kunle founded Tender Arts Nigeria in 2013, a social enterprise and non-profit making organization which positively impacts children, youth and adult population with focus on therapeutic arts, art education, talent development, community development and civic engagement.  

      Augustin Ibanez Agustín is a psychologist, trained on electrophysiology at the Max Plank Institute for Brain Research. He received his PhD in psychology and neuroscience and performed a postdoc on neuroscience at University of Heidelberg. Now he is director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Center and dean of the behavioral sciences undergraduate program at Universidad San Andres (Argentina), full professor at Universidad Adolfo Ibanez (Chile), and co-director of the Dementia Research Latin American Consortium (ReDLat).

      Creative Brain Week: Creative Brain Week 2023 – online and in person events which explored and celebrated how brain science and creativity collide to seed new ideas in social development, technology, entrepreneurship, wellbeing and physical, mental and brain health across the life cycle. This annual pioneering event illustrates innovation at the intersection of arts and brain science, including creative approaches to health.

      Xerox PARC (Palo alto Research Center), PARC (Palo Alto Research Center; formerly Xerox PARC) is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California.[2][3][4] Founded in 1969 by Jacob E. "Jack" Goldman, chief scientist of Xerox Corporation, the company was originally a division of Xerox, tasked with creating computer technology-related products and hardware systems.[1][5]

      Liz Lerman: Change the Story Episode 63-& Episode 64 Wicked...]]>In Episode 71, Dominic Campbell talked about the community building power of Caribbean Carnival and working with cutting edge brain science at the Global Brain Health Institute. In this episode, Dominic Campbell explores questions like: What roles can artists can play at the intersection of science, healthcare, and policymaking? What conditions support radical collaborative thinking and design? And how can artists help scientists communicate with the real world, or as Dominic puts it “lab to table.”

      BIO

      Dominic Campbell is the originator and co-leader of Creative Aging International. As Ireland's Bealtaine Festival’s Director he steered the festivals growth and expansion over eight years. Formerly an Artistic Director of Ireland’s national celebration, St Patrick’s Festival, he transformed its three shows into ninety within four years growing production and managerial teams alongside the financial support required.

       Dominic went on to design and produce national celebrations marking the expansion of European Union in 2004 and Centenary celebrations for James Joyce. For “The Day Of Welcomes” marking EU expansion, he devised and produced 12 simultaneous festivals pairing EU expansion countries with Irish towns and cities engaging 2,500 artists from 32 countries.

      He mentored festivals in Wales (Gwanwynn), Scotland (Luminate), and has developed projects with partners in Australia and The Netherlands. In 2012 he established the first global conference on Creativity In Older Age opened by Irish President Michael D Higgins. 

      In 2016 he became an inaugural Atlantic Fellow for Equity and Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute a project between Trinity College Dublin and University College Southern California an ambitious worldwide program seeking social and public health solutions to reduce the scale and adverse impact of dementia.

      Recognized by The Irish Times as one of the top ten key cultural influencers in Ireland he seeks strategic and business partners to develop Creative Aging International.

      Notable Mentions

      Change the Story Collection: Creative Aging: In the rapidly growing creative care field, the arts are increasingly seen as a powerful and effective prescription for reducing isolation, healing, trauma, promoting vital and essential social connections, mitigating, and delaying the symptoms of dementia, and also changing the way we all think about aging. The artists in this collection are working communities, healthcare facilities, and laboratories to advance new insights and ideas about creative aging alongside neuroscientists, public health professionals, architects, journalists, economists, psychologists, educators, and other artists

      Global Brain Health Institute: The Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) is dedicated to protecting the world’s aging populations from threats to brain health. “We strive to improve brain health for populations across the world, reaching into local communities and across our global network. GBHI brings together a powerful mix of disciplines, professions, backgrounds, skills, perspectives, and approaches to develop new science-based solutions. “

      The Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health: The Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health program at GBHI provides innovative training, networking, and support to emerging leaders focused on improving brain health and reducing the impact of dementia in their local communities and on a global scale. It is one of seven global Atlantic Fellows programs to advance fairer, healthier, and more inclusive societies.

      Veronica Rojas: Veronica was a guest on Change the Story / Change the World in April of 2023. She has shown her work nationally and internationally. She has been a Visual Aid Grant recipient and has been nominated to The Eureka Fellowship Grant and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant. In 2011 Veronica got the Jerome Caja Terrible Beauty Award. Veronicas’ paintings have been reviewed in Artweek Magazine, Bay Area Express, Metro Active and the TV program Latin Eyes. Currently, Veronica is an Atlantic Fellow for Brain Health and Equity at the Global Brain Health Institute.

      Barbara Steveni: was the co-founder and director of the Artist Placement Group (APG), which ran from the 1960s to the 1990s. The APG's goal was to refocus art outside galleries and museums. It instead installed artists in industrial and government organizations to both learn about and to have a voice in these worlds and then, where possible, organize exhibitions of work related to those experiences. Its work was a key precursor of the now widely-applied artist in residency concept.

      Kunle Adewale is an artist by profession and a graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife Nialegeria with specialization in painting and art history. He studied Civic Leadership from Tulane University, New Orleans and Arts in Medicine, from University of Florida. With over a decade experience as an artist and educationist, Kunle founded Tender Arts Nigeria in 2013, a social enterprise and non-profit making organization which positively impacts children, youth and adult population with focus on therapeutic arts, art education, talent development, community development and civic engagement.  

      Augustin Ibanez Agustín is a psychologist, trained on electrophysiology at the Max Plank Institute for Brain Research. He received his PhD in psychology and neuroscience and performed a postdoc on neuroscience at University of Heidelberg. Now he is director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Center and dean of the behavioral sciences undergraduate program at Universidad San Andres (Argentina), full professor at Universidad Adolfo Ibanez (Chile), and co-director of the Dementia Research Latin American Consortium (ReDLat).

      Creative Brain Week: Creative Brain Week 2023 – online and in person events which explored and celebrated how brain science and creativity collide to seed new ideas in social development, technology, entrepreneurship, wellbeing and physical, mental and brain health across the life cycle. This annual pioneering event illustrates innovation at the intersection of arts and brain science, including creative approaches to health.

      Xerox PARC (Palo alto Research Center), PARC (Palo Alto Research Center; formerly Xerox PARC) is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California.[2][3][4] Founded in 1969 by Jacob E. "Jack" Goldman, chief scientist of Xerox Corporation, the company was originally a division of Xerox, tasked with creating computer technology-related products and hardware systems.[1][5]

      Liz Lerman: Change the Story Episode 63-& Episode 64 Wicked Bodies

      Pillsbury House and Theater; Change the Story Episode 55

      Rowena Richie's work draws from her eclectic background in modern dance, improvisation, music, drawing, and writing. Her production, Lost and Found in the Mission, presented a cross-section of humanity as defined by handwritten scraps of paper she and co-creator Susie Hara found on the streets of San Francisco’s Mission District, where Rowena has lived since 2001. Lost and Found won Best Ensemble Performance at the 2008 SF Fringe Festival. Rowena has worked with the Erika Chong Shuch Performance Project for the past 15 years. In 2011, under the direction of Chong Shuch, Rowena was featured as Bride Love in Act 3 of Taylor Mac’s The Lily’s Revenge at the Magic Theater. 

      Josh Kornbluth Josh tours with his autobiographical monologues, writes and acts in feature films, and writes and hosts the "Citizen Brain" online video series (citizenbrain.org).  

      Joan Tronto: is professor of political science at the University of Minnesota,[2] and was previously professor of women's studies and political science at Hunter College and the Graduate School, City University of New York.[3]

      Salutogenesis is the study of the origins of health and focuses on factors that support human health and well-being, rather than on factors that cause disease (pathogenesis). More specifically, the "salutogenic model" was originally concerned with the relationship between health, stress, and coping through a study of Holocaust survivors. Despite going through the dramatic tragedy of the holocaust, some survivors were able to thrive later in life. The discovery that there must be powerful health causing factors led to the development of salutogenesis. The term was coined by Aaron Antonovsky[1] (1923-1994), a professor of medical sociology. The salutogenic question posed by Aaron Antonovsky is, "How can this person be helped to move toward greater health?"

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>018dfa83-d87e-47b0-9f80-2a86c8d690dcWed, 24 May 2023 05:45:00 -070047:56falsefull372723      71: Is Creative Aging the Cutting Edge of Community Arts?71: Is Creative Aging the Cutting Edge of Community Arts?In this episode international arts and aging leader Dominic Campbell will share his thoughts about some intriguing questions: Can an active creative culture change the scary stories we tell ourselves about getting older? Can large scale festivals help communities find common ground in their work with older citizens? What is creative aging and why is it being embraced by gerontologists, and brain scientists across the planet?

      BIO

      Dominic Campbell is the originator and co-leader of Creative Aging International. As Ireland's Bealtaine Festival’s Director he steered the festivals growth and expansion over eight years. Formerly an Artistic Director of Ireland’s national celebration, St Patrick’s Festival, he transformed its three shows into ninety within four years growing production and managerial teams alongside the financial support required.

      Dominic went on to design and produce national celebrations marking the expansion of European Union in 2004 and Centenary celebrations for James Joyce. For “The Day Of Welcomes” marking EU expansion, he devised and produced 12 simultaneous festivals pairing EU expansion countries with Irish towns and cities engaging 2,500 artists from 32 countries.

      He mentored festivals in Wales (Gwanwynn), Scotland (Luminate), and has developed projects with partners in Australia and The Netherlands. In 2012 he established the first global conference on Creativity In Older Age opened by Irish President Michael D Higgins.

      In 2016 he became an inaugural Atlantic Fellow for Equity and Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute a project between Trinity College Dublin and University College Southern California an ambitious worldwide program seeking social and public health solutions to reduce the scale and adverse impact of dementia.

      Recognized by The Irish Times as one of the top ten key cultural influencers in Ireland he seeks strategic and business partners to develop Creative Aging International.

      Notable Mentions

      Global Brain Health Institute: The Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) is dedicated to protecting the world’s aging populations from threats to brain health. “We strive to improve brain health for populations across the world, reaching into local communities and across our global network. GBHI brings together a powerful mix of disciplines, professions, backgrounds, skills, perspectives, and approaches to develop new science-based solutions. “

      The Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health: The Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health program at GBHI provides innovative training, networking, and support to emerging leaders focused on improving brain health and reducing the impact of dementia in their local communities and on a global scale. It is one of seven global Atlantic Fellows programs to advance fairer, healthier, and more inclusive societies.

      Chuck Feeney is an American businessman and philanthropist who made his fortune as a co-founder of the Hong Kong based Duty Free Shoppers Group. He is the founder of The Atlantic Philanthropies, one of the largest private charitable foundations in the world. Feeney gave away his fortune in secret for many years, until a business dispute resulted in his identity being revealed in 1997.[2] Feeney has given away more than $8 billion.[3]

      Veronica Rojas: Veronica was a guest on Change the Story / Change the World in April of 2023. She has shown her work nationally and internationally. She has been a Visual Aid Grant recipient and has been nominated to The Eureka Fellowship Grant and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant. In 2011 Veronica got the Jerome Caja Terrible Beauty Award. Veronicas’ paintings have been reviewed in Artweek Magazine, Bay Area Express, Metro Active and the TV program Latin Eyes. Currently, Veronica is an Atlantic Fellow for Brain Health and Equity at the Global Brain Health Institute.

      Caribbean Carnival: is the term used in the English speaking world for a series of events, held annually throughout almost the whole year in many Caribbean islands and worldwide.[2]

      The Caribbean's carnivals have several common themes, all originating from Trinidad and Tobago Carnival also known as the Mother of Carnival , whose popularity and appeal began well before 1846, and gained global recognition in 1881 with the Canboulay Riots in Port Of Spain.[3] #Trinidad Carnival is based on folklore, culture, religion, and tradition (thus relating to the European use of the word, not amusement rides, as the word "carnival" is often used to mean in American English.

      St. Patrick's Festival parade in Dublin, Ireland: The iconic National St. Patrick’s Day Parade returns to the streets of Dublin every March 17, with pageants, marching bands and over a million participants. Through contemporary and traditional Irish arts, culture and heritage, the Festival connects families, friends and communities across Ireland, and Ireland’s global tribe of 80 million.     

      Damasio’s Somatic Marker Hypothesis: In economic theory, human decision-making is often modeled as being devoid of emotions, involving only logical reasoning based on cost-benefit calculations.[3] In contrast, the somatic marker hypothesis proposes that emotions play a critical role in the ability to make fast, rational decisions in complex and uncertain situations.[1]

      Patients with frontal lobe damage, such as Phineas Gage, provided the first evidence that the frontal lobes were associated with decision-making. Frontal lobe damage, particularly to the vmPFC, results in impaired abilities to organize and plan behavior and learn from previous mistakes, without affecting intellect in terms of working memory, attention, and language comprehension and expression.[4][5]

      In this episode international arts and aging leader Dominic Campbell will share his thoughts about some intriguing questions: Can an active creative culture change the scary stories we tell ourselves about getting older? Can large scale festivals help communities find common ground in their work with older citizens? What is creative aging and why is it being embraced by gerontologists, and brain scientists across the planet?

      BIO

      Dominic Campbell is the originator and co-leader of Creative Aging International. As Ireland's Bealtaine Festival’s Director he steered the festivals growth and expansion over eight years. Formerly an Artistic Director of Ireland’s national celebration, St Patrick’s Festival, he transformed its three shows into ninety within four years growing production and managerial teams alongside the financial support required.

      Dominic went on to design and produce national celebrations marking the expansion of European Union in 2004 and Centenary celebrations for James Joyce. For “The Day Of Welcomes” marking EU expansion, he devised and produced 12 simultaneous festivals pairing EU expansion countries with Irish towns and cities engaging 2,500 artists from 32 countries.

      He mentored festivals in Wales (Gwanwynn), Scotland (Luminate), and has developed projects with partners in Australia and The Netherlands. In 2012 he established the first global conference on Creativity In Older Age opened by Irish President Michael D Higgins.

      In 2016 he became an inaugural Atlantic Fellow for Equity and Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute a project between Trinity College Dublin and University College Southern California an ambitious worldwide program seeking social and public health solutions to reduce the scale and adverse impact of dementia.

      Recognized by The Irish Times as one of the top ten key cultural influencers in Ireland he seeks strategic and business partners to develop Creative Aging International.

      Notable Mentions

      Global Brain Health Institute: The Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) is dedicated to protecting the world’s aging populations from threats to brain health. “We strive to improve brain health for populations across the world, reaching into local communities and across our global network. GBHI brings together a powerful mix of disciplines, professions, backgrounds, skills, perspectives, and approaches to develop new science-based solutions. “

      The Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health: The Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health program at GBHI provides innovative training, networking, and support to emerging leaders focused on improving brain health and reducing the impact of dementia in their local communities and on a global scale. It is one of seven global Atlantic Fellows programs to advance fairer, healthier, and more inclusive societies.

      Chuck Feeney is an American businessman and philanthropist who made his fortune as a co-founder of the Hong Kong based Duty Free Shoppers Group. He is the founder of The Atlantic Philanthropies, one of the largest private charitable foundations in the world. Feeney gave away his fortune in secret for many years, until a business dispute resulted in his identity being revealed in 1997.[2] Feeney has given away more than $8 billion.[3]

      Veronica Rojas: Veronica was a guest on Change the Story / Change the World in April of 2023. She has shown her work nationally and internationally. She has been a Visual Aid Grant recipient and has been nominated to The Eureka Fellowship Grant and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant. In 2011 Veronica got the Jerome Caja Terrible Beauty Award. Veronicas’ paintings have been reviewed in Artweek Magazine, Bay Area Express, Metro Active and the TV program Latin Eyes. Currently, Veronica is an Atlantic Fellow for Brain Health and Equity at the Global Brain Health Institute.

      Caribbean Carnival: is the term used in the English speaking world for a series of events, held annually throughout almost the whole year in many Caribbean islands and worldwide.[2]

      The Caribbean's carnivals have several common themes, all originating from Trinidad and Tobago Carnival also known as the Mother of Carnival , whose popularity and appeal began well before 1846, and gained global recognition in 1881 with the Canboulay Riots in Port Of Spain.[3] #Trinidad Carnival is based on folklore, culture, religion, and tradition (thus relating to the European use of the word, not amusement rides, as the word "carnival" is often used to mean in American English.

      St. Patrick's Festival parade in Dublin, Ireland: The iconic National St. Patrick’s Day Parade returns to the streets of Dublin every March 17, with pageants, marching bands and over a million participants. Through contemporary and traditional Irish arts, culture and heritage, the Festival connects families, friends and communities across Ireland, and Ireland’s global tribe of 80 million.     

      Damasio’s Somatic Marker Hypothesis: In economic theory, human decision-making is often modeled as being devoid of emotions, involving only logical reasoning based on cost-benefit calculations.[3] In contrast, the somatic marker hypothesis proposes that emotions play a critical role in the ability to make fast, rational decisions in complex and uncertain situations.[1]

      Patients with frontal lobe damage, such as Phineas Gage, provided the first evidence that the frontal lobes were associated with decision-making. Frontal lobe damage, particularly to the vmPFC, results in impaired abilities to organize and plan behavior and learn from previous mistakes, without affecting intellect in terms of working memory, attention, and language comprehension and expression.[4][5]

      Bealtaine Festival: Bealtaine is Ireland’s national festival which celebrates the arts and creativity as we age. The festival is run by Age & Opportunity, the leading national development organisation working to enable the best possible quality of life for us all as we age. Age & Opportunity Arts provides opportunities for older people to be more creative more often, to create meaningful participation and representation for all older people in cultural and creative life and to demonstrate and celebrate how our creative potential can improve with age. 

      Creative Aging International: “Creative Aging International works creatively with companies, organizations and individuals worldwide developing innovative programs tailored to place and bringing together best practice for thought leadership. Our work transforms for the better how we view and approach aging – as individuals, as artists, as companies, as governments and as societies.”

      Joseph Beuys, Social Acupuncture/Social Sculpture: Social sculpture is a theory developed by the artist Joseph Beuys in the 1970s based on the concept that everything is art, that every aspect of life could be approached creatively and, as a result, everyone has the potential to be an artist. Social sculpture united Joseph Beuys’s idealistic ideas of a utopian society together with his aesthetic practice. He believed that life is a social sculpture that everyone helps to shape. Many of Beuys’s social sculptures had political and environmental concerns. 7000 Oaks began in 1982 as a five-year project to plant 7000 trees in Kassel in Germany. It raised many questions about city planning, the future of the environment and social structures. 

      David Slater, that was the founder of a company called Entelechy: David has over 30 years experience of working with arts practice and communities. In the late1970s he was supported by the Gulbenkian Foundation to develop a programme of participatory arts for Plymouth Arts Centre. In the 1980’s he was founder Director of the pioneering Rotherhithe Theatre Workshop developing a large estate based participatory theatre programme with young people and their families in north Southwark. Most recently as Director of Entelechy and guest artistic director of London’s Capital Age Festival he conceived and co-delivered The Big Chair Dance at Southbank Centre. David has considerable experience of working collaboratively with organisations in both the arts, social care and health sectors.

      Entelechy Arts Ltd: We produce projects which powerfully test the boundaries between art, creativity, care, wellbeing and community. “We believe in the creative power of the individual, and that everyone should have the opportunity to contribute to the creative life of their local community. This richness in sharing stories and experiences of those who can often feel underrepresented, encourages stronger communities, changes perceptions, and ultimately helps people live healthier, happier and more connected lives.

      Creative Brain Week: Creative Brain Week is a Global Brain Health Institute innovation at Trinity College Dublin, presented in association with the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and with support from Creative Ireland and the Atlantic Institute.

      Creative Brain Week 2023 – online and in person events which explored and celebrated how brain science and creativity collide to seed new ideas in social development, technology, entrepreneurship, wellbeing and physical, mental and brain health across the life cycle. This annual pioneering event illustrates innovation at the intersection of arts and brain science, including creative approaches to health.

       

      ]]>dadfd8a3-976a-44fc-866f-9ec2b8d504d7Wed, 10 May 2023 04:30:00 -070033:54truefull371713In this episode international arts and aging leader Dominic Campbell will share his thoughts about some intriguing questions: Can an active creative culture change the scary stories we tell ourselves about getting older? Can large scale festivals help communities find common ground in their work with older citizens? What is creative aging and why is it being embraced by gerontologists, and brain scientists across the planet?      70: An Activist Artist at Work at the Global Brain Health Institute70: An Activist Artist at Work at the Global Brain Health InstituteIn this episode Veronica Rojas talks about working to advance new insights and ideas about creative aging alongside neurologists, architects, journalists, economists, psychologists, educators, and other artists as a Fellow at the Global Brain Health Institute at the University of California, San Francisco. It's quite an adventure.

      BIO

      Veronica Rojas: Veronica Rojas (b. Mexico City, 1973) was born into a multi-cultural family; her father is Mexican and her mother Swedish. Veronica grew up in Mexico City where she was exposed from very early on to the art of Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington and Frida Kahlo. These artists have ever since remained a big influence in Veronica’s artwork. In 1995 she came to San Francisco, USA, to get a BFA at the San Francisco Art Institute and later an MFA at the California College of the Arts. She currently lives in Oakland, California. Veronica has shown her work nationally and internationally. She has been a Visual Aid Grant recipient and has been nominated to The Eureka Fellowship Grant and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant. In 2011 Veronica got the Jerome Caja Terrible Beauty Award. Veronicas’ paintings have been reviewed in Artweek Magazine, Bay Area Express, Metro Active and the TV program Latin Eyes. Currently, Veronica is an Atlantic Fellow for Brain Health and Equity at the Global Brain Health Institute.

      Notable Mentions

      Global Brain Health Institute: The Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) is dedicated to protecting the world’s aging populations from threats to brain health. We strive to improve brain health for populations across the world, reaching into local communities and across our global network. GBHI brings together a powerful mix of disciplines, professions, backgrounds, skills, perspectives, and approaches to develop new science-based solutions. 

      The Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health: program provides innovative training, networking, and support to emerging leaders focused on improving brain health and reducing the impact of dementia.

      Creative Growth Center:  Founded in 1974, Creative Growth is a leader in the field of arts and disabilities, establishing a model for a creative community guided by the principle that art is fundamental to human expression and that all people are entitled to its tools of communication. From the first day Creative Growth started in the East Bay home of Elias Katz and Florence Ludins-Katz, the vision was clear. Art would be the path forward for people with disabilities to express themselves and a professional gallery would exhibit their work.

      Art With Elders: Founded in 1991, AWE engages older adults in fine arts classes and shares their work and life experience through public exhibits. Through classes and exhibits, the AWE program provides older adults with a vehicle for self-expression, social connection, and a presence in the larger community. Classes are taught in person and online by professional artists and are available in 5 languages. Exhibits engage artists and audiences through the power of creativity, deepening connection between cultures and generations.

      Creative Minds UCSF: Established in 2020, Creative Minds is a community arts for brain health initiative in San Francisco. This unique collaboration between the UCSF MAC Community Outreach Program and Atlantic Fellows at GBHI engages older adults in underserved and underrepresented neighborhoods through photography, art, storytelling, movement, and craft-making. Creative Minds partners with community centers and clinics throughout the city to incorporate brain health education and offer these creative experiences informed by the cultural and linguistic needs of our community members.  

      Memory Aging Center at UCSF: The UCSF Memory and Aging Center is an NIA-designated Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center working to translate research science into improved diagnosis and care for people with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease and related diseases, as well as to find a treatment or prevention.

      Parkinson’s Disease: Parkinson’s disease is a brain disorder that causes unintended or uncontrollable movements, such as shaking, stiffness, and difficulty with balance and coordination.

      Symptoms usually begin gradually and worsen over time. As the disease progresses, people may have difficulty walking and talking. 

      Alzheimer’s Disease: Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia. It is a progressive disease beginning with mild memory loss and possibly leading to loss of the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to the environment. Alzheimer's disease involves parts of the brain that control thought, memory, and language.

      Frontotemporal Dementia: Frontotemporal disorders (FTD), sometimes called frontotemporal dementia, are the result of damage to neurons in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. Many possible symptoms can result, including unusual behaviors, emotional problems, trouble communicating, difficulty with work, or difficulty with walking.

      Social Prescribing: Social Prescribing is a holistic approach to healthcare that brings together the social and medical models of health and wellness. It provides a formal pathway for health providers to address the diverse determinants of health, using the familiar and trusted process of writing a prescription.

      Social prescribing bridges the gap between clinical and social care by referring patients to local, non-clinical services that are chosen according to the client’s interests, goals, and gifts. It allows doctors, nurse practitioners, and interprofessional health providers to formally refer patients through to community-based programs.

      (See Also: What is Social Prescribing, a video, and the Time Magazine article Why Some Doctors Are Prescribing Ballroom Dance or a Day at the Museum)

      National Academy for Social Prescribing (United Kingdom) NASP is a national charity that champions social prescribing. We support and connect people, communities and organisations so that more people across the UK can enjoy better health and wellbeing

      What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being? A scoping review, A Report of the World Health Organization: Over the past two decades, there has been a major increase in research into the effects of the arts on health and well-being, alongside developments in practice and policy activities in different countries across the WHO European Region and further afield.

      This report synthesizes the global evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being, with a specific focus on the WHO European Region. Results from over 3000 studies identified a major role for the arts in the prevention of ill health, promotion of health, and management and treatment of illness across the lifespan.

      Anne Basting, our guest for CS/CW Episode 69, is a writer, artist and advocate for the power of creativity to change lives. She is Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and Founder of the award-winning non-profit In this episode Veronica Rojas talks about working to advance new insights and ideas about creative aging alongside neurologists, architects, journalists, economists, psychologists, educators, and other artists as a Fellow at the Global Brain Health Institute at the University of California, San Francisco. It's quite an adventure.

      BIO

      Veronica Rojas: Veronica Rojas (b. Mexico City, 1973) was born into a multi-cultural family; her father is Mexican and her mother Swedish. Veronica grew up in Mexico City where she was exposed from very early on to the art of Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington and Frida Kahlo. These artists have ever since remained a big influence in Veronica’s artwork. In 1995 she came to San Francisco, USA, to get a BFA at the San Francisco Art Institute and later an MFA at the California College of the Arts. She currently lives in Oakland, California. Veronica has shown her work nationally and internationally. She has been a Visual Aid Grant recipient and has been nominated to The Eureka Fellowship Grant and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant. In 2011 Veronica got the Jerome Caja Terrible Beauty Award. Veronicas’ paintings have been reviewed in Artweek Magazine, Bay Area Express, Metro Active and the TV program Latin Eyes. Currently, Veronica is an Atlantic Fellow for Brain Health and Equity at the Global Brain Health Institute.

      Notable Mentions

      Global Brain Health Institute: The Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) is dedicated to protecting the world’s aging populations from threats to brain health. We strive to improve brain health for populations across the world, reaching into local communities and across our global network. GBHI brings together a powerful mix of disciplines, professions, backgrounds, skills, perspectives, and approaches to develop new science-based solutions. 

      The Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health: program provides innovative training, networking, and support to emerging leaders focused on improving brain health and reducing the impact of dementia.

      Creative Growth Center:  Founded in 1974, Creative Growth is a leader in the field of arts and disabilities, establishing a model for a creative community guided by the principle that art is fundamental to human expression and that all people are entitled to its tools of communication. From the first day Creative Growth started in the East Bay home of Elias Katz and Florence Ludins-Katz, the vision was clear. Art would be the path forward for people with disabilities to express themselves and a professional gallery would exhibit their work.

      Art With Elders: Founded in 1991, AWE engages older adults in fine arts classes and shares their work and life experience through public exhibits. Through classes and exhibits, the AWE program provides older adults with a vehicle for self-expression, social connection, and a presence in the larger community. Classes are taught in person and online by professional artists and are available in 5 languages. Exhibits engage artists and audiences through the power of creativity, deepening connection between cultures and generations.

      Creative Minds UCSF: Established in 2020, Creative Minds is a community arts for brain health initiative in San Francisco. This unique collaboration between the UCSF MAC Community Outreach Program and Atlantic Fellows at GBHI engages older adults in underserved and underrepresented neighborhoods through photography, art, storytelling, movement, and craft-making. Creative Minds partners with community centers and clinics throughout the city to incorporate brain health education and offer these creative experiences informed by the cultural and linguistic needs of our community members.  

      Memory Aging Center at UCSF: The UCSF Memory and Aging Center is an NIA-designated Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center working to translate research science into improved diagnosis and care for people with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease and related diseases, as well as to find a treatment or prevention.

      Parkinson’s Disease: Parkinson’s disease is a brain disorder that causes unintended or uncontrollable movements, such as shaking, stiffness, and difficulty with balance and coordination.

      Symptoms usually begin gradually and worsen over time. As the disease progresses, people may have difficulty walking and talking. 

      Alzheimer’s Disease: Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia. It is a progressive disease beginning with mild memory loss and possibly leading to loss of the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to the environment. Alzheimer's disease involves parts of the brain that control thought, memory, and language.

      Frontotemporal Dementia: Frontotemporal disorders (FTD), sometimes called frontotemporal dementia, are the result of damage to neurons in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. Many possible symptoms can result, including unusual behaviors, emotional problems, trouble communicating, difficulty with work, or difficulty with walking.

      Social Prescribing: Social Prescribing is a holistic approach to healthcare that brings together the social and medical models of health and wellness. It provides a formal pathway for health providers to address the diverse determinants of health, using the familiar and trusted process of writing a prescription.

      Social prescribing bridges the gap between clinical and social care by referring patients to local, non-clinical services that are chosen according to the client’s interests, goals, and gifts. It allows doctors, nurse practitioners, and interprofessional health providers to formally refer patients through to community-based programs.

      (See Also: What is Social Prescribing, a video, and the Time Magazine article Why Some Doctors Are Prescribing Ballroom Dance or a Day at the Museum)

      National Academy for Social Prescribing (United Kingdom) NASP is a national charity that champions social prescribing. We support and connect people, communities and organisations so that more people across the UK can enjoy better health and wellbeing

      What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being? A scoping review, A Report of the World Health Organization: Over the past two decades, there has been a major increase in research into the effects of the arts on health and well-being, alongside developments in practice and policy activities in different countries across the WHO European Region and further afield.

      This report synthesizes the global evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being, with a specific focus on the WHO European Region. Results from over 3000 studies identified a major role for the arts in the prevention of ill health, promotion of health, and management and treatment of illness across the lifespan.

      Anne Basting, our guest for CS/CW Episode 69, is a writer, artist and advocate for the power of creativity to change lives. She is Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and Founder of the award-winning non-profit TimeSlips.org, which trains, inspires, and supports caregivers to infuse creativity into care. Her writing and large-scale public performances have helped shape an international movement to extend creative and meaningful expression from childhood, where it is expected, through to late life, where it has been too long withheld.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>49a47132-c5e0-439e-8c28-72e1a22fd789Wed, 26 Apr 2023 05:45:00 -070048:52truefull370703Veronica Rojas works to advance new insights and ideas about creative aging alongside neurologists, architects, journalists, economists, psychologists, educators, and other artists as a fellow at the Global Brain Health Institute at the University of California, San Francisco. It's quite an adventure.      69: Anne Basting -Aging, Arts and Social Change: A Radical Prescription69: Anne Basting -Aging, Arts and Social Change: A Radical PrescriptionANNE BASTING's work at the crossroads of Arts and Aging has allowed her to pioneer new approaches to the challenges faced by our aging population. In this episode we learn how her efforts have helped advance the creative aging approach as a powerful and effective prescription for reducing isolation, promoting social connections, and mitigating a the symptoms of dementia.

      BIO

      Anne Basting is a writer, artist and advocate for the power of creativity to transform our lives. She is Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and Founder of the award-winning non-profit TimeSlips.org, which trains, inspires, and supports caregivers to infuse creativity into care. Her writing and large-scale public performances have helped shape an international movement to extend creative and meaningful expression from childhood, where it is expected, through to late life, where it has been too long withheld.

      Her books include Creative Care: A Revolutionary Approach to Elder and Dementia Care (Harper), Penelope: An Arts-based Odyssey to Transform Eldercare (U of Iowa), and Forget Memory: Creating Better Lives for People with Dementia (Johns Hopkins). Internationally recognized for her speaking and her innovative work, Anne is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and numerous major awards and grants. She believes that creative engagement can and should be infused into every aging care system and has trained/consulted with Meals on Wheels, libraries, home care companies, senior centers, memory cafes, museums, adult day programs, and every level of long-term care.

      In 2019, Anne collaborated with a team of artists, elders, and caregivers on her largest project yet – a reimagining of the story of Peter Pan with 12 rural Kentucky nursing homes. She is currently obsessed with growing the memory cafe infrastructure across the United States.

      Change the Story Collections: Connecting the Dots

      Arts-based community development comes in many flavors: dancers, and painters working with children and youth; poets and potters collaborating with incarcerated artists: cultural organizers in service to communities addressing racial injustice, and in this episode related to arts and aging.

      Many of our listeners have told us they would like to dig deeper into art and change stories that focus on specific issues, constituencies, or disciplines. For anyone who is interested here are links to other Change the Story Episode episodes related to this episode’s subject. 


      Notable Mentions

      The following are links to more information about notable programs, people, and issues mentioned in this episode.

      Creative Care, a Revolutionary Approach to Dementia and Elder Care: In Creative Care, Anne Basting lays the groundwork for a widespread transformation in our approach to elder care and uses compelling, touching stories to inspire and guide us all—family, friends, and health professionals—in how to connect and interact with those living with dementia.

      TimeSlips: Founded by MacArthur Fellow Anne Basting, in 1998 TimeSlips is an “international network of artists and caregivers committed to bringing joy to late life. As our bodies and minds change with age, people ask – “How can I connect with my mom? My clients? My neighbor?” TimeSlips says try imagination.”

      Kazuo Ohno, was a Japanese dancer who became a guru and inspirational figure in the dance form known as Butoh.[2] He is the author of several books on Butoh, including The Palace Soars through the Sky, Dessin, Words of Workshop, and Food for the Soul. The latter two were published in English as Kazuo Ohno's World: From Without & Within (2004).

      The Penelope Project: At Milwaukee’s Luther Manor, a team of artists from the University of Wisconsin’s theatre department led by Anne Basting, and Sojourn Theatre Company, university students, staff, residents, and volunteers traded their bingo cards for copies of The Odyssey. They embarked on a two-year project to examine this ancient story from the perspective of the hero who never left home: Penelope, wife of Odysseus. Together, the team staged a play that engaged everyone and transcended the limits not just of old age and disability but also youth, institutional regulations, and disciplinary boundaries.

      Sojourn Theatre Is A Program Of The Center For Performance And Civic Practice. Its mission is “to design bold opportunities for participation and unforgettable experience, with rigor and striking physicality.” Sojourn collaborates towards a vision of healthy communities and functional democracy.

      Nicole Garneau is an interdisciplinary artist making site-specific performance and project art that is directly political, critically conscious, and community building. Her book Performing Revolutionary: Art, Action, Activism was published in print in Spring 2018 by Intellect. In 2022, a fully accessible audiobook version of Performing Revolutionary was released, narrated by Nicole Garneau.

      Beautiful Questions: As part of the TimeSlips Beautiful Question project, family members, volunteers and professionals who work with older adults invite elders to consider a series of Beautiful Questions. We invite you to use the questions simply to deepen your exchanges but you may also choose to capture responses in written form, photographs, or audio recording and share them with us. If you choose to share, TimeSlips’ artists may shape your responses into works to be shared.

      Pillsbury House + Theater: A cultural landmark at the crossroads of four historic and diverse Minneapolis neighborhoods, Pillsbury House + Theatre (PH+T) unites innovative human services with professional arts experiences for 30,000 residents who call the area home. 

      Islands of Milwaukee: The Islands of Milwaukee (IoM) (2012-2014) project aimed to create a sustainable network to bring meaningful engagement to older adults living alone or under-connected to community and to use art to catalyze a community-wide conversation about the importance of connecting to community as we age.

      Memory Café: A Memory Cafe is a wonderfully welcoming place for individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease or any other form of dementia, or other brain disorders. They are designed to include the care partner as well, for a shared experience. Additionally, it is helpful for people with all forms of mild cognitive impairment (MCI.)

      The Percolator,...]]>ANNE BASTING's work at the crossroads of Arts and Aging has allowed her to pioneer new approaches to the challenges faced by our aging population. In this episode we learn how her efforts have helped advance the creative aging approach as a powerful and effective prescription for reducing isolation, promoting social connections, and mitigating a the symptoms of dementia.

      BIO

      Anne Basting is a writer, artist and advocate for the power of creativity to transform our lives. She is Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and Founder of the award-winning non-profit TimeSlips.org, which trains, inspires, and supports caregivers to infuse creativity into care. Her writing and large-scale public performances have helped shape an international movement to extend creative and meaningful expression from childhood, where it is expected, through to late life, where it has been too long withheld.

      Her books include Creative Care: A Revolutionary Approach to Elder and Dementia Care (Harper), Penelope: An Arts-based Odyssey to Transform Eldercare (U of Iowa), and Forget Memory: Creating Better Lives for People with Dementia (Johns Hopkins). Internationally recognized for her speaking and her innovative work, Anne is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and numerous major awards and grants. She believes that creative engagement can and should be infused into every aging care system and has trained/consulted with Meals on Wheels, libraries, home care companies, senior centers, memory cafes, museums, adult day programs, and every level of long-term care.

      In 2019, Anne collaborated with a team of artists, elders, and caregivers on her largest project yet – a reimagining of the story of Peter Pan with 12 rural Kentucky nursing homes. She is currently obsessed with growing the memory cafe infrastructure across the United States.

      Change the Story Collections: Connecting the Dots

      Arts-based community development comes in many flavors: dancers, and painters working with children and youth; poets and potters collaborating with incarcerated artists: cultural organizers in service to communities addressing racial injustice, and in this episode related to arts and aging.

      Many of our listeners have told us they would like to dig deeper into art and change stories that focus on specific issues, constituencies, or disciplines. For anyone who is interested here are links to other Change the Story Episode episodes related to this episode’s subject. 


      Notable Mentions

      The following are links to more information about notable programs, people, and issues mentioned in this episode.

      Creative Care, a Revolutionary Approach to Dementia and Elder Care: In Creative Care, Anne Basting lays the groundwork for a widespread transformation in our approach to elder care and uses compelling, touching stories to inspire and guide us all—family, friends, and health professionals—in how to connect and interact with those living with dementia.

      TimeSlips: Founded by MacArthur Fellow Anne Basting, in 1998 TimeSlips is an “international network of artists and caregivers committed to bringing joy to late life. As our bodies and minds change with age, people ask – “How can I connect with my mom? My clients? My neighbor?” TimeSlips says try imagination.”

      Kazuo Ohno, was a Japanese dancer who became a guru and inspirational figure in the dance form known as Butoh.[2] He is the author of several books on Butoh, including The Palace Soars through the Sky, Dessin, Words of Workshop, and Food for the Soul. The latter two were published in English as Kazuo Ohno's World: From Without & Within (2004).

      The Penelope Project: At Milwaukee’s Luther Manor, a team of artists from the University of Wisconsin’s theatre department led by Anne Basting, and Sojourn Theatre Company, university students, staff, residents, and volunteers traded their bingo cards for copies of The Odyssey. They embarked on a two-year project to examine this ancient story from the perspective of the hero who never left home: Penelope, wife of Odysseus. Together, the team staged a play that engaged everyone and transcended the limits not just of old age and disability but also youth, institutional regulations, and disciplinary boundaries.

      Sojourn Theatre Is A Program Of The Center For Performance And Civic Practice. Its mission is “to design bold opportunities for participation and unforgettable experience, with rigor and striking physicality.” Sojourn collaborates towards a vision of healthy communities and functional democracy.

      Nicole Garneau is an interdisciplinary artist making site-specific performance and project art that is directly political, critically conscious, and community building. Her book Performing Revolutionary: Art, Action, Activism was published in print in Spring 2018 by Intellect. In 2022, a fully accessible audiobook version of Performing Revolutionary was released, narrated by Nicole Garneau.

      Beautiful Questions: As part of the TimeSlips Beautiful Question project, family members, volunteers and professionals who work with older adults invite elders to consider a series of Beautiful Questions. We invite you to use the questions simply to deepen your exchanges but you may also choose to capture responses in written form, photographs, or audio recording and share them with us. If you choose to share, TimeSlips’ artists may shape your responses into works to be shared.

      Pillsbury House + Theater: A cultural landmark at the crossroads of four historic and diverse Minneapolis neighborhoods, Pillsbury House + Theatre (PH+T) unites innovative human services with professional arts experiences for 30,000 residents who call the area home. 

      Islands of Milwaukee: The Islands of Milwaukee (IoM) (2012-2014) project aimed to create a sustainable network to bring meaningful engagement to older adults living alone or under-connected to community and to use art to catalyze a community-wide conversation about the importance of connecting to community as we age.

      Memory Café: A Memory Cafe is a wonderfully welcoming place for individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease or any other form of dementia, or other brain disorders. They are designed to include the care partner as well, for a shared experience. Additionally, it is helpful for people with all forms of mild cognitive impairment (MCI.)

      The Percolator, The Jewish Family &Child Services  Memory Café Percolator shares information and tools to make it easier for organizations and individuals to start and sustain their own memory café.

      Social Prescription: In Social Prescribing practice, trained workers "prescribe" holistic health resources to primary care patients by connecting them to personalized social services and local communities. Providers work to improve patient nutrition, physical activity, and mental health by centering patient interests and needs.

      Kevin Iega Jeff:  is an award-winning choreographer, accomplished dancer, renowned director, and respected and devoted dance educator. Iega creates transcendent works while inspiring those around him to foster extraordinary lives through dance. "The foundation of my practice is to examine the histories, cultures, and aesthetics of the African inspired human diaspora: how the histories of people throughout the diaspora speak to universal experiences and how we can translate those experiences into dance."

      On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition and Fiction: A century and a half after the publication of Origin of Species, evolutionary thinking has expanded beyond the field of biology to include virtually all human-related subjects—anthropology, archeology, psychology, economics, religion, morality, politics, culture, and art. Now a distinguished scholar offers the first comprehensive account of the evolutionary origins of art and storytelling. Brian Boyd explains why we tell stories, how our minds are shaped to understand them, and what difference an evolutionary understanding of human nature makes to stories we love.

      Liz Lerman's Wicked Bodies: Inspired by powerful and grotesque images of women’s bodies over multiple historic periods, Liz Lerman’s new work Wicked Bodies premiered Thursday April 14, 2022, at the Green Music Center. It toured to Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival August 10-13, Arizona State University’s ASU Gammage on September 24, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts October 28-30. 

      • Liz Lerman discusses  Wicked Bodies and other matters of the heart, mind, dance, and the future of the planet in Change the Story / Change the World Episode 63 and Episode 64.

      Creative Care, a Revolutionary Approach to Dementia and Elder Care: In Creative Care, Anne Basting lays the groundwork for a widespread transformation in our approach to elder care and uses compelling, touching stories to inspire and guide us all—family, friends, and health professionals—in how to connect and interact with those living with dementia.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>576b7d3d-68ed-4e1b-a481-856619740fc9Wed, 12 Apr 2023 06:15:00 -070048:23falsefull369693ANNE BASTING's work at the crossroads of Arts and Aging has allowed her to pioneer new approaches to the challenges faced by our aging population. In this episode we learn how her efforts has helped advanced the creative aging approach as a powerful and effective prescription for reducing isolation, promoting social connections, and mitigating a the symptoms of dementia.      68: Roadside Theater’s 50-Year Legacy Is a Blueprint for Democracy Through the Arts and Cultural Organizing68: Roadside Theater’s 50-Year Legacy Is a Blueprint for Democracy Through the Arts and Cultural OrganizingThis episode is Art in a Democracy: Selected Plays of Roadside Theater. Our conversation with editor Ben Fink and contributor Arnaldo J. Lopez. explores Roadside's 50-year history of creative collaboration percolating at the crossroads of art, community, and America's struggle to craft an authentic living democracy.

      BIO’s

      Ben Fink: Ben Fink worked with the Roadside ensemble from 2015 through 2020, as a member of the Betsy! Scholars’ Circle, as the founding organizer of the Letcher County Culture Hub and the Performing Our Future coalition, and as the cofounder of the cross-partisan dialogue project Hands Across the Hills. He has also served as dramaturg on the German premieres of  two Broadway musicals, made theater with Turkish and Arab high school students, and chaired a Lutheran faith community in Minnesota. His work in theater, organizing, pedagogy, and economic development has been featured by Salon.com, the Brookings Institution, TDR/The Drama Review, Harvard Law School, Americans for the Arts, PolicyLink, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2020, Ben was recognized by Time magazine as one of “27 People Bridging Divides Across America.” He is the general editor of Art in a Democracy. 

      Arnaldo J Lopez: is a cultural worker with a Ph.D. in Latin/o American Literatures and Cultures from New York University. He first joined Pregones Theater when the company set out to transform a South Bronx warehouse into a vibrant performing arts center, and later helped engineer a merger with the historic Puerto Rican Traveling Theater in Manhattan. Versed in a broad set of creative, community, and nonprofit topics, he works with artists in mapping paths toward joyful and sustainable practice. His background also includes ten years in letterpress and graphic design.

      Notable Mentions

      Art in a Democracy, the selected plays of Roadside Theater, volumes 1 and 2: This two-volume anthology tells the story of Roadside Theater’s first 45 years and includes nine award-winning original play scripts; ten essays by authors from different disciplines and generations, which explore the plays’ social, economic, and political circumstances; and a critical recounting of the theater’s history from 1975 through 2020. 

      ArtinAdemocracy.org: The official Art in a Democracy website.

      New Village Press is Art in a Democracy's publisher. The mission of New Village Press is to promote and enrich public discussion and understanding of issues vital to the development of healthy, creative, and socially just communities. To that end, New Village publishes transdisciplinary books that animate emerging movements in societal transformation. In conjunction, the Press also sponsors lectures, forums, and exhibitions for the public, especially for those communities that are underserved.

      Junebug Productions emerged from the Free Southern Theater in 1980 with a mission to create and support artistic works that question and confront inequitable conditions that have historically impacted the Black community. "Through interrogation, we challenge ourselves and those aligned with the organization to make greater and deeper contributions towards a just society."

      John O’Neal was a co-founder of the Free Southern Theater, Field Secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and Founder of Junebug Productions. This list contains content that pays tribute to his incredible work for our field, and for freedom and justice in America. This HowlAround resource contains essays, video’s and a podcast featuring John O’Neal and his work.

      Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater: Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (aka Pregones/PRTT) is a multigenerational performing ensemble, multidiscipline arts presenter, and owner/steward of bilingual arts facilities in The Bronx and Manhattan. Our mission is to champion a Puerto Rican/Latinx cultural legacy of universal value through creation and performance of original plays and musicals, exchange and partnership with other artists of merit, and engagement of diverse audiences.

      Appalshop was founded in 1969 as a project of the US government's “war on poverty.” Over its five decades of lively existence, it's grown to become an important amplifier of the voices of the Appalachian region. Its mission is pretty simple, namely, “to develop effective ways of using media and cultural expression to address the complex issues facing the region.”

      “We've been making art and media in the mountains since 1969. Now we're powered by the largest net-metered renewable energy system in Eastern Kentucky, and home to the largest single body of creative work on Appalachia in the world.” 

      Promise of a Love Song: Promise of a Love Song interweaves three love stories, each from the particular culture of the play’s creators: Pregones Theater, a Puerto Rican company based in the Bronx; Junebug Productions, an African American theater based in New Orleans; and Roadside Theater 

      Thousand Kites: Thousand Kites is the title of both a play script by Roadside Theater and an interdisciplinary project by Appalshop, Inc. addressing prison justice. 

      Puerto Rican, Appalachian Musical, Betsy: Created and produced by Pregones Theater and Roadside Theater, BETSY! tells the story of a Bronx jazz singer forced to confront her twin Spanish Caribbean and Scotch-Irish roots. Her dilemma stirs up the ghosts of six generations of American women, and musical currents spanning four continents. 

      The music for the audiogram trailer for this episode came from the score for the production of Betsy. Here are the liner notes:

      The first phase of script and music development for Betsy (www.roadside.org/program/betsy-co…pregones-theater) took place at the Nashville Jazz Workshop. The following songs were recorded live during a workshop rehearsal at the Nashville Jazz Workshop. Musicians and vocalists include: Beegie Adair, piano & vocals; Ron Short, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, flute & vocals; Connye Florance, vocals; Caroline Peyton, vocals; Roger Spencer, string bass; Jim White, percussion; and Andre Reiss, guitar. All music is copyright Beegie Adair or Ron Short.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      This episode is Art in a Democracy: Selected Plays of Roadside Theater. Our conversation with editor Ben Fink and contributor Arnaldo J. Lopez. explores Roadside's 50-year history of creative collaboration percolating at the crossroads of art, community, and America's struggle to craft an authentic living democracy.

      BIO’s

      Ben Fink: Ben Fink worked with the Roadside ensemble from 2015 through 2020, as a member of the Betsy! Scholars’ Circle, as the founding organizer of the Letcher County Culture Hub and the Performing Our Future coalition, and as the cofounder of the cross-partisan dialogue project Hands Across the Hills. He has also served as dramaturg on the German premieres of  two Broadway musicals, made theater with Turkish and Arab high school students, and chaired a Lutheran faith community in Minnesota. His work in theater, organizing, pedagogy, and economic development has been featured by Salon.com, the Brookings Institution, TDR/The Drama Review, Harvard Law School, Americans for the Arts, PolicyLink, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2020, Ben was recognized by Time magazine as one of “27 People Bridging Divides Across America.” He is the general editor of Art in a Democracy. 

      Arnaldo J Lopez: is a cultural worker with a Ph.D. in Latin/o American Literatures and Cultures from New York University. He first joined Pregones Theater when the company set out to transform a South Bronx warehouse into a vibrant performing arts center, and later helped engineer a merger with the historic Puerto Rican Traveling Theater in Manhattan. Versed in a broad set of creative, community, and nonprofit topics, he works with artists in mapping paths toward joyful and sustainable practice. His background also includes ten years in letterpress and graphic design.

      Notable Mentions

      Art in a Democracy, the selected plays of Roadside Theater, volumes 1 and 2: This two-volume anthology tells the story of Roadside Theater’s first 45 years and includes nine award-winning original play scripts; ten essays by authors from different disciplines and generations, which explore the plays’ social, economic, and political circumstances; and a critical recounting of the theater’s history from 1975 through 2020. 

      ArtinAdemocracy.org: The official Art in a Democracy website.

      New Village Press is Art in a Democracy's publisher. The mission of New Village Press is to promote and enrich public discussion and understanding of issues vital to the development of healthy, creative, and socially just communities. To that end, New Village publishes transdisciplinary books that animate emerging movements in societal transformation. In conjunction, the Press also sponsors lectures, forums, and exhibitions for the public, especially for those communities that are underserved.

      Junebug Productions emerged from the Free Southern Theater in 1980 with a mission to create and support artistic works that question and confront inequitable conditions that have historically impacted the Black community. "Through interrogation, we challenge ourselves and those aligned with the organization to make greater and deeper contributions towards a just society."

      John O’Neal was a co-founder of the Free Southern Theater, Field Secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and Founder of Junebug Productions. This list contains content that pays tribute to his incredible work for our field, and for freedom and justice in America. This HowlAround resource contains essays, video’s and a podcast featuring John O’Neal and his work.

      Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater: Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (aka Pregones/PRTT) is a multigenerational performing ensemble, multidiscipline arts presenter, and owner/steward of bilingual arts facilities in The Bronx and Manhattan. Our mission is to champion a Puerto Rican/Latinx cultural legacy of universal value through creation and performance of original plays and musicals, exchange and partnership with other artists of merit, and engagement of diverse audiences.

      Appalshop was founded in 1969 as a project of the US government's “war on poverty.” Over its five decades of lively existence, it's grown to become an important amplifier of the voices of the Appalachian region. Its mission is pretty simple, namely, “to develop effective ways of using media and cultural expression to address the complex issues facing the region.”

      “We've been making art and media in the mountains since 1969. Now we're powered by the largest net-metered renewable energy system in Eastern Kentucky, and home to the largest single body of creative work on Appalachia in the world.” 

      Promise of a Love Song: Promise of a Love Song interweaves three love stories, each from the particular culture of the play’s creators: Pregones Theater, a Puerto Rican company based in the Bronx; Junebug Productions, an African American theater based in New Orleans; and Roadside Theater 

      Thousand Kites: Thousand Kites is the title of both a play script by Roadside Theater and an interdisciplinary project by Appalshop, Inc. addressing prison justice. 

      Puerto Rican, Appalachian Musical, Betsy: Created and produced by Pregones Theater and Roadside Theater, BETSY! tells the story of a Bronx jazz singer forced to confront her twin Spanish Caribbean and Scotch-Irish roots. Her dilemma stirs up the ghosts of six generations of American women, and musical currents spanning four continents. 

      The music for the audiogram trailer for this episode came from the score for the production of Betsy. Here are the liner notes:

      The first phase of script and music development for Betsy (www.roadside.org/program/betsy-co…pregones-theater) took place at the Nashville Jazz Workshop. The following songs were recorded live during a workshop rehearsal at the Nashville Jazz Workshop. Musicians and vocalists include: Beegie Adair, piano & vocals; Ron Short, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, flute & vocals; Connye Florance, vocals; Caroline Peyton, vocals; Roger Spencer, string bass; Jim White, percussion; and Andre Reiss, guitar. All music is copyright Beegie Adair or Ron Short.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      c0e1ce7b-87f3-43d1-ab46-52163ec49da5Wed, 29 Mar 2023 05:45:00 -070043:28truefull368683Our subject this episode is Art in a Democracy: Selected Plays of Roadside Theater. Our conversation with editor Ben Fink and contributor Arnaldo J. Lopez. explores Roadside's 50-year history of creative collaboration percolating at the crossroads of art, community, and America's struggle to craft an authentic living democracy.      67: Eric Booth: From Shakespeare on Broadway to Pioneering Teaching Artist Organizer67: Eric Booth: From Shakespeare on Broadway to Pioneering Teaching Artist OrganizerThis episode's guest is artist, educator, and global cultural leader, Eric Booth. Eric’s passion is activating the artistry of others to foster wellness, create thriving communities and change behaviors for the better. Eric has written seven books, taught at Juilliard, Stanford, Lincoln Center, and consulted on arts, learning, teaching, and innovation across the globe.

      BIO

      In 2015 Eric Booth was given the nation’s highest award in arts education (the first artist to receive it). He began as a Broadway actor, and became a businessman (his company became the largest of its kind in the U.S. in 7 years), and author of seven books, including the bestseller The Everyday Work of Art, Playing for Their Lives (the only book about music for social change programs around the world) and Tending the Perennials, and over 30 published articles. He has been on the faculty of Juilliard (12 years), Tanglewood (5 years), The Kennedy Center (20 years), and Lincoln Center Education (for 41 years). He serves as a consultant for many arts organizations (including seven of the ten largest U.S. orchestras), cities, states and businesses around the U.S., and in 11 other countries. He has founded and led teaching artist training programs around the world. A frequent keynote speaker, he gave the closing keynote to UNESCO's first world arts education conference, and founded the International Teaching Artist Collaborative. Website : ericbooth.net

      Notable Mentions

      Anton Checkhov:  29 January 1860[note 2] – 15 July 1904[note 3]) was a Russian[3] playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics.[

      The Bear: A Joke in One Act, or The Boor (Russian: Медведь: Шутка в одном действии, tr. Medved': Shutka v odnom deystvii, 1888), is a one-act comedic play written by Russian author Anton Chekhov. The play was originally dedicated to Nikolai Nikolaevich Solovtsov, Chekhov's boyhood friend and director/actor who first played the character Smirnov.

      Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi:  29 September 1934 – 20 October 2021) was a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of "flow", a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity.[

      Gospel of Mark, Alec McCowen: In 1977, Alec McCowen – unanimously regarded then and now as one of the finest actors in the English language – gave his first solo performance of St. Mark’s Gospel (King James Version) with minimal staging in a tiny church basement in Newcastle, England. Since these humble beginnings, the McCowen St. Mark’s Gospel has become a theatrical marvel of our time. Mr. McCowen, who recites the entire text of the Gospel from memory in this presentation, was nominated for a Tony Award in 1979 for his impressive work.

      Arts in Corrections: Arts in Corrections was a program of the California Department of Corrections from 1981 to 2011. At its height it had a full and part-time faculty of over 1000 artists and an incarcerated student body and audience of 25,000. Shuttered in the wake of the great recession it was revived as a joint program of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the California Arts Council. The program currently operates in all of California’s 34 prisons.

      Jose Alfonso: José Manuel Cerqueira Afonso dos Santos (2 August 1929 – 23 February 1987), known professionally as José Afonso and also popularly known as Zeca Afonso or simply Zeca, was a Portuguese singer-songwriter. One of the most influential folk and protest musicians in the history of Portugal, he became an icon in Portugal due to the role of his music in the resistance against the dictatorial Estado Novo regime.

      Estado Novo: The Estado Novo was one of the longest-surviving authoritarian regimes in Europe in the 20th century. Opposed to communism, socialism, syndicalism, anarchism, liberalism and anti-colonialism, the regime was conservative, corporatist, and nationalist in nature, defending Portugal's traditional Catholicism.

      Joseph Campbell: (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human experience. Campbell's best-known work is his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), in which he discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero shared by world mythologies, termed the monomyth.

      Audre Lorde: Poet and author Audre Lorde used her writing to shine light on her experience of the world as a Black lesbian woman and later, as a mother and person suffering from cancer. A prominent member of the women’s and LGBTQ rights movements, her writings called attention to the multifaceted nature of identity and the ways in which people from different walks of life could grow stronger together. 

      Maxine Green: Through inquiries into sociology, history, and especially philosophy and literature, Maxine Greene explored living in awareness and "wide-awakeness" in order to advance social justice. Her thinking about existence and the power of imagination have been brought to life through her study, academic appointments, essays and books. In her teaching, she desires to educate those who speak, write, and resist in their own voices, rather than mimic her ideas and language. We look forward hearing your voices here in these pages. 

      Elaine Scarry (born June 30, 1946) is an American essayist and professor of English and American Literature and Language. She is the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. Her interests include Theory of Representation, the Language of Physical Pain, and Structure of Verbal and Material Making in Art, Science and the Law.

      10,000 things: “The...]]>This episode's guest is artist, educator, and global cultural leader, Eric Booth. Eric’s passion is activating the artistry of others to foster wellness, create thriving communities and change behaviors for the better. Eric has written seven books, taught at Juilliard, Stanford, Lincoln Center, and consulted on arts, learning, teaching, and innovation across the globe.

      BIO

      In 2015 Eric Booth was given the nation’s highest award in arts education (the first artist to receive it). He began as a Broadway actor, and became a businessman (his company became the largest of its kind in the U.S. in 7 years), and author of seven books, including the bestseller The Everyday Work of Art, Playing for Their Lives (the only book about music for social change programs around the world) and Tending the Perennials, and over 30 published articles. He has been on the faculty of Juilliard (12 years), Tanglewood (5 years), The Kennedy Center (20 years), and Lincoln Center Education (for 41 years). He serves as a consultant for many arts organizations (including seven of the ten largest U.S. orchestras), cities, states and businesses around the U.S., and in 11 other countries. He has founded and led teaching artist training programs around the world. A frequent keynote speaker, he gave the closing keynote to UNESCO's first world arts education conference, and founded the International Teaching Artist Collaborative. Website : ericbooth.net

      Notable Mentions

      Anton Checkhov:  29 January 1860[note 2] – 15 July 1904[note 3]) was a Russian[3] playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics.[

      The Bear: A Joke in One Act, or The Boor (Russian: Медведь: Шутка в одном действии, tr. Medved': Shutka v odnom deystvii, 1888), is a one-act comedic play written by Russian author Anton Chekhov. The play was originally dedicated to Nikolai Nikolaevich Solovtsov, Chekhov's boyhood friend and director/actor who first played the character Smirnov.

      Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi:  29 September 1934 – 20 October 2021) was a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of "flow", a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity.[

      Gospel of Mark, Alec McCowen: In 1977, Alec McCowen – unanimously regarded then and now as one of the finest actors in the English language – gave his first solo performance of St. Mark’s Gospel (King James Version) with minimal staging in a tiny church basement in Newcastle, England. Since these humble beginnings, the McCowen St. Mark’s Gospel has become a theatrical marvel of our time. Mr. McCowen, who recites the entire text of the Gospel from memory in this presentation, was nominated for a Tony Award in 1979 for his impressive work.

      Arts in Corrections: Arts in Corrections was a program of the California Department of Corrections from 1981 to 2011. At its height it had a full and part-time faculty of over 1000 artists and an incarcerated student body and audience of 25,000. Shuttered in the wake of the great recession it was revived as a joint program of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the California Arts Council. The program currently operates in all of California’s 34 prisons.

      Jose Alfonso: José Manuel Cerqueira Afonso dos Santos (2 August 1929 – 23 February 1987), known professionally as José Afonso and also popularly known as Zeca Afonso or simply Zeca, was a Portuguese singer-songwriter. One of the most influential folk and protest musicians in the history of Portugal, he became an icon in Portugal due to the role of his music in the resistance against the dictatorial Estado Novo regime.

      Estado Novo: The Estado Novo was one of the longest-surviving authoritarian regimes in Europe in the 20th century. Opposed to communism, socialism, syndicalism, anarchism, liberalism and anti-colonialism, the regime was conservative, corporatist, and nationalist in nature, defending Portugal's traditional Catholicism.

      Joseph Campbell: (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human experience. Campbell's best-known work is his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), in which he discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero shared by world mythologies, termed the monomyth.

      Audre Lorde: Poet and author Audre Lorde used her writing to shine light on her experience of the world as a Black lesbian woman and later, as a mother and person suffering from cancer. A prominent member of the women’s and LGBTQ rights movements, her writings called attention to the multifaceted nature of identity and the ways in which people from different walks of life could grow stronger together. 

      Maxine Green: Through inquiries into sociology, history, and especially philosophy and literature, Maxine Greene explored living in awareness and "wide-awakeness" in order to advance social justice. Her thinking about existence and the power of imagination have been brought to life through her study, academic appointments, essays and books. In her teaching, she desires to educate those who speak, write, and resist in their own voices, rather than mimic her ideas and language. We look forward hearing your voices here in these pages. 

      Elaine Scarry (born June 30, 1946) is an American essayist and professor of English and American Literature and Language. She is the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. Her interests include Theory of Representation, the Language of Physical Pain, and Structure of Verbal and Material Making in Art, Science and the Law.

      10,000 things: “The Ten Thousand Things” is a common phrase found in Taoist and Buddhist writings to connote the material diversity of the universe. Lao Tzu, for example, writes in the Tao Te Ching: Tao produced the One. The One produced the two.

      El Sistema: (which translates to The System) is a publicly financed, voluntary sector, music-education program, founded in Venezuela in 1975 by Venezuelan educator, musician, and activist José Antonio Abreu.[1] It later adopted the motto "Music for Social Change." El Sistema-inspired programs provide what the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies describes as "free classical music education that promotes human opportunity and development for impoverished children."

      Academy for Impact Through Music:At its core, AIM is a lab for learning: we gather, innovate and spread good practices for young people to empower themselves through music educatio

      ITAC, the International Teaching Artist Collaborative: The International Teaching Artist Collaborative brings together artists, organizations, funders, and researchers from all over the world to explore key issues relating to participatory arts practices.

      (The Everyday Work of Art: Awakening the Extraordinary in Your Daily Life: Eric Booth Book of the Month Club Selection, and winner of the Broadway Theatre Institute and Benjamin Franklin awards, The Everyday Work of Art has earned a wide, varied and passionate followingin the arts, education, business, and spiritual communities. Its wide appeal springs from its unique and powerful redefinition of art. 

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>d5f6d5dd-f1a9-4ac6-9b60-ee1f0b99fa87Wed, 15 Mar 2023 05:45:00 -070001:05:36truefull367673Eric Booth’s passion is activating the artistry of others to foster wellness, create thriving communities and change behaviors for the better.      66: Arlene Goldbard on Cultural Activism, Belonging, and the Power of Lived Knowledge66: Arlene Goldbard on Cultural Activism, Belonging, and the Power of Lived KnowledgeArlene Goldbard

      In this episode we talk to author, visual artist, educator, and activist Arlene Goldbard about her new book. In the Camp of Angels of Freedom: What Does it Mean to be Educated. In it she explores her life's journey along with a camp of 11 angels that include James Baldwin, Nina Simone, Paolo Freire, Doris Lessing, and Jane Jacobs. 

      Bio

      Arlene Goldbard (www.arlenegoldbard.com) is a New Mexico-based writer, speaker, consultant, cultural activist, and visual artist whose focus is the intersection of culture, politics and spirituality. Her books include The Wave, The Culture of Possibility: Art, Artists & The Future; New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development, Community, Culture and Globalization, Crossroads: Reflections on the Politics of Culture, and Clarity. Her new book, In The Camp of Angels of Freedom: What Does It Mean to Be Educated? was published by New Village Press in January 2023. Her essays have been widely published. She has addressed academic and community audiences in the U.S. and Europe and provided advice to community-based organizations, independent media groups, institutions of higher education, and public and private funders and policymakers. Along with François Matarasso, she co-hosts “A Culture of Possibility,” a podcast produced by miaaw.net. From 2012 to 2019, she served as Chief Policy Wonk of the USDAC (usdac.us). From 2008-2019, she served as President of the Board of Directors of The Shalom Center. 

      Notable Mentions

      Change the Story / Change the World: A Chronicle of art and community transformation across the globe.

      Change the Story Collection: Many of our listeners have told us they would like to dig deeper into art and change stories that focus on specific issues, constituencies, or disciplines. Others have shared that they are using the podcast as a learning resource and would appreciate categories and cross-references for our stories. In response we have curated episode collections in 11 arenas: Justice Arts, Children and Youth, Racial Reckoning, Creative Climate Action, Cultural Organizing, Creative Community Leadership Development, Arts and Healing, Art of the Rural, Theater for Change, Music and Transformation, Change Media.

       In the Camp of Angels of Freedom: What Does it Mean to be Educated: An autodidact explores issues of education itself through essays and personal portraits of the key minds who influenced her. What does it mean to be educated? Through her evocative paintings and narrative, author Arlene Goldbard has portrayed eleven people whose work most influenced her—what she calls a camp of angels.

       Order this Book @: Arlene Goldbard.com and New Village Press

      James Baldwin is considered one of America’s finest writers.  He garnered acclaim for his work across several mediums, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, was published in 1953; decades later, Time magazine included the novel on its list of the 100 best English-language novels released from 1923 to 2005.[1] Baldwin's work fictionalizes fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures. Themes of masculinity, sexuality, race, and class intertwine to create intricate narratives that run parallel with some of the major political movements toward social change in mid-twentieth century America, such as the civil rights movement and the gay liberation movement. 

      Nina Simone: was one of the most extraordinary artists of the twentieth century, an icon of American music. She was the consummate musical storyteller, a griot as she would come to learn, who used her remarkable talent to create a legacy of liberation, empowerment, passion, and love through a magnificent body of works. 

      Nina Simone @Monteau Jazz Festival (video)

      Paul Goodman: was an American writer and public intellectual best known for his 1960s works of social criticism. Goodman was prolific across numerous literary genres and non-fiction topics, including the arts, civil rights, decentralization, democracy, education, media, politics, psychology, technology, urban planning, and war. As a humanist and self-styled man of letters, his works often addressed a common theme of the individual citizen's duties in the larger society, and the responsibility to exercise autonomy, act creatively, and realize one's own human nature.

      US Department of Arts and Culture: The U.S. Department of Arts and Culture is a people-powered department—a grassroots action network inciting creativity and social imagination to shape a culture of empathy, equity, and belonging.

      Dr. Ibram x. Kendi is a National Book Award-winning author of thirteen books for adults and children, including nine NewYork Times bestsellers—five of which were #1 NewYork Times bestsellers. Dr. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University, and]]>Arlene Goldbard

      In this episode we talk to author, visual artist, educator, and activist Arlene Goldbard about her new book. In the Camp of Angels of Freedom: What Does it Mean to be Educated. In it she explores her life's journey along with a camp of 11 angels that include James Baldwin, Nina Simone, Paolo Freire, Doris Lessing, and Jane Jacobs. 

      Bio

      Arlene Goldbard (www.arlenegoldbard.com) is a New Mexico-based writer, speaker, consultant, cultural activist, and visual artist whose focus is the intersection of culture, politics and spirituality. Her books include The Wave, The Culture of Possibility: Art, Artists & The Future; New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development, Community, Culture and Globalization, Crossroads: Reflections on the Politics of Culture, and Clarity. Her new book, In The Camp of Angels of Freedom: What Does It Mean to Be Educated? was published by New Village Press in January 2023. Her essays have been widely published. She has addressed academic and community audiences in the U.S. and Europe and provided advice to community-based organizations, independent media groups, institutions of higher education, and public and private funders and policymakers. Along with François Matarasso, she co-hosts “A Culture of Possibility,” a podcast produced by miaaw.net. From 2012 to 2019, she served as Chief Policy Wonk of the USDAC (usdac.us). From 2008-2019, she served as President of the Board of Directors of The Shalom Center. 

      Notable Mentions

      Change the Story / Change the World: A Chronicle of art and community transformation across the globe.

      Change the Story Collection: Many of our listeners have told us they would like to dig deeper into art and change stories that focus on specific issues, constituencies, or disciplines. Others have shared that they are using the podcast as a learning resource and would appreciate categories and cross-references for our stories. In response we have curated episode collections in 11 arenas: Justice Arts, Children and Youth, Racial Reckoning, Creative Climate Action, Cultural Organizing, Creative Community Leadership Development, Arts and Healing, Art of the Rural, Theater for Change, Music and Transformation, Change Media.

       In the Camp of Angels of Freedom: What Does it Mean to be Educated: An autodidact explores issues of education itself through essays and personal portraits of the key minds who influenced her. What does it mean to be educated? Through her evocative paintings and narrative, author Arlene Goldbard has portrayed eleven people whose work most influenced her—what she calls a camp of angels.

       Order this Book @: Arlene Goldbard.com and New Village Press

      James Baldwin is considered one of America’s finest writers.  He garnered acclaim for his work across several mediums, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, was published in 1953; decades later, Time magazine included the novel on its list of the 100 best English-language novels released from 1923 to 2005.[1] Baldwin's work fictionalizes fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures. Themes of masculinity, sexuality, race, and class intertwine to create intricate narratives that run parallel with some of the major political movements toward social change in mid-twentieth century America, such as the civil rights movement and the gay liberation movement. 

      Nina Simone: was one of the most extraordinary artists of the twentieth century, an icon of American music. She was the consummate musical storyteller, a griot as she would come to learn, who used her remarkable talent to create a legacy of liberation, empowerment, passion, and love through a magnificent body of works. 

      Nina Simone @Monteau Jazz Festival (video)

      Paul Goodman: was an American writer and public intellectual best known for his 1960s works of social criticism. Goodman was prolific across numerous literary genres and non-fiction topics, including the arts, civil rights, decentralization, democracy, education, media, politics, psychology, technology, urban planning, and war. As a humanist and self-styled man of letters, his works often addressed a common theme of the individual citizen's duties in the larger society, and the responsibility to exercise autonomy, act creatively, and realize one's own human nature.

      US Department of Arts and Culture: The U.S. Department of Arts and Culture is a people-powered department—a grassroots action network inciting creativity and social imagination to shape a culture of empathy, equity, and belonging.

      Dr. Ibram x. Kendi is a National Book Award-winning author of thirteen books for adults and children, including nine NewYork Times bestsellers—five of which were #1 NewYork Times bestsellers. Dr. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University, and the director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News racial justice contributor.

      Golden Notebook: The Golden Notebook is a 1962 novel by the British writer Doris Lessing. Like her two books that followed, it enters the realm of what Margaret Drabble in The Oxford Companion to English Literature called Lessing's "inner space fiction";[citation needed] her work that explores mental and societal breakdown. The novel contains anti-war and anti-Stalinist messages, an extended analysis of communism and the Communist Party in England from the 1930s to the 1950s, and an examination of the budding sexual revolution and women's liberation movements.

      Doris Lessing: was a British-Zimbabwean novelist. She was born to British parents in Iran, where she lived until 1925. Lessing was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. In awarding the prize, the Swedish Academy described her as "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny".[2] Lessing was the oldest person ever to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, at age 87.[3][4][5]

      Vaclav Havel: The unassuming man who taught, through plays and politics, how tyranny may be defied and overcome. Although a highly successful politician, four times head of state and the leader of one of the most famous revolutions in history, he was not a natural public figure. A sincere, impatient and humble man, he detested the pomposity, superficiality and phoney intimacy of politics.

      Isaiah Berlin: Isaiah Berlin (1909–97) was a naturalised British philosopher, historian of ideas, political theorist, educator, public intellectual and moralist, and essayist. He was renowned for his conversational brilliance, his defence of liberalism and pluralism, his opposition to political extremism and intellectual fanaticism, and his accessible, coruscating writings on people and ideas. 

      Marjorie Taylor Green, Jewish space lasers,

      Waiting for Godot: is a play by Samuel Beckett in which two characters, Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters while awaiting the titular Godot, who never arrives.[2] Waiting for Godot is Beckett's translation of his own original French-language play, En attendant Godot, and is subtitled (in English only) "a tragicomedy in two acts"

      Waiting for Godot at San Quentin Prison 1988: This documentary was made during rehearsals for the play "Waiting for Godot," by Samuel Beckett, which was performed in 1988 by members of the San Quentin Drama Workshop at San Quentin maximum security prison, Marin County, California. Swedish director Jan Jonson directed

      A Culture of Possibility.  by Arlene Goldbard. "If we're going to end this fiscal madness and start rebuilding America, we're going to have to get creative! We need a tsunami of music, film, poetry and art. The Culture of Possibility shows us how creativity can take our story back from Corporation Nation, tilting the culture towards justice, equity, and innovation. I urge you to read this book!" Van Jones

      Abraham Joshua Heschel (January 11, 1907 – December 23, 1972) was a Polish-American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century. Heschel, a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, authored a number of widely read books on Jewish philosophy and was a leader in the civil rights movement.[1][2]

      National Guild for Community Arts Education: Founded in 1937, the National Guild for Community Arts Education is the sole national service organization for providers of community arts education. We believe in the power of the arts to transform lives. Our work helps realize that transformation every day.

      The Higher Ground Community Arts of Spiritual Practice: This is the text of Arlene Goldbards’s keynote address at the annual conference of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts. It was delivered on 3 November 2006.

      Liz Lerman: Hiking the Horizontal: Coreographer, education, and all around heritic-change agent Liz Lerman offers readers a gentle manifesto to bring a horizontal focus to bear on a hierarchical world. This is the perfect book for anyone curious about the possible role for art in politics, science, community, motherhood, and the media.

      The National Conference on Religion and Race, held at Chicago's Edgewater Beach Hotel, 14–17 January...]]>4db58a9f-b68d-42be-902d-ee7eb5ff7e1bWed, 01 Mar 2023 05:45:00 -070001:02:03truefull366663In this episode we talk to author, visual artist, educator, and activist Arlene Goldbard about her new book. In the Camp of Angels of Freedom: What Does it Mean to be Educated. In it she explores her life's journey along with a camp of 11 angels that include James Baldwin, Nina Simone, Paolo Freire, Doris Lessing, and Jane Jacobs.65: Lorrie Chang - Finding an Art & Community TRUE NORTH65: Lorrie Chang - Finding an Art & Community TRUE NORTHThis week we visit with researcher, writer, planner, Lorrie Chang to talk about her work with ArtPlace America's Community Development Investment (CDI) program. Along the way we will explore how artists from the Zuni Pueblo, and Southwest Minnesota worked with community developers to integrate arts-based tools and strategies as an enduring core of their practice?

      BIO

      Lorrie Chang centers an arts and cultural-based approach to community change and development as a path to collective liberation. At PolicyLink, she designed and evaluated the nation’s first Creative Placemaking technical assistance program for The National Endowment for the Arts, served as the research partner for ArtPlace’s experiment to integrate arts and culture strategies into community development organizations, and supported six arts organizations advancing equitable policies across the country. In East Portland, she led community engagement rooted in storytelling for The People’s Plan-- a plan by and for the people projecting a vision for a thriving Black community. As a Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' Truth Fellow, she explored, "How do we find and empower TRUTH?". Last year, in stillness, she humbly pursued, “What does liberation look like for me?”. She now seeks to alchemize her journey of personal liberation to serve collective liberation. Lorrie holds a Master's in Urban and Regional Planning and resides in San Francisco. 

        

      Notable Mentions

      The Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership (SWMHP) is a non-profit community development corporation serving communities throughout Southwest and South Central Minnesota.

      Partnership Art: In 2015, SWMHP was one of six organizations that received funding through Artplace America to participate in the Community Development Investments (CDI) Program. The CDI Program was launched to investigate and support place-based organization incorporating art and culture into our core work, allowing us to better fulfill our mission of creative thriving place to live, grow and work.

      Place-based Productions: We are a production company that explores community stories through site-specific performance and the arts. Our work cultivates stewards of community identity by connecting people to their common places, stories and relationships.

      Our goals are to foster creativity, play, and, above all, a sense of place.

      ArtPlace America was a ten-year, $150 million collaboration among a number of foundations, federal agencies, and financial institutions that operated from 2010 to 2020. Our mission was to position arts and culture as a core sector of equitable community planning and development. You can learn about the story of ArtPlace in our book.

      ArtPlace America's Community Development Initiative: A core focus of ArtPlace America’s Community Development Investments program was to learn from how six organizations in urban, rural, and tribal areas were able to incorporate arts and culture into their work, help them achieve their missions more effectively, and bring about positive outcomes for their communities.

      PolicyLink: PolicyLink is a national research and action institute advancing racial and economic equity by Lifting Up What Works.® “As the nation moves toward becoming majority people of color, achieving equity—just and fair inclusion into a society in which all can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential—is the moral imperative, a potent antidote to inequality, and the superior growth model.”

      Lisjan Ohlone: The Lisjan are made up of the six nations that were directly enslaved at Mission San Jose in Fremont, CA and Mission Dolores in San Francisco, CA: Lisjan (Ohlone), Karkin (Ohlone), Bay Miwok, Plains Miwok, Delta Yokut and Napian (Patwin). Our territory includes 5 Bay Area counties; Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, Napa and San Joaquin, and we are directly tied to the “Indian Town” census of the 1920’s and the Verona Band.

      Jeremy Liu: Liu is an award-winning artist, social impact strategist, and real estate developer with a successful track record of developing “Community Benefits by Design” real estate projects. As the Senior Fellow for Arts, Culture and Equitable Development at PolicyLink, he has shaped and is guiding an initiative that integrate arts and culture into the work of equitable development.

      Zuni Youth Empowerment Project: our mission is to promote resilience among zuni youth, so they will grow into strong and healthy adults who are connected with Zuni traditions. 

      Daryl Shack: My name is Daryl Shack Sr. I am a Painter and Fetish Carver with 44 years of experience. My Fetish work is made with various stones that are found locally and from around the world. For my paintings, I use Acrylic and Enamel paints on canvas. What influences my Art is my father, our Culture and Traditions. 

      Ashley Hansen Ashley Hanson (she/her) has 15 years of experience working with rural communities to activate stories, connect neighbors, and exercise collective imagination. She is a member of the Center for Performance and Civic Practice Leadership Circle and she was an Artist-in-Residence in both the Planning Department at the City of Minneapolis and with the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, where she employed creative community engagement strategies for equitable participation in urban and rural planning and development processes.

      Shambhala Prophecy: There comes a time when all life on Earth is in danger. Barbarian powers have arisen. Although they waste their wealth in preparations to annihilate each other, they have much in common: weapons of unfathomable devastation and technologies that lay waste the world. It is now, when the future of all beings hangs by the frailest of threads, that the kingdom of Shambhala emerges.



      ]]>      This week we visit with researcher, writer, planner, Lorrie Chang to talk about her work with ArtPlace America's Community Development Investment (CDI) program. Along the way we will explore how artists from the Zuni Pueblo, and Southwest Minnesota worked with community developers to integrate arts-based tools and strategies as an enduring core of their practice?

      BIO

      Lorrie Chang centers an arts and cultural-based approach to community change and development as a path to collective liberation. At PolicyLink, she designed and evaluated the nation’s first Creative Placemaking technical assistance program for The National Endowment for the Arts, served as the research partner for ArtPlace’s experiment to integrate arts and culture strategies into community development organizations, and supported six arts organizations advancing equitable policies across the country. In East Portland, she led community engagement rooted in storytelling for The People’s Plan-- a plan by and for the people projecting a vision for a thriving Black community. As a Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' Truth Fellow, she explored, "How do we find and empower TRUTH?". Last year, in stillness, she humbly pursued, “What does liberation look like for me?”. She now seeks to alchemize her journey of personal liberation to serve collective liberation. Lorrie holds a Master's in Urban and Regional Planning and resides in San Francisco. 

        

      Notable Mentions

      The Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership (SWMHP) is a non-profit community development corporation serving communities throughout Southwest and South Central Minnesota.

      Partnership Art: In 2015, SWMHP was one of six organizations that received funding through Artplace America to participate in the Community Development Investments (CDI) Program. The CDI Program was launched to investigate and support place-based organization incorporating art and culture into our core work, allowing us to better fulfill our mission of creative thriving place to live, grow and work.

      Place-based Productions: We are a production company that explores community stories through site-specific performance and the arts. Our work cultivates stewards of community identity by connecting people to their common places, stories and relationships.

      Our goals are to foster creativity, play, and, above all, a sense of place.

      ArtPlace America was a ten-year, $150 million collaboration among a number of foundations, federal agencies, and financial institutions that operated from 2010 to 2020. Our mission was to position arts and culture as a core sector of equitable community planning and development. You can learn about the story of ArtPlace in our book.

      ArtPlace America's Community Development Initiative: A core focus of ArtPlace America’s Community Development Investments program was to learn from how six organizations in urban, rural, and tribal areas were able to incorporate arts and culture into their work, help them achieve their missions more effectively, and bring about positive outcomes for their communities.

      PolicyLink: PolicyLink is a national research and action institute advancing racial and economic equity by Lifting Up What Works.® “As the nation moves toward becoming majority people of color, achieving equity—just and fair inclusion into a society in which all can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential—is the moral imperative, a potent antidote to inequality, and the superior growth model.”

      Lisjan Ohlone: The Lisjan are made up of the six nations that were directly enslaved at Mission San Jose in Fremont, CA and Mission Dolores in San Francisco, CA: Lisjan (Ohlone), Karkin (Ohlone), Bay Miwok, Plains Miwok, Delta Yokut and Napian (Patwin). Our territory includes 5 Bay Area counties; Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, Napa and San Joaquin, and we are directly tied to the “Indian Town” census of the 1920’s and the Verona Band.

      Jeremy Liu: Liu is an award-winning artist, social impact strategist, and real estate developer with a successful track record of developing “Community Benefits by Design” real estate projects. As the Senior Fellow for Arts, Culture and Equitable Development at PolicyLink, he has shaped and is guiding an initiative that integrate arts and culture into the work of equitable development.

      Zuni Youth Empowerment Project: our mission is to promote resilience among zuni youth, so they will grow into strong and healthy adults who are connected with Zuni traditions. 

      Daryl Shack: My name is Daryl Shack Sr. I am a Painter and Fetish Carver with 44 years of experience. My Fetish work is made with various stones that are found locally and from around the world. For my paintings, I use Acrylic and Enamel paints on canvas. What influences my Art is my father, our Culture and Traditions. 

      Ashley Hansen Ashley Hanson (she/her) has 15 years of experience working with rural communities to activate stories, connect neighbors, and exercise collective imagination. She is a member of the Center for Performance and Civic Practice Leadership Circle and she was an Artist-in-Residence in both the Planning Department at the City of Minneapolis and with the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, where she employed creative community engagement strategies for equitable participation in urban and rural planning and development processes.

      Shambhala Prophecy: There comes a time when all life on Earth is in danger. Barbarian powers have arisen. Although they waste their wealth in preparations to annihilate each other, they have much in common: weapons of unfathomable devastation and technologies that lay waste the world. It is now, when the future of all beings hangs by the frailest of threads, that the kingdom of Shambhala emerges.



      ]]>      0b2ee55b-feb3-4eb2-a78c-3ae6b95bf473Wed, 15 Feb 2023 05:45:00 -070049:11truefull365653This week we visit with researcher, writer, planner, Lorrie Chang to talk about her work with ArtPlace America's Community Development Investment (CDI) program. Along the way we will explore artists from the Zuni Pueblo, and Southwest Minnesota worked with community developers to integrate arts-based tools and strategies as an enduring core of their practice?      64: Witches Are Not Victims: Liz Lerman on Power, Performance & Cultural Legacy – Part 264: Witches Are Not Victims: Liz Lerman on Power, Performance & Cultural Legacy – Part 2In Episode 63 of Change the Story / Change the World, Liz Lerman shared stories about her early years and her creative path as a choreographer, teacher, and as a lifelong practicing heretic. In this Episode, (64) we hear about Wicked Bodies, her latest work, exploring the ugly, the beautiful, and the sublime embedded in the age-old story of witches.

      Special Thanks to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for their support of Liz Lerman's work and the use of an excerpt from the Wicked Bodies trailer.

      BIO

      Liz Lerman is a choreographer, performer, writer, teacher, and speaker. She has spent the past four decades making her artistic research personal, funny, intellectually vivid, and up to the minute. A key aspect of her artistry is opening her process to everyone from shipbuilders to physicists, construction workers to ballerinas, resulting in both research and experiences that are participatory, relevant, urgent, and usable by others.

      Called by the Washington Post “the source of an epochal revolution in the scope and purposes of dance art,”[4] she and her dancers have collaborated with shipbuilders, physicists, construction workers, and cancer researchers.[5] In 2002 she won the MacArthur Genius Grant;[6] in 2009, the Jack P. Blaney Award in Dialogue acknowledged her outstanding leadership, creativity, and dedication to melding dialogue with dance, and the 2017 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award.[7]

      She founded the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in 1976 and led the company's multi-generational ensemble until July 2011, when Lerman passed the leadership of her company to Cassie Meador;[8] the company is now called simply Dance Exchange.[9] .[10]

      Under Lerman's leadership Dance Exchange appeared across the U.S. in locations as various as the National Cathedral,[11] Kennedy Center Opera House,[12] and Millennium Stage,[13] Lansburgh Theatre,[14] Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center,[14][15] Harvard University,[16] and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.[17][18]

      Lerman's early work was strongly associated with the inclusion of older people alongside more traditional young performers,[19] and with the use of personal narrative.[4] 

      Notable Mentions

      Liz Lerman: I help others when they come to me and ask. I work in this country and abroad in settings that continue to forge my thinking, make me bolder, and let me interrogate the next generations of artists. It is wide open at the moment. I am a little frightened, a lot more curious, and full of wonder and grief as I gaze around me.”

      – Liz Lerman

      Change the Story / Change the World EP: 63, Liz Lerman shared stories about her early years and her creative path as a choreographer teacher, and as a lifelong practicing heretic. She also talked about hiking, the horizontal, the critical response process, challenging the Canon, the Heisenberg Uncertainty and how dance can help make the world a better place.

      Heisenberg Uncertainty: n quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principle (also known as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle) is any of a variety of mathematical inequalities[1] asserting a fundamental limit to the accuracy with which the values for certain pairs of physical quantities of a particle, such as position, x, and momentum, p, can be predicted from initial conditions.

      Wicked Bodies, Liz Lerman’s latest work, exploring the ugly, the beautiful, and the sublime embedded in the age-old story of witches. 

      Yerba Buena Center for the Arts YBCA was founded in 1963, as the cultural anchor of San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens neighborhood. YBCA’s work spans the realms of contemporary art, performance, film, civic engagement, and public life. By centering artists as essential to social and cultural movement, YBCA is reimagining the role an arts institution can play in the community it serves.

      Christine Blasey Ford: is an American professor of psychology at Palo Alto University and a research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine.[4] She specializes in designing statistical models for research projects.[5] During her academic career, Ford has worked as a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine Collaborative Clinical Psychology Program.[6]

      In September...]]>In Episode 63 of Change the Story / Change the World, Liz Lerman shared stories about her early years and her creative path as a choreographer, teacher, and as a lifelong practicing heretic. In this Episode, (64) we hear about Wicked Bodies, her latest work, exploring the ugly, the beautiful, and the sublime embedded in the age-old story of witches.

      Special Thanks to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for their support of Liz Lerman's work and the use of an excerpt from the Wicked Bodies trailer.

      BIO

      Liz Lerman is a choreographer, performer, writer, teacher, and speaker. She has spent the past four decades making her artistic research personal, funny, intellectually vivid, and up to the minute. A key aspect of her artistry is opening her process to everyone from shipbuilders to physicists, construction workers to ballerinas, resulting in both research and experiences that are participatory, relevant, urgent, and usable by others.

      Called by the Washington Post “the source of an epochal revolution in the scope and purposes of dance art,”[4] she and her dancers have collaborated with shipbuilders, physicists, construction workers, and cancer researchers.[5] In 2002 she won the MacArthur Genius Grant;[6] in 2009, the Jack P. Blaney Award in Dialogue acknowledged her outstanding leadership, creativity, and dedication to melding dialogue with dance, and the 2017 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award.[7]

      She founded the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in 1976 and led the company's multi-generational ensemble until July 2011, when Lerman passed the leadership of her company to Cassie Meador;[8] the company is now called simply Dance Exchange.[9] .[10]

      Under Lerman's leadership Dance Exchange appeared across the U.S. in locations as various as the National Cathedral,[11] Kennedy Center Opera House,[12] and Millennium Stage,[13] Lansburgh Theatre,[14] Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center,[14][15] Harvard University,[16] and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.[17][18]

      Lerman's early work was strongly associated with the inclusion of older people alongside more traditional young performers,[19] and with the use of personal narrative.[4] 

      Notable Mentions

      Liz Lerman: I help others when they come to me and ask. I work in this country and abroad in settings that continue to forge my thinking, make me bolder, and let me interrogate the next generations of artists. It is wide open at the moment. I am a little frightened, a lot more curious, and full of wonder and grief as I gaze around me.”

      – Liz Lerman

      Change the Story / Change the World EP: 63, Liz Lerman shared stories about her early years and her creative path as a choreographer teacher, and as a lifelong practicing heretic. She also talked about hiking, the horizontal, the critical response process, challenging the Canon, the Heisenberg Uncertainty and how dance can help make the world a better place.

      Heisenberg Uncertainty: n quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principle (also known as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle) is any of a variety of mathematical inequalities[1] asserting a fundamental limit to the accuracy with which the values for certain pairs of physical quantities of a particle, such as position, x, and momentum, p, can be predicted from initial conditions.

      Wicked Bodies, Liz Lerman’s latest work, exploring the ugly, the beautiful, and the sublime embedded in the age-old story of witches. 

      Yerba Buena Center for the Arts YBCA was founded in 1963, as the cultural anchor of San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens neighborhood. YBCA’s work spans the realms of contemporary art, performance, film, civic engagement, and public life. By centering artists as essential to social and cultural movement, YBCA is reimagining the role an arts institution can play in the community it serves.

      Christine Blasey Ford: is an American professor of psychology at Palo Alto University and a research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine.[4] She specializes in designing statistical models for research projects.[5] During her academic career, Ford has worked as a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine Collaborative Clinical Psychology Program.[6]

      In September 2018, Ford alleged that then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in Bethesda, Maryland, when they were teenagers in the summer of 1982.[7] She testified about her allegations during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing regarding Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination later that month.[8]

      Witches & Wicked Bodies An 2013 exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art that provided a rich survey of images of European witchcraft from the ancient world to the present day. Witches, even in biblical and classical times were predominantly women and the misogynistic narratives of their wickedness and lewdness propounded by clerics in books such as the Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches),1486 resulted in enduring stereotypes that were imaginatively re-invented by artists over the centuries.  

      Johannes Kepler: was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music.[5] He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws of planetary motion, and his books Astronomia nova, Harmonice Mundi, and Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae. These works also provided one of the foundations for Newton's theory of universal gravitation.[6] 

      In 1615, 24 witnesses accused Katharina Kepler, the astronomer’s mother, of being a witch. Because of these charges and others, the elderly Katharina was chained to the floor of a prison cell, where she was watched by two guards. Kepler, then the imperial mathematician to Emperor Rudolf II, took over his mother’s legal defense, not realizing the case would go on for six years. Katharina’s story is the subject of a new book, The Astronomer and the Witch (Oxford, 2015), by Cambridge professor Ulinka Rublack.  

       “cultural humility” : To enter my relationships with my students who come from other cultures with my neighbors, my colleagues. I wish I knew all that I could know about their histories, but I don't. And so, and I can study, but that won't make me know it.So, humility seems to me. A space where, settle back, be gentle, be curious. Assume you're not the only person in the world and that not knowing is the best way to be. -- Liz Lerman

      Hiking the Horizontal: Liz Lerman’s 2021 book offers readers a gentle manifesto to bring a horizontal focus to bear on a hierarchical world. This is the perfect book for anyone curious about the possible role for art in politics, science, community, motherhood, and the media. 

      Dance Exchange: “A place I think of as a think tank and action lab, a place that has been my home and home to many others since I established it in 1976.” Mission: Fueled by generosity and curiosity, Dance Exchange expands who gets to dance, where dance happens, what dance is about, and why dance matters.

      senninbari: (千人針, "thousand person stitches) or one thousand stitch is a belt or strip of cloth stitched 1000 times and given as a Shinto amulet by Japanese women and imperial subjects to soldiers going away to war. Senninbari were decorated with 1000 knots or stitches, and each stitch was normally made by a different woman.[1][2]  

      The Atlas of Creative Tools is a work in progress developed by Liz Lerman and her colleagues at Arizona State University.  This selection of creative tools helps you practice ways of working with memories, exploring identity, making new connections, and engaging with curiosity.

      Legacy Unboxed, “We're just looking at the wildness of being this age and all the wild ways we wanna be in the world and what we wanna do about that and how we wanna handle.” Liz Lerman.

      She Said s a 2022 American biographical drama film directed by Maria Schrader and written by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, based on the 2019 book of the same title by reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. The film stars Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as Twohey and Kantor, respectively, and follows their New York Times investigation that exposed Harvey Weinstein's history of abuse and sexual misconduct against women.

      Demon Copperhead: s a 2022 novel by 8fc8b12c-b26a-44c2-89c5-50aa42c165b8Wed, 01 Feb 2023 05:45:00 -070024:52falsefull364643In Episode 64 internationally celebrated choreographer, and educator Liz Lerman talks about Wicked Bodies, her latest work, exploring the ugly, the beautiful, and the sublime embedded in the age-old story of witches.63: Witches Are Not Victims: Liz Lerman on Power, Performance & Cultural Legacy – Part 163: Witches Are Not Victims: Liz Lerman on Power, Performance & Cultural Legacy – Part 1Liz Lerman

      In chapter one of our conversation with Liz Lerman we'll talk about her early years, her career as a heretic, the critical response process, the Heisenberg Uncertainty, the power of the horizontal, and how dance can make the world a better place. 

      BIO

      Liz Lerman is a choreographer, performer, writer, teacher, and speaker. She has spent the past four decades making her artistic research personal, funny, intellectually vivid, and up to the minute. A key aspect of her artistry is opening her process to everyone from shipbuilders to physicists, construction workers to ballerinas, resulting in both research and experiences that are participatory, relevant, urgent, and usable by others.

      Called by the Washington Post “the source of an epochal revolution in the scope and purposes of dance art,”[4] she and her dancers have collaborated with shipbuilders, physicists, construction workers, and cancer researchers.[5] In 2002 she won the MacArthur Genius Grant;[6] in 2009, the Jack P. Blaney Award in Dialogue acknowledged her outstanding leadership, creativity, and dedication to melding dialogue with dance;[citation needed] and the 2017 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award.[7]

      She founded the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in 1976 and led the company's multi-generational ensemble until July 2011, when Lerman passed the leadership of her company to Cassie Meador;[8] the company is now called simply Dance Exchange.[9] .[10]

      Under Lerman's leadership Dance Exchange appeared across the U.S. in locations as various as the National Cathedral,[11] Kennedy Center Opera House,[12] and Millennium Stage,[13] Lansburgh Theatre,[14] Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center,[14][15] Harvard University,[16] and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.[17][18]

      Lerman's early work was strongly associated with the inclusion of older people alongside more traditional young performers,[19] and with the use of personal narrative.[4] Her later-career work has focused on questions of

      Notable Mentions

      Dance Exchange: (Previously, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange) Fueled by generosity and curiosity, Dance Exchange expands who gets to dance, where dance happens, what dance is about, and why dance matters. Dance Exchange harnesses the power of creativity and inquiry through dance to connect communities, to deepen our understanding of ourselves and to foster a more embodied, resilient and just world.

       Critical Response Process: Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process is a method for giving and getting feedback on work in progress, designed to leave the maker eager and motivated to get back to work. is Creative

      Pee-Posh (Maricopa): The Maricopa people were small bands living along the lower Gila and Colorado rivers. Each of these bands migrated eastward at different times. The Xalychidom (Maricopa of Lehi), left around 1825-1830. The last of these bands is said to have left the Colorado River in the late 1830’s. Eventually these bands came together and became collectively known as the Maricopa. As they migrated eastward, they came upon the Pima tribe and established a relationship. Both tribes provided protection against the Yuman and Apache tribes.

       Tohono O’odham: The Tohono O’odham Nation is comparable in size to the state of Connecticut. Its four non-contiguous segments total more than 2.8 million acres at an elevation of 2,674 feet. Within its land the Nation has established an Industrial Park that is located near Tucson. Tenants of the Industrial Park include Caterpillar, the maker of heavy equipment; the Desert Diamond Casino, an enterprise of the Nation; and, an 23 acre foreign trade zone. of Wisconsin with a sociologist named Pearlman.

      Freedom Schools: The Freedom Schools of the 1960s were part of a long line of efforts to liberate people from oppression using the tool of popular education, including secret schools in the 18th and 19th centuries for enslaved Africans; labor schools during the early 20th century; and the Citizenship Schools formed by Septima Clark and others in the 1950s.  

      Anna Halprin: was an American choreographer and dancer. She helped redefine dance in postwar America and pioneer the experimental art form known as postmodern dance and referred to herself as a breaker of the rules of modern dance.[4] In the 1950s, she established the San Francisco Dancers' Workshop to give artists like her a place to practice their art. Exploring the capabilities of her own body, she created a systematic way of moving using kinesthetic awareness.[5 

      Florence West, dance Milwaukee: Modern dance in Milwaukee begins with Florence West (1912-1994). West left Milwaukee at seventeen to dance in a Broadway road show, quit when she discovered ballet during a tour stop in Detroit, and found her way into the corps of the Chicago Civic Opera ballet. A Milwaukee opera producer asked her to come home to add choreography to a local production of Carmen. She soon became the go-to dance person for Milwaukee dance, theater, and opera companies.

      Amira de la Garza: After spending a year in Mexico as a Fulbright Scholar, her experiences with the everyday talk and life around her led her to develop methods to integrate]]>Liz Lerman

      In chapter one of our conversation with Liz Lerman we'll talk about her early years, her career as a heretic, the critical response process, the Heisenberg Uncertainty, the power of the horizontal, and how dance can make the world a better place. 

      BIO

      Liz Lerman is a choreographer, performer, writer, teacher, and speaker. She has spent the past four decades making her artistic research personal, funny, intellectually vivid, and up to the minute. A key aspect of her artistry is opening her process to everyone from shipbuilders to physicists, construction workers to ballerinas, resulting in both research and experiences that are participatory, relevant, urgent, and usable by others.

      Called by the Washington Post “the source of an epochal revolution in the scope and purposes of dance art,”[4] she and her dancers have collaborated with shipbuilders, physicists, construction workers, and cancer researchers.[5] In 2002 she won the MacArthur Genius Grant;[6] in 2009, the Jack P. Blaney Award in Dialogue acknowledged her outstanding leadership, creativity, and dedication to melding dialogue with dance;[citation needed] and the 2017 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award.[7]

      She founded the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in 1976 and led the company's multi-generational ensemble until July 2011, when Lerman passed the leadership of her company to Cassie Meador;[8] the company is now called simply Dance Exchange.[9] .[10]

      Under Lerman's leadership Dance Exchange appeared across the U.S. in locations as various as the National Cathedral,[11] Kennedy Center Opera House,[12] and Millennium Stage,[13] Lansburgh Theatre,[14] Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center,[14][15] Harvard University,[16] and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.[17][18]

      Lerman's early work was strongly associated with the inclusion of older people alongside more traditional young performers,[19] and with the use of personal narrative.[4] Her later-career work has focused on questions of

      Notable Mentions

      Dance Exchange: (Previously, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange) Fueled by generosity and curiosity, Dance Exchange expands who gets to dance, where dance happens, what dance is about, and why dance matters. Dance Exchange harnesses the power of creativity and inquiry through dance to connect communities, to deepen our understanding of ourselves and to foster a more embodied, resilient and just world.

       Critical Response Process: Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process is a method for giving and getting feedback on work in progress, designed to leave the maker eager and motivated to get back to work. is Creative

      Pee-Posh (Maricopa): The Maricopa people were small bands living along the lower Gila and Colorado rivers. Each of these bands migrated eastward at different times. The Xalychidom (Maricopa of Lehi), left around 1825-1830. The last of these bands is said to have left the Colorado River in the late 1830’s. Eventually these bands came together and became collectively known as the Maricopa. As they migrated eastward, they came upon the Pima tribe and established a relationship. Both tribes provided protection against the Yuman and Apache tribes.

       Tohono O’odham: The Tohono O’odham Nation is comparable in size to the state of Connecticut. Its four non-contiguous segments total more than 2.8 million acres at an elevation of 2,674 feet. Within its land the Nation has established an Industrial Park that is located near Tucson. Tenants of the Industrial Park include Caterpillar, the maker of heavy equipment; the Desert Diamond Casino, an enterprise of the Nation; and, an 23 acre foreign trade zone. of Wisconsin with a sociologist named Pearlman.

      Freedom Schools: The Freedom Schools of the 1960s were part of a long line of efforts to liberate people from oppression using the tool of popular education, including secret schools in the 18th and 19th centuries for enslaved Africans; labor schools during the early 20th century; and the Citizenship Schools formed by Septima Clark and others in the 1950s.  

      Anna Halprin: was an American choreographer and dancer. She helped redefine dance in postwar America and pioneer the experimental art form known as postmodern dance and referred to herself as a breaker of the rules of modern dance.[4] In the 1950s, she established the San Francisco Dancers' Workshop to give artists like her a place to practice their art. Exploring the capabilities of her own body, she created a systematic way of moving using kinesthetic awareness.[5 

      Florence West, dance Milwaukee: Modern dance in Milwaukee begins with Florence West (1912-1994). West left Milwaukee at seventeen to dance in a Broadway road show, quit when she discovered ballet during a tour stop in Detroit, and found her way into the corps of the Chicago Civic Opera ballet. A Milwaukee opera producer asked her to come home to add choreography to a local production of Carmen. She soon became the go-to dance person for Milwaukee dance, theater, and opera companies.

      Amira de la Garza: After spending a year in Mexico as a Fulbright Scholar, her experiences with the everyday talk and life around her led her to develop methods to integrate the arts, spirituality, and personal reflection into the study of culture. She works with many border-related projects, and has had students from around the world travel with her to many places to learn the methods she teaches.Professor de la Garza reports her research using creative writing, poetry, fiction, and has often shared her research through staged performances. 

      The California State Summer School for the Arts is a rigorous, preprofessional, month-long training program in the visual and performing arts, creative writing, animation and film for talented artists of high school age. CSSSA provides a supportive environment in which students hone acquired skills and explore new techniques and ideas for an intense and exciting learning experience.

      Ethel Butler, one of Liz’s teachers: From 1933 through 1945, Ethel Butler was a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company. She went on to become a well-known teacher of the Graham Technique, counting among her students Paul Taylor and Dan Wagoner.

      Sandy Spring Friends School: Sandy Spring Friends School is a progressive, coeducational, college preparatory Quaker school serving students from preschool through 12th grade. SSFS offers an optional 5- and 7- day boarding program in the Middle School and Upper School. 

      Art in Other Places, William Cleveland, Artists have established a remarkable record of innovation and success in institutional settings. Their work with hospital patients, prisoners, the elderly, the disabled, the mentally ill, and others has shown that the arts can have a significant positive impact on the lives of these people. This book recounts the histories of 22 institutional and community arts programs across the country pioneering this approach through activities such as creative writing and the performing and visual arts.Rabbi, Danny Zemel.

      Wicked Bodies: Inspired by powerful and grotesque images of women’s bodies over multiple historic periods, Liz Lerman’s Wicked Bodies, is an intimate spectacle, brings together several consistent themes of my choreographic output:

      – the invisible ways and means of feminine thinking and action which have been celebrated, erased, or criminalized;

      – legal systems that attempt but often fail to bend our actions towards a fairer and more just world; and

      – how we as a group of intergenerational artists bring our personal lives to the stage within characters that are imagining futures

       Anand Giridharadas, The Persuaders is a stunning insider account of activists, politicians, educators, and everyday citizens who are on the ground working to change minds, bridge divisions, and fight for democracy.

      Anat Shanker Osorio: Host of the Words to Win By podcast and Principal of ASO Communications, Anat Shenker-Osorio examines why certain messages falter where others deliver. She has led research for new messaging on issues ranging from freedom to join together in union to clean energy and from immigrant rights to reforming criminal justice. Anat's original approach through priming experiments, task-based testing and online dial surveys has led to progressive electoral and policy victories across the globe.

      Malonga Casquelourd: Even as a child in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, Casquelourd could hardly keep from moving, becoming a principal dancer with the National Congolese Dance Company in his teens and performing internationally before joining Le Ballet Diaboua in Paris. In 1972, he moved to New York and co-founded the United States' first Central African dance company, Tanawa. But his greatest impact was in the Bay Area. He arrived in Oakland in the mid-'70s, teaching Congolese dance and drumming at CitiCentre Dance Theater, where he was a founding instructor, and African studies at San Francisco State University. Even dancers who didn't take his classes looked forward to hearing his booming voice in the Alice Arts Center halls every Saturday. When the center faced closure in 2002, Casquelourd led the campaign to keep it open to the public.

      Cristobal Martinez: Cristóbal Martínez, PhD is from Alcalde, New Mexico and is of the Genizaro, Pueblo, Manito and Chicano people in Northern New Mexico including Española, Abiquiu, Velarde, Pó t'síí pangeh, Embudo and Dixon. He is an artist, digital designer, publishing scholar, and Professor of Expanded Arts at Arizona State University. Martínez co-founded the artist-hacker ensemble Radio Healer in 2003; joined the internationally acclaimed artist collective Postcommodity in 2009; and co-created, with post-Mexican artist-composer Guillermo Galindo, the experimental electronic music ensemble Red Culebra in 2018. Martínez has dedicated his life and career to interdisciplinary collaboration in contemporary art, and continues his work within these groups. 

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>d5ef83ac-c3fd-4e83-8020-c90a22cd1695Wed, 18 Jan 2023 05:45:00 -070053:52falsefull363633In chapter one of our conversation with Liz Lerman we'll talk about her early years, her career as a heretic, the critical response process, the Heisenberg principle, the power of the horizontal, and how dance can make the world a better place.      BONUS: Change the Story- GenesisBONUS: Change the Story- GenesisWhere did Change the Story / Change the World come from? How about a bad home, drugs, and prison. A predictable story? Sure, except when you throw in the National Cathedral Choir, a geodesic dome, and the stubborn belief that art can save the world. You never know!

      In this episode we are going back to the beginning with the first episode of what was then a new podcast produced by the Center for the Study of Art & Community in 2020 called Change the Story, Change the World. In it I share the very personal story of how the show came to be and try to answer why would anybody want to listen.

      It’s a journey of many decades. It begins in the leafy suburbs of our nation’s capital around the time that America started losing what some have called its innocence---Along the way we encounter hippie communes, the requisite drugs, sex and rock and roll, art colonies in prisons, and armies of artists doing battle with the likes of the Slobodan Milosevic, Pol Pot and the US Department of Justice. This week on Change the Story, Change the World, the story of how my story crosses paths with the early history and extraordinary growth of the global community arts movement.

      THRESHOLD QUESTIONS AND DELICIOUS QUOTES

      ?Can the creative process be a lifeline for people who are struggling?  

      "The pervasive, penetrating pulse of all that music was a god damn miracle, all at once a soothing balm, a shattering depth charge, and a transcendent window into other dimensions."

      ?Can art help us reimagine and recreate the social and cultural fabric of our communities?

      "One of the bedrock understandings of the hippie universe was, to coin a phrase “you can’t always get what you want, but if you really need it, well, you can make it yourself.” So, in no time at all, we found ourselves imagining that we could make our OWN music.”

      ?What was CETA and how did it give birth to an ever-expanding community arts movement?

      "The prison partnerships we forged … were both groundbreaking and challenging. They taught is a whole lot in a hurry about what artists need to do to build trust with new communities and neighborhood organizations."

      ? How can art help change the toxic nature of America’s prisons? 

      "In those instants, we could see prison artists kind of tuning in, you know, moving from static to clear reception."

      ?How can these transformative stories feed the development of a growing community of creative change agents?

      "By the end of the Art in Other Places Conference, we had a mountain of documentation on artists and programs from all over the country. We had made a commitment to NEA to produce … a report, but to really tell the story of what was going on we had to do more, much more."

      ?How can artists help re-build civic infrastructure, heal unspeakable trauma, and give new voice to the forgotten and disappeared?

      "Art and Upheaval took me on an 8-year global journey, documenting artists working in communities facing intense, real-time conflict and trauma.”

      ?What is Change the Story / Change the World and why should anyone want to tune in?

      "We are doing this because we believe that meeting the obvious and daunting challenges of this century is going to require a revolution of thought and deed — in essence, a new set of stories powerful enough to change beliefs and behaviors."


      LINKS



      TRANSCRIPT

      (Music) THE HANGIN ON

      “The Hangin On” is probably the saddest song I’ve ever written. But its more complicated than that, because, you see, the unfortunate story it represents also precipitated its creation. So, for me, it’s also a song of redemption, one of many that have emerged over the years that have both taught me, first-hand, about the healing power of human creativity and, to put it bluntly, probably saved my life. 

      From the Center for the Study of Art and Community this is Change the Story, Change the World, A Chronicle of Art and Transformation. I’m Bill Cleveland. 

       Bad home, Drugs, rock and roll, prison. A not uncommon and fairly predictable trajectory, but not really, especially when you throw in the National Cathedral choir, a geodesic dome, and the stubborn belief that art can save the world. You’ve tuned in to the first episode of Change the Story Change the World. In this first chapter we share a very personal and, no doubt highly biased account of how I came to believe that assertion with all my heart and soul.

      It’s a journey of many decades. It begins in the leafy suburbs of our nation’s capital around the time that America started losing what some have called its innocence---Along the way we will encounter hippie communes, the requisite drugs, sex and rock and roll, art colonies in prisons, and armies of artists doing battle with = the likes of the Slobodan Milosevic, Pol Pot and the US Department of Justice. This Change the Story, Change the World, I share how my story crosses paths with the early history and extraordinary growth of the global community arts movement. 

      Part 1

      I’m a lucky man. Lucky and incredibly fortunate. To be sure I am a white guy who grew up in the suburbs with good public schools and a swimming pool down the street. All obvious markers of middle-class white privilege in post WW II America. But no, what proved to be the real impetus for what I now think of as a charmed life, came from a different, less obvious place. A place that has much more to do with survival than the silver spoon.

      You see, the story unfolding in the Cleveland house was, like too many others I came to know, not what it seemed. My brother, sister and I grew up in a in a slow-moving nightmare born of my parents making what some folks call bad choices and I call just doing bad shit when they drank too much, particularly my dad.

      Don’t get me wrong, I loved my parents, and they taught me a lot, but, sometimes bad is just bad. The obvious antidote was, of course, to split as soon as possible. So, as we came of age, the three of us, ran in different directions. Predictably, the compass for my own escape, pointed, well--- due nowhere. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate, my one-way ticket was stamped Forgetsville which is just north of nowhere.

      The fuel for this journey came from what I knew best from my time in our suburban fun house. Some call it dissipation, I call it oblivion. Oblivion in search of the numb or to be brutally honest just plain dumb. As dumb as imagining that my escape route was in the vanguard of an new social revolution, totally unaware of the ugly truth that my future had been hijacked by the only movie I had ever known – a script with the most obvious and predictable plot line in the book—Namely, if it hurts just do whatever it takes to make it go away, at least for now. And there’s no denying that us hippies were really into the NOW.

      The general pattern of this version of freakdom was pretty...]]>Where did Change the Story / Change the World come from? How about a bad home, drugs, and prison. A predictable story? Sure, except when you throw in the National Cathedral Choir, a geodesic dome, and the stubborn belief that art can save the world. You never know!

      In this episode we are going back to the beginning with the first episode of what was then a new podcast produced by the Center for the Study of Art & Community in 2020 called Change the Story, Change the World. In it I share the very personal story of how the show came to be and try to answer why would anybody want to listen.

      It’s a journey of many decades. It begins in the leafy suburbs of our nation’s capital around the time that America started losing what some have called its innocence---Along the way we encounter hippie communes, the requisite drugs, sex and rock and roll, art colonies in prisons, and armies of artists doing battle with the likes of the Slobodan Milosevic, Pol Pot and the US Department of Justice. This week on Change the Story, Change the World, the story of how my story crosses paths with the early history and extraordinary growth of the global community arts movement.

      THRESHOLD QUESTIONS AND DELICIOUS QUOTES

      ?Can the creative process be a lifeline for people who are struggling?  

      "The pervasive, penetrating pulse of all that music was a god damn miracle, all at once a soothing balm, a shattering depth charge, and a transcendent window into other dimensions."

      ?Can art help us reimagine and recreate the social and cultural fabric of our communities?

      "One of the bedrock understandings of the hippie universe was, to coin a phrase “you can’t always get what you want, but if you really need it, well, you can make it yourself.” So, in no time at all, we found ourselves imagining that we could make our OWN music.”

      ?What was CETA and how did it give birth to an ever-expanding community arts movement?

      "The prison partnerships we forged … were both groundbreaking and challenging. They taught is a whole lot in a hurry about what artists need to do to build trust with new communities and neighborhood organizations."

      ? How can art help change the toxic nature of America’s prisons? 

      "In those instants, we could see prison artists kind of tuning in, you know, moving from static to clear reception."

      ?How can these transformative stories feed the development of a growing community of creative change agents?

      "By the end of the Art in Other Places Conference, we had a mountain of documentation on artists and programs from all over the country. We had made a commitment to NEA to produce … a report, but to really tell the story of what was going on we had to do more, much more."

      ?How can artists help re-build civic infrastructure, heal unspeakable trauma, and give new voice to the forgotten and disappeared?

      "Art and Upheaval took me on an 8-year global journey, documenting artists working in communities facing intense, real-time conflict and trauma.”

      ?What is Change the Story / Change the World and why should anyone want to tune in?

      "We are doing this because we believe that meeting the obvious and daunting challenges of this century is going to require a revolution of thought and deed — in essence, a new set of stories powerful enough to change beliefs and behaviors."


      LINKS



      TRANSCRIPT

      (Music) THE HANGIN ON

      “The Hangin On” is probably the saddest song I’ve ever written. But its more complicated than that, because, you see, the unfortunate story it represents also precipitated its creation. So, for me, it’s also a song of redemption, one of many that have emerged over the years that have both taught me, first-hand, about the healing power of human creativity and, to put it bluntly, probably saved my life. 

      From the Center for the Study of Art and Community this is Change the Story, Change the World, A Chronicle of Art and Transformation. I’m Bill Cleveland. 

       Bad home, Drugs, rock and roll, prison. A not uncommon and fairly predictable trajectory, but not really, especially when you throw in the National Cathedral choir, a geodesic dome, and the stubborn belief that art can save the world. You’ve tuned in to the first episode of Change the Story Change the World. In this first chapter we share a very personal and, no doubt highly biased account of how I came to believe that assertion with all my heart and soul.

      It’s a journey of many decades. It begins in the leafy suburbs of our nation’s capital around the time that America started losing what some have called its innocence---Along the way we will encounter hippie communes, the requisite drugs, sex and rock and roll, art colonies in prisons, and armies of artists doing battle with = the likes of the Slobodan Milosevic, Pol Pot and the US Department of Justice. This Change the Story, Change the World, I share how my story crosses paths with the early history and extraordinary growth of the global community arts movement. 

      Part 1

      I’m a lucky man. Lucky and incredibly fortunate. To be sure I am a white guy who grew up in the suburbs with good public schools and a swimming pool down the street. All obvious markers of middle-class white privilege in post WW II America. But no, what proved to be the real impetus for what I now think of as a charmed life, came from a different, less obvious place. A place that has much more to do with survival than the silver spoon.

      You see, the story unfolding in the Cleveland house was, like too many others I came to know, not what it seemed. My brother, sister and I grew up in a in a slow-moving nightmare born of my parents making what some folks call bad choices and I call just doing bad shit when they drank too much, particularly my dad.

      Don’t get me wrong, I loved my parents, and they taught me a lot, but, sometimes bad is just bad. The obvious antidote was, of course, to split as soon as possible. So, as we came of age, the three of us, ran in different directions. Predictably, the compass for my own escape, pointed, well--- due nowhere. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate, my one-way ticket was stamped Forgetsville which is just north of nowhere.

      The fuel for this journey came from what I knew best from my time in our suburban fun house. Some call it dissipation, I call it oblivion. Oblivion in search of the numb or to be brutally honest just plain dumb. As dumb as imagining that my escape route was in the vanguard of an new social revolution, totally unaware of the ugly truth that my future had been hijacked by the only movie I had ever known – a script with the most obvious and predictable plot line in the book—Namely, if it hurts just do whatever it takes to make it go away, at least for now. And there’s no denying that us hippies were really into the NOW.

      The general pattern of this version of freakdom was pretty simple—essentially, hanging out, getting wrecked and chowing down. Different days in different ways but inevitably ending up a little bit behind, where you started. Surprisingly, my headlong embrace of this flight-no fight treadmill also pointed me in the direction of what I have come to know of as the promised land. This was also the path that led to my lifelong obsession with the power of stories. This is because these episodes of stupor and gluttony also included heavy doses soul, blues, acid rock, metal, country, R&B, gospel, folk, and whatever else was being channeled through those old car radios, thrift store stereo’s --- blasting out and through in continuous waves of one exhilarating, liberating, sonic groove marvel after another.

      I had always been beguiled by music. In fact, when I was in the third grade my mother took note of this and had me tryout for the National Cathedral Boys Choir. I’d like to say that getting in proved to be my immediate salvation but like many things in life, the benefits of boy choirdom showed up much later. At the time, though, I hated it. I hated the three-day-a week rehearsals, and two-hour Sunday services, I hated the purple vestments with the cute white collars. Most of all, I hated not having time to play baseball with my buds, which I did the minute my voice started to change. 

      Like I said, that music fever really hit me after I put high school and home in my rear-view mirror. It was about this time when my friends Alan, Arthur and I started making regular visits to the Howard Theater, D.C.’s version of the Apollo. I suppose you could say my latent condition was severely aggravated from repeated exposure to Otis, Marvin, Smoky, and the Marvelettes sweating and shakeing on that stage. Whatever it was, it was a passion of a different order. Why, then I don’t know, maybe it was the perfect medicine for the moment. But, as far as I was concerned the pervasive, penetrating pulse of all that music was a god damn miracle, all at once a soothing balm, a shattering depth charge and a transcendent window into other dimensions. A place to go, here and not here all at once, where I could bathe in the funk and flash of someone else’s story – It was amazing, not so much that it took me completely out of my stupor. That’s not how this story goes. but It certainly planted a seed.

      Now if you are still with me you may be thinking hey this is supposed to be a show about the power of stories to change the way we think and act, which I am assuming you were thinking might be somewhat uplifting. So, at this point I want to reassure you that its coming—

      Part Two

      After a crash and burn interlude at the University of Maryland and some unfortunate encounters with the criminal justice and the mental health systems my luck, most definitely fortified by birth privilege, (which gave me lots of do-overs) seemed to re-emerge north of Toronto Canada at a falling down farm that we called Buckhorn Center. Buckhorn was community of I guess what you’d call helping professionals and fellow travelers, like me, following in the path of freaky psychoanalyst named Fritz Perls. Dr. Perls, new age thing was referred to as Gestalt. Which means, you or we, are more than just the some of our parts. The basic aim was helping troubled people move from broken to whole. 

      This made sense to me because I was definitely in need of serious rebuilding. At first Buckhorn was a personal refuge, but eventually it became my family and a kind of celebratory healing place for lots of folks who came there.  Back then, the neighboring farmers called it a gad damn hippie commune. I called it home. 

      Buckhorn was a community of helpers, makers, growers, and, most importantly builders. Early on, our first order of business was getting the place habitable, so we set to fixing and building – A rock wall, a garden, an outhouse for two, a big round dining room table for 16, a performance space, and a geodesic dome, painted orange, all in the short interlude between the melting snows of March and the first flakes of October, 1972. Needless to say, that first year, It was all hands, in the dirt and build, build, build -- no time for pondering, wallowing or bitching.

      I loved it. This was just the place I needed for funky seeds of my re-entry to find the soil and water and air needed to sprout and flower and fruit, and surprise, surprise, seed again, and again, spreading roots, and shoots, grabbing hold of whatever would help me make some sense and meaning of my upside down world.

      And that was pretty much the deal, for the 8 of us that stuck it out through the winter. The sense and substance that we all craved, was, of course, in all that making. Making and sharing. Taking the rocks and building a wall, together. Planting the seeds and growing the zucchini, and corn and tomatoes together. Harvesting the bounty and feasting, as a family together and, of course when the electricity was flowing cranking up the stereo and boogieing together. 

      Now, one of the bedrock understandings of the hippie universe was, to coin a phrase “you can’t always get what you want, but if you really need it, well, you can make it yourself.” So, in no time at all, we found ourselves imagining that we could make our OWN music. 

      For me this translated to long stretches with pen and paper, stealing, imagining procuring, discovering words and rhymes every time I found myself with an idle moment. Not that l all those songs of were worth a hill of beans. But, being lost in that world was an amazing deliverance from the underworld I was crawling out of. The coolest thing was that I was driving the magic bus, no, actually I owned that bus and no one could take it away.

      The great part though was that I was NOT alone on this journey. Far from it, because, each evening Marty, and Arthur, and Didy and I would gather in that big orange dome, humming a tune, connecting the rhymes, and the stories, with the chords, harmonies, and beats rising up, and making that music together, our music, and our story coming alive in the songs, over and over, and over. Like I said, the community we were building was called Buckhorn, so was the band. 

      Like many good things, Buckhorn, the healing place and the band came and went. But the legacy, and the lessons, left a taste that would not fade. Like I said, for me it was akin to an addiction. I had come up there caught in a stupid, vicious circle, snake eating its tail, story. Getting my hands dirty, sharing responsibility, and the two-hole outhouse, becoming a maker, and a partner had smashed that narrative to smithereens. And, you know, as hard as I tried, I just couldn’t put that poor me, pity party back together. I was stuck with a new saga. And that was it. Change the Story, Change the World. – my world at least. 

      Part Three

      It’s the spring of 85. I am standing next to three pottery wheels in the corner of what used to be storage closet in the bowels of a place called the California Medical Facility. Although it sounds like a hospital CMF is actually a prison with a few bits and pieces of hospital thrown in for sick prisoners. My path here has been circuitous with one constant. Music, lots songs and bands birthed and forgotten, lots of late nights, crumby bars and free beer, but also odd jobs, like house painting, and newspaper delivery, cause, well, you know, you have to eat. 

      There was also a weird job with the city of Sacramento called CETA ARTS that was hiring artists to work in unlikely places like senior centers, parks, public housing, and well, the Sacramento County Jail. Amazingly, It was funded by the US Department of Labor. CETA, that’s C, E, T. A, or Comprehensive Employment and Training Act was actually a national jobs program. Hiring artists was not the intention, but lots of them were jobless and it did – to the tune of $300 million a year. Which was and still is America’s largest public investment in the arts. 

      It affected hundreds of thousands of people in and out of the arts. Here’s some of them talking about their experience in a 1970’s Department of Labor Documentary on the program. 

      The disembodied voice of the Federal government notwithstanding, the partnerships we forged in Sacramento were both groundbreaking and challenging. They taught is a whole lot in a hurry about what artists need to do to build trust with new communities and neighborhood organizations.

      To be sure CETA was serious work. But we also kept it playful. At one point someone suggested we needed a CETA song. Here is what we came up with. 

      CETA, Oh my CETA, So completa', your so sweeta'
      You done me good, you done me good

      Anyways that strange gig, somehow landed me, so to speak, in prison., newly hired as the head of something called Arts in Corrections. The idea was pretty simple. Idle inmates, as the prisoners are called, mixed with overcrowding made for trouble. So, give them something to do. The art part the inspiration of a force of nature, named Eloise Smith who, given her extraordinary political savvy and influence, pretty much compelled the California Department of Corrections let her organization, The William James Association set up shop at CMF (California Medical Facility)

      So, there I was with a team of 5 teaching artists who, at the time didn’t know a whole hell of a lot about the complex and brutal netherworld that surrounded our closet of a studio, but we did know a few things about art making. One of those “things” was that our students were getting turned on. Literally. And They just loved it, we loved it. But...]]>68e6527c-2328-44fd-bc7b-88773b956eabWed, 11 Jan 2023 05:00:00 -070039:33truebonus33Where did Change the Story / Change the World come from? How about a bad home, drugs, and prison. A predictable story? Sure, except when you throw in the National Cathedral choir, a geodesic dome, and the stubborn belief that art can save the world. You never know!62: What 2022 Taught Us About Thriving as Artists for Change62: What 2022 Taught Us About Thriving as Artists for ChangeWe've come up with four questions from listeners during 2022 that seem to jump out. They deal with creative partnerships in prison. teaching the arts online, something called the Tyranny of Comfort and what neuroscience can tell us about Arts and Change.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      We've come up with four questions from listeners during 2022 that seem to jump out. They deal with creative partnerships in prison. teaching the arts online, something called the Tyranny of Comfort and what neuroscience can tell us about Arts and Change.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      8bda1ff4-3913-448c-b637-9d7d0c204187Wed, 28 Dec 2022 05:45:00 -070032:39falsefull262622We've come up with four questions from listeners that seem to jump out. They have to do with creative partnerships in prison. teaching the arts online, something called the Tyranny of Comfort and what neuroscience can tell us about Arts and Change.      61: Rad Pereira on Ancestry, Imagination & Liberation (Art and Social Change in Practice)61: Rad Pereira on Ancestry, Imagination & Liberation (Art and Social Change in Practice)Rad Pereira is an old soul-young heart theater artist, writer, educator, and community activist with a very clear sense of purpose and direction --- defined by questions like: How can we imagine, and manifest alternate futures together? Was my body conditioned to survive in a world not made for me? and Can the natural world function as a moral compass?

      BIO

      I am a multi-spirit mixed Black, Indigenous Brazilian, Jewish (im)migrant artist currently based in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn). My creative practices range from social sculpture, to popular theatrical and TV/film performance, to participatory liberatory artmaking and healing that weaves together an Afro-futurist longing for transformative justice and queer (re)Indigenization of culture.

      I put in a lot of hours to get to where, how and why I am today, with the guidance of many mentors and dedication to cultivating an ancestor led, faithful intuition. I was trained up in Eurocentric theatre and dance on scholarship at Interlochen Arts Academy and Pace University. I kept the parts of that training which were useful and shed the constricting parts. Since then I have been building connection with my ancestral modes of creativity, storytelling and next world building.

      With my community I created The (Im)Migrant Hustle and produced Bang Bang Gun Amok I + II at Abrons Art Center. With their artner at You Are Here, LILLETH, they created Media Tools for Liberation at JackNY, Decolonization Rave and Cosmic Commons. In 2017 I was NYC Public Artist in Residence with my collaborators (Keelay Gipson, Britton Smith, Josh Adam Ramos), at the Department of Cultural Affairs and Children’s Services working with LGBQTIA foster youth;

      As an actor and director, I have contributed to stories at HBO, CBS, MTV, National Black Theatre, MITU350, The Public Theater, La Mama etc., Shakespeare Theatre in DC, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, ART Boston, The Bushwick Starr, Target Margin, Ars Nova, New Ohio, Clubbed Thumb, The Flea Theatre, Sesame Street, Theatre 167 and various online media platforms.

      As a cultural organizer and facilitator, I have collaborated with the Disney Theatrical Group, United Nations, Queens Museum, Rio de Janeiro Museum, Instituto Republica, MOCA, SITI Company Thought Center, A Blade of Grass, SUPERBLUE, Broadway Advocacy Coalition, The 8th Floor, Working Woman of Color Conference, Dance/NYC Symposium, and Culture/Shift. I have taught performance classes and workshops at Pace University, Interlochen Arts Academy, NET, Americans for the Arts and The Door.

      Currently, I’m the Director of Engagement and Impact with New York Stage & Film, while shifting between cultural work in performance, education, social sculpture and community organizing. My book on socially engaged performance and social justice with Jan Cohen-Cruz came out in June 2022 by New Village Press.

      Recent Work:

      Meeting the Moment, Socially Engaged Performance, 1965–2020, by Those Who Lived It by Jan Cohen Cruz and Rad Pereira

      NOWNESS: Every Step is a Prayer: Miami’s newest innovative arts venue, Superblue, first opened its doors in May 2021 to invite in a new era of perception-shifting art. To honor this beginning, Superblue, alongside local community members and in partnership with NOWNESS, created a short film that honors the land and people the center aims to engage with and announces its inaugural program, Every Wall Is a Door.

      Iron Path Farms is a Haudenosaunee Two Spirit led food sovereignty project that that is growing ancestral foods for indigenous people.Notable Mentions.

      Episode Notable Mentions

      Pindorama: Before colonization "Pindorama" (Tupi for "Land of the Palms") was the native name of Brazil, given by the local indigenous peoples.

       Abya Yala: The Bolivian Aymara leader Takir Mamani argues for the use of the term "Abya Yala" in the official declarations of indigenous peoples' governing bodies, saying that "placing foreign names on our villages, our cities, and our continents is equivalent to subjecting our identity to the will of our invaders and their heirs."[3] Thus, use of the term "Abya Yala" rather than a term such as New World or America may have ideological implications indicating support for indigenous rights.

      Fort Lauderdale Children's Theater: Teaching the art of life through the magic of theatre The theatre's goals are to: •DEVELOP the full potential of young people as members of the community •ACHIEVE the highest possible standards of theatre through artistic excellence •CELEBRATE the diversity of South Florida's population through collaboration and the arts •ENCOURAGE public appreciation of the art form while developing future audiences and patrons of the cultural arts Hubert. (From the Website)

      Interlochen Center for the Arts A true artist's retreat, Interlochen invites students grades 3-12, as well as adults of all ages, for once in a lifetime arts education programs designed to hone their skills and nurture their humanity. The depth and breadth of our offerings is unmatched. Our community transcends backgrounds and beliefs, borders and barriers: here, we are united through the universal language of the arts. (From website)

      Jerzy Grotowski: was a Polish theatre director and theorist whose innovative approaches to acting, training and theatrical production have significantly influenced theatre today. 

      Occupy Wall Street: was a protest movement against economic inequality and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, in September 2011.[7] It gave rise to the wider Occupy movement in the United States and other countries. (See Also: Occupywallstreet website)

      Jan Cohen Cruz: If you are a regular listener you will recognize Jan from our Episode 35 where she shares stories of her work in the 1960's and 70's in the early days of the community arts movement, and her continuing role as one of the fields most respected historians. 

      Meeting the Moment, Socially Engaged Performance, 1965–2020, by Those Who Lived It: The experiences of a diverse range of progressive theater and...]]>Rad Pereira is an old soul-young heart theater artist, writer, educator, and community activist with a very clear sense of purpose and direction --- defined by questions like: How can we imagine, and manifest alternate futures together? Was my body conditioned to survive in a world not made for me? and Can the natural world function as a moral compass?

      BIO

      I am a multi-spirit mixed Black, Indigenous Brazilian, Jewish (im)migrant artist currently based in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn). My creative practices range from social sculpture, to popular theatrical and TV/film performance, to participatory liberatory artmaking and healing that weaves together an Afro-futurist longing for transformative justice and queer (re)Indigenization of culture.

      I put in a lot of hours to get to where, how and why I am today, with the guidance of many mentors and dedication to cultivating an ancestor led, faithful intuition. I was trained up in Eurocentric theatre and dance on scholarship at Interlochen Arts Academy and Pace University. I kept the parts of that training which were useful and shed the constricting parts. Since then I have been building connection with my ancestral modes of creativity, storytelling and next world building.

      With my community I created The (Im)Migrant Hustle and produced Bang Bang Gun Amok I + II at Abrons Art Center. With their artner at You Are Here, LILLETH, they created Media Tools for Liberation at JackNY, Decolonization Rave and Cosmic Commons. In 2017 I was NYC Public Artist in Residence with my collaborators (Keelay Gipson, Britton Smith, Josh Adam Ramos), at the Department of Cultural Affairs and Children’s Services working with LGBQTIA foster youth;

      As an actor and director, I have contributed to stories at HBO, CBS, MTV, National Black Theatre, MITU350, The Public Theater, La Mama etc., Shakespeare Theatre in DC, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, ART Boston, The Bushwick Starr, Target Margin, Ars Nova, New Ohio, Clubbed Thumb, The Flea Theatre, Sesame Street, Theatre 167 and various online media platforms.

      As a cultural organizer and facilitator, I have collaborated with the Disney Theatrical Group, United Nations, Queens Museum, Rio de Janeiro Museum, Instituto Republica, MOCA, SITI Company Thought Center, A Blade of Grass, SUPERBLUE, Broadway Advocacy Coalition, The 8th Floor, Working Woman of Color Conference, Dance/NYC Symposium, and Culture/Shift. I have taught performance classes and workshops at Pace University, Interlochen Arts Academy, NET, Americans for the Arts and The Door.

      Currently, I’m the Director of Engagement and Impact with New York Stage & Film, while shifting between cultural work in performance, education, social sculpture and community organizing. My book on socially engaged performance and social justice with Jan Cohen-Cruz came out in June 2022 by New Village Press.

      Recent Work:

      Meeting the Moment, Socially Engaged Performance, 1965–2020, by Those Who Lived It by Jan Cohen Cruz and Rad Pereira

      NOWNESS: Every Step is a Prayer: Miami’s newest innovative arts venue, Superblue, first opened its doors in May 2021 to invite in a new era of perception-shifting art. To honor this beginning, Superblue, alongside local community members and in partnership with NOWNESS, created a short film that honors the land and people the center aims to engage with and announces its inaugural program, Every Wall Is a Door.

      Iron Path Farms is a Haudenosaunee Two Spirit led food sovereignty project that that is growing ancestral foods for indigenous people.Notable Mentions.

      Episode Notable Mentions

      Pindorama: Before colonization "Pindorama" (Tupi for "Land of the Palms") was the native name of Brazil, given by the local indigenous peoples.

       Abya Yala: The Bolivian Aymara leader Takir Mamani argues for the use of the term "Abya Yala" in the official declarations of indigenous peoples' governing bodies, saying that "placing foreign names on our villages, our cities, and our continents is equivalent to subjecting our identity to the will of our invaders and their heirs."[3] Thus, use of the term "Abya Yala" rather than a term such as New World or America may have ideological implications indicating support for indigenous rights.

      Fort Lauderdale Children's Theater: Teaching the art of life through the magic of theatre The theatre's goals are to: •DEVELOP the full potential of young people as members of the community •ACHIEVE the highest possible standards of theatre through artistic excellence •CELEBRATE the diversity of South Florida's population through collaboration and the arts •ENCOURAGE public appreciation of the art form while developing future audiences and patrons of the cultural arts Hubert. (From the Website)

      Interlochen Center for the Arts A true artist's retreat, Interlochen invites students grades 3-12, as well as adults of all ages, for once in a lifetime arts education programs designed to hone their skills and nurture their humanity. The depth and breadth of our offerings is unmatched. Our community transcends backgrounds and beliefs, borders and barriers: here, we are united through the universal language of the arts. (From website)

      Jerzy Grotowski: was a Polish theatre director and theorist whose innovative approaches to acting, training and theatrical production have significantly influenced theatre today. 

      Occupy Wall Street: was a protest movement against economic inequality and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, in September 2011.[7] It gave rise to the wider Occupy movement in the United States and other countries. (See Also: Occupywallstreet website)

      Jan Cohen Cruz: If you are a regular listener you will recognize Jan from our Episode 35 where she shares stories of her work in the 1960's and 70's in the early days of the community arts movement, and her continuing role as one of the fields most respected historians. 

      Meeting the Moment, Socially Engaged Performance, 1965–2020, by Those Who Lived It: The experiences of a diverse range of progressive theater and performance makers in their own words. Curated stories from over 75 interviews and informal exchanges offer insight into the field and point out limitations due to discrimination and unequal opportunity for performance artists in the United States over the past 55 years. In this work, performers, often unknown beyond their immediate audience, articulate diverse influences. (See also Change the Story / Change the World Episode 35 )

      Dah Teatar Research Center for Theater and Social Change is an independent, professional, contemporary theater troupe and artistic collective that uses modern theater techniques to create engaging art and initiate positive social change, both locally and globally. (See also, Change the Story / Change the World Episode 54 54) 

      Dancing Trees: In the piece Dah Teatar company members and audience occupy an urban forest, and over the course of the performance, incorporate the trees not only as characters in a story about fighting deforestation and corporate greed, but also, as members of the theater company. (See also, Change the Story / Change the World Episode 54)

      Anne Krassner: Friend of Rad’s. A strategic thinker with 10 years of experience in community-driven planning, specializing in program and policy development and management, adept at leveraging public-private partnerships to address historical barriers to access in under-resourced communities, fundraising, and grants management. A relationship builder interested in working with communities to build more inclusive and equitable neighborhoods and cities.

      Super Hero Clubhouse: OUR MISSION

      Superhero Clubhouse creates theater to enact climate and environmental justice, cultivate hope, and inspire a thriving future.

      OUR WORK

      We make original performances and offer creative resources for communities and collaborators from all walks of life: students, scientists, artists, organizers, teachers, policy-makers, and more.

       Big Green Theater: (BGT) is an eco-playwriting program for public school students that uplifts the imaginations of young people most impacted by our new climate reality and brings their ideas to life on stage. BGT aims to inspire students to manifest a sustainable and just community by using the power of their creative voice. 

      Billion Oyster Project:is restoring oyster reefs to New York Harbor through public education initiatives

      New Village Press is the first publisher to focus on grassroots community building. Our independent, nonprofit press publishes books and hosts events that contribute to thriving, creative, and socially just communities. Path Farms

      Haudenosaunee Confederacy: Through generations of attempted assimilation the nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy have held fast to their cultures and traditions. Today they are expressing their story through their own people with the introduction of HaudenosauneeConfederacy.ca.  

      Called the Iroquois Confederacy by the French, and the League of Five Nations by the English, the confederacy is properly called the Haudenosaunee Confederacy meaning People of the long house. The confederacy, made up of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas was intended as a way to unite the nations and create a peaceful means of decision making. Through the confederacy, each of the nations of the Haudenosaunee are united by a common goal to live in harmony. 

      Augusto Boal: was a Brazilian theatre practitioner, drama theorist, and political activist. He was the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, a theatrical form originally used in radical left popular education movements. Boal served one term as a Vereador (the Brazilian equivalent of a city councillor) in Rio de Janeiro from 1993 to 1997, where he developed legislative theatre.[1] 

      Paolo Freire: was a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy. His influential work Pedagogy of the Oppressed is generally considered one of the foundational texts of the critical pedagogy

      Audio Acknowledgement:

      Woman's Dance from Gifts, by Bear Fox,

      Occupy Wall Street Audio, Democracy Now

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>a556a9f0-1bdb-4f0a-8604-92eedccf4d08Wed, 14 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -070047:07falsefull261612Rad Pereira is an old soul. Rad is a young theater artist, writer, educator, and community activist who, despite their youth and our uncertain times has has an amazingly clear sense of purpose and direction —- a clarity that is defined by questions like: How can we imagine, and manifest alternate futures together? Was my body conditioned to survive in a world that was not made for me? and Can the natural world function as a moral compass?      Bonus: Barry Marcus Redux- A Creative Culture Celebratory RemembranceBonus: Barry Marcus Redux- A Creative Culture Celebratory RemembranceBarry Marcus Redux- A Creative Culture Celebratory Remembrance

      This is a hard introduction to make. A good friend, a special soul has passed over. I am grieving over the loss of my dear brother Barry Marcus. I know, who in the hell wants to listen to a sad guy in mourning but bear with me for a moment here. I’m going to say my little piece, and then let you decide for yourself what to make of Barry as we replay his Change the Story episode as celebratory remembrance.

      So, my little piece: I think of Barry as an undeserved gift. Not just to me but to all of us in the world who aspire to a life full of heart and empathy, and good work. Barry was a bubbly, quirky, brilliant, loving creative presence who came to the party with no hesitation ready to share his songs, and stories, and amazing layered images, and laugh, and cry, and then laugh again.

      All I can say is what a privilege it has been to have had a friend like Barry ever in my life. Those of you who are listening, who did not know Barry, are probably thinking, hey the guy lost a good friend, he’s going to hyperbolize a bit. But you folks who knew the man, know that I’m saying doesn’t come close to how cool the guy truly was.

      I think we are all attracted to people who we think are doing life better than we are. And the thing that pulls us in is the thing that we most wish we could master, the sublime, just out of reach touch that we most aspire to. This was certainly the case with my friend Barry. He was, of course as cracked, and flawed and inattentive as the rest of us, but what stood out with him in his relationship with life was his complete and total awe and love of the world he and the rest of us inhabited while he was with us.

      In this realm he was not in any way a master tactician, or a strategic genius, he was, rather, an all-in, heart and soul participant in whatever opportunity, obstacle, question, or mystery that came his way. He was an over-the-top enthusiast and cheerleader for what was possible, for what was interesting or provocative, and most of all, what manifested love in the universe. By love in the universe, I’m not talking about the “woo “thing. I’m talking about the thing that he was best at without even thinking. Which was wanting us, all of us to be us, with as much intensity, and honesty, and respect, and compassion as possible, so much so, that whoever was on the receiving end out there, could not help but return the favor.

      We published Barry’s Episode, called Creative Culture, in May of 2020. In it he shared the story an amazing, and successful arts-infused treatment program he created at a residential facility for severely mentally ill adolescent boys in California. As you listen, I’m sure you will catch a glimpse of sparky, vital spirit and all who knew and loved him will sorely miss.

      Barry's Photographs:

      Our Co-authored Book: STORYstory

      The STORYstory Movie

      Added Music: Feelings of Twilight, by Shady Dave

      ]]>      Barry Marcus Redux- A Creative Culture Celebratory Remembrance

      This is a hard introduction to make. A good friend, a special soul has passed over. I am grieving over the loss of my dear brother Barry Marcus. I know, who in the hell wants to listen to a sad guy in mourning but bear with me for a moment here. I’m going to say my little piece, and then let you decide for yourself what to make of Barry as we replay his Change the Story episode as celebratory remembrance.

      So, my little piece: I think of Barry as an undeserved gift. Not just to me but to all of us in the world who aspire to a life full of heart and empathy, and good work. Barry was a bubbly, quirky, brilliant, loving creative presence who came to the party with no hesitation ready to share his songs, and stories, and amazing layered images, and laugh, and cry, and then laugh again.

      All I can say is what a privilege it has been to have had a friend like Barry ever in my life. Those of you who are listening, who did not know Barry, are probably thinking, hey the guy lost a good friend, he’s going to hyperbolize a bit. But you folks who knew the man, know that I’m saying doesn’t come close to how cool the guy truly was.

      I think we are all attracted to people who we think are doing life better than we are. And the thing that pulls us in is the thing that we most wish we could master, the sublime, just out of reach touch that we most aspire to. This was certainly the case with my friend Barry. He was, of course as cracked, and flawed and inattentive as the rest of us, but what stood out with him in his relationship with life was his complete and total awe and love of the world he and the rest of us inhabited while he was with us.

      In this realm he was not in any way a master tactician, or a strategic genius, he was, rather, an all-in, heart and soul participant in whatever opportunity, obstacle, question, or mystery that came his way. He was an over-the-top enthusiast and cheerleader for what was possible, for what was interesting or provocative, and most of all, what manifested love in the universe. By love in the universe, I’m not talking about the “woo “thing. I’m talking about the thing that he was best at without even thinking. Which was wanting us, all of us to be us, with as much intensity, and honesty, and respect, and compassion as possible, so much so, that whoever was on the receiving end out there, could not help but return the favor.

      We published Barry’s Episode, called Creative Culture, in May of 2020. In it he shared the story an amazing, and successful arts-infused treatment program he created at a residential facility for severely mentally ill adolescent boys in California. As you listen, I’m sure you will catch a glimpse of sparky, vital spirit and all who knew and loved him will sorely miss.

      Barry's Photographs:

      Our Co-authored Book: STORYstory

      The STORYstory Movie

      Added Music: Feelings of Twilight, by Shady Dave

      ]]>      d317df56-4480-4387-bb95-3884e1bd40aaWed, 07 Dec 2022 05:45:00 -070039:14falsebonus22I am grieving over the loss of my dear brother Barry Marcus. I know, who in the hell wants to listen to a sad guy in mourning but bear with me for a moment here. I’m going to say my little piece, and then let you decide for yourself as we replay his Change the Story episode as celebratory remembrance.      60: Susie Tanner: When Steelworkers Became Activist Artists— And What It Taught Us About Dignity, Loss, and Change – Part 260: Susie Tanner: When Steelworkers Became Activist Artists— And What It Taught Us About Dignity, Loss, and Change – Part 2This week follows from Episode 59 in which Susie Tanner, Bruce Springsteen, and a band of unemployed steelworkers take a play about the death of a steel mill called lady Beth across America. In this episode, Susie joins up with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated artists share their stories.

      Find TheaterWorkers Chapter 1 : Here

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      This week follows from Episode 59 in which Susie Tanner, Bruce Springsteen, and a band of unemployed steelworkers take a play about the death of a steel mill called lady Beth across America. In this episode, Susie joins up with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated artists share their stories.

      Find TheaterWorkers Chapter 1 : Here

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      46c7ddda-02be-4e58-8552-987dfdcdab3aWed, 23 Nov 2022 12:45:00 -070030:18truefull260602This week follows from Episode 59 in which Susie Tanner, Bruce Springsteen, and a band of unemployed steelworkers take a play about the death of a steel mill called lady Beth across America. In this episode, Susie joins up with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated artists share their stories of their lives and loves in and out of the prison Industrial complex.      59: Susie Tanner: When Steelworkers Became Activist Artists— And What It Taught Us About Dignity, Loss, and Change – Part 159: Susie Tanner: When Steelworkers Became Activist Artists— And What It Taught Us About Dignity, Loss, and Change – Part 1Once upon a time, theater Director Susie Tanner, steelworkers, & Bruce Springsteen teamed up to spread the devastating truth about steel plant shutdowns across the US. This is their story.

      BIO

      Susan “Susie” Franklin Tanner has worked as a Theatre Artist since 1973. In 1983 she received a California Arts Council Artist in Communities grant to create TheatreWorkers Project. As the founder and director, she has led the company in the development of 16 documentary plays including Lady Beth: the Steelworkers' Play that toured 16 cities, co-sponsored by Bruce Springsteen and was profiled in the PBS documentary “A Steel Life Drama”. In 1982, Tanner was honored to share her work on a production of Brecht's A Man's A Man with members of the Berliner Ensemble. She was a member of the Living Stage Company/Arena Stage in D.C. for 6 years, performing and/or teaching workshops for at-risk and underserved children, teens and adults. Her work with the company included workshop/performances in prisons and treatment centers. In Los Angeles, her community-based work has included creating theatre with steelworkers, shipbuilders, critical care nurses, Latino immigrants workers, formerly incarcerated men and women, and youth. Since 2016, Susie has led teams of artists in theatre, writing and movement workshops for formerly incarcerated and those on work release through CAC and California Humanities grants. In January 2019 Susie and her artist teams will bring this work to California State Prison, Lancaster through a CAC Arts in Corrections contract.

      She is a member of the SAG-AFTRA Radio Play Committee, for which she has directed 5 live radio performances. As a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA, she has directed numerous staged readings and the critically acclaimed production of “To Serve Butter” for the 2016 One Act Festival, and has provided ongoing opportunities for young artists to work side by side with professionals. Producing/Directing credits include “The Luckiest Girl” and “No Word in Guyanese for Me”, staged at the Atwater Village Theatre, “Lake Titicaca” for the 2016 Short + Sweet Hollywood one act festival, “ISAAK”, which tours schools on an Actor’s Equity Theatre for Young Audiences contract, and "Fathers & Sons".

      Susie was an adjunct professor of Theatre for Social Change at Woodbury University for two years. In 2014-15, she collaborated with Woodbury on a project with La Colmenita, the Cuban national children’s theatre, and has collaborated with Mt. St. Mary’s University to implement the Theatre Intervention Project, serving severely depressed and recovering low income women from South Central LA. Teaching Artist positions include/have included LACHSA, Sequoyah School, Mark Taper Forum Saturday Conservatory, College of the Canyons, UCLA Extension, CSULA/EOP, LACC Theatre Academy, College of the Canyons, LAUSD and PUSD.

      Grants and awards include: 2011 Bravo Award and CTG JP Morgan Chase Fellowships, a 2014 National Artist Teacher Fellowship and the LA County Federation of Labor Union Label Award for cultural work within the labor movement. Susie has been funded by the California Arts Council for nine consecutive years and her company, TheatreWorkers Project, has recently been awarded an LAUSD Arts Community Network contract to being theatre productions and classes to underserved middle and high schools. for her eighth consecutive

      Notable Mentions

      TheaterWorkers Project: (TWP) is dedicated to providing opportunities for members of underserved and unheard communities to tell their stories through the medium of theatre and to providing classical and contemporary theatre experiences that reflect and illuminate the human condition.

      Lady Beth: the steelworkers play This play that launched TheatreWorkers Project, told the stories of former steelworkers after the closing of the Bethlehem steel plant in Vernon, CA. In 1986, co-sponsored by Bruce Springsteen, Lady Beth toured 16 U.S. cities.

      “A Steel Life Drama”: A PBS documentary on the making of Lady Beth: the Steelworkers' Play that toured 16 cities, co-sponsored by Bruce Springsteen and was profiled in the PBS documentary “A Steel Life Drama”.

      Hollywood 10: The Hollywood were 10 motion-picture producers, directors, and screenwriters who appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in October 1947 who refused to answer questions regarding their possible communist affiliations, and, after spending time in prison for contempt of Congress, were mostly blacklisted by the Hollywood studios.  

      McCarthyism, "witch hunts": The term originally referred to the controversial practices and policies of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, and has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting from the late 1940s through the 1950s.[3] It was characterized by heightened political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals, and a campaign spreading fear of alleged communist and socialist influence on American institutions and of espionage by Soviet agents.[3] Stage Theater

      Bob Alexander / Living Stage Theater was a theatre for social change founded in 1966 by Robert A. Alexander (1929–2008). He served as the artistic director until 1995. Located in Washington, D.C., this professional improvisational theater offered participatory workshops to children, youth, teachers, parents, and community members. Living Stage’s main philosophy was based in the belief that every one is born an artist and the act of creation is the ultimate act of self-affirmation. The company's mission was to transform individuals and communities through creative empowerment. Actors Guild 

      Bethlehem Steel mill in Vernon, California. Bethlehem Steel's roots trace to an iron-making company organized in 1857 in Bethlehem, which was later named the Bethlehem Iron Company.Bethlehem Steel survived the earliest declines in American steel industry beginning in the 1970s. In 1982, however, the company suspended most of its steelmaking operations after posting a loss of $1.5 billion, attributable to increased foreign competition, rising labor and pensions costs, and other factors. At its heights in the late 1970's The Bethlehem steel mill in Vernon, California, near Long Beach, employed over 2000 men and women.

      California Arts Council, Artists in Communities: Closed in 2020, this CAC program provided funds to artists as vehicles for community vitality. Artists in Communities grants support sustained artistic residencies in community settings. Applicant organizations, partners, and community members must support the vision of the artist(s) to produce creative projects that are relevant and responsive to their community. Theater Works. 

      Manazar Gamboa was a Chicano poet and playwright who had spent much of his early years in prison. This collection consists of his plays, poems, and writing notes. It also includes research material on Chavez Ravine, the neighborhood where he grew up, which was demolished to make way for Dodger Stadium. Union

      Once upon a time, theater Director Susie Tanner, steelworkers, & Bruce Springsteen teamed up to spread the devastating truth about steel plant shutdowns across the US. This is their story.

      BIO

      Susan “Susie” Franklin Tanner has worked as a Theatre Artist since 1973. In 1983 she received a California Arts Council Artist in Communities grant to create TheatreWorkers Project. As the founder and director, she has led the company in the development of 16 documentary plays including Lady Beth: the Steelworkers' Play that toured 16 cities, co-sponsored by Bruce Springsteen and was profiled in the PBS documentary “A Steel Life Drama”. In 1982, Tanner was honored to share her work on a production of Brecht's A Man's A Man with members of the Berliner Ensemble. She was a member of the Living Stage Company/Arena Stage in D.C. for 6 years, performing and/or teaching workshops for at-risk and underserved children, teens and adults. Her work with the company included workshop/performances in prisons and treatment centers. In Los Angeles, her community-based work has included creating theatre with steelworkers, shipbuilders, critical care nurses, Latino immigrants workers, formerly incarcerated men and women, and youth. Since 2016, Susie has led teams of artists in theatre, writing and movement workshops for formerly incarcerated and those on work release through CAC and California Humanities grants. In January 2019 Susie and her artist teams will bring this work to California State Prison, Lancaster through a CAC Arts in Corrections contract.

      She is a member of the SAG-AFTRA Radio Play Committee, for which she has directed 5 live radio performances. As a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA, she has directed numerous staged readings and the critically acclaimed production of “To Serve Butter” for the 2016 One Act Festival, and has provided ongoing opportunities for young artists to work side by side with professionals. Producing/Directing credits include “The Luckiest Girl” and “No Word in Guyanese for Me”, staged at the Atwater Village Theatre, “Lake Titicaca” for the 2016 Short + Sweet Hollywood one act festival, “ISAAK”, which tours schools on an Actor’s Equity Theatre for Young Audiences contract, and "Fathers & Sons".

      Susie was an adjunct professor of Theatre for Social Change at Woodbury University for two years. In 2014-15, she collaborated with Woodbury on a project with La Colmenita, the Cuban national children’s theatre, and has collaborated with Mt. St. Mary’s University to implement the Theatre Intervention Project, serving severely depressed and recovering low income women from South Central LA. Teaching Artist positions include/have included LACHSA, Sequoyah School, Mark Taper Forum Saturday Conservatory, College of the Canyons, UCLA Extension, CSULA/EOP, LACC Theatre Academy, College of the Canyons, LAUSD and PUSD.

      Grants and awards include: 2011 Bravo Award and CTG JP Morgan Chase Fellowships, a 2014 National Artist Teacher Fellowship and the LA County Federation of Labor Union Label Award for cultural work within the labor movement. Susie has been funded by the California Arts Council for nine consecutive years and her company, TheatreWorkers Project, has recently been awarded an LAUSD Arts Community Network contract to being theatre productions and classes to underserved middle and high schools. for her eighth consecutive

      Notable Mentions

      TheaterWorkers Project: (TWP) is dedicated to providing opportunities for members of underserved and unheard communities to tell their stories through the medium of theatre and to providing classical and contemporary theatre experiences that reflect and illuminate the human condition.

      Lady Beth: the steelworkers play This play that launched TheatreWorkers Project, told the stories of former steelworkers after the closing of the Bethlehem steel plant in Vernon, CA. In 1986, co-sponsored by Bruce Springsteen, Lady Beth toured 16 U.S. cities.

      “A Steel Life Drama”: A PBS documentary on the making of Lady Beth: the Steelworkers' Play that toured 16 cities, co-sponsored by Bruce Springsteen and was profiled in the PBS documentary “A Steel Life Drama”.

      Hollywood 10: The Hollywood were 10 motion-picture producers, directors, and screenwriters who appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in October 1947 who refused to answer questions regarding their possible communist affiliations, and, after spending time in prison for contempt of Congress, were mostly blacklisted by the Hollywood studios.  

      McCarthyism, "witch hunts": The term originally referred to the controversial practices and policies of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, and has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting from the late 1940s through the 1950s.[3] It was characterized by heightened political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals, and a campaign spreading fear of alleged communist and socialist influence on American institutions and of espionage by Soviet agents.[3] Stage Theater

      Bob Alexander / Living Stage Theater was a theatre for social change founded in 1966 by Robert A. Alexander (1929–2008). He served as the artistic director until 1995. Located in Washington, D.C., this professional improvisational theater offered participatory workshops to children, youth, teachers, parents, and community members. Living Stage’s main philosophy was based in the belief that every one is born an artist and the act of creation is the ultimate act of self-affirmation. The company's mission was to transform individuals and communities through creative empowerment. Actors Guild 

      Bethlehem Steel mill in Vernon, California. Bethlehem Steel's roots trace to an iron-making company organized in 1857 in Bethlehem, which was later named the Bethlehem Iron Company.Bethlehem Steel survived the earliest declines in American steel industry beginning in the 1970s. In 1982, however, the company suspended most of its steelmaking operations after posting a loss of $1.5 billion, attributable to increased foreign competition, rising labor and pensions costs, and other factors. At its heights in the late 1970's The Bethlehem steel mill in Vernon, California, near Long Beach, employed over 2000 men and women.

      California Arts Council, Artists in Communities: Closed in 2020, this CAC program provided funds to artists as vehicles for community vitality. Artists in Communities grants support sustained artistic residencies in community settings. Applicant organizations, partners, and community members must support the vision of the artist(s) to produce creative projects that are relevant and responsive to their community. Theater Works. 

      Manazar Gamboa was a Chicano poet and playwright who had spent much of his early years in prison. This collection consists of his plays, poems, and writing notes. It also includes research material on Chavez Ravine, the neighborhood where he grew up, which was demolished to make way for Dodger Stadium. Union

      Bruce Springsteen: is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He has released 20 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is one of the originators of the heartland rock style of music, combining mainstream rock musical style with narrative songs about working class American life. During a career that has spanned six decades, Springsteen has become known for his poetic, socially conscious lyrics and energetic stage performances, sometimes lasting up to four hours.[1] He has been nicknamed "The Boss".[2] Coinman

      Ensemble Studio Theater/LA:EST/LA is the West Coast offshoot of The Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York, the renowned membership company founded by Curt Dempster in 1968.Founded in 1979, EST/LA has grown from salons in people’s homes to full productions of critically acclaimed plays that have been recognized with Backstage Garland awards, Stage Raw awards, LA Weekly Awards, Ovation Recommendations, a GLAAD Media Award and other accolades

      Congressman Silvio Conte: was an American lawyer and politician. He was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives for 16 terms, representing the 1st Congressional District of Massachusetts from January 3, 1959, until his death in Bethesda, Maryland in 1991. He strongly supported legislation to protect the environment, as well as federal funding of medical and scientific research.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>ea24af31-bb3a-437b-9637-795f7dae4843Wed, 09 Nov 2022 05:45:00 -070026:50truefull259592Once upon a time, theater Director Susie Tanner, steelworkers, & Bruce Springsteen teamed up to spread the devastating truth about steel plant shutdowns across the US. This is their story.      58: Why Rural Stories Get Erased—And What Activist Artist Organizers Like Matthew Fluharty Are Doing to Stop It – Part 258: Why Rural Stories Get Erased—And What Activist Artist Organizers Like Matthew Fluharty Are Doing to Stop It – Part 2Episode 58: Matthew Fluharty - Art of the Rural - Chapter 2

      This is our second episode focusing on Matthew Fluharty's work at Art of the Rural. In it we explore the continuing story of Sauget Illinois, the power of nostalgia, the iconic importance of Busch Light beer, and the amazing legacy of Family Video.

      Listen to Art of the Rural Chapter 1 HERE

      BIO

      Matthew is the Founder and Executive Director of Art of the Rural, a member of M12 Studio, and faculty on the Rural Environments Field School. His work flows between the fields of art, design, humanities, policy, and community development.

      His poetry and essays have been published widely, and his work with his colleagues in the American Bottom region of the Mississippi River has been featured in Art in America. Matthew is the organizing curator for High Visibility: On Location in Rural America and Indian Country, a longterm collaboration with the Plains Art Museum. He recently received a Curatorial Fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for this ongoing work.

      Born into a seventh-generation farming family in Appalachian Ohio, Matthew’s upbringing instilled a belief that everyday, multigenerational knowledge can teach us about where have been, where we are, and where we might be going. Those lessons led him to take vows with the Zen Garland Order, a community that is a part of what’s known as the Socially Engaged Buddhist movement.

      Website // Email // Twitter // Instagram // LinkedIn

      Notable Mentions

      Change the Story Collection: : Arts-based community development comes in many flavors: dancers, and painters working with children and youth; poets and potters collaborating with incarcerated artists: cultural organizers in service to communities addressing racial injustice, all this and much, much more.

      Many of our listeners have told us they would like to dig deeper into art and change stories that focus on specific issues, constituencies, or disciplines. Others have shared that they are using the podcast as a learning resource and would appreciate categories and cross-references for our stories. 

      Karl Unnasch: is a sculptor with a rugged farm upbringing streaked with a penchant for the surreal: Unnasch’s smaller-scale work has been exhibited as far as Europe and acclaimed in publications such as the New York Times and Art in London Magazine, while his larger-scale, award-winning public art has been featured on the likes of NBC’s Today show, Reader’s Digest and Voice of America

      The Dying Gaul:  is an ancient Roman marble semi-recumbent statue now in the Capitoline Museums in Rome. It is a copy of a now lost sculpture from the Hellenistic period (323-31 BC) thought to have been made in bronze. The white marble statue, which may originally have been painted, depicts a wounded, slumped Gaulish or Galatian Celt, shown with remarkable realism and pathos, particularly as regards the face.

      American Bottom Gazette: The American Bottom Gazette tells the story of this region through an attention to the landscape, communities, and histories of its residents. As much description of a once well-defined geography as it is a recovery of that geography, our goal with the Gazette is to provide a framework for deciphering the irreducible landscape we find today. This publication is available to readers in public libraries, diners, and all kinds of community spaces in between — while also having visibility in the larger St. Louis metro area and beyond. 

      The Wing Luke Museum: Mission = We connect everyone to the dynamic history, culture, and art of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders through vivid storytelling and inspiring experience to advance racial and social equity. Hear more about the Wing Luke Museum @ Change the Story / Change the World Episode 45: Ron Chew – Unforgetting Our Stories

      Carlton Turner works nationally as a performing artist, organizer, policy shaper, lecturer, consultant, and facilitator. He was executive director of Alternate ROOTS, a regional arts service organization based in the South, supporting artists working at the intersection of art and social justice. He is currently directing the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (SIPP Culture), an organization working at the intersection of new media production and agriculture to support cultural, social, and economic development in his rural hometown of Utica, Mississippi. Hear more about Carlton Turner and SIPP Culture @ Change the Story / Change the World Episode 46: Carlton Turner - SIPP Culture Rising

      SIPP Culture: (See Above)

      Alternate Roots: Alternate ROOTS supports the creation and presentation of original art that is rooted in communities of place, tradition or spirit. We are a group of artists and cultural organizers based in the South creating a better world together. As Alternate ROOTS, we call for social and economic justice and are working to dismantle all forms of oppression—everywhere

      Dudley Cocke: Dudley Cocke was Director of Roadside Theater, 1978-2018, and from 2012-2014 he was also Interim Director of Appalshop, the award-winning rural Appalachian arts and humanities center in Whitesburg, Kentucky, of which Roadside is one part. Roadside, the 2009 recipient of the Otto Rene Castillo Award for Political Theater, is known for its Appalachian plays, which have toured across 49 states and attracted audiences across lines of race and class, and for its play collaborations with African American, Native American, and Latino theater ensembles.

      Family Video: was an American brick and mortar video rental chain serving the United States and Canada. The family-owned company was headquartered in Glenview, Illinois.[1] On January 5, 2021, the company announced all remaining 250 stores would close.[17]Episode 58: Matthew Fluharty - Art of the Rural - Chapter 2

      This is our second episode focusing on Matthew Fluharty's work at Art of the Rural. In it we explore the continuing story of Sauget Illinois, the power of nostalgia, the iconic importance of Busch Light beer, and the amazing legacy of Family Video.

      Listen to Art of the Rural Chapter 1 HERE

      BIO

      Matthew is the Founder and Executive Director of Art of the Rural, a member of M12 Studio, and faculty on the Rural Environments Field School. His work flows between the fields of art, design, humanities, policy, and community development.

      His poetry and essays have been published widely, and his work with his colleagues in the American Bottom region of the Mississippi River has been featured in Art in America. Matthew is the organizing curator for High Visibility: On Location in Rural America and Indian Country, a longterm collaboration with the Plains Art Museum. He recently received a Curatorial Fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for this ongoing work.

      Born into a seventh-generation farming family in Appalachian Ohio, Matthew’s upbringing instilled a belief that everyday, multigenerational knowledge can teach us about where have been, where we are, and where we might be going. Those lessons led him to take vows with the Zen Garland Order, a community that is a part of what’s known as the Socially Engaged Buddhist movement.

      Website // Email // Twitter // Instagram // LinkedIn

      Notable Mentions

      Change the Story Collection: : Arts-based community development comes in many flavors: dancers, and painters working with children and youth; poets and potters collaborating with incarcerated artists: cultural organizers in service to communities addressing racial injustice, all this and much, much more.

      Many of our listeners have told us they would like to dig deeper into art and change stories that focus on specific issues, constituencies, or disciplines. Others have shared that they are using the podcast as a learning resource and would appreciate categories and cross-references for our stories. 

      Karl Unnasch: is a sculptor with a rugged farm upbringing streaked with a penchant for the surreal: Unnasch’s smaller-scale work has been exhibited as far as Europe and acclaimed in publications such as the New York Times and Art in London Magazine, while his larger-scale, award-winning public art has been featured on the likes of NBC’s Today show, Reader’s Digest and Voice of America

      The Dying Gaul:  is an ancient Roman marble semi-recumbent statue now in the Capitoline Museums in Rome. It is a copy of a now lost sculpture from the Hellenistic period (323-31 BC) thought to have been made in bronze. The white marble statue, which may originally have been painted, depicts a wounded, slumped Gaulish or Galatian Celt, shown with remarkable realism and pathos, particularly as regards the face.

      American Bottom Gazette: The American Bottom Gazette tells the story of this region through an attention to the landscape, communities, and histories of its residents. As much description of a once well-defined geography as it is a recovery of that geography, our goal with the Gazette is to provide a framework for deciphering the irreducible landscape we find today. This publication is available to readers in public libraries, diners, and all kinds of community spaces in between — while also having visibility in the larger St. Louis metro area and beyond. 

      The Wing Luke Museum: Mission = We connect everyone to the dynamic history, culture, and art of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders through vivid storytelling and inspiring experience to advance racial and social equity. Hear more about the Wing Luke Museum @ Change the Story / Change the World Episode 45: Ron Chew – Unforgetting Our Stories

      Carlton Turner works nationally as a performing artist, organizer, policy shaper, lecturer, consultant, and facilitator. He was executive director of Alternate ROOTS, a regional arts service organization based in the South, supporting artists working at the intersection of art and social justice. He is currently directing the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (SIPP Culture), an organization working at the intersection of new media production and agriculture to support cultural, social, and economic development in his rural hometown of Utica, Mississippi. Hear more about Carlton Turner and SIPP Culture @ Change the Story / Change the World Episode 46: Carlton Turner - SIPP Culture Rising

      SIPP Culture: (See Above)

      Alternate Roots: Alternate ROOTS supports the creation and presentation of original art that is rooted in communities of place, tradition or spirit. We are a group of artists and cultural organizers based in the South creating a better world together. As Alternate ROOTS, we call for social and economic justice and are working to dismantle all forms of oppression—everywhere

      Dudley Cocke: Dudley Cocke was Director of Roadside Theater, 1978-2018, and from 2012-2014 he was also Interim Director of Appalshop, the award-winning rural Appalachian arts and humanities center in Whitesburg, Kentucky, of which Roadside is one part. Roadside, the 2009 recipient of the Otto Rene Castillo Award for Political Theater, is known for its Appalachian plays, which have toured across 49 states and attracted audiences across lines of race and class, and for its play collaborations with African American, Native American, and Latino theater ensembles.

      Family Video: was an American brick and mortar video rental chain serving the United States and Canada. The family-owned company was headquartered in Glenview, Illinois.[1] On January 5, 2021, the company announced all remaining 250 stores would close.[17][18] The chain remained as an online store,[19] but the site closed at the end of March 2022.[20]

      Everything Sings, by Dennis Wood: Denis Wood has created an atlas unlike any other. Surveying Boylan Heights, his small neighborhood in North Carolina, he subverts the traditional notions of mapmaking to discover new ways of seeing both this place in particular and the nature of place itself. 

      On Kawara is one of the most enigmatic of modern artists. the extraordinary duration of Kawara's process-based projects - one of which, his date-painting series Today, lasted almost fifty years, producing almost 3,000 individual works - and the meditative consistency with which he applied himself to his tasks, sets his oeuvre apart, and links his work to his background in Buddhist and Shinto philosophy. By drawing attention to the minutiae of daily existence, Kawara's work focuses our attention on the most basic elements of our experience of the world: our location on the planet, and our passage through time.

      Judy Baca is a painter and muralist, monument builder, and scholar who have been teaching art in the UC system since 1984. She was the founder of the first City of Los Angeles Mural Program in 1974, which evolved into a community arts organization known as the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) which has been creating sites of public memory since 1976. She continues to serve as its artistic director and focuses her creative energy in the UCLA@SPARC Digital/Mural Lab, employing digital technology to create social justice art. Baca’s public arts initiatives reflect the lives and concerns of populations that have been historically disenfranchised, including women, the working poor, youth, the elderly, LGBT and immigrant communities. 

      Find Notable Mentions for Art of the Rural Chapter 1 in Episode 56 Show Notes

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>31ea3d71-ee75-446d-9245-b6712efe10f2Wed, 26 Oct 2022 05:45:00 -070037:03falsefull258582This is our second episode focusing on Matthew Fluharty's work at Art of the Rural. In it we explore the continuing story of Sauget Illinois, the power of nostalgia, the iconic importance of Busch Light beer, and the amazing legacy of Family Video.      57: Why Rural Stories Get Erased—And What Activist Artist Organizers Like Matthew Fluharty Are Doing to Stop It – Part 157: Why Rural Stories Get Erased—And What Activist Artist Organizers Like Matthew Fluharty Are Doing to Stop It – Part 1Episode 57: Matthew Fluharty - Art of the Rural - Chapter 1

      Matthew Fluharty is a curious, thoughtful, passionate, humble dot connector who asks as many questions of himself as he does of the cosmos in his roles as a poet, essayist, curator, and policy wonk. The Art of the Rural, the organization he founded in 2010, is at the forefront of the story liberation movement.

      BIO

      Matthew is the Founder and Executive Director of Art of the Rural, a member of M12 Studio, and faculty on the Rural Environments Field School. His work flows between the fields of art, design, humanities, policy, and community development.

      His poetry and essays have been published widely, and his work with his colleagues in the American Bottom region of the Mississippi River has been featured in Art in America. Matthew is the organizing curator for High Visibility: On Location in Rural America and Indian Country, a longterm collaboration with the Plains Art Museum. He recently received a Curatorial Fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for this ongoing work.

      Born into a seventh-generation farming family in Appalachian Ohio, Matthew’s upbringing instilled a belief that everyday, multigenerational knowledge can teach us about where have been, where we are, and where we might be going. Those lessons led him to take vows with the Zen Garland Order, a community that is a part of what’s known as the Socially Engaged Buddhist movement.

      Website // Email // Twitter // Instagram // LinkedIn

      Notable Mentions

      Art of the Rural: Founded in 2010, Art of the Rural is a decentered, collaborative organization that works to forward knowledge sharing, network gathering, and rural-urban exchange. 

      High Visibility is a longterm, collaborative partnership between Art of the Rural, Plains Art Museum, and individuals & organizations across the continent. Through exhibitions, publications, and place-based programs, our aim over time is to boldly reframe the narrative on rural America and Indian Country and to welcome sustained rural-urban exchange. Plains Art Museum.

       American Bottom Project: As a specific geography, the American Bottom has seen a history of human settlement, ecological transformation, and social convergence that we truly find singular in the American context. At the same time, as a typical geography, the American Bottom picks up on patterns that might be recognizable at the divided urban periphery of every large American city at the beginning of the 21st century. And it is to both these registers—the specific and the general—that we hope this project speaks. Mounds UNESCO heritage site 

      Winona/Dakota Unity Alliance: Mission - Creating sustainable alliances among indigenous Nations and the Winona community with a mutual understanding that we are all related.

      Appalshop: is a media, arts, and education center located in Whitesburg, Kentucky, in the heart of the southern Appalachian region of the United States. 

      Roadside Theater was founded in the coalfields of central Appalachia in 1975 as part of Appalshop, which had begun six years earlier as a War on Poverty/Office of Economic Opportunity youth job training

      Ben Fink was the lead organizer of the Performing Our Future coalition and former/founding organizer of the Letcher County Culture Hub. He works at Roadside Theater, a part of Appalshop, a grassroots cultural and media organization in the east Kentucky coalfields. Good Friday Agreement. He is profiled in Change the Story / Change the World Episodes 17 and 18.  

      Gaeltacht: are the districts of Ireland, individually or collectively, where the Irish government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant vernacular, or language of the home.[1] The Gaeltacht districts were first officially recognised during the 1920s in the early years of the Irish Free State, following the Gaelic Revival, as part of a government policy aimed at restoring the Irish language.[2] says this in his poem 

      The Archaic Torso of Apollo.by Rainer Maria Rilke

      Rainer Maria Rilke was an Austrian poet and novelist. He is "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets".[

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      Episode 57: Matthew Fluharty - Art of the Rural - Chapter 1

      Matthew Fluharty is a curious, thoughtful, passionate, humble dot connector who asks as many questions of himself as he does of the cosmos in his roles as a poet, essayist, curator, and policy wonk. The Art of the Rural, the organization he founded in 2010, is at the forefront of the story liberation movement.

      BIO

      Matthew is the Founder and Executive Director of Art of the Rural, a member of M12 Studio, and faculty on the Rural Environments Field School. His work flows between the fields of art, design, humanities, policy, and community development.

      His poetry and essays have been published widely, and his work with his colleagues in the American Bottom region of the Mississippi River has been featured in Art in America. Matthew is the organizing curator for High Visibility: On Location in Rural America and Indian Country, a longterm collaboration with the Plains Art Museum. He recently received a Curatorial Fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for this ongoing work.

      Born into a seventh-generation farming family in Appalachian Ohio, Matthew’s upbringing instilled a belief that everyday, multigenerational knowledge can teach us about where have been, where we are, and where we might be going. Those lessons led him to take vows with the Zen Garland Order, a community that is a part of what’s known as the Socially Engaged Buddhist movement.

      Website // Email // Twitter // Instagram // LinkedIn

      Notable Mentions

      Art of the Rural: Founded in 2010, Art of the Rural is a decentered, collaborative organization that works to forward knowledge sharing, network gathering, and rural-urban exchange. 

      High Visibility is a longterm, collaborative partnership between Art of the Rural, Plains Art Museum, and individuals & organizations across the continent. Through exhibitions, publications, and place-based programs, our aim over time is to boldly reframe the narrative on rural America and Indian Country and to welcome sustained rural-urban exchange. Plains Art Museum.

       American Bottom Project: As a specific geography, the American Bottom has seen a history of human settlement, ecological transformation, and social convergence that we truly find singular in the American context. At the same time, as a typical geography, the American Bottom picks up on patterns that might be recognizable at the divided urban periphery of every large American city at the beginning of the 21st century. And it is to both these registers—the specific and the general—that we hope this project speaks. Mounds UNESCO heritage site 

      Winona/Dakota Unity Alliance: Mission - Creating sustainable alliances among indigenous Nations and the Winona community with a mutual understanding that we are all related.

      Appalshop: is a media, arts, and education center located in Whitesburg, Kentucky, in the heart of the southern Appalachian region of the United States. 

      Roadside Theater was founded in the coalfields of central Appalachia in 1975 as part of Appalshop, which had begun six years earlier as a War on Poverty/Office of Economic Opportunity youth job training

      Ben Fink was the lead organizer of the Performing Our Future coalition and former/founding organizer of the Letcher County Culture Hub. He works at Roadside Theater, a part of Appalshop, a grassroots cultural and media organization in the east Kentucky coalfields. Good Friday Agreement. He is profiled in Change the Story / Change the World Episodes 17 and 18.  

      Gaeltacht: are the districts of Ireland, individually or collectively, where the Irish government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant vernacular, or language of the home.[1] The Gaeltacht districts were first officially recognised during the 1920s in the early years of the Irish Free State, following the Gaelic Revival, as part of a government policy aimed at restoring the Irish language.[2] says this in his poem 

      The Archaic Torso of Apollo.by Rainer Maria Rilke

      Rainer Maria Rilke was an Austrian poet and novelist. He is "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets".[

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      582fbcbe-1146-4c8e-a0be-9943a4859714Wed, 12 Oct 2022 05:45:00 -070033:09falsefull257572Matthew Fluharty is a curious, thoughtful, passionate, humble dot connector who asks as many questions of himself as he does of the cosmos in his roles as a poet, essayist, curator, and policy wonk. The Art of the Rural, the organization he founded in 2010, is at the forefront of the story liberation movement.      BONUS: Lorraine Hansberry @ Pillsbury House + Theatre - Gifted & BlackBONUS: Lorraine Hansberry @ Pillsbury House + Theatre - Gifted & BlackNever be afraid to sit awhile and think.

      Lorraine Hansberry


      In this bonus episode of Change the Story, Change the World, we're going to share an audio portrait of a project currently taking place at the subject of our past 2 episodes, Pillsbury House & Theater. The project is called To Sit a While and celebrates the work and life of playwright, journalist, and activist Lorraine Hansberry, who also happens to be the subject to the song we just heard that was written and sung by a young Twin Cities audacious artist named Frida Ross.

      Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago in 1930 and passed tragically in 1960. Despite her short stay on this planet, she lived large, large, artistically, large politically, and very large historically. Her play, A Raisin in the Sun was the first by a black woman to be produced on Broadway. More importantly, though it laid bare the systemic racism that was being visited on black families and communities in the plain-sight recesses of the American dream scape. Needless to say, this is a difficult story to tell anywhere, anytime in this country, let alone on Broadway in 1959.

      Now, that was 63 years ago, but thankfully the curtain on Hansberry's influence in the theater as a journalist and as an advocate for the Black and LGBTQ communities has never been drawn. Her legacy endures through her writing and her plays certainly, but also through the story of her life. An inspiring life story that, in 2022 is being shared in communities across the country through the Lorraine Hansberry Initiative. This multi-year project is using public, art and artist scholarships to quote, honor this great American playwright and civil rights leader and invest in those following in her footsteps.

      The initiative is produced by The Lilly's, An organization dedicated to celebrating, supporting, and advocating women theater artists

      ]]>      Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.

      Lorraine Hansberry


      In this bonus episode of Change the Story, Change the World, we're going to share an audio portrait of a project currently taking place at the subject of our past 2 episodes, Pillsbury House & Theater. The project is called To Sit a While and celebrates the work and life of playwright, journalist, and activist Lorraine Hansberry, who also happens to be the subject to the song we just heard that was written and sung by a young Twin Cities audacious artist named Frida Ross.

      Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago in 1930 and passed tragically in 1960. Despite her short stay on this planet, she lived large, large, artistically, large politically, and very large historically. Her play, A Raisin in the Sun was the first by a black woman to be produced on Broadway. More importantly, though it laid bare the systemic racism that was being visited on black families and communities in the plain-sight recesses of the American dream scape. Needless to say, this is a difficult story to tell anywhere, anytime in this country, let alone on Broadway in 1959.

      Now, that was 63 years ago, but thankfully the curtain on Hansberry's influence in the theater as a journalist and as an advocate for the Black and LGBTQ communities has never been drawn. Her legacy endures through her writing and her plays certainly, but also through the story of her life. An inspiring life story that, in 2022 is being shared in communities across the country through the Lorraine Hansberry Initiative. This multi-year project is using public, art and artist scholarships to quote, honor this great American playwright and civil rights leader and invest in those following in her footsteps.

      The initiative is produced by The Lilly's, An organization dedicated to celebrating, supporting, and advocating women theater artists

      ]]>      2f8d1d53-fed9-474d-8855-6fd812bf24fcWed, 28 Sep 2022 05:45:00 -070044:46truebonusIn this bonus episode we're sharing an audio portrait of a project that celebrates the work and life of playwright, journalist, and activist Lorraine Hansberry taking place at the subject of our past two episodes, Pillsbury House & Theater.      56: How a Minneapolis Social Service Agency Became A Center for Art and Social Change – Part 256: How a Minneapolis Social Service Agency Became A Center for Art and Social Change – Part 2This is the second chapter of the Pillsbury House + Theatre story. At the corner of George Floyd Square & the Pandemic, PH+T is breaking the community development mold using the power of the arts & culture to stimulate community health, ownership & justice.

      Missed Chapter 1? Go To CSCW EP 55, Pillsbury House + Theater Chapter 1

      BIO’s

      Signe V. Harriday is Artistic Producing Director at Pillsbury House + Theatre. Signe is a fierce visionary and powerful storyteller who crafts theatre that awakens our individual and collective humanity. As a director, multidisciplinary artist, activist, and facilitator, she uses theatre as a catalyst to ask questions about who we are and who we are in relation to each other.Past accomplishments include:

      Associate Company Member of Pillsbury House Theatre.

      Co-founder of Million Artist Movement, a collective of artists committed to Black liberation.

      Co-founder of the award-winning synchronized swimming team, The Subversive Sirens.

      Founder of Rootsprings Coop, a retreat center for BIPOC artists/activists/healers.

      Co-founder of MaMa mOsAiC, a women of color theater company whose mission is to evoke positive social change through female centered work.

      Core team member of REP Community Partners.

      Signe earned her MFA in Acting at the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard and Moscow Art Theatre.

      Current projects: Director of Bridgforth’s bull-jean stories, Associate Director of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower Opera, Choreography for Love of Silver Water, Playwright for Dysmorphia. Recent directing credits: Dining with the Ancestors, Fannie Lou Hammer Speak On It, Hidden Heroes

      Noël Raymond is the Co-Artistic Managing Director at Pillsbury House + Theater. Noël holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Minnesota and a BFA from Ithaca College in New York. She currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Multicultural Development Center and the Burning House Group Theatre Company which she co-founded in 1993. She is also a company member of Carlyle Brown and Company. She has taught acting classes and theatre movement in multiple settings to children, college students and adults with developmental disabilities.  

      Noël is an Equity actor who has performed with Pillsbury House Theatre, the Burning House Group, the Guthrie Theater, Penumbra Theatre, Bryant Lake Bowl, and Minnesota Festival Theatres in Minnesota as well as the Hangar Theatre in New York. Noël’s directing credits include Underneath the Lintel, An Almost Holy Picture, Far Away, Angels in America: Parts I and II, and [sic] at Pillsbury House Theatre, From Shadows to Light at Theatre Mu, The BI Show with MaMa mOsAiC, and multiple staged readings and workshops through the Playwrights’ Center, among others. Noël has served on numerous panels including TCG/American Theatre, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Playwright’s Center and United Arts, to name a few.

      Mike Hoyt: Mike is a visual artist and Pillsbury’s Creative Community Liason. For nearly twenty years he has been producing, managing, and directing arts-based community development projects and youth development programs, while making his own art in his community. Creating and facilitating unique shared experiences that connect diverse and often non traditional art audiences drive his art practice. Hoyt’s work has been exhibited locally and abroad at the Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, Arts At Marks Garage in Honolulu, University of Hawaii Art Gallery, Pillsbury House + Theatre, Soap Factory, Soo Visual Arts Center, Intermedia Arts, Franconia Sculpture Park, Art Shanty Projects, and the Walker Art Center among others. He has received awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board, a Northern Lights.mn Art(ists) on the Verge Fellowship, a Jerome Visual Artist Fellowship, and a McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship.

      Hoyt has the added benefit of raising a family three blocks from PH+T and is honored to have the opportunity to engage local artists and community members in creative practice towards the development of a vibrant and healthy community for all of its members.

      Notable Mentions: Chapter 2

      Pillsbury House, Epic Program: The EPIC Program, based at the Pillsbury House, is all about skill building, involvement in our community and making memories. Volunteering is practice that provides program participants a chance to gain and strengthen work skills while also helping others and integrating in the community. At People Serving People, EPIC helps with the janitorial services and that’s a big job. 

      Heather McGee's book, The Sum of Us, Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy—and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a common root problem: racism. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for white people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all. But how did this happen? And is there a way out?

      Bill Strickland, Pittsburgh, PA, Manchester Craftsman's Guild: Bill Strickland tells a quiet and astonishing tale of redemption through arts, music, and unlikely partnerships.

      Read transcript

      Andrea Jenkins, Minneapolis City Council President: Andrea Jenkins made history in 2017 as the first African American openly trans woman to be elected to office in the United States. Now serving as Council President, she is also a writer, performance artist, poet and transgender activist.

      KRSM, Minneapolis: KRSM is a low-power FM radio station based out of the Phillips neighborhood in South Minneapolis. Broadcasting at 98.9 FM, this is a hyper-local platform for amplifying the voices, stories, cultures, and conversations happening in our neighborhoods. Our focus is on communities that are marginalized, misrepresented, and erased by traditional media. For example, our schedule features shows in 6 different languages (English, Spanish, Somali, Ojibwe, Hmong, and Haitian Creole), and we air 10 hours of programming each week by Indigenous hosts.

      North News, Minneapolis: North News, founded in 1991, is the premiere print community news source in North Minneapolis.

      Breaking Ice, Pillsbury House + Theatre: Breaking Ice performances explore how systemic inequities, implicit bias and common misperceptions show up in relationships, creating uncomfortable interactions that inhibit innovation, motivation and productivity in the workplace.

      See also CSCW EP 55, Pillsbury House + Theatre Chapter 1 Show Notes

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      This is the second chapter of the Pillsbury House + Theatre story. At the corner of George Floyd Square & the Pandemic, PH+T is breaking the community development mold using the power of the arts & culture to stimulate community health, ownership & justice.

      Missed Chapter 1? Go To CSCW EP 55, Pillsbury House + Theater Chapter 1

      BIO’s

      Signe V. Harriday is Artistic Producing Director at Pillsbury House + Theatre. Signe is a fierce visionary and powerful storyteller who crafts theatre that awakens our individual and collective humanity. As a director, multidisciplinary artist, activist, and facilitator, she uses theatre as a catalyst to ask questions about who we are and who we are in relation to each other.Past accomplishments include:

      Associate Company Member of Pillsbury House Theatre.

      Co-founder of Million Artist Movement, a collective of artists committed to Black liberation.

      Co-founder of the award-winning synchronized swimming team, The Subversive Sirens.

      Founder of Rootsprings Coop, a retreat center for BIPOC artists/activists/healers.

      Co-founder of MaMa mOsAiC, a women of color theater company whose mission is to evoke positive social change through female centered work.

      Core team member of REP Community Partners.

      Signe earned her MFA in Acting at the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard and Moscow Art Theatre.

      Current projects: Director of Bridgforth’s bull-jean stories, Associate Director of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower Opera, Choreography for Love of Silver Water, Playwright for Dysmorphia. Recent directing credits: Dining with the Ancestors, Fannie Lou Hammer Speak On It, Hidden Heroes

      Noël Raymond is the Co-Artistic Managing Director at Pillsbury House + Theater. Noël holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Minnesota and a BFA from Ithaca College in New York. She currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Multicultural Development Center and the Burning House Group Theatre Company which she co-founded in 1993. She is also a company member of Carlyle Brown and Company. She has taught acting classes and theatre movement in multiple settings to children, college students and adults with developmental disabilities.  

      Noël is an Equity actor who has performed with Pillsbury House Theatre, the Burning House Group, the Guthrie Theater, Penumbra Theatre, Bryant Lake Bowl, and Minnesota Festival Theatres in Minnesota as well as the Hangar Theatre in New York. Noël’s directing credits include Underneath the Lintel, An Almost Holy Picture, Far Away, Angels in America: Parts I and II, and [sic] at Pillsbury House Theatre, From Shadows to Light at Theatre Mu, The BI Show with MaMa mOsAiC, and multiple staged readings and workshops through the Playwrights’ Center, among others. Noël has served on numerous panels including TCG/American Theatre, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Playwright’s Center and United Arts, to name a few.

      Mike Hoyt: Mike is a visual artist and Pillsbury’s Creative Community Liason. For nearly twenty years he has been producing, managing, and directing arts-based community development projects and youth development programs, while making his own art in his community. Creating and facilitating unique shared experiences that connect diverse and often non traditional art audiences drive his art practice. Hoyt’s work has been exhibited locally and abroad at the Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, Arts At Marks Garage in Honolulu, University of Hawaii Art Gallery, Pillsbury House + Theatre, Soap Factory, Soo Visual Arts Center, Intermedia Arts, Franconia Sculpture Park, Art Shanty Projects, and the Walker Art Center among others. He has received awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board, a Northern Lights.mn Art(ists) on the Verge Fellowship, a Jerome Visual Artist Fellowship, and a McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship.

      Hoyt has the added benefit of raising a family three blocks from PH+T and is honored to have the opportunity to engage local artists and community members in creative practice towards the development of a vibrant and healthy community for all of its members.

      Notable Mentions: Chapter 2

      Pillsbury House, Epic Program: The EPIC Program, based at the Pillsbury House, is all about skill building, involvement in our community and making memories. Volunteering is practice that provides program participants a chance to gain and strengthen work skills while also helping others and integrating in the community. At People Serving People, EPIC helps with the janitorial services and that’s a big job. 

      Heather McGee's book, The Sum of Us, Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy—and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a common root problem: racism. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for white people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all. But how did this happen? And is there a way out?

      Bill Strickland, Pittsburgh, PA, Manchester Craftsman's Guild: Bill Strickland tells a quiet and astonishing tale of redemption through arts, music, and unlikely partnerships.

      Read transcript

      Andrea Jenkins, Minneapolis City Council President: Andrea Jenkins made history in 2017 as the first African American openly trans woman to be elected to office in the United States. Now serving as Council President, she is also a writer, performance artist, poet and transgender activist.

      KRSM, Minneapolis: KRSM is a low-power FM radio station based out of the Phillips neighborhood in South Minneapolis. Broadcasting at 98.9 FM, this is a hyper-local platform for amplifying the voices, stories, cultures, and conversations happening in our neighborhoods. Our focus is on communities that are marginalized, misrepresented, and erased by traditional media. For example, our schedule features shows in 6 different languages (English, Spanish, Somali, Ojibwe, Hmong, and Haitian Creole), and we air 10 hours of programming each week by Indigenous hosts.

      North News, Minneapolis: North News, founded in 1991, is the premiere print community news source in North Minneapolis.

      Breaking Ice, Pillsbury House + Theatre: Breaking Ice performances explore how systemic inequities, implicit bias and common misperceptions show up in relationships, creating uncomfortable interactions that inhibit innovation, motivation and productivity in the workplace.

      See also CSCW EP 55, Pillsbury House + Theatre Chapter 1 Show Notes

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      1bb0dc92-6a90-4ad6-aeb0-3ee69f409bedWed, 14 Sep 2022 05:45:00 -070027:33truefull256562This is the second chapter of the Pillsbury House + Theatre story. At the corner of George Floyd Square & the Pandemic, PH+T is breaking the community development mold using the power of the arts & culture to stimulate community health, ownership & justice.      55: How a Minneapolis Social Service Agency Became A Center for Art and Social Change – Part 155: How a Minneapolis Social Service Agency Became A Center for Art and Social Change – Part 1Pillsbury House + Theatre is a groundbreaking “new model for human service work that recognizes the power of the arts and culture to stimulate community participation, investment and ownership.” This is the first of two PH+T chapters.

      This is a 2 Part show. Here is a link to Chapter 2 and the Bonus Episode: Lorraine Hansberry @ Pillsbury House + Theatre - Gifted & Black

      BIO’s

      Signe V. Harriday is Artistic Producing Director at Pillsbury House + Theatre. Signe is a fierce visionary and powerful storyteller who crafts theatre that awakens our individual and collective humanity. As a director, multidisciplinary artist, activist, and facilitator, she uses theatre as a catalyst to ask questions about who we are and who we are in relation to each other.Past accomplishments include:

      Associate Company Member of Pillsbury House Theatre.

      Co-founder of Million Artist Movement, a collective of artists committed to Black liberation.

      Co-founder of the award-winning synchronized swimming team, The Subversive Sirens.

      Founder of Rootsprings Coop, a retreat center for BIPOC artists/activists/healers.

      Co-founder of MaMa mOsAiC, a women of color theater company whose mission is to evoke positive social change through female centered work.

      Core team member of REP Community Partners.

      Signe earned her MFA in Acting at the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard and Moscow Art Theatre.

      Current projects: Director of Bridgforth’s bull-jean stories, Associate Director of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower Opera, Choreography for Love of Silver Water, Playwright for Dysmorphia. Recent directing credits: Dining with the Ancestors, Fannie Lou Hammer Speak On It, Hidden Heroes

      Noël Raymond is the Co-Artistic Managing Director at Pillsbury House + Theater. Noël holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Minnesota and a BFA from Ithaca College in New York. She currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Multicultural Development Center and the Burning House Group Theatre Company which she co-founded in 1993. She is also a company member of Carlyle Brown and Company. She has taught acting classes and theatre movement in multiple settings to children, college students and adults with developmental disabilities.  

      Noël is an Equity actor who has performed with Pillsbury House Theatre, the Burning House Group, the Guthrie Theater, Penumbra Theatre, Bryant Lake Bowl, and Minnesota Festival Theatres in Minnesota as well as the Hangar Theatre in New York. Noël’s directing credits include Underneath the Lintel, An Almost Holy Picture, Far Away, Angels in America: Parts I and II, and [sic] at Pillsbury House Theatre, From Shadows to Light at Theatre Mu, The BI Show with MaMa mOsAiC, and multiple staged readings and workshops through the Playwrights’ Center, among others. Noël has served on numerous panels including TCG/American Theatre, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Playwright’s Center and United Arts, to name a few.

      Mike Hoyt: Mike is a visual artist and Pillsbury’s Creative Community Liason. For nearly twenty years he has been producing, managing, and directing arts-based community development projects and youth development programs, while making his own art in his community. Creating and facilitating unique shared experiences that connect diverse and often non traditional art audiences drive his art practice. Hoyt’s work has been exhibited locally and abroad at the Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, Arts At Marks Garage in Honolulu, University of Hawaii Art Gallery, Pillsbury House + Theatre, Soap Factory, Soo Visual Arts Center, Intermedia Arts, Franconia Sculpture Park, Art Shanty Projects, and the Walker Art Center among others. He has received awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board, a Northern Lights.mn Art(ists) on the Verge Fellowship, a Jerome Visual Artist Fellowship, and a McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship.

      Hoyt has the added benefit of raising a family three blocks from PH+T and is honored to have the opportunity to engage local artists and community members in creative practice towards the development of a vibrant and healthy community for all of its members.

      Notable Mentions:

      Pillsbury House + Theatre A cultural landmark at the crossroads of four historic and diverse Minneapolis neighborhoods, Pillsbury House + Theatre (PH+T) unites innovative human services with professional arts experiences for 30,000 residents who call the area home. A hub for transformational art that brings the public as close as possible to the best local talent while engaging important conversations that lead to positive change. Visit pillsburyhouseandtheatre.org for upcoming performances.

      Pillsbury United Communities Beginning in 1879 with Minneapolis’s first settlement house, Pillsbury United Communities co-creates enduring change toward a just society. Built with and for historically marginalized and underinvested groups across our community, our united system of programs, neighborhood centers, and social enterprises connects more than 55,000 individuals and their families each year. We are guided by a vision of thriving communities where every person has personal, social, and economic power.

      Dakota Uprising / US- Dakota War: Viewed in a larger historical context, the Dakota War was part of a series of conflicts that have been called the American Indian Wars. These caused, together with starvation and disease, a massive decimation of the Indian population across the United States. Following these repeated attempts to destroy Native American populations, the United States government embarked on a policy of assimilation towards indigenous people into Euro-American society. These policies would remain in effect until well into the second half of the twentieth century.   

      George Floyd: On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was suffocated by a police officer in Minneapolis, while three other officers looked on. This tragic murder was not a one-off or something that can be attributed to a rogue officer: George Floyd has joined a long list of black men, women, and children who have been killed in recent years by police officers in the US. (Here is a list of some of the names of black people killed by the police since Eric Garner's murder in 2014 and George Floyd's murder this year.) Protests have since erupted all over the world, not only in response to George Floyd’s murder, but also in response to the systemic racism that has devalued black lives,  and has left black people vulnerable to police brutality and inequality. In the UK, Black Lives Matter UK has organized countless protests in towns and cities across the country: people have taken to the streets in their thousands to not only demand justice for George Floyd, but also to call for an end to systemic racism. 

      The One Parenting Decision that Really Matters, Atlantic Monthly, May, 2022: Summary) Parents make an estimated 1,750 difficult decisions during the first year of their kid's life. Almost none of them matter as much as parents think they do, writes Seth Stephens-Davidowitz in The Atlantic. But there is one decision that seems to have a substantial long-term impact on a child's wellbeing: where they were raised. Research suggests that the best cities can increase a child's future income by about 12 percent, for example. According to Stephens-Davidowitz's estimation, "some 25 percent — and possibly more — of the overall effects of a parent are driven by where that parent raises their child."

      CSA (Community Supported Agriculture): Community-supported agriculture (CSA model) or cropsharing is a system that connects producers and consumers within the food system closer by allowing the consumer to subscribe to the harvest of a certain farm or group of farms. It is an alternative socioeconomic model of agriculture and food distribution that allows the producer and consumer to share the risks of farming.[1] The model is a subcategory of Pillsbury House + Theatre is a groundbreaking “new model for human service work that recognizes the power of the arts and culture to stimulate community participation, investment and ownership.” This is the first of two PH+T chapters.

      This is a 2 Part show. Here is a link to Chapter 2 and the Bonus Episode: Lorraine Hansberry @ Pillsbury House + Theatre - Gifted & Black

      BIO’s

      Signe V. Harriday is Artistic Producing Director at Pillsbury House + Theatre. Signe is a fierce visionary and powerful storyteller who crafts theatre that awakens our individual and collective humanity. As a director, multidisciplinary artist, activist, and facilitator, she uses theatre as a catalyst to ask questions about who we are and who we are in relation to each other.Past accomplishments include:

      Associate Company Member of Pillsbury House Theatre.

      Co-founder of Million Artist Movement, a collective of artists committed to Black liberation.

      Co-founder of the award-winning synchronized swimming team, The Subversive Sirens.

      Founder of Rootsprings Coop, a retreat center for BIPOC artists/activists/healers.

      Co-founder of MaMa mOsAiC, a women of color theater company whose mission is to evoke positive social change through female centered work.

      Core team member of REP Community Partners.

      Signe earned her MFA in Acting at the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard and Moscow Art Theatre.

      Current projects: Director of Bridgforth’s bull-jean stories, Associate Director of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower Opera, Choreography for Love of Silver Water, Playwright for Dysmorphia. Recent directing credits: Dining with the Ancestors, Fannie Lou Hammer Speak On It, Hidden Heroes

      Noël Raymond is the Co-Artistic Managing Director at Pillsbury House + Theater. Noël holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Minnesota and a BFA from Ithaca College in New York. She currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Multicultural Development Center and the Burning House Group Theatre Company which she co-founded in 1993. She is also a company member of Carlyle Brown and Company. She has taught acting classes and theatre movement in multiple settings to children, college students and adults with developmental disabilities.  

      Noël is an Equity actor who has performed with Pillsbury House Theatre, the Burning House Group, the Guthrie Theater, Penumbra Theatre, Bryant Lake Bowl, and Minnesota Festival Theatres in Minnesota as well as the Hangar Theatre in New York. Noël’s directing credits include Underneath the Lintel, An Almost Holy Picture, Far Away, Angels in America: Parts I and II, and [sic] at Pillsbury House Theatre, From Shadows to Light at Theatre Mu, The BI Show with MaMa mOsAiC, and multiple staged readings and workshops through the Playwrights’ Center, among others. Noël has served on numerous panels including TCG/American Theatre, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Playwright’s Center and United Arts, to name a few.

      Mike Hoyt: Mike is a visual artist and Pillsbury’s Creative Community Liason. For nearly twenty years he has been producing, managing, and directing arts-based community development projects and youth development programs, while making his own art in his community. Creating and facilitating unique shared experiences that connect diverse and often non traditional art audiences drive his art practice. Hoyt’s work has been exhibited locally and abroad at the Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, Arts At Marks Garage in Honolulu, University of Hawaii Art Gallery, Pillsbury House + Theatre, Soap Factory, Soo Visual Arts Center, Intermedia Arts, Franconia Sculpture Park, Art Shanty Projects, and the Walker Art Center among others. He has received awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board, a Northern Lights.mn Art(ists) on the Verge Fellowship, a Jerome Visual Artist Fellowship, and a McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship.

      Hoyt has the added benefit of raising a family three blocks from PH+T and is honored to have the opportunity to engage local artists and community members in creative practice towards the development of a vibrant and healthy community for all of its members.

      Notable Mentions:

      Pillsbury House + Theatre A cultural landmark at the crossroads of four historic and diverse Minneapolis neighborhoods, Pillsbury House + Theatre (PH+T) unites innovative human services with professional arts experiences for 30,000 residents who call the area home. A hub for transformational art that brings the public as close as possible to the best local talent while engaging important conversations that lead to positive change. Visit pillsburyhouseandtheatre.org for upcoming performances.

      Pillsbury United Communities Beginning in 1879 with Minneapolis’s first settlement house, Pillsbury United Communities co-creates enduring change toward a just society. Built with and for historically marginalized and underinvested groups across our community, our united system of programs, neighborhood centers, and social enterprises connects more than 55,000 individuals and their families each year. We are guided by a vision of thriving communities where every person has personal, social, and economic power.

      Dakota Uprising / US- Dakota War: Viewed in a larger historical context, the Dakota War was part of a series of conflicts that have been called the American Indian Wars. These caused, together with starvation and disease, a massive decimation of the Indian population across the United States. Following these repeated attempts to destroy Native American populations, the United States government embarked on a policy of assimilation towards indigenous people into Euro-American society. These policies would remain in effect until well into the second half of the twentieth century.   

      George Floyd: On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was suffocated by a police officer in Minneapolis, while three other officers looked on. This tragic murder was not a one-off or something that can be attributed to a rogue officer: George Floyd has joined a long list of black men, women, and children who have been killed in recent years by police officers in the US. (Here is a list of some of the names of black people killed by the police since Eric Garner's murder in 2014 and George Floyd's murder this year.) Protests have since erupted all over the world, not only in response to George Floyd’s murder, but also in response to the systemic racism that has devalued black lives,  and has left black people vulnerable to police brutality and inequality. In the UK, Black Lives Matter UK has organized countless protests in towns and cities across the country: people have taken to the streets in their thousands to not only demand justice for George Floyd, but also to call for an end to systemic racism. 

      The One Parenting Decision that Really Matters, Atlantic Monthly, May, 2022: Summary) Parents make an estimated 1,750 difficult decisions during the first year of their kid's life. Almost none of them matter as much as parents think they do, writes Seth Stephens-Davidowitz in The Atlantic. But there is one decision that seems to have a substantial long-term impact on a child's wellbeing: where they were raised. Research suggests that the best cities can increase a child's future income by about 12 percent, for example. According to Stephens-Davidowitz's estimation, "some 25 percent — and possibly more — of the overall effects of a parent are driven by where that parent raises their child."

      CSA (Community Supported Agriculture): Community-supported agriculture (CSA model) or cropsharing is a system that connects producers and consumers within the food system closer by allowing the consumer to subscribe to the harvest of a certain farm or group of farms. It is an alternative socioeconomic model of agriculture and food distribution that allows the producer and consumer to share the risks of farming.[1] The model is a subcategory of civic agriculture that has an overarching goal of strengthening a sense of community through local markets.[2]

      Chicago Avenue Project: ince 1996, the Chicago Avenue Project has brought local youth together with the Twin Cities’ best adult playwrights, actors, and directors to create and produce original plays. The Chicago Avenue Project features two performances each year. For the spring performance, kids and their adult acting mentors star in 10-minute plays written just for them by adult playwrights. For the winter performance, kids and their adult playwriting mentors write 10-minute plays that are performed by adult actors. The result is original theatre that is heartwarming, hilarious, and infused with the brilliance of young minds. The project is not about teaching youth to perform, though they do learn acting—nor is it about teaching them how to write plays, though they learn that, too. The Chicago Avenue Project gives every child—no matter their circumstances—the opportunity to discover that they have a lot of creativity and value to offer.

      What to Send Up When it Goes Down by Aleshea Harris: What to Send Up When It Goes Down is a play, a ritual, and a home-going celebration that bears witness to the physical and spiritual deaths of Black people as a result of racist violence. Setting out to disrupt the pervasiveness of anti-Blackness and acknowledge the resilience of Black people throughout history, Aleshea Harris’s acclaimed, groundbreaking play blurs the boundaries between actors and audiences, offering a space for catharsis, discussion, reflection, and healing. The play was created for a Black audience, but all are welcome. The intention of the play is to create a space for as many Black-identifying audience members as possible.

      A Streetcar Named Desire: Streetcar Named Desire is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947.[1] The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of personal losses, leaves her once-prosperous situation to move into a shabby apartment in New Orleans rented by her younger sister and brother-in-law.

      Williams' most popular work, A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the most critically acclaimed plays of the twentieth century.[1] It still ranks among his most performed plays, and has inspired many adaptations in other forms, notably a critically acclaimed film that was released in 1951.[2]

       *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change. 

      ]]>af71b168-984e-4708-ba21-201641370228Wed, 31 Aug 2022 05:45:00 -070042:44falsefull255552Pillsbury House + Theatre is a groundbreaking “new model for human service work that recognizes the power of the arts and culture to stimulate community participation, investment and ownership.”      BONUS: The Nouvella – Using Fiction to Tell the Truth About Art and Social ChangeBONUS: The Nouvella – Using Fiction to Tell the Truth About Art and Social ChangeThe recorded conference presentation you are about to hear includes a made up game show, a scene from a novella about artists working in a fictional prison, and a visit to a fake town in the midst of a harsh reckoning around issues of race, justice, othering, and belonging. (A Reprise of Episode 27)

      Welcome to a Bonus edition of Change the Story Change the World —- as we pay a visit to the 16th Annual Art in Society Conference.

      Bill Cleveland: Hi I’m Bill Cleveland, the host of Change the Story / Change the World. This week we are going to do something a bit different.

      A few episodes back we shared a conversation with writer Jan Cohen Cruz to commemorate the New Village Press publication of Meeting the Moment by her and artist activist Rad Periera.

      This week’s bonus episode is indirectly related to another soon to be published New Village volume called the Book of Judith, "an homage to the life of poet, writer, and teaching artist Judith Tannenbaum and her impact on incarcerated and marginalized students."

      Judith, who passed away in 2019, taught me a lot about both art making, and the imagination. In my own teaching her lessons have been a constant presence, often manifesting through the stories she shared in her work.

      This was the case In June of 2021 when I participated in an international conference convened by the Art in Society Research Network. My part in this online conference was a presentation about using story-based strategies for community arts training. My approach was to share few stories, including one of Judith’s about how using stories can help prepare artists for work in real life communities and social institutions.

      So, the recorded conference presentation you are about to hear includes a game show, a scene from Judith’s novella about artists working in prison, and a visit to a fake town in the midst of a harsh reckoning around issues of race, justice, othering, and belonging.

      Welcome to a special edition of change the story Change the World —- as we pay a visit to the 16th Annual Art in Society Conference.

      Hi: I’m Bill Cleveland. I am speaking to you from, Alameda CA, near Oakland which is the traditional land of the Ohlone people and home our county’s new VP Kamala Harris.

      I run the Center for the Study of Art & Community. Our name is a mouthful to be sure but we have a pretty simple mission. Which is basically, helping to Create new community art partnerships in service to building caring, capable & equitable communities and then telling the stories that rise up. Over the past couple of decades, the Center has done that by conducting research, providing cross-sector community arts training, and producing studies, articles books and a podcast on arts-based community development and social change efforts all over the world.

      Enough about us. I’d like to begin this presentation by inviting you to participate in one of our fabulous Quiz shows.

      The show is actually a little game called TRUTH OR NO. The object of the game is to spark your imaginations and have a bit of fun. To do this you will need write a few things down, Yeah, I know you thought this conference would be just sitting and watching, but please, indulge me here. I’ll give you 30 seconds to grab a pencil and paper.

      OK now lets start. The game goes like this: In a little bit I am going to share 4 really short-stories that may or may not be true. Your job is to identify the ones that are false. Before I start t you will need to write 1 through 4 on a piece of paper. Now after each little story I tell write T for those you think are true and N for No for the fabrications. This will happen very fast. So here we go.

      Space Out: Way back in the 20th century the US Space Program felt they needed more public support. So, they decided to engage artists to help them to draw more positive attention to their efforts. This NASA arts program started with a bang – hiring Oh Superman, Laurie Anderson and Pop artist, Robert Rauschenberg as resident artists to make art celebrating the exploration of the cosmos.

      CRACKED: Once upon a time A group of neighbors found themselves with a crack house problem. They responded by engaging law enforcement, zoning officials, and the city council, all to no avail. In their desperation they turned to a group of artists from the community. These artists went crazy, whipping out a mural that was so powerful that within 24 hours of its completion the dope peddlers had totally fled the scene, never to return.

      MAXED OUT: If you are incarcerated in SuperMax prison you spend 90% of your life locked in an 8x10 cell and will breath fresh air only 60 minutes a week. A woman artist who felt that this was a terrilble thing decided to use her art to shut down her state’s supermax. After she created her work the governor of her state decided it was time to shut down the state’s, 700 bed supermax prison and now its gone.

      TREES, WOLVES, & DEMOCRACY: There was once an artist who planted trees, slept with wolves and decided to change the world. To do this he and some fellow artists created an artwork that resulted in the election of thousands of progressive candidates to local and national elective offices in dozens of countries around the world.

      Four pretty crazy, improbable stories. So, how did you vote. If you get them all right you have won am an all-expenses paid trip to a place called St. Francis Maryland, which I’ll tell you about in a moment. Here’s the lowdown on the 4 stories.

      NASA: Yes, Laurie and Robert were employed by a NASA arts program that goes back to the 60’s

      CRACK HOUSE This is true too. In Atlanta mural artist Normando Ismay and a mural crew turned a crack house into a Massive multicolored 4-sided billboard advertising the best drugs at Deep Discounts. For some reason, customers stopped showing up.

      SUPERMAX: What can I say, this one seems like a stretch, but its true too. In 2008 Laurie Jo Reynolds, a videographer who calls herself a legislative artist launched TAMMS ten year, an arts project to expose the inhumane conditions at an Illinois’ supermax prison specifically designed for sensory deprivation and solitary confinement. In 2013 Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced its closure.

      ART and ELECTION: Number 4. There’s no way for this one, but what can I say. The green party was established as something called a social sculpture by a group of artists led by Joseph Beuys.

      This game was a quick and silly way to introduce some history that has helped define what has variously been called community arts, or arts-based community development, or more recently creative placemaking and social practice. In it, we used a fictional game show to tell some hard to believe, but true stories. Along the way, some of you may have encountered some degree of skepticism about the power of the human imagination to provoke change. When we train artists and their community partners for creative collaborations, we use games like these with multiple rounds to have fun, and get out of their heads, and into a place where they can exercise their imaginations, individually and, most importantly together.

      This workshop is about how stories can help us access some of the most difficult lessons about art making in service to community learning, building, healing, and mobilizing. In Truth or NO the story was a game that I made up that you, hopefully played along with. Playing is the key here, because PLAY, is basically life practice. This is true for all the creatures in the animal kingdom, including us. When we are young a lot of our play is physical testing and problem solving. As we get older it migrates more and more into realm of thinking and what we call adult learning. As community arts trainers we are trying provide a memorable learning experience that can help our students respectfully engage often complex and ambiguous institutional and community systems and cultures.

      NORTHCOAST CORRECTIONAL FACILITY

      Another of our most effective training resources are stories about fictional neighborhoods or agencies that we use to tell the real story of what it’s like to navigate them as creative change agents. In these narratives’ artists, and community members, administrators and staff explore the conundrums and contradictions, the heartaches and little victories that creative partners dance with every day in these “other places.”

      The example of this I’m going to share was created during time I ran California’s Arts-in-Corrections program. Its called The Nouvella, which is a work of fiction by writer/teaching artist/activist Judith Tannenbaum that was used to train artists getting ready to teach one of California’s 32 correctional facilities. At the time A_I_C was the largest arts residency program in the world, with over 1000 artists and 25,000 students. As I am sure you have noted, it has also provided the title of this workshop.

      North Coast Correctional Facility (Unit 3, Third Tier)

      NCCF is on indefinite lockdown following an inmate stabbing. Because of this, writing instructor Susan Robertson is working with her students through the bars of their cells. She approaches Mitch Reiser’s cell.

      "Hello, Susan. Coming this way?" Mitch Reiser's voice broke into Susan's thoughts on violence and its effect on the mind and soul. She walked past a few cells to where Mitch was housed.

      "Are you psychic or what? How did you know it was me?" Susan asked, always on her guard with Mitch.

      She was never able to be herself with Mitch around. And Mitch was always around. There were so many silent ways in which Mitch made sure he was there, always there.

      "I am psychic where you're concerned, but this time I have to give credit where credit is due."

      Mitch pointed to the small mirror that he could adjust to...]]>The recorded conference presentation you are about to hear includes a made up game show, a scene from a novella about artists working in a fictional prison, and a visit to a fake town in the midst of a harsh reckoning around issues of race, justice, othering, and belonging. (A Reprise of Episode 27)

      Welcome to a Bonus edition of Change the Story Change the World —- as we pay a visit to the 16th Annual Art in Society Conference.

      Bill Cleveland: Hi I’m Bill Cleveland, the host of Change the Story / Change the World. This week we are going to do something a bit different.

      A few episodes back we shared a conversation with writer Jan Cohen Cruz to commemorate the New Village Press publication of Meeting the Moment by her and artist activist Rad Periera.

      This week’s bonus episode is indirectly related to another soon to be published New Village volume called the Book of Judith, "an homage to the life of poet, writer, and teaching artist Judith Tannenbaum and her impact on incarcerated and marginalized students."

      Judith, who passed away in 2019, taught me a lot about both art making, and the imagination. In my own teaching her lessons have been a constant presence, often manifesting through the stories she shared in her work.

      This was the case In June of 2021 when I participated in an international conference convened by the Art in Society Research Network. My part in this online conference was a presentation about using story-based strategies for community arts training. My approach was to share few stories, including one of Judith’s about how using stories can help prepare artists for work in real life communities and social institutions.

      So, the recorded conference presentation you are about to hear includes a game show, a scene from Judith’s novella about artists working in prison, and a visit to a fake town in the midst of a harsh reckoning around issues of race, justice, othering, and belonging.

      Welcome to a special edition of change the story Change the World —- as we pay a visit to the 16th Annual Art in Society Conference.

      Hi: I’m Bill Cleveland. I am speaking to you from, Alameda CA, near Oakland which is the traditional land of the Ohlone people and home our county’s new VP Kamala Harris.

      I run the Center for the Study of Art & Community. Our name is a mouthful to be sure but we have a pretty simple mission. Which is basically, helping to Create new community art partnerships in service to building caring, capable & equitable communities and then telling the stories that rise up. Over the past couple of decades, the Center has done that by conducting research, providing cross-sector community arts training, and producing studies, articles books and a podcast on arts-based community development and social change efforts all over the world.

      Enough about us. I’d like to begin this presentation by inviting you to participate in one of our fabulous Quiz shows.

      The show is actually a little game called TRUTH OR NO. The object of the game is to spark your imaginations and have a bit of fun. To do this you will need write a few things down, Yeah, I know you thought this conference would be just sitting and watching, but please, indulge me here. I’ll give you 30 seconds to grab a pencil and paper.

      OK now lets start. The game goes like this: In a little bit I am going to share 4 really short-stories that may or may not be true. Your job is to identify the ones that are false. Before I start t you will need to write 1 through 4 on a piece of paper. Now after each little story I tell write T for those you think are true and N for No for the fabrications. This will happen very fast. So here we go.

      Space Out: Way back in the 20th century the US Space Program felt they needed more public support. So, they decided to engage artists to help them to draw more positive attention to their efforts. This NASA arts program started with a bang – hiring Oh Superman, Laurie Anderson and Pop artist, Robert Rauschenberg as resident artists to make art celebrating the exploration of the cosmos.

      CRACKED: Once upon a time A group of neighbors found themselves with a crack house problem. They responded by engaging law enforcement, zoning officials, and the city council, all to no avail. In their desperation they turned to a group of artists from the community. These artists went crazy, whipping out a mural that was so powerful that within 24 hours of its completion the dope peddlers had totally fled the scene, never to return.

      MAXED OUT: If you are incarcerated in SuperMax prison you spend 90% of your life locked in an 8x10 cell and will breath fresh air only 60 minutes a week. A woman artist who felt that this was a terrilble thing decided to use her art to shut down her state’s supermax. After she created her work the governor of her state decided it was time to shut down the state’s, 700 bed supermax prison and now its gone.

      TREES, WOLVES, & DEMOCRACY: There was once an artist who planted trees, slept with wolves and decided to change the world. To do this he and some fellow artists created an artwork that resulted in the election of thousands of progressive candidates to local and national elective offices in dozens of countries around the world.

      Four pretty crazy, improbable stories. So, how did you vote. If you get them all right you have won am an all-expenses paid trip to a place called St. Francis Maryland, which I’ll tell you about in a moment. Here’s the lowdown on the 4 stories.

      NASA: Yes, Laurie and Robert were employed by a NASA arts program that goes back to the 60’s

      CRACK HOUSE This is true too. In Atlanta mural artist Normando Ismay and a mural crew turned a crack house into a Massive multicolored 4-sided billboard advertising the best drugs at Deep Discounts. For some reason, customers stopped showing up.

      SUPERMAX: What can I say, this one seems like a stretch, but its true too. In 2008 Laurie Jo Reynolds, a videographer who calls herself a legislative artist launched TAMMS ten year, an arts project to expose the inhumane conditions at an Illinois’ supermax prison specifically designed for sensory deprivation and solitary confinement. In 2013 Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced its closure.

      ART and ELECTION: Number 4. There’s no way for this one, but what can I say. The green party was established as something called a social sculpture by a group of artists led by Joseph Beuys.

      This game was a quick and silly way to introduce some history that has helped define what has variously been called community arts, or arts-based community development, or more recently creative placemaking and social practice. In it, we used a fictional game show to tell some hard to believe, but true stories. Along the way, some of you may have encountered some degree of skepticism about the power of the human imagination to provoke change. When we train artists and their community partners for creative collaborations, we use games like these with multiple rounds to have fun, and get out of their heads, and into a place where they can exercise their imaginations, individually and, most importantly together.

      This workshop is about how stories can help us access some of the most difficult lessons about art making in service to community learning, building, healing, and mobilizing. In Truth or NO the story was a game that I made up that you, hopefully played along with. Playing is the key here, because PLAY, is basically life practice. This is true for all the creatures in the animal kingdom, including us. When we are young a lot of our play is physical testing and problem solving. As we get older it migrates more and more into realm of thinking and what we call adult learning. As community arts trainers we are trying provide a memorable learning experience that can help our students respectfully engage often complex and ambiguous institutional and community systems and cultures.

      NORTHCOAST CORRECTIONAL FACILITY

      Another of our most effective training resources are stories about fictional neighborhoods or agencies that we use to tell the real story of what it’s like to navigate them as creative change agents. In these narratives’ artists, and community members, administrators and staff explore the conundrums and contradictions, the heartaches and little victories that creative partners dance with every day in these “other places.”

      The example of this I’m going to share was created during time I ran California’s Arts-in-Corrections program. Its called The Nouvella, which is a work of fiction by writer/teaching artist/activist Judith Tannenbaum that was used to train artists getting ready to teach one of California’s 32 correctional facilities. At the time A_I_C was the largest arts residency program in the world, with over 1000 artists and 25,000 students. As I am sure you have noted, it has also provided the title of this workshop.

      North Coast Correctional Facility (Unit 3, Third Tier)

      NCCF is on indefinite lockdown following an inmate stabbing. Because of this, writing instructor Susan Robertson is working with her students through the bars of their cells. She approaches Mitch Reiser’s cell.

      "Hello, Susan. Coming this way?" Mitch Reiser's voice broke into Susan's thoughts on violence and its effect on the mind and soul. She walked past a few cells to where Mitch was housed.

      "Are you psychic or what? How did you know it was me?" Susan asked, always on her guard with Mitch.

      She was never able to be herself with Mitch around. And Mitch was always around. There were so many silent ways in which Mitch made sure he was there, always there.

      "I am psychic where you're concerned, but this time I have to give credit where credit is due."

      Mitch pointed to the small mirror that he could adjust to give him a reflection of just what was coming along the walkway. Susan stepped back and looked at the other cells and saw that many such mirrors were now focused on her.

      She shook her head, "I’m a trained observer, but I'm not seeing anything well today!"

      “You may not be seeing well, but you sure are looking good."

      Susan smiled, "Cute. Corny, but cute."

      This parrying with Mitch was easy, but dangerous. If she wasn't careful, he'd pick up whatever she said and run with it as far as he could.

      “Susan, come closer."

      "I can hear you fine."

      "But I want to smell your perfume."

      "I don't wear perfume," she said, then thought, Shit, he's trapped me. I've

      got to get out of this dialogue without one more personal exchange.

      “Then why do you always smell so sweet?"

      "Mitch, what poems are you going to read at the banquet?"

      "I don't want to talk about poems."

      "That's what I'm here for."

      "Does your husband give you flowers?"

      "Mitch ... "

      'Im going to send you flowers. You'll see. Sometime you'll be home alone, night will be coming on. Maybe you'll be taking a bath or rubbing oil over your naked skin. And they'll be there, these surprise flowers. And you'll know they're from me."

      "Okay, Mitch; that's it."

      Never had the promise of flowers sounded so like a threat.

      "I'm going to love you forever," Mitch whispered toward Susan's departing back.

      Although she tried not to hear, she heard, "I've got all the time in the world, Susan, and I'm going to take as long as I need to convince you. And I'll convince you, you'll see.

      A bird had flown in through the open transom and was singing in the block; Susan focused on this bird. Its song made her hear the weighted silence of the gray sky outside, the ocean water; she listened to these silent sounds that rode under her quickly beating heart, under all the noise in the block. She wanted to leave Unit 2, run back to the office and talk to Al about Mitch. But she decided to see the rest of her students first, and she walked down the tier. As steady as she could…

      *****

      This scene is a dramatic turning point in one the many subplots that are woven into the 100 page narrative that unfolds in The Nouvella. Beyond the episode with Mitch, the North Coast story unfolds with other unsettling twists and turns, all of which are based on the true events chronicled in Judith’s Tannenbaum’s exhaustive one year research process.

      In addition to the fatal stabbing and subsequent lockdown, there is a discovered tryst between a teacher and a prisoner, a crippling state budget freeze, and most devastatingly for the arts program’s teachers, students and their families, the cancelation of the first-ever arts program awards banquet, which had been a year in the making.

      Despite the intensity of this string of events, Judith Tannenbaum’s narrative is not overly dramatic, and pointedly so. This is because one of the most incongruent characteristics of prison life is the plodding drumbeat of hard-to-imagine juxtapositions — boredom and fear, cacophony and silence, bad news and no news. If the joint could talk, it would surely be shouting. “You think you caught us at a bad time? Nah, this is normal. You think this is crazy? Wait ‘til next week!”

      As daunting as it might seem, Judith understood that her principal job here was as a translator — making some sense of a place where the Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter would feel quite comfortably at home. A place where seemingly simple questions about the “right” thing to do are answered with alternating layers of clarity and quicksand.

      A place where the signs and signals we all depend on to find our way are offered up in a “Yes/But actually No” oscillating current that is both confounding and oddly thrilling. Our task here with the Nouvella was to create a story that attracted and supported new creative colleagues but also discouraged slackers? Who else but an artist could render this world in a way that conveyed the elusive truth of this foggy netherworld without scaring away the potential pathfinders?

      Like I said, the stories in the Nouvella are all based on the real-life experiences of the dozens of staff and incarcerated artists she interviewed during her research. These, of course, included Judith’s own experiences as a writing teacher working on the prison planet. Which is a place where truth, beauty, trust, tenderness, vulnerability, color, sensitivity, choice — all the intangible qualities humans need to thrive — are virtually nonexistent.

      But through her teaching she made these things available to her students. In the process, they become creators with a chance to own bit more of their unique story — an act of personal agency that is a precious thing, on the inside.

      Doing this takes courage for both the teacher and the taught. Writing the Nouvella, though called for another kind of bravery. This is because the scene you just heard was a fictionalized version of a real struggle Judith had with one of her students. Like “Mitch”, this poet, a lifer, with two rape murder convictions, was a persistent edge pusher whose obsession with Judith became more and more tenacious over time. The line was crossed when a staff member overheard him describing in detail his plans for Judith to fellow prisoners.

      This was a terrifying situation for Judith. And, because of the program, other women at Q, the rules, and a dozen other reasons, both paranoid and real, the incident could not be written off. Her conflict about reporting it up the chain of command only added to her distress. Her compassion in telling this difficult story in the Nouvella is a testament to the enormous sense of responsibility she carried for each of her students.

      Prior to the Nouvella we relied primarily on the institutions to orient our new artists. This often turned out to be what we used to call a dog and pony show – A two or three hour power point workshop with a Sergeant up there saying, “Part your hair wrong, and you're in trouble. Here's the Director's Rule’s, read them, remember them, follow them, and you'll be just fine”

      But for us, that did not cut it. Our artists did need to know the rules, for sure, but given the intimate nature of creative teaching they needed to understand the culture too. Something that could shed a little light on shifting shadows that define life inside—something Like the Nouvella.

      So now you might ask: How did this turn out. We created a training that used the Nouvella as its foundation. Here is what the department’s research showed.

      We found our artists were less inclined to stereotype corrections staff and incarcerated people.

      When problems arose artists tended to ask questions rather than make snap judgements.

      We saw improved trust for artists among staff and incarcerated students

      There was better communication between correctional staff and artists

      We saw better cooperation from line staff and institutional administrators

      We got greater respect from students who appreciated the increasingly savvy artists they encountered.

      We saw a marked Increase in participation in the program

      And there were Fewer program threatening incidents involving artists.

      Most importantly, the characters and stories represented in the Nouvella became a safe space for exploring the complicated often contradictory issues and forces that defined life and work in prison. At the end of the day, it was much easier to ask a critical question about the fictional Susan Robertson or Assistant Warden’s motivations or decision making than it was to challenge a colleague or staff member. PAUSE

      St. Francis. Our third example of how an invented storyline can help build skills and understanding takes the Northcoast institutional strategy to another level. It was developed with the University of Massachusetts', Arts Extension Service which provides online professional certificate and degree programs for arts leaders in the US and overseas. In this case, rather than provide a story about a fictional place, we asked the students in our Creative Community Leadership course to spin their own saga playing (There’s that word again) playing arts leaders in response to an escalating series of events that precipitates a mini- cultural war in the fake town of St. Francis Maryland. Along the way they learned a lot about the power of the imagination for good and ill, and each other.

      Teaching Basketball Online

      When theater artist Kathryn Bentley and I began designing this course we were faced with a daunting question. How do you train for relationship intensive work like community arts using a distance learning platform?

      We likened this conundrum to trying to teach basketball online, which, of course, is impossible. It might work for a course on the history of basketball, its rules, and maybe some coaching theories, but the game itself can’t be learned without players, practicing hoops together on the court.

      The same can be said of community arts practice, which like basketball, involves groups of people with different skills and perspectives, trying to work well together. Applying arts-based strategies to critical community issues like health, affordable housing, public safety, education, and equitable development requires trust-based partnerships.

      Learning to collaborate effectively across community sectors, takes a lot of practice with real partners, working in real communities. So, once again, how do you help students prepare for these real-world challenges using an online learning platform?

      Our response was to create a mid-sized town of about 85,000 situated on the eastern seaboard of the US for our students to play in. At first blush St. Francis seems like a fairly prosperous middle of the road...]]>96aa8a46-689d-4464-a0b5-f56e88222fdbWed, 17 Aug 2022 05:45:00 -070030:22falsebonus2254: DAH Teatar: Arts Driven Social Change and Environmental Justice in Serbia54: DAH Teatar: Arts Driven Social Change and Environmental Justice in SerbiaDAH SAYS: "In today’s world, we can oppose destruction and violence with the creation of meaning ... we create bold dramatic art to provoke, inspire, and incite personal and social transformation."

      Be sure to check out our CHANGE THE STORY COLLECTION OF ARCHIVED EPISODES on: Justice Arts, Art & Healing, Cultural Organizing, Arts Ed./Children & Youth, Community Arts Training, Music for Change, Theater for Change, Change Making Media.

      BIO

      Dijana Milošević is an award-winning theater director, writer and lecturer. She co-founded the DAH Theater Research Center in Belgrade, and has been its lead director for over 25 years.

      Dijana has served as the artistic director of theater festivals, the president of the Association of Independent Theaters, the president of the board of BITEF Theater, and a member of the board of directors of the national International Theater Institute (ITI). She has been involved with several peacebuilding initiatives and collaborates with feminist-activist groups.

      DAH Theater has performed nationally and internationally under Dijana’s directing. She has also directed plays by other theater companies around the world.

      She is a well-known lecturer, who has taught at world-famous universities. She writes articles and essays about theater as well as society. She has won prestigious scholarships such as Fulbright and Arts Link. She is a professor at the Institute for Artistic Play in Belgrade.

      Notable Mentions

      Dah Teatar Research Center for Culture and Social Change: DAH Theatre is an independent, professional, contemporary theatre troupe and artistic collective that uses modern theatre techniques to create engaging art and initiate positive social change, both locally and globally.  Mission: In today’s world, we can oppose destruction and violence with the creation of meaning.” Through dedicated teamwork, we create bold dramatic art to provoke, inspire, and incite personal and social transformation.

      Art and Upheaval - Artists on the World’s Frontlines: Author William Cleveland shares r emarkable stories from Northern Ireland, Cambodia, South Africa, United States (Watts, Los Angeles), aboriginal Australia, and Serbia, about artists who resolve conflict, heal unspeakable trauma, give voice to the forgotten and disappeared, and restitch the cultural fabric of their communities.

      This Babylonian Confusion: The Dah Teatar project “This Babylonian Confusion” is a result of a montage of the actors’ materials and the songs of Bertold Brecht. This performance was created from the need of the artists to place themselves in their duty- as artists in “dark times.” Four actors using the characters of Angels say their share against war, nationalism and destruction. [1992]

      Slobodan Milošivić: was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who served as the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997. Formerly a high-ranking member of the League of Communists of Serbia (SKS) during the 1980s, he led the Socialist Party of Serbia from its foundation in 1990 until 2003. After Milošević's death, the ICTY and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals found that he was a part of a joint criminal enterprise which used violence to remove Croats, Bosniaks, and Albanians from large parts of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. 

      Bertolt Brecht: was one of the most influential playwrights of the 20th century. His works include The Threepenny Opera (1928) with composer Kurt Weill, Mother Courage and Her Children (1941), The Good Person of Szechwan (1943), and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1958). A member of the Independent Social Democratic Party, Brecht wrote theater criticism for a Socialist newspaper from 1919 to 1921. His plays were banned in Germany in the 1930s, and in 1933, he went into exile, first in Denmark and then Finland. He moved to Santa Monica, California, in 1941, hoping to write for Hollywood, but he drew the attention of the House Un-American Activities Committee. 

      The Story of Tea: The central theme of the performance is the train that will finally take three sisters to the place of their dreams- Moscow, or missed opportunities and gambled chances, inspired and provoked by the other important themes of DAH Theater’s ‘three sisters.’ 

      Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov is a play by the Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov. It was written in 1900 and first performed in 1901 at the Moscow Art Theatre. The play is sometimes included on the short list of Chekhov's outstanding plays, along with The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull and Uncle Vanya.[1]

      Rio Tinto: Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian multinational company that is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP).[5][6]  In May 2020, to expand the Brockman 4 mine,

      Rio Tinto has been widely criticised by environmental groups as well as the government of Norway for the environmental impacts of its mining activities: claims of severe environmental damages related to Rio Tinto's engagement in the Grasberg mine in Indonesia led the Government Pension Fund of Norway to exclude Rio Tinto from its investment portfolio.[15]

      Academic observers have also expressed concern regarding Rio Tinto's operations in Papua New]]>DAH SAYS: "In today’s world, we can oppose destruction and violence with the creation of meaning ... we create bold dramatic art to provoke, inspire, and incite personal and social transformation."

      Be sure to check out our CHANGE THE STORY COLLECTION OF ARCHIVED EPISODES on: Justice Arts, Art & Healing, Cultural Organizing, Arts Ed./Children & Youth, Community Arts Training, Music for Change, Theater for Change, Change Making Media.

      BIO

      Dijana Milošević is an award-winning theater director, writer and lecturer. She co-founded the DAH Theater Research Center in Belgrade, and has been its lead director for over 25 years.

      Dijana has served as the artistic director of theater festivals, the president of the Association of Independent Theaters, the president of the board of BITEF Theater, and a member of the board of directors of the national International Theater Institute (ITI). She has been involved with several peacebuilding initiatives and collaborates with feminist-activist groups.

      DAH Theater has performed nationally and internationally under Dijana’s directing. She has also directed plays by other theater companies around the world.

      She is a well-known lecturer, who has taught at world-famous universities. She writes articles and essays about theater as well as society. She has won prestigious scholarships such as Fulbright and Arts Link. She is a professor at the Institute for Artistic Play in Belgrade.

      Notable Mentions

      Dah Teatar Research Center for Culture and Social Change: DAH Theatre is an independent, professional, contemporary theatre troupe and artistic collective that uses modern theatre techniques to create engaging art and initiate positive social change, both locally and globally.  Mission: In today’s world, we can oppose destruction and violence with the creation of meaning.” Through dedicated teamwork, we create bold dramatic art to provoke, inspire, and incite personal and social transformation.

      Art and Upheaval - Artists on the World’s Frontlines: Author William Cleveland shares r emarkable stories from Northern Ireland, Cambodia, South Africa, United States (Watts, Los Angeles), aboriginal Australia, and Serbia, about artists who resolve conflict, heal unspeakable trauma, give voice to the forgotten and disappeared, and restitch the cultural fabric of their communities.

      This Babylonian Confusion: The Dah Teatar project “This Babylonian Confusion” is a result of a montage of the actors’ materials and the songs of Bertold Brecht. This performance was created from the need of the artists to place themselves in their duty- as artists in “dark times.” Four actors using the characters of Angels say their share against war, nationalism and destruction. [1992]

      Slobodan Milošivić: was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who served as the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997. Formerly a high-ranking member of the League of Communists of Serbia (SKS) during the 1980s, he led the Socialist Party of Serbia from its foundation in 1990 until 2003. After Milošević's death, the ICTY and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals found that he was a part of a joint criminal enterprise which used violence to remove Croats, Bosniaks, and Albanians from large parts of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. 

      Bertolt Brecht: was one of the most influential playwrights of the 20th century. His works include The Threepenny Opera (1928) with composer Kurt Weill, Mother Courage and Her Children (1941), The Good Person of Szechwan (1943), and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1958). A member of the Independent Social Democratic Party, Brecht wrote theater criticism for a Socialist newspaper from 1919 to 1921. His plays were banned in Germany in the 1930s, and in 1933, he went into exile, first in Denmark and then Finland. He moved to Santa Monica, California, in 1941, hoping to write for Hollywood, but he drew the attention of the House Un-American Activities Committee. 

      The Story of Tea: The central theme of the performance is the train that will finally take three sisters to the place of their dreams- Moscow, or missed opportunities and gambled chances, inspired and provoked by the other important themes of DAH Theater’s ‘three sisters.’ 

      Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov is a play by the Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov. It was written in 1900 and first performed in 1901 at the Moscow Art Theatre. The play is sometimes included on the short list of Chekhov's outstanding plays, along with The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull and Uncle Vanya.[1]

      Rio Tinto: Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian multinational company that is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP).[5][6]  In May 2020, to expand the Brockman 4 mine,

      Rio Tinto has been widely criticised by environmental groups as well as the government of Norway for the environmental impacts of its mining activities: claims of severe environmental damages related to Rio Tinto's engagement in the Grasberg mine in Indonesia led the Government Pension Fund of Norway to exclude Rio Tinto from its investment portfolio.[15]

      Academic observers have also expressed concern regarding Rio Tinto's operations in Papua New Guinea, which they allege were one catalyst of the Bougainville separatist crisis.[16] There have also been concerns over corruption: in July 2017 the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced the launch of a fraud and corruption investigation into the company's business practices in Guinea.[17]

      Ana Brnabić: born 28 September 1975) is a Serbian politician serving as the prime minister of Serbia since 2017. She is the first woman and first openly gay person to hold the office.[1] 

      Women in Black: Women in Black is a world-wide network of women committed to peace with justice and actively opposed to injustice, war, militarism and other forms of violence. As women experiencing these things in different ways in different regions of the world, we support each other’s movements. An important focus is challenging the militarist policies of our own governments. We are not an organisation, but a means of communicating and a formula for action.

      Explorez Festival: Theater, dance, music and visual arts with a social impact in an international perspective. Since 2016, ZID has been organizing the international crossover festival ExploreZ where the city of Amsterdam is a stage for the city’s residents, artists and (inter) national theater makers. Each festival has its own theme, which is current for the makers and for social developments both locally and internationally.

      25 Glasses of Wine: A lecture-performance featuring DAH Theater’s director, using autobiographical texts to discuss the work of a theater troupe and their adventures in the historical-political context of ‘a country which no longer exists

      Dennis Barnett (Coe College): With an interest in works in translation, Professor Barnett has edited two collections of essays about theatre in Eastern Europe including one devoted to DAH Theatre in Belgrade, Serbia. He leads May Term in Serbia giving students an opportunity to train with the group of artist-activists. 

      Invisible City: A Dah performance in the city bus system, and on-going project, ‘In/visible City’ is meant to render visible both the cultural richness of ethnic diversity and the multi-ethnic structure of Serbian cities.

      Dancing Trees: Dah’s Dancing Trees is a site-specific dance theatre show created in collaboration with the Belgrade Dance Institute. This visually poetic performance explores the importance of trees preservation and includes wider scope of action connecting climate changes and arts.

      Creative Europe: The Creative Europe programme 2021-2027 has a budget of € 2.44 billion. Creative Europe invests in actions that reinforce cultural diversity and respond to the needs and challenges of the cultural and creative sectors. 

      Erasmus+ is the EU's programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe that has, in some cases provided support for sport related arts programs.

      The Hidden Life of Trees: In The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben shares his deep love of woods and forests and explains the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in the woodland and the amazing scientific processes behind the wonders of which we are blissfully unaware. (from Goodreads)

      ITAC: International Teaching Artists Collaborative: The first world wide network of artists who work in community and educational settings.

      Students Park: Actually, its proper name is Academic Park, but Belgrade slang has been successfully neglecting the fact since the 1970s….

      Conundrum of the Revolution: Rosa Luxembourg – ‘Red Rosa’ is an inspiration for revolt, against everything inhuman, violent, and exploitative, still today when revolt is not readily visible. Rosa presents us with the question- where is rebellion, is it possible?

      The Wedding Community Play: The Wedding Community Play Project is an ingeniously crafted, thought-provoking and highly enjoyable piece of work, described by its producers as "the most unusual play structure ever performed in Belfast". The Wedding actually appropriates the most familiar and popular form of drama of the late 20th century - soap opera - and brings it to life by setting its story in the homes, streets and public spaces of the city. (Irish Times)

      The Troubles: The Troubles (Irish: Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist[15][16][17][18] conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998.[19] Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict,[20][21][22][23] it is sometimes described as an "irregular war"[24][25][26] or "low-level war".[27][28]d62d659c-0bac-4bf7-a4c5-723b34a3fa3aWed, 03 Aug 2022 05:00:00 -070056:58falsefull254542DAH SAYS: "In today’s world, we can oppose destruction and violence with the creation of meaning ... we create bold dramatic art to provoke, inspire, and incite personal and social transformation."53: Garden Battles and River Rituals: How Felicia Young Heals Communities with Art and Activism53: Garden Battles and River Rituals: How Felicia Young Heals Communities with Art and ActivismFelicia Young uses arts-based strategies and tools to spur community action. She has helped save hundreds of New York's community gardens, clean up a sacred river in India, stymie one of America’s most powerful politicians, bring attention to local solutions to the climate crises, and most importantly bring people together to make real change.

      BIO

      Felicia Young is a social action artist and the Founder/Executive Director of Earth Celebrations, a non-profit organization since 1991 engaging communities to generate ecological and social change through the arts. For the past 30 years she has applied the the arts to build community, collaboration and environmental action on climate change, water quality, river restoration, waste management, and the preservation of species, habitats, nature, gardens, parks, and a healthy urban environment. She has pioneered cultural strategies utilizing collaborative arts to build broad-based coalitions and diverse sector partnerships with local organizations, academic institutions, government agencies, schools and community residents to work together, develop solutions and mobilize action to achieve common goals and ecological, policy and social change.

      Her social action art projects include a 15-year grass-roots effort and annual theatrical pageant that led to the preservation of hundreds of community gardens in New York City and a project to engage community on restoration efforts of the Hudson River and impacts of climate change. She then applied these cultural strategies to build an international collaborative effort to restore the Vaigai River in Madurai South India, in a severe crisis due to pollution and the drying effects of climate change. Felicia's current Ecological City: Cultural & Climate Solutions Action Project engages community on climate solution initiatives throughout the community gardens, neighborhood and waterfront on the Lower East Side of New York City, and their importance to city and global climate challenges.

      As a native 3rd generation New Yorker, she has deep roots in the City of New York, as well as much inspiration from the festivals, ceremonies, and mythic dramas from her mother’s native land of India.

      Felicia Young has also developed a course " Art, Ecology and Community" for Princeton University. She has BA in Art History from Skidmore College and a MA degree in Performance Studies from New York University. 

      Notable Mentions

      Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met",[a] is the largest art museum in the Western Hemisphere. Its permanent collection contains over two million works,[1] divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 Fifth Avenue, along the Museum Mile on the eastern edge of Central Park on Manhattan's Upper East Side, is by area one of the world's largest art museums. A much smaller second location, The Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, contains an extensive collection of art, architecture, and artifacts from medieval Europe.

      Julian Schnable is one of the most seminal and virtuosic artists working today. His multidisciplinary practice extends beyond painting to include sculpture, film, architecture, and furniture. He is an award-winning movie director but primarily a painter. His use of preexisting materials not traditionally used in art making, varied painting surfaces and inventive modes of construction were pivotal in the reemergence of painting in the United States in the late 1970’s and the rest of the world. (artist’s website)

      Skidmore College is a private liberal arts college in Saratoga Springs, New York. Approximately 2,650 students are enrolled at Skidmore pursuing a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree in one of more than 60 areas of study.

      Jacques-Louis David was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away from Rococo frivolity toward classical austerity and severity and heightened feeling,[1] harmonizing with the moral climate of the final years of the Ancien Régime.

      David later became an active supporter of the French Revolution and friend of Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794), and was effectively a dictator of the arts under the French Republic.

      Mbari: There is an artistic taboo among my people, the Igbo of Nigeria. It is a prohibition—on pain of being finished off rather quickly by the gods—against laying a proprietary hand on even the smallest item in that communal enterprise which they undertook from time, and to which they gave the name mbari. Mbari was a celebration through art of the world and of the life lived in it. It was performed by the community on command by its presiding deity, usually the earth goddess, Ana. Ana combined two formidable roles in the Igbo pantheon as fountain of creativity in the world and custodian of the moral order in human society. An abominable act is called nso-ana, taboo-to-Earth.

      Once every so often, and in her absolute discretion, this goddess would instruct the community through divination to build a home of images in her honor. The diviner would travel through the village and knock on the doors of those chosen by Ana for her work. These chosen people were then blessed and separated from the larger community in a ritual with more than a passing resemblance to their own death and funeral. Thereafter, they]]>Felicia Young uses arts-based strategies and tools to spur community action. She has helped save hundreds of New York's community gardens, clean up a sacred river in India, stymie one of America’s most powerful politicians, bring attention to local solutions to the climate crises, and most importantly bring people together to make real change.

      BIO

      Felicia Young is a social action artist and the Founder/Executive Director of Earth Celebrations, a non-profit organization since 1991 engaging communities to generate ecological and social change through the arts. For the past 30 years she has applied the the arts to build community, collaboration and environmental action on climate change, water quality, river restoration, waste management, and the preservation of species, habitats, nature, gardens, parks, and a healthy urban environment. She has pioneered cultural strategies utilizing collaborative arts to build broad-based coalitions and diverse sector partnerships with local organizations, academic institutions, government agencies, schools and community residents to work together, develop solutions and mobilize action to achieve common goals and ecological, policy and social change.

      Her social action art projects include a 15-year grass-roots effort and annual theatrical pageant that led to the preservation of hundreds of community gardens in New York City and a project to engage community on restoration efforts of the Hudson River and impacts of climate change. She then applied these cultural strategies to build an international collaborative effort to restore the Vaigai River in Madurai South India, in a severe crisis due to pollution and the drying effects of climate change. Felicia's current Ecological City: Cultural & Climate Solutions Action Project engages community on climate solution initiatives throughout the community gardens, neighborhood and waterfront on the Lower East Side of New York City, and their importance to city and global climate challenges.

      As a native 3rd generation New Yorker, she has deep roots in the City of New York, as well as much inspiration from the festivals, ceremonies, and mythic dramas from her mother’s native land of India.

      Felicia Young has also developed a course " Art, Ecology and Community" for Princeton University. She has BA in Art History from Skidmore College and a MA degree in Performance Studies from New York University. 

      Notable Mentions

      Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met",[a] is the largest art museum in the Western Hemisphere. Its permanent collection contains over two million works,[1] divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 Fifth Avenue, along the Museum Mile on the eastern edge of Central Park on Manhattan's Upper East Side, is by area one of the world's largest art museums. A much smaller second location, The Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, contains an extensive collection of art, architecture, and artifacts from medieval Europe.

      Julian Schnable is one of the most seminal and virtuosic artists working today. His multidisciplinary practice extends beyond painting to include sculpture, film, architecture, and furniture. He is an award-winning movie director but primarily a painter. His use of preexisting materials not traditionally used in art making, varied painting surfaces and inventive modes of construction were pivotal in the reemergence of painting in the United States in the late 1970’s and the rest of the world. (artist’s website)

      Skidmore College is a private liberal arts college in Saratoga Springs, New York. Approximately 2,650 students are enrolled at Skidmore pursuing a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree in one of more than 60 areas of study.

      Jacques-Louis David was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away from Rococo frivolity toward classical austerity and severity and heightened feeling,[1] harmonizing with the moral climate of the final years of the Ancien Régime.

      David later became an active supporter of the French Revolution and friend of Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794), and was effectively a dictator of the arts under the French Republic.

      Mbari: There is an artistic taboo among my people, the Igbo of Nigeria. It is a prohibition—on pain of being finished off rather quickly by the gods—against laying a proprietary hand on even the smallest item in that communal enterprise which they undertook from time, and to which they gave the name mbari. Mbari was a celebration through art of the world and of the life lived in it. It was performed by the community on command by its presiding deity, usually the earth goddess, Ana. Ana combined two formidable roles in the Igbo pantheon as fountain of creativity in the world and custodian of the moral order in human society. An abominable act is called nso-ana, taboo-to-Earth.

      Once every so often, and in her absolute discretion, this goddess would instruct the community through divination to build a home of images in her honor. The diviner would travel through the village and knock on the doors of those chosen by Ana for her work. These chosen people were then blessed and separated from the larger community in a ritual with more than a passing resemblance to their own death and funeral. Thereafter, they moved into the forest and, behind a high fence and under the instruction and supervision of master artists and craftsmen, they constructed a temple of art. – Chinua Achebe

      Carlton Turner Episode 47: Change the Story / Change the World.:  Carlton Turner is an artist, agriculturalist, researcher, and co-founder of the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (Sipp Culture). Sipp Culture uses food and story to support rural community development in his hometown of Utica, Mississippi where his family has been for eight generations.

      Alternative Museum: The Alternative Museum was originally founded in 1975 as the Alternative Center for International Arts Inc. TAM served the public with more than 375 exhibitions and over 500 concerts and panel discussions as it provided a new paradigm for contemporary arts institutions. Projects focused on the pressing social and political issues of our times.

      Dia de los Muertos: In Mexico, death rites date from pre-Hispanic rituals represented in murals, painted pottery, monuments, and artifacts, which shows how the Day of the Dead has its origins in the rituals practiced by the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Its precedents date to more than 3000 years ago when the Olmecs and subsequent Toltecs, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Maya, and Aztecs honored death.

      Those who passed are alive in our memories. A continuous echo that at certain occasions becomes louder. As the only answer to many of our questions, death is an integral part of life, and the living and the dead meet in this day to emphasize the importance of death in the cycle of life.

       Judson Dance Theater was a collective of dancers, composers, and visual artists who performed at the Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, Manhattan New York City between 1962 and 1964. The artists involved were avant garde experimentalists who rejected the confines of Modern dance practice and theory, inventing as they did the precepts of Postmodern dance.[1]

      Judson Gallery: n 1957, the Judson Church offered gallery space to Claes Oldenburg, Jim Dine and Robert Rauschenberg, who were then unknown artists. In 1959, the Judson Gallery showed work by pop artists, Tom Wesselmann, Daniel Spoerri, and Red Grooms. Yoko Ono also had her work exhibited at the gallery Manipulations (1969), a series of performances at the Judson Church by Fluxus artists Jean Toche, Steve Young, Nam June Paik, and Al Hansen, and work by Nye Ffarrabas.

      Phyllis Yampolsky was active at Judson Church and at the Judson Gallery in the late 1950s and early 1960. Since the 1960s, Yampolsky has concentrated on participatory arts. Driven by a "burdensome missionary consciousness," she continues to be engaged in community projects in New York City. 

      Kumbha Mela is a major pilgrimage and festival in Hinduism.[1] It is celebrated in a cycle of approximately 12 years, to celebrate every revolution Brihaspati (Jupiter) completes, at four river-bank pilgrimage sites: Allahabad (Ganges-Yamuna-Sarasvati rivers confluence), Haridwar (Ganges), Nashik (Godavari), and Ujjain (Shipra).[1][2] The festival is marked by a ritual dip in the waters, but it is also a celebration of community commerce with numerous fairs, education, religious discourses by saints, mass gatherings of monks , and entertainment spectacle.[3][4] The seekers believe that bathing in these rivers is a means to prāyaścitta (atonement, penance) for past mistakes,[5] and that it cleanses them of their sins.[6]

      Chithirai Festival,[1][2] also known as Chithirai Thiruvizha, Meenakshi Kalyanam or Meenakshi Thirukalyanam, is an annual Tamil Hindu celebration in the city of Madurai during the month of April. The festival, celebrated during the Tamil month of Chithirai, is associated with the Meenakshi Temple, dedicated to the goddess dc142a9b-a40d-474c-abc6-945ae5ee4e61Wed, 20 Jul 2022 05:45:00 -070053:43falsefull253532Felicia Young uses Iarts-based strategies and tools to spur community action. She has helped save hundreds of New York's community gardens, clean up a sacred river in India, stymie one of America’s most powerful politicians, bring attention to local solutions to the climate crises, and most importantly bring people together to make real change.Bonus Reprise: Jan Cohen Cruz - Meeting the MomentBonus Reprise: Jan Cohen Cruz - Meeting the MomentThis Bonus episode of Change the Story / Change the World is in celebration of the publishing of Meeting the Moment: Socially Engaged Performance - 1965-2020 by Those Who Lived It, by Jan Cohen Cruz and Rad Pereira.

      Hi this is Bill Cleveland. I'd like to welcome you to a Bonus episode of Change the Story / Change the World in celebration of a publishing milestone. For the past 4 decades Jan Cohen Cruz has been working at the crossroads of theater and social change, as a performer, as a teacher, and as a storyteller documenting the continuing evolution of socially engaged performance. Now, I'm very happy to announce that her new book Meeting the Moment, shines a light on that extraordinary history by sharing the stories of the people lived it.

      In this episode, first broadcast in November of 2021, Jan talks about her own history as an activist, performer and teacher, and the genesis of Meeting the Moment, which was recently released by New Village Press. Links to both New Village, and a related episode featuring Carlton Turner who wrote the book's forward can be found in our show notes.

      Jan Cohen-Cruz has given a lot to the field of arts-based community development. By that, I mean that there's a significant body of academic and community-based artwork, scholarship, teaching, and organizing that are absolutely covered with her fingerprints.

      BIO

      Jan Cohen-Cruz was the founding editor of Public: A Journal of Imagining America. She directed Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life (2007-12), and for 28 years before that, was a professor at NYU, directing a minor in applied theatre and initiating socially-engaged projects and courses. She wrote Engaging Performance: Theatre as Call and Response and Local Acts: Community‑Based Performance in the US. She edited Radical Street Performance and co‑edited Playing Boal: Theatre, Therapy, Activism and A Boal Companion. Jan was also a University Professor at Syracuse University. In 2012, she received the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s Award for Leadership in Community-Based Theatre and Civic Engagement. Here latest book, Meeting the Moment: Socially Engaged Theater, 1965 To 2020 written with Rad Pereira will published by New Village Press in May 2022.

      Notable Mentions (in order of appearance)

      Carlton Turner is a brilliant artist and creative change agent whose work across the country and in his hometown of Utica Mississippi dramatically proves that if you can "see" a different future you can make make a different future. He makes this point and much more in his eloquent introduction to Meeting the Moment, the new book by this episode's guest Jan Cohen Cruz and Rad Pereira. You can hear more from Carlton in Episode 47

      New Village Press: “The mission of New Village Press is to promote and enrich public discussion and understanding of issues vital to the development of healthy, creative, and socially just communities. To that end, New Village publishes transdisciplinary books that animate emerging movements in societal transformation. In conjunction, the Press also sponsors lectures, forums, and exhibitions for the public, especially for those communities that are underserved.”

      Augusto Boal, was a Brazilian theatre practitioner, drama theorist, and political activist. He was the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, a theatrical form originally used in radical left popular education movements. Boal served one term as a Vereador (the Brazilian equivalent of a city councillor) in Rio de Janeiro from 1993 to 1997, where he developed legislative theatre.[1]

      Imagining America: “The Imagining America consortium (IA) brings together scholars, artists, designers, humanists, and organizers to imagine, study, and enact a more just and liberatory ‘America’ and world. Working across institutional, disciplinary, and community divides, IA strengthens and promotes public scholarship, cultural organizing, and campus change that inspires collective imagination, knowledge-making, and civic action on pressing public issues.”

      Public: “Public is a peer-reviewed, multimedia e-journal focused on humanities, arts, and design in public life. It aspires to connect what we can imagine with what we can do. We are interested in projects, pedagogies, resources, and ideas that reflect rich engagements among diverse participants, organizations, disciplines, and sectors.”

      Meeting the Moment Socially Engaged Theater, 1965 To 2020: Jan Cohen-Cruz and Rad Pereira: Curated stories from over 75 interviews and informal exchanges offer insight into the field and point out limitations due to discrimination and unequal opportunity for performance artists in the United States over the past 55 years. In this work, performers, often unknown beyond their immediate audience, articulate diverse influences.

      Open Theater: The Open Theater was an experimental theatre group active from 1963 to 1973.

      Franz Kafka's The Trial: The Trial is a novel written by Franz Kafka between 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor to the reader.

      Paris, May 1968 Strikes and Demonstrations: Beginning in May 1968, a period of civil unrest occurred throughout France, lasting some seven weeks and punctuated by demonstrations, general strikes, as well as the occupation of universities and factories. At the height of events, which have since become known as May 68, the economy of France came to a halt.[1]

      The Devil and Daniel Webster:The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1936) is a short story by American writer Stephen Vincent Benét. He tells of a New Hampshire farmer who sells his soul to]]>This Bonus episode of Change the Story / Change the World is in celebration of the publishing of Meeting the Moment: Socially Engaged Performance - 1965-2020 by Those Who Lived It, by Jan Cohen Cruz and Rad Pereira.

      Hi this is Bill Cleveland. I'd like to welcome you to a Bonus episode of Change the Story / Change the World in celebration of a publishing milestone. For the past 4 decades Jan Cohen Cruz has been working at the crossroads of theater and social change, as a performer, as a teacher, and as a storyteller documenting the continuing evolution of socially engaged performance. Now, I'm very happy to announce that her new book Meeting the Moment, shines a light on that extraordinary history by sharing the stories of the people lived it.

      In this episode, first broadcast in November of 2021, Jan talks about her own history as an activist, performer and teacher, and the genesis of Meeting the Moment, which was recently released by New Village Press. Links to both New Village, and a related episode featuring Carlton Turner who wrote the book's forward can be found in our show notes.

      Jan Cohen-Cruz has given a lot to the field of arts-based community development. By that, I mean that there's a significant body of academic and community-based artwork, scholarship, teaching, and organizing that are absolutely covered with her fingerprints.

      BIO

      Jan Cohen-Cruz was the founding editor of Public: A Journal of Imagining America. She directed Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life (2007-12), and for 28 years before that, was a professor at NYU, directing a minor in applied theatre and initiating socially-engaged projects and courses. She wrote Engaging Performance: Theatre as Call and Response and Local Acts: Community‑Based Performance in the US. She edited Radical Street Performance and co‑edited Playing Boal: Theatre, Therapy, Activism and A Boal Companion. Jan was also a University Professor at Syracuse University. In 2012, she received the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s Award for Leadership in Community-Based Theatre and Civic Engagement. Here latest book, Meeting the Moment: Socially Engaged Theater, 1965 To 2020 written with Rad Pereira will published by New Village Press in May 2022.

      Notable Mentions (in order of appearance)

      Carlton Turner is a brilliant artist and creative change agent whose work across the country and in his hometown of Utica Mississippi dramatically proves that if you can "see" a different future you can make make a different future. He makes this point and much more in his eloquent introduction to Meeting the Moment, the new book by this episode's guest Jan Cohen Cruz and Rad Pereira. You can hear more from Carlton in Episode 47

      New Village Press: “The mission of New Village Press is to promote and enrich public discussion and understanding of issues vital to the development of healthy, creative, and socially just communities. To that end, New Village publishes transdisciplinary books that animate emerging movements in societal transformation. In conjunction, the Press also sponsors lectures, forums, and exhibitions for the public, especially for those communities that are underserved.”

      Augusto Boal, was a Brazilian theatre practitioner, drama theorist, and political activist. He was the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, a theatrical form originally used in radical left popular education movements. Boal served one term as a Vereador (the Brazilian equivalent of a city councillor) in Rio de Janeiro from 1993 to 1997, where he developed legislative theatre.[1]

      Imagining America: “The Imagining America consortium (IA) brings together scholars, artists, designers, humanists, and organizers to imagine, study, and enact a more just and liberatory ‘America’ and world. Working across institutional, disciplinary, and community divides, IA strengthens and promotes public scholarship, cultural organizing, and campus change that inspires collective imagination, knowledge-making, and civic action on pressing public issues.”

      Public: “Public is a peer-reviewed, multimedia e-journal focused on humanities, arts, and design in public life. It aspires to connect what we can imagine with what we can do. We are interested in projects, pedagogies, resources, and ideas that reflect rich engagements among diverse participants, organizations, disciplines, and sectors.”

      Meeting the Moment Socially Engaged Theater, 1965 To 2020: Jan Cohen-Cruz and Rad Pereira: Curated stories from over 75 interviews and informal exchanges offer insight into the field and point out limitations due to discrimination and unequal opportunity for performance artists in the United States over the past 55 years. In this work, performers, often unknown beyond their immediate audience, articulate diverse influences.

      Open Theater: The Open Theater was an experimental theatre group active from 1963 to 1973.

      Franz Kafka's The Trial: The Trial is a novel written by Franz Kafka between 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor to the reader.

      Paris, May 1968 Strikes and Demonstrations: Beginning in May 1968, a period of civil unrest occurred throughout France, lasting some seven weeks and punctuated by demonstrations, general strikes, as well as the occupation of universities and factories. At the height of events, which have since become known as May 68, the economy of France came to a halt.[1]

      The Devil and Daniel Webster:The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1936) is a short story by American writer Stephen Vincent Benét. He tells of a New Hampshire farmer who sells his soul to the devil and is later defended by Daniel Webster, a fictional version of the noted 19th-century American statesman, lawyer and orator.

      Harvey Grossman: In this edited transcription of his remarks at the 2013 Pomona College (California) conference “Action, Scene and Voice,” Harvey Grossman elucidates the theory and practice of his two most important teachers: Edward Gordon Craig and Étienne Decroux. Grossman elucidates Craig’s much-debated comments on the “Art of the Theatre,” as well as Craig’s influence upon the French corporeal mime Étienne Decroux

      Richard Levy, New York Street Theater: The New York Street Theatre Caravan (NYSTC), formerly the City Street Theater, was a New York City-based socialist theater collective. First conceived by Marketa Kimbrell and Richard Levy in 1967, the company was founded on the principle of bringing theater to underprivileged and geographically isolated communities. NYSTC performed plays, puppet shows, skits, and concerts with themes meaningful to their audiences, such as racial inequality, workers' rights, homelessness, and other sociopolitical issues.

      Richard Schechner: Schechner was one of the founders of the Performance Studies department of the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. He founded The Performance Group of New York in 1967 and was its artistic director until 1980, when TPG changed its name to The Wooster Group.

      Liz Lerman:  Liz Lerman is a choreographer, performer, writer, teacher, and speaker. She has spent the past four decades making her artistic research personal, funny, intellectually vivid, and up to the minute. A key aspect of her artistry is opening her process to everyone from shipbuilders to physicists, construction workers to ballerinas, resulting in both research and experiences that are participatory, relevant, urgent, and usable by others

      Jawole Willa Jo Zollar: Urban Bush Women: Urban Bush Women (UBW) galvanizes artists, activists, audiences and communities through performances, artist development, education and community engagement. With the ground-breaking performance ensemble at its core, and ongoing programs including the Summer Leadership Institute (SLI), BOLD (Builders, Organizers & Leaders through Dance) and the Choreographic Center Initiative, UBW affects the overall ecology of the arts by promoting artistic legacies; projecting the voices of the under-heard and people of color; bringing attention to and addressing issues of equity in the dance field and throughout the United States; and by providing platforms and serving as a conduit for culturally and socially relevant experimental art makers.

      Kathi Bentley: Kathryn Bentley is an associate professor of theater performance, and artistic director of Southern Illinois University’s Black Theatre Workshop. A theater professional with extensive experience as an actor, director and teaching artist, she holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Theater Directing and professional training in community arts and social justice. She is a 2002 St. Louis Regional Arts Commission Community Arts Institute Fellow, and she now serves as a faculty member for the institute. She is a National Conference for Community and Justice St. Louis Certified Diversity Facilitrainer and a Certified Lessac Kinesensic Voice and Movement Practitioner. 

      Love at the River’s Edge: A Shakespeare Festival St. Louis production that took place in both the streets of Pagedale, Missouri, and the farmland of Calhoun County, Illinois. Its remix of the classic play, titled “Love at the River’s Edge,” transports audience members across the Mississippi River to examine the urban and rural divide. 

      Pam Korza: co-directs Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts, that inspires, informs, promotes, and connects arts and culture as potent contributors to community, civic, and social change. Animating Democracy’s current work centers on building evaluation capacity of practitioners, funders, and other stakeholders to understand the impact of arts-based civic engagement and social change. Her writing and editing includes: the framework, Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change; the Continuum of Impact guide; a chapter in the book, Arts and Community Change (Routledge, 2015), and Critical Perspectives: Writings on Art & Civic Dialogue. 

      A Blade of Grass: provides resources to artists who demonstrate artistic excellence and serve as innovative conduits for social change. We evaluate the quality of work in this evolving field by fostering an inclusive, practical discourse about the aesthetics, function, ethics and meaning of socially engaged art that resonates within and outside the contemporary art dialogue.

      Animating Democracy: Animating Democracy’s current work centers on building evaluation capacity of practitioners, funders, and other stakeholders to understand the impact of arts-based civic engagement and social change.

      Tom Finklepearl: is an American arts promoter, former museum director, and former Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.[5] He was appointed in 2014 by the New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio,[5] and served through the end of 2019.[6]

      New York Department of Cultural Affairs, Public Artists in Residence (PAIR) is a municipal residency program that embeds artists in city government to propose and implement creative solutions to pressing civic challenges. Launched in the fall of 2015, PAIR takes its inspiration and its name from the pioneering work of artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, the first official (unsalaried) artist-in-residence with the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY), 1977 – present.

      Tania Bruguera: “Tania Bruguera was born in 1968 in Havana, Cuba.[1] she is and artist and activist who focused on installation and performance artist. She lives and works between New York and Havana, and has participated in numerous international exhibitions.[2] Her work is in the permanent collections of many institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art and 8cd3c8c2-f819-46c0-9671-d1626d292153Wed, 13 Jul 2022 05:45:00 -070049:04falsebonusJan Cohen Cruz has given a lot to the field of arts-based community development. By that, I mean that there's a significant body of academic and community-based artwork, scholarship, teaching, and organizing that are absolutely covered with their fingerprints.From Clowning to PBS: An Activist Artist’s Journey Through Media and JusticeFrom Clowning to PBS: An Activist Artist’s Journey Through Media and JusticeWho would have thought that running away with the circus could lead to a career as a successful filmmaker. Gary Glassman's path to filmmaking also, includes, street theater, teaching, prison work, and media technology. The through-line for Gary's creative adventure has been asking questions and, what else, telling stories. 

      Bio

      Gary Glassman believes television can change the world. He comes to television through street and circus performing – clowning, fire-eating, tight rope and stilt walking. His earliest media work is participatory projects with prisoners and the criminally insane, hospitalized children, and developmentally challenged adults. Prisoners, his first documentary, is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery, and the Pompidou Center in Paris. He started Providence Pictures in 1996 and as executive producer/director makes films for the world’s leading broadcasters including PBS, Discovery, History, National Geographic, BBC, and Arte. His films consistently achieve the highest ratings and have won and been honored with nominations for the industry’s most prestigious awards including seven Emmys, two Writers Guild Award, the AAA Science Journalism Prize, the CINE Golden Eagle, and the International Archaeology Film Festival Award. Glassman received a BA from Goddard College, and an MFA in Directing from UCLA.

      Notable Mentions

      Spalding Gray (June 5, 1941 – January 11, 2004) was an American actor and writer. He is best known for the autobiographical monologues that he wrote and performed for the theater in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as for his film adaptations of these works, beginning in 1987. He wrote and starred in several, working with different directors. Theater critics John Willis and Ben Hodges called Gray's monologues "trenchant, personal narratives delivered on sparse, unadorned sets with a dry, WASP, quiet mania."[1]: 316 

      Providence Pictures: “Since 1996, Providence Pictures has been collaborating with the world's leading broadcasters on more than fifty films seen by millions of people around the globe and honored with television's most prestigious awards.Providence Pictures is building on our foundation of innovative premium documentaries, expanding our repertoire with feature films that stir hearts and inspire action, and venturing into the ultimate sci-fi dream with an augmented reality time travel app. We believe stories can change the world.”: 

      Building the Wonders of the World: A Providence Pictures series that explores the secrets of the Parthenon, Riddles of the Sphinx, Building the Great Cathedrals, Colosseum Roman Death Trap, Hagia Sophia Istanbuls Ancient Mystery, Petra Lost City of Stone. The series received nominations for Outstanding Writing, Outstanding Science and Technology Programming, Outstanding Cinematography, Writers Guild of America Award, Best Film of the International Archaeological Film Festival, CINE Special Jury Award

      Native America: is a four-part PBS series that challenges everything we thought we knew about the Americas before and since contact with Europe. It travels through 15,000-years to showcase massive cities, unique systems of science, art, and writing, and 100 million people connected by social networks and spiritual beliefs spanning two continents. The series reveals some of the most advanced cultures in human history and the Native American people who created it. 

      Goddard College: is a liberal arts college with campuses in Vermont and Washington with Bachelors and Masters degrees. Explore our full program offerings and learn how Goddard College is different. We blend remote learning and real life experiences. 

      1973 Chilean coup d’état: was a military coup in Chile that deposed the Popular Unity government of President Salvador Allende. On 11 September 1973, after an extended period of social unrest and political tension between the opposition-controlled Congress and the socialist President, as well as economic war ordered by U.S. President Richard Nixon,[9] a group of military officers led by General Augusto Pinochet seized power in a coup, ending civilian rule. The Nixon administration, which had worked to create the conditions for the coup,[11][12][13] promptly recognized the junta government and supported it in consolidating power.[14]

      UCLA ArtsReach Susan Hill: Change the Story / Change the World: Episode 30: Artsreach, is a UCLA Extension programs that has served a wide variety of community constituencies and the range of arts disciplines. Artsreach worksites have included youth and adult prisons, service agencies for seriously developmentally challenged adults, community centers in marginalized areas of South Central, Watts and East Los Angeles. 

      Traveling Energy Band was comprised of Gary Glassman, his brother Steven, and friend, Eugene Palmer. The Band created large environmental spectacles, site-and specific performance pieces used stilts and puppets and masks. 

       Video Home System, is a standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes. 

      Jonathan Borofsky: is an American sculptor and printmaker who lives and works in Who would have thought that running away with the circus could lead to a career as a successful filmmaker. Gary Glassman's path to filmmaking also, includes, street theater, teaching, prison work, and media technology. The through-line for Gary's creative adventure has been asking questions and, what else, telling stories. 

      Bio

      Gary Glassman believes television can change the world. He comes to television through street and circus performing – clowning, fire-eating, tight rope and stilt walking. His earliest media work is participatory projects with prisoners and the criminally insane, hospitalized children, and developmentally challenged adults. Prisoners, his first documentary, is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery, and the Pompidou Center in Paris. He started Providence Pictures in 1996 and as executive producer/director makes films for the world’s leading broadcasters including PBS, Discovery, History, National Geographic, BBC, and Arte. His films consistently achieve the highest ratings and have won and been honored with nominations for the industry’s most prestigious awards including seven Emmys, two Writers Guild Award, the AAA Science Journalism Prize, the CINE Golden Eagle, and the International Archaeology Film Festival Award. Glassman received a BA from Goddard College, and an MFA in Directing from UCLA.

      Notable Mentions

      Spalding Gray (June 5, 1941 – January 11, 2004) was an American actor and writer. He is best known for the autobiographical monologues that he wrote and performed for the theater in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as for his film adaptations of these works, beginning in 1987. He wrote and starred in several, working with different directors. Theater critics John Willis and Ben Hodges called Gray's monologues "trenchant, personal narratives delivered on sparse, unadorned sets with a dry, WASP, quiet mania."[1]: 316 

      Providence Pictures: “Since 1996, Providence Pictures has been collaborating with the world's leading broadcasters on more than fifty films seen by millions of people around the globe and honored with television's most prestigious awards.Providence Pictures is building on our foundation of innovative premium documentaries, expanding our repertoire with feature films that stir hearts and inspire action, and venturing into the ultimate sci-fi dream with an augmented reality time travel app. We believe stories can change the world.”: 

      Building the Wonders of the World: A Providence Pictures series that explores the secrets of the Parthenon, Riddles of the Sphinx, Building the Great Cathedrals, Colosseum Roman Death Trap, Hagia Sophia Istanbuls Ancient Mystery, Petra Lost City of Stone. The series received nominations for Outstanding Writing, Outstanding Science and Technology Programming, Outstanding Cinematography, Writers Guild of America Award, Best Film of the International Archaeological Film Festival, CINE Special Jury Award

      Native America: is a four-part PBS series that challenges everything we thought we knew about the Americas before and since contact with Europe. It travels through 15,000-years to showcase massive cities, unique systems of science, art, and writing, and 100 million people connected by social networks and spiritual beliefs spanning two continents. The series reveals some of the most advanced cultures in human history and the Native American people who created it. 

      Goddard College: is a liberal arts college with campuses in Vermont and Washington with Bachelors and Masters degrees. Explore our full program offerings and learn how Goddard College is different. We blend remote learning and real life experiences. 

      1973 Chilean coup d’état: was a military coup in Chile that deposed the Popular Unity government of President Salvador Allende. On 11 September 1973, after an extended period of social unrest and political tension between the opposition-controlled Congress and the socialist President, as well as economic war ordered by U.S. President Richard Nixon,[9] a group of military officers led by General Augusto Pinochet seized power in a coup, ending civilian rule. The Nixon administration, which had worked to create the conditions for the coup,[11][12][13] promptly recognized the junta government and supported it in consolidating power.[14]

      UCLA ArtsReach Susan Hill: Change the Story / Change the World: Episode 30: Artsreach, is a UCLA Extension programs that has served a wide variety of community constituencies and the range of arts disciplines. Artsreach worksites have included youth and adult prisons, service agencies for seriously developmentally challenged adults, community centers in marginalized areas of South Central, Watts and East Los Angeles. 

      Traveling Energy Band was comprised of Gary Glassman, his brother Steven, and friend, Eugene Palmer. The Band created large environmental spectacles, site-and specific performance pieces used stilts and puppets and masks. 

       Video Home System, is a standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes. 

      Jonathan Borofsky: is an American sculptor and printmaker who lives and works in Ogunquit, Maine.[1] His most famous works, at least among the general public, are his Hammering Man public art sculptures. Hammering Man has been installed in various cities around the world. The largest Hammering Man is in Seoul, Korea and the second largest is in Frankfurt, Germany. Other Hammering Man sculptures are in Basel, Switzerland, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, Seattle, Gainesville, FL, Washington, D.C. and Lillestrøm, Norway. With Gary Glassman, he created the documentary film Prisoners. 

      Prisoners is a one hour documentary exploring the lives of 32 inmates in San Quentin State Prison for men and the California Institution for Women. The documentary was co-directed and produced by Jonathan Borofsky and Gary Glassman (Providence Pictures) in 1985. Based on 48 hours of interviews, the work focuses directly on the personal lives of each prisoner before they were incarcerated, while incorporating Borofsky's dream imagery and music alongside relevant facts and statistics. The documentary was screened at the American Film Institute's 1985 National Video Festival, and is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and Centre Georges Pompidou.

      Arts in Corrections: In 1977, after serving on the California Arts Council, Eloise Smith and her husband, historian Charles Page Smith, created the Prison Arts Project through a pilot program at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. She secured funding by the San Francisco Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, and the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration.

      The pilot was a huge success, spurring support and funding from the state Legislature and the Governor. The Prison Arts Project served as the model for what would come to be known as Arts in Corrections. It was the first program of its kind, eventually expanding to all institutions across the state of California.

       Walking Smooth: Selections from the Prison Video Workshop directed by Gary Glassman, Sept. 1986 - June 1989

      University of Florida's Shands Arts in Medicine program: “From humble beginnings, UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine has grown into one of the largest comprehensive arts in healthcare programs in existence.Starting with two volunteer visual artists working on the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, Arts in Medicine now has 16 paid artists in all art disciplines working in six separate buildings throughout the UF Health system, covering the Gainesville and Jacksonville communities. Our programs are designed to transform the hospital experience for patients, visitors, caregivers and staff and to promote health and wellness through the arts within the community.”

      *******


      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>e4a5d82e-240a-4351-b4b2-8fbaab8629ebWed, 29 Jun 2022 05:45:00 -070042:38falsefull252522      Subito Story 1: Karina KantasSubito Story 1: Karina KantasFrom time to time on change the Story we share a short feature we call Subito Stories. In today's Subito Story We are traveling to a Greek Island to meet an artist who I think personifies the unrelenting potency of the imaginative muscle to entertain, to provoke, and to heal.

      Her name is Karina Kantas.

      At the Center for the Study of Art & Community we believe that the imagination, is the most powerful aspect of what it is to be human. Our ability to conjure new ideas, complex narratives, even entire worlds, both distinguishes humans as a species, and has been essential to our survival. Our capacity to learn, adapt, and evolve in response to changing conditions is a function of our power to ponder and even test possible futures “in the mind’s eye” before we act. In essence the imagination is a principal driver of the evolution of human learning and consciousness.

      From time to time on change the Story we share a short feature we call Subito Stories. In today's Subito Story We are traveling to a Greek Island to meet an artist who I think personifies the unrelenting potency of the imaginative muscle to entertain, to provoke, and to heal.

      Her name is Karina Kantas.Karina Kantas on You Tube

      Behind the Pen on Twitter

      Behind the Pen, Podcast

      ]]>      From time to time on change the Story we share a short feature we call Subito Stories. In today's Subito Story We are traveling to a Greek Island to meet an artist who I think personifies the unrelenting potency of the imaginative muscle to entertain, to provoke, and to heal.

      Her name is Karina Kantas.

      At the Center for the Study of Art & Community we believe that the imagination, is the most powerful aspect of what it is to be human. Our ability to conjure new ideas, complex narratives, even entire worlds, both distinguishes humans as a species, and has been essential to our survival. Our capacity to learn, adapt, and evolve in response to changing conditions is a function of our power to ponder and even test possible futures “in the mind’s eye” before we act. In essence the imagination is a principal driver of the evolution of human learning and consciousness.

      From time to time on change the Story we share a short feature we call Subito Stories. In today's Subito Story We are traveling to a Greek Island to meet an artist who I think personifies the unrelenting potency of the imaginative muscle to entertain, to provoke, and to heal.

      Her name is Karina Kantas.Karina Kantas on You Tube

      Behind the Pen on Twitter

      Behind the Pen, Podcast

      ]]>      a7188ce7-3e78-4044-a368-0b36c34e2347Wed, 22 Jun 2022 15:45:00 -070009:20truebonusFrom time to time on change the Story we share a short feature we call Subito Stories. In today's Subito Story We are traveling to a Greek Island to meet an artist who I think personifies the unrelenting potency of the imaginative muscle to entertain, to provoke, and to heal. Her name is Karina Kantas.      51: Wayne Cook - A Dream Recalled51: Wayne Cook - A Dream RecalledWayne Cook calls himself bumpy. Which is an apt metaphor for the story we are about to share. In it, Wayne plays a promising young athlete, a crash victim, a soldier in Germany, a child therapist, a stage actor, the Black Mr. Rogers, an arts administrator, a successful author, and Langston Hughes.

      BIO

      Wayne Cook worked at the California Arts Council for 23 years, where he was Program Manager of the Artists in School’s Program and the ADA/504 Disability Coordinator. He Currently consults for the William James Association and Arts in Corrections at Solano State Prison and other correctional institutions in California. In previous years, Mr. Cook consulted with the Educational Department for the Sacramento Theatre Company (STC) and was an actor in such productions as, “To Kill A Mockingbird” at STC. Other notable productions Wayne acted in were “The Iceman Cometh” for the Actor’s Theatre of Sacramento and only a few years ago received the Elly award for acting in “Learning Spanish” at the Wilkerson Theatre. Mr. Cook is the author of a drama curriculum, “Center Stage”, A Curriculum for the Performing Arts can be purchased on Amazon.com.

      Notable Mentions

      Mr. Rogers: Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003), also known as Mister Rogers, was an American television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister.[1] He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001

      Performing Tree: The Performing Tree was as arts education program that worked in schools in the Los Angeles area in the 1980’s and 90’s. 

      Arts in Corrections: In the early 1970's, a time when work opportunities for artists and arts educators were diminishing in the mainstream culture, many professional artists began to look to society's forgotten corners for a new constituency. Patients and prisoners offered an alternative opportunity for artists to respond to a crying need to be valued. The emergence of these institutional art programs also provides a challenge to artists' preconceptions about the value and potential of the creative processes--a value which was as rooted in the issues of survival as those of aesthetics.

      California Arts Council: Culture is the strongest signifier of California’s identity. As a state agency, the California Arts Council supports local arts infrastructure and programming statewide through grants, programs, and services.

      Langston Hughes: Langston Hughes was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, the flowering of black intellectual, literary, and artistic life that took place in the 1920s in a number of American cities, particularly Harlem. A major poet, Hughes also wrote novels, short stories, essays, and plays. He sought to honestly portray the joys and hardships of working-class black lives, avoiding both sentimental idealization and negative stereotypes. As he wrote in his essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” “We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too.”

      Senator Cory Booker: On March 23, 2022 Senator Booker quoted from Langston Hughes’ poem Let American be America Again, in his supporting comments during Senate hearings on Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court. 

      Senator Booker an American politician, attorney, and author who has served as the junior United States senator from New Jersey since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Booker is the first African-American U.S. senator from New Jersey. He was the 38th mayor of Newark from 2006 to 2013, and served on the Municipal Council of Newark for the Central Ward from 1998 to 2002.

      Ketanji Brown Jackson: is an American attorney and jurist who has served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 2021.[2] She is an associate justice-designate of the Supreme Court of the United States, having received Senate confirmation on April 7, 2022.[3][4]

      Let America be America Again: A Langston Hughes poem published in 1935

      As I Grew Older: A Langston Hughes published published in 1935

      ]]>      Wayne Cook calls himself bumpy. Which is an apt metaphor for the story we are about to share. In it, Wayne plays a promising young athlete, a crash victim, a soldier in Germany, a child therapist, a stage actor, the Black Mr. Rogers, an arts administrator, a successful author, and Langston Hughes.

      BIO

      Wayne Cook worked at the California Arts Council for 23 years, where he was Program Manager of the Artists in School’s Program and the ADA/504 Disability Coordinator. He Currently consults for the William James Association and Arts in Corrections at Solano State Prison and other correctional institutions in California. In previous years, Mr. Cook consulted with the Educational Department for the Sacramento Theatre Company (STC) and was an actor in such productions as, “To Kill A Mockingbird” at STC. Other notable productions Wayne acted in were “The Iceman Cometh” for the Actor’s Theatre of Sacramento and only a few years ago received the Elly award for acting in “Learning Spanish” at the Wilkerson Theatre. Mr. Cook is the author of a drama curriculum, “Center Stage”, A Curriculum for the Performing Arts can be purchased on Amazon.com.

      Notable Mentions

      Mr. Rogers: Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003), also known as Mister Rogers, was an American television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister.[1] He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001

      Performing Tree: The Performing Tree was as arts education program that worked in schools in the Los Angeles area in the 1980’s and 90’s. 

      Arts in Corrections: In the early 1970's, a time when work opportunities for artists and arts educators were diminishing in the mainstream culture, many professional artists began to look to society's forgotten corners for a new constituency. Patients and prisoners offered an alternative opportunity for artists to respond to a crying need to be valued. The emergence of these institutional art programs also provides a challenge to artists' preconceptions about the value and potential of the creative processes--a value which was as rooted in the issues of survival as those of aesthetics.

      California Arts Council: Culture is the strongest signifier of California’s identity. As a state agency, the California Arts Council supports local arts infrastructure and programming statewide through grants, programs, and services.

      Langston Hughes: Langston Hughes was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, the flowering of black intellectual, literary, and artistic life that took place in the 1920s in a number of American cities, particularly Harlem. A major poet, Hughes also wrote novels, short stories, essays, and plays. He sought to honestly portray the joys and hardships of working-class black lives, avoiding both sentimental idealization and negative stereotypes. As he wrote in his essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” “We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too.”

      Senator Cory Booker: On March 23, 2022 Senator Booker quoted from Langston Hughes’ poem Let American be America Again, in his supporting comments during Senate hearings on Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court. 

      Senator Booker an American politician, attorney, and author who has served as the junior United States senator from New Jersey since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Booker is the first African-American U.S. senator from New Jersey. He was the 38th mayor of Newark from 2006 to 2013, and served on the Municipal Council of Newark for the Central Ward from 1998 to 2002.

      Ketanji Brown Jackson: is an American attorney and jurist who has served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 2021.[2] She is an associate justice-designate of the Supreme Court of the United States, having received Senate confirmation on April 7, 2022.[3][4]

      Let America be America Again: A Langston Hughes poem published in 1935

      As I Grew Older: A Langston Hughes published published in 1935

      ]]>      77fb5025-bcf0-4dcd-bf32-135fe8df02f7Wed, 15 Jun 2022 05:15:00 -070030:47falsefull251512      50: From Combat Zone to Camera Lens: A Veteran Artist’s Journey to Reclaim His War Story50: From Combat Zone to Camera Lens: A Veteran Artist’s Journey to Reclaim His War StoryWhen does a war truly end? What becomes of those left standing and, the ghosts that remain? In 2001, Vietnam vet, David Moragne returned to Vietnam with his comrades with those questions. His film, Flashback: Summer Sail One Revisited documents what they discovered.

      Bio

      David Moragne, was born in Manhattan, raised in the Bronx, nurtured in Greenwood, S.C. and grew up in Dong Ha, RVN.

      He is a retired visual facilitator and storyteller, who has lived an adventurous life before settling down with his family in California’s Eastbay community for the past forty years.

      He is blessed wife an amazing wife, talented and loving family, and friends who make a difference.

      David takes nothing for granted, and appreciates all his gifts and blessings.  For him, “Life Is Good!!!”

      Notable Mentions

      Flashback: Summer Sail One Revisited: On June 11th, 1967, a CH 46 Transport Helicopter call sign Bonnie Sue, with a four man crew from the HMM, 265th Marine Air Group went down while inserting a seven man recon team, call sign Summer Sail One from Third Force Reconnaissance Company in to their zone of operation, south of the DMZ and west of Con Thien, Vietnam. All aboard were killed, and there are bodies never recovered.

      The accounts, recollections, and memories of this incident have crisscrossed thousands of miles, a lot of years, and affected many people. This is an American story, told in a common language of how some of those affected have tried to find understanding, acceptance, and closure.

      Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established in South Africa in 1996, to help heal the country by uncovering the truth about human rights violations during Apartheid.

      Vietnam War: The Vietnam War was a long, costly and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The conflict was intensified by the ongoing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million people (including over 58,000 Americans) were killed in the Vietnam War, and more than half of the dead were Vietnamese civilians.  

      DMZ (Vietnam): was a demilitarized zone established as a dividing line between North and South Vietnam from July 1954 to 1976 as a result of the First Indochina War. During the Vietnam War (1955-1975) it became important as the battleground demarcation separating North from South Vietnamese territories. The zone ceased to exist with the reunification of Vietnam on July 2, 1976, though the area remains dangerous due to the numerous undetonated explosives it contains.

      “grunts”: For the soldiers who served in the Vietnam War, the word grunt was not just a nickname but also a commentary on their status in the hierarchy of war. To be a grunt was to be in the infantry. It meant leaping out of helicopters into landing zones that were sometimes under enemy fire. 

      MIA: Missing in action (MIA) is a casualty classification assigned to combatants, military chaplains, combat medics, and prisoners of war who are reported missing during wartime or ceasefire.  

      KIA: Killed in action (KIA) is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their own personnel at the hands of enemy or hostile forces.[1] 

      Balmy Alley: The street is located in the Mission District in San Francisco, California. The block long alley is the best place to see the most concentrated collection of murals in San Francisco. The murals began in the mid-80's as an expression of artists' outrage over human rights and political abuses in Central America. Today the alley contains murals on a myriad of styles and subjects from human rights to local gentrification.

      Ka-Bar knives:  KA-BAR) is the contemporary popular name for the combat knife first adopted by the United States Marine Corps in November 1942 as the 1219C2 combat knife (later designated the USMC Mark 2 combat knife or Knife, Fighting Utility), and subsequently adopted by the United States Navy as the U.S. Navy utility knife, Mark 2.[

       

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      When does a war truly end? What becomes of those left standing and, the ghosts that remain? In 2001, Vietnam vet, David Moragne returned to Vietnam with his comrades with those questions. His film, Flashback: Summer Sail One Revisited documents what they discovered.

      Bio

      David Moragne, was born in Manhattan, raised in the Bronx, nurtured in Greenwood, S.C. and grew up in Dong Ha, RVN.

      He is a retired visual facilitator and storyteller, who has lived an adventurous life before settling down with his family in California’s Eastbay community for the past forty years.

      He is blessed wife an amazing wife, talented and loving family, and friends who make a difference.

      David takes nothing for granted, and appreciates all his gifts and blessings.  For him, “Life Is Good!!!”

      Notable Mentions

      Flashback: Summer Sail One Revisited: On June 11th, 1967, a CH 46 Transport Helicopter call sign Bonnie Sue, with a four man crew from the HMM, 265th Marine Air Group went down while inserting a seven man recon team, call sign Summer Sail One from Third Force Reconnaissance Company in to their zone of operation, south of the DMZ and west of Con Thien, Vietnam. All aboard were killed, and there are bodies never recovered.

      The accounts, recollections, and memories of this incident have crisscrossed thousands of miles, a lot of years, and affected many people. This is an American story, told in a common language of how some of those affected have tried to find understanding, acceptance, and closure.

      Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established in South Africa in 1996, to help heal the country by uncovering the truth about human rights violations during Apartheid.

      Vietnam War: The Vietnam War was a long, costly and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The conflict was intensified by the ongoing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million people (including over 58,000 Americans) were killed in the Vietnam War, and more than half of the dead were Vietnamese civilians.  

      DMZ (Vietnam): was a demilitarized zone established as a dividing line between North and South Vietnam from July 1954 to 1976 as a result of the First Indochina War. During the Vietnam War (1955-1975) it became important as the battleground demarcation separating North from South Vietnamese territories. The zone ceased to exist with the reunification of Vietnam on July 2, 1976, though the area remains dangerous due to the numerous undetonated explosives it contains.

      “grunts”: For the soldiers who served in the Vietnam War, the word grunt was not just a nickname but also a commentary on their status in the hierarchy of war. To be a grunt was to be in the infantry. It meant leaping out of helicopters into landing zones that were sometimes under enemy fire. 

      MIA: Missing in action (MIA) is a casualty classification assigned to combatants, military chaplains, combat medics, and prisoners of war who are reported missing during wartime or ceasefire.  

      KIA: Killed in action (KIA) is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their own personnel at the hands of enemy or hostile forces.[1] 

      Balmy Alley: The street is located in the Mission District in San Francisco, California. The block long alley is the best place to see the most concentrated collection of murals in San Francisco. The murals began in the mid-80's as an expression of artists' outrage over human rights and political abuses in Central America. Today the alley contains murals on a myriad of styles and subjects from human rights to local gentrification.

      Ka-Bar knives:  KA-BAR) is the contemporary popular name for the combat knife first adopted by the United States Marine Corps in November 1942 as the 1219C2 combat knife (later designated the USMC Mark 2 combat knife or Knife, Fighting Utility), and subsequently adopted by the United States Navy as the U.S. Navy utility knife, Mark 2.[

       

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>      c121d0d9-d767-4d5e-a34b-8ecebac4be3bWed, 01 Jun 2022 05:45:00 -070042:37truefull250502When does a war end? What becomes of those left standing - and the ghosts? In 2001, Vietnam vet, David Moragne, and comrades returned to Vietnam with those questions. His film, Flashback: Summer Sail One Revisited documents what they discovered.      49: Art & Upheaval: Activist Artists on the World’s Frontline49: Art & Upheaval: Activist Artists on the World’s FrontlineNotable Mentions

      For this episode of Change the Story Change the World we are going to revisit some of those Art and Upheaval stories along with the song of the same name to make a point. Yea, some people think you can’t beat the devil with a song, but they don’t know!

      Art & Upheaval (song) From the CD Songlines by Cleveland Plainsong:

      Art & Upheaval: Artists at Work on the World’s Frontlines, New Village Press

      Change the Story Change the World

      South African Bill of Rights: The Bill of Rights is arguably the part of the Constitution that has had the greatest impact on life in this country. As the first words of this chapter say: "This Bill of Rights is a cornerstone of democracy in South Africa. It enshrines the rights of all people in our country and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom."

      It has also been the source of the majority of the groundbreaking rulings the Constitutional Court has handed down. To read more about selected rights and the way the Constitutional Court has interpreted them, see children's rights, women's rights, gay and lesbian rights, workers' rights and access to information.

      Art for Humanity: engages with multidisciplinary arts practice and a wide variety of creative practice within the context of the pressing need for the centering of social justice in our contemporary moment. Based primarily in Durban, the organization aims to support, host, document, create space for, catalyze, and help stimulate this intersection between the arts and questions of history, social transformation and social justice. 

      Bishop Desmond Tutu: was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996, in both cases being the first black African to hold the position. Theologically, he sought to fuse ideas from black theology with African theology.

      Khmer Rouge: The Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), otherwise known as the Khmer Rouge, took control of Cambodia on April 17, 1975. The CPK created the state of Democratic Kampuchea in 1976 and ruled the country until January 1979. The party’s existence was kept secret until 1977, and no one outside the CPK knew who its leaders were (the leaders called themselves “Angkar Padevat”).

      While the Khmer Rouge was in power, they set up policies that disregarded human life and produced repression and massacres on a massive scale. They turned the country into a huge detention center, which later became a graveyard for nearly two million people, including their own members and even some senior leaders.

      Reyum Institute of Arts and Culture:  Reyum was a non-profit, non-governmental organisation dedicated to Cambodian arts and culture. Reyum was founded by Ly Daravuth and Ingrid Muan (1964 - 2005) in December 1998 in order to provide a forum for research, preservation, and promotion of traditional and contemporary Cambodian arts and culture.  

      Watts Writers Workshop: was a creative writing group initiated by screenwriter Budd Schulberg in the wake of the devastating August 1965 Watts Riots in South Central Los Angeles (now South Los Angeles). Schulberg later said: "In a small way, I wanted to help.... The only thing I knew was writing, so I decided to start a writers' workshop."[1] The group, which functioned from 1965 to 1973, was composed primarily of young African Americans in Watts and the surrounding neighborhoods. Early on, the Workshop included a theatrical component and one of the founders was the actor Yaphet Kotto. The group expanded its facilities and activities over the next several years with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. Government files later revealed that the Workshop had been the target of covert operations by the FBI. Writers involved in the Workshop include Quincy Troupe, Samuel Harris Jr better known as Leumas Sirrah, Johnie Scott, Eric Priestley, Ojenke, Herbert Simmons, and Wanda Coleman, as well as the poetry group Watts Prophets.

      Amde Hamilton: Father Amde is widely recognized for being one of the original poets in the world famous Watts Writers Workshop during the 1960’s, where he and two other poets formed the legendary rap group, the Watts Prophets. Amid racism, poverty, and police brutality that ultimately sparked the Watts Riots, the Watts Writers Workshop tapped into the young, Black voices of Los Angeles that needed to be heard. 

      Watts Prophets: The Watts Prophets are a group of musicians and poets from Watts, California, United States. Like their contemporaries The Last Poets, the group combined elements of jazz music and spoken-word performance, making the trio one that is often seen as a forerunner of contemporary hip-hop music. Formed in 1967, the group comprised Richard Dedeaux, Father Amde Hamilton (born Anthony Hamilton), and  (See Also Art and Upheaval: Chapters 11, 12. 13) 

      DAH Teatar: (Research Center for Culture and Social Change) dah theatre is a professional theatre troupe and research center. Working at the crossroads between theatre, dance, and the visual arts, through dedicated team work, for 30 years dah creates daring artistic forms that...]]>Notable Mentions

      For this episode of Change the Story Change the World we are going to revisit some of those Art and Upheaval stories along with the song of the same name to make a point. Yea, some people think you can’t beat the devil with a song, but they don’t know!

      Art & Upheaval (song) From the CD Songlines by Cleveland Plainsong:

      Art & Upheaval: Artists at Work on the World’s Frontlines, New Village Press

      Change the Story Change the World

      South African Bill of Rights: The Bill of Rights is arguably the part of the Constitution that has had the greatest impact on life in this country. As the first words of this chapter say: "This Bill of Rights is a cornerstone of democracy in South Africa. It enshrines the rights of all people in our country and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom."

      It has also been the source of the majority of the groundbreaking rulings the Constitutional Court has handed down. To read more about selected rights and the way the Constitutional Court has interpreted them, see children's rights, women's rights, gay and lesbian rights, workers' rights and access to information.

      Art for Humanity: engages with multidisciplinary arts practice and a wide variety of creative practice within the context of the pressing need for the centering of social justice in our contemporary moment. Based primarily in Durban, the organization aims to support, host, document, create space for, catalyze, and help stimulate this intersection between the arts and questions of history, social transformation and social justice. 

      Bishop Desmond Tutu: was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996, in both cases being the first black African to hold the position. Theologically, he sought to fuse ideas from black theology with African theology.

      Khmer Rouge: The Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), otherwise known as the Khmer Rouge, took control of Cambodia on April 17, 1975. The CPK created the state of Democratic Kampuchea in 1976 and ruled the country until January 1979. The party’s existence was kept secret until 1977, and no one outside the CPK knew who its leaders were (the leaders called themselves “Angkar Padevat”).

      While the Khmer Rouge was in power, they set up policies that disregarded human life and produced repression and massacres on a massive scale. They turned the country into a huge detention center, which later became a graveyard for nearly two million people, including their own members and even some senior leaders.

      Reyum Institute of Arts and Culture:  Reyum was a non-profit, non-governmental organisation dedicated to Cambodian arts and culture. Reyum was founded by Ly Daravuth and Ingrid Muan (1964 - 2005) in December 1998 in order to provide a forum for research, preservation, and promotion of traditional and contemporary Cambodian arts and culture.  

      Watts Writers Workshop: was a creative writing group initiated by screenwriter Budd Schulberg in the wake of the devastating August 1965 Watts Riots in South Central Los Angeles (now South Los Angeles). Schulberg later said: "In a small way, I wanted to help.... The only thing I knew was writing, so I decided to start a writers' workshop."[1] The group, which functioned from 1965 to 1973, was composed primarily of young African Americans in Watts and the surrounding neighborhoods. Early on, the Workshop included a theatrical component and one of the founders was the actor Yaphet Kotto. The group expanded its facilities and activities over the next several years with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. Government files later revealed that the Workshop had been the target of covert operations by the FBI. Writers involved in the Workshop include Quincy Troupe, Samuel Harris Jr better known as Leumas Sirrah, Johnie Scott, Eric Priestley, Ojenke, Herbert Simmons, and Wanda Coleman, as well as the poetry group Watts Prophets.

      Amde Hamilton: Father Amde is widely recognized for being one of the original poets in the world famous Watts Writers Workshop during the 1960’s, where he and two other poets formed the legendary rap group, the Watts Prophets. Amid racism, poverty, and police brutality that ultimately sparked the Watts Riots, the Watts Writers Workshop tapped into the young, Black voices of Los Angeles that needed to be heard. 

      Watts Prophets: The Watts Prophets are a group of musicians and poets from Watts, California, United States. Like their contemporaries The Last Poets, the group combined elements of jazz music and spoken-word performance, making the trio one that is often seen as a forerunner of contemporary hip-hop music. Formed in 1967, the group comprised Richard Dedeaux, Father Amde Hamilton (born Anthony Hamilton), and  (See Also Art and Upheaval: Chapters 11, 12. 13) 

      DAH Teatar: (Research Center for Culture and Social Change) dah theatre is a professional theatre troupe and research center. Working at the crossroads between theatre, dance, and the visual arts, through dedicated team work, for 30 years dah creates daring artistic forms that inspire personal and social transformation. 

      Slobodan Milosevic: (born August 29, 1941, Požarevac, Yugoslavia [now in Serbia]—found dead March 11, 2006, The Hague, Netherlands), politician and administrator, who, as Serbia’s party leader and president (1989–97), pursued Serbian nationalist policies that contributed to the breakup of the socialist Yugoslav federation. He subsequently embroiled Serbia in a series of conflicts with the successor Balkan states. From 1997 to 2000 he served as president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

      Bertold Brecht:  known professionally as Bertolt Brecht,[a] was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a playwright in Munich and moved to Berlin in 1924, where he wrote The Threepenny Opera with Kurt Weill and began a lifelong collaboration with the composer Hanns Eisler. Immersed in Marxist thought during this period, he wrote didactic Lehrstücke and became a leading theoretician of epic theatre (which he later preferred to call "dialectical theatre") and the Verfremdungseffekt.

      The Troubles: also called Northern Ireland conflict, violent sectarian conflict from about 1968 to 1998 in Northern Ireland between the overwhelmingly Protestant unionists (loyalists), who desired the province to remain part of the United Kingdom, and the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nationalists (republicans), who wanted Northern Ireland to become part of the republic of Ireland. Marked by street fighting, sensational bombings, sniper attacks, roadblocks, and internment without trial, the confrontation had the characteristics of a civil war, notwithstanding its textbook categorization as a “low-intensity conflict.” Some 3,600 people were killed and more than 30,000 more were wounded before a peaceful solution, which involved the governments of both the United Kingdom and Ireland, was effectively reached in 1998, leading to a power-sharing arrangement in the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont.

      The Wedding Community Play: The Wedding Community Play Project is not a title which trips easily off the tongue, and those of us suspicious of any artform which privileges "process" over "product" might be forgiven for approaching with trepidation a play which wears its origins so openly. Co-written by Martin Lynch and Marie Jones, along with seven different community theatre groups from different areas of Belfast, The Wedding threatens, on the face of it, to be a horse designed by a committee, especially given the political delicacy of some of the issues it addresses in dramatising the effects of a mixed marriage.

      Song Exploder: is a podcast where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. Each episode is produced and edited by host and creator Hrishikesh Hirway in Los Angeles. Using the isolated, individual tracks from a recording, Hrishikesh asks artists to delve into the specific decisions that went into creating their work. Hrishikesh edits the interviews, removing his side of the conversation and condensing the story to be tightly focused on how the artists brought their songs to life. Guests include Fleetwood Mac, Billie Eilish, U2, Metallica, Solange, Lorde, Yo-Yo Ma, The Roots, Bon Iver, and more. 

       

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

       

       

      ]]>2dee13a5-08c1-457a-a5c0-57e99b456134Wed, 18 May 2022 05:00:00 -070030:41truefull249492For this episode of Change the Story Change the World we are going to revisit some of those Art and Upheaval stories along with the song of the same name to make a point. Yea, some people think you can’t beat the devil with a song, but they don’t know!      48: Why Listening — Not Loud Ideas — Should Lead Your Art and Social Change Practice48: Why Listening — Not Loud Ideas — Should Lead Your Art and Social Change PracticeCan small stories, from out of the way places make a big difference. Jennifer Williams not only thinks so, she has spent her life sharing those stories and spreading the good word.

      BIO

      Jennifer Williams is an American artist based in London. Before moving to the UK, she co-produced the Williams Toy Theater, a touring puppet theater. In 1978, she founded and directed the Centre for Creative Communities (formerly British American Arts Association), London, which was open until 2009. The Centre worked across Europe and in the States to promote the building of sustainable communities where education and the arts have pivotal roles to play in personal, social, cultural, and economic development. Currently, she works as a professional artist making and teaching how to make hand-made books, illustrations, etchings, and photographs. She is an active member of the International Futures Forum.

      Notable Mentions

      Howard Gardner: Howard Earl Gardner (born July 11, 1943) is an American developmental psychologist and the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Research Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. He is currently the senior director of Harvard Project Zero, and since 1995, he has been the co-director of The Good Project.[2]He is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences, as outlined in his 1983 book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences.[2]

      The Center for Creative Communities (formerly the British American Art Association): The Centre worked across Europe and in the States to promote the building of sustainable communities where education and the arts have pivotal roles to play in personal, social, cultural and economic development.

      Chief Victorio: Victorio (Bidu-ya, Beduiat; ca. 1825–October 14, 1880) was a warrior and chief of the Warm Springs band of the Tchihendeh (or Chihenne, often called Mimbreño) division of the central Apaches in what is now the American states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua. In Victorio's War from September 1879 to October 1880, Victorio led a band of Apaches, never numbering more than 200 men, in a running battle with the U.S. and Mexican armies and the civilian population of New Mexico, Texas, and northern Mexico, fighting two dozen skirmishes and battles. He and most of his followers were killed or captured by the Mexican army in the Battle of Tres Castillos in October 1880.

      Margaret McKinney, (Mushroom Lady): Margaret McKenny was a garden designer, writer, teacher, photographer, lecturer, and conservationist, recognized both locally and nationally. She was an expert mycologist and founder of the Olympia Audubon Society.

      Hayward Gallery: One of London’s most important spaces for displaying contemporary art and garden teak furniture designs, the Hayward Gallery is housed in an austere 1968 building that is both equally loved and derided by the majority of Londoners. Whichever camp you fall into, you’ll agree that it makes an excellent outdoor hanging space for the blockbuster exhibitions it puts on.’ (Lonely Planet)

      Grantmakers in the Arts: is a national association of public and private arts funders - providing members with resources and leadership to support artists and arts organizations.

      Judy Jennings: Jennings, who earned her bachelor’s degree in 1969, her master’s degree in British history in 1971 and her doctoral degree in 18th century British history in 1975 from UK, served as executive director of KFW for 16 years until her retirement in 2014. During her tenure, she established KFW’s Special Project, which provides art-making opportunities for families of incarcerated people. During this period, Jennings also served for six years on the board of Grantmakers in the Arts and became a founding member of the Art x Culture x Social Justice Network.

      Howard Klein (June 15, 1931  March 1, 2021 was an American music critic, pianist, and former Director of Arts at the Rockefeller Foundation. He earned both a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Music from the Juilliard School. In 1973 he succeeded Norman Lloyd as Director of Arts of the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1983 he became Deputy Director for Arts and Humanities for the foundation, a position he remained in until he left the organization in 1986.[1] He then worked as the Director of Artists and Repertory for New World Records.[2] 

      Alberta Arthurs is a consultant and commentator active in the fields of culture, philanthropy, and higher education. She was the director for arts and humanities at the Rockefeller Foundation most recently and, before that, she was president and professor of English at Chatham College (now Chatham University) in Pittsburgh. She has served previously in deanships and as instructor in English at Harvard/Radcliffe and held administrative positions and taught English and American literature at Rutgers University and Tufts University. 

      Common Threads, Uncommon People: Author, Jennifer Williams: This personal book features a series of interviews with artists and organizers, primarily in Europe, whose work has...]]>Can small stories, from out of the way places make a big difference. Jennifer Williams not only thinks so, she has spent her life sharing those stories and spreading the good word.

      BIO

      Jennifer Williams is an American artist based in London. Before moving to the UK, she co-produced the Williams Toy Theater, a touring puppet theater. In 1978, she founded and directed the Centre for Creative Communities (formerly British American Arts Association), London, which was open until 2009. The Centre worked across Europe and in the States to promote the building of sustainable communities where education and the arts have pivotal roles to play in personal, social, cultural, and economic development. Currently, she works as a professional artist making and teaching how to make hand-made books, illustrations, etchings, and photographs. She is an active member of the International Futures Forum.

      Notable Mentions

      Howard Gardner: Howard Earl Gardner (born July 11, 1943) is an American developmental psychologist and the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Research Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. He is currently the senior director of Harvard Project Zero, and since 1995, he has been the co-director of The Good Project.[2]He is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences, as outlined in his 1983 book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences.[2]

      The Center for Creative Communities (formerly the British American Art Association): The Centre worked across Europe and in the States to promote the building of sustainable communities where education and the arts have pivotal roles to play in personal, social, cultural and economic development.

      Chief Victorio: Victorio (Bidu-ya, Beduiat; ca. 1825–October 14, 1880) was a warrior and chief of the Warm Springs band of the Tchihendeh (or Chihenne, often called Mimbreño) division of the central Apaches in what is now the American states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua. In Victorio's War from September 1879 to October 1880, Victorio led a band of Apaches, never numbering more than 200 men, in a running battle with the U.S. and Mexican armies and the civilian population of New Mexico, Texas, and northern Mexico, fighting two dozen skirmishes and battles. He and most of his followers were killed or captured by the Mexican army in the Battle of Tres Castillos in October 1880.

      Margaret McKinney, (Mushroom Lady): Margaret McKenny was a garden designer, writer, teacher, photographer, lecturer, and conservationist, recognized both locally and nationally. She was an expert mycologist and founder of the Olympia Audubon Society.

      Hayward Gallery: One of London’s most important spaces for displaying contemporary art and garden teak furniture designs, the Hayward Gallery is housed in an austere 1968 building that is both equally loved and derided by the majority of Londoners. Whichever camp you fall into, you’ll agree that it makes an excellent outdoor hanging space for the blockbuster exhibitions it puts on.’ (Lonely Planet)

      Grantmakers in the Arts: is a national association of public and private arts funders - providing members with resources and leadership to support artists and arts organizations.

      Judy Jennings: Jennings, who earned her bachelor’s degree in 1969, her master’s degree in British history in 1971 and her doctoral degree in 18th century British history in 1975 from UK, served as executive director of KFW for 16 years until her retirement in 2014. During her tenure, she established KFW’s Special Project, which provides art-making opportunities for families of incarcerated people. During this period, Jennings also served for six years on the board of Grantmakers in the Arts and became a founding member of the Art x Culture x Social Justice Network.

      Howard Klein (June 15, 1931  March 1, 2021 was an American music critic, pianist, and former Director of Arts at the Rockefeller Foundation. He earned both a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Music from the Juilliard School. In 1973 he succeeded Norman Lloyd as Director of Arts of the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1983 he became Deputy Director for Arts and Humanities for the foundation, a position he remained in until he left the organization in 1986.[1] He then worked as the Director of Artists and Repertory for New World Records.[2] 

      Alberta Arthurs is a consultant and commentator active in the fields of culture, philanthropy, and higher education. She was the director for arts and humanities at the Rockefeller Foundation most recently and, before that, she was president and professor of English at Chatham College (now Chatham University) in Pittsburgh. She has served previously in deanships and as instructor in English at Harvard/Radcliffe and held administrative positions and taught English and American literature at Rutgers University and Tufts University. 

      Common Threads, Uncommon People: Author, Jennifer Williams: This personal book features a series of interviews with artists and organizers, primarily in Europe, whose work has identified them as "agents of change" in one way or another. True to its title, the subjects have worked in a variety of unconventional ways to achieve their ends. Author Jennifer Williams weaves their stories together with her own thoughtful insights that draw some common themes from these disparate sources.

      Art and the Changing City, Author Jennifer Williams  This study on the arts and urban regeneration is one of the first to have the individual visual artist as its focus. Part One is an examination of broad issues facing visual artists in cities, including practice, place pay and property. Part Two examines workspace issues for artists, including the cultural infrastructure and workspace, spaces required by visual artists, organizational mechanism for the development of workspace, urban planning and finance. Part Three consists of profiles of the most innovative visual artist-run urban housing and workspace projects and programs for individual visual artists in several cities.

      Alberto Rios is the Poet Laureate of Arizona. He has has authored numerous books of poetry and prose, including Not Go Away is My Name (Copper Canyon Press, 2020); The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body (Copper Canyon Press, 2002), which was nominated for the National Book Award; Whispering to Fool the Wind (Sheep Meadow Press, 1982), which won the 1981 Walt Whitman Award selected by Donald Justice; and the novel The Iguana Killer: Twelve Stories of the Heart (Blue Moon and Confluence Press, 1984), which won the Western States Book Award.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>7c2ec380-10d7-4440-b800-c9f3ee4c156eWed, 04 May 2022 05:00:00 -070046:49truefull248482Can small stories, from out of the way places make a big difference. Jennifer Williams thinks so and has spent her life sharing those stories and spreading the good word.      47: SIPP Culture Rising: How A Small Southern Town Is Becoming a National Model for Cultural Organizing47: SIPP Culture Rising: How A Small Southern Town Is Becoming a National Model for Cultural OrganizingCarlton Turner understands that when you can't feed yourself the imagination is the first thing to go And if you can't "see" a different future you can't make change. Sipp Culture is about feeding both the body and the mind's eye.

      BIO

      Carlton Turner is an artist, agriculturalist, researcher, and co-founder of the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (Sipp Culture). Sipp Culture uses food and story to support rural community development in his hometown of Utica, Mississippi where his family has been for eight generations. He currently serves on the board of First Peoples Fund, Imagining America, Project South and the National Black Food and Justice Alliance. Carlton is a member of the We Shall Overcome Fund Advisory Committee at the Highlander Center for Research and Education and is the former Executive Director of Alternate ROOTS and is a founding partner of the Intercultural Leadership Institute.

      Carlton is a current Interdisciplinary Research Fellow with the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and was named to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts YBCA100. He is also a former Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow and former Cultural Policy Fellow at the Creative Placemaking Institute at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design in the Arts.

      Carlton Turner is also co-founder and co-artistic director, along with his brother Maurice Turner, of the group M.U.G.A.B.E.E. (Men Under Guidance Acting Before Early Extinction). M.U.G.A.B.E.E. is a Mississippi-based performing arts group that blends of jazz, hip-hop, spoken word poetry and soul music together with non-traditional storytelling. His current work is River Sols, a new play being developed in collaboration with Pangea World Theater that explores race, identity, class, faith, and difference across African American and South Asian communities through embodiment of a river.

      He is also a member of the Rural Wealth Lab at RUPRI (Rural Policy Research Institute) and an advisor to the Kresge Foundation’s FreshLo Initiative. In 2018, Carlton was awarded the Sidney Yates Award for Advocacy in the Performing Arts by the Association of Performing Arts Professionals. Carlton has also received the M. Edgar Rosenblum award for outstanding contribution to Ensemble Theater (2011) and the Otto René Castillo Awards for Political Theatre (2015).

      Notable Mentions

      SIPP Culture: The Mississippi Center for Cultural Production is an approach and resource for cultivating thriving communities. Based in the rural South, “Sipp Culture” is honoring the history and building the future of our own community of Utica, MS. 

      Sipp Culture supports community development from the ground up through cultural production focused on self-determination and agency designed by us and for us. We believe that history, culture, and food affirm our individual and collective humanity. So, we are strengthening our local food system, advancing health equity, and supporting rural artistic voices – while activating the power of story – all to promote the legacy and vision of our hometown.

      Octavia Butler: OCTAVIA E. BUTLER was a renowned African American author who received a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work. Born in Pasadena in 1947, she was raised by her mother and her grandmother. She was the author of several award-winning novels including PARABLE OF THE SOWER (1993), which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and PARABLE OF THE TALENTS (1995) winner of the Nebula Award for the best science fiction novel published that year. She was acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists, and social observations in stories that range from the distant past to the far future.

      Maurice Turner: Maurice S. Turner, II is co-founder of Turner World Around Productions, Inc. and one-half of the group M.U.G.A.B.E.E. (Men Under Guidance Acting Before Early Extinction), an artistic ensemble composing and performing a blend of jazz, hip-hop, spoken word poetry, and soul music on a totally conscience tip. Maurice works with people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds facilitating workshops, which range from music production to Civil Rights. When not performing with M.U.G.A.B.E.E., Maurice is a trumpeter for hire. He has shared the stage with many great musicians, which include The Wynton Marsalis Septet, Ellis Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, Mulgrew Miller, Jon Faddis, Danny Barker, Wallace Roney, Stranger Malone, Donald Byrd, Keeter Betts, Elise Witt, Jimmy Heath, Ray Drummond, Chris “Daddy” Dave, Randy Brecker, and Bobby Rush to name a few. He also served as Musical Director for Uprooted: The Katrina Project, a piece focusing on the displaced citizens of New Orleans and the various struggles that were faced during the catastrophe.

      Bob Moses: Robert Parris Moses (January 23, 1935 – July 25, 2021) was an American educator and civil rights activist, known for his work as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on voter education and registration in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement, and his co-founding of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. As part of his work with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a coalition of the Mississippi branches of the four major civil rights organizations (SNCC, CORE, NAACP, SCLC), he was the main organizer for the Freedom Summer Project.

      In 1982 Moses received a MacArthur Fellowship and began developing the Algebra Project. The math literacy program emphasizes teaching algebra skills to minority students, based on broad-based community organizing and collaboration with parents, teachers and students, in order to improve college and job readiness.

      Hollis Watkins: is an activist who was part of the Civil Rights Movement activities in the state of Mississippi during the 1960s. He became a member and organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1961, was a county organizer for 1964's "Freedom Summer", and assisted the efforts of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to unseat the regular Mississippi delegation from their chairs at the 1964 Democratic Party national convention in Atlantic City. He founded Southern Echo, a group that gives support to other grass-roots organizations in Mississippi. He also is a founder of the Mississippi Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement.

      Danny Glover:  is an American actor, film director, and political activist. He is widely known for his lead role as Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film series. He also had leading roles in his films included The Color Purple, To Sleep with Anger, Predator 2, Angels in the Outfield, and Carlton Turner understands that when you can't feed yourself the imagination is the first thing to go And if you can't "see" a different future you can't make change. Sipp Culture is about feeding both the body and the mind's eye.

      BIO

      Carlton Turner is an artist, agriculturalist, researcher, and co-founder of the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (Sipp Culture). Sipp Culture uses food and story to support rural community development in his hometown of Utica, Mississippi where his family has been for eight generations. He currently serves on the board of First Peoples Fund, Imagining America, Project South and the National Black Food and Justice Alliance. Carlton is a member of the We Shall Overcome Fund Advisory Committee at the Highlander Center for Research and Education and is the former Executive Director of Alternate ROOTS and is a founding partner of the Intercultural Leadership Institute.

      Carlton is a current Interdisciplinary Research Fellow with the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and was named to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts YBCA100. He is also a former Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow and former Cultural Policy Fellow at the Creative Placemaking Institute at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design in the Arts.

      Carlton Turner is also co-founder and co-artistic director, along with his brother Maurice Turner, of the group M.U.G.A.B.E.E. (Men Under Guidance Acting Before Early Extinction). M.U.G.A.B.E.E. is a Mississippi-based performing arts group that blends of jazz, hip-hop, spoken word poetry and soul music together with non-traditional storytelling. His current work is River Sols, a new play being developed in collaboration with Pangea World Theater that explores race, identity, class, faith, and difference across African American and South Asian communities through embodiment of a river.

      He is also a member of the Rural Wealth Lab at RUPRI (Rural Policy Research Institute) and an advisor to the Kresge Foundation’s FreshLo Initiative. In 2018, Carlton was awarded the Sidney Yates Award for Advocacy in the Performing Arts by the Association of Performing Arts Professionals. Carlton has also received the M. Edgar Rosenblum award for outstanding contribution to Ensemble Theater (2011) and the Otto René Castillo Awards for Political Theatre (2015).

      Notable Mentions

      SIPP Culture: The Mississippi Center for Cultural Production is an approach and resource for cultivating thriving communities. Based in the rural South, “Sipp Culture” is honoring the history and building the future of our own community of Utica, MS. 

      Sipp Culture supports community development from the ground up through cultural production focused on self-determination and agency designed by us and for us. We believe that history, culture, and food affirm our individual and collective humanity. So, we are strengthening our local food system, advancing health equity, and supporting rural artistic voices – while activating the power of story – all to promote the legacy and vision of our hometown.

      Octavia Butler: OCTAVIA E. BUTLER was a renowned African American author who received a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work. Born in Pasadena in 1947, she was raised by her mother and her grandmother. She was the author of several award-winning novels including PARABLE OF THE SOWER (1993), which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and PARABLE OF THE TALENTS (1995) winner of the Nebula Award for the best science fiction novel published that year. She was acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists, and social observations in stories that range from the distant past to the far future.

      Maurice Turner: Maurice S. Turner, II is co-founder of Turner World Around Productions, Inc. and one-half of the group M.U.G.A.B.E.E. (Men Under Guidance Acting Before Early Extinction), an artistic ensemble composing and performing a blend of jazz, hip-hop, spoken word poetry, and soul music on a totally conscience tip. Maurice works with people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds facilitating workshops, which range from music production to Civil Rights. When not performing with M.U.G.A.B.E.E., Maurice is a trumpeter for hire. He has shared the stage with many great musicians, which include The Wynton Marsalis Septet, Ellis Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, Mulgrew Miller, Jon Faddis, Danny Barker, Wallace Roney, Stranger Malone, Donald Byrd, Keeter Betts, Elise Witt, Jimmy Heath, Ray Drummond, Chris “Daddy” Dave, Randy Brecker, and Bobby Rush to name a few. He also served as Musical Director for Uprooted: The Katrina Project, a piece focusing on the displaced citizens of New Orleans and the various struggles that were faced during the catastrophe.

      Bob Moses: Robert Parris Moses (January 23, 1935 – July 25, 2021) was an American educator and civil rights activist, known for his work as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on voter education and registration in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement, and his co-founding of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. As part of his work with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a coalition of the Mississippi branches of the four major civil rights organizations (SNCC, CORE, NAACP, SCLC), he was the main organizer for the Freedom Summer Project.

      In 1982 Moses received a MacArthur Fellowship and began developing the Algebra Project. The math literacy program emphasizes teaching algebra skills to minority students, based on broad-based community organizing and collaboration with parents, teachers and students, in order to improve college and job readiness.

      Hollis Watkins: is an activist who was part of the Civil Rights Movement activities in the state of Mississippi during the 1960s. He became a member and organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1961, was a county organizer for 1964's "Freedom Summer", and assisted the efforts of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to unseat the regular Mississippi delegation from their chairs at the 1964 Democratic Party national convention in Atlantic City. He founded Southern Echo, a group that gives support to other grass-roots organizations in Mississippi. He also is a founder of the Mississippi Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement.

      Danny Glover:  is an American actor, film director, and political activist. He is widely known for his lead role as Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film series. He also had leading roles in his films included The Color Purple, To Sleep with Anger, Predator 2, Angels in the Outfield, and Operation Dumbo Drop.. He is also an active supporter of various political causes.In 2022, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences would bestow the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Glover for his "decades-long advocacy for justice and human rights [which] reflects his dedication to recognizing our shared humanity on and off the screen".[2][3][4]

      C.C .Bryant:  Elected president of the Pike County branch of the NAACP in 1954, Curtis Conway Bryant (1917-2001) played a major role in early civil rights activism of southwest Mississippi. He campaigned to expand membership in the NAACP, led large voter registration drives, and endured jail and bombings of his family home and barber shop, both of which served as local centers for movement activities. Bryant described McComb's violent summer of 1964 as "hell on earth."

      John O'Neal: Actor, director, performer, writer, community and civil rights activist, and pioneer of African American theater John M. O'Neal, Jr. co-founded the Free Southern Theater in 1963 as the cultural and educational arm of the southern Civil Rights Movement. His work as playwright and social activist demonstrates how his philosophy of art and politics are complementary, not opposing terms. O'Neal's artistic style and vision has afforded him the opportunity to perform widely for audiences throughout North America and Europe.

      M.K. Wegman with 40+ years of experience in presenting and producing for non-profit visual and performing arts organizations is the recently retired President and CEO of the National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network, which supports national and international touring and commissioning. As an independent consultant, she works with artist-focused organizations in the performing and visual arts. She is one of the founders of the New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center and is an emeritus board member, a past Board Chair of Alternate ROOTS, was founding president of the National Association of Artists’ Organizations (NAAO).

      Kathy Randels: Kathy Randels has been generating performance art at the intersection of gender rebellion and community activism since her graduation from Northwestern in 1991. For roughly 20 years now, Randels has led ArtSpot Productions, an interdisciplinary performance ensemble in New Orleans A sense of spirit-guided indignation has led Randels to create and perform avant-garde, site-specific theater in the streets of New Orleans, her flooded-and-gutted childhood home, the levees of St. Bernard Parish (an industrial suburb being gulped up by the Gulf's rising tides), and in the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in the hamlet of St. Gabriel (The LCIW Drama Club for inmates, The Graduates for those released).

      Jose Torres Tama: José Torres-Tama is a published poet and playwright, journalist and photographer, renegade scholar and arts educator, visual and performance artist, cultural activist and Artistic Director of ArteFuturo Productions in New Orleans. He explores the effects of mass media on race relations, the underbelly of the “North American Dream” mythology, and the anti-immigrant hysteria currently gripping the United States of Amnesia, which seduces you to embrace forgetting that the origin story of this so-called beacon of democracy is soaked in white supremacists’ beliefs. 

      Students at the Center: SAC) is an independent program that since 1996 has worked within public schools in New Orleans. co-directed by educators Jim Randels and Kalamu ya Salaam The students of SAC participate through English and elective writing and social studies classes in their schools. We teach both regular and advanced core curriculum classes that are open to all students. In addition to the daily classes, since Hurricane Katrina, SAC graduates have worked as key staff members, serving as resource teachers in public school classrooms, organizers for youth involvement, and producers of youth media.

      Carol Bebelle: Is a poet and cofounder of Ashé Cultural Arts Center. She has championed arts, culture, and community in New Orleans for over four decades. With determination and entrepreneurship, alongside the late visual artist and Ashé cofounder Douglas Redd, Bebelle ignited the revitalization of Central City’s Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard. Ashé is a Yoruba word meaning “the power to make things happen and produce change.” 

      Ashe Cultural Arts Center: Our charge as issued by Mama Carol, is to “to fly in leaps and gusts of provocation, instigation, inspiration and aspiration...to call for and exhibit the higher standards of justice, integrity, and kindness for all...to be brilliant concoctors of opportunity, creators of vision, navigators of bs, advocates of culture, and defenders of children...to make real the majesty of dreams, to make plain the magic of being, to manifest the difference between perceiving and seeing!” Ashé Cultural Art Center’s innovative programming is designed to utilize culture in fostering human development and civic engagement. We maintain 10,000 square feet of gallery space and 20,000 square feet of performance space to create and preserve opportunities for the curation, exhibition, and commission of fine, folk, and fine-folk art.

      Alice Lovelace is a cultural worker, performance artist, teacher, poet, organizer, author, playwright, and arts administer. Since 1976 Atlanta has been her home of choice; a fertile ground for artistic growth and activism, and in 1978, she discovered the Neighborhood Arts Center and met Ebon Dooley (Leo Hale) and Toni Cade Bambara. Together, they organized poetry readings and classes while conducting meetings for the Southern Collective of African American Writers (SCAAW). Alice shared her stories and wisdom in Episode 23 of Change the Story / Change the World.

      Nayo Watkins:  Nayo Barbara Malcolm Watkins (1939-2008) was a poet, essayist, playwright, arts consultant, and cultural organizer in North Carolina, where she lived, and throughout the South. For over 40 years she worked with nonprofit organizations with a focus on arts as tools in community empowerment and social transformation.

      Kathy deNobriga: A founding member of Alternate ROOTS, a service organization for community-based artists in the South, deNobriga served as ROOTS' executive director and planning/development director for ten years. A current board member of Alternate ROOTS, deNobriga is a certified mediator in the State of Georgia, and after three terms as Council member deNobriga served as Mayor for the City of Pine Lake from 2012 to 2015.

      Bob Leonard: Bob Leonard is a theatremaker, writer, and teacher at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA. He directs the MFA program in Directing and Public Dialogue. His work includes ensemble developed new plays and events as an expression of the public voice; and interactive theater techniques in partnership with local initiatives on race to generate, express, and animate public dialogue and civic imagination. He is the founding artistic director of The Road Company, an ensemble based in Johnson City, Tennessee -1975 to 1998. He co-founded the Community Arts Network (CAN) and is a founding board member of Alternate ROOTS and the Network of Ensemble Theaters (NET). He is project director of the VTArtWorks Initiative to construct an on-line resource for and with the field of grassroots and community-based art making aimed at advancing social and economic justice. c6f75109-49ac-41bf-ae5a-1a068b889474Wed, 20 Apr 2022 05:45:00 -070001:03:32truefull247472Carlton Turner understands that when you can't feed yourself the imagination is the first thing to go And if you can't "see" a different future you can't make change. Sipp Culture is about feeding both the body and the mind's eye.46: Elise Witt - All Singing: How One Artist’s Songs Became a Passport to Learning, Connection, and Thriving46: Elise Witt - All Singing: How One Artist’s Songs Became a Passport to Learning, Connection, and ThrivingBIO

      Elise Witt was born in Switzerland, raised in North Carolina, and since 1977 has made her home in Atlanta. She speaks fluent Italian, French, German, Spanish, and English and sings in over a dozen languages. Her passion for music and languages has led her to take her Global, Local & Homemade Songs™ across the United States and around the globe.

      Among her ancestors, Elise claims “Wedding March” composer Felix Mendelssohn and his grandfather, Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn; Protestant cow farmers from northern Germany; Russian chemists; Polish intellectuals; French Bordeaux wine growers; a British painter; and a great great aunt from Cuba.

      Elise has served as a cultural ambassador to South Africa, Nicaragua, China, Italy, and Yugoslavia. For the Kennedy Center’s 25th Anniversary Celebration, Elise represented the State of Georgia, and she has crisscrossed the United States with her Global, Local & Homemade Songs™ – from New York’s Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the People’s Voice Café to festivals like Clearwater’s Hudson River Revival, Falcon Ridge, LEAF, the North Georgia Folk Festival, and the Marin County Fair in California; from Minneapolis’ Gingko Coffeehouse to Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe; and from the Open Door Community to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change.

      Elise’s original songs are wildly eclectic. The Raleigh Times says, “Her performance is like a suitcase plastered with stickers from around the world… populated with interesting characters both heroic and comic.” VALISE is Elise’s 11th recording on the EMWorld label. Her songs have been used in several documentary films, and include the anthem Open the Window (inspired by a Georgia Sea Islands Spiritual), Why Are Our Eyes in the Front of Our Heads? (acapella jazz vocal ); Clothes Swap (a funky ode to the virtues of re-cycling and girl gatherings); Set Us Free (inspired by the words of Reverend Timothy MacDonald at Martin Luther King Jr.’s 80th birthday celebration at the National Historic Site in Atlanta), Venus Between Us (a tribute to Soul Music), Ma Roulotte (a french gypsy jazz waltz, co-written with partner Mick Kinney), Butterfly’s Mysteries (a scientific boogie, written at the Callaway Gardens Butterfly House), Verkehrte Welt (Crazy Mixed Up World, a German paradox poem à la Oh Suzanna), and Blessed Nation (original music by Elise Witt to a poem by Pete Seeger).The Elise Witt Choral Series makes Elise’s songs available for choirs, choruses, and vocal ensembles. With arrangements by Michael Holmes, there are currently 20 songs arranged for SATB, SSAA, and TTBB groups. Elise has collaborated with choirs, choruses, and vocal ensembles as composer, conductor, and clinician. Her choral arrangements have been performed by Echoes of Peace Choir in Duluth MN, WomanSong in Asheville NC, Clear Rivers Chorus in Carrolton GA, Resonance Women’s Chorus of Boulder CO, Winston Knoll College in Saskatchewan Canada, Charm City Labor Chorus in Baltimore, and many other choruses, schools, and churches around the country.


      Notable Mentions

      Elise Witt: Global, Local and Homemade Songs

      ALL SINGING: The Elise Witt Songbook is a collection of 58 original songs for solo and community singing. It includes lyrics and chords, as well as music notation, plus photos, graphics, and lots of stories

      Daily Antidote of Song: Is an internet broadcast program that presents song leaders from around the world sharing songs with the intention of “Making each day better, one song at a time!”

      Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections at The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage is home to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, a public resource named for the founding director of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

      Folk Alliance International: FAI is an arts nonprofit founding in 1989 to connect folk music leaders aiming to sustain the community and genre worldwide.

      Jenny Jenkins: In the United States, Jennie Jenkins was sung as a way for a boy to ask a girl to dance. The boy would sing the first part and pick a color and the girl would have to make up an answer that rhymed. If the girl failed to quickly respond with an appropriate answer, she would be required to dance with the boy.

      John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020. He was the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1963 to 1966. Lewis was one of the "Big Six" leaders of groups who organized the 1963 March on Washington.

      Alternate Roots: Alternate ROOTS supports the creation and presentation of original art that is rooted in community, place, tradition or spirit. We are a group of artists and cultural organizers based in the South creating a better world together. As Alternate ROOTS, we call for social and economic justice and are working to dismantle all forms of oppression – everywhere.

      Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences: The Hambidge Center provides a residency program that empowers talented individuals to explore, develop, and express their creative voices. Situated on 600 acres in the mountains of north Georgia, Hambidge is a sanctuary of time and space that inspires individuals working in a broad range of disciplines to create works of the highest caliber.

      The Small Family Orchestra; Elise “back in the day” with her sister Mary, her brother-in-law Rick Ruggles, her bro-in-law's best friend from childhood Steve Harris, and her sister's husband's friend's neighbor Beth Heidelberg. SFO featured intricate 5-part vocal harmonies accompanied by an intriguing and inventive combination of instruments – French Horn, cello, mandola, saxophone, fiddle, clarinet, bass clarinet, and guitar.

      Sandinista Revolution: The Nicaraguan Revolution (Spanish: Revolución Nicaragüense or Revolución Popular Sandinista) encompassed the rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the campaign led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) to oust the dictatorship in 1978–79, the subsequent efforts of the FSLN to govern Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990,[24] and...]]>BIO

      Elise Witt was born in Switzerland, raised in North Carolina, and since 1977 has made her home in Atlanta. She speaks fluent Italian, French, German, Spanish, and English and sings in over a dozen languages. Her passion for music and languages has led her to take her Global, Local & Homemade Songs™ across the United States and around the globe.

      Among her ancestors, Elise claims “Wedding March” composer Felix Mendelssohn and his grandfather, Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn; Protestant cow farmers from northern Germany; Russian chemists; Polish intellectuals; French Bordeaux wine growers; a British painter; and a great great aunt from Cuba.

      Elise has served as a cultural ambassador to South Africa, Nicaragua, China, Italy, and Yugoslavia. For the Kennedy Center’s 25th Anniversary Celebration, Elise represented the State of Georgia, and she has crisscrossed the United States with her Global, Local & Homemade Songs™ – from New York’s Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the People’s Voice Café to festivals like Clearwater’s Hudson River Revival, Falcon Ridge, LEAF, the North Georgia Folk Festival, and the Marin County Fair in California; from Minneapolis’ Gingko Coffeehouse to Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe; and from the Open Door Community to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change.

      Elise’s original songs are wildly eclectic. The Raleigh Times says, “Her performance is like a suitcase plastered with stickers from around the world… populated with interesting characters both heroic and comic.” VALISE is Elise’s 11th recording on the EMWorld label. Her songs have been used in several documentary films, and include the anthem Open the Window (inspired by a Georgia Sea Islands Spiritual), Why Are Our Eyes in the Front of Our Heads? (acapella jazz vocal ); Clothes Swap (a funky ode to the virtues of re-cycling and girl gatherings); Set Us Free (inspired by the words of Reverend Timothy MacDonald at Martin Luther King Jr.’s 80th birthday celebration at the National Historic Site in Atlanta), Venus Between Us (a tribute to Soul Music), Ma Roulotte (a french gypsy jazz waltz, co-written with partner Mick Kinney), Butterfly’s Mysteries (a scientific boogie, written at the Callaway Gardens Butterfly House), Verkehrte Welt (Crazy Mixed Up World, a German paradox poem à la Oh Suzanna), and Blessed Nation (original music by Elise Witt to a poem by Pete Seeger).The Elise Witt Choral Series makes Elise’s songs available for choirs, choruses, and vocal ensembles. With arrangements by Michael Holmes, there are currently 20 songs arranged for SATB, SSAA, and TTBB groups. Elise has collaborated with choirs, choruses, and vocal ensembles as composer, conductor, and clinician. Her choral arrangements have been performed by Echoes of Peace Choir in Duluth MN, WomanSong in Asheville NC, Clear Rivers Chorus in Carrolton GA, Resonance Women’s Chorus of Boulder CO, Winston Knoll College in Saskatchewan Canada, Charm City Labor Chorus in Baltimore, and many other choruses, schools, and churches around the country.


      Notable Mentions

      Elise Witt: Global, Local and Homemade Songs

      ALL SINGING: The Elise Witt Songbook is a collection of 58 original songs for solo and community singing. It includes lyrics and chords, as well as music notation, plus photos, graphics, and lots of stories

      Daily Antidote of Song: Is an internet broadcast program that presents song leaders from around the world sharing songs with the intention of “Making each day better, one song at a time!”

      Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections at The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage is home to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, a public resource named for the founding director of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

      Folk Alliance International: FAI is an arts nonprofit founding in 1989 to connect folk music leaders aiming to sustain the community and genre worldwide.

      Jenny Jenkins: In the United States, Jennie Jenkins was sung as a way for a boy to ask a girl to dance. The boy would sing the first part and pick a color and the girl would have to make up an answer that rhymed. If the girl failed to quickly respond with an appropriate answer, she would be required to dance with the boy.

      John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020. He was the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1963 to 1966. Lewis was one of the "Big Six" leaders of groups who organized the 1963 March on Washington.

      Alternate Roots: Alternate ROOTS supports the creation and presentation of original art that is rooted in community, place, tradition or spirit. We are a group of artists and cultural organizers based in the South creating a better world together. As Alternate ROOTS, we call for social and economic justice and are working to dismantle all forms of oppression – everywhere.

      Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences: The Hambidge Center provides a residency program that empowers talented individuals to explore, develop, and express their creative voices. Situated on 600 acres in the mountains of north Georgia, Hambidge is a sanctuary of time and space that inspires individuals working in a broad range of disciplines to create works of the highest caliber.

      The Small Family Orchestra; Elise “back in the day” with her sister Mary, her brother-in-law Rick Ruggles, her bro-in-law's best friend from childhood Steve Harris, and her sister's husband's friend's neighbor Beth Heidelberg. SFO featured intricate 5-part vocal harmonies accompanied by an intriguing and inventive combination of instruments – French Horn, cello, mandola, saxophone, fiddle, clarinet, bass clarinet, and guitar.

      Sandinista Revolution: The Nicaraguan Revolution (Spanish: Revolución Nicaragüense or Revolución Popular Sandinista) encompassed the rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the campaign led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) to oust the dictatorship in 1978–79, the subsequent efforts of the FSLN to govern Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990,[24] and the Contra War, which was waged between the FSLN-led government of Nicaragua and the United States–backed Contras from 1981 to 1990.

      Ngapartji Ngapartji: Ngapartji Ngapartji was a community development and Indigenous language maintenance/revitalisation project produced by the Australian arts and social change company Big hART conducted in various locations across the Anangu, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in Central Australia and in Alice Springs.[1]

      Global Village Project: The seeds of Global Village Project were planted in 2007 by a group of volunteers who came together to support and tutor five teenaged Afghani girls in Clarkston, Georgia. By 2009, they’d founded Global Village Project, the only school in the country dedicated to meeting the educational needs of refugee young women and preparing them for high school.

      Sweet Honey in the Rock is an internationally renowned Grammy Award® nominated female a cappella vocal quartet has a history of over four decades of distinguished service. They have created positive, loving, and socially conscious message music that matters as it pertains to spiritual fortification, and consistently taken an activist stance toward making this planet a better place for all in which to live.

      Ysaye Maria Barnwell: Dr. Barnwell joined Sweet Honey In The Rock® in 1979 and her training as a Sing Language Interpreter, led her to facilitated the group’s tradition of including a Sign Language Interpreter in the ensemble. After 34 years Barnwell retired from Sweet Honey In The Rock to pursue her other interests.

      Dr. Barnwell appears as a vocalist and/or instrumentalist on more than thirty recordings with Sweet Honey In The Rock as well as other artists. She has, for the past thirty years spent much of her time off stage working as a master teacher and choral clinician in African American cultural performance. Her workshop “Building a Vocal Community®: Singing in the African American Tradition” has during the past twenty-eight years, been conducted on three continents, making her work in the field a significant source of inspiration for both singers and non-singers, a model of pedagogy for educators, and cultural activists and historians.

      Ella’s Song: In 1981, Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of the all-women's a capella group Sweet Honey in the Rock and a civil rights leader and activist in her own right, wrote “Ella's Song” as part of the musical score she composed for the film Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker.

      Kathy deNobriga: A founding member of Alternate ROOTS, a service organization for community-based artists in the South, deNobriga served as ROOTS' executive director and planning/development director for ten years. A current board member of Alternate ROOTS, deNobriga is a certified mediator in the State of Georgia, and after three terms as Council member deNobriga now serves as Mayor for the City of Pine Lake.

      Rev. Timothy McDonald, III is founder of the African American Ministers Leadership Council and President of the African American Ministers In Action of People for the American Way, and is Senior Pastor of the First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, where he has served since 1984. Rev. McDonald has taken First Iconium from 35 members to approximately 1500 members. He served three terms as President of Concerned Black Clergy of Atlanta, an ecumenical consortium of Black and White clergy and laypersons working on behalf of the poor.

      The King Center (Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change): Established in 1968 by Mrs. Coretta Scott King, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (“The King Center”) has been a global destination, resource center and community institution for over a quarter century.The King Center is a 501(c)3. Nearly a million people each year make pilgrimage to the National Historic Site to learn, be inspired and pay their respects to Dr. King’s legacy.

      Open Door Community: The Reverend Murphy Davis, who founded the Open Door Community with her husband Ed Loring, inspired a new kind of protest against Atlanta’s neglect of the poor.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.

      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>0833d4dc-742e-4e0c-b698-e48c8cdef34fWed, 06 Apr 2022 05:45:00 -070056:18falsefull246462Elise Witt is a world citizen, multi-lingual, a teacher, a song leader, a community activist, and the loving soul. She's been making music all her life across the globe to make a better world. Along the way she's scooped up a guitar case, full of wisdom and a lot of stories. So take a listen.      45: Why Ron Chew Believes Museums Should Be Cultural Centers, Not Just Store Artifacts45: Why Ron Chew Believes Museums Should Be Cultural Centers, Not Just Store ArtifactsCan a museum be a force for social change? Can history heal? Can our stories be unforgotten? Ron Chew says, "YES!, YES! YES!, and Much More!"

      Ron Chew has spent his life telling stories. Stories that reveal hidden history. Stories that inspire and mobilize. Stories that nurture and heal. The power of these stories has improved the lives of Seattle's Asian Pacific Islander Community, and by extension help that city reckon with its unsettling history with that community.

      Notable Mentions

      Chinese Exclusion Act: The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers. Exclusion was repealed by the Magnuson Act on December 17, 1943, which allowed 105 Chinese to enter per year. Chinese immigration later increased with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which abolished direct racial barriers, and later by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which abolished the National Origins Formula.[3]

      Wing Luke Museum:  is a history museum in Seattle, Washington, United States, which focuses on the culture, art and history of Asian Pacific Americans. It is located in the city's Chinatown-International District. Established in 1967, the museum is a Smithsonian Institution affiliate and the only pan-Asian Pacific American community-based museum in the country.[1][2] It has relocated twice since its founding, most recently to the East Kong Yick Building in 2008. In February 2013 it was recognized as one of two dozen affiliated areas of the U.S. National Park Service.[3],

      Chinatown International District: The Chinatown–International District of Seattle, Washington (also known as the ID) is the center of Seattle's Asian American community. Within the Chinatown International District are the three neighborhoods known as Seattle's Chinatown, Japantown and Little Saigon, named for the concentration of businesses owned by people of Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese descent, respectively. 

      International Examiner: is a free biweekly Asian American newspaper based in Seattle, Washington's International District. It was founded in 1974 by Gerald Yuasa and Lawrence Imamura to serve what the founders thought were the business interests of the Asian American community in Seattle's International District.

      In 1975, the Examiner was purchased by the Alaska Cannery Workers Association for $1 and became an activist, community-based newspaper.

       

      Wah Mee Massacre: was a multiple homicide that occurred during the night of February 18–19, 1983, in which Kwan Fai "Willie" Mak, Wai-Chiu "Tony" Ng, and Benjamin Ng (no relation) bound, robbed, and shot fourteen people in the Wah Mee gambling club at the Louisa Hotel in Chinatown-International District, Seattle. Thirteen of their victims died, but Wai Chin, a dealer at the Wah Mee, survived to testify against the three in the separate high-profile trials held in 1983 and 1985. It is the deadliest mass murder in Washington state history.

      King Dome controversy: Completed in 1976, the Kingdome was Seattle Washington’s first professional sports venue. During the Kingdome's official groundbreaking ceremonies on November 2, 1972, some 25 young Asian protesters hurled mudballs at the dignitaries in attendance. Several hundred spectators watched as County Executive Spellman's speech drew chants -- "Stop the Stadium!" Dissent continued throughout the stadium's construction. International District groups prepared for the worst, thinking the Kingdome would overwhelm the scale of their neighborhood, create noise and light pollution, clog the district with traffic, and escalate parking problems.

      Wing Luke: Wing Chong Luke is a pioneer in Asian American politics. In 1962, at the age of 37, Luke, despite an active smear campaign, became the first person of Asian ancestry elected to public office in the Pacific Northwest and the first person of color elected to the Seattle City Council.

      U S office of War Information: The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other forms of media, the OWI was the connection between the battlefront and civilian communities. The office also established several overseas branches, which launched a large-scale information and Can a museum be a force for social change? Can history heal? Can our stories be unforgotten? Ron Chew says, "YES!, YES! YES!, and Much More!"

      Ron Chew has spent his life telling stories. Stories that reveal hidden history. Stories that inspire and mobilize. Stories that nurture and heal. The power of these stories has improved the lives of Seattle's Asian Pacific Islander Community, and by extension help that city reckon with its unsettling history with that community.

      Notable Mentions

      Chinese Exclusion Act: The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers. Exclusion was repealed by the Magnuson Act on December 17, 1943, which allowed 105 Chinese to enter per year. Chinese immigration later increased with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which abolished direct racial barriers, and later by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which abolished the National Origins Formula.[3]

      Wing Luke Museum:  is a history museum in Seattle, Washington, United States, which focuses on the culture, art and history of Asian Pacific Americans. It is located in the city's Chinatown-International District. Established in 1967, the museum is a Smithsonian Institution affiliate and the only pan-Asian Pacific American community-based museum in the country.[1][2] It has relocated twice since its founding, most recently to the East Kong Yick Building in 2008. In February 2013 it was recognized as one of two dozen affiliated areas of the U.S. National Park Service.[3],

      Chinatown International District: The Chinatown–International District of Seattle, Washington (also known as the ID) is the center of Seattle's Asian American community. Within the Chinatown International District are the three neighborhoods known as Seattle's Chinatown, Japantown and Little Saigon, named for the concentration of businesses owned by people of Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese descent, respectively. 

      International Examiner: is a free biweekly Asian American newspaper based in Seattle, Washington's International District. It was founded in 1974 by Gerald Yuasa and Lawrence Imamura to serve what the founders thought were the business interests of the Asian American community in Seattle's International District.

      In 1975, the Examiner was purchased by the Alaska Cannery Workers Association for $1 and became an activist, community-based newspaper.

       

      Wah Mee Massacre: was a multiple homicide that occurred during the night of February 18–19, 1983, in which Kwan Fai "Willie" Mak, Wai-Chiu "Tony" Ng, and Benjamin Ng (no relation) bound, robbed, and shot fourteen people in the Wah Mee gambling club at the Louisa Hotel in Chinatown-International District, Seattle. Thirteen of their victims died, but Wai Chin, a dealer at the Wah Mee, survived to testify against the three in the separate high-profile trials held in 1983 and 1985. It is the deadliest mass murder in Washington state history.

      King Dome controversy: Completed in 1976, the Kingdome was Seattle Washington’s first professional sports venue. During the Kingdome's official groundbreaking ceremonies on November 2, 1972, some 25 young Asian protesters hurled mudballs at the dignitaries in attendance. Several hundred spectators watched as County Executive Spellman's speech drew chants -- "Stop the Stadium!" Dissent continued throughout the stadium's construction. International District groups prepared for the worst, thinking the Kingdome would overwhelm the scale of their neighborhood, create noise and light pollution, clog the district with traffic, and escalate parking problems.

      Wing Luke: Wing Chong Luke is a pioneer in Asian American politics. In 1962, at the age of 37, Luke, despite an active smear campaign, became the first person of Asian ancestry elected to public office in the Pacific Northwest and the first person of color elected to the Seattle City Council.

      U S office of War Information: The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other forms of media, the OWI was the connection between the battlefront and civilian communities. The office also established several overseas branches, which launched a large-scale information and propaganda campaign abroad.

      A Challenge to Democracy: Government-produced film attempting to defend the massive internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II.

      Kong Yick Buildings: In 1910, with no financial backing from a bank, 170 early Chinese pioneers pooled their money to fund the construction of two twin buildings – the West and East Kong Yick Buildings – which would become the anchors of Seattle’s new Chinatown.  Also known as the Freeman Hotel, this building served as the cultural hub and living quarters for hundreds of Chinese, Japanese and Filipino immigrants who came to the United States in the pre-World War II era. 

      Chinese family associations: Chinese family associations were created with membership based on the same surname. With the rising wave of immigration, family associations grew and eventually purchased buildings. The elders of the family associations were responsible for maintaining order within the association by settling disputes, helping the needy,

      International Community Health Services: International Community Health Services (ICHS) is a nonprofit community health center that offers affordable health care services to Seattle and King County’s Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities, as well as other underserved communities. Each year, ICHS provides direct patient care, health support services, and preventive education to over 28,300 individuals.

      My Unforgotten Seattle: Third-generation Seattleite, historian, journalist, and museum visionary Ron Chew spent more than five decades fighting for Asian American and social justice causes in Seattle. In this deeply personal memoir, he documents the tight-knit community he remembers, describing small family shops, chop suey restaurants, and sewing factories now vanished. He untangles the mystery of his extended family’s journey to America during the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act. 

      Pangea World Theater: Pangea World Theater builds bridges across multiple cultures and creates sacred and intersectional spaces. We create authentic spaces for real conversations across race, class and gender. Through a nuanced exploration of privilege, our own and others, we craft ensemble-based processes with a global perspective. Through art, theater and creative organizing we strive for a just world where people treat each other with honor and respect. We believe that artists are seers giving voice and language to the world we envision. (From the Pangea website)

      If Tired Hands Could Talk: This film, directed by Shannon Gee presents 35 first-person oral histories, presented in English, Chinese and Vietnamese, documenting the long hours, low wages and nearly forgotten details of daily life in a garment factory. People who normally would not have been attracted to a museum were drawn to Wing Luke to learn history as their neighbors had lived it. In 2002, the Western Museums Association honored "Tired Hands" as the region's best exhibition.

      Finding Home in Chinatown:  ... a documentary weaving images and voices from the past and present. It tells the story of Seattle's Chinatown through the eyes of two decaying buildings, which were once the center of a vibrant immigrant community, but are now passing into an uncertain future"--Container.

      Shannon Gee: is the General Manager of Seattle, Washington’s Seattle Channel, Gee worked at KCTS 9 public television as an independent documentary filmmaker. She was part of the station’s national unit, where she worked on high-profile projects such as Greg Palmer’s American Masters documentary on the history of vaudeville. As a freelance film critic and features writer, Gee contributed to newspapers and websites, including Seattle Weekly, imdb.com, film.com, The Stranger, The Rocket, International Examiner, and The Seattle Times.

      One Generation's Time: This film provides a detailed account of the 1981 murders of two Filipino American labor activists. The film was awarded Best Documentary by the DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon and received an audience award at the Workers Unite! Film Festival.

       

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>8b850a37-f2e4-49b1-beba-e0d5b55cab49Wed, 23 Mar 2022 07:00:00 -070046:02falsefull245452Can a museum be a force for social change? Can history heal? Can our stories be unforgotten? Ron Chew says, "YES!, YES! YES!, and Much More!" Ron Chew has spent his life telling stories. Stories that reveal hidden history. Stories that inspire and mobilize. Stories that nurture and heal.      44: How an Hollywood Director/ Artivist Used Film to Fight Censorship, Racism, & Fear – Part 244: How an Hollywood Director/ Artivist Used Film to Fight Censorship, Racism, & Fear – Part 2In our second episode featuring Jeremy Kagan, we discuss the matter of trust in social impact art-making, and in the community writ large, particularly these days. We also talk about these issues as they relate to Jeremy's film Crown Heights, which deals with the violence and hatred that erupted between the black and the Orthodox Jewish Hasidic communities in Brooklyn in 1991.

      BIO

      Jeremy Kagan is a director/writer/producer of feature films and television. His credits include the box-office hits Heroes (1977), The Big Fix (1978) and The Chosen (1981). His The Journey of Natty Gann (1985) was the first US film to win a Gold Prize at the Moscow Film Festival. Other directing credits include Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 (1987) (winning the ACE Award for Best Dramatic Special) and Roswell (1994), which he produced and directed and which was nominated for a Golden Globe. In 1996, his episode of Chicago Hope (1994) won him an Emmy for Outstanding Direction of a Dramatic Series. One of his segments of Picket Fences (1992) was listed by TV critics among the top 100 television episodes. His recent work includes en episode of Steven Spielberg's Emmy-winning anthology _"Taken" (2002/I) (mini)_ and numerous episodes of such hit series as The West Wing (1999) and The Guardian (2001). 

      His Bobbie's Girl (2002) was the highest rated film on Showtime 2003 and his movie Crown Heights (2004), which he produced and directed, won the Humanitas Award for "affirming the dignity" of every person and was nominated for a Directors Guild Award in 2004. Mr. Kagan is a graduate of Harvard University, where he wrote his thesis on Sergei M. Eisenstein, has a Masters from NYU and was in the first group of Fellows at the American Film Institute. He is a tenured full professor at USC, where he is in charge of the directing track, and has served as the Artistic Director of Robert Redford's Sundance Institute. He is on the National Board of the Directors Guild and is Chairperson of its Special Projects Committee and author of the book "Directors Close Up" and was presented the 2004 Robert Aldrich Award for "extraordinary service to the guild.”


      Notable Mentions: 

      Crown Heights, Movie:  (Story) After the Crown Heights riots, an orthodox Rabbi and a community activist help two youths--one a Hasidic Jew, the other African-American--form a hip-hop group to heal their neighborhood. 

      Gavin Cato: Riots between Crown Heights’ Jewish and black communities erupted on Aug. 19, 1991 after two black children were hit by a station wagon that was part of a motorcade for a Jewish rabbi. Gavin Cato, 7, died instantly, and his 7-year-old cousin, Angela Cato, was severely injured. 

      Aaron Zigman: is an award-winning composer who has scored more than 60 major Hollywood films and influenced other musicians and songwriters. His deep classical roots combined with his background in writing and producing songs for many of music's greatest performers (Aretha Franklin, John Legend, Christina Aguilera, Phil Collins, Seal, Natalie Cole and more) Dr. Last, the Cure, 

      Charlie Chaplin: was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered one of the film industry's most important figures. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian Era until a year before his death in 1977, and encompassed both adulation and controversy.

      David Orr. is an environmental studies and politics professor. He is a well known environmentalist and is active in many areas of environmental studies, including environmental education and ecological design. He has been a trustee of many organizations and foundations including the Rocky Mountain Institute and the Aldo Leopold Foundation.[1]

      National Institutes of Health: A part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, NIH is the largest biomedical research agency in the world.

      USC Change-making Media Lab: The mission of The Change Making Media Lab (CMML) is to foster positive social and environmental change by producing strategic high-impact cinema, television, multi-media visual imagery to inspire individuals, organizations, and communities into action. CMML also promotes research on effective media techniques and helping engaged community members leverage the power of the cinematic arts to achieve health, sustainability, and social justice. The Change-Making Media Center, is a newly established addition to USC’s change making media program. 

      Story Center creates spaces for listening to and sharing stories, to help build a just and healthy world. Our public and custom workshops provide individuals and organizations with skills and tools that support self-expression, creative practice, and community building.

      Playback Theater: is an original form of improvisational theatre in which audience or group members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on the spot

      Art in Other Places grew out of a 1986 meeting held at the University of California at Los Angeles among artists and community activists from around the United States. At that point, some of them had been working for twenty or more years as artists in social institutions — senior centers, hospitals, prisons, mental health facilities, youth centers — or in low-income communities. Author William Cleveland writes of that gathering's importance to him (then director of the ArtReach Program in Sacramento, California) in building a “...small network of like-minded artists, whose work has had a major impact on cultural policy and practice in this country.”

      Geese Theater for Corrections, Geese Theater Company:...]]>In our second episode featuring Jeremy Kagan, we discuss the matter of trust in social impact art-making, and in the community writ large, particularly these days. We also talk about these issues as they relate to Jeremy's film Crown Heights, which deals with the violence and hatred that erupted between the black and the Orthodox Jewish Hasidic communities in Brooklyn in 1991.

      BIO

      Jeremy Kagan is a director/writer/producer of feature films and television. His credits include the box-office hits Heroes (1977), The Big Fix (1978) and The Chosen (1981). His The Journey of Natty Gann (1985) was the first US film to win a Gold Prize at the Moscow Film Festival. Other directing credits include Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 (1987) (winning the ACE Award for Best Dramatic Special) and Roswell (1994), which he produced and directed and which was nominated for a Golden Globe. In 1996, his episode of Chicago Hope (1994) won him an Emmy for Outstanding Direction of a Dramatic Series. One of his segments of Picket Fences (1992) was listed by TV critics among the top 100 television episodes. His recent work includes en episode of Steven Spielberg's Emmy-winning anthology _"Taken" (2002/I) (mini)_ and numerous episodes of such hit series as The West Wing (1999) and The Guardian (2001). 

      His Bobbie's Girl (2002) was the highest rated film on Showtime 2003 and his movie Crown Heights (2004), which he produced and directed, won the Humanitas Award for "affirming the dignity" of every person and was nominated for a Directors Guild Award in 2004. Mr. Kagan is a graduate of Harvard University, where he wrote his thesis on Sergei M. Eisenstein, has a Masters from NYU and was in the first group of Fellows at the American Film Institute. He is a tenured full professor at USC, where he is in charge of the directing track, and has served as the Artistic Director of Robert Redford's Sundance Institute. He is on the National Board of the Directors Guild and is Chairperson of its Special Projects Committee and author of the book "Directors Close Up" and was presented the 2004 Robert Aldrich Award for "extraordinary service to the guild.”


      Notable Mentions: 

      Crown Heights, Movie:  (Story) After the Crown Heights riots, an orthodox Rabbi and a community activist help two youths--one a Hasidic Jew, the other African-American--form a hip-hop group to heal their neighborhood. 

      Gavin Cato: Riots between Crown Heights’ Jewish and black communities erupted on Aug. 19, 1991 after two black children were hit by a station wagon that was part of a motorcade for a Jewish rabbi. Gavin Cato, 7, died instantly, and his 7-year-old cousin, Angela Cato, was severely injured. 

      Aaron Zigman: is an award-winning composer who has scored more than 60 major Hollywood films and influenced other musicians and songwriters. His deep classical roots combined with his background in writing and producing songs for many of music's greatest performers (Aretha Franklin, John Legend, Christina Aguilera, Phil Collins, Seal, Natalie Cole and more) Dr. Last, the Cure, 

      Charlie Chaplin: was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered one of the film industry's most important figures. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian Era until a year before his death in 1977, and encompassed both adulation and controversy.

      David Orr. is an environmental studies and politics professor. He is a well known environmentalist and is active in many areas of environmental studies, including environmental education and ecological design. He has been a trustee of many organizations and foundations including the Rocky Mountain Institute and the Aldo Leopold Foundation.[1]

      National Institutes of Health: A part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, NIH is the largest biomedical research agency in the world.

      USC Change-making Media Lab: The mission of The Change Making Media Lab (CMML) is to foster positive social and environmental change by producing strategic high-impact cinema, television, multi-media visual imagery to inspire individuals, organizations, and communities into action. CMML also promotes research on effective media techniques and helping engaged community members leverage the power of the cinematic arts to achieve health, sustainability, and social justice. The Change-Making Media Center, is a newly established addition to USC’s change making media program. 

      Story Center creates spaces for listening to and sharing stories, to help build a just and healthy world. Our public and custom workshops provide individuals and organizations with skills and tools that support self-expression, creative practice, and community building.

      Playback Theater: is an original form of improvisational theatre in which audience or group members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on the spot

      Art in Other Places grew out of a 1986 meeting held at the University of California at Los Angeles among artists and community activists from around the United States. At that point, some of them had been working for twenty or more years as artists in social institutions — senior centers, hospitals, prisons, mental health facilities, youth centers — or in low-income communities. Author William Cleveland writes of that gathering's importance to him (then director of the ArtReach Program in Sacramento, California) in building a “...small network of like-minded artists, whose work has had a major impact on cultural policy and practice in this country.”

      Geese Theater for Corrections, Geese Theater Company: A continually developing portfolio of performances and projects designed to explore key issues, including attitudes, thinking and behaviour, children and families, substance misuse, employability and resettlement

      Rashomon  is a 1950 Jidaigeki psychological thriller/crime film directed by Akira Kurosawa, working in close collaboration with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa.[2] Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori, and Takashi Shimura as various people who describe how a samurai was murdered in a forest. The film is known for a plot device that involves various characters providing subjective, alternative and contradictory versions of the same incident. 

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>60c63f33-141a-462a-855c-08f19e931d7dWed, 09 Mar 2022 05:45:00 -070031:21truefull244442n our second episode featuring Jeremy Kagan, we discuss the matter of trust in social impact art-making, and in the community writ large, particularly these days. We also talk about these issues as they relate to Jeremy's film Crown Heights, which deals with the violence and hatred that erupted between the black and the Orthodox Jewish Hasidic communities in Brooklyn in 1991.      43: How a Hollywood Director/Artivist Used Film to Fight Censorship, Racism, & Fear – Part 143: How a Hollywood Director/Artivist Used Film to Fight Censorship, Racism, & Fear – Part 1In this episode we visit with storied Hollywood director Jeremy Kagan, whose career has proved that yes, the power of story on the big screen, the small screen, and the community screen can be both entertaining and help change hearts and minds for the better.

      BIO

      Jeremy Kagan is a director/writer/producer of feature films and television. His credits include the box-office hits Heroes (1977), The Big Fix (1978) and The Chosen (1981). His The Journey of Natty Gann (1985) was the first US film to win a Gold Prize at the Moscow Film Festival. Other directing credits include Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 (1987) (winning the ACE Award for Best Dramatic Special) and Roswell (1994), which he produced and directed and which was nominated for a Golden Globe. In 1996, his episode of Chicago Hope (1994) won him an Emmy for Outstanding Direction of a Dramatic Series. One of his segments of Picket Fences (1992) was listed by TV critics among the top 100 television episodes. His recent work includes en episode of Steven Spielberg's Emmy-winning anthology _"Taken" (2002/I) (mini)_ and numerous episodes of such hit series as The West Wing (1999) and The Guardian (2001). 

      His Bobbie's Girl (2002) was the highest rated film on Showtime 2003 and his movie Crown Heights (2004), which he produced and directed, won the Humanitas Award for "affirming the dignity" of every person and was nominated for a Directors Guild Award in 2004. Mr. Kagan is a graduate of Harvard University, where he wrote his thesis on Sergei M. Eisenstein, has a Masters from NYU and was in the first group of Fellows at the American Film Institute. He is a tenured full professor at USC, where he is in charge of the directing track, and has served as the Artistic Director of Robert Redford's Sundance Institute. He is on the National Board of the Directors Guild and is Chairperson of its Special Projects Committee and author of the book "Directors Close Up" and was presented the 2004 Robert Aldrich Award for "extraordinary service to the guild.”


      NOTABLE MENTIONS

      The Hays Code: The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Will H. Hays, president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) from 1922 to 1945. 

      ACLU Freedom Files: The Freedom Files, Directed by Jeremy Kagan that premiered in 2005 with a 10-part television series featuring real clients and the attorneys who represent them, as well as well-known activists, actors and comedians Lewis Black, Margaret Cho, Richard Belzer, Harry Shearer, Judy Gold and Noah Wyle. The Premiere Season episodes include Beyond the Patriot Act, Dissent, Drug Wars, Racial Profiling, Gay & Lesbian Rights and more.  

       Change-making Media Lab: The mission of The Change Making Media Lab (CMML) is to foster positive social and environmental change by producing strategic high-impact cinema, television, multi-media visual imagery to inspire individuals, organizations, and communities into action. CMML also promotes research on effective media techniques and helping engaged community members leverage the power of the cinematic arts to achieve health, sustainability, and social justice.  

      Miguel Sabido, Entertainment Education: is a producer, writer, researcher, and theorist, known for pioneering Entertainment-Education, developing the "Theory of the Tone", and producing a number of commercially successful telenovelas for Televisa in the 1970s.[1]  

      Charles Perrault: Writing in seventeenth-century France during the reign of King Louis XIV, Perrault is best remembered as the creator of the modern fairy tale. His greatest legacy is his collection Histoires, ou Contes du temps passé, avec des moralitez, (1697; Histories or Tales of Past Times; also published as Fairy Tales or Histories of Past Times, with Morals,) which contains some of the most enduring and widely recognized stories in all of Western literature, including "La Belle au bois dormant" ("Sleeping Beauty in the Woods"), "Cendrillon ou la petite pantoufle de verre" ("Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper"), "Le Maître chat ou le chat botté" ("The Master Cat, or Puss in Boots"), and "Le Petit chaperon rouge" ("Little Red Riding Hood"), among others. 

      Yurek Bogievic is a Polish film director, screenwriter, actor and producer. He directed, among others, Anna (1987),[1] Three of Hearts (1993) and Exit in Red (1996).

      Bobby Seale: is an American political activist and author. In 1966, he co-founded the Black Panther Party with fellow activist Huey P. Newton.[2] Founded as the "Black Panther Party for Self-Defense", the Party's main practice was monitoring police activities and challenging police brutality in Black communities, first in In this episode we visit with storied Hollywood director Jeremy Kagan, whose career has proved that yes, the power of story on the big screen, the small screen, and the community screen can be both entertaining and help change hearts and minds for the better.

      BIO

      Jeremy Kagan is a director/writer/producer of feature films and television. His credits include the box-office hits Heroes (1977), The Big Fix (1978) and The Chosen (1981). His The Journey of Natty Gann (1985) was the first US film to win a Gold Prize at the Moscow Film Festival. Other directing credits include Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 (1987) (winning the ACE Award for Best Dramatic Special) and Roswell (1994), which he produced and directed and which was nominated for a Golden Globe. In 1996, his episode of Chicago Hope (1994) won him an Emmy for Outstanding Direction of a Dramatic Series. One of his segments of Picket Fences (1992) was listed by TV critics among the top 100 television episodes. His recent work includes en episode of Steven Spielberg's Emmy-winning anthology _"Taken" (2002/I) (mini)_ and numerous episodes of such hit series as The West Wing (1999) and The Guardian (2001). 

      His Bobbie's Girl (2002) was the highest rated film on Showtime 2003 and his movie Crown Heights (2004), which he produced and directed, won the Humanitas Award for "affirming the dignity" of every person and was nominated for a Directors Guild Award in 2004. Mr. Kagan is a graduate of Harvard University, where he wrote his thesis on Sergei M. Eisenstein, has a Masters from NYU and was in the first group of Fellows at the American Film Institute. He is a tenured full professor at USC, where he is in charge of the directing track, and has served as the Artistic Director of Robert Redford's Sundance Institute. He is on the National Board of the Directors Guild and is Chairperson of its Special Projects Committee and author of the book "Directors Close Up" and was presented the 2004 Robert Aldrich Award for "extraordinary service to the guild.”


      NOTABLE MENTIONS

      The Hays Code: The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Will H. Hays, president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) from 1922 to 1945. 

      ACLU Freedom Files: The Freedom Files, Directed by Jeremy Kagan that premiered in 2005 with a 10-part television series featuring real clients and the attorneys who represent them, as well as well-known activists, actors and comedians Lewis Black, Margaret Cho, Richard Belzer, Harry Shearer, Judy Gold and Noah Wyle. The Premiere Season episodes include Beyond the Patriot Act, Dissent, Drug Wars, Racial Profiling, Gay & Lesbian Rights and more.  

       Change-making Media Lab: The mission of The Change Making Media Lab (CMML) is to foster positive social and environmental change by producing strategic high-impact cinema, television, multi-media visual imagery to inspire individuals, organizations, and communities into action. CMML also promotes research on effective media techniques and helping engaged community members leverage the power of the cinematic arts to achieve health, sustainability, and social justice.  

      Miguel Sabido, Entertainment Education: is a producer, writer, researcher, and theorist, known for pioneering Entertainment-Education, developing the "Theory of the Tone", and producing a number of commercially successful telenovelas for Televisa in the 1970s.[1]  

      Charles Perrault: Writing in seventeenth-century France during the reign of King Louis XIV, Perrault is best remembered as the creator of the modern fairy tale. His greatest legacy is his collection Histoires, ou Contes du temps passé, avec des moralitez, (1697; Histories or Tales of Past Times; also published as Fairy Tales or Histories of Past Times, with Morals,) which contains some of the most enduring and widely recognized stories in all of Western literature, including "La Belle au bois dormant" ("Sleeping Beauty in the Woods"), "Cendrillon ou la petite pantoufle de verre" ("Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper"), "Le Maître chat ou le chat botté" ("The Master Cat, or Puss in Boots"), and "Le Petit chaperon rouge" ("Little Red Riding Hood"), among others. 

      Yurek Bogievic is a Polish film director, screenwriter, actor and producer. He directed, among others, Anna (1987),[1] Three of Hearts (1993) and Exit in Red (1996).

      Bobby Seale: is an American political activist and author. In 1966, he co-founded the Black Panther Party with fellow activist Huey P. Newton.[2] Founded as the "Black Panther Party for Self-Defense", the Party's main practice was monitoring police activities and challenging police brutality in Black communities, first in Oakland, California, and later in cities throughout the United States.[3]

      Seale was one of the Chicago Eight charged by the US federal government with conspiracy charges related to anti-Vietnam War protests in Chicago, Illinois, during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. In that trial, Seale was infamously ordered by the judge, Julius Hoffman, to appear in court bound and gagged. More than a month into trial, Seale's case was severed from the other defendants, turning the "Chicago Eight" into the "Chicago Seven." After his case was severed, the government declined to retry him on the conspiracy charges. Though he was never convicted in the case, Seale was sentenced by Judge Hoffman to four years for criminal contempt of court. The contempt sentence was reversed on appeal.[4]

      National Institute of Health: is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late 1880s and is now part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. 

      Josefina Lopez, Real Women Have Curves: (Writer/Director/ Producer/Performer) is best known for authoring the play and co-authoring the 2002 SUNDANCE AWARD WINNING film Real Women Have Curves. Josefina started her writing career at 17 and has had over 100 productions of her many plays throughout the country. Josefina has been working as a professional screenwriter in Hollywood for almost 30 years with countless development deals and screenplay assignments. She has worked with many established Producers like Norman Lear (All In the Family) and Michael McDonald (American Crime) to bring Latinos to television. Born in San Luis Potosi, Mexico in 1969, Josefina Lopez was five years old when she and her family migrated to the United States and settled in the East Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights. Josefina was undocumented for thirteen years before she received Amnesty in 1987 and eventually became a U.S. Citizen in 1995.

      USC, Media for Social Change : is a not-for-profit organization focused exclusively on promoting the use of media for positive social change through the provision of scholarships, education and research to present and future media content creators. MISC is based at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.

      Chernobyl  is a 2019 historical drama television miniseries that revolves around the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 and the cleanup efforts that followed. The series was created and written by Craig Mazin and directed by Johan Renck. It features an ensemble cast led by Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Emily Watson and Paul Ritter. The series was produced by HBO in the United States and Sky UK in the United Kingdom.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>566dcbde-5567-4cf5-85a4-bc0c8515eedfWed, 23 Feb 2022 07:00:00 -070039:42truefull243432In this episode we visit with storied Hollywood director, Jeffrey Kagan, whose career has proved that yes, the power of story on the big screen can be both entertaining and help change hearts and minds for the better.      42: How Pangea World Theater Became a Cultural Organizing Force After George Floyd’s Murder – Part 242: How Pangea World Theater Became a Cultural Organizing Force After George Floyd’s Murder – Part 2In Episode 40 Dipankar Mukherjee, and Meena Natarajan discussed their work around issues of race and justice. In this second half, we asked: How can Pangea, a small community-based cultural institution punching way above its weight, maintain the power and integrity of its community building work amidst the chaos and uncertainty of contemporary life in America?

      Pangea World Theater spent its 25th anniversary year helping their Minneapolis community heal the wounds and sort through the ashes left in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. But this mending and reckoning dance was nothing new because Pangea's work is intrinsic to the story of this place-- It’s struggles.-- It's beauty-- It's resilience.

      ANNOUNCING

      THE CHANGE THE STORY COLLECTION

      A LIBRARY OF CHANGE the STORY/CHANGE the World EPISODES

      Arts-based community development comes in many flavors: dancers, and painters working with children and youth; poets and potters collaborating with incarcerated artists: cultural organizers in service to communities addressing racial injustice, all this and much, much more. 

      Many of our listeners have told us they would like to dig deeper into art and change stories that focus on specific issues, constituencies, or disciplines. Others have shared that they are using the podcast as a learning resource and would appreciate categories and cross-references for our stories. 

      In response you we have curated episode collections in six arenas:

      JUSTICE ARTS * THEATER: PERFORMING CHANGE * CULTURAL ORGANIZING FOR CHANGE CHILDREN, YOUTH & LEARNING * TRAINING COMMUNITY ARTS LEADERS * MUSIC OF TRANSFORMATION

      CHECK IT OUT​

      Episode 41 BIO's

      Meena Natarajan is a playwright and director and the Artistic and Executive Director of Pangea World Theater, a progressive, international ensemble space that creates at the intersection of art, equity and social justice. Meena has co-curated and designed many of Pangea World Theater’s professional and community-based programs. She has written at least ten full-length works for Pangea, ranging from adaptations of poetry and mythology to original works dealing with war, spirituality, personal and collective memory. Her play, Etchings in the Sand co-created with dancer Ananya Chattterjea has been published by Routledge in a volume called Contemporary Plays by Women of Color: The Second Edition. 
        
      Dipankar Mukherjee is the Artistic Director of Pangea World Theater, where he has led the organization since its inception in 1995. As a director, he has worked professionally in India, England, Canada and the United States. His aesthetics have evolved through his commitment to social justice, equity and deep spirituality. Dipankar received a Humphrey Institute Fellowship to Salzburg and has been a Ford Foundation delegate to India and Lebanon. He is a recipient of a Bush Leadership Fellowship to study non-violent and peaceful methodologies in India and South Africa. Dipankar facilitates processes that disrupt colonial, racist and patriarchal modalities of working.

      EPISODE 41: Notable Mentions

      Pangea World Theater: Pangea World Theater builds bridges across multiple cultures and creates sacred and intersectional spaces. We create authentic spaces for real conversations across race, class and gender. Through a nuanced exploration of privilege, our own and others, we craft ensemble-based processes with a global perspective. Through art, theater and creative organizing we strive for a just world where people treat each other with honor and respect. We believe that artists are seers giving voice and language to the world we envision. 

      A Pluriverse: A Post Development Dictionary: Edited by Ashish Kothari, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta. This book contains over one hundred essays on transformative initiatives and alternatives to the currently dominant processes of globalized development, including its structural roots in modernity, capitalism, state domination, and masculinist values. It offers critical essays on mainstream solutions that ‘greenwash’ development and presents radically different worldviews and practices from around the world that point to an ecologically wise and socially just world. 

      Arturo Escobar : is a Colombian-American anthropologist and the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. His academic research interests include political ecology, anthropology of development, social movements, anti-globalization movements, and postdevelopment theory.[2] contends in his 1995 book, Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World, that international development became a mechanism of control comparable to colonialism or "cultural imperialism that poor countries had little means of declining politely".[2]  

      J. Krishnamurti is regarded globally as one of the greatest thinkers and religious teachers of all time. From the time of his break with the Theosophical Society in 1929 (dissolution speech) until his death in 1986, Krishnamurti spoke throughout the world to large audiences and to individuals about the need for a radical change in mankind.  

      The core of Krishnamurti's teaching is contained in the statement he made in 1929 when he said, 'Truth is a pathless land'. Man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, not through any philosophical knowledge or psychological technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection.' 

      Thich Nhat Hanh, founder of the International Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism, passed away on 22nd January 2022. Ordained as a monk aged 16 in Vietnam, Thich Nhat Hanh soon envisioned a kind of engaged Buddhism that could respond directly to the needs of society. He was a prominent teacher and social activist in his home country before finding himself exiled for calling for peace. In the West he played a key role in introducing mindfulness and created mindful communities (sanghas) around the world. His teachings have impacted politicians, business leaders, activists, teachers and countless others. Thich Nhat Hanh has published more than 100 books, including classics like The Miracle of Mindfulness and Peace is Every Step.

      Tagore...]]>In Episode 40 Dipankar Mukherjee, and Meena Natarajan discussed their work around issues of race and justice. In this second half, we asked: How can Pangea, a small community-based cultural institution punching way above its weight, maintain the power and integrity of its community building work amidst the chaos and uncertainty of contemporary life in America?

      Pangea World Theater spent its 25th anniversary year helping their Minneapolis community heal the wounds and sort through the ashes left in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. But this mending and reckoning dance was nothing new because Pangea's work is intrinsic to the story of this place-- It’s struggles.-- It's beauty-- It's resilience.

      ANNOUNCING

      THE CHANGE THE STORY COLLECTION

      A LIBRARY OF CHANGE the STORY/CHANGE the World EPISODES

      Arts-based community development comes in many flavors: dancers, and painters working with children and youth; poets and potters collaborating with incarcerated artists: cultural organizers in service to communities addressing racial injustice, all this and much, much more. 

      Many of our listeners have told us they would like to dig deeper into art and change stories that focus on specific issues, constituencies, or disciplines. Others have shared that they are using the podcast as a learning resource and would appreciate categories and cross-references for our stories. 

      In response you we have curated episode collections in six arenas:

      JUSTICE ARTS * THEATER: PERFORMING CHANGE * CULTURAL ORGANIZING FOR CHANGE CHILDREN, YOUTH & LEARNING * TRAINING COMMUNITY ARTS LEADERS * MUSIC OF TRANSFORMATION

      CHECK IT OUT​

      Episode 41 BIO's

      Meena Natarajan is a playwright and director and the Artistic and Executive Director of Pangea World Theater, a progressive, international ensemble space that creates at the intersection of art, equity and social justice. Meena has co-curated and designed many of Pangea World Theater’s professional and community-based programs. She has written at least ten full-length works for Pangea, ranging from adaptations of poetry and mythology to original works dealing with war, spirituality, personal and collective memory. Her play, Etchings in the Sand co-created with dancer Ananya Chattterjea has been published by Routledge in a volume called Contemporary Plays by Women of Color: The Second Edition. 
        
      Dipankar Mukherjee is the Artistic Director of Pangea World Theater, where he has led the organization since its inception in 1995. As a director, he has worked professionally in India, England, Canada and the United States. His aesthetics have evolved through his commitment to social justice, equity and deep spirituality. Dipankar received a Humphrey Institute Fellowship to Salzburg and has been a Ford Foundation delegate to India and Lebanon. He is a recipient of a Bush Leadership Fellowship to study non-violent and peaceful methodologies in India and South Africa. Dipankar facilitates processes that disrupt colonial, racist and patriarchal modalities of working.

      EPISODE 41: Notable Mentions

      Pangea World Theater: Pangea World Theater builds bridges across multiple cultures and creates sacred and intersectional spaces. We create authentic spaces for real conversations across race, class and gender. Through a nuanced exploration of privilege, our own and others, we craft ensemble-based processes with a global perspective. Through art, theater and creative organizing we strive for a just world where people treat each other with honor and respect. We believe that artists are seers giving voice and language to the world we envision. 

      A Pluriverse: A Post Development Dictionary: Edited by Ashish Kothari, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta. This book contains over one hundred essays on transformative initiatives and alternatives to the currently dominant processes of globalized development, including its structural roots in modernity, capitalism, state domination, and masculinist values. It offers critical essays on mainstream solutions that ‘greenwash’ development and presents radically different worldviews and practices from around the world that point to an ecologically wise and socially just world. 

      Arturo Escobar : is a Colombian-American anthropologist and the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. His academic research interests include political ecology, anthropology of development, social movements, anti-globalization movements, and postdevelopment theory.[2] contends in his 1995 book, Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World, that international development became a mechanism of control comparable to colonialism or "cultural imperialism that poor countries had little means of declining politely".[2]  

      J. Krishnamurti is regarded globally as one of the greatest thinkers and religious teachers of all time. From the time of his break with the Theosophical Society in 1929 (dissolution speech) until his death in 1986, Krishnamurti spoke throughout the world to large audiences and to individuals about the need for a radical change in mankind.  

      The core of Krishnamurti's teaching is contained in the statement he made in 1929 when he said, 'Truth is a pathless land'. Man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, not through any philosophical knowledge or psychological technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection.' 

      Thich Nhat Hanh, founder of the International Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism, passed away on 22nd January 2022. Ordained as a monk aged 16 in Vietnam, Thich Nhat Hanh soon envisioned a kind of engaged Buddhism that could respond directly to the needs of society. He was a prominent teacher and social activist in his home country before finding himself exiled for calling for peace. In the West he played a key role in introducing mindfulness and created mindful communities (sanghas) around the world. His teachings have impacted politicians, business leaders, activists, teachers and countless others. Thich Nhat Hanh has published more than 100 books, including classics like The Miracle of Mindfulness and Peace is Every Step.

      Tagore Rabindranath. The Religion of Man is a 1931 compilation of lectures by Rabindranath Tagore, edited by him and drawn largely from his Hibbert Lectures given at Oxford University in May 1930.[1] A Brahmo playwright and poet of global renown, Tagore deals with largely universal themes of God, divine experience, illumination, and spirituality. A brief conversation between him and Albert Einstein, "Note on the Nature of Reality", is included as an appendix.

      DR. IBRAM X. KENDI is one of America’s foremost historians and leading antiracist scholars. He is a National Book Award-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of five books for adults and three books for children. Dr. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and the Founding Director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research.

      Primary Colours/Couleurs primaires is a multi-year arts initiative which began in 2016. Its main objective is to place Indigenous arts at the centre of the Canadian arts system. Primary Colours/Couleurs primaires also asserts that creative practices by artists of colour, who have roots around the world, play a critical role in imagining the future(s) of Canadian art making.

      Cooper Union School of Architecture: Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

      Wai Architecture Think Tank is a planetary studio practicing by questioning the political, historical, and material legacy and imperatives of architecture and urbanism through a panoramic and critical approach. Founded in Brussels during the financial crisis of 2008 by Puerto Rican architect, artist, curator, educator, author and theorist Cruz Garcia and French architect, artist, curator, educator, author and poet, Nathalie Frankowski, WAI is one of their several platforms of public engagement that include Beijing-based anti-profit art space Intelligentsia Gallery, and the free and alternative education platform and trade-school Loudreaders.

      The National Institute for Directing and Ensemble is a collaboration between Pangea World Theater and Art2Action. The Institute provides a unique experience for theatre artists to collaborate and share methodologies of directing and ensemble creation in an environment with special emphasis on non-Western techniques and social justice.

      J. Otis Powell‽ was an influential Minnesota-based American spoken word poet. He was the founding producer of the award-winning Write On Radio! show at KFAI-FM in Minneapolis, an advisor for the Minnesota Spoken Word Association, a curator for Intermedia Arts, and a program director for the Loft Literary Center. He was also the recipient of numerous awards, including the Loft Creative Nonfiction Award, Jerome Foundation mid-career-artists grants, a Jerome Foundation travel-and-study grant, the Intermedia Arts Interdisciplinary McKnight fellowship, and the 2017 Sally Award at the Ordway Theater. The MN Spoken Word Association awarded Powell‽ its Urban Griot Innovator Award and inducted him into the MN Spoken Word Association Hall of Fame in 2009.

       freesound.org is a free and open library of sounds. About 10,000 more sounds were uploaded in 2021 than in 2020 and 300 more hours of audio! In last year’s post you’ll see that the increase of sounds was not that high, and the average duration of the sounds had significantly decreased (most probably due to the upload of a large short sounds collection), but this year we’re back to the usual average sound duration (which is 66 seconds, by the way), and therefore the hours of audio is big again. We’ve never had this many sounds uploaded in a single year!

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>3c3dfc27-482c-4f23-af4b-fc720cbcaf74Wed, 09 Feb 2022 05:45:00 -070022:36truefull242422How can a small community-based cultural institution that punches way above its weight, maintain the power and integrity of its community building work, amidst the chaos that has become a hallmark of contemporary life in America.      41: How Pangea World Theater Became a Cultural Organizing Force After George Floyd’s Murder – Part 141: How Pangea World Theater Became a Cultural Organizing Force After George Floyd’s Murder – Part 1Pangea World Theater spent its 25th anniversary year helping their Minneapolis community heal the wounds and sort through the ashes left in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. But this mending and reckoning dance was nothing new because Pangea's work is intrinsic to the story of this place-- It’s struggles.-- It's beauty-- It's resilience. This is the first of two episodes recounting Pangea's transformational history and impact.

      ANNOUNCING

      THE CHANGE THE STORY COLLECTION

      A LIBRARY OF CHANGEtheSTORY/CHANGEtheWorld EPISODES

      Arts-based community development comes in many flavors: dancers, and painters working with children and youth; poets and potters collaborating with incarcerated artists: cultural organizers in service to communities addressing racial injustice, all this and much, much more. 

      Many of our listeners have told us they would like to dig deeper into art and change stories that focus on specific issues, constituencies, or disciplines. Others have shared that they are using the podcast as a learning resource and would appreciate categories and cross-references for our stories. 

      In response you we have curated episode collections in six arenas:

      JUSTICE ARTS * THEATER: PERFORMING CHANGE * CULTURAL ORGANIZING FOR CHANGE CHILDREN, YOUTH & LEARNING * TRAINING COMMUNITY ARTS LEADERS * MUSIC OF TRANSFORMATION

      CHECK IT OUT​

      BIO's

      Meena Natarajan is a playwright and director and the Artistic and Executive Director of Pangea World Theater, a progressive, international ensemble space that creates at the intersection of art, equity and social justice. Meena has co-curated and designed many of Pangea World Theater’s professional and community-based programs. She has written at least ten full-length works for Pangea, ranging from adaptations of poetry and mythology to original works dealing with war, spirituality, personal and collective memory. Her play, Etchings in the Sand co-created with dancer Ananya Chattterjea has been published by Routledge in a volume called Contemporary Plays by Women of Color: The Second Edition. 
        
      Dipankar Mukherjee is the Artistic Director of Pangea World Theater, where he has led the organization since its inception in 1995. As a director, he has worked professionally in India, England, Canada and the United States. His aesthetics have evolved through his commitment to social justice, equity and deep spirituality. Dipankar received a Humphrey Institute Fellowship to Salzburg and has been a Ford Foundation delegate to India and Lebanon. He is a recipient of a Bush Leadership Fellowship to study non-violent and peaceful methodologies in India and South Africa. Dipankar facilitates processes that disrupt colonial, racist and patriarchal modalities of working.

      EPISODE 41: Notable Mentions

      Pangea World Theater: Pangea World Theater builds bridges across multiple cultures and creates sacred and intersectional spaces. We create authentic spaces for real conversations across race, class and gender. Through a nuanced exploration of privilege, our own and others, we craft ensemble-based processes with a global perspective. Through art, theater and creative organizing we strive for a just world where people treat each other with honor and respect. We believe that artists are seers giving voice and language to the world we envision. 

      The Nāṭya Śāstra is notable as an ancient encyclopedic treatise on the arts,[2][8] one which has influenced dance, music and literary traditions in India.[9] It is also notable for its aesthetic "Rasa" theory, which asserts that entertainment is a desired effect of performance arts but not the primary goal, and that the primary goal is to transport the individual in the audience into another parallel reality, full of wonder, where he experiences the essence of his own consciousness, and reflects on spiritual and moral questions.[8][1 World Theater. 

      Theater Del Pueblo: is a small, non-profit Latino theater located in St. Paul, Minnesota. Fostered by the Latino community on the West Side, it has grown since its inception in 1992 to serve St. Paul, Minneapolis, the Twin Cities/metro area, and greater Minnesota.you had 

      Asian American Renaissance: Asian American Renaissance began as a coming together of artists and community activists of Asian decent in 1992 in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota and helped to inspire succeeding generations of Asian American artists in the upper midwest

      Theater MU: Located in Minneapolis, Minnesota Theater Mu produces great performances born of arts, equity, and justice from the heart of the Asian American experience. Mu (pronounced MOO) is the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese character for the shaman/artist/warrior who connects the heavens and the earth through the tree of life. 

      Penumbra Theater: is an African-American theatre company in Saint Paul, Minnesota, was founded by Lou Bellamy in 1976. The theater has been recognized for its artistic quality and its role in launching the careers of playwrights including two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson.[1][2][3][4] The 135-seat theater serves as a space to showcase the exploration of the African-American experience. Each year, Penumbra performs for over 40,000 people and conducts educational outreach workshops for more than 5,000 students.

      Cedar Cultural Center: The Cedar’s mission is to promote intercultural appreciation and understanding through the presentation of global music and dance. The Cedar is committed to artistic excellence and integrity, diversity of programming, support for emerging artists, and community outreach. Stage, (Pangea)

      Lake Street Arts: “Since 2015 Pangea World Theater's LSA! program has worked to deepen the practice of placekeeping through the arts. Working with majority artists from East African, Black, Latinx, Immigrant, Asian and Indigenous Communities along East Lake Street, LSA! uses art as a tool to shape development plans and visions for a more...]]>Pangea World Theater spent its 25th anniversary year helping their Minneapolis community heal the wounds and sort through the ashes left in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. But this mending and reckoning dance was nothing new because Pangea's work is intrinsic to the story of this place-- It’s struggles.-- It's beauty-- It's resilience. This is the first of two episodes recounting Pangea's transformational history and impact.

      ANNOUNCING

      THE CHANGE THE STORY COLLECTION

      A LIBRARY OF CHANGEtheSTORY/CHANGEtheWorld EPISODES

      Arts-based community development comes in many flavors: dancers, and painters working with children and youth; poets and potters collaborating with incarcerated artists: cultural organizers in service to communities addressing racial injustice, all this and much, much more. 

      Many of our listeners have told us they would like to dig deeper into art and change stories that focus on specific issues, constituencies, or disciplines. Others have shared that they are using the podcast as a learning resource and would appreciate categories and cross-references for our stories. 

      In response you we have curated episode collections in six arenas:

      JUSTICE ARTS * THEATER: PERFORMING CHANGE * CULTURAL ORGANIZING FOR CHANGE CHILDREN, YOUTH & LEARNING * TRAINING COMMUNITY ARTS LEADERS * MUSIC OF TRANSFORMATION

      CHECK IT OUT​

      BIO's

      Meena Natarajan is a playwright and director and the Artistic and Executive Director of Pangea World Theater, a progressive, international ensemble space that creates at the intersection of art, equity and social justice. Meena has co-curated and designed many of Pangea World Theater’s professional and community-based programs. She has written at least ten full-length works for Pangea, ranging from adaptations of poetry and mythology to original works dealing with war, spirituality, personal and collective memory. Her play, Etchings in the Sand co-created with dancer Ananya Chattterjea has been published by Routledge in a volume called Contemporary Plays by Women of Color: The Second Edition. 
        
      Dipankar Mukherjee is the Artistic Director of Pangea World Theater, where he has led the organization since its inception in 1995. As a director, he has worked professionally in India, England, Canada and the United States. His aesthetics have evolved through his commitment to social justice, equity and deep spirituality. Dipankar received a Humphrey Institute Fellowship to Salzburg and has been a Ford Foundation delegate to India and Lebanon. He is a recipient of a Bush Leadership Fellowship to study non-violent and peaceful methodologies in India and South Africa. Dipankar facilitates processes that disrupt colonial, racist and patriarchal modalities of working.

      EPISODE 41: Notable Mentions

      Pangea World Theater: Pangea World Theater builds bridges across multiple cultures and creates sacred and intersectional spaces. We create authentic spaces for real conversations across race, class and gender. Through a nuanced exploration of privilege, our own and others, we craft ensemble-based processes with a global perspective. Through art, theater and creative organizing we strive for a just world where people treat each other with honor and respect. We believe that artists are seers giving voice and language to the world we envision. 

      The Nāṭya Śāstra is notable as an ancient encyclopedic treatise on the arts,[2][8] one which has influenced dance, music and literary traditions in India.[9] It is also notable for its aesthetic "Rasa" theory, which asserts that entertainment is a desired effect of performance arts but not the primary goal, and that the primary goal is to transport the individual in the audience into another parallel reality, full of wonder, where he experiences the essence of his own consciousness, and reflects on spiritual and moral questions.[8][1 World Theater. 

      Theater Del Pueblo: is a small, non-profit Latino theater located in St. Paul, Minnesota. Fostered by the Latino community on the West Side, it has grown since its inception in 1992 to serve St. Paul, Minneapolis, the Twin Cities/metro area, and greater Minnesota.you had 

      Asian American Renaissance: Asian American Renaissance began as a coming together of artists and community activists of Asian decent in 1992 in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota and helped to inspire succeeding generations of Asian American artists in the upper midwest

      Theater MU: Located in Minneapolis, Minnesota Theater Mu produces great performances born of arts, equity, and justice from the heart of the Asian American experience. Mu (pronounced MOO) is the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese character for the shaman/artist/warrior who connects the heavens and the earth through the tree of life. 

      Penumbra Theater: is an African-American theatre company in Saint Paul, Minnesota, was founded by Lou Bellamy in 1976. The theater has been recognized for its artistic quality and its role in launching the careers of playwrights including two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson.[1][2][3][4] The 135-seat theater serves as a space to showcase the exploration of the African-American experience. Each year, Penumbra performs for over 40,000 people and conducts educational outreach workshops for more than 5,000 students.

      Cedar Cultural Center: The Cedar’s mission is to promote intercultural appreciation and understanding through the presentation of global music and dance. The Cedar is committed to artistic excellence and integrity, diversity of programming, support for emerging artists, and community outreach. Stage, (Pangea)

      Lake Street Arts: “Since 2015 Pangea World Theater's LSA! program has worked to deepen the practice of placekeeping through the arts. Working with majority artists from East African, Black, Latinx, Immigrant, Asian and Indigenous Communities along East Lake Street, LSA! uses art as a tool to shape development plans and visions for a more just, sustainable and livable Minneapolis to emerge. We affirm the only world we want is a world worthy of All Black Lives! A world that honors Treaties and returns tribal lands! A world worthy of All Children! Let's dream together.”

      Poetry in the Windows  In 2021, Poetry In the Windows brought 21 poems to windows along Lake Street connecting poets, the public and local businesses.

      Angela Two Stars is a public artist and curator. She is the director of All My Relations Arts, a project of the Native American Community Development Institute in Minneapolis, MN. Angela is an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and received her BFA from Kendall College of Art and Design. Angela's professional arts career began at All My Relations Arts gallery as an exhibiting artist, which then led to further opportunities including her first curatorial role for the exhibition titled, Bring Her Home, Stolen Daughters of Turtle Island, a powerful exhibition highlighting the ongoing epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women. 

      George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest after a store clerk suspected Floyd may have used a counterfeit $20 bill, on May 25, 2020.[3] Derek Chauvin, one of four police officers who arrived on the scene, knelt on Floyd's neck and back for 9 minutes and 29 seconds.[4] After his murder, protests against police brutality, especially towards black people, quickly spread across the United States and globally. His dying words, "I can't breathe," became a rallying cry.

      National Institute for Directing and Ensemble Creation: Pangea World Theater and Art2Action collaborate to bring you The National Institute for Directing and Ensemble Creation! This groundbreaking Institute provides a unique experience for theatre artists to collaborate and share methodologies of directing and ensemble creation in an environment with special emphasis on non-Western techniques and social justice. The Institute is committed to supporting the professional development and exchange among artists of color, LGBTQ2+ and women directors. 

       Sharon Day:Sharon M. Day is enrolled in the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe, and makes her home in Minnesota, where she is a founder and executive director of the Indigenous Peoples Task Force, a vital provider of culturally appropriate health services, programs and housing. She is a grandmother, great-grandmother, and an artist, musician, and writer.

      Missouri River Walk: “ Led by Sharon Day and a team of Anishinaabe Grandmothers, Water Walks respect the truth that water is a life giver, and because women also give life they are the keepers of the water. In Anishinaabe religion prophecies were given before contact with light skinned people. The prophecies state that when the world has been befouled and the waters turned bitter by disrespect, human beings will have two options to choose from: materialism or spirituality. If they chose spirituality, they would survive, but if they chose materialism, that choice would be the end of humanity (“The Seven Fires Prophecy”).”

      freesound.org: A free user supported online source of sound effects from around the world.

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>e101696d-0bf1-4c10-aa2a-678218b7efb8Wed, 26 Jan 2022 04:45:00 -070037:46truefull241412Pangea spent its 25th anniversary year helping their Lake Street community in Minneapolis, heal the wounds and sort through the ashes left in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. But this mending and reckoning dance was nothing because Pangea's work is intrinsic to the story of this place. It’s struggles. It's beauty. It's resilience.      40: A Loving Trickster: Using Culture, Story, and Disruption to Spark Art & Social Change40: A Loving Trickster: Using Culture, Story, and Disruption to Spark Art & Social ChangeNeedless to say, this year has been both odd and extraordinary. Odd? --- Well, Pick your poison. Extraordinary? --- Because we spent the year having amazing conversations with dozens of creative change agents who are kicking ass making a real difference in the upside-down world we live in. These conversations have helped us at the Center for the Study of Art & Community manage the lurking shadows and have sparked some new ideas and even optimism.

      We're excited to be starting our second season on February 2, but in the meantime we thought it might be nice to revisit some of our most popular past episodes.

      Next up is Normando Ismay, The Loving Trickster. After our initial airing of this episode, we received dozens of emails thanking us for pulling back the curtain on what one listener described as "the wonderfully vibrant and wacky alternative Bizzoso Universe. A place we all need to visit over and over in these grey and uncertain times." So, we invite you to sit back, have a listen, and hitch a ride on Normando's Bizzoso Universe.

      Normando Ismay – A Loving Trickster

      In this episode, Normando Ismay introduces us to ephemeral places like Chilecito and the Mattress Factory. Cafes Beirut. Bizzoso and Success, and an extraordinary cast of characters. that includes Papa Bizzoso, the one-time child, preacher Contralabias, the smuggler, the Last Inca, Pedro Borjehas. And Danimite the drug dealer who succomes in the legendary Atlanta crack attack.

      BIO

      Normando Ismay was born in the city of All the Saints of the New Rioja in northwest Argentina. As a young adult, he came to the United States, settling in Atlanta to pursue a career as a visual artist. Since then, he has worked in a variety of media including metal, painting, sculpture and installation art.

      He built a barn-like structure in his backyard and began the operation of the Little Beirut Art Space, a gallery/performance venue for visual art exhibits, poetry readings, storytelling, film, music and dance.

      At this time, he also began an integration of visual and performing art, combining Andean flutes, drums and stories of magical realism into large- and small-scale performances and performance installations. Normando creates work in Spanish, English and in a bilingual blending. Some of his works include “The Last Inca”, about Pedro de Bohorquez who passes as an Inca and controls northwest Argentina; “Contralabias”, about a North American smuggler, the invention of lipstick and the birth of Argentina.  

      Normando’s large-scale performance installations accommodate other performing artists and combine paintings, signage, sculptures, video projections, masks, seating, lighting and a stage. Café Bizzoso, Café Cultural de Chamblee, The Condor’s Next Hotel, Bannaland, The Mattress Factory Lounge and Dumpsite, to name a few. 

      Normando’s work has been presented throughout Atlanta and the southeast, as well as in New York, Argentina and Europe. The New York Times, High Performance, the Atlanta Constitution, Art Papers, Mundo Hispanico, and other publications have written about his work. He has received grants from the City of Atlanta Bureau of Cultural Affairs, Fulton County Arts Council, Georgia Council for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1991 he received the Paul Robeson award in Cultural Democracy.

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      What is Cafe Bezzoso?

      Well, Cafe Bizzoso, it was a traveling performance space, an art installation specific to the site where I was creating it. Bizzoso came out of a proposal that I made to the Arts Festival of Atlanta. They had invited me to perform in this huge stage. … And it's like me and my solo storytelling act and my public is like twenty feet away from me like no intimacy possible because of that. So, I made him a proposal to build a small performance venue for storyteller’s poets. and like that, and they liked the idea

      Was the Crack Attack an art exhibition?

      And then two or three nights after that, Steve Seaberg hanging with me, and he was like uh, "We have to do something." You know, and we started making art about it. And we started filling up the lot and between my house and the crack house with art. And we kept working empty lot, and we'd turn it into a, do an art show. We called it the Crack Attack Show.

      Who was the Last Inca?

      Oh it's, it's, an amazing story straight out of history. And The Last Inca is the story of a Spanish soldier who ends up in Peru and he gets in trouble with the Viceroy and they banish him and to, send to a fort Copiapo in Chile, that they know, is about to fall to the indigenous people from there. And this young man goes there, and he builds a cannon out of wood. That was only good for like a couple of explosions. And then the Canon fell apart, but it was enough to signal to the Araucanos that the Spaniards now had a cannon and they decided to leave. (And that just the beginning)

      Transcript

      BC: [00:00:00] Hello,

      Normando are you there?

      Normando ismay, could be described as having a transcendent spirit.

      Hello Normando,. Let's see.

      I think you're there somewhere. Oops. Not there.

      A painter. A poet. A pirate. A conjurer of stories.

      There you are.

       Uh, But above all a trickster, a serious trickster shapeshifter.

      Can you hear me?

      Who's enigmatic stories, some would say.

      NI: [00:00:32] Do you see me?

      BC: [00:00:33] are hard to believe.

      I do not see you.

      Yes. Hard to believe. But true.

      There. you are.

      my word. You haven't

      changed a bit

      NI: [00:00:42] I have

      BC: [00:00:43] a hundred years. It's good to see you.

      This is Change the Story / Change the World, a Chronicle of art and community transformation.

      Now. I've known Normando Ismay, since the time of corded telephones and dollar-a-gallon, fossil fuel. He's one of those people whose story needs absolutely no spin, just a little air and an ear tuned to listening and learning and laughing, which we did together at the end of April 2021.

      With me in Alameda, California, the ancestral home of the Ohlone people, and Armando, at his relatively new studio in Taccoa, Georgia, the traditional lands of the Tsalaquwetiyi (Cherokee East)

      Along the way we're introduced to ephemeral places like Chilecito and the Mattress Factory. Cafes with names like Beirut. Bizzoso and Success, And an extraordinary cast of characters. That includes Papa Bizzoso, the one-time child, preacher Contralabias, the smuggler, the last Inca, Pedro Borjehas. And Danimite the drug dealer who succomes in the legendary Atlanta crack attack.

      Part One Bizzoso, the Mattress, Factory and Chilicito

      I'd just like to give you a few questions to set the table and we'll see what happens. So the first one is what is your work? How do you describe your work in the world thus far?

       NI: [00:02:19] The first thing that I would have to say is my work. Isn't just one kind of work. You know, I've gone through all kinds of medias and work that I've done. I think it was Erich Frome a book I read of him and something that got me was about specialization and dependency. And I think at that point decided I wasn't going to specialize in anything and that's how I've approached my life. You know, working on new skills and sometimes making dramatic shifts in what I was doing. And. So it's hard for me to define what my work is in like a couple of words.

      BC: [00:03:11] Yes, I hear that. And actually, you have a lot in common with almost everybody I've talked to, which is A very strong intention to follow a winding path that is in service to something more than just a discipline or a skill, but something else. So if you Looked at the horizon line what have you been moving towards with these various paths?

       NI: [00:03:36] To live. Right. I always say, try my best, not to exploit or be exploited. And of course, you can't be a hundred percent on that. You will get exploited and you will exploit. Trying to keep a degree of honesty in that I think has been here where I've been hanging for years,

      BC: [00:04:00] yeah. Actually, that echoes what Alice Lovelace said when I asked her the same question; is to try really hard to learn from her mistakes and try not to repeat them with the goal of not causing bad trouble, but just good trouble. Yeah. I was thinking about your move for a long time. You established yourself both as a maker, creative person, but also as a location with Cafe Bizzoso also, and Little Beruit. And I'm wondering if you've imported those to your new space

       NI: [00:04:37] It does have elements of all of it, so there's the space.

      BC: [00:04:45] So the idea of Cafe Bizzoso so you know, it, it's not just a performance space, it means something to you. What does it, what does it mean?

      NI: [00:04:54] Well, Cafe Bizzoso, it was a traveling performance space, an art installation specific to the site where I was creating it.]]>Needless to say, this year has been both odd and extraordinary. Odd? --- Well, Pick your poison. Extraordinary? --- Because we spent the year having amazing conversations with dozens of creative change agents who are kicking ass making a real difference in the upside-down world we live in. These conversations have helped us at the Center for the Study of Art & Community manage the lurking shadows and have sparked some new ideas and even optimism.

      We're excited to be starting our second season on February 2, but in the meantime we thought it might be nice to revisit some of our most popular past episodes.

      Next up is Normando Ismay, The Loving Trickster. After our initial airing of this episode, we received dozens of emails thanking us for pulling back the curtain on what one listener described as "the wonderfully vibrant and wacky alternative Bizzoso Universe. A place we all need to visit over and over in these grey and uncertain times." So, we invite you to sit back, have a listen, and hitch a ride on Normando's Bizzoso Universe.

      Normando Ismay – A Loving Trickster

      In this episode, Normando Ismay introduces us to ephemeral places like Chilecito and the Mattress Factory. Cafes Beirut. Bizzoso and Success, and an extraordinary cast of characters. that includes Papa Bizzoso, the one-time child, preacher Contralabias, the smuggler, the Last Inca, Pedro Borjehas. And Danimite the drug dealer who succomes in the legendary Atlanta crack attack.

      BIO

      Normando Ismay was born in the city of All the Saints of the New Rioja in northwest Argentina. As a young adult, he came to the United States, settling in Atlanta to pursue a career as a visual artist. Since then, he has worked in a variety of media including metal, painting, sculpture and installation art.

      He built a barn-like structure in his backyard and began the operation of the Little Beirut Art Space, a gallery/performance venue for visual art exhibits, poetry readings, storytelling, film, music and dance.

      At this time, he also began an integration of visual and performing art, combining Andean flutes, drums and stories of magical realism into large- and small-scale performances and performance installations. Normando creates work in Spanish, English and in a bilingual blending. Some of his works include “The Last Inca”, about Pedro de Bohorquez who passes as an Inca and controls northwest Argentina; “Contralabias”, about a North American smuggler, the invention of lipstick and the birth of Argentina.  

      Normando’s large-scale performance installations accommodate other performing artists and combine paintings, signage, sculptures, video projections, masks, seating, lighting and a stage. Café Bizzoso, Café Cultural de Chamblee, The Condor’s Next Hotel, Bannaland, The Mattress Factory Lounge and Dumpsite, to name a few. 

      Normando’s work has been presented throughout Atlanta and the southeast, as well as in New York, Argentina and Europe. The New York Times, High Performance, the Atlanta Constitution, Art Papers, Mundo Hispanico, and other publications have written about his work. He has received grants from the City of Atlanta Bureau of Cultural Affairs, Fulton County Arts Council, Georgia Council for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1991 he received the Paul Robeson award in Cultural Democracy.

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      What is Cafe Bezzoso?

      Well, Cafe Bizzoso, it was a traveling performance space, an art installation specific to the site where I was creating it. Bizzoso came out of a proposal that I made to the Arts Festival of Atlanta. They had invited me to perform in this huge stage. … And it's like me and my solo storytelling act and my public is like twenty feet away from me like no intimacy possible because of that. So, I made him a proposal to build a small performance venue for storyteller’s poets. and like that, and they liked the idea

      Was the Crack Attack an art exhibition?

      And then two or three nights after that, Steve Seaberg hanging with me, and he was like uh, "We have to do something." You know, and we started making art about it. And we started filling up the lot and between my house and the crack house with art. And we kept working empty lot, and we'd turn it into a, do an art show. We called it the Crack Attack Show.

      Who was the Last Inca?

      Oh it's, it's, an amazing story straight out of history. And The Last Inca is the story of a Spanish soldier who ends up in Peru and he gets in trouble with the Viceroy and they banish him and to, send to a fort Copiapo in Chile, that they know, is about to fall to the indigenous people from there. And this young man goes there, and he builds a cannon out of wood. That was only good for like a couple of explosions. And then the Canon fell apart, but it was enough to signal to the Araucanos that the Spaniards now had a cannon and they decided to leave. (And that just the beginning)

      Transcript

      BC: [00:00:00] Hello,

      Normando are you there?

      Normando ismay, could be described as having a transcendent spirit.

      Hello Normando,. Let's see.

      I think you're there somewhere. Oops. Not there.

      A painter. A poet. A pirate. A conjurer of stories.

      There you are.

       Uh, But above all a trickster, a serious trickster shapeshifter.

      Can you hear me?

      Who's enigmatic stories, some would say.

      NI: [00:00:32] Do you see me?

      BC: [00:00:33] are hard to believe.

      I do not see you.

      Yes. Hard to believe. But true.

      There. you are.

      my word. You haven't

      changed a bit

      NI: [00:00:42] I have

      BC: [00:00:43] a hundred years. It's good to see you.

      This is Change the Story / Change the World, a Chronicle of art and community transformation.

      Now. I've known Normando Ismay, since the time of corded telephones and dollar-a-gallon, fossil fuel. He's one of those people whose story needs absolutely no spin, just a little air and an ear tuned to listening and learning and laughing, which we did together at the end of April 2021.

      With me in Alameda, California, the ancestral home of the Ohlone people, and Armando, at his relatively new studio in Taccoa, Georgia, the traditional lands of the Tsalaquwetiyi (Cherokee East)

      Along the way we're introduced to ephemeral places like Chilecito and the Mattress Factory. Cafes with names like Beirut. Bizzoso and Success, And an extraordinary cast of characters. That includes Papa Bizzoso, the one-time child, preacher Contralabias, the smuggler, the last Inca, Pedro Borjehas. And Danimite the drug dealer who succomes in the legendary Atlanta crack attack.

      Part One Bizzoso, the Mattress, Factory and Chilicito

      I'd just like to give you a few questions to set the table and we'll see what happens. So the first one is what is your work? How do you describe your work in the world thus far?

       NI: [00:02:19] The first thing that I would have to say is my work. Isn't just one kind of work. You know, I've gone through all kinds of medias and work that I've done. I think it was Erich Frome a book I read of him and something that got me was about specialization and dependency. And I think at that point decided I wasn't going to specialize in anything and that's how I've approached my life. You know, working on new skills and sometimes making dramatic shifts in what I was doing. And. So it's hard for me to define what my work is in like a couple of words.

      BC: [00:03:11] Yes, I hear that. And actually, you have a lot in common with almost everybody I've talked to, which is A very strong intention to follow a winding path that is in service to something more than just a discipline or a skill, but something else. So if you Looked at the horizon line what have you been moving towards with these various paths?

       NI: [00:03:36] To live. Right. I always say, try my best, not to exploit or be exploited. And of course, you can't be a hundred percent on that. You will get exploited and you will exploit. Trying to keep a degree of honesty in that I think has been here where I've been hanging for years,

      BC: [00:04:00] yeah. Actually, that echoes what Alice Lovelace said when I asked her the same question; is to try really hard to learn from her mistakes and try not to repeat them with the goal of not causing bad trouble, but just good trouble. Yeah. I was thinking about your move for a long time. You established yourself both as a maker, creative person, but also as a location with Cafe Bizzoso also, and Little Beruit. And I'm wondering if you've imported those to your new space

       NI: [00:04:37] It does have elements of all of it, so there's the space.

      BC: [00:04:45] So the idea of Cafe Bizzoso so you know, it, it's not just a performance space, it means something to you. What does it, what does it mean?

      NI: [00:04:54] Well, Cafe Bizzoso, it was a traveling performance space, an art installation specific to the site where I was creating it. Little Beirut was a space. Bizzoso came out of a proposal that I made to the Arts Festival of Atlanta. They had invited me to perform in this huge stage. It was like four feet up in the air. And it's like me and my solo storytelling act and my public is like twenty feet away from me like no intimacy possible because of that. So, I made him a proposal to build a small performance venue for storyteller’s poets. and like that, and they liked the idea and fully funded it. And Cafe Bizzoso took over spaces, turned it into a performance space and then disappeared. it was uh, a really sort of quick, act.,

      BC: [00:06:02] What is the story of the name?

      NI: [00:06:04] it's stolen.

      BC: [00:06:05] yes. So, what's new.

      NI: [00:06:08] I had been working with performance spaces before Cafe Bizzoso. And it was funny because, you know, there was the Mattress Factory shows in Atlanta and it was like there were huge warehouse shows with a couple of hundred artists. , I ended up building places that were places where people could sit. That was the first sort of adding of that. But of course, then I started adding performance spaces and I started adding food and stuff like that. So, there were several, the Mattress Lounge was one, Cafe Success. I had a couple of those.

      BC: [00:06:53] At this point in our zoom conversation, Normando turns and points to the back wall of his studio, which is covered with dozens of sculptures paintings and masks.

      NI: [00:07:04] And some of the artwork right up the top. There there's series of faces sort of like brown line of faces that came from one of the Cafe Success that I did in a big warehouse. And the, the pictures that you see up top are the autographed photographs of the people that came to the cafe and became successful and never came back.

      The funny thing is it that particular show got me into a group show that traveled to Sweden and there, I built a town inside the museum, the same techniques and stuff that I used with Cafe Bizzoso, in Sweden, there were a lot of people who had run away from Chile because of Pinochet at the time. So, I called it Chilicito little chili or loving Chile, and I felt that was necessary to make a statement about that. And it was also a statement about appropriation of culture. Because I had been in several museums in Europe that just blew me away. I was in a museum in Paris and there were things from my hometown, in Paris, that was, you know, touch the heart. What are these things doing here? What are these temples doing here? You know?

      BC: [00:08:34] So was that city and an attempt to bring hometown to, Sweden for the people who had to vacate their loving space,

      NI: [00:08:42] yeah, I think it was a statement about that. it was because there were a lot of people that came through at the time that I met that were part of that. that's how that piece came about.

      BC: [00:08:56] Part Two: The Birth of a Trickster.

      So, given all the different streams and pathways that you followed w how did you come to be this sort of three ring circus of an artist? What made you decide? Oh, this is what I want to do in my life. As a kid, were you a person who people said, oh There's a young artist just waiting to blossom or was it something you were encouraged to do?

      NI: [00:09:25] No. No, I remember my mother saying something like, "Art you want to be, you want to do art that's for rich people, not for you". What's what she told me. I think that statement from my mother was, in reference to what I was going to study in college. And I was good at math and good at chemistry and physics and stuff like that. So, I ended up studying biochemistry. It was weird because every once in a while, something would just burst through you know, I remember at one point I made a wood sculpture and it just came out of, nothing. And I just made a wood sculpture while I was still studying you know, college. In Argentina, the education system is different than here. So, you don't have what I got a general bachelor's path in education. And, pretty much, when you leave high school, you decide what your career is going to be.

      BC: [00:10:22] You have to declare.

      NI: [00:10:23] It's a European model and if you're studying biochemistry, that's going to be your focus. So, at one point I decided that I wanted more than that. And I had to become part of another college. Which was the college of literature. And I started studying literature at the same time. And that's where I started going back towards a creative style in my life. it really was linguistics that sort of opened up my, way of perceiving the world. It was actually structuralism did that., it was, Saussure.

      BC: [00:11:07] Ferdinand de Saussure was a Swiss linguist and philosopher whose ideas laid the foundation for many significant developments in linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century

      NI: [00:11:21] And I was pretty much an example of what his studies had been. You know, I was from many generations of Scots that I've lived in Argentina. So, when I came to the states, I spoke a really old English, an English that arrived in Argentina in the 1800’s. And I you know, I got laughed at a few times here and this day using inappropriate words.

       BC: [00:11:55] Not far off from the Appalachian

      NI: [00:11:57] And there's a reason why I really like southern talking, I like Appalachian talking you know. Because it has a richness that I don't find in other English-speaking areas.

      BC: [00:12:11] It's in service to the story. More than the structure of the sentence, it's lyrical.

       NI: [00:12:17] It has second person plural, which the rest of English doesn't, they, y’ all, that is a normal form in Spanish. So, I related that a lot.

      Once I was in a, an African-American neighborhood that was really close to where I lived and I used to produce a festival there too. I was hanging out with, a guy that I had done several years and worked with them. So, we were close you know, we done the same festival. And this woman came, and she was from Cabbagetown and Cabbagetown basically got populated by people from Appalachia.

      So, the way people spoke had a lot of relationship to Appalachian English. And she came and she asked my friend a question. And he looked at me and he couldn't get it. So, I translated. And then he answers her when I could tell she didn't understand him. So, I translated it back to her. Then she left because she got the direction she needed. And I like looked at my friend. and I said, "Do you realize what I just did?" I had interpreted many times from Spanish to English but never, never Appalachian.

      BC: [00:13:33] That's beautiful. So, that sort of brings to mind. When I look at your work and I'm just going to talk about paintings right now. The story is preeminent. The story is super important sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. You even say you, want to paint paintings where the story is manifest in a single painting. Could you talk about that and what that means for you?

      NI: [00:13:58] When I came to the States, I didn't have much control of English. It took me years before I got good enough to where I could tell a story in English. So, I focused on visual arts. At first, I started on crafts because, really quick I, started realizing that um, was going on in Argentina was going to last a long time. That the dictatorship was going to be in power and I wasn't going to be able to go back. So really that meant my education was out the door.

       And the first thing that I had to do was find a way to make money. So, I started with crafts. And I went to school and learned how to, form metals, which eventually led to a job in a jewelry store. And nobody in the class wanted a job as a polisher, but I went, yes, I'm doing it. And that was my entry into the jewelry world.

      There was a building in Atlanta, the Carnegie building, and there must have been about 10, 15 jewelry workshops there. And I started as a polisher and eventually I was setting diamonds and doing repair. And then it was a way to live at first.

      And I had gone to, to school and I had picked up this concept of making miniature sculptures, which is the art that I was doing at the time. So, I started working in a world that was a foot by a foot.

      That was my, art creating world at the time. And things started to change because I started interpreting and doing voiceover work. So, the jewelry worked at and make that much sense anymore. At some point around there, I had a studio in Nexus.

      BC: [00:15:55] The Nexus Center for the Arts in Atlanta has been true to its namesake as a catalyst and incubator for artists and their ideas for the past 30 years. Back in Normando those early days. It was small and funky. Now it's much bigger with a new name. The Atlanta contemporary art center

      NI: [00:16:16] And I think that having a studio nexus sort of redirected me as an artist because now I was around other artists. I was learning all kinds of techniques from them. And I was getting interested in other forms of art.

      And it wasn't long that I was making installations, which was a form of art that I was very comfortable with. So, my art, creating the world,...]]>55894572-94ab-478b-9c87-8ba8564ba0d9Thu, 13 Jan 2022 06:00:00 -070041:11truefull140401In this episode, Normando Ismay introduces us to ephemeral places like Chilecito and the Mattress Factory. Cafes Beirut. Bizzoso and Success, and an extraordinary cast of characters. that includes Papa Bizzoso, the one-time child, preacher Contralabias, the smuggler, the Last Inca, Pedro Borjehas. And Danimite the drug dealer who succomes in the legendary Atlanta crack attack.39: Beth Thielen: LOVE AND FREEDOM: Our Most Imaginative Activist Artists Are Locked in Prison39: Beth Thielen: LOVE AND FREEDOM: Our Most Imaginative Activist Artists Are Locked in PrisonEpisode 4:  Beth Thielen - Love and Freedom

       

      Bookmakers at San Quentin. Not surprising, given "Q's" clientele. But no, we're talking about real books with real pages that are awe-inspiring works of art.

       Transcript

      Needless to say, this year has been both odd and extraordinary. Odd? --- Well, Pick your poison. Extraordinary? --- Because we spent the year having amazing conversations with dozens of creative change agents who are kicking ass making a real difference in the upside-down world we live in. These conversations have helped us at the Center for the Study of Art & Community manage the lurking shadows and have sparked some new ideas and even optimism.

      We're excited to be starting our second season on February 2, but in the meantime we thought it might be nice to revisit some of our most popular past episodes.

      First up is Beth Thielen, a book maker who works across the by here from us at San Quentin. Actually she's not taking bets, but she and her students at "Q" are making a lot of awesome books. Have a listen.

      Bill Cleveland: At the time, what came to be known as the classic or a version 1.0 was considered a modern marvel. After a short wait for what was called booting up, and a few clicks, the text seemed to appear magically on a ten by twelve screens set into a plastic computer case. Eventually, the white on black text gave way to a gloriously glowing black on white. Moving through the text was accomplished using a small, palm-sized oblong disk that was endearingly called a mouse. Unfortunately, the computer was quite heavy and wired, so reading was typically a one person, one stationary screen affair.

      Then, the "two point oh" model with names like Kindle and Nook changed everything. It still had a screen and needed juice, but the wires were gone, and it was small and thin and light enough to take anywhere without a hassle. Going through text with the push of a button or flick of a finger on the screen made reading almost fun. There were a few downsides, though. After you paid for the machine, you still had to fork over for whatever it was you wanted to read. The thing also needed charging, and eventually, they would quit working from being dropped or just wearing out, which meant you lost whatever you were reading, which wasn't that big a deal because you actually never really owned it.  

      But today, with the advent of the extraordinary Codex 3.0, also known as, "a book," all that came before seems quaint. This new text delivery system has so taken the world by storm, seven in ten humans now consider reading their number one favorite personal activity. While retaining the handiness and readability of its predecessors, this new model is both less expensive and far more versatile. This is due, in part, to the fact that after you purchase it, you actually own it, which means these books can be gifted or shared or even sold. There is speculation that eventually books will be collected in repositories that some are already calling libraries and could actually increase in value over time.

      But the most delightful features of these clever little packages of text are embodied in their design. Now, depending on their size, which is varied, they can fit neatly in your hands or lap for easy reading. They're ingenious cover, and page feature allows you to open, feel, and manipulate the enclosed paper sheets in sequence from front to back, the reverse, or even randomly. This is called browsing. If you want to remember where you left off, you can use what is called a bookmark or even bend the corner of those little pages. It's your choice. Another improvement is its sturdiness. You can drop it, sit on it, even step on it. And it will still function like it was new. And best of all, there are no batteries, no wires, and no moving parts. Finally, each book comes with a multigenerational lifetime guarantee that stipulates that with reasonable care and handling, each book will be fully functional for hundreds, if not thousands of years. 

      Bill Cleveland:  Excerpted from the "Modern Marvels of the Post Pandemian Epoch" by William T. William, 2047 A.D., also referred to as 26 P. P. E. 

      Bill Cleveland: From the Center for the Study of Art and Community, this is Change the Story Change the World. I'm Bill Cleveland.

      Bill Cleveland:  Long before the advent of Books, Inc., Amazon, and the Kindle, the making of books was considered a vital and essential art form. Over many millennia, the connections forged between humans and their books were seen as both fundamental to human progress, and as sacred and dynamic relationships. Given this, if I were to add yet one more evolved stage to the oddly imagined Future Books saga I just shared, it would be embodied in both this venerable history and in artists like Beth Thielen. Beth is a contemporary book artist who stands with one foot in the monasteries and studios of her revered bookmaking predecessors and another in the altered universe that is only now being shaped in the spectral shadow of our global pandemic. 

      Beth describes her life pursuit as asking questions and making connections. Her work combines the narrative and tactile and sculptural with a passion for the transforming affirmation intrinsic to the act of creation. This passion has fueled the making of hundreds of extraordinarily beautiful, inspiring, and provocative works of art. These books of every imaginable shape, size, and material have been crafted by Beth and hundreds of bookmakers, who she has mentored over her long career. This community of artists and their stories have been nurtured and fed and celebrated in prisons, group homes, hospitals, senior centers, and schools all across America. 

      I first met Beth in one of those other places during my time running the California Arts in Corrections program. She said she wasn't sure what to expect, but after her first visit to the California Institution for Women in 1985, she knew she had come to the right place. She's been showing up at those right places ever since.

      Part One: Love and Freedom

      Bill Cleveland So let me begin by saying, first of all, thank you. Thank you for agreeing to do this. I'm looking forward to learning more about your path and your journey. Let's begin by saying if someone were to ask you, "what is it you do, Beth," what was your answer to that question? What is your work in the world? 

      Beth Thielen: I would say that I am an artist who works with incarcerated and troubled communities, and that's where my work comes from. That's the kind of work that comes out of me. It's the kind of questions that form in my work, such as the question I shared with you the other day that I had when I first started with Arts and corrections in California was one day I was at my drawing table after teaching a week in California Institution for Women, and a question formed in my head, which was what relationship does love have to freedom? And I had just seen a mug shot of a woman in prison from back when San Quentin was a private prison at the turn of the century, and she was in for bigamy. It said that her age was 27, but she looked easily 57. She looked so hurt, and haggard and that form the question, what happened here? What's the relationship between love and freedom? Because boy, something happened here.

      Bill Cleveland: So you have a practice that is social in nature, in that you go into institutions and you engage with a wide variety of people, some of whom have some experience making things, others who don't. You also have a studio practice that you talk about the relationship between the two.

      Beth Thielen: Yeah, well, you know, landscape painters need to be in a landscape. I'm of an interior landscape. I'm looking at the story of our country in a way through my own vision of the landscape. I had a drawing teacher when I was very young at the Young Artist Studios in the Chicago Art Institute, and she would have you go into a room to draw where the mom was. But you were there only to look, and then she would make you go into another room to actually do the drawing, so you would have to capture it in your head and then move into the other room to do the drawing. So, in a way, I do that I walk into prisons, and of course, you're not allowed to bring a camera, but I know how to catch it in my head. 

      Bill Cleveland: So, one of the things that happens when you enter into institutions and you engage the people who live and work there, is that you inevitably come into contact with the stories they represent. Could you talk about the relationship between the story field you encounter in these extraordinarily complex places and what happens when you make work?

      Beth Thielen: Well, I'm often moved by what my students say to me. I did a Pop-Up book where each page was a sentence spoken in prison to me, and I just would write down the sentence and then have there's pop-up book image of that particular sentence, and one of them was simply this place change issue was what a woman said to me. It was such a loaded sentence. Her sentence, you know, that it conveyed and made the power of the image happen. So, when I'm there as a visual artist, I'm using seeing and all the ways that one sees pulling what's happening before me and to a translatable image that I can then share in a piece of artwork.

      Bill Cleveland: Do you think of yourself as a witness?

      Beth Thielen: Yes., and as a]]>Episode 4:  Beth Thielen - Love and Freedom

       

      Bookmakers at San Quentin. Not surprising, given "Q's" clientele. But no, we're talking about real books with real pages that are awe-inspiring works of art.

       Transcript

      Needless to say, this year has been both odd and extraordinary. Odd? --- Well, Pick your poison. Extraordinary? --- Because we spent the year having amazing conversations with dozens of creative change agents who are kicking ass making a real difference in the upside-down world we live in. These conversations have helped us at the Center for the Study of Art & Community manage the lurking shadows and have sparked some new ideas and even optimism.

      We're excited to be starting our second season on February 2, but in the meantime we thought it might be nice to revisit some of our most popular past episodes.

      First up is Beth Thielen, a book maker who works across the by here from us at San Quentin. Actually she's not taking bets, but she and her students at "Q" are making a lot of awesome books. Have a listen.

      Bill Cleveland: At the time, what came to be known as the classic or a version 1.0 was considered a modern marvel. After a short wait for what was called booting up, and a few clicks, the text seemed to appear magically on a ten by twelve screens set into a plastic computer case. Eventually, the white on black text gave way to a gloriously glowing black on white. Moving through the text was accomplished using a small, palm-sized oblong disk that was endearingly called a mouse. Unfortunately, the computer was quite heavy and wired, so reading was typically a one person, one stationary screen affair.

      Then, the "two point oh" model with names like Kindle and Nook changed everything. It still had a screen and needed juice, but the wires were gone, and it was small and thin and light enough to take anywhere without a hassle. Going through text with the push of a button or flick of a finger on the screen made reading almost fun. There were a few downsides, though. After you paid for the machine, you still had to fork over for whatever it was you wanted to read. The thing also needed charging, and eventually, they would quit working from being dropped or just wearing out, which meant you lost whatever you were reading, which wasn't that big a deal because you actually never really owned it.  

      But today, with the advent of the extraordinary Codex 3.0, also known as, "a book," all that came before seems quaint. This new text delivery system has so taken the world by storm, seven in ten humans now consider reading their number one favorite personal activity. While retaining the handiness and readability of its predecessors, this new model is both less expensive and far more versatile. This is due, in part, to the fact that after you purchase it, you actually own it, which means these books can be gifted or shared or even sold. There is speculation that eventually books will be collected in repositories that some are already calling libraries and could actually increase in value over time.

      But the most delightful features of these clever little packages of text are embodied in their design. Now, depending on their size, which is varied, they can fit neatly in your hands or lap for easy reading. They're ingenious cover, and page feature allows you to open, feel, and manipulate the enclosed paper sheets in sequence from front to back, the reverse, or even randomly. This is called browsing. If you want to remember where you left off, you can use what is called a bookmark or even bend the corner of those little pages. It's your choice. Another improvement is its sturdiness. You can drop it, sit on it, even step on it. And it will still function like it was new. And best of all, there are no batteries, no wires, and no moving parts. Finally, each book comes with a multigenerational lifetime guarantee that stipulates that with reasonable care and handling, each book will be fully functional for hundreds, if not thousands of years. 

      Bill Cleveland:  Excerpted from the "Modern Marvels of the Post Pandemian Epoch" by William T. William, 2047 A.D., also referred to as 26 P. P. E. 

      Bill Cleveland: From the Center for the Study of Art and Community, this is Change the Story Change the World. I'm Bill Cleveland.

      Bill Cleveland:  Long before the advent of Books, Inc., Amazon, and the Kindle, the making of books was considered a vital and essential art form. Over many millennia, the connections forged between humans and their books were seen as both fundamental to human progress, and as sacred and dynamic relationships. Given this, if I were to add yet one more evolved stage to the oddly imagined Future Books saga I just shared, it would be embodied in both this venerable history and in artists like Beth Thielen. Beth is a contemporary book artist who stands with one foot in the monasteries and studios of her revered bookmaking predecessors and another in the altered universe that is only now being shaped in the spectral shadow of our global pandemic. 

      Beth describes her life pursuit as asking questions and making connections. Her work combines the narrative and tactile and sculptural with a passion for the transforming affirmation intrinsic to the act of creation. This passion has fueled the making of hundreds of extraordinarily beautiful, inspiring, and provocative works of art. These books of every imaginable shape, size, and material have been crafted by Beth and hundreds of bookmakers, who she has mentored over her long career. This community of artists and their stories have been nurtured and fed and celebrated in prisons, group homes, hospitals, senior centers, and schools all across America. 

      I first met Beth in one of those other places during my time running the California Arts in Corrections program. She said she wasn't sure what to expect, but after her first visit to the California Institution for Women in 1985, she knew she had come to the right place. She's been showing up at those right places ever since.

      Part One: Love and Freedom

      Bill Cleveland So let me begin by saying, first of all, thank you. Thank you for agreeing to do this. I'm looking forward to learning more about your path and your journey. Let's begin by saying if someone were to ask you, "what is it you do, Beth," what was your answer to that question? What is your work in the world? 

      Beth Thielen: I would say that I am an artist who works with incarcerated and troubled communities, and that's where my work comes from. That's the kind of work that comes out of me. It's the kind of questions that form in my work, such as the question I shared with you the other day that I had when I first started with Arts and corrections in California was one day I was at my drawing table after teaching a week in California Institution for Women, and a question formed in my head, which was what relationship does love have to freedom? And I had just seen a mug shot of a woman in prison from back when San Quentin was a private prison at the turn of the century, and she was in for bigamy. It said that her age was 27, but she looked easily 57. She looked so hurt, and haggard and that form the question, what happened here? What's the relationship between love and freedom? Because boy, something happened here.

      Bill Cleveland: So you have a practice that is social in nature, in that you go into institutions and you engage with a wide variety of people, some of whom have some experience making things, others who don't. You also have a studio practice that you talk about the relationship between the two.

      Beth Thielen: Yeah, well, you know, landscape painters need to be in a landscape. I'm of an interior landscape. I'm looking at the story of our country in a way through my own vision of the landscape. I had a drawing teacher when I was very young at the Young Artist Studios in the Chicago Art Institute, and she would have you go into a room to draw where the mom was. But you were there only to look, and then she would make you go into another room to actually do the drawing, so you would have to capture it in your head and then move into the other room to do the drawing. So, in a way, I do that I walk into prisons, and of course, you're not allowed to bring a camera, but I know how to catch it in my head. 

      Bill Cleveland: So, one of the things that happens when you enter into institutions and you engage the people who live and work there, is that you inevitably come into contact with the stories they represent. Could you talk about the relationship between the story field you encounter in these extraordinarily complex places and what happens when you make work?

      Beth Thielen: Well, I'm often moved by what my students say to me. I did a Pop-Up book where each page was a sentence spoken in prison to me, and I just would write down the sentence and then have there's pop-up book image of that particular sentence, and one of them was simply this place change issue was what a woman said to me. It was such a loaded sentence. Her sentence, you know, that it conveyed and made the power of the image happen. So, when I'm there as a visual artist, I'm using seeing and all the ways that one sees pulling what's happening before me and to a translatable image that I can then share in a piece of artwork.

      Bill Cleveland: Do you think of yourself as a witness?

      Beth Thielen: Yes., and as a kind of a distiller because I'm not just there to witness, but to make connections.

      Bill Cleveland: How does the act of teaching make connections? 

      Beth Thielen: Well, it's very hard to just go in and draw somebody's portrait if what you're drawing is what I'm doing, which is telling a whole story. So the teaching is a way for me to be there and share and learn from my participants in the process of making together without it having to be "Tell me your life story. I'm going to do a book, or I'm gonna do a painting". And, you know, it takes a lot of time, so right now, I'm working with girls at a group home there. They're locked down. I can't see them right now. But this is volunteer work on my part. I go twice a week, and I just do whatever we want to do, whatever they are up to doing, but they informed me about the dilemma of a group home by my just being present and watching what's happening and how so much of the seeds of what has happened in corrections happens so young with these girls. So that's the process. 

      Bill Cleveland: So, in essence, you're there bringing a practice.

      Beth Thielen: I'm bringing a practice, Yes.

      BC: And what do you think is happening for them?

      Beth Thielen: I don't always know. I know that the men at San Quentin when I get there, they're waiting in line to get in. They don't stop. They don't take a break. I don't even sometimes pee until four o'clock when they're called out because they are showing me their portfolios. They're asking me questions. We're doing or making an artist book, or we're making individual sketchbooks for them or where printing. But there's all this other stuff going on to where they're really honed into my presence in a way that doesn't happen anywhere else in the world, and I'm just meeting at as best I can. There's that hunger that is so fantastic.

      Bill Cleveland: So Beth, somewhere along the line, you took a sharp and very focused turn into this practice of yours being an artist and engaging the world, and what I would describe as a healing practice. How did you come to that?

      Beth Thielen: I come from a very large, dysfunctional German Catholic family. When Susan Hill at ArtsReach at UCLA started doing classes in the prison system in California, she asked if I wanted to try it. I went in, and it was a California institution for women. I got in there, and within the first hour, I said, jeez, this feels just like home. I can do that somewhere weird. You know, t's the problems that we face there. You have to work them out individually, even if they are something that looks like you're doing out in the world. You're trying to find a solution to something innate, so I suppose with my upbringing, I was already asking the questions that would make me good for that environment.

      Bill Cleveland: So before you got on the train, so to speak, to California Institution for Women, was art a big part of your family life? What took you down the path of studying art in the first place? 

      Beth Thielen:  I was very lucky. I can remember in kindergarten being introduced to fingerpainting and having all these big jars of tempera paint and sloshing it around a big piece of paper, and suddenly I saw and what I was doing, this dense forest where me and my twin brother were trying to get through this tangle of logs. It was just an aha moment. It was like, oh, that's what's going on…And, you know, I was very lucky that at a very early moment, the teacher had to shut me up. I was like talking to her about the painting; you know that I did. And all that's going on and that I could see it so clearly. But an artist was born. I was hooked. 

      Bill Cleveland: And your family supported this? 

      Beth Thielen: No, not so much. No. I remember when my father was, you know, he got his education through the military. My parents had eight children, and when I said, gee, I think I'm an artist, I want to go to the Art Institute of Chicago. My father just yells at me, and he said, Excuse me, who the ____do you think you are? And I said, Gee, Dad, I think I'm an artist. Cause he in our family, if you wanted college, you had to do military. That was just how it was. So, I broke the rules and went off on my own to art school without support, but I did it. 

      Bill Cleveland: So, is there a part of your early biography that travels with you when you walk into these places, maybe with these young women that you're working with?

      Beth Thielen: Oh, absolutely. I see my early childhood in these girls. My childhood had some abusive parts to it. And I think in the American psyche, if you want to look at damage, look at young girls, in particular, there's something that happens where a young boy can devil may care. There are all these different words that say it's OK to make mistakes, whereas girls, you're breaking up the family. It's like on visiting day for holidays at the prison. The line is around the block for men's prisons. And there's very few for women's prisons that come in. There's a shame in the feminine mystique that's so deep. So, looking from the California prison system to working with girls in group homes, I can really catch how they are fodder for all that ails you. 

      Bill Cleveland: You described yourself as sort of breaking the rules of your family, and when you were just talking, I had this image of how much harder it is for some women to be a rule-breaker where for men in some cases, that's seen as romantic and adventurous and experimental…And for women, because you are in some cases, the rock. 

      Beth Thielen: Right, right…Disturbing the peace of the status quo. Get in the kitchen—all that. 

      Bill Cleveland: So, you talk about California institution for women. That was a long time ago that you first went into the institution. 

      Beth Thielen: I think I started nineteen eighty-five.

      Bill Cleveland: So you've been doing this ever since? ….mhmm…And you're no longer in California. You're on the East Coast now. So obviously there's something about this that has moved from an opportunity to a significant part of your practice. How is that? How did that come about? 

      Beth Thielen: It goes back to that first question. What relationship does love have to freedom? It's the heart of our failure as a country, really. And so, to me, if I have some mature person now can say I'm trying to tell the story of my country through this experience, then I have to deal with are incarcerated. I have to deal with the fact that we have the largest percentage of people in prison in the world because it's the heart of what our trouble is, how we have not become who we should be as a nation. It's at the very heart. So, yes, that's why I'm there.

      Part two, Wisdom meets beauty  

      Bill Cleveland: At the end of part one, Beth returned to her initial question, what does love have to do with beauty? She also touched on how dealing with both the ugliness and the beauty she finds in her present experience helped her address another of her burning questions. What is the story of my country, and how can I help change it for the better? In part two, we delve a little deeper into these questions. So, Beth, the irony, of course, is that for most folks, the carceral state, these two and a quarter million souls hardly exist in their consciousness. These institutions are out of sight, out of mind. And I would maybe point out that right now, these places are particularly dangerous with regard to the pandemic. So, given this urgency as a context, could you talk about what you've been doing recently that personifies the intention and hope for impact of your work? 

      Beth Thielen: Well, I was just in San Quentin in March, two days before they locked everything down. And I'm working on a limited-edition artist book of about 30 copies where each of the guys will get to keep their own copy. We're all making one together as a group, and I shared with them my artist's statement about them, and how I view them and what I was telling you about how they're there waiting for me at 8:00 a.m. and they're showing their portfolios, they're sharing their paintings that we work until they're called out for count at 4:00. No one takes a break.

      Art matters here. I don't get that at the university, but these people that I meet in my classes, they often have sons in prison or grandparents in prison. They have a whole generational span of experiences in prisons, and they meet it with a courage and a generosity and a strength. I'm in debt to their courage, and I feel a responsibility to get people to understand that it's these people who are living in this horrible situation and have for such a long time, that are adapting to where we need to go faster than the rest of us. They are like a species living at the edge of sustainability, where there's adaptation occurring, where there's mutations occurring that allow them to adapt and change, and these people bring so much imagination to lack. For me, that's our way that we have to go. If we're going to solve our problems with the environment, we're going to solve our problems with prisons. If we're going to solve our problems with how we do our communities post-pandemic. So, for me, the hardships they have endured give us a way to our future if we can accept and not be afraid of the hard knowledge, save one. 

      Bill Cleveland: So do me a favor. I would...]]>8f455d24-bfec-423e-8196-cd6d7628d749Thu, 30 Dec 2021 07:00:00 -070040:34truebonus139391Bookmakers at San Quentin. Not surprising, given "Q's" clientele. But no, we're talking about real books with real pages that are awe-inspiring works of art. In this weeks episode we talk to renowned book artist Beth Thielen, about her work in prisons and other unlikely places.38: Gallery to Garden: Beverly Naidus on Art, Activism, and Reimagining the Future38: Gallery to Garden: Beverly Naidus on Art, Activism, and Reimagining the FutureBIO

      Beverly Naidus's art life has straddled the socially engaged margins of the art world, artful activism collaborations, and community-based art projects. Her audience participatory installations, artists books, photo-text and multimedia projects have dealt with the anxieties of being unemployed, nightmares about nuclear war, ways to transform body hate, using consumerism to numb ourselves from the extractive insanity of our capitalist economy, how grief and gratitude weave together in the climate emergency, the epigenetic trauma of living under white oppression and the joyful resilience of the marginalized. She often collaborates to develop creative strategies that might heal trauma, to plant seeds of activism, and imagine different outcomes. Early on, she discovered that her vulnerable story telling could generate stories from others, sometimes catalyzing positive actions. She has shared her work in city streets, alternative spaces, public parks, university galleries, community centers, and major museums. Her work has been written about in many books and journals and has developed an international following. After vibrant chapters in the New York and Los Angeles art worlds, including fruitful periods in other parts of North America, she has made a home in the Pacific Northwest since 2003. 

      Naidus received her BA from Carleton College, and an MFA with a full teaching fellowship from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design. She taught art as a subversive activity at NYC museums, the Institute for Social Ecology, California State University, Long Beach where she had tenure, Goddard College, Hampshire College and Carleton College. From 2003 until 2020, she was the only tenured artist on the UW Tacoma faculty where she shaped an innovative, interdisciplinary studio arts curriculum in art for social change and healing. She is the author of Arts for Change: Teaching Outside the Frame (a book that helped to shift studio arts curriculum in many places). She has written & published many essays on eco-art and social practice as well as a few works of speculative fiction, and she is currently writing, Rewilding Our Muses: Creative Strategies for Navigating the “End of the World” and is looking for a publisher. While co-directing the non-profit, SEEDS (Social Ecology Education and Demonstration School) with her husband, Dr. Bob Spivey, they are leading workshops online with a focus on art that deals with climate and racial justice and have formed an international collective. They are currently facilitating an in-person “story hive project” with neighbors and are planning more “pandemic processing and dreaming into the future we want” art workshops to happen in coming months. Her solo show, “The Dead Ocean Scrolls and other Possible Futures” will be on exhibit at the Tacoma Community College Gallery in November 2021.

      For more information visit her website: www.beverlynaidus.net, Instagram: #utopias4all Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/92685388277 or Beverly Naidus https://www.facebook.com/utopias4all

      Notable Mentions

      COCA: Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle: CoCA serves the Pacific Northwest as a catalyst and forum for the advancement, development, and understanding of Contemporary Art. 

      ONCA gallery in Brighton, England: O N C A is a Brighton based arts charity that bridges social and environmental justice issues with creativity.

      EXTREME MAKEOVER: Reimagining the Port of Tacoma Free of Fossil Fuels 2018 to the present.: This community-based art project reimagines the Port of Tacoma, an industrial port built on tribal land in violation of the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1854. The soil and water been contaminated by years of dumping and now hosts several designated superfund sites. In recent years, the community has been fighting the installation of new and dangerous fossil fuel projects in the Port and Extreme Makeover arose out of that resistance.

      Joanna Macy, author & teacher, is a scholar of Buddhism, systems thinking and deep ecology. A respected voice in movements for peace, justice, and ecology, she interweaves her scholarship with learnings from six decades of activism. Her wide-ranging work addresses psychological and spiritual issues of the nuclear age, the cultivation of ecological awareness, and the fruitful resonance between Buddhist thought and postmodern science. The many dimensions of this work are explored in her thirteen books, which include three volumes of poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke with translation and commentary.Thich Nhat Hanh: Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is a global spiritual leader, poet, and peace activist, renowned for his powerful teachings and bestselling writings on mindfulness and peace. A gentle, humble monk, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called him “an Apostle of peace and nonviolence” when nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Exiled from his native Vietnam for almost four decades, Thich Nhat Hanh has been a pioneer bringing Buddhism and mindfulness to the West, and establishing an engaged Buddhist community for the 21st Century.

      adrienne maree brown is the writer-in-residence at the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute, and author of Grievers (the first novella in a trilogy on the Black Dawn imprint), Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation, We Will Not Cancel Us and Other Dreams of Transformative Justice, Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds and the co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements and How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office. She is the cohost of the How to Survive the End of the World, Octavia’s Parables and Emergent Strategy podcasts. adrienne is rooted in Detroit.

      Cuban missile crisis: The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis of 1962 (Spanish: Crisis de Octubre), the Caribbean Crisis (Russian: Карибский кризис, tr. Karibsky krizis, IPA: [kɐˈrʲipskʲɪj ˈkrʲizʲɪs]), or the Missile Scare, was a 1-month, 4 day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union which escalated into an international crisis when American deployments of missiles in Italy and Turkey were matched by Soviet deployments of similar ballistic missiles in Cuba. Despite the short time frame, the Cuban Missile Crisis remains a defining moment in U.S. national security and nuclear war preparation. The confrontation is often considered BIO

      Beverly Naidus's art life has straddled the socially engaged margins of the art world, artful activism collaborations, and community-based art projects. Her audience participatory installations, artists books, photo-text and multimedia projects have dealt with the anxieties of being unemployed, nightmares about nuclear war, ways to transform body hate, using consumerism to numb ourselves from the extractive insanity of our capitalist economy, how grief and gratitude weave together in the climate emergency, the epigenetic trauma of living under white oppression and the joyful resilience of the marginalized. She often collaborates to develop creative strategies that might heal trauma, to plant seeds of activism, and imagine different outcomes. Early on, she discovered that her vulnerable story telling could generate stories from others, sometimes catalyzing positive actions. She has shared her work in city streets, alternative spaces, public parks, university galleries, community centers, and major museums. Her work has been written about in many books and journals and has developed an international following. After vibrant chapters in the New York and Los Angeles art worlds, including fruitful periods in other parts of North America, she has made a home in the Pacific Northwest since 2003. 

      Naidus received her BA from Carleton College, and an MFA with a full teaching fellowship from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design. She taught art as a subversive activity at NYC museums, the Institute for Social Ecology, California State University, Long Beach where she had tenure, Goddard College, Hampshire College and Carleton College. From 2003 until 2020, she was the only tenured artist on the UW Tacoma faculty where she shaped an innovative, interdisciplinary studio arts curriculum in art for social change and healing. She is the author of Arts for Change: Teaching Outside the Frame (a book that helped to shift studio arts curriculum in many places). She has written & published many essays on eco-art and social practice as well as a few works of speculative fiction, and she is currently writing, Rewilding Our Muses: Creative Strategies for Navigating the “End of the World” and is looking for a publisher. While co-directing the non-profit, SEEDS (Social Ecology Education and Demonstration School) with her husband, Dr. Bob Spivey, they are leading workshops online with a focus on art that deals with climate and racial justice and have formed an international collective. They are currently facilitating an in-person “story hive project” with neighbors and are planning more “pandemic processing and dreaming into the future we want” art workshops to happen in coming months. Her solo show, “The Dead Ocean Scrolls and other Possible Futures” will be on exhibit at the Tacoma Community College Gallery in November 2021.

      For more information visit her website: www.beverlynaidus.net, Instagram: #utopias4all Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/92685388277 or Beverly Naidus https://www.facebook.com/utopias4all

      Notable Mentions

      COCA: Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle: CoCA serves the Pacific Northwest as a catalyst and forum for the advancement, development, and understanding of Contemporary Art. 

      ONCA gallery in Brighton, England: O N C A is a Brighton based arts charity that bridges social and environmental justice issues with creativity.

      EXTREME MAKEOVER: Reimagining the Port of Tacoma Free of Fossil Fuels 2018 to the present.: This community-based art project reimagines the Port of Tacoma, an industrial port built on tribal land in violation of the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1854. The soil and water been contaminated by years of dumping and now hosts several designated superfund sites. In recent years, the community has been fighting the installation of new and dangerous fossil fuel projects in the Port and Extreme Makeover arose out of that resistance.

      Joanna Macy, author & teacher, is a scholar of Buddhism, systems thinking and deep ecology. A respected voice in movements for peace, justice, and ecology, she interweaves her scholarship with learnings from six decades of activism. Her wide-ranging work addresses psychological and spiritual issues of the nuclear age, the cultivation of ecological awareness, and the fruitful resonance between Buddhist thought and postmodern science. The many dimensions of this work are explored in her thirteen books, which include three volumes of poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke with translation and commentary.Thich Nhat Hanh: Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is a global spiritual leader, poet, and peace activist, renowned for his powerful teachings and bestselling writings on mindfulness and peace. A gentle, humble monk, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called him “an Apostle of peace and nonviolence” when nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Exiled from his native Vietnam for almost four decades, Thich Nhat Hanh has been a pioneer bringing Buddhism and mindfulness to the West, and establishing an engaged Buddhist community for the 21st Century.

      adrienne maree brown is the writer-in-residence at the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute, and author of Grievers (the first novella in a trilogy on the Black Dawn imprint), Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation, We Will Not Cancel Us and Other Dreams of Transformative Justice, Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds and the co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements and How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office. She is the cohost of the How to Survive the End of the World, Octavia’s Parables and Emergent Strategy podcasts. adrienne is rooted in Detroit.

      Cuban missile crisis: The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis of 1962 (Spanish: Crisis de Octubre), the Caribbean Crisis (Russian: Карибский кризис, tr. Karibsky krizis, IPA: [kɐˈrʲipskʲɪj ˈkrʲizʲɪs]), or the Missile Scare, was a 1-month, 4 day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union which escalated into an international crisis when American deployments of missiles in Italy and Turkey were matched by Soviet deployments of similar ballistic missiles in Cuba. Despite the short time frame, the Cuban Missile Crisis remains a defining moment in U.S. national security and nuclear war preparation. The confrontation is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.[3]

      Blue Mountain Center “ offers a unique refuge to artists, activists, organizers and cultural workers who produce transformative work for their times. We trust residents and conference attendees to choose the rhythm they need to counter the pressures of the world, whether through collaboration or solitude, work or rest, in a nurturing environment where they can connect to themselves, local and global movements, the land and story of the Adirondacks, and the growing BMC community?”

      Grace Lee Boggs (June 27, 1915 – October 5, 2015) was an American author, social activist, philosopher, and feminist.[4] She is known for her years of political collaboration with C. L. R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya in the 1940s and 1950s.[5] In the 1960s she and James Boggs, her husband of some forty years, took their own political direction.[6] By 1998, she had written four books, including an autobiography. In 2011, still active at the age of 95, she wrote a fifth book, The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century, with Scott Kurashige and published by the University of California Press. She is regarded as a key figure in the Asian American Movement. See Also: The James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership.

      OCTAVIA E. BUTLER was a renowned African American author who received a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work. Born in Pasadena in 1947, she was raised by her mother and her grandmother. She was the author of several award-winning novels including PARABLE OF THE SOWER (1993), which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and PARABLE OF THE TALENTS (1995) winner of the Nebula Award for the best science fiction novel published that year. She was acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists, and social observations in stories that range from the distant past to the far future.

      Octavia's Parables: Beginning with The Parable of the Sower, our hosts Toshi Reagon and adrienne maree brown are examining each of Octavia E Butler’s published works, chapter by chapter. Our podcast summarizes the storyline, places it in a strategic context for those intending to change the world, and provides questions to help bring Butler's ideas to life.

      ZAD de Notre-Dame-des-Landes (also known as ZAD NDDL) is the most well-known 'Zone to Defend' in France. Located in the Loire-Atlantique department near to Nantes, it is a very large, mostly agricultural terrain of 1,650 hectares (4,080 acres) which became nationally famous in the early 2010s and has resisted several concerted attempts by the French state to evict it.[1]

      For decades there was local resistance to plans to build a new airport in the rural commune of Notre-Dame-des-Landes. In the 2000s much of the land was squatted as farmers were evicted. The new occupants set up autonomous self-sufficient structures such as a communal bakery and animal husbandry. Attempts to evict the squatters saw largescale counter-mobilisations in 2012 and 2018. French president Emmanuel Macron announced in January 2018 that the plans for the airport would be shelved and the already existing airport at Nantes would be redeveloped instead. Many of the remaining projects at the ZAD then engaged in a process of legalisation.

      Jay Jordan and Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination: Infamous for fermenting mass disobedience on bicycles during Copenhagen's UN climate Summit, touring the UK recruiting a rebel clown army, building an illegal lighthouse on the site of an airport control tower, launching a rebel raft regatta to shut down a coal fired power station and refusing to be censored by London's Tate Modern museum, the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination has been walking on the tightrope between art and activism since 2004.

      “We bring together cultural workers and activists to co-design and carry out creative forms of direct-action which attempt to be as joyful as they are politically effective. We train people in entangling resistance and creativity and building resilient horizontal forms of organising. We call our work experiments, because we believe courage and creativity are fed when one claims the right to fail and we believe the role of art in this era of the Capitalocene is not to show the world to people but to transform it together.”

      Democracy Now! produces a daily, global, independent news hour hosted by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman and Juan González. Our reporting includes breaking daily news headlines and in-depth interviews with people on the front lines of the world’s most pressing issues. On Democracy Now!, you’ll hear a diversity of voices speaking for themselves, providing a unique and sometimes provocative perspective on global events.

      Emergent Strategy Podcast: Is the official podcast of the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute - each episode we dive deeply into the life, practice and experimentation of a person or group who we see as living embodiments of emergent strategy. Emergent Strategy is about how we get in right relationship with change - what are the simple interactions that can shift and shape complex systems and patterns? Hosts are Sage Crump, Mia Herndon and adrienne maree brown.

      Deep Adaptation: This Facebook page is part of the larger Deep Adaptation Forum (https://www.deepadaptation.info/), an international virtual community which includes multiple other platforms and offerings. This is where we share information on our inner and outer deep adaptation to unfoldinsocietal breakdown due to climate change. We share on:

      - The emotional, psychological and spiritual aspects of facing societal collapse;

      - Practical ways to support wellbeing ahead of/during collapse, at household, community, national, or international scale. We welcome collective action in a spirit of compassion.

      - We don’t share news on the state of the environment or climate here, nor on examples of social breakdown; in time, our feeds will be full of such news. We’re here to support deep adaptation to the situation, not to chronicle it.

      The Following are mentioned in our description of Change the Story / Change the World's second season starting on February 2, 2022.

      3300016c-7863-4845-accc-caddc8a86680Wed, 15 Dec 2021 05:15:00 -070040:10falsefull138381The pre-art artists had a lot of jobs: tracking the spirits, maintaining the ritual fire, healing the sick, holding history, and maybe most important, helping the community deak with life’s hard edges. This week’s guest, educator, community healer, and provocateur, Beverly Naidus has been functioning in these essential roles for most of her life.35: Meeting the Moment: How 67 Activist Artists Changed the Story of American Theater35: Meeting the Moment: How 67 Activist Artists Changed the Story of American TheaterJan Cohen-Cruz has given a lot to the field of arts-based community development. By that, I mean that there's a significant body of academic and community-based artwork, scholarship, teaching, and organizing that are absolutely covered with her fingerprints.

      BIO

      Jan Cohen-Cruz was the founding editor of Public: A Journal of Imagining America. She directed Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life (2007-12), and for 28 years before that, was a professor at NYU, directing a minor in applied theatre and initiating socially-engaged projects and courses. She wrote Engaging Performance: Theatre as Call and Response and Local Acts: Community‑Based Performance in the US. She edited Radical Street Performance and co‑edited Playing Boal: Theatre, Therapy, Activism and A Boal Companion. Jan was also a University Professor at Syracuse University. In 2012, she received the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s Award for Leadership in Community-Based Theatre and Civic Engagement. Here latest book, Meeting the Moment: Socially Engaged Theater, 1965 To 2020 written with Rad Pereira will published by New Village Press in May 2022.

      Notable Mentions (in order of appearance)

      Augusto Boal, was a Brazilian theatre practitioner, drama theorist, and political activist. He was the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, a theatrical form originally used in radical left popular education movements. Boal served one term as a Vereador (the Brazilian equivalent of a city councillor) in Rio de Janeiro from 1993 to 1997, where he developed legislative theatre.[1]

      Imagining America: “The Imagining America consortium (IA) brings together scholars, artists, designers, humanists, and organizers to imagine, study, and enact a more just and liberatory ‘America’ and world. Working across institutional, disciplinary, and community divides, IA strengthens and promotes public scholarship, cultural organizing, and campus change that inspires collective imagination, knowledge-making, and civic action on pressing public issues.”

      Public: “Public is a peer-reviewed, multimedia e-journal focused on humanities, arts, and design in public life. It aspires to connect what we can imagine with what we can do. We are interested in projects, pedagogies, resources, and ideas that reflect rich engagements among diverse participants, organizations, disciplines, and sectors.”

      Meeting the Moment Socially Engaged Theater, 1965 To 2020: Jan Cohen-Cruz and Rad Pereira: Curated stories from over 75 interviews and informal exchanges offer insight into the field and point out limitations due to discrimination and unequal opportunity for performance artists in the United States over the past 55 years. In this work, performers, often unknown beyond their immediate audience, articulate diverse influences.

      Open Theater: The Open Theater was an experimental theatre group active from 1963 to 1973.

      Franz Kafka's The Trial: The Trial is a novel written by Franz Kafka between 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor to the reader.

      Paris, May 1968 Strikes and Demonstrations: Beginning in May 1968, a period of civil unrest occurred throughout France, lasting some seven weeks and punctuated by demonstrations, general strikes, as well as the occupation of universities and factories. At the height of events, which have since become known as May 68, the economy of France came to a halt.[1]

      The Devil and Daniel Webster:The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1936) is a short story by American writer Stephen Vincent Benét. He tells of a New Hampshire farmer who sells his soul to the devil and is later defended by Daniel Webster, a fictional version of the noted 19th-century American statesman, lawyer and orator.

      Harvey Grossman: In this edited transcription of his remarks at the 2013 Pomona College (California) conference “Action, Scene and Voice,” Harvey Grossman elucidates the theory and practice of his two most important teachers: Edward Gordon Craig and Étienne Decroux. Grossman elucidates Craig’s much-debated comments on the “Art of the Theatre,” as well as Craig’s influence upon the French corporeal mime Étienne Decroux

      Richard Levy, New York Street Theater: The New York Street Theatre Caravan (NYSTC), formerly the City Street Theater, was a New York City-based socialist theater collective. First conceived by Marketa Kimbrell and Richard Levy in 1967, the company was founded on the principle of bringing theater to underprivileged and geographically isolated communities. NYSTC performed plays, puppet shows, skits, and concerts with themes meaningful to their audiences, such as racial inequality, workers' rights, homelessness, and other sociopolitical issues.

      Richard Schechner: Schechner was one of the founders of the Performance Studies department of the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. He founded The Performance Group of New York in 1967 and was its artistic director until 1980, when TPG changed its name to The Wooster Group.

      Liz Lerman:  Liz Lerman is a choreographer, performer, writer, teacher, and speaker. She has spent the past four decades making her artistic research personal, funny, intellectually vivid, and up to the minute. A key aspect of her artistry is opening her process to everyone from shipbuilders to physicists, construction workers to ballerinas, resulting in both research and experiences that are participatory, relevant, urgent, and usable by others

      Jan Cohen-Cruz has given a lot to the field of arts-based community development. By that, I mean that there's a significant body of academic and community-based artwork, scholarship, teaching, and organizing that are absolutely covered with her fingerprints.

      BIO

      Jan Cohen-Cruz was the founding editor of Public: A Journal of Imagining America. She directed Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life (2007-12), and for 28 years before that, was a professor at NYU, directing a minor in applied theatre and initiating socially-engaged projects and courses. She wrote Engaging Performance: Theatre as Call and Response and Local Acts: Community‑Based Performance in the US. She edited Radical Street Performance and co‑edited Playing Boal: Theatre, Therapy, Activism and A Boal Companion. Jan was also a University Professor at Syracuse University. In 2012, she received the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s Award for Leadership in Community-Based Theatre and Civic Engagement. Here latest book, Meeting the Moment: Socially Engaged Theater, 1965 To 2020 written with Rad Pereira will published by New Village Press in May 2022.

      Notable Mentions (in order of appearance)

      Augusto Boal, was a Brazilian theatre practitioner, drama theorist, and political activist. He was the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, a theatrical form originally used in radical left popular education movements. Boal served one term as a Vereador (the Brazilian equivalent of a city councillor) in Rio de Janeiro from 1993 to 1997, where he developed legislative theatre.[1]

      Imagining America: “The Imagining America consortium (IA) brings together scholars, artists, designers, humanists, and organizers to imagine, study, and enact a more just and liberatory ‘America’ and world. Working across institutional, disciplinary, and community divides, IA strengthens and promotes public scholarship, cultural organizing, and campus change that inspires collective imagination, knowledge-making, and civic action on pressing public issues.”

      Public: “Public is a peer-reviewed, multimedia e-journal focused on humanities, arts, and design in public life. It aspires to connect what we can imagine with what we can do. We are interested in projects, pedagogies, resources, and ideas that reflect rich engagements among diverse participants, organizations, disciplines, and sectors.”

      Meeting the Moment Socially Engaged Theater, 1965 To 2020: Jan Cohen-Cruz and Rad Pereira: Curated stories from over 75 interviews and informal exchanges offer insight into the field and point out limitations due to discrimination and unequal opportunity for performance artists in the United States over the past 55 years. In this work, performers, often unknown beyond their immediate audience, articulate diverse influences.

      Open Theater: The Open Theater was an experimental theatre group active from 1963 to 1973.

      Franz Kafka's The Trial: The Trial is a novel written by Franz Kafka between 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor to the reader.

      Paris, May 1968 Strikes and Demonstrations: Beginning in May 1968, a period of civil unrest occurred throughout France, lasting some seven weeks and punctuated by demonstrations, general strikes, as well as the occupation of universities and factories. At the height of events, which have since become known as May 68, the economy of France came to a halt.[1]

      The Devil and Daniel Webster:The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1936) is a short story by American writer Stephen Vincent Benét. He tells of a New Hampshire farmer who sells his soul to the devil and is later defended by Daniel Webster, a fictional version of the noted 19th-century American statesman, lawyer and orator.

      Harvey Grossman: In this edited transcription of his remarks at the 2013 Pomona College (California) conference “Action, Scene and Voice,” Harvey Grossman elucidates the theory and practice of his two most important teachers: Edward Gordon Craig and Étienne Decroux. Grossman elucidates Craig’s much-debated comments on the “Art of the Theatre,” as well as Craig’s influence upon the French corporeal mime Étienne Decroux

      Richard Levy, New York Street Theater: The New York Street Theatre Caravan (NYSTC), formerly the City Street Theater, was a New York City-based socialist theater collective. First conceived by Marketa Kimbrell and Richard Levy in 1967, the company was founded on the principle of bringing theater to underprivileged and geographically isolated communities. NYSTC performed plays, puppet shows, skits, and concerts with themes meaningful to their audiences, such as racial inequality, workers' rights, homelessness, and other sociopolitical issues.

      Richard Schechner: Schechner was one of the founders of the Performance Studies department of the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. He founded The Performance Group of New York in 1967 and was its artistic director until 1980, when TPG changed its name to The Wooster Group.

      Liz Lerman:  Liz Lerman is a choreographer, performer, writer, teacher, and speaker. She has spent the past four decades making her artistic research personal, funny, intellectually vivid, and up to the minute. A key aspect of her artistry is opening her process to everyone from shipbuilders to physicists, construction workers to ballerinas, resulting in both research and experiences that are participatory, relevant, urgent, and usable by others

      Jawole Willa Jo Zollar: Urban Bush Women: Urban Bush Women (UBW) galvanizes artists, activists, audiences and communities through performances, artist development, education and community engagement. With the ground-breaking performance ensemble at its core, and ongoing programs including the Summer Leadership Institute (SLI), BOLD (Builders, Organizers & Leaders through Dance) and the Choreographic Center Initiative, UBW affects the overall ecology of the arts by promoting artistic legacies; projecting the voices of the under-heard and people of color; bringing attention to and addressing issues of equity in the dance field and throughout the United States; and by providing platforms and serving as a conduit for culturally and socially relevant experimental art makers.

      Kathi Bentley: Kathryn Bentley is an associate professor of theater performance, and artistic director of Southern Illinois University’s Black Theatre Workshop. A theater professional with extensive experience as an actor, director and teaching artist, she holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Theater Directing and professional training in community arts and social justice. She is a 2002 St. Louis Regional Arts Commission Community Arts Institute Fellow, and she now serves as a faculty member for the institute. She is a National Conference for Community and Justice St. Louis Certified Diversity Facilitrainer and a Certified Lessac Kinesensic Voice and Movement Practitioner. 

      Love at the River’s Edge: A Shakespeare Festival St. Louis production that took place in both the streets of Pagedale, Missouri, and the farmland of Calhoun County, Illinois. Its remix of the classic play, titled “Love at the River’s Edge,” transports audience members across the Mississippi River to examine the urban and rural divide. 

      Pam Korza: co-directs Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts, that inspires, informs, promotes, and connects arts and culture as potent contributors to community, civic, and social change. Animating Democracy’s current work centers on building evaluation capacity of practitioners, funders, and other stakeholders to understand the impact of arts-based civic engagement and social change. Her writing and editing includes: the framework, Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change; the Continuum of Impact guide; a chapter in the book, Arts and Community Change (Routledge, 2015), and Critical Perspectives: Writings on Art & Civic Dialogue. 

      A Blade of Grass: provides resources to artists who demonstrate artistic excellence and serve as innovative conduits for social change. We evaluate the quality of work in this evolving field by fostering an inclusive, practical discourse about the aesthetics, function, ethics and meaning of socially engaged art that resonates within and outside the contemporary art dialogue.

      Animating Democracy: Animating Democracy’s current work centers on building evaluation capacity of practitioners, funders, and other stakeholders to understand the impact of arts-based civic engagement and social change.

      Tom Finklepearl: is an American arts promoter, former museum director, and former Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.[5] He was appointed in 2014 by the New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio,[5] and served through the end of 2019.[6]

      New York Department of Cultural Affairs, Public Artists in Residence (PAIR) is a municipal residency program that embeds artists in city government to propose and implement creative solutions to pressing civic challenges. Launched in the fall of 2015, PAIR takes its inspiration and its name from the pioneering work of artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, the first official (unsalaried) artist-in-residence with the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY), 1977 – present.

      Tania Bruguera: “Tania Bruguera was born in 1968 in Havana, Cuba.[1] she is and artist and activist who focused on installation and performance artist. She lives and works between New York and Havana, and has participated in numerous international exhibitions.[2] Her work is in the permanent collections of many institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art and Bronx Museum of the Arts and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana.[2]  Bruguera's work pivots around issues of power and control, and several of her works interrogate and re-present events in Cuban history.[3][4] As a result of her art actions and activism, Bruguera has been arrested and jailed several times”.

      Queens Museum: “The Queens Museum is dedicated to presenting the highest quality visual arts and educational programming for people in the New York metropolitan area, and particularly for the residents of Queens, a uniquely diverse, ethnic, cultural, and international community.”

      NYC Community Gardens Program: The thirty-year saga of New York City’s community gardens shows how an EcoTipping Point can be an effective tool for urban renewal, at a fraction of the typical cost. A garden can be more than just a place to stop and smell the roses. Its spin-off effects can help to tip a neighborhood and an entire city out of a cycle of squalor.

      Haja Worley: Harlem, gardens: Collaborating with Dr. Jan Cohen Cruz of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Haja was instrumental in getting NYU students from the Tisch COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS Program to develop workshops in the gardens; Haj also performed with the URBAN ENSEMBLE at Tisch, and, along with other community gardeners and drama students developed and performed “Common Green/Common Ground,” musical theatre on the community gardening situation in NYC which was under attack by then Mayor Rudy Giuliani. During those years, Haja also worked closely with documentary filmmaker Laura Beer in developing her film, “More Than Flowers,” a documentary of community gardens in NYC.

      The Point Community Development Corporation is a non-profit organization dedicated to youth development...]]>59bff2cc-9dd0-4cfc-b3f0-b683e81edf58Wed, 03 Nov 2021 05:00:00 -070047:50truefull135351Jan Cohen Cruz has given a lot to the field of arts-based community development. By that, I mean that there's a significant body of academic and community-based artwork, scholarship, teaching, and organizing that are absolutely covered with their fingerprints.34: From Life in Prison to Life as a Cultural Leader: The Redemption of Henry Frank34: From Life in Prison to Life as a Cultural Leader: The Redemption of Henry FrankHenry Frank was rotting in prison alone with no escape. Then, everything changed. In our conversation we talk about the heavy lift of imagining a different future, becoming an artist, discovering true friendship, and embracing his Yurok and Pomo cultures.

      Delicious Quotes

      And I was like, I refuse to die in prison. And from that point forward, I started my journey of introspection through the arts, through education, through workshops, through self-help groups to really become comfortable with the ugliness that I had at that time, and really confronted and release it by talking about it.

      So, I started learning more about my culture all because, I want to put these things into my painting, which opened up this box that I didn't even know it was in there that was empty. And then it just started filling up. And in my case, it really helped me connect back to my roots, to my culture, to my heritage, and to give me that thirst for more knowledge of where I came from and the history of my people.

      I was just thinking like, how did we lose our language? … And when I'm in the sweat lodge it's connected for me. And it's just man, the brutality. That my people, indigenous people, not just here, what they had to go through to be afraid to speak their own language, to be afraid, to do their own ceremonies, to be afraid to show who their children are so they can't beat them and make them do something. It was just, it was a mind opening.

      It's oh, this man cares about me... cause he knew how much I cared about him. He was my elder and my mentor and my teacher. And he was the one who changed my mind about the outside. And I'm just like, wow, I never had a friend before, a real friend.

      Don't go in thinking that you're going to change, somebody, and don't go in thinking you're gonna save somebody and don't go in with judgment, I did that for 35 years of my life and it got me into prison with a life sentence. 

      Hey, none of us are trash. None of us are unredeemable. … if you give us the opportunities and you give us the right environment and you give us the right teachers that we all, can be better. We can all evolve, and we can all learn how to be better people…

      I have really benefited from non-violent communication. Learning about how not to be violent with yourself, with your thoughts and how to really cherish express and just honor what you're feeling in a moment…


      Notable Mentions

      Red Tail Art: This is Henry Frank's artist website. Here is how he describes his practice: I enjoy bringing art into existence, I love the entire process, creating the backgrounds, finding the perfect image that fits the background, choosing the right colors to bring it to life, picking up the paintbrushes and mixing the colors and finally putting brush to canvas. It is very calming and relaxing, I go into a meditative state when I am the zone.

      The Museum of the American Indian: “Located in Marin County and situated on a site of an actual Miwok Village, the Museum is dedicated to providing the people of Northern California with programs and exhibits that deepen understanding and appreciation of Native American cultures.”

      Yurok People: “The mission of the Yurok Tribe is to exercise the aboriginal and sovereign rights of the Yurok People to continue forever our Tribal traditions of self-governance, cultural and spiritual preservation, stewardship of Yurok lands, waters and other natural endowments, balanced social and economic development, peace and reciprocity, and respect for the dignity and individual rights of all persons living within the jurisdiction of the Yurok Tribe, while honoring our Creator, our ancestors and our descendants.”

       Pomo People: “The Pomo are an indigenous people of California. The historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point. One small group, the Northeastern Pomo of the Stonyford vicinity of Colusa County, was separated from the core Pomo area by lands inhabited by Yuki and Wintuan speakers. “ Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomo

      William James Association: “The William James Association promotes work service in the arts, environment, education, and community development. Our work has been primarily centered around transformative arts experiences in nontraditional settings, serving men and women in and after prison and high-risk youth. Acting on the conviction that the fine arts enrich, heal and unite communities, the William James Association has brought exceptional artists into prisons throughout California and other states since 1977.”

      Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, “Napoleon Hill: Oliver Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American self-help author. He is best known for his book Think and Grow Rich (1937), which is among the 10 best-selling self-help books of all time.[1][2] Hill's works insisted that fervid expectations are essential to improving one's life.[3][4] Most of his books were promoted as expounding principles to achieve "success". Wilkipedia

      AKTA Lakota Museum and Cultural Center, Pine Ridge: "The land that makes up Pine Ridge Reservation is an integral part of the Lakota culture and the economic base of the reservation. The reservation is situated in southwestern South Dakota on the Nebraska state line, about 50 miles east of the Wyoming border. The area includes over 11,000 square miles contained in seven counties; Bennett, Custer, Fall River, Jackson and Oglala counties in South Dakota." 

      First Peoples Fund: “We believe art and culture are essential to life. Art embodies Native peoples’ culture, our understanding of who we are and where we come from. Artists and culture bearers give us the power to connect with our past and chart our future. We center the inherent rights and freedom of native peoples. We recognize that Native communities know what they need best to flourish. Native peoples are not defined by colonization or genocide, but by the strength and beauty of our own identities, cultures, and leadership.”Yurok Language Revitalization: “When...]]>Henry Frank was rotting in prison alone with no escape. Then, everything changed. In our conversation we talk about the heavy lift of imagining a different future, becoming an artist, discovering true friendship, and embracing his Yurok and Pomo cultures.

      Delicious Quotes

      And I was like, I refuse to die in prison. And from that point forward, I started my journey of introspection through the arts, through education, through workshops, through self-help groups to really become comfortable with the ugliness that I had at that time, and really confronted and release it by talking about it.

      So, I started learning more about my culture all because, I want to put these things into my painting, which opened up this box that I didn't even know it was in there that was empty. And then it just started filling up. And in my case, it really helped me connect back to my roots, to my culture, to my heritage, and to give me that thirst for more knowledge of where I came from and the history of my people.

      I was just thinking like, how did we lose our language? … And when I'm in the sweat lodge it's connected for me. And it's just man, the brutality. That my people, indigenous people, not just here, what they had to go through to be afraid to speak their own language, to be afraid, to do their own ceremonies, to be afraid to show who their children are so they can't beat them and make them do something. It was just, it was a mind opening.

      It's oh, this man cares about me... cause he knew how much I cared about him. He was my elder and my mentor and my teacher. And he was the one who changed my mind about the outside. And I'm just like, wow, I never had a friend before, a real friend.

      Don't go in thinking that you're going to change, somebody, and don't go in thinking you're gonna save somebody and don't go in with judgment, I did that for 35 years of my life and it got me into prison with a life sentence. 

      Hey, none of us are trash. None of us are unredeemable. … if you give us the opportunities and you give us the right environment and you give us the right teachers that we all, can be better. We can all evolve, and we can all learn how to be better people…

      I have really benefited from non-violent communication. Learning about how not to be violent with yourself, with your thoughts and how to really cherish express and just honor what you're feeling in a moment…


      Notable Mentions

      Red Tail Art: This is Henry Frank's artist website. Here is how he describes his practice: I enjoy bringing art into existence, I love the entire process, creating the backgrounds, finding the perfect image that fits the background, choosing the right colors to bring it to life, picking up the paintbrushes and mixing the colors and finally putting brush to canvas. It is very calming and relaxing, I go into a meditative state when I am the zone.

      The Museum of the American Indian: “Located in Marin County and situated on a site of an actual Miwok Village, the Museum is dedicated to providing the people of Northern California with programs and exhibits that deepen understanding and appreciation of Native American cultures.”

      Yurok People: “The mission of the Yurok Tribe is to exercise the aboriginal and sovereign rights of the Yurok People to continue forever our Tribal traditions of self-governance, cultural and spiritual preservation, stewardship of Yurok lands, waters and other natural endowments, balanced social and economic development, peace and reciprocity, and respect for the dignity and individual rights of all persons living within the jurisdiction of the Yurok Tribe, while honoring our Creator, our ancestors and our descendants.”

       Pomo People: “The Pomo are an indigenous people of California. The historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point. One small group, the Northeastern Pomo of the Stonyford vicinity of Colusa County, was separated from the core Pomo area by lands inhabited by Yuki and Wintuan speakers. “ Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomo

      William James Association: “The William James Association promotes work service in the arts, environment, education, and community development. Our work has been primarily centered around transformative arts experiences in nontraditional settings, serving men and women in and after prison and high-risk youth. Acting on the conviction that the fine arts enrich, heal and unite communities, the William James Association has brought exceptional artists into prisons throughout California and other states since 1977.”

      Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, “Napoleon Hill: Oliver Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American self-help author. He is best known for his book Think and Grow Rich (1937), which is among the 10 best-selling self-help books of all time.[1][2] Hill's works insisted that fervid expectations are essential to improving one's life.[3][4] Most of his books were promoted as expounding principles to achieve "success". Wilkipedia

      AKTA Lakota Museum and Cultural Center, Pine Ridge: "The land that makes up Pine Ridge Reservation is an integral part of the Lakota culture and the economic base of the reservation. The reservation is situated in southwestern South Dakota on the Nebraska state line, about 50 miles east of the Wyoming border. The area includes over 11,000 square miles contained in seven counties; Bennett, Custer, Fall River, Jackson and Oglala counties in South Dakota." 

      First Peoples Fund: “We believe art and culture are essential to life. Art embodies Native peoples’ culture, our understanding of who we are and where we come from. Artists and culture bearers give us the power to connect with our past and chart our future. We center the inherent rights and freedom of native peoples. We recognize that Native communities know what they need best to flourish. Native peoples are not defined by colonization or genocide, but by the strength and beauty of our own identities, cultures, and leadership.”Yurok Language Revitalization: “When the language revitalization effort began the use of old records helped new language learners. However, it was through hearing fluent speakers that many young learners fluency level increased. When the Yurok Tribe began to operate as a formal tribal government a language program was created.”

       Graton Rancheria: “The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria,[1] formerly known as the Federated Coast Miwok, is a federally recognized American Indian tribe of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo Indians.[2] The tribe was officially restored to federal recognition in 2000 by the U.S. government pursuant to the Graton Rancheria Restoration Act[3][4] “

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.

      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>f57ad1c9-3f0a-456b-95a6-0f0dc7fd1e24Wed, 20 Oct 2021 07:00:00 -070042:06truefull134341Henry Frank was rotting in prison, alone, with no escape. Then, everything changed. In our conversation we talk about the heavy lift of imagining a different future, becoming an artist, discovering true friendship, and embracing his Yurok and Pomo cultures.      33: Why Artist and Cultural Organizers in Hospitals Are Changing How We Heal33: Why Artist and Cultural Organizers in Hospitals Are Changing How We HealJill Sonke is a creative healer in service to a community of doctors, nurses, artists, educators, and most of all, patients on a journey that reunites the arts and medicine in their age-old roles as healing partners.

      BIO

      Jill is director of the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida (UF), and is currently serving as Senior Advisor to the CDC Vaccine Confidence and Demand Team on the COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Task Force. She is also an affiliated faculty member in the UF School of Theatre & Dance, Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases, the Center for African Studies, the STEM Translational Communication Center, and the One Health Center. Jill serves on the editorial board for Arts & Health journal and as a consulting editor for Health Promotion Practice journal. She is also director of the EpiArts Lab, a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab at UF, and the national initiative, Creating Health Communities: Arts + Public Health in America. 

      Dr. Sonke studied dance at Interlochen Arts Academy, the Florida State University, in London, Paris, and Athens with teachers of the Horton and Duncan techniques including Bella Lewitsky, Lynda Davis, Milton Meyers, Joy Kellman, Lori Belilove, Julia Levine, and Hortense Koluris. She has been a principle dancer and soloist with Lori Belilove & the Isadora Duncan Dance Company in New York and a guest performer and choreographer with Dance Alive! and Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theatre.

      With 27+ years of experience and leadership in arts in health, Dr. Sonke is active in research, teaching, and international cultural exchange. Her current research focuses on the arts and health communication, the arts in public health, and the effects of music on cost and quality of care in emergency medicine. She is the recipient of a New Forms Florida Fellowship Award, a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship Award, an Excellence in Teaching Award from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, a UF Internationalizing the Curriculum Award, a UF Most Outstanding Service Learning Faculty Award, a UF Public Health Champions award, a UF Cross-Campus Faculty Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and over 300 grants for her programs and research at the University of Florida.

      Delicious Quotes

      We were very fortunate to be in an institution with leaders who understood that the arts fit and we're important in a healthcare setting. That people should have the ability to engage creatively to make that experience of healthcare better, not just patients, but staff, and visitors and others.

      I remember going into rooms and introducing myself, you know, " dancer in residence," and people would furrow their brow and say, “I'm in the hospital, that doesn't belong here.” … Then the view of our program kind of evolved into “It's really nice. … it's really lovely.” And then after a bit more time, the overarching recognition was that this is really important …because our, our care providers we're recognizing that artists are really crucial members of the interprofessional care team.


      We interviewed all 31 members of the nursing staff on a medical surgical unit over a period of about 18 months to learn about how they perceived the effects of the work of artists in residence on their unit. …So, we learned that nurses recognized the benefits of engagement in the arts for their patients. They were asking the artists to come in when their patients needed distraction and relaxation, those sorts of things. … from a clinical perspective, they noticed that blood oxygen saturation. It would go up. That wasn't the focus of our study. I want to be clear, but observationally, they were noting the clinical things like that.

      (Dr. Daisy Fancourt) has been able to, to articulate very significant associations between arts and cultural participation in health. For example, people over the age of 50 who go to museums or galleries, … just once a month or more are almost half as likely to have the onset of depression or age-related disability. Similarly, kids who engage significantly in creativity are 48% less likely to be maladjusted, which is a very significant determinator of lifelong health. and she has as well repeated some Scandinavian studies … that determined that yes, people who participate in arts and cultural activities do live longer or are less likely to die early. In fact, 14%, less likely to die early.

      (In) Uganda …I learned how the Ministry of Health and the government in Uganda has used the arts as a very central primary means of health communication and of public health since the 1950s. …One of my first interviews was with a very high-ranking member of the Ministry of Health. And I said, “Why do you use the arts in public health?” And he furrowed his brow at me, looked at me like I was an idiot, and said, “You can't do public health without the arts. You can't just tell people health information; you have to engage them.”

      One day, I had a photographer with me, and she said, (to the patient) “What happens to your pain when you dance?” And she said, “It's still there. I don't care because I feel so good” And that particular day, I'm thinking of when we were dancing for about an hour and a half, her physician quietly came into the room and just sat and watched, and our eyes were closed, and we didn't really notice.
      And he left the room and put a big note at the front of her chart that said, “Dancing works better than meds, call Arts and Medicine.”

      Notable Mentions

      University of Florida Center for Arts and Medicine:  “Transform health and wellness through the arts. Use your creativity to advance health, wellness, and equity as a trained arts in health professional. Promote health one creative moment at a time.”

      The University of Florida, Center for Arts in Medicine, EpiArts  Lab:

      A National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab exploring the impact of the arts and cultural engagement on population health outcomes in the US through epidemiological analyses of US cohort studies.

      Shands Hospital’s artists in residence: Starting with two volunteer visual artists working on the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, Arts in Medicine now has 16 paid artists in all art disciplines working in six separate buildings throughout the UF Health system, covering the Gainesville and Jacksonville communities.

      University of Florida Health Shands Arts in Medicine Program: Artists in Residence work annually with over 100 volunteers from the Gainesville community and the University of Florida. These artists and volunteers engage patients, families, and staff in the creative disciplines of dance, writing, music, visual arts, and contemplative arts.

      Centers for Disease Control, Vaccine Competence, and Demand Team: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention appointed Jill Sonke, director of the UF Center for Arts in Medicine, as senior adviser to the Vaccine Confidence and Demand Team on the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force this summer. 

      Interlochen Arts Academy: “Our umbrella organization, Interlochen Center for the Arts, encompasses six distinct program areas, each founded to propel arts education and engagement: Interlochen Arts Camp, Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen Online, Interlochen Public Radio, Interlochen Presents, and Interlochen College of Creative Arts.” 

      Dr. John Grand Pole: Dr. Pole co-founded Arts in Medicine (AIM) at the University of Florida, arguably the nation’s leading university hospital arts program. As well as over 120 scientific publications, he has published more than 60 poems and essays on the healing arts, and performs as an improvisational actor and clown.

      Dr. Mary Rockwood Lane: is a professor, nurse, healing artist, painter and works as a professional Caritas coach with individuals and healthcare settings, both nationally and internationally.

      Dance in Medicine Program,...]]>Jill Sonke is a creative healer in service to a community of doctors, nurses, artists, educators, and most of all, patients on a journey that reunites the arts and medicine in their age-old roles as healing partners.

      BIO

      Jill is director of the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida (UF), and is currently serving as Senior Advisor to the CDC Vaccine Confidence and Demand Team on the COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Task Force. She is also an affiliated faculty member in the UF School of Theatre & Dance, Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases, the Center for African Studies, the STEM Translational Communication Center, and the One Health Center. Jill serves on the editorial board for Arts & Health journal and as a consulting editor for Health Promotion Practice journal. She is also director of the EpiArts Lab, a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab at UF, and the national initiative, Creating Health Communities: Arts + Public Health in America. 

      Dr. Sonke studied dance at Interlochen Arts Academy, the Florida State University, in London, Paris, and Athens with teachers of the Horton and Duncan techniques including Bella Lewitsky, Lynda Davis, Milton Meyers, Joy Kellman, Lori Belilove, Julia Levine, and Hortense Koluris. She has been a principle dancer and soloist with Lori Belilove & the Isadora Duncan Dance Company in New York and a guest performer and choreographer with Dance Alive! and Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theatre.

      With 27+ years of experience and leadership in arts in health, Dr. Sonke is active in research, teaching, and international cultural exchange. Her current research focuses on the arts and health communication, the arts in public health, and the effects of music on cost and quality of care in emergency medicine. She is the recipient of a New Forms Florida Fellowship Award, a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship Award, an Excellence in Teaching Award from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, a UF Internationalizing the Curriculum Award, a UF Most Outstanding Service Learning Faculty Award, a UF Public Health Champions award, a UF Cross-Campus Faculty Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and over 300 grants for her programs and research at the University of Florida.

      Delicious Quotes

      We were very fortunate to be in an institution with leaders who understood that the arts fit and we're important in a healthcare setting. That people should have the ability to engage creatively to make that experience of healthcare better, not just patients, but staff, and visitors and others.

      I remember going into rooms and introducing myself, you know, " dancer in residence," and people would furrow their brow and say, “I'm in the hospital, that doesn't belong here.” … Then the view of our program kind of evolved into “It's really nice. … it's really lovely.” And then after a bit more time, the overarching recognition was that this is really important …because our, our care providers we're recognizing that artists are really crucial members of the interprofessional care team.


      We interviewed all 31 members of the nursing staff on a medical surgical unit over a period of about 18 months to learn about how they perceived the effects of the work of artists in residence on their unit. …So, we learned that nurses recognized the benefits of engagement in the arts for their patients. They were asking the artists to come in when their patients needed distraction and relaxation, those sorts of things. … from a clinical perspective, they noticed that blood oxygen saturation. It would go up. That wasn't the focus of our study. I want to be clear, but observationally, they were noting the clinical things like that.

      (Dr. Daisy Fancourt) has been able to, to articulate very significant associations between arts and cultural participation in health. For example, people over the age of 50 who go to museums or galleries, … just once a month or more are almost half as likely to have the onset of depression or age-related disability. Similarly, kids who engage significantly in creativity are 48% less likely to be maladjusted, which is a very significant determinator of lifelong health. and she has as well repeated some Scandinavian studies … that determined that yes, people who participate in arts and cultural activities do live longer or are less likely to die early. In fact, 14%, less likely to die early.

      (In) Uganda …I learned how the Ministry of Health and the government in Uganda has used the arts as a very central primary means of health communication and of public health since the 1950s. …One of my first interviews was with a very high-ranking member of the Ministry of Health. And I said, “Why do you use the arts in public health?” And he furrowed his brow at me, looked at me like I was an idiot, and said, “You can't do public health without the arts. You can't just tell people health information; you have to engage them.”

      One day, I had a photographer with me, and she said, (to the patient) “What happens to your pain when you dance?” And she said, “It's still there. I don't care because I feel so good” And that particular day, I'm thinking of when we were dancing for about an hour and a half, her physician quietly came into the room and just sat and watched, and our eyes were closed, and we didn't really notice.
      And he left the room and put a big note at the front of her chart that said, “Dancing works better than meds, call Arts and Medicine.”

      Notable Mentions

      University of Florida Center for Arts and Medicine:  “Transform health and wellness through the arts. Use your creativity to advance health, wellness, and equity as a trained arts in health professional. Promote health one creative moment at a time.”

      The University of Florida, Center for Arts in Medicine, EpiArts  Lab:

      A National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab exploring the impact of the arts and cultural engagement on population health outcomes in the US through epidemiological analyses of US cohort studies.

      Shands Hospital’s artists in residence: Starting with two volunteer visual artists working on the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, Arts in Medicine now has 16 paid artists in all art disciplines working in six separate buildings throughout the UF Health system, covering the Gainesville and Jacksonville communities.

      University of Florida Health Shands Arts in Medicine Program: Artists in Residence work annually with over 100 volunteers from the Gainesville community and the University of Florida. These artists and volunteers engage patients, families, and staff in the creative disciplines of dance, writing, music, visual arts, and contemplative arts.

      Centers for Disease Control, Vaccine Competence, and Demand Team: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention appointed Jill Sonke, director of the UF Center for Arts in Medicine, as senior adviser to the Vaccine Confidence and Demand Team on the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force this summer. 

      Interlochen Arts Academy: “Our umbrella organization, Interlochen Center for the Arts, encompasses six distinct program areas, each founded to propel arts education and engagement: Interlochen Arts Camp, Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen Online, Interlochen Public Radio, Interlochen Presents, and Interlochen College of Creative Arts.” 

      Dr. John Grand Pole: Dr. Pole co-founded Arts in Medicine (AIM) at the University of Florida, arguably the nation’s leading university hospital arts program. As well as over 120 scientific publications, he has published more than 60 poems and essays on the healing arts, and performs as an improvisational actor and clown.

      Dr. Mary Rockwood Lane: is a professor, nurse, healing artist, painter and works as a professional Caritas coach with individuals and healthcare settings, both nationally and internationally.

      Dance in Medicine Program, University of Florida: The University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine, in conjunction with the School of Theatre and Dance, offers an Undergraduate Certificate in Dance in Medicine to UF students.  This certificate can serve as a credential for developing post-baccalaureate educational pathways and career options. 

      Duke University Arts in Health Program: “Arts & Health at Duke was founded in 1978 by James H. Semans, MD, in collaboration with Wayne\ Rundles, MD, professor of hematology and then-president of the American Cancer Society. First known as Cultural Services, the program originally offered monthly musical performances in the hospital cafeteria with the support of the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation.”

      University of Michigan Medical Arts Program: “The Medical Arts Program aims to enhance medical students’ and house officers’ ability to provide high-quality, humanistic clinical care through experiences and analysis of the musical, theatrical, literary, and visual arts that focus on essential but often overlooked skills such as empathy, awareness of social context, and comfort with the ambiguity and uncertainty that are a pervasive element of clinical care.”

      Dr. Daisy Fancourt, University College, London: Fancourt worked with the World Health Organization to develop an agenda that connected the arts, health and well-being. In one of her WHO reports, Fancourt concluded that arts interventions, including singing in a choir to improve the outcomes of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, present low-cost treatment options for healthcare workers.[18]

       What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being?  A scoping review: World Health Organization, 2019: Results from over 3000 studies identified a major role for the arts in the prevention of ill health, promotion of health, and management and treatment of illness across the lifespan.

      Ellen Dissanayake is a bio-anthropologist who studies, whether there is selective value to the arts, whether we need the arts and creativity in order to survive.

      Creating Healthy Communities Through Cross-Sector Collaboration: This paper presents a case for how collaboration among the public health, arts and culture, and community development sectors is critical to addressing the issues and conditions that limit health in America.

      Creating Healthy Communities, Arts and Public Health in America Initiative: Creating Healthy Communities: Arts + Public Health in America is a two-year national initiative led by the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine in partnership with ArtPlace America. The initiative will expand the intersections of arts, community development, and public health through strategic cross-sector collaboration, discovery, translation, and dissemination.

      The Arts and Health Communication in Uganda: A light Under the Table - This qualitative interview study brings the voices of 27 public health leaders, health communication experts, and artists who work in public health in Uganda together to articulate the principles and practices that make the country a shining example of effective, evidence-based use of the arts for health communication.

      Centers for Disease Control - How to Engage the Arts to build COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence: “Local artists can communicate vaccine information in a way that often makes it more understandable, memorable, culturally relevant, and actionable.”

      *******

      Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.


      Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.


      Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence and creative leadership in shaping a more just and inclusive world. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist for social justice, this podcast offers inspiration, practical advice, and a sense of solidarity in the journey toward art and social change.

      ]]>ef99a2b2-d32d-4a88-98a0-bfd756e41f44Wed, 06 Oct 2021 06:15:00 -070052:47falsefull133331Jill Sonke is a creative healer in service to a community of doctors, nurses, artists, educators, and most of all, patients on a journey that reunites the arts and medicine in their age-old roles as healing partners.      31: Joe Lambert - Making Good Stories that Help Us31: Joe Lambert - Making Good Stories that Help UsShow Notes

      The Story of My Story

      A Digital Story by K

      MUSIC PLAYING

      K: In a funny way, books raised me. I didn't have the things a child needs to be a child; security, safety, comfort, love. But I always found happiness in learning new things. When I turned eight, my mother passed away from her battle with AIDS.I remember how even at her funeral, I was thinking about how I could get my homework done. .

      Right after that I was brought to this country. And the only thing I could bring with me where my love of books, learning and knowledge

      in high school, I used to dream up. I would explore outer space when I was suddenly drowned by their words, criminal illegal. And I thought, how could a human be prohibited by law? I was so confused. My first reaction was laughter. The laughter turned to tears and rage. I made up my mind, I was going to fight to go to college and continue my education.

      I shared my story and quickly found that there were many like me. I began to speak out. At first, it felt good. I felt like I could bring about change. But one day I heard a voice on the radio, and I realized it was me, but it wasn't me. It wasn't my story. It was a story of a perfect poster child. They twisted my devotion to education into a sick plea to my oppressors.

      It was slowly killing me, having a face of the people that were denying me, the basic things, a human needs to be a human. To beg them for scraps from their fruitful plate. The very same plate they had filled by raping, enslaving, and killing my ancestors and my brothers and sisters around the world. I came to see that this was not just about me, not just about going to college, but about fighting the injustice experienced by all immigrants and all people suffering

      Even today, as I am denied the things a human needs to be a human. I lie in bed with a new book. I glance over at the shelf and see the books I read as a child and think of what I will write in my own.

      Bill Cleveland: This short story (The Story of My Story) is the audio from a video created by a young woman who identifies herself using the letter “K”. She made this piece at a digital storytelling workshop at the Story Center in the fall of 2012. Although it has an office and a classroom in Berkeley, California, the Story Center is not merely a place. It's actually a conviction that we all have stories to share that can inspire teach, bring joy, bear, witness, and heal. It's also a process that introduces people to the stories at their center that they've carried with them all their lives. The center's impact over nearly three decades has been both intensely personal and global.

      This conversation with Center director, Joe Lambert, explores the story of the Story Center, its history, its practice and its influence. Joe describes himself as a “small businessman, that has kept a little business going for a long time.” He's also unabashed and adding, “and we want to be revolutionaries” with the impetus once again, in Joe's words, “making good stories that help us.”

      JOE LAMBERT

      Joe and colleagues founded the StoryCenter/Center for Digital Storytelling in 1994, where they developed a unique computer training and arts program known as The Digital Storytelling Workshop. Joe has traveled the world to spread the practice of digital storytelling and has authored and produced curricula in many contexts, including the Digital Storytelling Cookbook, the principle manual for the workshop process, and Digital Storytelling: Story Work for Urgent Times (6th Edition). Born and raised in Texas, Joe has been active in the Bay Area arts community for the last 40 years as an arts activist, producer, administrator, teacher, writer, and director, and recently relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

      DELICIOUS QUOTES

      I understood the information revolution was a kind of iron horse coming through the communities of the world. In America in particular, but it was, it was like an iron horse. And I used to say, you can stand outside of it and shoot arrows and go, “I hate you.” Or I can jump on the goddamn thing and try to redirect it, do something with the technology as it came along. And I was always like, “Let's jump on it. Let's make the best of it.
      But I remembered it stayed with me that, Story circles, they're about protectiveness and readiness to tell stories. And usually, you're sorta discouraging people from fully going there because the re-traumatization that goes on when a series of intense stories are told one after another. But the flip side of that is that these moments of listening when they're conceived well, and there's a sense of protectiveness they can be Circles of, of absolute bravery of a heroism in which you unpack the, the impossible in order to hold it and to, to make something sensible about the insensible
      …you know, some people don't want people liberated. They want them stuck exactly in their oppression for the rest of time. And those people are out there and we're still resisting


      I feel like the work I'm doing is to create the conditions in which the dignity and agency of an individual is seen as having enough value to go out in the world and change it. Because I think an un-signifiable life is a life that can be destroyed, either by the person themselves, or by other people.


      Let's say that story matters to get people to move toward decency and away from thuggishness. Story matters, and it's a battle. It's a battle of ideas. So, I want to say the pandemic is the pandemic because in the battle of ideas, the stories of compassionate wearing of mass got muddled


      …we who are on the outside, well-trained in some professional capacity, can't really know what it's like to be that person. So, they need to talk to each other, and we need to get out of the way. And we need to develop peer mechanisms of support and solidarity, so that increasing numbers of people that run those programs aren't some person from some completely different life experience, but are people that came through similar life experience.


      I think stories of braveness, and the ordinariness of heroic behavior, we need those stories in front of us in order that we can also be on the front line.


      A big part of Story Center's work is we want to be revolutionaries. We know we don't want to just make it comfortable for everybody to tell a story. We want uncomfortable stories to force themselves into our mind so that we have to deal with it. So, there's gotta be a bit of that willingness to learn from this period as opposed to, “Gosh, I'm glad I didn't have to be there.” Yeah.


      MEMORABLE MENTIONS

      Story Center: “We create spaces for listening to and sharing stories, to help build a just and healthy world. Our public and custom workshops provide individuals and organizations with skills and tools that support self-expression, creative practice, and community building.” 

      San Francisco Tenants Action Group (TAG) Now called the San Francisco Tenants Union. “For more than 40 years, the city’s renters have turned to the San Francisco Tenants Union, a mostly volunteer-run organization, for advice on how to secure and maintain habitable and affordable housing.”

      Thomas Melancon & Lindi Yeni : “When Kuumba House was founded in 1982 (by South Africa’s Lindi Yeni and Houston’s Thomas Meloncon), the company’s main focus was producing plays by noteworthy playwrights.”

      Life on the Water: A vital San Francisco theater space that featured the work of three of the Bay Area's most...]]>Show Notes

      The Story of My Story

      A Digital Story by K

      MUSIC PLAYING

      K: In a funny way, books raised me. I didn't have the things a child needs to be a child; security, safety, comfort, love. But I always found happiness in learning new things. When I turned eight, my mother passed away from her battle with AIDS.I remember how even at her funeral, I was thinking about how I could get my homework done. .

      Right after that I was brought to this country. And the only thing I could bring with me where my love of books, learning and knowledge

      in high school, I used to dream up. I would explore outer space when I was suddenly drowned by their words, criminal illegal. And I thought, how could a human be prohibited by law? I was so confused. My first reaction was laughter. The laughter turned to tears and rage. I made up my mind, I was going to fight to go to college and continue my education.

      I shared my story and quickly found that there were many like me. I began to speak out. At first, it felt good. I felt like I could bring about change. But one day I heard a voice on the radio, and I realized it was me, but it wasn't me. It wasn't my story. It was a story of a perfect poster child. They twisted my devotion to education into a sick plea to my oppressors.

      It was slowly killing me, having a face of the people that were denying me, the basic things, a human needs to be a human. To beg them for scraps from their fruitful plate. The very same plate they had filled by raping, enslaving, and killing my ancestors and my brothers and sisters around the world. I came to see that this was not just about me, not just about going to college, but about fighting the injustice experienced by all immigrants and all people suffering

      Even today, as I am denied the things a human needs to be a human. I lie in bed with a new book. I glance over at the shelf and see the books I read as a child and think of what I will write in my own.

      Bill Cleveland: This short story (The Story of My Story) is the audio from a video created by a young woman who identifies herself using the letter “K”. She made this piece at a digital storytelling workshop at the Story Center in the fall of 2012. Although it has an office and a classroom in Berkeley, California, the Story Center is not merely a place. It's actually a conviction that we all have stories to share that can inspire teach, bring joy, bear, witness, and heal. It's also a process that introduces people to the stories at their center that they've carried with them all their lives. The center's impact over nearly three decades has been both intensely personal and global.

      This conversation with Center director, Joe Lambert, explores the story of the Story Center, its history, its practice and its influence. Joe describes himself as a “small businessman, that has kept a little business going for a long time.” He's also unabashed and adding, “and we want to be revolutionaries” with the impetus once again, in Joe's words, “making good stories that help us.”

      JOE LAMBERT

      Joe and colleagues founded the StoryCenter/Center for Digital Storytelling in 1994, where they developed a unique computer training and arts program known as The Digital Storytelling Workshop. Joe has traveled the world to spread the practice of digital storytelling and has authored and produced curricula in many contexts, including the Digital Storytelling Cookbook, the principle manual for the workshop process, and Digital Storytelling: Story Work for Urgent Times (6th Edition). Born and raised in Texas, Joe has been active in the Bay Area arts community for the last 40 years as an arts activist, producer, administrator, teacher, writer, and director, and recently relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

      DELICIOUS QUOTES

      I understood the information revolution was a kind of iron horse coming through the communities of the world. In America in particular, but it was, it was like an iron horse. And I used to say, you can stand outside of it and shoot arrows and go, “I hate you.” Or I can jump on the goddamn thing and try to redirect it, do something with the technology as it came along. And I was always like, “Let's jump on it. Let's make the best of it.
      But I remembered it stayed with me that, Story circles, they're about protectiveness and readiness to tell stories. And usually, you're sorta discouraging people from fully going there because the re-traumatization that goes on when a series of intense stories are told one after another. But the flip side of that is that these moments of listening when they're conceived well, and there's a sense of protectiveness they can be Circles of, of absolute bravery of a heroism in which you unpack the, the impossible in order to hold it and to, to make something sensible about the insensible
      …you know, some people don't want people liberated. They want them stuck exactly in their oppression for the rest of time. And those people are out there and we're still resisting


      I feel like the work I'm doing is to create the conditions in which the dignity and agency of an individual is seen as having enough value to go out in the world and change it. Because I think an un-signifiable life is a life that can be destroyed, either by the person themselves, or by other people.


      Let's say that story matters to get people to move toward decency and away from thuggishness. Story matters, and it's a battle. It's a battle of ideas. So, I want to say the pandemic is the pandemic because in the battle of ideas, the stories of compassionate wearing of mass got muddled


      …we who are on the outside, well-trained in some professional capacity, can't really know what it's like to be that person. So, they need to talk to each other, and we need to get out of the way. And we need to develop peer mechanisms of support and solidarity, so that increasing numbers of people that run those programs aren't some person from some completely different life experience, but are people that came through similar life experience.


      I think stories of braveness, and the ordinariness of heroic behavior, we need those stories in front of us in order that we can also be on the front line.


      A big part of Story Center's work is we want to be revolutionaries. We know we don't want to just make it comfortable for everybody to tell a story. We want uncomfortable stories to force themselves into our mind so that we have to deal with it. So, there's gotta be a bit of that willingness to learn from this period as opposed to, “Gosh, I'm glad I didn't have to be there.” Yeah.


      MEMORABLE MENTIONS

      Story Center: “We create spaces for listening to and sharing stories, to help build a just and healthy world. Our public and custom workshops provide individuals and organizations with skills and tools that support self-expression, creative practice, and community building.” 

      San Francisco Tenants Action Group (TAG) Now called the San Francisco Tenants Union. “For more than 40 years, the city’s renters have turned to the San Francisco Tenants Union, a mostly volunteer-run organization, for advice on how to secure and maintain habitable and affordable housing.”

      Thomas Melancon & Lindi Yeni : “When Kuumba House was founded in 1982 (by South Africa’s Lindi Yeni and Houston’s Thomas Meloncon), the company’s main focus was producing plays by noteworthy playwrights.”

      Life on the Water: A vital San Francisco theater space that featured the work of three of the Bay Area's most talented artists. Bill Tallen, Ellen Sebastian, and Leonard Pitt. See Stage Left, a documentary about San Francisco’s activist theater tradition.

      WeVideo: A versatile and affordable online video editing web site.

      The Moth  “For 20 years we've been collecting and sharing stories. Now we're taking a moment to pause and look back, from a whiskey-fueled dream in Georgia to the storytelling movement of today. We honor and celebrate the diversity and commonality of human experience, with 25,000 stories to date, shared live and without notes.”

      This American Life  “Mostly we do journalism, but an entertaining kind of journalism that’s built around plot. In other words, stories! Our favorite sorts of stories have compelling people at the center of them, funny moments, big feelings, surprising plot twists, and interesting ideas. Like little movies for radio. Our show is heard by more than 2 million listeners each week on over 500 public radio stations in the U.S., with another 2.8 million people downloading each episode as a podcast.

      StoryCorps,: StoryCorps’ mission is to preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world. Its Library of Congress archive is the largest collection of recorded stories in the world. 

      Dave Isay: "An American radio producer and founder of Sound Portraits Productions.[1] He is also the founder of StoryCorps, an ongoing oral history project.[2] He is the recipient of numerous broadcasting honors, including six Peabody Awards and a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship. He is the author/editor of numerous books that grew out of his public radio documentary work." (Wikipedia)

      NursStory Project: “In 2008, StoryCenter and nursing researcher Sue Hagedorn began Nurstory, a collaborative project that examines how personal stories of nurses and other providers can contribute to nursing education.”

       

      ]]>cc987f5f-1b7d-4f0f-a193-87f6657c8641Wed, 01 Sep 2021 07:00:00 -070049:25truefull131311The Story Center is not merely a place. It's actually a conviction that we all have stories to share that can inspire teach, bring joy, bear, witness, and heal. It's also a process that introduces people to the stories at their center that they've carried with them all their lives.      30: From Judy Chicago to Juvenile Halls: How One Activist Artist Facilitated Radical Change Through Creativity30: From Judy Chicago to Juvenile Halls: How One Activist Artist Facilitated Radical Change Through Creativity Susan Hill: The Path Made by Walking Forward
      Susan Hill has, one of the best minds, and hearts I know for translating human creativity to the needs of the human community. In our conversation, we talk about how that complex alchemy works, and doesn’t, getting the respect of people who really distrust you, and what happens when the lights go off in a high-security prison classroom. Here is her bio followed by our full transcript.

      Susan Hill: I’m an eccentric combination of very small towns in New England, and very very large, diverse, multi-lingual cities: living by the ocean is the constant. My relatives include a clipper ship navigator, a detective, excellent carpenters, a race horse trainer, a car salesman, a dressmaker, an artist who changed / Americanized her name, nurses and teachers and wonderful cooks. I love the risks, the service, and the high craft implicit in their lives.


      I went to college (1961-1965) , not to art school … but fell in love with photography in college, learned to develop film and to print images by apprenticing, began photographing people and neighborhoods in New York and Los Angeles .. walking everywhere, photographing. This is how I began … an immersion in seeing a city, in fact, documenting what I saw … but as witness, documentarian, not an agent. I was looking for a different way of working, and went to a lecture by (then, young) Judy Chicago (1975) , who spoke about a new project she was beginning, a project she needed people to work with her. The Project was The Dinner Party.
      I was one of the first people who entered her studio to work; our early conversations, and the skills I’d learned from my grandmother, led to our deciding to add embroidered panels to each place setting, my being responsible for the embroidery, for the teams of stitchers, we trained.
      The studio environment, the collaborations, the engagement with direct social action, changed everything.After The Dinner Party was complete, I worked with Judy Baca, founder of SPARC (Social and Public Art Resource Center) during the design and painting of the last segment of The Great Wall mural … a brilliant and generous mentor, deepening my love of collaboration and community engagement. (NOTE: Judy is now embarking on one more segment of the Wall.) 
      At the same time, Susan Loewenberg, founder of L.A. Theatre Works, was Director of Artists in Prison and Other Places; she hired me as an artist in residence for California Institution for Women, responsible for creating a fiber arts project with the inmates that would be given public exhibitions. It became a two-year residency called When Prison is Home, creating quilted triptych banners documenting life with family, life within prison, circled by aspirations, worked by inmates, and free women who came to project sessions in the prison as team members. Most of the inmates we worked with had long sentences or life sentences; were considered respected elders of the prison community, had power, were good mentors, generous collaborators.
      The CIW project experience led to Artsreach, which expanded our community constituencies and the range of arts disciplines. Our worksites included youth and adult prisons, service agencies for seriously developmentally challenged adults, community centers in marginalized areas of South Central, Watts and East Los Angeles. We began a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic theatre company that wrote its own material, there was modern dance, African drumming, spoken word poetry, ceramics, book arts, drawing and painting, collage, video, music. Some programs were skills-based, with traditional development of individual skills; some were initiated with the intention of engaging the public.
      My continual engagement has always been the expansive possibilities and the risk of collaboration, the engagement in Story, rendered in high skill for personal and public education, the continuing essential of social change. I love being In the Room.

       Transcript

      Bill Cleveland: [00:00:00] This Episode’s conversation is with Susan Hill. Susan is a good friend with whom I spent many years traversing the, often difficult, confounding, even hilarious, landscape of the of the California Department of Corrections. We spent over a decade bringing artists into institutions up and down the state. Susan's particular beat was Southern California, her creative launching pad an organization called UCLA Artsreach, which she directed. In that position, she functioned as an impresario, an inspiration, a creative thinker, and as a master navigator of difficult and challenging environments bring a band of great artists with her all the way.

      In other chapters, Susan also worked with Judy Chicago as a midwife for the iconic feminist art installation The Dinner Party was a principal driver of the historic Art in other Places Conference and is an accomplished textile artist. She has, I think. One of the best minds, and hearts I know for translating human creativity to needs of the human community. In our conversation we talk about how that complex alchemy works, and doesn’t, getting the respect of people who really distrust you, and what happens when the lights go off in a high-security prison classroom.

      This is Change the Story / Change the World, A Chronicle of Art and Community Transformation, my nave is Bill Cleveland.

      BC: You got it to work.

      Susan Hill: [00:01:17] Oh, yeah. Yes. got it to work, got the dogs fed, but really, there should be a rule that you don't call up people in Maine in late February, because we look awful. We have vegetables stored in the basement and we look fairly similar.

      BC: [00:01:32] Well, at least you have something to eat.

      SH: [00:01:34] Yes, exactly. Exactly.

      BC: [00:01:37] So how you be?

      SH: [00:01:39] Okay. Maine is one of the states that, has a really low rate of incidence we live in a very small community and on the whole it's been really cooperative. and although there is a very strong contingent here of deniers.

      BC: So, my reason for doing this is to give you an opportunity to go into your Rolodex of available stories. But before I start one thing, I would ask is how do you describe that as a way of working in the world?

       SH: First of all, I'm going to say, thank you, bill Cleveland. And I really want to acknowledge that you have been a fellow traveler in so many ways. And I'm so grateful for all of that.

      But the question of “How do I describe the work?” is really lovely. And when I thought about it, I thought, my first real jobs in the world was --- one, I was a summer waitress all night from when I graduated from high school and all through college. And after college, when I moved to New York, my first jobs were: I was the receptionist because I couldn't type, to the president of the Ford Foundation, and in the holidays, in my spare time, I sold toys at FAO Schwartz. So, the linchpin of me working in the world is good service and fun and interesting people.

      BC: [00:03:09] Okay.

      SH: [00:03:10] And there were interesting people coming to the Ford Foundation for money, with good ideas. And there were wonderful people coming into FAO Schwartz to buy toys. I consider myself an artist, but I'm self-taught, didn't go to art school--- didn't have those goals. So, I see myself more as a facilitator for good service. I want to work collaboratively, and for the purpose of social change, whether it's small or large, and I really am committed to collaboration. I'm committed to working in council circles so that everyone has an equitable voice, and I'm committed to nonviolence.

      BC: [00:03:46] That's a wonderful package.

      SH: [00:03:48] it's a Rolodex.

      BC: [00:03:50] Yes, it is. So, one of the things that features prominently in my experience with you, is that you have facilitated many things. But the way in which you go about doing that is very much as an artist. And every place I have visited that you have lived has, I would say, is more of a studio than it is a living room or kitchen. And so, I think if you, as a working maker in the world with the thing you love.

      SH: [00:04:23] Yes. Well, first of all, I hate housework. But I, I believe implicitly that everybody is creative. And I believe that creativity is not from our brain, it's not part of the logic that we have, that as Jung says, it's actually from the heart, that the soul is located in the heart. And that creativity is a deep intelligence that we all have that manifests differently.

      Creativity is very much like cooking. there are certain ways that it demands, that given the ingredients, it has to be done. You can't rush it. You can't overcook it. Yes, I really love walking into places and, creating the environment. I think it's equally important, even if you're borrowing a classroom from the history teacher in the California youth authority prison system, the way that you, what we used to call, create the rules of the room, is as important and has to work in the service of creativity. And then you go about the business of being creative.

      BC: [00:05:28]]]> Susan Hill: The Path Made by Walking Forward

      Susan Hill has, one of the best minds, and hearts I know for translating human creativity to the needs of the human community. In our conversation, we talk about how that complex alchemy works, and doesn’t, getting the respect of people who really distrust you, and what happens when the lights go off in a high-security prison classroom. Here is her bio followed by our full transcript.

      Susan Hill: I’m an eccentric combination of very small towns in New England, and very very large, diverse, multi-lingual cities: living by the ocean is the constant. My relatives include a clipper ship navigator, a detective, excellent carpenters, a race horse trainer, a car salesman, a dressmaker, an artist who changed / Americanized her name, nurses and teachers and wonderful cooks. I love the risks, the service, and the high craft implicit in their lives.


      I went to college (1961-1965) , not to art school … but fell in love with photography in college, learned to develop film and to print images by apprenticing, began photographing people and neighborhoods in New York and Los Angeles .. walking everywhere, photographing. This is how I began … an immersion in seeing a city, in fact, documenting what I saw … but as witness, documentarian, not an agent. I was looking for a different way of working, and went to a lecture by (then, young) Judy Chicago (1975) , who spoke about a new project she was beginning, a project she needed people to work with her. The Project was The Dinner Party.
      I was one of the first people who entered her studio to work; our early conversations, and the skills I’d learned from my grandmother, led to our deciding to add embroidered panels to each place setting, my being responsible for the embroidery, for the teams of stitchers, we trained.
      The studio environment, the collaborations, the engagement with direct social action, changed everything.After The Dinner Party was complete, I worked with Judy Baca, founder of SPARC (Social and Public Art Resource Center) during the design and painting of the last segment of The Great Wall mural … a brilliant and generous mentor, deepening my love of collaboration and community engagement. (NOTE: Judy is now embarking on one more segment of the Wall.) 
      At the same time, Susan Loewenberg, founder of L.A. Theatre Works, was Director of Artists in Prison and Other Places; she hired me as an artist in residence for California Institution for Women, responsible for creating a fiber arts project with the inmates that would be given public exhibitions. It became a two-year residency called When Prison is Home, creating quilted triptych banners documenting life with family, life within prison, circled by aspirations, worked by inmates, and free women who came to project sessions in the prison as team members. Most of the inmates we worked with had long sentences or life sentences; were considered respected elders of the prison community, had power, were good mentors, generous collaborators.
      The CIW project experience led to Artsreach, which expanded our community constituencies and the range of arts disciplines. Our worksites included youth and adult prisons, service agencies for seriously developmentally challenged adults, community centers in marginalized areas of South Central, Watts and East Los Angeles. We began a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic theatre company that wrote its own material, there was modern dance, African drumming, spoken word poetry, ceramics, book arts, drawing and painting, collage, video, music. Some programs were skills-based, with traditional development of individual skills; some were initiated with the intention of engaging the public.
      My continual engagement has always been the expansive possibilities and the risk of collaboration, the engagement in Story, rendered in high skill for personal and public education, the continuing essential of social change. I love being In the Room.

       Transcript

      Bill Cleveland: [00:00:00] This Episode’s conversation is with Susan Hill. Susan is a good friend with whom I spent many years traversing the, often difficult, confounding, even hilarious, landscape of the of the California Department of Corrections. We spent over a decade bringing artists into institutions up and down the state. Susan's particular beat was Southern California, her creative launching pad an organization called UCLA Artsreach, which she directed. In that position, she functioned as an impresario, an inspiration, a creative thinker, and as a master navigator of difficult and challenging environments bring a band of great artists with her all the way.

      In other chapters, Susan also worked with Judy Chicago as a midwife for the iconic feminist art installation The Dinner Party was a principal driver of the historic Art in other Places Conference and is an accomplished textile artist. She has, I think. One of the best minds, and hearts I know for translating human creativity to needs of the human community. In our conversation we talk about how that complex alchemy works, and doesn’t, getting the respect of people who really distrust you, and what happens when the lights go off in a high-security prison classroom.

      This is Change the Story / Change the World, A Chronicle of Art and Community Transformation, my nave is Bill Cleveland.

      BC: You got it to work.

      Susan Hill: [00:01:17] Oh, yeah. Yes. got it to work, got the dogs fed, but really, there should be a rule that you don't call up people in Maine in late February, because we look awful. We have vegetables stored in the basement and we look fairly similar.

      BC: [00:01:32] Well, at least you have something to eat.

      SH: [00:01:34] Yes, exactly. Exactly.

      BC: [00:01:37] So how you be?

      SH: [00:01:39] Okay. Maine is one of the states that, has a really low rate of incidence we live in a very small community and on the whole it's been really cooperative. and although there is a very strong contingent here of deniers.

      BC: So, my reason for doing this is to give you an opportunity to go into your Rolodex of available stories. But before I start one thing, I would ask is how do you describe that as a way of working in the world?

       SH: First of all, I'm going to say, thank you, bill Cleveland. And I really want to acknowledge that you have been a fellow traveler in so many ways. And I'm so grateful for all of that.

      But the question of “How do I describe the work?” is really lovely. And when I thought about it, I thought, my first real jobs in the world was --- one, I was a summer waitress all night from when I graduated from high school and all through college. And after college, when I moved to New York, my first jobs were: I was the receptionist because I couldn't type, to the president of the Ford Foundation, and in the holidays, in my spare time, I sold toys at FAO Schwartz. So, the linchpin of me working in the world is good service and fun and interesting people.

      BC: [00:03:09] Okay.

      SH: [00:03:10] And there were interesting people coming to the Ford Foundation for money, with good ideas. And there were wonderful people coming into FAO Schwartz to buy toys. I consider myself an artist, but I'm self-taught, didn't go to art school--- didn't have those goals. So, I see myself more as a facilitator for good service. I want to work collaboratively, and for the purpose of social change, whether it's small or large, and I really am committed to collaboration. I'm committed to working in council circles so that everyone has an equitable voice, and I'm committed to nonviolence.

      BC: [00:03:46] That's a wonderful package.

      SH: [00:03:48] it's a Rolodex.

      BC: [00:03:50] Yes, it is. So, one of the things that features prominently in my experience with you, is that you have facilitated many things. But the way in which you go about doing that is very much as an artist. And every place I have visited that you have lived has, I would say, is more of a studio than it is a living room or kitchen. And so, I think if you, as a working maker in the world with the thing you love.

      SH: [00:04:23] Yes. Well, first of all, I hate housework. But I, I believe implicitly that everybody is creative. And I believe that creativity is not from our brain, it's not part of the logic that we have, that as Jung says, it's actually from the heart, that the soul is located in the heart. And that creativity is a deep intelligence that we all have that manifests differently.

      Creativity is very much like cooking. there are certain ways that it demands, that given the ingredients, it has to be done. You can't rush it. You can't overcook it. Yes, I really love walking into places and, creating the environment. I think it's equally important, even if you're borrowing a classroom from the history teacher in the California youth authority prison system, the way that you, what we used to call, create the rules of the room, is as important and has to work in the service of creativity. And then you go about the business of being creative.

      BC: [00:05:28] And the other thing, which was implicit in what you said is that the artist is not some kind of elixir that spreads creativity on everybody in the room, but it's an equal opportunity, resource --- everybody there has it.

      SH: [00:05:41] Everybody there has it.

      BC: [00:05:42] Yep. Yep. given that path, how did you come to it?

      SH: [00:05:45] I grew up in very small towns in Massachusetts, south of Boston, quite close to Plymouth. And my grandmother was the oldest of 12 children, six boys, six girls, and they all. lived in that area. So, we had tons of relatives on Cape Cod. We had tons of relatives in Maine. So, we were continually, in these small, new England towns --- going fishing.

      BC: [00:06:11] Yeah. Were there other artists in your family was creativity in abundance around you?

      SH: [00:06:17] that's an interesting question because I think actually one of the greatest artists in my family, was my grandmother, my little short, Scottish, Anna McDonald McNeilen, grandmother, who was, as I said, the oldest of 12 children. And she was taken out of school when she was probably 10 or 11 to stay home and help her mother. But I think I learned about beauty from her and I learned about making things grow. From her, I learned patience from her. She had an intrinsically artistic soul. We did have one artist in the family, my great aunt, Emily Josephine O'Hare, who was the granddaughter of a celestial navigator on clipper ships.

      BC: [00:07:02] Wow.

      SH: [00:07:03] And her name was Emily Josephine. Her sister's name was Susan. But Emily Josephine went to Pratt in New York and was an artist and she taught in a private school in Boston if she had shows, and she traveled and everyone thought she was, crazy. So

      BC: [00:07:21] yeah.

      SH: [00:07:21] it wasn't a good thing to be an artist. But I think the other side of it is that people in my family, women and men alike could make things. And things got made or things got repaired and effortlessly, and that, was always wonderful to see. Yeah.

      BC: [00:07:37] Yeah. And with the materials that are available. Which is okay. We call that recycling now. So, A story or two. so what are you going to tell us today?

      SH: [00:08:37]] I think, as I thought about this, I do want to acknowledge that we, you and I we're so fortunate to have lived in a golden time when everything aligned and not only that but it completely bore out.

      BC: Okay.

      SH: Ex-hippie philosophies, that the world is good, and everything will work out. But we were in Arts in Corrections in the earliest days of Arts in Corrections when there was a small number of prisons and the budget was adequate, and there were enlightened people in the community. And in the California legislature that supported that work that saw the benefit of that work. So, we were given a kind of support to do something on a large scale that was quite phenomenal.

      Then my experience is that our experiences really deepened as we got to work with more artists. and I think in that system, we also knew that this could not possibly last. The California prison system is I think the largest paramilitary well-armed bureaucracies in the world.

      BC: [00:09:07] Yep.

      SH: [00:09:07] …dedicated to punishment. What the fuck would did they let us in there for? there was something really deeply prophetic and wonderful about the fact that we knew that it wouldn't last in its earliest incarnation so that we really paid attention. And I think that what was, important was, as I said, learning to be bilingual, so that when we did work with the prison administrators, which we did, I think the partnership was so solid, but we had to speak the same language. We had to acknowledge the same goals.

      So, when you, ask about my work and telling stories, I think part of it is to say that I personally went in and was an artist. That's how I started. I was invited by Susan Allen Loewenberg, bless her, of LA theater Works to go and do a large project in what was then the only women's prison. And out of that, I became the director at ArtsReach, which was the Southern California partner for Arts in Corrections. So, I would go in and be a resident artist.

      BC: [00:10:56] With an interesting cast of characters, with, I recall, three Manson Family members, right?

      SH: [00:11:00] With a very, yeah very interesting cast of characters there. But I also was the director of ArtsReach, which meant that I was in collaboration with all of these institutions and funding sources and artists. We had usually about 150 artists that we could call on. It was usually 50 people under contract at any one time. We wanted the artist teams to look like the prison population, which was largely black and then brown, and then, white, and then "other." Which we did. We had to break a lot of people out of the comfort zone, That kind of collaboration, I think, is something that I learned from. And it informed me for all of the work we did. Our work in prison was good, and we were invited. then to go and duplicate the program in the California Youth Authority, which was a separate prison system for kids ages 12 to 18. Although they could be a little older. We were specifically told that we had to create a theater program. And we did. And we had an ensemble of nine Los Angeles actors that were multilingual diversified, funny, irritating, troublesome, fabulous.

      And they were trained, by some of the best which included Laurie Meadoff, Dexter Locke from City Kids in New York, John Bergman and Geese Theater Company, , phenomenal, Rebecca Rice. and they were trained to work in teams and to work with incarcerated kids. And we did plays that they made up. And I think the prison system really thought when they asked for a theater program, I think they meant a talent show. And from there we also worked in continuation high schools in Los Angeles. Multi-generational. Community high schools that were also multi-lingual worked in a, facility, it said over the door for abandoned and neglected girls. it's been, and I've worked in also, I did a program in a elder facility in Los Angeles.

      :[00:13:12 And one of the things I will say actually for advice is that I came to believe that we all have a special constituency that we're good at. I was really good in dangerous situations that required , adrenaline, and quick thinking. And I think part of what was always really important to me was that we brought a kind of humanity into the room. And the rules of the room included, that we didn't know anything that it brought the person to be incarcerated. They didn't know that much about us either. And so, when you meet there, as Rumi says, there's a field beyond right and wrong. And it was neutral turf. Also, we were very fortunate that, although the prison system was very racist and gang oriented, that we got mixed groups of people in the room so there would be people in the room who might be enemies in the yard, or certainly not talk to each other, but they became part of the ensemble once in the room.

      And then also we never patronized anybody. we just worked to the highest standards we could. We just thought, “Come on, you want to do this good, don't you? Let's do this good.” Which meant in that place music was rehearsed, and there was genuine constructive criticism that everybody shared. And the language was non-violent language. We used given names. And so, when aguard or a staff person or an administrator would come into the room, very often they would come over. to me and say, “I've never heard them call each other anything except their gang name. And he just called him Daniel. He just said he was his friend. Do you know who those two guys are?” “Yeah. That's Daniel and Luis.” Or one guard came up to me and he, watched this kid and he said, ”I didn't know, he could talk. And you have him singing.”

      And there was this play that we did, where there was one white kid in the play. And most of the rest of the kids were black. And we were working with some African drummers in it. And the white kid decided he was going to play the sax. “Okay.” And he was going play the fool and, “Okay.” So, he came out first in the play, like the narrator, the guide, and the kids in the audience began to laugh and he began to play his...]]>8f3bdf18-9665-4eb0-96b0-6226d2f1fca3Mon, 09 Aug 2021 07:00:00 -070038:37truefull130301Susan Hill has, one of the best minds, and hearts I know for translating human creativity to the needs of the human community. In our conversation, we talk about how that complex alchemy works, and doesn’t, getting the respect of people who really distrust you, and what happens when the lights go off in a high-security prison classroom.29: The Music Is Her Prayer: How Becky Reardon Found Sacred Connection in Nature, Song. And Activism29: The Music Is Her Prayer: How Becky Reardon Found Sacred Connection in Nature, Song. And ActivismEpisode 29: Becky Reardon - Finding the Moon

      Becky Reardon describes herself as “In the music” Her songs, tell us about the human community, our mother earth, and the reverence, and awe, and humility, and joy, and solace, and deep understandings that can rise up when you make time and space to listen to what she has to say.

      Becky Reardon's voice is familiar to the millions of people who heard her sing on the Charlie Brown TV specials (Charles Schultz called her his favorite singer!). She is a composer whose songs and rounds are sung by community and university choirs, and song circles throughout the US, Canada, British Isles, and Germany. Sometimes jazzy and fun-loving, sometimes trance-inducing and deeply spiritual, her music always conveys her passion for the natural world and the cycles of life. She teaches and performs nationwide, using improvised singing and movement to inspire singers to write their own songs. She is currently writing a musical about a women’s singing circle.

      Delicious Quotes

      If you know anything about Juniper trees, their bark starts hanging off of them. But if you've ever had a Juniper in a fire and you've split a piece of Juniper, the center of it is dark pink. it's "red is rose." And so, I wrote this song to compare myself to a Juniper tree that was growing older and feeling myself, and going through my years, just being in the bright blue sky out here and still having a lot of passion in my heart.

      ...when I'm receiving writing and working on a song, I am trying my very best to make the song, carry the feelings that inspired the song. So that when you sing the song, you go to the place that, that I felt. I try, I really try hard to do that.

      ...you look around he community ...and you ask, what does that community need that I have something special to, to give to? What is my special thing that I can give my community? So, there's that part of it. And also, there is your own desire. And maybe that part comes first. Its like, “what do I love to do?

      Transcript

      BC: [00:00:00] If you're lucky, every once in a while, you cross paths with a singular soul whose way in the world Intersects with yours at an inflection point that contains a powerful lesson that makes profound sense for you, in that moment. Becky Reardon is one of those, at least for me.

      We met at a while back during the deep mask times. On a bench by the San Francisco Bay. She and her wife were visiting my friend and Change the Story / Change the World musical collaborator, Judy Munson.

      Now, Becky describes herself as “In the music” I'm thinking, it's more like, “She is the music.” And that music has a compelling story to tell about the profound wisdom that surrounds us here on our planet. Her songs, tell us about humans, and our mother earth, the reverence, and awe, and humility, and joy, and solace, and deep understandings that can rise up when you take the time, and make the space to listen to what she has to say.

      We're all lucky that Becky has been kind enough to share those songs through her records, and concerts, and workshops all across the country, over the past decades. We spoke in the spring of 2021 about these things: The natural world and community, and the place of songs in the spaces where they come together.

      This is. Change the Story / Change the World: A chronicle of art and community transformation, I'm Bill Cleveland.

      Listeners, you will notice that this episode includes a lot of Becky’s wonderful music. If you are interested in hearing more, you can go to beckyreardonmusic.com or click on the link in our show notes. Now here’s Becky sharing, among other things, her recipe for finding the moon.

      BC: [00:02:07] Part 1: In the Music

      So, it looks like you've returned home in one place in one piece. Yeah. Yeah.

      BR: [00:02:14] To one place, one piece I'm here. Glad to be here.  Were you out at the bench this morning?

      BC: [00:02:22] Yeah, that bench, if there are solace and soul helpers over this last year and that bench has been one of them, for sure.

      BR: [00:02:31] Kind of like a rock.

      BC: [00:02:33] Absolutely. So, just, before we start, could you describe what's outside the walls of your place where you are?

      BR: [00:02:41] Sure. I'm in the high desert of Northern New Mexico. I'm on a piece of land. That's five acres. it's on a little rise above a very long valley, an arroyo that's full of Russian olives and little Rocky Mountain junipers, lots of sticky thorny things. I can see a Talus Mountain to the east. the Rio Grande Gorge is to, to the west of me outside my window there. I have Russian olive trees in my backyard. I have mockingbirds singing wildly right now. The arroyo used to be full of sheep, that’s years and years ago. Nobody lived out here except sheepherders. So that's a little bit of my, my terrain.

      BC: [00:03:29] I usually ask people that I also ask who are the people who were there before we came, the white folks showed up.

      BR: [00:03:37] The Taos Pueblo. Indians. Yeah.

      BC: [00:03:40] Who are very much. still there

      BR: [00:03:42] Still there? In fact, they are, as the crow flies, about two miles over there to the east. I'm just west of the Taos Pueblo, and yes, they're still there. Their village has been occupied continuously for a thousand years.

      BC: [00:03:58] Yeah. Which is amazing. First of all, thank you for doing this. I've spent time with your music, and it's an extraordinary way to be introduced to another human being. So let me begin. So, your work in the world how would you describe it, your way in the world, your path?

      BR: [00:04:13] I'm in the music. I used to sign my emails “In the music,” cause that's where I am. I'm a musician songwriter, performer, and that's the medium through which I express what's important to me, which is the natural world and community. And I know I start with myself. Where I am. I'm here. Here's my body. Here's what's around me. Here's, what's singing to me. Here's what I'm learning. And I make songs out of that, and I share them with my community, with my family, and hope they are useful.

      BC: [00:04:55] And it's so clear to me that spending time in the natural world that you are reflecting on is supremely important to you that feeds you.

      BR: [00:05:07] Oh Yeah. And especially during this pandemic, I feel lucky that I live in a place where I can still get out to trails up in the mountains out on the mesas, because yeah, that definitely keeps me alive.

      BC: [00:05:23] What took you to the place that you've spent so much of your life in this communion and this musical symphony that you've generated around you.

      BR: [00:05:35] That's such a question. I saw a movie once, and I don't remember the name of it, but the premise of the movie was that after you die, there's about 10 seconds of consciousness where you relive all the important things in your life, and all of a sudden it makes sense.

      BC: [00:05:51] Yeah.

      BR: [00:05:52] All of those puzzles are answered, and you know, what it was all about. And when you ask a question like that's takes me there. And I think about being raised in a family in the middle west, that was pretty religious. My, my dad was a minister. My grandfather was a minister and a missionary, and I grew up singing hymns. And the best part of that was singing four-part harmony acapella, so all of those chord changes, all that stuff is just in me. And songs like

      "Farther along we'll know all about it."

      Yeah. That song.  Sing, pop songs, lots of jazz, listening to Fitzgerald, the Gershwin tunes studied opera music. I traveled. I went to France for my junior year in college, learned some folk songs there. Then went to the Philippines in the Peace Corps. it was always like I had a ukulele or a guitar or something. I was always learning songs. Came back and moved to the Bay Area. And I sang in a little folk club called the Vene Fomage, on Solano Boulevard, and just sang songs that Joan Baez would have sung and Bob Dylan. And that's the early part of this journey.

      BC: [00:07:14] And we share a lot of that, but at a certain point you decided that you would make your own music, your own songs, and I'm wondering where that emerged, and how that flowered?

      BR: [00:07:31] It took a long time. I'm very slow to, I didn't start writing my own songs really until I was in my fifties. And A lot of other paths I sang with top 40 bands and bars and sang at a folk club called the Purple Onion in San Francisco and yeah. And, I was always singing other people's songs and I tried to write songs, they were like love songs and I didn't like them. And I didn't really have my own voice.

      And then there was one year where all of these fantastic things...]]>Episode 29: Becky Reardon - Finding the Moon

      Becky Reardon describes herself as “In the music” Her songs, tell us about the human community, our mother earth, and the reverence, and awe, and humility, and joy, and solace, and deep understandings that can rise up when you make time and space to listen to what she has to say.

      Becky Reardon's voice is familiar to the millions of people who heard her sing on the Charlie Brown TV specials (Charles Schultz called her his favorite singer!). She is a composer whose songs and rounds are sung by community and university choirs, and song circles throughout the US, Canada, British Isles, and Germany. Sometimes jazzy and fun-loving, sometimes trance-inducing and deeply spiritual, her music always conveys her passion for the natural world and the cycles of life. She teaches and performs nationwide, using improvised singing and movement to inspire singers to write their own songs. She is currently writing a musical about a women’s singing circle.

      Delicious Quotes

      If you know anything about Juniper trees, their bark starts hanging off of them. But if you've ever had a Juniper in a fire and you've split a piece of Juniper, the center of it is dark pink. it's "red is rose." And so, I wrote this song to compare myself to a Juniper tree that was growing older and feeling myself, and going through my years, just being in the bright blue sky out here and still having a lot of passion in my heart.

      ...when I'm receiving writing and working on a song, I am trying my very best to make the song, carry the feelings that inspired the song. So that when you sing the song, you go to the place that, that I felt. I try, I really try hard to do that.

      ...you look around he community ...and you ask, what does that community need that I have something special to, to give to? What is my special thing that I can give my community? So, there's that part of it. And also, there is your own desire. And maybe that part comes first. Its like, “what do I love to do?

      Transcript

      BC: [00:00:00] If you're lucky, every once in a while, you cross paths with a singular soul whose way in the world Intersects with yours at an inflection point that contains a powerful lesson that makes profound sense for you, in that moment. Becky Reardon is one of those, at least for me.

      We met at a while back during the deep mask times. On a bench by the San Francisco Bay. She and her wife were visiting my friend and Change the Story / Change the World musical collaborator, Judy Munson.

      Now, Becky describes herself as “In the music” I'm thinking, it's more like, “She is the music.” And that music has a compelling story to tell about the profound wisdom that surrounds us here on our planet. Her songs, tell us about humans, and our mother earth, the reverence, and awe, and humility, and joy, and solace, and deep understandings that can rise up when you take the time, and make the space to listen to what she has to say.

      We're all lucky that Becky has been kind enough to share those songs through her records, and concerts, and workshops all across the country, over the past decades. We spoke in the spring of 2021 about these things: The natural world and community, and the place of songs in the spaces where they come together.

      This is. Change the Story / Change the World: A chronicle of art and community transformation, I'm Bill Cleveland.

      Listeners, you will notice that this episode includes a lot of Becky’s wonderful music. If you are interested in hearing more, you can go to beckyreardonmusic.com or click on the link in our show notes. Now here’s Becky sharing, among other things, her recipe for finding the moon.

      BC: [00:02:07] Part 1: In the Music

      So, it looks like you've returned home in one place in one piece. Yeah. Yeah.

      BR: [00:02:14] To one place, one piece I'm here. Glad to be here.  Were you out at the bench this morning?

      BC: [00:02:22] Yeah, that bench, if there are solace and soul helpers over this last year and that bench has been one of them, for sure.

      BR: [00:02:31] Kind of like a rock.

      BC: [00:02:33] Absolutely. So, just, before we start, could you describe what's outside the walls of your place where you are?

      BR: [00:02:41] Sure. I'm in the high desert of Northern New Mexico. I'm on a piece of land. That's five acres. it's on a little rise above a very long valley, an arroyo that's full of Russian olives and little Rocky Mountain junipers, lots of sticky thorny things. I can see a Talus Mountain to the east. the Rio Grande Gorge is to, to the west of me outside my window there. I have Russian olive trees in my backyard. I have mockingbirds singing wildly right now. The arroyo used to be full of sheep, that’s years and years ago. Nobody lived out here except sheepherders. So that's a little bit of my, my terrain.

      BC: [00:03:29] I usually ask people that I also ask who are the people who were there before we came, the white folks showed up.

      BR: [00:03:37] The Taos Pueblo. Indians. Yeah.

      BC: [00:03:40] Who are very much. still there

      BR: [00:03:42] Still there? In fact, they are, as the crow flies, about two miles over there to the east. I'm just west of the Taos Pueblo, and yes, they're still there. Their village has been occupied continuously for a thousand years.

      BC: [00:03:58] Yeah. Which is amazing. First of all, thank you for doing this. I've spent time with your music, and it's an extraordinary way to be introduced to another human being. So let me begin. So, your work in the world how would you describe it, your way in the world, your path?

      BR: [00:04:13] I'm in the music. I used to sign my emails “In the music,” cause that's where I am. I'm a musician songwriter, performer, and that's the medium through which I express what's important to me, which is the natural world and community. And I know I start with myself. Where I am. I'm here. Here's my body. Here's what's around me. Here's, what's singing to me. Here's what I'm learning. And I make songs out of that, and I share them with my community, with my family, and hope they are useful.

      BC: [00:04:55] And it's so clear to me that spending time in the natural world that you are reflecting on is supremely important to you that feeds you.

      BR: [00:05:07] Oh Yeah. And especially during this pandemic, I feel lucky that I live in a place where I can still get out to trails up in the mountains out on the mesas, because yeah, that definitely keeps me alive.

      BC: [00:05:23] What took you to the place that you've spent so much of your life in this communion and this musical symphony that you've generated around you.

      BR: [00:05:35] That's such a question. I saw a movie once, and I don't remember the name of it, but the premise of the movie was that after you die, there's about 10 seconds of consciousness where you relive all the important things in your life, and all of a sudden it makes sense.

      BC: [00:05:51] Yeah.

      BR: [00:05:52] All of those puzzles are answered, and you know, what it was all about. And when you ask a question like that's takes me there. And I think about being raised in a family in the middle west, that was pretty religious. My, my dad was a minister. My grandfather was a minister and a missionary, and I grew up singing hymns. And the best part of that was singing four-part harmony acapella, so all of those chord changes, all that stuff is just in me. And songs like

      "Farther along we'll know all about it."

      Yeah. That song.  Sing, pop songs, lots of jazz, listening to Fitzgerald, the Gershwin tunes studied opera music. I traveled. I went to France for my junior year in college, learned some folk songs there. Then went to the Philippines in the Peace Corps. it was always like I had a ukulele or a guitar or something. I was always learning songs. Came back and moved to the Bay Area. And I sang in a little folk club called the Vene Fomage, on Solano Boulevard, and just sang songs that Joan Baez would have sung and Bob Dylan. And that's the early part of this journey.

      BC: [00:07:14] And we share a lot of that, but at a certain point you decided that you would make your own music, your own songs, and I'm wondering where that emerged, and how that flowered?

      BR: [00:07:31] It took a long time. I'm very slow to, I didn't start writing my own songs really until I was in my fifties. And A lot of other paths I sang with top 40 bands and bars and sang at a folk club called the Purple Onion in San Francisco and yeah. And, I was always singing other people's songs and I tried to write songs, they were like love songs and I didn't like them. And I didn't really have my own voice.

      And then there was one year where all of these fantastic things happened. I started taking singing lessons from the wonderful jazz improvisationalist, Rhiannon. who's part of Bobby McFerrin’s group and a fabulous singer in her own. Right. And she just opened this whole world. Of hearing my own voice to me, and starting with vocables not singing words, but just like the Mockingbird I was listening to this morning, I was like,

      “Mocking bird scat singing”

      making enough, whatever kind of came out of my body and my own rhythms and my own excitement or quiet or whatever it was. I met her, I had two lessons and I knew that she had just given me a lifetime's worth. So, I met her, I started singing with Kate Munger and, that's another whole story. Kate is the woman who started the Threshold Choirs. they're groups that sing at people's bedside in the last stages of their life. But years ago, this was like 30 years ago, she had a group of women out in Point Reyes, and I would come join them. And we'd just sing on the full moons out on the shore, on Bay and we'd sing rounds from all over the world. And after a while, I would go I, think, “let me try my hand at that.” And so, I wrote around about the cycles of the moon, Where is the Moon." And I think the third thing that happened that year that I came out with some friends to the four corners area.

      BC: And that's New Mexico where you are now, right.

      BR: [00:09:50] Yeah, and I just, we came out in two, two trucks and all of a sudden, I just wanted to go off on my own. And they went up to Telluride and I went down to the canyonlands and just not having ever been there before, not knowing what to expect and started hiking in the canyons and I felt something there just in the pace of walking and being surrounded by such astonishing landscape, the immensity of the landscape, and then the intimacy of the little wildflowers that were there. It just took me back to a place. I don't think I've been to I was a kid and the world was really alive to me. And so, all of that, I started singing back, just after I'd been walking for a while, I would just make up songs, and often not words often just S just responding to, to do what I felt around me. And that's what really happened. It changed my, my, my music.

      BC: [00:11:01] There's an old school practice that I think you and I probably both had, which is you go into a music store, and you flip through the albums that are stacked up. And you look at the names of the songs and the back of the albums and you look at who's in them.

      And so having spent time with your music, I feel like I am flipping through a book of specimens photographs, sounds, of a long, long walk through the obvious paradise that you avail yourself of out there in the world. And there are times when I feel like I'm being introduced to your friends, your family in a sense.

      There's one of my friends, who's your friend, which is the Raven, obviously the monkey flower and the Cocklebur and the rivers and the stars. At some points I'm feeling like I'm intruding—that this is a private moment. Okay.

      That's an important thing because sometimes it listening to your music, obviously the intention is to share it, but I feel like I'm in, in a sanctuary and I'd like you to talk a little bit about two things. One of them is the round and what it means to you. and this idea of sharing these things with groups of people who sing,

      BR: [00:12:24] Oh, my mind is just so full of stuff, so, I will talk about rounds and where it started, then I started singing my own songs with other groups. Like I said, it's in the music. I just, I want to play just a little bit

      BC: [00:12:44] Good please do

      BR: [00:12:48] You were just talking about the Ravens, and it makes me those services song. So, I was out in the Valley of the Gods, which is in Southern Utah. it was hot. And we were walking along in the red rock and looking for some shade. And that's where this came from.

      Walking in the red rock,

      in the summer heat

      looking for the shade of a cottonwood

      A raven sees me walking.

      She knows, but she's not talking.

      Some place green,

      Down by cool stream

      Deep Shadow

      So that's a round. the round form back to that group, singing on the shores of tamales bay, like the, I think the second round I ever wrote was, Where is the Moon? And first of all the round, that happens to be a perfect vehicle for writing songs about cycles of nature.

      BC: [00:14:06] yes.

      BR: [00:14:07] And so this round started before I had any recording equipment.

      And I was out here in New Mexico and the first line came to me cause’ I was thinking about the moon. All right. if I see this little Crescent, the curve is facing. to the right. I, what does that mean? Is it waxing? Is it waning? if I see the moon, when I'm waking up in the morning, is it new? Is It like old? and then I learned that the full moon rises at sunset every month, no matter what month it is. And anyway, so I'm thinking about this, and this line comes to me.

      Where is the moon?

      When the moon is new,

      it's a sliver on the right

      growing bigger every night.

      And I went, oh, I better write that down. And later on, I was hiking with some friends, and I made them sing that part over and over again until I came up with the next and so forth.

      But anyway, I want to play that for you so you can hear how it sounds when it turns into a round.

      BR: [00:16:13] all right, so I'll play those for you so you can see how this alternate into, around.

      Where is the moon?

      When the moon is new,

      it's a sliver on the right

      growing bigger every night.

      Where is the moon

      When the moon is waning

       Fading to the left

      Till there’s no moon remaining

      BC: [00:16:53] You don't mind if I learn that song, I love that, that's really beautiful. And it, in two ways. Obviously it's a great round, but the minute that the picture starts to emerge, the moon, and then, the question, okay, what's going on here? it, I, I lose myself in that song really easily.

      BR: [00:17:16] Great. I know you like rounds.

      BC: [00:17:18] I do.

      BR: [00:17:18] You have long history with them.

      BC: [00:17:21] I do.

      BR: [00:17:22] Yeah, that round is very fun to teach. because you have to kind of deconstruct it a little bit, cause it's a little bit complicated, but you start with half the room singing the questions and the other half singing the answers.

      And then in turn that around. Oh, I'm so happy that came to me. And I heard, oh, some years ago that folks were singing it at Oberlin College, and they called it the Moon Instructional Round.

      BC: [00:17:48] That's great. that's called a, that's a musical epidemic, right? When you know, you travel the world and you bumped back into something that you gave birth to. Isn't that nice?

      BR: [00:17:59] did you say a musical epidemic? Oh, I see

      BC: [00:18:02] yes.

      BR: [00:18:02] a good way.

      BC: [00:18:03] long before this stupid pandemic I became obsessed. Uh, with epidemiology --- not as a science of biology, but as a science of human behavior. And I've always felt that at least my work was in part about creating of viral responses to good things. So, like music, like rounds, like great stories, that mutate along the way.

      BR: [00:18:30] Hmm. Hmm.

      BC: [00:18:31] Yeah.

      BR: [00:18:32] That made, that reminds me. So, I was thinking about your podcast

      Change the Story / Change the World, and how important it's been for me to, to change some of the stories and the religious upbringing that I had. And you know, so I wrote a song called All of Us, Um, it's just happens to be another round and it's, it goes,

      All of us are chosen people

      chosen by life to be alive.

      Wherever we walk is holy land,

      holy by life's returning

      under heaven only one true birthright

      to create whatever we love.

      And yeah, you'd ask how did I start sharing my songs? In the world. And that really happened out here in New Mexico, I just had the fortunate circumstance to get involved with a group of women out here who were building their own moon lodge. I mean, that's, that's what, one of the things attracted me Taos in the first place. The women were all doing these fabulous things. They were building their own houses. They were making their own sacred spaces. They were gardening, they were hiking in the mountains, they were going on, wood runs, they were playing softball. they were artists. So, I]]>25b2a7f4-248c-4bca-8737-768eb1017cecWed, 21 Jul 2021 05:15:00 -070045:38falsefull129291Becky Reardon describes herself as “In the music” Her songs, tell us about the human community, our mother earth, and the reverence, and awe, and humility, and joy, and solace, and deep understandings that can rise up when you make time and space to listen to what she has to say.27: The Nouvella: The Strange True Story of a Fake Prison That Trained Hundreds of Artist Activists27: The Nouvella: The Strange True Story of a Fake Prison That Trained Hundreds of Artist ActivistsTHE NOUVELLA: STORY-BASED COMMUNITY ARTS TRAINING

      Hi I’m Bill Cleveland, the host of Change the Story / Change the World. This week we are going to share something a bit different. In June of 2021 I participated in an international conference convened by the Art in Society Research Network. My part was a presentation about using story-based strategies for community arts training. Because of the pandemic, the conference was entirely online, with most of the presentation were delivered asynchronously, or what I call In UNREAL TIME, Which I have to admit is not my favorite mode of teaching. My response was to use a few stories about how using stories help prepare artists and their partners from other community sectors for work in communities and social institutions. 

      What we came up with is a game show, a scene from a novella about artists working in prison, and a visit to a fake town in the midst of a harsh reckoning around issues of race, justice, othering, and belonging. 

      Welcome to a special edition of change the story Change the World —- as we pay a visit to the 16th Annual Art in Society Conference. 

      *****

      Hi: I’m Bill Cleveland. I am speaking to you from, Alameda CA, near Oakland which is the traditional land of the Ohlone people and home our county’s new VP Kamala Harris.  

      I run the Center for the Study of Art & Community Our name is a mouthful to be sure but we have a pretty simple mission. Which is basically, helping to Create new community art partnerships in service to building caring, capable & equitable communities and then telling the stories that rise up. Over the past couple of decades, the Center has done that by conducting research, providing cross-sector community arts training, and producing studies, articles books and a podcast on arts-based community development and social change efforts all over the world. 

      Enough about us. I’d like to begin this presentation by inviting you to participate in one of our fabulous Quiz shows. 

      The show is actually a little game called TRUTH OR NO. The object of the game is to spark your imaginations and have a bit of fun. To do this you will need write a few things down, Yeah, I know you thought this conference would be just sitting and watching, but please, indulge me here. I’ll give you 30 seconds to grab a pencil and paper. 

      OK now lets start. The game goes like this: In a little bit I am going to share 4 really short-stories that may or may not be true. Your job is to identify the ones that are false. Before I start t you will need to write 1 through 4 on a piece of paper. Now after each little story I tell write T for those you think are true and N for No for the fabrications. This will happen very fast. So here we go. 

      1. Space Out: Way back in the 20th century the US Space Program felt they needed more public support. So, they decided to engage artists to help them to draw more positive attention to their efforts. This NASA arts program started with a bang – hiring Oh Superman, Laurie Anderson and Pop artist, Robert Rauschenberg as resident artists to make art celebrating the exploration of the cosmos. 
      2. CRACKED: Once upon a time A group of neighbors found themselves with a crack house problem. They responded by engaging law enforcement, zoning officials, and the city council, all to no avail. In their desperation they turned to a group of artists from the community. These artists went crazy, whipping out a mural that was so powerful that within 24 hours of its completion the dope peddlers had totally fled the scene, never to return. 
      3. MAXED OUT: If you are incarcerated in SuperMax prison you spend 90% of your life locked in an 8x10 cell and will breath fresh air only 60 minutes a week. A woman artist who felt that this was a terrilble thing decided to use her art to shut down her state’s supermax. After she created her work the governor of her state decided it was time to shut down the state’s, 700 bed supermax prison and now its gone. 
      4. TREES, WOLVES, & DEMOCRACY: There was once an artist who planted trees, slept with wolves and decided to change the world. To do this he and some fellow artists created an artwork that resulted in the election of thousands of progressive candidates to local and national elective offices in dozens of countries around the world.  

      Four pretty crazy, improbable stories. So, how did you vote. If you get them all right you have won am an all-expenses paid trip to a place called St. Francis Maryland, which I’ll tell you about in a moment. Here’s the lowdown on the 4 stories.

      1. NASA: Yes, Laurie and Robert were employed by a NASA arts program that goes back to the 60’s
      2. CRACK HOUSE This is true too. In Atlanta mural artist Normando Ismay and a mural crew turned a crack house into a Massive multicolored 4-sided billboard advertising the best drugs at Deep Discounts. For some reason, customers stopped showing up.  
      3. SUPERMAX: What can I say, this one seems like a stretch, but its true too. In 2008 Laurie Jo Reynolds, a videographer who calls herself a legislative artist launched TAMMS ten year, an arts project to expose the inhumane conditions at an Illinois’ supermax prison specifically designed for sensory deprivation and solitary confinement. In 2013 Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced its closure. 
      4. ART and ELECTION: Number 4. There’s no way for this one, but what can I say. The green party was established as something called a social sculpture by a group of artists led by Joseph Beuys. 

      This game was a quick and silly way to introduce some history that has helped define what has variously been called community arts, or arts-based community development, or more recently creative placemaking and social practice. In it, we used a fictional game show to tell some hard to believe, but true stories. Along the way, some of you may have encountered some degree of skepticism about the power of the human imagination to provoke change. When we train artists and their community partners for creative collaborations, we use games like these with multiple rounds to have fun, and get out of their heads, and into a place where they can exercise their imaginations, individually and, most importantly together. 

      This workshop is about how stories can help us access some of the most difficult lessons about art making in service to community learning, building, healing, and mobilizing. In Truth or NO the story was a game that I made up that you, hopefully played along with. Playing is the key here, because PLAY, is basically life practice. This is true for all the creatures in the animal kingdom, including us. When we are young a lot of our play is physical testing and problem solving. As we get older it migrates more and more into realm of thinking and what we call adult learning. As community arts trainers we are trying provide a memorable learning experience that can help our students respectfully engage often complex and ambiguous institutional and community systems and cultures. 

      NORTHCOAST CORRECTIONAL FACILITY

      Another of our most effective training resources are stories about fictional neighborhoods or agencies that we use to tell the real story of what it’s like to navigate them as creative change agents. In these narratives’ artists, and community members, administrators and staff explore the conundrums and contradictions, the heartaches and little victories that creative partners dance with every day in these “other places.”

      The example of this I’m going to share was created during time I ran California’s Arts-in-Corrections program. Its called The Nouvella, which is a work of fiction by writer/teaching artist/activist Judith Tannenbaum that was used to train artists getting ready to teach one of California’s 32 correctional facilities. At the time A_I_C was the largest arts residency program in the world, with over 1000 artists and 25,000 students. As I am sure you have noted, it has also provided the title of this workshop. 

      North Coast Correctional Facility (Unit 3, Third Tier) 

      NCCF is on indefinite lockdown following an inmate stabbing. Because of this, writing instructor Susan Robertson is working with her students through the bars of their cells. She approaches Mitch Reiser’s cell.

      "Hello, Susan. Coming this way?" Mitch Reiser's voice broke into Susan's thoughts on violence and its effect on the mind and soul. She walked past a few cells to where Mitch was housed. 

      "Are you psychic or what? How did you know it was me?" Susan asked, always on her guard with Mitch. 

      She was never able to be herself with Mitch around. And Mitch was always around. There were so many silent ways in which Mitch made sure he was there, always there. 

      "I am psychic where you're concerned, but this time I have to give credit where credit is due." 

      Mitch pointed to the small mirror that he could adjust to give him a reflection of just what was coming along the walkway. Susan stepped back and looked at the other cells and saw that many such mirrors were now focused on her. 

      She shook her head, "I’m a trained observer, but I'm not seeing...]]>THE NOUVELLA: STORY-BASED COMMUNITY ARTS TRAINING

      Hi I’m Bill Cleveland, the host of Change the Story / Change the World. This week we are going to share something a bit different. In June of 2021 I participated in an international conference convened by the Art in Society Research Network. My part was a presentation about using story-based strategies for community arts training. Because of the pandemic, the conference was entirely online, with most of the presentation were delivered asynchronously, or what I call In UNREAL TIME, Which I have to admit is not my favorite mode of teaching. My response was to use a few stories about how using stories help prepare artists and their partners from other community sectors for work in communities and social institutions. 

      What we came up with is a game show, a scene from a novella about artists working in prison, and a visit to a fake town in the midst of a harsh reckoning around issues of race, justice, othering, and belonging. 

      Welcome to a special edition of change the story Change the World —- as we pay a visit to the 16th Annual Art in Society Conference. 

      *****

      Hi: I’m Bill Cleveland. I am speaking to you from, Alameda CA, near Oakland which is the traditional land of the Ohlone people and home our county’s new VP Kamala Harris.  

      I run the Center for the Study of Art & Community Our name is a mouthful to be sure but we have a pretty simple mission. Which is basically, helping to Create new community art partnerships in service to building caring, capable & equitable communities and then telling the stories that rise up. Over the past couple of decades, the Center has done that by conducting research, providing cross-sector community arts training, and producing studies, articles books and a podcast on arts-based community development and social change efforts all over the world. 

      Enough about us. I’d like to begin this presentation by inviting you to participate in one of our fabulous Quiz shows. 

      The show is actually a little game called TRUTH OR NO. The object of the game is to spark your imaginations and have a bit of fun. To do this you will need write a few things down, Yeah, I know you thought this conference would be just sitting and watching, but please, indulge me here. I’ll give you 30 seconds to grab a pencil and paper. 

      OK now lets start. The game goes like this: In a little bit I am going to share 4 really short-stories that may or may not be true. Your job is to identify the ones that are false. Before I start t you will need to write 1 through 4 on a piece of paper. Now after each little story I tell write T for those you think are true and N for No for the fabrications. This will happen very fast. So here we go. 

      1. Space Out: Way back in the 20th century the US Space Program felt they needed more public support. So, they decided to engage artists to help them to draw more positive attention to their efforts. This NASA arts program started with a bang – hiring Oh Superman, Laurie Anderson and Pop artist, Robert Rauschenberg as resident artists to make art celebrating the exploration of the cosmos. 
      2. CRACKED: Once upon a time A group of neighbors found themselves with a crack house problem. They responded by engaging law enforcement, zoning officials, and the city council, all to no avail. In their desperation they turned to a group of artists from the community. These artists went crazy, whipping out a mural that was so powerful that within 24 hours of its completion the dope peddlers had totally fled the scene, never to return. 
      3. MAXED OUT: If you are incarcerated in SuperMax prison you spend 90% of your life locked in an 8x10 cell and will breath fresh air only 60 minutes a week. A woman artist who felt that this was a terrilble thing decided to use her art to shut down her state’s supermax. After she created her work the governor of her state decided it was time to shut down the state’s, 700 bed supermax prison and now its gone. 
      4. TREES, WOLVES, & DEMOCRACY: There was once an artist who planted trees, slept with wolves and decided to change the world. To do this he and some fellow artists created an artwork that resulted in the election of thousands of progressive candidates to local and national elective offices in dozens of countries around the world.  

      Four pretty crazy, improbable stories. So, how did you vote. If you get them all right you have won am an all-expenses paid trip to a place called St. Francis Maryland, which I’ll tell you about in a moment. Here’s the lowdown on the 4 stories.

      1. NASA: Yes, Laurie and Robert were employed by a NASA arts program that goes back to the 60’s
      2. CRACK HOUSE This is true too. In Atlanta mural artist Normando Ismay and a mural crew turned a crack house into a Massive multicolored 4-sided billboard advertising the best drugs at Deep Discounts. For some reason, customers stopped showing up.  
      3. SUPERMAX: What can I say, this one seems like a stretch, but its true too. In 2008 Laurie Jo Reynolds, a videographer who calls herself a legislative artist launched TAMMS ten year, an arts project to expose the inhumane conditions at an Illinois’ supermax prison specifically designed for sensory deprivation and solitary confinement. In 2013 Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced its closure. 
      4. ART and ELECTION: Number 4. There’s no way for this one, but what can I say. The green party was established as something called a social sculpture by a group of artists led by Joseph Beuys. 

      This game was a quick and silly way to introduce some history that has helped define what has variously been called community arts, or arts-based community development, or more recently creative placemaking and social practice. In it, we used a fictional game show to tell some hard to believe, but true stories. Along the way, some of you may have encountered some degree of skepticism about the power of the human imagination to provoke change. When we train artists and their community partners for creative collaborations, we use games like these with multiple rounds to have fun, and get out of their heads, and into a place where they can exercise their imaginations, individually and, most importantly together. 

      This workshop is about how stories can help us access some of the most difficult lessons about art making in service to community learning, building, healing, and mobilizing. In Truth or NO the story was a game that I made up that you, hopefully played along with. Playing is the key here, because PLAY, is basically life practice. This is true for all the creatures in the animal kingdom, including us. When we are young a lot of our play is physical testing and problem solving. As we get older it migrates more and more into realm of thinking and what we call adult learning. As community arts trainers we are trying provide a memorable learning experience that can help our students respectfully engage often complex and ambiguous institutional and community systems and cultures. 

      NORTHCOAST CORRECTIONAL FACILITY

      Another of our most effective training resources are stories about fictional neighborhoods or agencies that we use to tell the real story of what it’s like to navigate them as creative change agents. In these narratives’ artists, and community members, administrators and staff explore the conundrums and contradictions, the heartaches and little victories that creative partners dance with every day in these “other places.”

      The example of this I’m going to share was created during time I ran California’s Arts-in-Corrections program. Its called The Nouvella, which is a work of fiction by writer/teaching artist/activist Judith Tannenbaum that was used to train artists getting ready to teach one of California’s 32 correctional facilities. At the time A_I_C was the largest arts residency program in the world, with over 1000 artists and 25,000 students. As I am sure you have noted, it has also provided the title of this workshop. 

      North Coast Correctional Facility (Unit 3, Third Tier) 

      NCCF is on indefinite lockdown following an inmate stabbing. Because of this, writing instructor Susan Robertson is working with her students through the bars of their cells. She approaches Mitch Reiser’s cell.

      "Hello, Susan. Coming this way?" Mitch Reiser's voice broke into Susan's thoughts on violence and its effect on the mind and soul. She walked past a few cells to where Mitch was housed. 

      "Are you psychic or what? How did you know it was me?" Susan asked, always on her guard with Mitch. 

      She was never able to be herself with Mitch around. And Mitch was always around. There were so many silent ways in which Mitch made sure he was there, always there. 

      "I am psychic where you're concerned, but this time I have to give credit where credit is due." 

      Mitch pointed to the small mirror that he could adjust to give him a reflection of just what was coming along the walkway. Susan stepped back and looked at the other cells and saw that many such mirrors were now focused on her. 

      She shook her head, "I’m a trained observer, but I'm not seeing anything well today!"

      “You may not be seeing well, but you sure are looking good."

      Susan smiled, "Cute. Corny, but cute." 

      This parrying with Mitch was easy, but dangerous. If she wasn't careful, he'd pick up whatever she said and run with it as far as he could.

      “Susan, come closer." 

      "I can hear you fine." 

      "But I want to smell your perfume." 

      "I don't wear perfume," she said, then thought, Shit, he's trapped me. I've

      got to get out of this dialogue without one more personal exchange.

      “Then why do you always smell so sweet?" 

      "Mitch, what poems are you going to read at the banquet?" 

      "I don't want to talk about poems."

      "That's what I'm here for." 

      "Does your husband give you flowers?" 

      "Mitch ... " 

      'Im going to send you flowers. You'll see. Sometime you'll be home alone, night will be coming on. Maybe you'll be taking a bath or rubbing oil over your naked skin. And they'll be there, these surprise flowers. And you'll know they're from me." 

      "Okay, Mitch; that's it." 

      Never had the promise of flowers sounded so like a threat. 

      "I'm going to love you forever," Mitch whispered toward Susan's departing back.

       Although she tried not to hear, she heard, "I've got all the time in the world, Susan, and I'm going to take as long as I need to convince you. And I'll convince you, you'll see. 

      A bird had flown in through the open transom and was singing in the block; Susan focused on this bird. Its song made her hear the weighted silence of the gray sky outside, the ocean water; she listened to these silent sounds that rode under her quickly beating heart, under all the noise in the block. She wanted to leave Unit 2, run back to the office and talk to Al about Mitch. But she decided to see the rest of her students first, and she walked down the tier. As steady as she could… 

      *****

      This scene is a dramatic turning point in one the many subplots that are woven into the 100 page narrative that unfolds in The Nouvella. Beyond the episode with Mitch, the North Coast story unfolds with other unsettling twists and turns, all of which are based on the true events chronicled in Judith’s Tannenbaum’s exhaustive one year research process.  

      In addition to the fatal stabbing and subsequent lockdown, there is a discovered tryst between a teacher and a prisoner, a crippling state budget freeze, and most devastatingly for the arts program’s teachers, students and their families, the cancelation of the first-ever arts program awards banquet, which had been a year in the making.

      Despite the intensity of this string of events, Judith Tannenbaum’s narrative is not overly dramatic, and pointedly so. This is because one of the most incongruent characteristics of prison life is the plodding drumbeat of hard-to-imagine juxtapositions — boredom and fear, cacophony and silence, bad news and no news. If the joint could talk, it would surely be shouting. “You think you caught us at a bad time? Nah, this is normal. You think this is crazy? Wait ‘til next week!”

      As daunting as it might seem, Judith understood that her principal job here was as a translator — making some sense of a place where the Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter would feel quite comfortably at home. A place where seemingly simple questions about the “right” thing to do are answered with alternating layers of clarity and quicksand. 

      A place where the signs and signals we all depend on to find our way are offered up in a “Yes/But actually No” oscillating current that is both confounding and oddly thrilling. Our task here with the Nouvella was to create a story that attracted and supported new creative colleagues but also discouraged slackers? Who else but an artist could render this world in a way that conveyed the elusive truth of this foggy netherworld without scaring away the potential pathfinders? 

      Like I said, the stories in the Nouvella are all based on the real-life experiences of the dozens of staff and incarcerated artists she interviewed during her research. These, of course, included Judith’s own experiences as a writing teacher working on the prison planet. Which is a place where truth, beauty, trust, tenderness, vulnerability, color, sensitivity, choice — all the intangible qualities humans need to thrive — are virtually nonexistent. 

      But through her teaching she made these things available to her students. In the process, they become creators with a chance to own bit more of their unique story — an act of personal agency that is a precious thing, on the inside. 

      Doing this takes courage for both the teacher and the taught. Writing the Nouvella, though called for another kind of bravery. This is because the scene you just heard was a fictionalized version of a real struggle Judith had with one of her students. Like “Mitch”, this poet, a lifer, with two rape murder convictions, was a persistent edge pusher whose obsession with Judith became more and more tenacious over time. The line was crossed when a staff member overheard him describing in detail his plans for Judith to fellow prisoners. 

      This was a terrifying situation for Judith. And, because of the program, other women at Q, the rules, and a dozen other reasons, both paranoid and real, the incident could not be written off. Her conflict about reporting it up the chain of command only added to her distress. Her compassion in telling this difficult story in the Nouvella is a testament to the enormous sense of responsibility she carried for each of her students.

      Prior to the Nouvella we relied primarily on the institutions to orient our new artists. This often turned out to be what we used to call a dog and pony show – A two or three hour power point workshop with a Sergeant up there saying, “Part your hair wrong, and you're in trouble. Here's the Director's Rule’s, read them, remember them, follow them, and you'll be just fine”

      But for us, that did not cut it. Our artists did need to know the rules, for sure, but given the intimate nature of creative teaching they needed to understand the culture too. Something that could shed a little light on shifting shadows that define life inside—something Like the Nouvella. 

      So now you might ask: How did this turn out. We created a training that used the Nouvella as its foundation. Here is what the department’s research showed. 

      • We found our artists were less inclined to stereotype corrections staff and incarcerated people. 
      • When problems arose artists tended to ask questions rather than make snap judgements. 
      • We saw improved trust for artists among staff and incarcerated students
      • There was better communication between correctional staff and artists
      • We saw better cooperation from line staff and institutional administrators
      • We got greater respect from students who appreciated the increasingly savvy artists they encountered.
      • We saw a marked Increase in participation in the program
      • And there were Fewer program threatening incidents involving artists. 

      Most importantly, the characters and stories represented in the Nouvella became a safe space for exploring the complicated often contradictory issues and forces that defined life and work in prison. At the end of the day, it was much easier to ask a critical question about the fictional Susan Robertson or Assistant Warden’s motivations or decision making than it was to challenge a colleague or staff member. PAUSE

      St. Francis. Our third example of how an invented storyline can help build skills and understanding takes the Northcoast institutional strategy to another level. It was developed with the University of Massachusetts', Arts Extension Service which provides online professional certificate and degree programs for arts leaders in the US and overseas. In this case, rather than provide a story about a fictional place, we asked the students in our Creative Community Leadership course to spin their own saga playing (There’s that word again) playing arts leaders in response to an escalating series of events that precipitates a mini- cultural war in the fake town of St. Francis Maryland. Along the way they learned a lot about the power of the imagination for good and ill, and each other.

      Teaching Basketball Online

      When theater artist Kathryn Bentley and I began designing this course we were faced with a daunting question. How do you train for relationship intensive work like community arts using a distance learning platform?

      We likened this conundrum to trying to teach basketball online, which, of course, is impossible. It might work for a course on the history of basketball, its rules, and maybe some coaching theories, but the game itself can’t be learned without players, practicing hoops together on the court.

      The same can be said of community arts practice, which like basketball, involves groups of people with different skills and perspectives, trying to work well together. Applying arts-based strategies to critical community issues like health, affordable housing, public safety, education, and equitable development requires trust-based partnerships. 

      Learning to collaborate effectively across community sectors, takes a lot of practice with real partners, working in real communities. So, once again, how do]]>b4bd6961-f1f8-42a0-879e-8091c131348bWed, 30 Jun 2021 06:00:00 -070029:42truebonus127271This week we are going to talk about story-based strategies for community arts training using a game show, a scene from a novella about artists working in prison, and a visit to a fake town in the midst of a harsh reckoning around issues of race, justice, othering, and belonging.26: Why Traditional Education Fails Students—and How Activist Artists and Educators are Turning the Tide26: Why Traditional Education Fails Students—and How Activist Artists and Educators are Turning the TideThreshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      How do you describe your work in the world?

      I often refer to myself as a midwife of creativity... I think of it in my dual roles as an educator and artist, as holding space for the birth of someone else's creative thinking and inquiry. And so I liked that idea that, if something goes wrong here I am to hold the space.

      What is happening when young people catch fire in a performance?

      ..students, who have been marginalized or failing their other subject matters-- suddenly if they're center stage ... performing with brilliance it's a way for even other teachers to have an asset-based understanding of them, to really see them for them, their true selves.

      What is the art of teaching?

      The art of teaching ... is really this transmission of wisdom, right? If we look at human history, we're talking about a very different frame than the last hundred years of what education is and how we pass on ethics and values and cultures and art forms through education. Those were the primary ...tools for survival and somehow all of that seems a bit out the window with our Industrialized education frame.

      What makes Studio Pathways unique?

      One of the reasons we left the county office of education was to focus on the concept of reconciliation or reckoning. So taking it from, south African truth and reconciliation --- the knowledge that we really haven't had a practice of reconciliation this country, that's why we're facing what we're facing right now.
      ...Educators need to be able to do power analysis in the classroom. They need to understand what's happening between teacher and students, between genders and races, and they need to understand what that means and how that plays out and then their own role in either disrupting or perpetuating that.
      So that's a real key....And the way that we do it is through the arts.

      Jessa Brie Moreno is Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director for Studio Pathways and has collaborated as a pedagogical advisor, instructional designer, and facilitator for leading-edge arts organizations and educational institutions nationwide. Studio Pathways' projects, partners, and clients include: Rise Up! An American Curriculum, The Kennedy Center, Turnaround Arts National, Othering and Belonging Curriculum for UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute, Racial Healing Curriculum/WKKF Foundation, Instructional Designers/Zaretta Hammond, Favianna Rodriguez' The Center for Cultural Power, the California Spoken Word Project, Turnaround Arts National CA, California Alliance for Arts Education, Hewlett Foundation, Los Angeles Education Partners, Youth Speaks, Youth In Arts, Museum of the African Diaspora, Oakland Museum of California, and County, District and School Sites. 

      In addition, Moreno has held posts as Adjunct Faculty with the California Institute for Integral Studies (BA, MFA programs) and San Jose State University (Theatre Dept.) is a founding member of White Educators for Racial Justice (WERJ) and has facilitated with RISE for Racial Justice. Moreno (alongside Rankine-Landers) formerly co-led the Integrated Learning Specialists' Program, professional development in and beyond Alameda County that supported transformative K-12 school change through the arts. Moreno served the California Alliance for Arts Education as a Local Advocacy Field Manager building community leadership networks for Arts Advocacy statewide. She was the founding director of both the Oakland Theatre Arts Initiative and of award-winning student theatre company OakTechRep. Jessa's directorial work has appeared in collaborations with CalShakes, Stanford, UC Davis, and in Edinburgh, Scotland. Professional Awards as a performing artist include an Emmy (Motion Capture Specialist), Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Dean Goodman, and Shellie Best Actress Awards.

      Moreno utilizes a stance of "creative midwifery" to assist in the ethical "birth" of transformative practices in education, arts, and culture. She wrestles actively with a complex lineage as a sixth-generation settler colonist to Ohlone lands, fourth-generation artist, third-generation activist, and mother to two young women. She is a graduate of Scuola Internazionale dell'Attore Comico in Italy, holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Inquiry from CIIS, and a English Language Arts Teaching Credential.

      Transcript

      CSCW EP 26 Jessa Brie Moreno

       

       BC: [00:00:02] That's the sound of children playing together at school. Until very recently all across the globe, those echoing voices, were as common is the wind. Now, not so much. Hopefully that will be changing soon.

       

      There are very few who would disagree with the idea that our children, their safety, their ability to learn are of primary importance to all of us as a community. But sometimes, maybe I should say all too often, what we do in that realm, how we treat our children, does not align with that sentiment. This is particularly true with our schools, which many regard as the clearest reflection of how society values as children, and, by extension, nurtures and grows its future.

       

      The other sound that has been missing from our children's lives is the voice of the teacher. Together with them in the classroom, encouraging, cajoling, pointing the way, providing the substance, the way points, and the glue for their learning journey.

       

      Among many other things, Jessa, Brie Moreno is a teacher of teachers. Through a program. she founded with her colleague, Mariah Rankin Landers, called Studio Pathways. She describes this work as helping educators give birth to the rigor and magic inherent to the art of teaching. As a theater artist and teacher, herself, she knows this territory intimately. She also knows that if we, as a society, are going to deliver on the promise, embodied in all those joyous, unexpected voices. Once again, filling the air back in the classrooms and playgrounds of the world, our teachers will be at the critical center.

       

      We spoke about this and much more in early 2021. This is Change the Story, Change the World, a Chronicle of art and community transformation. I'm Bill Cleveland.

       

      Part One: The Art. Of Teaching

       

      So, Jessa if someone were to put a moniker on you, or your work what would it be?

       

      JM: [00:02:16] I often refer to myself as a midwife of creativity, thought creative energy. Yeah. I think of it in my dual roles as an educator and artist, as holding space for the birth of someone else's creative thinking and inquiry. And so, I liked that idea that, if something goes wrong here, I can hold the space, but, pretty much, it's your experience here? And I've got some guidance for you.

       

      BC: [00:02:46] In the field of creative midwifery, what are some of the skills or capacities that are serve you?

       

      JM: [00:02:53] I guess training I had in theater, I actually did training in Italian street theater a million years ago. And. Something about risk and disruption and attempting to be present with the soul or spirit of a thing is the precise energy that education is in need of.

       

      BC: [00:03:17] Yeah. So, you do have a significant relationship to education. So, before we go into some of the specifics. How did you come to this work that you do as a creative midwife?

       

      JM: [00:03:30] I think, at first, by way of necessity, like most teaching artists, or artists who teach, I needed a way to make a living at the time as a single parent, navigating, moving from being a regional theater artist to something that would give me roots in one place longer than three months at a time.

       

      So, I fortunately, my mother's also an artist educator, taught ceramics her whole life. So I think I had it in my bones, whether I wanted to or not. And then found my way to Oakland Technical High School – A big, comprehensive public high school in Oakland, California, where I got to start the performing arts program that's been there for the last 15 years now.

       

      BC: [00:04:15] So growing up your mom was a maker. (Lisa Reinertson)

       

      And were you interested and excited by that realm of work early on as a kid?

       

      JM: [00:04:26] It’s funny you asked tha,t because I was not. I told her I was going to become the president of a tall building with no art on my walls because art had ruined my life. Yes, rebellion, rebellion.

       

      BC: [00:04:38] Absolutely.

       

      JM: [00:04:39] But I did grow up also daughter of a single mother on the floor of my mom's art studio in clay. And she's the sculptor of primarily public monuments to peace. So, sculptures of Martin Luther King, Today's his birthday. She's his family's favorite...]]>Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      How do you describe your work in the world?

      I often refer to myself as a midwife of creativity... I think of it in my dual roles as an educator and artist, as holding space for the birth of someone else's creative thinking and inquiry. And so I liked that idea that, if something goes wrong here I am to hold the space.

      What is happening when young people catch fire in a performance?

      ..students, who have been marginalized or failing their other subject matters-- suddenly if they're center stage ... performing with brilliance it's a way for even other teachers to have an asset-based understanding of them, to really see them for them, their true selves.

      What is the art of teaching?

      The art of teaching ... is really this transmission of wisdom, right? If we look at human history, we're talking about a very different frame than the last hundred years of what education is and how we pass on ethics and values and cultures and art forms through education. Those were the primary ...tools for survival and somehow all of that seems a bit out the window with our Industrialized education frame.

      What makes Studio Pathways unique?

      One of the reasons we left the county office of education was to focus on the concept of reconciliation or reckoning. So taking it from, south African truth and reconciliation --- the knowledge that we really haven't had a practice of reconciliation this country, that's why we're facing what we're facing right now.
      ...Educators need to be able to do power analysis in the classroom. They need to understand what's happening between teacher and students, between genders and races, and they need to understand what that means and how that plays out and then their own role in either disrupting or perpetuating that.
      So that's a real key....And the way that we do it is through the arts.

      Jessa Brie Moreno is Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director for Studio Pathways and has collaborated as a pedagogical advisor, instructional designer, and facilitator for leading-edge arts organizations and educational institutions nationwide. Studio Pathways' projects, partners, and clients include: Rise Up! An American Curriculum, The Kennedy Center, Turnaround Arts National, Othering and Belonging Curriculum for UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute, Racial Healing Curriculum/WKKF Foundation, Instructional Designers/Zaretta Hammond, Favianna Rodriguez' The Center for Cultural Power, the California Spoken Word Project, Turnaround Arts National CA, California Alliance for Arts Education, Hewlett Foundation, Los Angeles Education Partners, Youth Speaks, Youth In Arts, Museum of the African Diaspora, Oakland Museum of California, and County, District and School Sites. 

      In addition, Moreno has held posts as Adjunct Faculty with the California Institute for Integral Studies (BA, MFA programs) and San Jose State University (Theatre Dept.) is a founding member of White Educators for Racial Justice (WERJ) and has facilitated with RISE for Racial Justice. Moreno (alongside Rankine-Landers) formerly co-led the Integrated Learning Specialists' Program, professional development in and beyond Alameda County that supported transformative K-12 school change through the arts. Moreno served the California Alliance for Arts Education as a Local Advocacy Field Manager building community leadership networks for Arts Advocacy statewide. She was the founding director of both the Oakland Theatre Arts Initiative and of award-winning student theatre company OakTechRep. Jessa's directorial work has appeared in collaborations with CalShakes, Stanford, UC Davis, and in Edinburgh, Scotland. Professional Awards as a performing artist include an Emmy (Motion Capture Specialist), Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Dean Goodman, and Shellie Best Actress Awards.

      Moreno utilizes a stance of "creative midwifery" to assist in the ethical "birth" of transformative practices in education, arts, and culture. She wrestles actively with a complex lineage as a sixth-generation settler colonist to Ohlone lands, fourth-generation artist, third-generation activist, and mother to two young women. She is a graduate of Scuola Internazionale dell'Attore Comico in Italy, holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Inquiry from CIIS, and a English Language Arts Teaching Credential.

      Transcript

      CSCW EP 26 Jessa Brie Moreno

       

       BC: [00:00:02] That's the sound of children playing together at school. Until very recently all across the globe, those echoing voices, were as common is the wind. Now, not so much. Hopefully that will be changing soon.

       

      There are very few who would disagree with the idea that our children, their safety, their ability to learn are of primary importance to all of us as a community. But sometimes, maybe I should say all too often, what we do in that realm, how we treat our children, does not align with that sentiment. This is particularly true with our schools, which many regard as the clearest reflection of how society values as children, and, by extension, nurtures and grows its future.

       

      The other sound that has been missing from our children's lives is the voice of the teacher. Together with them in the classroom, encouraging, cajoling, pointing the way, providing the substance, the way points, and the glue for their learning journey.

       

      Among many other things, Jessa, Brie Moreno is a teacher of teachers. Through a program. she founded with her colleague, Mariah Rankin Landers, called Studio Pathways. She describes this work as helping educators give birth to the rigor and magic inherent to the art of teaching. As a theater artist and teacher, herself, she knows this territory intimately. She also knows that if we, as a society, are going to deliver on the promise, embodied in all those joyous, unexpected voices. Once again, filling the air back in the classrooms and playgrounds of the world, our teachers will be at the critical center.

       

      We spoke about this and much more in early 2021. This is Change the Story, Change the World, a Chronicle of art and community transformation. I'm Bill Cleveland.

       

      Part One: The Art. Of Teaching

       

      So, Jessa if someone were to put a moniker on you, or your work what would it be?

       

      JM: [00:02:16] I often refer to myself as a midwife of creativity, thought creative energy. Yeah. I think of it in my dual roles as an educator and artist, as holding space for the birth of someone else's creative thinking and inquiry. And so, I liked that idea that, if something goes wrong here, I can hold the space, but, pretty much, it's your experience here? And I've got some guidance for you.

       

      BC: [00:02:46] In the field of creative midwifery, what are some of the skills or capacities that are serve you?

       

      JM: [00:02:53] I guess training I had in theater, I actually did training in Italian street theater a million years ago. And. Something about risk and disruption and attempting to be present with the soul or spirit of a thing is the precise energy that education is in need of.

       

      BC: [00:03:17] Yeah. So, you do have a significant relationship to education. So, before we go into some of the specifics. How did you come to this work that you do as a creative midwife?

       

      JM: [00:03:30] I think, at first, by way of necessity, like most teaching artists, or artists who teach, I needed a way to make a living at the time as a single parent, navigating, moving from being a regional theater artist to something that would give me roots in one place longer than three months at a time.

       

      So, I fortunately, my mother's also an artist educator, taught ceramics her whole life. So I think I had it in my bones, whether I wanted to or not. And then found my way to Oakland Technical High School – A big, comprehensive public high school in Oakland, California, where I got to start the performing arts program that's been there for the last 15 years now.

       

      BC: [00:04:15] So growing up your mom was a maker. (Lisa Reinertson)

       

      And were you interested and excited by that realm of work early on as a kid?

       

      JM: [00:04:26] It’s funny you asked tha,t because I was not. I told her I was going to become the president of a tall building with no art on my walls because art had ruined my life. Yes, rebellion, rebellion.

       

      BC: [00:04:38] Absolutely.

       

      JM: [00:04:39] But I did grow up also daughter of a single mother on the floor of my mom's art studio in clay. And she's the sculptor of primarily public monuments to peace. So, sculptures of Martin Luther King, Today's his birthday. She's his family's favorite portraitists of his image.

       

      (Also) Cesar Chavez, different activists through her art. So, her work was really developing art. That was her activism. So, I was witness to that as the base culture of my life.

       

      BC: [00:05:10] And you couldn't escape it, it rubbed off on you, even though you rebelled.

       

      JM: [00:05:14] I couldn't escape it. It seemed, in the end, it was the most meaningful thing to do with one's life. Yeah.

       

      BC [00:05:20] It is interesting how that, that opposition that occurs, how often it ends up returning to its, its mothership. Very much .

       

      So, talk about education, much of the work I know that you do focuses on making and doing experiential work both with teachers and with students. Could you talk about why you think that's an important element of learning for humans?

       

      JM: [00:05:49] Sure. Yeah. So, I guess I can tell it through a story at Oakland Technical High School. I had the journey from artists to teacher. I think some teachers have the opposite journey. They realize later that they're also an artist and that teaching is an art. But seeing that it was one of the only spaces on campus that was able to operate without being beheld to standardized tests.

       

      It was one of the few places that was not a segregated space. It was large comprehensive high school, very, ethnic racially, diverse school. However, the classrooms themselves are completely segregated and still are to this day. So, the arts and the performing arts were one space. Students were coming together and making meaning of everything else.

       

      So, all the other disciplines were coming together, and this is the place that a young person could grapple with them and make them make sense in their own lives. And so, I think the more I realized that what I was talking about to other teachers was a   arts integration or integrating, or doing education through the arts, because it's liberating, because it gives students voice decision capacity to practice being an adult. All of those elements are present in the educational experience outside of this old standardized-test-bound routine. Yeah.

       

      BC: [00:07:13] Did you have a sense, was the school enthusiastically supportive of your refuge that you created there?

       

      JM: [00:07:21] Yeah, no, I think that's the old thing of asking forgiveness, not permission in terms of taking the risks. I went ahead and did things that I felt were important for the students. So, for example, first year when there hadn't been the arts they'd been cut out for so many years, as and we did an open mic Friday.

       

      And so I would say, no, not all of the campus was excited about having large rap battles on campus every Friday. But boy, did I get the most amazing performers to show up? They would have never shown up otherwise and become core to the b

      building of that program. Students truly with a passion for performing.

       

      BC: [00:08:01] Well, and also there are a lot of things at school that a lot of kids don't look forward to, and it's great to have something that is really exciting. That's happening. That's maybe even surprising, right?

       

      JM: [00:08:13] Yeah., the way that students, who have been marginalized or failing their other subject matter. So suddenly if they're center stage as a star, performing with brilliance it's a way for even other teachers to have an asset-based understanding of them, to really see them for them, their true selves, because they're bringing their true selves to the work rather than trying to fit into a model that wasn't created to serve them at all.

       

      BC: [00:08:40] Yeah. So, 15 years you were there.

       

      JM: [00:08:43] I was there 10. So, I've been gone since 2015. So, I guess six years now.

       

      Part Two: Studio Pathways

       

      BC: [00:08:53) OK, So, you are in your new chapter now, really comparatively, and you've created this Studio Pathways as a advisor to people involved in education and all kinds of areas. Do you want to talk about that?

       

       JM: [00:09:08] Yes, I do. So, it started as myself and one other. Jan Hunter was the only other theater teacher in all of Oakland when I was teaching theater. Which just think about that for a second--- we've got Oakland with incredible artists coming out of Oakland. We can think of some academy award winners, right? And no theater artists, teaching artists in any of the public schools. So, it started with Oakland Theater Arts Initiative, training history and English teachers to become theater teachers at their school site so that students had access. And yeah.

       

      BC: [00:09:42] What a great idea. And you had support for that.

       

      JM: [00:09:45] I had some support for that. Yeah. So, there were some great measures in Oakland that the taxpayers were paying for some arts programming for several years, understanding that they'd been really cut out because of prop 13 and all of that. And so, a couple of measures passed that helped focus funding on the arts for that time period.

       

      BC: [00:10:05] You created, in essence creative leadership among non-arts teachers. And does that persist?

       

      JM: [00:10:13] Several of the teachers are still teaching theater. Several of those programs are award-winning. I'm thinking of, amazing, Awele Makeba, who's at Skyline High School. And she was just in the presenting, the HBO special around the MLK Oratorical Fest that takes place each year and went through that program.

       

      She was already an amazing theater artist, but that was a part of that cohort of folks. That gave me my love for teaching teachers. I think that experience of getting to work with other educators and being in inside---Can we transform education together? That got me very excited about that. And so, I moved on to the Alameda County Office of Education, where I teamed up in co-leadership with my partner in crime now, Mariah Rankin Landers, who's my Studio Pathways Co-director, co-founder. And she and I were co-directors of a program called The Integrated Learning Specialists Program there. And so that was training teachers in arts integration, basically. So, we would go through a series of learning about how to collaborate with their curriculum, how to think about assessment differently as a dialogue with a student, with dialogue, with the material and really just how to engage themselves as artists as educators in the classroom and shift the way they did education.

       

      BC: [00:11:33] so I know one of the tensions that all teachers have is how to fulfill the requirements, the structures, the expectations of the system they work in. And sometimes under difficult circumstances with a lot of shifting demands. And every once in a while, someone comes around with a great new idea.

       

       But one of the things that I know you've worked with the Kennedy center as well. Yeah. And one of the things I've really appreciated about the Kennedy center is they treat teachers like they're very special. And it seems to me that's what you're doing as well.

       

      It's not like here's another continuing education credit for you. It's, “You are an artist and you can be a creator in the classroom.” Is that accurate?

       

      JM: [00:12:18] that's accurate, that's it? I think that's really, it is elevating. The art of teaching to its highest level, which is really this transmission of wisdom, right? If we look human history, we're talking about a very different frame than the last hundred years of what education is, and how we pass on ethics, and values, and culture,s and art forms through education.

       

      Those were the primary functions as well as tools for survival and somehow all of that, including the tools for survival, seem a bit out the window with our industrialized education frame, right?

       

      BC: [00:12:54] Yeah, really tough. One of the other questions I had is that, given your long history, if there's a story that has unfolded that really personifies what you feel is most powerful, beneficial, about your work. Got one for us?

       

      JM: [00:13:11] I guess in, in thinking about the teachers I will point to our most recent work with the Solano County Office of Education, which people don't generally think of county offices of education as particularly transformative spaces.

       

      However, the folks who've come together, there are doing work that. Is taking a long view. So, we invite folks to use contemporary artists as their guides long frame thinking, strategic daydreaming,...]]>5adbdece-532d-4714-9602-054a09979aa7Thu, 17 Jun 2021 07:00:00 -070036:50falsefull126261Is teaching an art? Can our schools help spark America’s creative rebirth? Jessa Brie Moreno thinks so by helping educators give birth to the rigor and magic inherent to the art of teaching. This is her story.25: Su-lin Ngiam-An Activist Artist in Singapore is an Agent of Hope25: Su-lin Ngiam-An Activist Artist in Singapore is an Agent of Hope

      What happens when a tiny city-state with tight control becomes a hub for community-driven, arts-based transformation?

      Meet ArtsWok, a Singapore-based organization helping people talk about the hardest things—grief, inequality, identity, and even death—with art as the medium and hope as the mission

      In a place known more for order than outspokenness, how do artists create room for deep conversation and community healing? In this episode, ArtsWok co-founder Su-Lin Ngiam takes us inside the intricate work of bridging Singapore’s diverse communities—whether that’s confronting mortality in a high-rise courtyard or staging inclusive youth theater across cultural divides. Her work invites us to reimagine activism not as confrontation, but as creative facilitation rooted in care.

      Listen in to hear:

      • How ArtsWok uses everything from inflatable theaters to site-specific installations to hold space for taboo topics in the heart of tightly regulated Singapore.
      • Why conversations about death—like in their Both Sides Now project—are actually powerful doorways to deeper, more connected lives.
      • What it means to be an “intermediary” in art, navigating across sectors, beliefs, and disciplines to build trust, spark dialogue, and catalyze change

      Tune in now to hear how Su-Lin and ArtsWok are turning art into a tool for civic dialogue, human connection, and societal renewal—one courageous conversation at a time.

      Delicious Quotes

      What does the ArtsWok Collaborative do?

      I like to say that we're agents of hope. That we're really here to inject hope in society, or at least we try to, and it's about the bridging difference be it between people or ideas or uncomfortable topics.


      How do your very public arts practices advance your issue-based community work?

      …we want it to be out there where people can see, they can hear --- really bringing a taboo issue out into the open, making what's invisible, visible, unheard, heard. And the arts are great for doing that and creating spaces that can do that


      What is Go-Li?

      It's (Drama Box’s) inflatable theater … we have used that structure in our projects as well, … It's tour-able, so you can bring it to different communities, and you pop up and cause you're not allowed to be there permanently, then you deflate the structure, and you move on. And it becomes some kind of an icon as well.

      People recognize it, and “Oh, okay, these guys are here. The artists are here.” And it's about creating safe space as well because it's open, but it's covered, but yet you can walk in and out so you can have conversations about difficult things or people can be vulnerable.

      What is Both Sides Now?

      ...we have presented this project for seven years. …essentially, we're out there engaging community saying, "Have you thought about death?" …it's an important part of living to think about that. In fact, it's very much two sides of the same coin. …
      how we live our lives will determine how we end. So, it's really all quite related, but of course, it can be quite taboo, and it's a painful topic. Loss, in general, is hard to talk about, but I think that's something we really need to talk about more as societies.

       

      What role does negotiation play in the cultural life of Singapore?

      We are artists. We are here to question and provoke. And having said that, we have things like censorship in Singapore in terms of, so, all our scripts, plays, have to be submitted for a license. … there is a process of negotiation that, as artists, we then undergo with the state or with authorities, and it's that process of dialogue.
      And whether or not we choose to, to then, adapt our place or our work or choose another creative way to talk about it or present it. That's up to the artists, But I think what is meaningful is that process of negotiation and how we negotiate, and that impacts the way we practice, and it makes us more creative in a way. Then it is about finding the vocabularies and being patient. That change takes time.

       

      Transcript


      Bill Cleveland: New Year's 2014 in Singapore, the year of the Horse

      What is Singapore, a city-state, a very small, very well-off multi-ethnic country, an unlikely nexus of community arts innovation? For those, like me, who know the place from some personal experience and some very fine Singaporean friends, it's all of those with a promise of much, much more. And that promise, for me, has been personified by one of those friends I mentioned. 

      I met Su-Lin Ngiam at an international community arts conference In the Spring of 2010 hosted by the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission. She was there with her long-time collaborator Ko Siew Huey. In that encounter, I came to know one of the most striking characteristics of Singapore's notable capacity to punch far above its weight. Which simply translates as "learning is sacrosanct" and "knowledge is power."

      The country's dramatic rise from a post-WWII, post-colonial basket case to global economic power is certainly a success story fueled by incredible discipline and a belief that Singapore's greatest asset is its people. But, the Lion City, as it is sometimes called it, does have a sketchy side. Like the US, Singapore is classified as a "flawed democracy" in the Economist Magazine's well-respected Democracy Index. One aspect of this means that Singapore keeps a pretty tight hand on internal criticism.  

      Nevertheless, over the past decade and a half, it has spawned a robust community of artists who are very committed to nurturing the incredibly wide range of Singapore's stories.

      Su-Lin heads an arts-based community development organization called ArtsWok, whose work she describes as being "agents of hope." That agency has made an indelible mark on the Singapore community in dozens of neighborhoods and venues. She shared the ArtsWok story with me in the Spring of 2021, just as the Covid cobwebs were beginning to melt.  

      This is Change the Story / Change the World: A Chronicle of art and community transformation. My name is Bill Cleveland.


      Part 1: Making Space in the Wok 

      BC: [00:00:00] Okay. Hello, this morning.

      Su-Lin Ngiam: [00:00:02] I think it's way too early for you. Isn't it?

      BC: [00:00:04] Actually, I normally wake up at that time. To do my writing,

      S-L N: [00:00:08] you have coffee, right?

      BC: [00:00:09] I do. Yes, I'm going to be jumping up and down here. Yeah. I'm just gonna dive in with my questions. My understanding is that Singapore has handled the world pandemic catastrophe better than most. Is that a true thing?

      S-L N: [00:00:25] I guess if you're looking at it, in terms of numbers, then yeah. We have a fairly low infection rate and very few deaths compared to many countries. So in that sense, yes. But we did have a situation with the migrant workers and the dormitories here. About 105,000 were infected because of the kind of living arrangements, the virus spread really fast.

      So that was our crisis. It was contained to a particular kind of population or demographic. But it also surfaced a lot of issues with regards to how we how we treat our migrant workers, their living conditions, and so on and so forth.

      So yeah.

      BC: [00:01:03] so I remember when I was there, that was one of the just beneath the surface issues that was there. And as has happened all over the world, the stress test of the pandemic has surfaced. The cracks in society, the places that aren't, aren't working as well as they should. My first question is really one of self-definition. You've been at this work for the past seven years. Very intensely. So when you're sitting across the table from people who are new to Arts Wok, how do you describe your work in the world?

      S-L N: [00:01:42] So we would generally say that we're intermediaries. So that's the word that we use. We work in the field of art space, community development, so I'm ABCD as you know it. And essentially, we're here to bridge people, ideas, resources; a lot of the work is about facilitation and bridge-building.

      And Apart from that, we also do creative producing work. So, we actually design projects and programs with communities, with stakeholders. We implement them with artists, and then we look at evaluating them. In a nutshell, that's what we do, but it doesn't sound very Romantic, or it's not.

      So I guess it really depends on who I'm meeting. But I like to say that we're agents of hope that we're really here to inject hope in society, or at least we try to, and it's...]]>

      What happens when a tiny city-state with tight control becomes a hub for community-driven, arts-based transformation?

      Meet ArtsWok, a Singapore-based organization helping people talk about the hardest things—grief, inequality, identity, and even death—with art as the medium and hope as the mission

      In a place known more for order than outspokenness, how do artists create room for deep conversation and community healing? In this episode, ArtsWok co-founder Su-Lin Ngiam takes us inside the intricate work of bridging Singapore’s diverse communities—whether that’s confronting mortality in a high-rise courtyard or staging inclusive youth theater across cultural divides. Her work invites us to reimagine activism not as confrontation, but as creative facilitation rooted in care.

      Listen in to hear:

      • How ArtsWok uses everything from inflatable theaters to site-specific installations to hold space for taboo topics in the heart of tightly regulated Singapore.
      • Why conversations about death—like in their Both Sides Now project—are actually powerful doorways to deeper, more connected lives.
      • What it means to be an “intermediary” in art, navigating across sectors, beliefs, and disciplines to build trust, spark dialogue, and catalyze change

      Tune in now to hear how Su-Lin and ArtsWok are turning art into a tool for civic dialogue, human connection, and societal renewal—one courageous conversation at a time.

      Delicious Quotes

      What does the ArtsWok Collaborative do?

      I like to say that we're agents of hope. That we're really here to inject hope in society, or at least we try to, and it's about the bridging difference be it between people or ideas or uncomfortable topics.


      How do your very public arts practices advance your issue-based community work?

      …we want it to be out there where people can see, they can hear --- really bringing a taboo issue out into the open, making what's invisible, visible, unheard, heard. And the arts are great for doing that and creating spaces that can do that


      What is Go-Li?

      It's (Drama Box’s) inflatable theater … we have used that structure in our projects as well, … It's tour-able, so you can bring it to different communities, and you pop up and cause you're not allowed to be there permanently, then you deflate the structure, and you move on. And it becomes some kind of an icon as well.

      People recognize it, and “Oh, okay, these guys are here. The artists are here.” And it's about creating safe space as well because it's open, but it's covered, but yet you can walk in and out so you can have conversations about difficult things or people can be vulnerable.

      What is Both Sides Now?

      ...we have presented this project for seven years. …essentially, we're out there engaging community saying, "Have you thought about death?" …it's an important part of living to think about that. In fact, it's very much two sides of the same coin. …
      how we live our lives will determine how we end. So, it's really all quite related, but of course, it can be quite taboo, and it's a painful topic. Loss, in general, is hard to talk about, but I think that's something we really need to talk about more as societies.

       

      What role does negotiation play in the cultural life of Singapore?

      We are artists. We are here to question and provoke. And having said that, we have things like censorship in Singapore in terms of, so, all our scripts, plays, have to be submitted for a license. … there is a process of negotiation that, as artists, we then undergo with the state or with authorities, and it's that process of dialogue.
      And whether or not we choose to, to then, adapt our place or our work or choose another creative way to talk about it or present it. That's up to the artists, But I think what is meaningful is that process of negotiation and how we negotiate, and that impacts the way we practice, and it makes us more creative in a way. Then it is about finding the vocabularies and being patient. That change takes time.

       

      Transcript


      Bill Cleveland: New Year's 2014 in Singapore, the year of the Horse

      What is Singapore, a city-state, a very small, very well-off multi-ethnic country, an unlikely nexus of community arts innovation? For those, like me, who know the place from some personal experience and some very fine Singaporean friends, it's all of those with a promise of much, much more. And that promise, for me, has been personified by one of those friends I mentioned. 

      I met Su-Lin Ngiam at an international community arts conference In the Spring of 2010 hosted by the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission. She was there with her long-time collaborator Ko Siew Huey. In that encounter, I came to know one of the most striking characteristics of Singapore's notable capacity to punch far above its weight. Which simply translates as "learning is sacrosanct" and "knowledge is power."

      The country's dramatic rise from a post-WWII, post-colonial basket case to global economic power is certainly a success story fueled by incredible discipline and a belief that Singapore's greatest asset is its people. But, the Lion City, as it is sometimes called it, does have a sketchy side. Like the US, Singapore is classified as a "flawed democracy" in the Economist Magazine's well-respected Democracy Index. One aspect of this means that Singapore keeps a pretty tight hand on internal criticism.  

      Nevertheless, over the past decade and a half, it has spawned a robust community of artists who are very committed to nurturing the incredibly wide range of Singapore's stories.

      Su-Lin heads an arts-based community development organization called ArtsWok, whose work she describes as being "agents of hope." That agency has made an indelible mark on the Singapore community in dozens of neighborhoods and venues. She shared the ArtsWok story with me in the Spring of 2021, just as the Covid cobwebs were beginning to melt.  

      This is Change the Story / Change the World: A Chronicle of art and community transformation. My name is Bill Cleveland.


      Part 1: Making Space in the Wok 

      BC: [00:00:00] Okay. Hello, this morning.

      Su-Lin Ngiam: [00:00:02] I think it's way too early for you. Isn't it?

      BC: [00:00:04] Actually, I normally wake up at that time. To do my writing,

      S-L N: [00:00:08] you have coffee, right?

      BC: [00:00:09] I do. Yes, I'm going to be jumping up and down here. Yeah. I'm just gonna dive in with my questions. My understanding is that Singapore has handled the world pandemic catastrophe better than most. Is that a true thing?

      S-L N: [00:00:25] I guess if you're looking at it, in terms of numbers, then yeah. We have a fairly low infection rate and very few deaths compared to many countries. So in that sense, yes. But we did have a situation with the migrant workers and the dormitories here. About 105,000 were infected because of the kind of living arrangements, the virus spread really fast.

      So that was our crisis. It was contained to a particular kind of population or demographic. But it also surfaced a lot of issues with regards to how we how we treat our migrant workers, their living conditions, and so on and so forth.

      So yeah.

      BC: [00:01:03] so I remember when I was there, that was one of the just beneath the surface issues that was there. And as has happened all over the world, the stress test of the pandemic has surfaced. The cracks in society, the places that aren't, aren't working as well as they should. My first question is really one of self-definition. You've been at this work for the past seven years. Very intensely. So when you're sitting across the table from people who are new to Arts Wok, how do you describe your work in the world?

      S-L N: [00:01:42] So we would generally say that we're intermediaries. So that's the word that we use. We work in the field of art space, community development, so I'm ABCD as you know it. And essentially, we're here to bridge people, ideas, resources; a lot of the work is about facilitation and bridge-building.

      And Apart from that, we also do creative producing work. So, we actually design projects and programs with communities, with stakeholders. We implement them with artists, and then we look at evaluating them. In a nutshell, that's what we do, but it doesn't sound very Romantic, or it's not.

      So I guess it really depends on who I'm meeting. But I like to say that we're agents of hope that we're really here to inject hope in society, or at least we try to, and it's about. The bridging difference be it between people or ideas or uncomfortable topics.

      And essentially, I think without hope, we can't survive; we can't progress. We can't, actualize and I think we, we need a lot of that right now in our world. And it's hard work. It's difficult work. So, self-care becomes crucial as well, so yeah, I guess if you look at the work itself, we're intermediaries, we're producers, we're doing this because we want to create a more hopeful society,

      BC: [00:03:01] So you work with a broad range of constituencies. Could you describe your community?

      S-L N: [00:03:07] primarily, we work with a lot of artists and creatives designers. They are the core of our practice, and who we engage with the most then, of course, depends on what kinds of work we're doing. So, if it's with a direct geographical base community, for example, then we work with a residential community.

      We also work with issue-based stuff. So, like a project, we do call it both sites. Now we look at end-of-life and seeding the importance of having end-of-life conversations and planning. So, then the community is much larger it's anyone in Singapore. But of course, then you have the health care system.

      You have the social services; you have policymakers and funders. So, it really cuts across the entire ecosystem. It really depends on what the program or the project is about where our interests are

      BC: [00:03:58] so one of the things, a sort of a picture that I have that people who are not familiar with Singapore It might find enlightening is when you talk about geography, which is quite small. And actually, it goes vertical because so many people live in what we would call public housing, but which is basically all, almost all housing in Singapore. The people of Singapore basically live in high rise apartments

      S-L N: [00:04:25] Yup.

      BC: [00:04:26] That's a different landscape.

      S-L N: [00:04:27] And sometimes that makes it harder to do work in the communities only because when it's high rise and is vertical, then in terms of, how you can use space or how you can design those sorts of interactions kind of changes because we don't have a lot of public space, even within a residential community, we have parks and all of that, but it's quite dense.

      And so sometimes it's hard for us to find suitable spaces, to do our public engagements because we genuinely do installations. And this is a certain scale to what we do because we want to evoke curiosity. And when you want to invite larger groups of people, you need space. And sometimes that becomes a challenge.

      But I guess it's about thinking creatively then about how to engage vertical communities versus, horizontally and everyone can see each other. And so, it's just a different approach to the work. Yeah.

      BC: [00:05:15] It brings to mind. And I'm wondering when I was there. There was a project that had produced a pop-up arts venue. It was a blow-up venue. Is that still there? Is that still being in use?

      S-L N: [00:05:28] Do you remember what it was called? Was it called Go-Li?

      BC: [00:05:31] Yes, I think so.

      S-L N: [00:05:32] Yeah. Yeah. It's their inflatable theater that they got specially made by. I'm designing this in the UK. It was the collaboration. It's still around. It's currently deflated because they're not really supposed to be doing large-scale public engagements at this point in time.

      But yeah, Drama Box are close collaborators. In fact, we present the end-of-life project, Both Sides Now, together, and this has been for seven years. And we have used that structure in our projects as well, but. They use it for other work that they do. That's an excellent idea, yeah. Cause limited space. It's tour-able, so you can bring it to different communities, and you pop up and cause you're not allowed to be there permanently, then you deflate the structure, and you move on. And it becomes some kind of an icon as well.

      People recognize it, and Oh, okay. These guys are here. The artists are here, and it's about creating safe space as well because it's open, but it's covered, but yet you can walk in and out so you can have conversations about difficult things or people can be vulnerable.

      So that's really nice. Yeah.

      BC: [00:06:28] So, just a statistic, how many people can fit into that and to Go-Li

      S-L N: [00:06:34] That's a good question. They have three; I think the smallest one we fit about 60 to 80 and then the largest one I think goes up to about 150 200.

      BC: [00:06:44] Yeah. It's an extraordinary thing. You're probably used to it, but I think there are probably many artists listening, mouth thinking. Ah, So I'll make sure that all your contact information will be. Available at the end of this podcast so that we can put people in touch with you who are interested in more information.

      As you said, seven years before that, you were doing interesting things as well. What is the path of your journey from an inquisitive, creative person to doing what you're doing now? --- in essence, running, at least, what I see as the preeminent arts-based community development organization in Singapore, right?

      S-L N: [00:07:24] Thanks, Bill. I'll accept that. Yeah, the journey. I come from a family where my parents are educators and social workers. So that, that's like the family I was born into, and that's really influenced my beliefs, my value system and just seeing what it means to have a higher purpose, with one's life and giving back to one's community, and realizing that one has the agency to make a difference, no matter how small. But even more powerful with others. So, that's really influenced me.

      I have to say also, growing up; I've been part of uniform groups. So, I think you guys have that in the US, the (Girl) Guides and the Boy Scouts. Yep. Yep. So, I've always been part of some kind of community. So, I was in the Brownies as a kid, then I've gone to the Gold's Brigade. And that, so, this idea about again, being part of a community where you learn and grow together and you do life, but you also give back, and like your life is a service, right? So that's influenced me.

      I guess a big turning point also was, realizing my sexual orientation as a gay person, and I'm in Singapore, that's still criminalized. So, in, in terms of our penal code, sex between two men is still a crime. Nothing mentioned about two women, but nevertheless, it's still largely frowned upon. And we have strong religious groups here, conservative, who don't support that. So even though there's the law, but the government, our courts say that they won't prosecute, but nevertheless, the law being there already says a lot, and it does play on people's minds, and basically you're seen as illegal in that sense, even though you're not prosecuted.

      And so, my family is Christian, and I was I'm a Christian myself. And I think a big part of my journey was reconciling that right. Being gay and being Christian. And what does that mean? Why I have to hide a part of myself. So that's really influenced this idea about the importance of bridging difference of being able to Really encounter someone else and be open and nonjudgmental, .and to listen deeply.

      And how do we celebrate that diversity, not just tolerate it? And then, how do we work together? How do we collaborate, and how do we sit with that tension, or the discomfort, but yet seek something higher, or transcend ourselves, so to speak? But anyway, that, that path led me to do theological studies, and counseling, and all of that.

      So, after graduation, I worked in the arts for about six to eight years doing company management and arts management. But then, I went on to do theological studies and counseling. And, that part of my life for three years was very much about reconciling my faith, my sexual orientation, who I am, and how do I be coherent? And how can that, then, help me serve?  I guess when there's more coherence, you can do better work. You're not afraid; you're doing something about your fear. So, then I worked in the only LGBTQ church in Singapore for another about two to almost three years after I graduated from theological college. And that was really rewarding. But then, I found that limiting because when you do work from your position on religion, sometimes more doors close than open. And I think, also being an LGBTQ church in a kind of society like Singapore, it's hard as well.

      People don't really give you the time of day, or they don't take you as seriously. And I always wanted it to work. And the LGBTQ community is very important to me. I also want to look at a whole range of issues and communities.

      And if saying, I'm the pastor of the Free Community Church. It is going to close more doors than open them. Then that's not really the position from which I'm going to work. So, I moved on, and that's when I started ArtsWok. And this was with Huie, who you've met as well, Bill. So, she's currently on our board, but when we started ArtsWok, we were both running the organization.

      And we've grown over the years from two. We are now a team of five, and you have interns and trainings for about eight of us at this point in time. But yeah,...]]>e0c65a78-7777-4e01-aa3e-4d9949b28f04Wed, 26 May 2021 07:00:00 -070036:32falsefull125251SINGAPORE: a city-state, a very small, very well-off multi-ethnic country, an unlikely nexus of community arts innovation called the ArtsWok Collaborative? Yeah, ALL THAT --- & WAY MORE!24: From Theater Sets To Veterans’ Healing Circles: How David O’Fallon Crafted A Life Through Cultural Organizing and Story24: From Theater Sets To Veterans’ Healing Circles: How David O’Fallon Crafted A Life Through Cultural Organizing and StoryCSCW EP 24: David O'Fallon - Power Plays

      Please know that this episode contains descriptions of war that include violence and psychological trauma. We endeavor to do our best to engage these hard stories with care and respect.

      Please also be aware that there is a lot of hope, healing and optimism contained herein. We hope you will join us whenever you are willing and able.

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      Of what use are the arts in these turbulent times?

      I think one of the most powerful technologies we have is to actually be in the presence of another person. ...We could go on about how many friends you have on Facebook, how many things you posted on YouTube, how many hits on Instagram and so on, it takes a different kind of courage to be in the room with the person, sharing your story, or listening carefully, looking somebody in the eye, there's a physical presence that you must deal with, and that for me has always been the power particularly of theater,...

      Why humanities and vets?

      But if you've been in a room with men and women, who've been not all it in combat, but just in service in this almost invisible war, that's still going on, as you and I are talking today and they're not seen as fully human or they think once with a fly over at a football game or something yeah, the power of literature of storytelling of theater of music of creation is unbelievable. it's deep and it's strong and its essential. You want to go back to basics. You asked about, story and in some ways these men and women live the power of story.

      What is the value of stories in this hard boiled cynical world?

      So, I think the struggle has always been who gets to tell your story. Do you believe you can tell your own story? And a lot of people start out by saying, I ain't got nothing to say. I got no story to tell. I don't do anything. Who am I? So that's where all of us who tried to work in the arts world have had to create a vessel if you will, and the structures of support and encouragement, so that in fact, a person can say," I got this poem I wrote, I've been keeping it underneath my underwear drawer. Maybe I'll say it out loud." And they do, and they discover a voice.

      Why are new stories particularly important now?

      ...the fact is the world is changing and we have dominant stories right now, some of which are being told by genuinely evil people that denigrate others, that build walls and shut people out, and hurt children in cages along the border, because they're not seen fit to enter our country. Who's telling that story? Who gets to tell that story? And there are many voices trying to tell another different story, and I'm going to be very blunt right here. I think those who are wishing and working to create a nation that's based on patriarchal white nationalism, they will fail. That world is impossible, but they can do a great deal of harm as they push that narrative,


      CSCW EP 24: David O'Fallon - Power Plays

      Transcript


      Bill Cleveland: David O'Fallon builds things. Theater sets, theater companies, 12-foot puppets, visionary art schools for teen artists and community musicians, theater programs for veterans from the Afghanistan and Vietnam wars, and more. The through line for David's wonderfully twisty journey is a couple of simple, but powerful questions.

      What is the story you want to tell? and how can it be shaped and shared with your community? Which of course are also the central questions we ask all of our guests.

      Please know that this episode contains descriptions of war that include violence and psychological trauma. We endeavor to do our best to engage these hard stories with care and respect.

      Please also be aware that there is a lot of hope, healing and optimism contained herein. We hope you will join us whenever you are willing and able.

      This is Change the Story, Change the World, a Chronicle of Art and Community Transformation. I'm Bill Cleveland.

       

      Part One: Relations.

      BC: So, I'll just begin with the foundation setting, which is, your work spans many decades as does mine, and over that time you have done many things, and however you want to describe it, describe your work in the world.

      David O’Fallon: Yeah. Thank you. It's a great question. I think my work in the world is trying to be a person who actively imagines and creates the narratives that keep us together and take us forward, rather than those that just tell us how screwed up everything is, how bad off we are and why we can't get along. So the bottom line is always looking for connections and relationships and bridge building, and every setting that I've been in.

      BC: What would be a concrete version of that?

      DO: I'll give a couple of stories that go with that. So, I am in graduate school at Temple University in Philadelphia, and my wife, Ann and I are living at the corner of Broad and Allegheny, which if anybody knows Philly, it's North Philly. At some point I discovered, so I'm appreciative of the work we're doing at Temple, I went there to work with a particular guy, Arthur Wagner, who had a way of looking at theater because my background is in theater, creating and acting and directing. [So], I walked down broad street one day to discover the Freedom Theater, which is an all black theater company, and I walked down the basement steps to discover the director of the theater, the guy who was keeping it all together, and they basically said, is there anything at all that I can do here? Because I don't want only to be within the confines of temple university and academia. He looked me up and down this kind of a younger than white guy and said maybe can you build stuff? And I said yeah, I can build sets and stuff. So, I sawed lumber and built sets, and then they had me involved in improvisations where I always got to be the Philly cop. ‘Cause the cops were white guys and they said, we kinda like you, but you're not mean enough to be a Philly cop. So, I ended up being in shows and directing shows at the freedom theater in Philadelphia as the only white guy involved at all.

      After a while, Ann and I moved up to Germantown a little further North and we're going to church called the first United Methodist church of Germantown which had its own issues, and we invited in black theater companies to co-create productions with. The first United Methodist church in Germantown. So, connecting, bridge building, people working together. The point was working together by creating work, doing theater, building things, sharing stories, collaborating, that was the work, it always has been the work, If you will, so that's one concrete example.

      BC: Yeah. So actually, I have a question for you about work. We live in an increasingly abstract world not just abstract in concepts and ideas, but also even in the means by which we communicate in the way in which we disseminate our stories.

      The reason I'm asking you this question is because I've had similar experiences of recognizing that the closer you are to literally putting the shovel in the soil together, the closer you can come to the combination of trust and truth that is essential for any relationship to get built. Is that your sense, is that a core belief that you have in your work?

      DO: I think it is, and I think one of the most powerful technologies we have Bill is to actually be in the presence of another person. And to your point about abstractions, we could go on about how many friends you have on Facebook, how many things you posted on YouTube, how many hits on Instagram and so on, it takes a different kind of courage to be in the room with the person, sharing your story, or listening carefully, looking somebody in the eye, there's a physical presence that you must deal with, and that for me has always been the power particularly of theater, but of many other art forms in which you have to be present to each other.

      So that, and encourage, and I think, hanging out in the performing arts world, which is my home base led to other things, different groups and encounter groups of one kind or another that asked for, or a similar kind of courage of a physical presence with each other and being open to another person.

      BC: There's something akin to what I would call old school, spiritual practice in what you described. Literally, a congregation or a group of people being together, the laying on of hands, the sense of brotherhood and sisterhood that humans needed in order to survive for most of human history.

      DO: And we still need it. And I'll share another story about these connections; and this is a very tangible story. So, I recently left being the president of the Minnesota Humanities Center. And so, when. I took the position. They said, “What is your definition of the humanities?” And I said, “I don't have one, and I won't spend any time on it because that's a big academic question.” I said, “I'm coming to you, the Humanities Center, because I really care about how we get along in the world and how we connect with each other.”

      But here's the concrete example of that. My first board meeting, this was in Minnesota, so it's November....]]>CSCW EP 24: David O'Fallon - Power Plays

      Please know that this episode contains descriptions of war that include violence and psychological trauma. We endeavor to do our best to engage these hard stories with care and respect.

      Please also be aware that there is a lot of hope, healing and optimism contained herein. We hope you will join us whenever you are willing and able.

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      Of what use are the arts in these turbulent times?

      I think one of the most powerful technologies we have is to actually be in the presence of another person. ...We could go on about how many friends you have on Facebook, how many things you posted on YouTube, how many hits on Instagram and so on, it takes a different kind of courage to be in the room with the person, sharing your story, or listening carefully, looking somebody in the eye, there's a physical presence that you must deal with, and that for me has always been the power particularly of theater,...

      Why humanities and vets?

      But if you've been in a room with men and women, who've been not all it in combat, but just in service in this almost invisible war, that's still going on, as you and I are talking today and they're not seen as fully human or they think once with a fly over at a football game or something yeah, the power of literature of storytelling of theater of music of creation is unbelievable. it's deep and it's strong and its essential. You want to go back to basics. You asked about, story and in some ways these men and women live the power of story.

      What is the value of stories in this hard boiled cynical world?

      So, I think the struggle has always been who gets to tell your story. Do you believe you can tell your own story? And a lot of people start out by saying, I ain't got nothing to say. I got no story to tell. I don't do anything. Who am I? So that's where all of us who tried to work in the arts world have had to create a vessel if you will, and the structures of support and encouragement, so that in fact, a person can say," I got this poem I wrote, I've been keeping it underneath my underwear drawer. Maybe I'll say it out loud." And they do, and they discover a voice.

      Why are new stories particularly important now?

      ...the fact is the world is changing and we have dominant stories right now, some of which are being told by genuinely evil people that denigrate others, that build walls and shut people out, and hurt children in cages along the border, because they're not seen fit to enter our country. Who's telling that story? Who gets to tell that story? And there are many voices trying to tell another different story, and I'm going to be very blunt right here. I think those who are wishing and working to create a nation that's based on patriarchal white nationalism, they will fail. That world is impossible, but they can do a great deal of harm as they push that narrative,


      CSCW EP 24: David O'Fallon - Power Plays

      Transcript


      Bill Cleveland: David O'Fallon builds things. Theater sets, theater companies, 12-foot puppets, visionary art schools for teen artists and community musicians, theater programs for veterans from the Afghanistan and Vietnam wars, and more. The through line for David's wonderfully twisty journey is a couple of simple, but powerful questions.

      What is the story you want to tell? and how can it be shaped and shared with your community? Which of course are also the central questions we ask all of our guests.

      Please know that this episode contains descriptions of war that include violence and psychological trauma. We endeavor to do our best to engage these hard stories with care and respect.

      Please also be aware that there is a lot of hope, healing and optimism contained herein. We hope you will join us whenever you are willing and able.

      This is Change the Story, Change the World, a Chronicle of Art and Community Transformation. I'm Bill Cleveland.

       

      Part One: Relations.

      BC: So, I'll just begin with the foundation setting, which is, your work spans many decades as does mine, and over that time you have done many things, and however you want to describe it, describe your work in the world.

      David O’Fallon: Yeah. Thank you. It's a great question. I think my work in the world is trying to be a person who actively imagines and creates the narratives that keep us together and take us forward, rather than those that just tell us how screwed up everything is, how bad off we are and why we can't get along. So the bottom line is always looking for connections and relationships and bridge building, and every setting that I've been in.

      BC: What would be a concrete version of that?

      DO: I'll give a couple of stories that go with that. So, I am in graduate school at Temple University in Philadelphia, and my wife, Ann and I are living at the corner of Broad and Allegheny, which if anybody knows Philly, it's North Philly. At some point I discovered, so I'm appreciative of the work we're doing at Temple, I went there to work with a particular guy, Arthur Wagner, who had a way of looking at theater because my background is in theater, creating and acting and directing. [So], I walked down broad street one day to discover the Freedom Theater, which is an all black theater company, and I walked down the basement steps to discover the director of the theater, the guy who was keeping it all together, and they basically said, is there anything at all that I can do here? Because I don't want only to be within the confines of temple university and academia. He looked me up and down this kind of a younger than white guy and said maybe can you build stuff? And I said yeah, I can build sets and stuff. So, I sawed lumber and built sets, and then they had me involved in improvisations where I always got to be the Philly cop. ‘Cause the cops were white guys and they said, we kinda like you, but you're not mean enough to be a Philly cop. So, I ended up being in shows and directing shows at the freedom theater in Philadelphia as the only white guy involved at all.

      After a while, Ann and I moved up to Germantown a little further North and we're going to church called the first United Methodist church of Germantown which had its own issues, and we invited in black theater companies to co-create productions with. The first United Methodist church in Germantown. So, connecting, bridge building, people working together. The point was working together by creating work, doing theater, building things, sharing stories, collaborating, that was the work, it always has been the work, If you will, so that's one concrete example.

      BC: Yeah. So actually, I have a question for you about work. We live in an increasingly abstract world not just abstract in concepts and ideas, but also even in the means by which we communicate in the way in which we disseminate our stories.

      The reason I'm asking you this question is because I've had similar experiences of recognizing that the closer you are to literally putting the shovel in the soil together, the closer you can come to the combination of trust and truth that is essential for any relationship to get built. Is that your sense, is that a core belief that you have in your work?

      DO: I think it is, and I think one of the most powerful technologies we have Bill is to actually be in the presence of another person. And to your point about abstractions, we could go on about how many friends you have on Facebook, how many things you posted on YouTube, how many hits on Instagram and so on, it takes a different kind of courage to be in the room with the person, sharing your story, or listening carefully, looking somebody in the eye, there's a physical presence that you must deal with, and that for me has always been the power particularly of theater, but of many other art forms in which you have to be present to each other.

      So that, and encourage, and I think, hanging out in the performing arts world, which is my home base led to other things, different groups and encounter groups of one kind or another that asked for, or a similar kind of courage of a physical presence with each other and being open to another person.

      BC: There's something akin to what I would call old school, spiritual practice in what you described. Literally, a congregation or a group of people being together, the laying on of hands, the sense of brotherhood and sisterhood that humans needed in order to survive for most of human history.

      DO: And we still need it. And I'll share another story about these connections; and this is a very tangible story. So, I recently left being the president of the Minnesota Humanities Center. And so, when. I took the position. They said, “What is your definition of the humanities?” And I said, “I don't have one, and I won't spend any time on it because that's a big academic question.” I said, “I'm coming to you, the Humanities Center, because I really care about how we get along in the world and how we connect with each other.”

      But here's the concrete example of that. My first board meeting, this was in Minnesota, so it's November. So it's cold and a young woman walks into the boardroom in a puffy winter coat with her arms crossed in front of her and says, “yeah, I, like I'm all for the humanities center and I get it, we should speak for those who have been marginalized and left out, and we should make sure that every voice gets heard, but I want to know new-president, what do you think about the veterans voice?” And I said, “absolutely. We are in the longest war in our history, and it's fought by the fewest number of people”, and she took off her puffy winter coat and she said, “okay, I'm going to stay on the board”. That was a woman named Corinda Horton, who was a combat veteran from Desert Storm.

      BC: Wow.

      DO: And we went on then to create a Veterans Voices Program at the Center by first meeting with veterans to say, “is there anything that we can do that would actually matter to you, because there's a thousand veterans’ programs” and they basically said in various ways, “we want to be treated as a full human”. One of them said to me, “if one more person says, "Thanks for your service", I'm going to deck them because they have no idea. They have no idea what you asked me to do, and I want to be very personal because this is a story that I carry with me”.

      So we were having the usual kind of meeting that, Bill you've been through. large pieces of post-it notes on the wall, and markers, and it’s a designing, thinking, planning, meeting in a conference room and they're all veterans except one or two of us.

      And one of the guys in the corner, a man heavily tattooed, is bouncing around and swaying back and forth and people go over to them and say, “you doing okay? How are you doing?” And he says, “yeah, I'm okay. I'm here. I'm okay. That was day one. Day two, we always had a good breakfast, so I walk into the breakfast meeting the next morning and Richard is there and I say, “Hey Schmidty”, which was his sort of nickname, “Schmidty”. I stick out my hand. “I'm really glad you're here. I didn't know if you'd be coming back.” He says, “I'm not shaking your hand”, and he gave me this bear hug that I thought would crack my spine he said he's an Afghanistan combat vet who was Medivac-ed out. And he said, “You never go into battle without your battle buddy. Never. And I'm back now. And I got different battles, and now the humanities are my battle buddy, and I trust what you're doing here.”

      And that program grew and grew with an authenticity, and I hired veterans to run it. And there were still people I think there might still be people at the humanities center who don't get it. “Why are we connecting the humanities with veterans?” But if you've been in a room with men and women, who've been not all it in combat, but just in service in this almost invisible war, that's still going on, as you and I are talking today and they're not seen as fully human or they think once with a fly over at a football game or something yeah, the power of literature of storytelling of theater of music of creation is unbelievable. it's deep and it's strong and its essential. You want to go back to basics. You asked about, story and in some ways these men and women live the power of story.

      BC: So, David Talk about some of the specific aspects of that program that got designed with those veterans?

      DO: A couple of things happened in the program. The key one is probably that we created a particular approach to theater in which these men and women helped to tell and shape their own story, with an arc to it, like, “why did you join up? Where were you?

      What was going on? What were the promises made to you when you signed up and then what did you go through? What did you experience? And now you're out, and what has that been like? How has the transition affected them?” And they’d perform in the black box at the Guthrie, and in sites and cities around Minnesota, each telling their own stories. So, they're not quote unquote acting. They're saying, this is my story, and one man, I'll just use his first name Richard told the story of being in combat in Afghanistan and the convoys could only run at night. And they're out running at night and he's in an armored vehicle and he's manning the 50-caliber machine gun, and it's after curfew. So, no civilian should be on the road, but there's a car behind the convoy. So, Richard tells his crew chief. "There's a guy back there with headlights", and the guy says basically "Give them a little warning shot." He did, and the car just kept coming. "Well give them another one." And the car just kept coming.

      Richard said, "What am I going to do? "And the guy said, "Take them out. "So, Richard did, and the car flipped over when it, because the ditch, the convoy stopped, they went and it was a mom, and dad, and two kids trying to get home at curfew.

      Now Richard had never told that story until he's telling it in public. Here in a theater coach and understanding people sitting there. Richard said, I came home, and I stood on the Third Avenue Bridge over the Mississippi with a six pack, just thinking to hell with it. I got nothing. What am I here for? But he said, “I'm here tonight. So, I obviously didn't do that”.

      Then after all the stories have been told, and each person is now standing on the stage, you can imagine there's six vets there. Some go back to the Vietnam era. Some are right now, men and women. And so, a man in the audience near the end says “what do you want from us? What can we do?” And Richard says, “I want you to think about what you're asking us to do”. So, there's another connection made. and Richard just got married a week or so ago.

      BC: Wow. What a wonderful thing!

      DO: Yeah, I'm really happy to say. And his life hasn’t been easy, and Schmidty's life hasn’t been easy, and we're not making it easy for him, even though there's all kinds of public praise for veterans and so forth. But again, connections, relationship and being in the room with Corinda Horton, from Desert Storm, or Richard and Schmidty from the war right now.

       

      Part Two: Original Stories.

      BC: So, one of the things that has really marked your entire life is this relationship to theater and performance, and you just described a powerful moment. What is it about theater, the practice, its history, people's involvement in it, professionals nonprofessionals, what is it about theater that is deep enough for people like the veterans you just described to employ it, use it, take it seriously, and obviously benefit from it? What's going on there?

      DO: I think there's a bunch of things and I think they're important to where we are right now and a culture and a climate as well. In that particular instance, what was powerful were men and women shaping their own story, coming to grips with their own personal narrative and then having the courage, and it took a lot of courage to put that out there in public. I think almost every woman had a story of sexual exploitation or being challenged. So, to share that in public. So the point is I am shaping my own life through shaping this story.

      As a young man, I was lucky to get into academic theater early. I was teaching in college when I was like two years out of college. I was always drawn to the creation of original work, and that's one thing that took me up to Northern Vermont work with Bread and Puppet Theater, which was a formative experience because that's all-original work, being created on the spot, with Peter Schuman and the gang up there. And I think the challenge has always been to discover the way that theater can articulate the stories of people who might not be represented the 44th time that you performed Twelfth Night, or how many Hamlets have you seen? And I love that. I go to those plays they're powerful. But for me, the performance has always been part and parcel with whose story is being told in what venue, how can it be shared? How can we shape it? And that of course led me back to Minneapolis, to a job where I helped found a theater that is still going 45 years later, that always is creating original work. Every story that we do is coming up from, you could say below over from the side or some other way sometimes informed by other works, but most often about people trying to speak their own story into the great noise of our time.

       BC: That company was the 45-year track record is the world-renowned Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater, whose work is very much influenced by bread and puppet, and whose annual Mayday parade and festival is a beloved twin cities institution.

      BC: Most people aren't really familiar with theater that is tapping into the stories of the communities in which the theater is being made. What is that in particular? When in fact you are, as theater makers, both witness and steward, of an evolving and sometimes a very tenuous community story?

      DO: Yeah, let's expand this beyond theater for a moment because whether you are the mural makers in Philadelphia, which has this incredible mural tradition (Mural Arts Program) Those are all original. They're not copying somebody else's work, whether they've got Martin Luther King on the wall, or Frederick Douglas on the wall, or the neighborhood kids on the wall, the murals and Philly are original work, and here's one thing they have in common with theater. They're created by groups....]]>8383292d-6742-4a52-9d5f-1f00baca23faTue, 04 May 2021 07:00:00 -070042:13falsefull124241The through line for David's O'Fallon's wonderfully twisty journey is a couple of simple, but powerful questions. "What is the story you want to tell? and How can it be shaped and shared with your community?"23: Why Activist Poet Alice Lovelace Refuses To Use the Language of Her Oppressors23: Why Activist Poet Alice Lovelace Refuses To Use the Language of Her OppressorsEpisode 23: Alice Lovelace - A Peaceful Disrupter

      Music Attribution

      Variations on a theme 1 » The Rush (w/ drum) - Variations 1 (c) by PodcastAC

      This work is licensed under a

      Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

      You should have received a copy of the license along with this

      work. If not, see <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      What is "This Poem" really about?

      This poem is a cultural hybrid
      Travelin' everywhere
      Belongin' nowhere
      Irresponsible, Irreverent
      And totally irrelevant

      What do you mean by Peaceful Disrupter?

      I am never happy with the status quo. So, I'm always looking for ways to disrupt the status quo and to move it in a more progressive [way] or [by] empowering those who I see are being left behind.
      And that has to happen a lot, they have to be those who make other people uncomfortable, so that in their discomfort they actually deeply contemplate change. Because when we are comfortable, we don't contemplate change.
      ... I'm a peaceful disruptor. I don't get loud. I don't, I definitely look for opportunities to shift power and to shift the conversation,

      What does "asking permission" mean in a classroom?

      When I walk into a classroom, the first thing I say to my class is I asked permission to be there. And often the teachers don't understand that, but I will say to the students, “this is your community, and I am an interloper, and other adults have made a decision that I should be here, but the rightful decision-makers are you because you were the one who had the power to make this a success or to make it a failure”. So, I always ask their permission.


      How can you fight the power of the false narrative?

      I've never forgot the lesson of. Standing up to bullies, not getting into the stories people are telling about you, ...the moment that you try to speak to that story, all it's going to do is keep that story spinning. So, I would never address it.


      Alice Lovelace: This Poem is for reading only after I'm dead, as the weight of the words could kill

      This poem is full of blood, fornication, guts, and guns

      This poem hates nationalists, sexists, racists, factionalists and fundamentalists of all ilk's 

      However, this poem encourages creative lies when those lies are in line with this poem’s politics 

      This poem, This poem, This poem is about starvation in Ethiopia, tribal warfare in Rwanda, ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia, oil workers striking in Nigeria, starvation, re-classification, indoctrination, stagnation, and the return of the colonialists to oversee our freedom

      This poem, This poem, This poem is about moving forward but you goin' nowhere, you goin' nowhere, you goin' nowhere

      Bill Cleveland:  Well, the first time I laid eyes and ears on Alice Lovelace, she was standing in bright blue lights on a stage in Atlanta, Georgia. She was a diminutive presence in a delicate white dress, who, from the second she began to speak, literally took over the theater.

      AL: This poem is about arming for peace

      While withholding food until those ungodly hordes Recognize the salvation of Capitalists ideals 

      This poem is about the salvation of Russia...Not

      The unification of Europe...Not

      The liberation of Africa...Not 

      This poem shits on other poems

      This poem is about psychobabble posing as Art

      And Art so fuckin' pure it offends

      This poem is about dropping the bombs on Iraq for border aggressions

      While patting the Serbs on the back

      About boycotting Cuba 'cause they won't be like us

      While rewarding China 'cause they won't be like us 

      This poem advocates shitting on the Queen's English and the Queen

      This poem sanctions the shooting of Career politicians on sight

      This poem is a cultural hybrid Travelin' everywhere

      Belongin' nowhere

      Irresponsible               Irreverent And totally irrelevant

      This poem is

      About Jesus prostitutes

      Mt. Sinai

      swindlers

      Jerusalem

      junkies

      Trashin' the airwave Foulin' up my system Pissin' on my poverty

      This poem is about

      About gettin' a fix on the problems Without gettin' your

      hands dirty

      About Klansmen giving out free ammunition

      To convicted felons to protest gun control

      About withholding abortion rights to teach those

      Unwed teenage welfare cheats a lesson in humility

      BC: Well, we weren't referring to it as spoken word back then, but as far as I was concerned, at that moment, in that space, it was THE word. And that word was commanding, no grabbing my attention as though the lyrics to that Screaming Jay Hawkins song were coming true. “I Put a Spell on You”

      AL: This poem is about the need

      To write poetry while the people

      Starve and imagine your words feeding the masses

      When in reality, man you just you movin' 'n groovin

      Goin' nowhere

      Movin' n' grovin' Goin'

      no where

      Movin' n' grovin'

      Goin'                   Goin'                    Goin'

      Goin'                   Gone

       

      BC: But, since then we've become friends, colleagues, collaborators. I have to say. That spell that power to teach the moment to help you see life's vexing puzzle pieces in a new way that reveals something hot, something that will feed you and those you love. Well, that power is still there. If you don't believe me, then just listen up.

      This is Change the Story, Change the World, A Chronicle of Art and Community Transformation. My name is Bill Cleveland.

      BC: Alice and I held our conversation over two days in early 2021. We started with me as the guest on her new podcast, from the Arts Exchange in Atlanta. […] Then, we zoomed on over here to The Center for the Study of Art and Community to record this episode.

       

      Part One: Organizing is a Tool of Culture.

      BC: Hey, Alice Lovelace.

      AL: Oh, there you are

      BC: I see you. You haven't aged a bit since yesterday.

      AL: Thank God.

      BC: Yeah, I want to thank you for just a marvelous conversation, and I just I'm excited that you're doing this show. Tell me a little bit about the show before we start into our regular interview. What, where did come from?

      AL:  So doing the Arts Exchange and Atlanta, so it was an organization that I helped to found back in 83, 84. We are still going strong. Actually, I retired, went back on the board and sold the building and Grant Park, bought a building in East Point, renovated it and moved us in there.

      Once the. virus hit, we had to go with, everything online. And so, they came to me a couple months ago and asked me what I do a podcast, because we'd been doing some little conversations, but they thought that this might build a build on that audience and expand it.

      And so, I said, sure I'll do the podcast.

      BC: I don't know why they pick a person that's shy as you to do it, though.

      {laughter…}

      AL: Yeah, I have to...]]>Episode 23: Alice Lovelace - A Peaceful Disrupter

      Music Attribution

      Variations on a theme 1 » The Rush (w/ drum) - Variations 1 (c) by PodcastAC

      This work is licensed under a

      Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

      You should have received a copy of the license along with this

      work. If not, see <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      What is "This Poem" really about?

      This poem is a cultural hybrid
      Travelin' everywhere
      Belongin' nowhere
      Irresponsible, Irreverent
      And totally irrelevant

      What do you mean by Peaceful Disrupter?

      I am never happy with the status quo. So, I'm always looking for ways to disrupt the status quo and to move it in a more progressive [way] or [by] empowering those who I see are being left behind.
      And that has to happen a lot, they have to be those who make other people uncomfortable, so that in their discomfort they actually deeply contemplate change. Because when we are comfortable, we don't contemplate change.
      ... I'm a peaceful disruptor. I don't get loud. I don't, I definitely look for opportunities to shift power and to shift the conversation,

      What does "asking permission" mean in a classroom?

      When I walk into a classroom, the first thing I say to my class is I asked permission to be there. And often the teachers don't understand that, but I will say to the students, “this is your community, and I am an interloper, and other adults have made a decision that I should be here, but the rightful decision-makers are you because you were the one who had the power to make this a success or to make it a failure”. So, I always ask their permission.


      How can you fight the power of the false narrative?

      I've never forgot the lesson of. Standing up to bullies, not getting into the stories people are telling about you, ...the moment that you try to speak to that story, all it's going to do is keep that story spinning. So, I would never address it.


      Alice Lovelace: This Poem is for reading only after I'm dead, as the weight of the words could kill

      This poem is full of blood, fornication, guts, and guns

      This poem hates nationalists, sexists, racists, factionalists and fundamentalists of all ilk's 

      However, this poem encourages creative lies when those lies are in line with this poem’s politics 

      This poem, This poem, This poem is about starvation in Ethiopia, tribal warfare in Rwanda, ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia, oil workers striking in Nigeria, starvation, re-classification, indoctrination, stagnation, and the return of the colonialists to oversee our freedom

      This poem, This poem, This poem is about moving forward but you goin' nowhere, you goin' nowhere, you goin' nowhere

      Bill Cleveland:  Well, the first time I laid eyes and ears on Alice Lovelace, she was standing in bright blue lights on a stage in Atlanta, Georgia. She was a diminutive presence in a delicate white dress, who, from the second she began to speak, literally took over the theater.

      AL: This poem is about arming for peace

      While withholding food until those ungodly hordes Recognize the salvation of Capitalists ideals 

      This poem is about the salvation of Russia...Not

      The unification of Europe...Not

      The liberation of Africa...Not 

      This poem shits on other poems

      This poem is about psychobabble posing as Art

      And Art so fuckin' pure it offends

      This poem is about dropping the bombs on Iraq for border aggressions

      While patting the Serbs on the back

      About boycotting Cuba 'cause they won't be like us

      While rewarding China 'cause they won't be like us 

      This poem advocates shitting on the Queen's English and the Queen

      This poem sanctions the shooting of Career politicians on sight

      This poem is a cultural hybrid Travelin' everywhere

      Belongin' nowhere

      Irresponsible               Irreverent And totally irrelevant

      This poem is

      About Jesus prostitutes

      Mt. Sinai

      swindlers

      Jerusalem

      junkies

      Trashin' the airwave Foulin' up my system Pissin' on my poverty

      This poem is about

      About gettin' a fix on the problems Without gettin' your

      hands dirty

      About Klansmen giving out free ammunition

      To convicted felons to protest gun control

      About withholding abortion rights to teach those

      Unwed teenage welfare cheats a lesson in humility

      BC: Well, we weren't referring to it as spoken word back then, but as far as I was concerned, at that moment, in that space, it was THE word. And that word was commanding, no grabbing my attention as though the lyrics to that Screaming Jay Hawkins song were coming true. “I Put a Spell on You”

      AL: This poem is about the need

      To write poetry while the people

      Starve and imagine your words feeding the masses

      When in reality, man you just you movin' 'n groovin

      Goin' nowhere

      Movin' n' grovin' Goin'

      no where

      Movin' n' grovin'

      Goin'                   Goin'                    Goin'

      Goin'                   Gone

       

      BC: But, since then we've become friends, colleagues, collaborators. I have to say. That spell that power to teach the moment to help you see life's vexing puzzle pieces in a new way that reveals something hot, something that will feed you and those you love. Well, that power is still there. If you don't believe me, then just listen up.

      This is Change the Story, Change the World, A Chronicle of Art and Community Transformation. My name is Bill Cleveland.

      BC: Alice and I held our conversation over two days in early 2021. We started with me as the guest on her new podcast, from the Arts Exchange in Atlanta. […] Then, we zoomed on over here to The Center for the Study of Art and Community to record this episode.

       

      Part One: Organizing is a Tool of Culture.

      BC: Hey, Alice Lovelace.

      AL: Oh, there you are

      BC: I see you. You haven't aged a bit since yesterday.

      AL: Thank God.

      BC: Yeah, I want to thank you for just a marvelous conversation, and I just I'm excited that you're doing this show. Tell me a little bit about the show before we start into our regular interview. What, where did come from?

      AL:  So doing the Arts Exchange and Atlanta, so it was an organization that I helped to found back in 83, 84. We are still going strong. Actually, I retired, went back on the board and sold the building and Grant Park, bought a building in East Point, renovated it and moved us in there.

      Once the. virus hit, we had to go with, everything online. And so, they came to me a couple months ago and asked me what I do a podcast, because we'd been doing some little conversations, but they thought that this might build a build on that audience and expand it.

      And so, I said, sure I'll do the podcast.

      BC: I don't know why they pick a person that's shy as you to do it, though.

      {laughter…}

      AL: Yeah, I have to hold back, my enthusiasm sometimes.

      BC: And I actually, I found the same thing. I miss being with my brothers and sisters so badly, and it's just a breath of fresh air to be able to have conversations with people about things other than how bad it is

      AL: Amen. And the fact that with this medium, they can be anywhere, like you said, in the country or in the world, and that really expands the pallet. It's great. It is, I'm looking forward to reaching out to a lot of people. Some I know, and some I don't know.

      BC: Absolutely. Right. Yeah, absolutely. Let me begin. It's interesting. I have a good friend named Sandy Agustin and she was a principal over there at intermediate arts in Minneapolis.

      She's a wonderful artist and she was one of the first people I interviewed, and I said, “Sandy Do you have a street name?” She says “yeah, I got to handle” And I said, “so is it connected to your work?” She said, “Oh yeah, absolutely. They call me the navigator.”

      So, Alice if you had one or if you do have one, what would your handle be? What would your street name be?

      AL: It's not a street name is one that I only use discreetly, but I think it's one that really defines how I move. And that is, I am a disruptor.

      BC: Okay. You want to say more about that and what that means?

      AL: Yeah. Yeah. I think a lot of people take that in a negative way, but I am never happy with the status quo. So, I'm always looking for ways to disrupt the status quo and to move it in a more progressive [way] or [by] empowering those who I see are being left behind.

      And that has to happen a lot, they have to be those who make other people uncomfortable so that in their discomfort they actually deeply contemplate change. Because when we are comfortable, we don't contemplate change.

      So, I know that I am a disruptor. I'm a peaceful disruptor. I don't get loud. I don't, I definitely look for opportunities to shift power and to shift the conversation,

      BC: The good trouble, nudge, poke, I'm not going away. This story will not disappear. Let's handle it in the best way possible. You know what it reminds me of… I think about you're a poet, you're an artist. You spend time with yourself. And my guess is a part of your practice is self-disruption.

      AL: Yes. Yes. I'm always, I am hypercritical of myself, and in particularly if I've been in a situation, I always go back and I have to ask why did you do that? Why'd you ask that question? Why did you think that was necessary? And yes…

      BC: I'm always in the place. Where, when I get self-critical, it's usually like bill, I'm sorry, you have more imagination than that, but you got to get going right?

      AL: I think I'm always trying to make sure that what I've done wasn't out of destruction. That it was out of some sense of a movement forward. And if I find myself having said something destructive, I try to say, you can't address it that way. The next time you have to moderate this, so I try to get better at it the next time. So that maybe I get some positive changes out of it.

      BC: Yeah. So, for people who don't know Alice Lovelace as a disruptor, what are your tools and how do you put them to use?

      AL: I'm an organizer first and foremost. I'm an organizer, and I'm a cultural worker and organizing is a tool of cultural work. Art is a tool of cultural work. These are the tools that I use to move society in different ways. I think people would be most surprised at breadth of the way that I work.

      Most people know me as an arts and education, teacher for 35 years traveling the country teaching in jails, schools, churches, senior citizen homes. Anywhere that that they invite me. But then I'm also an organizer. So, I was the national lead staff organizer for the First United States Social Forum. Coordinated and did all the logistics for that. That was 11 locations, 15,000 people in attendance, 2,500 workshops. And I was the head organizer for all of that, that pulled it off and made it happen.

      But to me, all of this work is the same work. Even running the arts exchange, managing the sale, managing the purchase of the new building, overseeing the renovations, all of that is a part of that cultural work of building culture, strengthening culture, as a means of strengthening art. And I always remember that these two are intimately connected. So I'm always aware of the cultural environment that I'm in, and what my art can do in that cultural environment. And the role that I can play, and sometimes it's a supportive role, and sometimes if I don't see the leadership that will lead us to success, I will step in.

      BC: So, one of your other tools that is one of my favorites things that you do is you are an extraordinary writer. The first moment that I met you was seeing you take over a stage and blowback the eyelids of the people in the audience with your spoken word. Could you talk a bit about your artistry and how that works?

      AL: Again, it came out of organizing. I first started writing poetry when I slipped into a really serious depression. But I was only writing for myself. One of the things that helped me when I began to emerge out of it was going to teach at an Episcopal church. They had an afterschool program for youth, and it was the very first time I ever did that. But I stepped in there and I said, I want to volunteer, and I started teaching a poetry class for young people and watching them grow. It helped me understand that writing was all I wanted to do that my depression was not so much a mental depression, as it was not satisfying my own inner self. And from that point forward that said, I will never deny my voice. And I would never deny myself that opportunity, but I never called myself a poet. I actually took great Umbrage to people calling me a poet. I didn't not think it was an honorific.

      I am in the oral tradition, and I come out of the oral tradition. I never would publish my poems for took Toni Cade Bambara to finally push me, and push me, to make me write poems down and publish them I thought a poem should be brand new for every audience that every audience deserves to hear something that was crafted for them, and to be between me and them. And know if you weren't there in that audience, then you couldn't share that experience, and I didn't want you to have that experience.

      But I began to morph over the years and more and more write down what I was writing and accepted that position. And then when I started teaching in the state arts programs, I definitely embraced it.

      BC: Tell me, you weren't born a poet, and you weren’t be born an organizer or maybe you were, but what was the path that led you to knowing that, that was your purpose on this earth is to do those things?

      AL: I see it's two little stories. One was, I was born in St. Louis and I had the fortune of wonderful parents. I come from a very large family. My mother was my father's second wife. My father had 17 children. I was his 13th child. But we lived in a neighborhood, and directly across the street from my house, a half a block to my left was my elementary school directly in front of my house was the huge city recreation center, and to the right of that was the high school. Our church was two blocks away and this was an extraordinary and supportive community.

      That community center I learned tap dance. Rumba, Samba, I took ballet, I learned modern dance. We had a big Peruvian loom. I learned how to make rugs on a loom. I learned how to crochet. I took acting classes. I traveled the city during the summer doing a theater at other community centers. And so, I actually thought everybody grew up like that. I thought everybody had this opportunity. I never called it art. It was just what we did. And I sang, and I was in talent shows, and that had an extraordinary impact on my not putting barriers on my art. Like I work with visual artists, I work with dancers, and I cross all kinds of lines in art because that's the way it was brought up.

      But then when it came to being a writer in my own home, my mother was from Arkansas, only child, very hard life and she did not approve of idleness. So, to sit and write in her eyes was to be idle.

      So, we had a walk-in closet, [and] I used to put on my coat and pretend I was going outdoors to play, go to the hallway, sneak down to the closet and all the way in the back of that closet, behind all the coats, I had a little table, and I had my notes, books and paper, and that's where I would go and write.

      So, it was a really weird thing in public I was okay to do all of these artistic things. But at home, it was seen as an idleness. And I think that's where my own conflicts of accepting myself as an artist came from.

      BC: What was the name of that neighborhood?

      AL: I lived in Mill Creek. The first urban renewal project in the nation. The Bay Shaun Community Center was right across the street from my house. I'll never forget it an extraordinary childhood.

      BC: It's interesting, the...]]>078330da-9538-46f7-8562-cd18b07750b2Fri, 16 Apr 2021 07:00:00 -070042:06truefull12323122: Theater Isn’t Just Entertainment—It’s a Cultural Organizing Tool for Saving Democracy22: Theater Isn’t Just Entertainment—It’s a Cultural Organizing Tool for Saving DemocracyEpisode 22: Bob Leonard - The Continuing Evolution of the Horse

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      What is the artist's role in the altered and uncertain world we are entering?

      …there is a human, passion for justice, and it would seem that it's hard to get…as human beings, we rely on the stories that we tell each other to keep our sense of direction. I don't mean down a road, but where's North. … And we understand ourselves through our stories, and that includes that passion for justice. It's not an abstract, … They know when it's something is not just. ...And that struggle is enormously dependent on the stories that we tell ourselves about that, and artists are the people who do that.

      How has Alternate Roots manifested the struggle and evolution of American democracy?

      This was in the spirit of the times, both in terms of the, from my point of view, the American revolution continuing, but also the times were about finding out what democracy can do in the face of oppression. Whether we're talking about women's rights or civil rights or Vietnam war, there were a lot of people who were trying to figure out new ways of understanding the paradigm of democracy and democratic decision-making.
      So, we decided that the board was going to be everybody. It was not going to be representative governance. We were going to be a participatory governance, and what's absolutely really astonishing Bill, is that that still is the case. 45 years later, we have a board of 200 people, and it is functioning well.

      Is there a community arts, story telling aesthetic?

      And that can have all kinds of permutations and experimentations, with, with the aesthetic. Does it have to be told in a particular aesthetic? The commercial aesthetic of East Tennessee is Dolly Parton and the explosion of the stereotypes of a mountain people in East Tennessee, but that isn't necessarily the required aesthetic. You have to learn what the aesthetic is from the audience, as opposed to thinking what's the commercial version that will get the dollar. You're listening different things when you do that. There is what artists at Roots we're doing and have been doing that for now, for, several decades. And then roadside is a wonderful example of that.

      What does the evolution of the horse have to do with the art of possibility?


      I really liked the, the image of the horse, which in the age of the dinosaur, the horse was the size of a mouse. It was a tiny little creature and, things turned upside down. I don't know whether a comment hit the earth or something, but things turned upside down and the horse emerged over the course of a long time, and no one would have thought that little thing that might've been a sort of a shrew or a mole or something would become what the horse is.



      Transcript


      Bill Cleveland: You know, I like to think of all the people I've had the privilege to speak with on this podcast as threads of a massive woven story fabric. A vibrating weave of bright and colorful threads, with thick and thin fibers, warping, woofing, twisted and bound together. so strong and tight, that if you try to coax, to pull, to yank one from another that whole thing will lock tight, resisting all force because there is not one strand, not one story that is not held by the rest.

      Bob Leonard's story, today's story, is one of those caught up in that stubborn and infinite weave -- a crisscross of dialogue and music, lights and dancing, serendipity and surprise. Bound up with the layers of people and narratives that form the creative community fabric he’s fostered and served through his work In the theater of change.

      Bob and I have known each other forever, but I'll be damned if I can remember where it was that we actually met, maybe in Massachusetts, or DC, maybe at a Roots thing, maybe in a previous life. That said, this exchange held deep in the COVID swamps of 2020 allowed us to add yet another chapter to the conversation that we started way back then, wherever and whenever that was. I think I can speak for both of us when I say that we're happy you will be joining us.

      This is Change The story Change the World, A Chronicle of Art and Community Transformation. I'm Bill Cleveland. 

       

      Part One: Duck Fat, Dirt, and Stumps

      BC: Mr. Leonard, I have had the enormous privilege of connecting with many of my colleagues in this way over the past year, and every single time, all different twists and turns and stories and anecdotes and perceptions about the world show up that are marvelously surprising and energizing. I have an incredible sort of festival of rejoicing over the people I'm privileged to work with, and you're one of them.

      So let me begin by asking you the simplest, most complex question, which is just describe, what you do in the world. What's your gig?

       Bob Leonard: I think I, make theater, to bring people together. I like bringing people together, and theater is a means to do that in a funny sort of way. I've gotten myself into a full haul, a long life of making theater. The processes and the making of the theater, seem to me to be needing to be grounded in the drawing together of people in in a place where they could hear each other and where they could. Here someone else.

      BC: And so, when you do that, what makes it worthwhile a good thing?

       BL: Well, sometimes people erupt into a kind of, tangible, shared emotional moment or series of moments, and can get up and sing and dance together without anybody telling them what to do, or how to do it, or why they should do it. They just… it happens.

      People […] in some simple level, people laugh together. That's a moment of breath breathing together. That's important in our human experience. So that's in the constructs of telling a story to get people to laugh and cry together, but there's also the breaking beyond the story. One of the great times in my life was a moment when the show finished, and the audience got up on the stage and danced. There was a transferal of the event into the people who were there, and it was just the celebration. That's in a kind of an immediate thing. I think about getting people together, in longer frames than just have a night. I've been working for a long time with the, ideas that came forward with a group of people to make Alternate Roots. And the coming together, when you do it right there is not about the momentary. It's about how an idea of, justice and, and, cooperative human, relationship can grow, and go through challenges that we didn't anticipate, or we might've anticipated, but thought we could duck and then found out we can't duck.

      BC: So, Bob. You’ve been un-ducking these hard issues. Are questions for most of your life through theater? How did you come to this life path? 

      BL: I, played making characters with my friends when I was in grade school and younger. I'd like to put a towel on my head and parade around as a kind of circus character. We practiced, pratfalls, and telling stupid jokes to each other. So, there was something in me about performing that I really did. That's just something I was into.

      When I was in high school, my high school did one play a year. It was always the same play. It was, The Man Who Came to Dinner, and I was in a boy’s school, and The Man Who Came to Dinner was done in a very carefully arranged partnership with the local girl’s school. And so, I wanted to be in the school play, but it was only for the seniors. So, I went through three years waiting to be in the school, play in my senior year they decided not to do that anymore.

      I didn't get to be in the play, and I went away to summer work, down on Cape Cod, and I got a job washing pots in a fancy restaurant with 10 dozen ducks in big baking pans that I had to scrape every night. I was the only pot washer, and it was always a stack of pots by the time I get in of an evening, that was almost as tall as I was, and that's what I did all night long. It was pretty ugly work.

      But it turns out that the wait staff and bus staff were all going to a music school. I think it was the, Massachusetts Conservatory of Music. But the students got a job to be at the waitstaff in this restaurant, and they ran a musical review in the evenings, under the tent with a piano bar, and they asked if I wanted to audition. I said, you bet! I jumped on it. So, then my first experience. Actually, being on stage was with all these, undergrad pre professional, musical theater performers, putting on adapted musicals, adapted to Cape Cod, with the lyrics and we'd go out and sing hoofers and dance and so on and put this musical revue together while I was scraping duck shit, duck fat out of the pot, and it made it somewhat more worthwhile.

      BC: That's great.

      BL: And, yeah, that's what I. That's what I found myself doing, but it, I couldn't not do it. It was there and I was hungry for it. I had no sense of a career. I didn't think of it as a profession or anything. It was just what I had to do.

      BC: So, Bob was smitten. No, let's say bitten by the theater...]]>Episode 22: Bob Leonard - The Continuing Evolution of the Horse

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      What is the artist's role in the altered and uncertain world we are entering?

      …there is a human, passion for justice, and it would seem that it's hard to get…as human beings, we rely on the stories that we tell each other to keep our sense of direction. I don't mean down a road, but where's North. … And we understand ourselves through our stories, and that includes that passion for justice. It's not an abstract, … They know when it's something is not just. ...And that struggle is enormously dependent on the stories that we tell ourselves about that, and artists are the people who do that.

      How has Alternate Roots manifested the struggle and evolution of American democracy?

      This was in the spirit of the times, both in terms of the, from my point of view, the American revolution continuing, but also the times were about finding out what democracy can do in the face of oppression. Whether we're talking about women's rights or civil rights or Vietnam war, there were a lot of people who were trying to figure out new ways of understanding the paradigm of democracy and democratic decision-making.
      So, we decided that the board was going to be everybody. It was not going to be representative governance. We were going to be a participatory governance, and what's absolutely really astonishing Bill, is that that still is the case. 45 years later, we have a board of 200 people, and it is functioning well.

      Is there a community arts, story telling aesthetic?

      And that can have all kinds of permutations and experimentations, with, with the aesthetic. Does it have to be told in a particular aesthetic? The commercial aesthetic of East Tennessee is Dolly Parton and the explosion of the stereotypes of a mountain people in East Tennessee, but that isn't necessarily the required aesthetic. You have to learn what the aesthetic is from the audience, as opposed to thinking what's the commercial version that will get the dollar. You're listening different things when you do that. There is what artists at Roots we're doing and have been doing that for now, for, several decades. And then roadside is a wonderful example of that.

      What does the evolution of the horse have to do with the art of possibility?


      I really liked the, the image of the horse, which in the age of the dinosaur, the horse was the size of a mouse. It was a tiny little creature and, things turned upside down. I don't know whether a comment hit the earth or something, but things turned upside down and the horse emerged over the course of a long time, and no one would have thought that little thing that might've been a sort of a shrew or a mole or something would become what the horse is.



      Transcript


      Bill Cleveland: You know, I like to think of all the people I've had the privilege to speak with on this podcast as threads of a massive woven story fabric. A vibrating weave of bright and colorful threads, with thick and thin fibers, warping, woofing, twisted and bound together. so strong and tight, that if you try to coax, to pull, to yank one from another that whole thing will lock tight, resisting all force because there is not one strand, not one story that is not held by the rest.

      Bob Leonard's story, today's story, is one of those caught up in that stubborn and infinite weave -- a crisscross of dialogue and music, lights and dancing, serendipity and surprise. Bound up with the layers of people and narratives that form the creative community fabric he’s fostered and served through his work In the theater of change.

      Bob and I have known each other forever, but I'll be damned if I can remember where it was that we actually met, maybe in Massachusetts, or DC, maybe at a Roots thing, maybe in a previous life. That said, this exchange held deep in the COVID swamps of 2020 allowed us to add yet another chapter to the conversation that we started way back then, wherever and whenever that was. I think I can speak for both of us when I say that we're happy you will be joining us.

      This is Change The story Change the World, A Chronicle of Art and Community Transformation. I'm Bill Cleveland. 

       

      Part One: Duck Fat, Dirt, and Stumps

      BC: Mr. Leonard, I have had the enormous privilege of connecting with many of my colleagues in this way over the past year, and every single time, all different twists and turns and stories and anecdotes and perceptions about the world show up that are marvelously surprising and energizing. I have an incredible sort of festival of rejoicing over the people I'm privileged to work with, and you're one of them.

      So let me begin by asking you the simplest, most complex question, which is just describe, what you do in the world. What's your gig?

       Bob Leonard: I think I, make theater, to bring people together. I like bringing people together, and theater is a means to do that in a funny sort of way. I've gotten myself into a full haul, a long life of making theater. The processes and the making of the theater, seem to me to be needing to be grounded in the drawing together of people in in a place where they could hear each other and where they could. Here someone else.

      BC: And so, when you do that, what makes it worthwhile a good thing?

       BL: Well, sometimes people erupt into a kind of, tangible, shared emotional moment or series of moments, and can get up and sing and dance together without anybody telling them what to do, or how to do it, or why they should do it. They just… it happens.

      People […] in some simple level, people laugh together. That's a moment of breath breathing together. That's important in our human experience. So that's in the constructs of telling a story to get people to laugh and cry together, but there's also the breaking beyond the story. One of the great times in my life was a moment when the show finished, and the audience got up on the stage and danced. There was a transferal of the event into the people who were there, and it was just the celebration. That's in a kind of an immediate thing. I think about getting people together, in longer frames than just have a night. I've been working for a long time with the, ideas that came forward with a group of people to make Alternate Roots. And the coming together, when you do it right there is not about the momentary. It's about how an idea of, justice and, and, cooperative human, relationship can grow, and go through challenges that we didn't anticipate, or we might've anticipated, but thought we could duck and then found out we can't duck.

      BC: So, Bob. You’ve been un-ducking these hard issues. Are questions for most of your life through theater? How did you come to this life path? 

      BL: I, played making characters with my friends when I was in grade school and younger. I'd like to put a towel on my head and parade around as a kind of circus character. We practiced, pratfalls, and telling stupid jokes to each other. So, there was something in me about performing that I really did. That's just something I was into.

      When I was in high school, my high school did one play a year. It was always the same play. It was, The Man Who Came to Dinner, and I was in a boy’s school, and The Man Who Came to Dinner was done in a very carefully arranged partnership with the local girl’s school. And so, I wanted to be in the school play, but it was only for the seniors. So, I went through three years waiting to be in the school, play in my senior year they decided not to do that anymore.

      I didn't get to be in the play, and I went away to summer work, down on Cape Cod, and I got a job washing pots in a fancy restaurant with 10 dozen ducks in big baking pans that I had to scrape every night. I was the only pot washer, and it was always a stack of pots by the time I get in of an evening, that was almost as tall as I was, and that's what I did all night long. It was pretty ugly work.

      But it turns out that the wait staff and bus staff were all going to a music school. I think it was the, Massachusetts Conservatory of Music. But the students got a job to be at the waitstaff in this restaurant, and they ran a musical review in the evenings, under the tent with a piano bar, and they asked if I wanted to audition. I said, you bet! I jumped on it. So, then my first experience. Actually, being on stage was with all these, undergrad pre professional, musical theater performers, putting on adapted musicals, adapted to Cape Cod, with the lyrics and we'd go out and sing hoofers and dance and so on and put this musical revue together while I was scraping duck shit, duck fat out of the pot, and it made it somewhat more worthwhile.

      BC: That's great.

      BL: And, yeah, that's what I. That's what I found myself doing, but it, I couldn't not do it. It was there and I was hungry for it. I had no sense of a career. I didn't think of it as a profession or anything. It was just what I had to do.

      BC: So, Bob was smitten. No, let's say bitten by the theater bug through his encounter with that duck fat and musicals in a tent on Cape Cod. That led him to doing plays in college and eventually a graduate degree in theater from Catholic University in Washington, DC.

      While there, working at a small stage called the Washington Theater Club, run by a dedicated soul named Davey Marlon Jones he learned the hard way what life in the theater was all about. Namely produce well-known well-worn plays to attract enough people to pay the bills or do exciting new work on small stages by unknown geniuses like Lanford Wilson and starve. Responding to this frustrating reality, Bob's next move, which seemed kind of like a retreat at the time was actually a fortuitous detour.

      BL: I stopped making theater and I started working with friends in the film industry, basic Washington DC, late sixties, early seventies film. But yeah, I was making more money carrying lighting cable around in a week than I made in a month as an equity stage manager

      We were making the film with, David Wolper, a film called, They Killed the President. It was a made for TV film about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln as if there had been a live TV news at the time. So, the premise was there were cameras and stuff, and the president was coming out for the first time at the end of the war he went to the theater and so there was a news team there and he got shot. So, we were doing the setup in Georgetown and I was a production assistant and so we got truckloads of dirt and put dirt down on the streets in Georgetown and got these hollow trunks of trees and put them over the parking meters, so that we transformed streets of Georgetown back to mid 19th century. It takes a fair amount of work to get that done, and then you'd drive a carriage down the dirt street, and somebody gets out of the carriage and it goes up to housing goes in and that's the scene. But we've spent three days moving this dirt and doing all this stuff.

      What became really interesting to me is that while we were moving dirt and putting stumps over parking meters, people stopped and watched, and they stayed, and they stayed. I was like, there's nothing happening yet. And so, they stay until the carriage came in, and the people get out of the carriage, and the cameras are rolling, and they walk cup into the house and go in the house, end of scene. And people have watched that moment of a fantasy without paying anything and staying late (they were on their lunch break) and they couldn't go away. And over at the Washington theater club, we couldn't get them to stay, even get there. What happened to me was that I realized theater doesn't have any windows or it's forgotten that it is a window. There's an incarcerated, club of people that go to the theater who are not looking through the theater out to the world, they're looking into the theater as if it's something that is a value in itself, just to have the ticket.

      I had this really amazing epiphany of what people are interested in when we're just moving dirt around on the streets of Georgetown, and I didn't know where that was headed, but it was really overwhelming to me how brutally wrong Davy Marlon Jones was to be killing himself in that way, and not that I blamed him, it's just the distance between what was his dream and what was people's interest in getting together. We're so not connected.

      BC: Is that where your theater company got born as the idea that people are where they are and so theater ought to be?

      BL: Where people are that's right. I wanted to get more engaged with what I cared about just personally.

      I told this story the other day. In the Theater Club, we were housed in a stable, had been a carriage house, and the stage manager's booth was in the hayloft over the stable. So, I could look down straight down onto the theater onto the stage, and the audience was in a sense, underneath me. It was an old building and not particularly, air airtight, and we were doing this show and there was a protest going on over at the Vietnam embassy against the war. We are doing the middle of this show and the tear gas starts to seep into the theater and we're going, “Oh my God”, and I, at the time I was like, why am I in here? Why am I not out there? I got a job. I got a family. I've got to take care, okay. We got to worry, and so stop the play. We can't do a play with tear gas. But that anomaly of being in something I thought was important, but then the thing that was important is outside inside the building, and I'm trying to figure out where am I, what am I doing?

      BC: Part Two: Remembering the Revolution.

      BL: So in the midst of trying to figure out how to make my life into the film world, I'm tending bar and I'm riding a motorcycle, taking deliveries from one place to another.

      And somebody says something about the people's bicentennial commission, and Jeremy Rifkin, a man who has become quite a star in his own, as a public intellectual, had this quest that 1976 was an opportunity for American citizens to reacquaint themselves with the American revolution and what it means to be revolutionary. And that wonderful anecdote of FDR going to the daughters of the American revolution, doing a talk to them on one fancy day and started his talk, “my fellow revolutionaries” ... Those places where the, American aristocracy is not cognizant of its own. Heritage.

       So, Jeremy wanted to uplift all of that and turn things upside down. So, I went over there and said, I'd be happy to, to lick stamps or do whatever you're doing, and I had some, personal interest in the, Appalachian Frontier at the time of the revolution. How that is still defining of people, there’s the East Coast City, and then there's the East Coast Mountain people. And they're really very different people, all up and down the coast not just a one part like up in Maine or in upstate New York.

      So, Jeremy, said, what are you doing? I said, I'm tending bar and I'm theater maker, but I'm looking at film. He said, you'd do theater. I said, yeah, he said, would you write a play about the American revolution? and I said, oh my God, I'll give it a shot. And I just started; it was crazy. I found some actors and we played around with improvisation, and the idea of stock characters. I’m not the traditional European Del Arte, Comedia Del Arte characters, but on the premise of that, looking what are the stock characters of American history, American culture.

      And I got into Pecos Bill and I got into, Yankee Doodle, and I got into Miss Liberty and I got into a big daddy, corporate structure and big mama corporate structure. And off we went, and a friend of mine caught the fever and wrote a script for us, Michael Christopher. And we did this piece called AmeriComedia.

      And, it had started on the back of a pickup truck that we took down to Lafayette square in front of the White House, and people liked it and we had a good time and we played on the mall and then developed it with Michael into a full-length play and got a school bus and we started touring the East Coast, and all along I was going where the people were that didn’t have a theater. I was going to, union halls and churches and high schools, gyms, and wherever people were interested in a story about American history, American revolution, three years before, 1976.

      And so, we had, six or eight months of touring from here to there and I learned about the Highlander Center in Tennessee.

      BC : For those of you who are not familiar with the Highlander Center, it's a relatively small organization in Tennessee that has had an enormous impact on the American social and political landscape. At its heart, it's really a training and support center for grassroots community organizers. But also, a movement hotspot that has played a seminal role in the development and growth of both America's labor and civil rights movements, providing training for many activists, including members of the student nonviolent coordinating committee, Martin Luther King, Ralph David Abernathy and John Lewis.

      Originally named the Highlander Folk School by its founder, Myles Horton. The center has always regarded movement work as encompassing the social political and cultural aspects of community life. Now when it's 88th year Highlander, despite the burning of its executive officers under suspicious circumstances in 2019 continues its work from its facility in New Market, Tennessee.

      BL: And I found myself at Highlander and, I discovered that there was a group of artists, extraordinary people, John McCutcheon, among them, who were choosing to live in the communities of Appalachia, in order to, connect with their music and get their music connected with what was happening in Appalachia around the strip mining and union, work with the coal, brown lung and black lung, and corporate ownership of common land.

      And these were artists who were like me, but they were doing it. They weren't thinking about it. They were doing it and making their music and their work in the...]]>2bf489a3-8c65-4b42-833c-17a04716bc21Wed, 31 Mar 2021 11:00:00 -070048:36truefull122221Bob Leonard's story is a crisscross of dialogue and music, lights and dancing, serendipity and surprise. Bound up with the layers of people and narratives that form the creative community fabric he’s fostered and served through his work In the theater of change.21: Justin Laing: Why Cultural Organizers Must Confront White Supremacy to Succeed21: Justin Laing: Why Cultural Organizers Must Confront White Supremacy to Succeed Justin Laing: - Taking Back The Land

      Justin Laing

      Before starting Hillombo in 2017, Justin worked as a Senior Program Officer of Arts & Culture at The Heinz Endowments for more than a decade. His work focused on small and midsized arts organizations, out-of-school time arts education, and Black arts organizations, with a particular interest in participatory grantmaking. He came to philanthropy having worked for ten years as the Assistant Director of Nego Gato, Inc, an Afro Brazilian Music, Dance, and Martial Arts company where he taught, performed, and ran the day-to-day operations. Justin has a BA in Black Studies from the University of Pittsburgh and a Masters Degree in Public Management from Carnegie Mellon University.

      Justin serves as the co-chair of ArtsinHD, an arts planning and creation process in Pittsburgh’s Hill District to support the neighborhood’s master plan and mark the neighborhood as a place for liberatory Black culture. Justin is the son of Susan and Clarence Laing, the father of Kufere, Etana, and Adeyemi Laing, and a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.

      Threshold Questions And Delicious Quotes

      What does "taking back the land mean?

      the idea ... was ...from a person named Amilcar Cabral. This idea that you work in small territories. [...] you try to take back the land, like square mile by square mile. So, I was working in one major place called the Hill District... And culture was a critical piece to liberate our minds and the way that European culture oppressed black people was through this indoctrination of its art, its culture is everything is being superior. And so, culture had to be part of the strategy.

      You talk about working constructively with the tensions that are present in many organizations. What does this entail?

      So, one of the ways that I've tried to do that is by naming some of these frameworks, whether it's white supremacy, culture, what fragility, white privilege, and like you said, trying to bring that into the organization so that, that can be part of the official speak. Because again, going back to that black studies beginning, there was a whole lot of language that wasn't allowed that I didn't see being taken advantage of the nonprofit arts sector at all.

      You see racism and capitalism as intrinsically connected in our society. How does this play out in your work with nonprofit arts organizations?

      ...we're supposed to be the bravest ones, the creatives... and I've been starting to see, the class contradictions battle inside an organization. Cause you're raising issues that people have different interests in and I think that’s, that's a bit of the tension that you're facing, one thing I've been trying to understand more is the intersections of patriarchy, capitalism, racism inside organizations. And to the extent that we are talking about racism, there's some level of tension. I think the extent that we include capitalism in that, there's even more tension about that.

      What is the meta-message of a Euro-centric culture?

      ...all of the things that are happening when you go into an orchestra performance. And the way that you step into space and you engage the regal-ness of it, and the carpet, and the chandelier's and everything is sending a message that you are now in sacred space. And I think if you take this idea of ideology, that is its own aggression,

      Transcript

      Bill Cleveland: [00:00:00] Hey there. Ponder, if you will, a few unlikely juxtapositions: Capoeira the Brazilian martial arts, spiritual and dance practice, Karl Marx, The Pittsburgh Penguins. How about the Heinz Endowments, white supremacy anti-racism, and the Minnesota Orchestra?

      If you're curious, keep listening. This is Change the Story, Change the World, a Chronicle of Art and Community Transformation. My name is Bill Cleveland.

      Now, Justin Laing is a pioneer of sorts in that he helps arts and philanthropic organizations examine their place In the systems that perpetuate structural racism in our country. In our conversation with him, I liken this to wrestling with a tiger. Which is probably unfair to tigers, given their beauty and endangered status. Nonetheless, Justin has taken on a potent and dangerous force in his life's work. His ability to do this well, has as much to do with his courage as it does his unique capacity to help the people in the organizations he works with accept the inescapable link between owning the hard truths of their histories, and fulfilling the promises and ideals that embody their missions.

      At the end of the day, Justin, like many of our guests, is a creative change agent. And like them, he brings an interesting mix of skills, experiences, and sensibilities to the task.

      We hear about all that and more in our conversation, which took place shortly after the historic 2020 election.

      Part One: Hillombo

      So, let me begin with my first more basic question, which is, when you think about your path in the world, particularly right now, what is it that, that you do?

      What's your work as you see it?

      Justin Laing: [00:01:59] I think ultimately my work is about trying to live my highest purpose. And so that's still always being, revealed to me more and understanding more about that as I go, and then in terms of some of the things that I'm doing now, my work is about trying to partner and work with people around the ways that culture reproduces oppression, the ways that we can use it to disrupt, ways we can use it to engage with it, to create steps towards something that our much more proud to be a part of, and that's the work that I'm trying to figure out.

      BC: [00:02:38] And given your history beginning working with Nego Gato, how did you come to that, and where do you see the question of culture and anti-racist work coming together?

       JL: [00:02:54] So I would say I really came to Capoeira out of, the black studies tradition. So, I was a black studies major at the University of Pittsburgh and had some really important professors there who were also artists, Dennis Brutus, who's a really great poet out of South Africa, and Rob Penny, who's a poet, a playwright out of the Hill district. And then other teachers who are educators like Dr. Barbara Sizemore. And so I was influenced to see education and art and culture all as connected in the work I wanted, to do. And I was always surprised by how much information there was at the university that felt like it'd be really useful, but it was really not in the general public, and that seemed just so designed, that you'd have this plethora of information and it was as though it didn't exist, or it wasn't well known. And I grew up in a house where this was all also totally unknown when I was a teenager, a gentleman named Peter Claire gave me a book called There is a River by Vincent Harding, which really changed my whole understanding of history and all these things. I did not know. It was shocking to me around our histories of black people and the connection between various different pieces.

      So, I was with a group that was trying to create an African cultural center at the University of Pittsburgh. We weren't successful in that, but the group stayed together, and when I came across, Capoeira due to a friend of mine named Shaka, I thought, oh, this would be great for me to learn personally. And this really is a connection that I'm trying to stay in more as well, which is around gender and masculinity. Cause they're real men can fight, which I could and was afraid to do. So, like a martial art, like this was going to really shore me up, so I was going to do this and I was going to get it all done at one time

       And so, I decided to start doing this capoeira but then I would also bring it to other people could learn from it and they could join it and I asked Gato, “Oh, Can I go take us back in Pittsburgh.” And I just assumed that I could, because Pittsburgh had a thousand dojo, no, it's not there, but if you organize people, I'll come.

      So, then I thought, oh, this could be one of the things that the village for an African culture center does, and it would also be a way that I would learn this Capoeira, so it became this part of our programming and the idea there was again, take it from a person named Amilcar Cabral.

       This idea that you work in small territories. You work in [...] you try to take back the land, like square mile by square mile. So, I was working in one major place, like called the Hill District and I stayed there and I still,...]]> Justin Laing: - Taking Back The Land

      Justin Laing

      Before starting Hillombo in 2017, Justin worked as a Senior Program Officer of Arts & Culture at The Heinz Endowments for more than a decade. His work focused on small and midsized arts organizations, out-of-school time arts education, and Black arts organizations, with a particular interest in participatory grantmaking. He came to philanthropy having worked for ten years as the Assistant Director of Nego Gato, Inc, an Afro Brazilian Music, Dance, and Martial Arts company where he taught, performed, and ran the day-to-day operations. Justin has a BA in Black Studies from the University of Pittsburgh and a Masters Degree in Public Management from Carnegie Mellon University.

      Justin serves as the co-chair of ArtsinHD, an arts planning and creation process in Pittsburgh’s Hill District to support the neighborhood’s master plan and mark the neighborhood as a place for liberatory Black culture. Justin is the son of Susan and Clarence Laing, the father of Kufere, Etana, and Adeyemi Laing, and a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.

      Threshold Questions And Delicious Quotes

      What does "taking back the land mean?

      the idea ... was ...from a person named Amilcar Cabral. This idea that you work in small territories. [...] you try to take back the land, like square mile by square mile. So, I was working in one major place called the Hill District... And culture was a critical piece to liberate our minds and the way that European culture oppressed black people was through this indoctrination of its art, its culture is everything is being superior. And so, culture had to be part of the strategy.

      You talk about working constructively with the tensions that are present in many organizations. What does this entail?

      So, one of the ways that I've tried to do that is by naming some of these frameworks, whether it's white supremacy, culture, what fragility, white privilege, and like you said, trying to bring that into the organization so that, that can be part of the official speak. Because again, going back to that black studies beginning, there was a whole lot of language that wasn't allowed that I didn't see being taken advantage of the nonprofit arts sector at all.

      You see racism and capitalism as intrinsically connected in our society. How does this play out in your work with nonprofit arts organizations?

      ...we're supposed to be the bravest ones, the creatives... and I've been starting to see, the class contradictions battle inside an organization. Cause you're raising issues that people have different interests in and I think that’s, that's a bit of the tension that you're facing, one thing I've been trying to understand more is the intersections of patriarchy, capitalism, racism inside organizations. And to the extent that we are talking about racism, there's some level of tension. I think the extent that we include capitalism in that, there's even more tension about that.

      What is the meta-message of a Euro-centric culture?

      ...all of the things that are happening when you go into an orchestra performance. And the way that you step into space and you engage the regal-ness of it, and the carpet, and the chandelier's and everything is sending a message that you are now in sacred space. And I think if you take this idea of ideology, that is its own aggression,

      Transcript

      Bill Cleveland: [00:00:00] Hey there. Ponder, if you will, a few unlikely juxtapositions: Capoeira the Brazilian martial arts, spiritual and dance practice, Karl Marx, The Pittsburgh Penguins. How about the Heinz Endowments, white supremacy anti-racism, and the Minnesota Orchestra?

      If you're curious, keep listening. This is Change the Story, Change the World, a Chronicle of Art and Community Transformation. My name is Bill Cleveland.

      Now, Justin Laing is a pioneer of sorts in that he helps arts and philanthropic organizations examine their place In the systems that perpetuate structural racism in our country. In our conversation with him, I liken this to wrestling with a tiger. Which is probably unfair to tigers, given their beauty and endangered status. Nonetheless, Justin has taken on a potent and dangerous force in his life's work. His ability to do this well, has as much to do with his courage as it does his unique capacity to help the people in the organizations he works with accept the inescapable link between owning the hard truths of their histories, and fulfilling the promises and ideals that embody their missions.

      At the end of the day, Justin, like many of our guests, is a creative change agent. And like them, he brings an interesting mix of skills, experiences, and sensibilities to the task.

      We hear about all that and more in our conversation, which took place shortly after the historic 2020 election.

      Part One: Hillombo

      So, let me begin with my first more basic question, which is, when you think about your path in the world, particularly right now, what is it that, that you do?

      What's your work as you see it?

      Justin Laing: [00:01:59] I think ultimately my work is about trying to live my highest purpose. And so that's still always being, revealed to me more and understanding more about that as I go, and then in terms of some of the things that I'm doing now, my work is about trying to partner and work with people around the ways that culture reproduces oppression, the ways that we can use it to disrupt, ways we can use it to engage with it, to create steps towards something that our much more proud to be a part of, and that's the work that I'm trying to figure out.

      BC: [00:02:38] And given your history beginning working with Nego Gato, how did you come to that, and where do you see the question of culture and anti-racist work coming together?

       JL: [00:02:54] So I would say I really came to Capoeira out of, the black studies tradition. So, I was a black studies major at the University of Pittsburgh and had some really important professors there who were also artists, Dennis Brutus, who's a really great poet out of South Africa, and Rob Penny, who's a poet, a playwright out of the Hill district. And then other teachers who are educators like Dr. Barbara Sizemore. And so I was influenced to see education and art and culture all as connected in the work I wanted, to do. And I was always surprised by how much information there was at the university that felt like it'd be really useful, but it was really not in the general public, and that seemed just so designed, that you'd have this plethora of information and it was as though it didn't exist, or it wasn't well known. And I grew up in a house where this was all also totally unknown when I was a teenager, a gentleman named Peter Claire gave me a book called There is a River by Vincent Harding, which really changed my whole understanding of history and all these things. I did not know. It was shocking to me around our histories of black people and the connection between various different pieces.

      So, I was with a group that was trying to create an African cultural center at the University of Pittsburgh. We weren't successful in that, but the group stayed together, and when I came across, Capoeira due to a friend of mine named Shaka, I thought, oh, this would be great for me to learn personally. And this really is a connection that I'm trying to stay in more as well, which is around gender and masculinity. Cause they're real men can fight, which I could and was afraid to do. So, like a martial art, like this was going to really shore me up, so I was going to do this and I was going to get it all done at one time

       And so, I decided to start doing this capoeira but then I would also bring it to other people could learn from it and they could join it and I asked Gato, “Oh, Can I go take us back in Pittsburgh.” And I just assumed that I could, because Pittsburgh had a thousand dojo, no, it's not there, but if you organize people, I'll come.

      So, then I thought, oh, this could be one of the things that the village for an African culture center does, and it would also be a way that I would learn this Capoeira, so it became this part of our programming and the idea there was again, take it from a person named Amilcar Cabral.

       This idea that you work in small territories. You work in [...] you try to take back the land, like square mile by square mile. So, I was working in one major place, like called the Hill District and I stayed there and I still, my office is still there. And culture was a critical piece to liberate our minds and the way that European culture oppressed black people was through this indoctrination of its art, its culture is everything is being superior. And so, culture had to be part of the strategy. And with the idea that Capoeira's story was also thinking you could embody, and it would also say that you could engage with people on it. You didn't have to talk it, but you could do it. That is how I got interested in and started working in Capoeira and began doing little demonstrations with the group and doing classes. And that's how I saw those things as connected.

      BC: [00:05:59] So now you have a contemporary practice, with your organization Hillombo and yeah. Do those roots still speak to your work?

      JL: [00:06:08] They do well for sure in the terms of, the name Hillombo. Hillombo is taken as a merger of two words, Chilombo and the Hill district, the Chilombo’s being these places that Africans escaped and built these freer communities in Brazil, some lasting a hundred years in the midst of the Portuguese colonizing and enslaving in Brazil.

      So, the idea was that this company would be still interested in that same idea. So, it's still in the same neighborhood that I was talking about. And it's still trying to take on the role of arts in marketing the Hill District as a place of black liberatory culture, and we're doing the planning process for that, and that's still there.

      So, I'm doing that work now, and that, so I would say there's still a... you can see a line through there to that. And then, what's changed is as I was working with Nego Gato and ran into a ceiling. Both in terms of some of the relationships in the organization, but then also in terms of money, and then went to go work for the Heinz endowments and in that ended up working more clearly for a predominantly white organization, and although I can, I'll say, I think when you work in the arts, in the nonprofit arts, You may have your own company, but I still think you still work for philanthropy, even when you have your own, you know what I'm saying?

      So I think I worked closely for them, but I still think I worked for them even when I was running an organization in part, just because of the influence that they have on the choice that we make. And now I would say that where there's the difference I think is that now I work with many more predominantly white arts organizations on things like anti-racism and other people might call it sometimes DEI work and that work I think is different, and I think that's related to the economy of our art sector.

      BC: [00:07:57] So say more about what I call the three-legged stool, which is the foundation, the organization, and the audience or the community.

       JL: [00:08:07] I just think that if you look at the work that Holly Sidford, as done over the last eight or so years and see who has money in the art sector, to hire people like myself, it's predominantly white organizations. So, I think that has an influence on where I end up working. You know what I mean?

      And so...

      BC: [00:08:27] So, one of the things you talk about- I've gone through... I like your blog. Yeah, some blogs are I guess what I would call is too shiny. I feel like you're talking to me, so

      JL: [00:08:41] Oh good. I appreciate that. Thanks, Bill

       BC: [00:08:44] Part Two Wrestling with Tigers.

      00:08:48] So, you talk about bringing frames like white fragility, white supremacy, and critical race theory into the real-life mechanism of a nonprofit or a foundation into the boardroom, where the human beings who hold the influence and power actually in it viscerally. The image that came to my mind was a tiger and a tail. And maybe there's a capoeira metaphor for the way you have to work in that environment in order to do something other than give people a pass cause they went through the workshop or feel insulted. Something in between that gives people an opportunity to actually calm the tiger maybe.

      JL: [00:09:33] Yeah. is the tiger in this case here, is this tiger-like, like racial capitalist part or something like that, or something?

      BC: [00:09:39] Power influence. I don't need to change, so why are you here?

      JL: [00:09:43] Yeah, that's for sure. I think if you, a few thoughts about that, I've definitely been interested in this adaptive leadership framework. I'm feeling like that has some really valuable ways of working and I just did a shoutout to Eric Martin, and he has a book out now, Your Leadership Moment.

      When I was working at Heinz, I had a chance to spend some time being a part of a group that was trying to think through the adaptive leadership model, and one of its core ideas is exactly how I think you were offering it to me, which is there's this top level of tension that one can create and a lower level of tension. And below it no one pays attention and above it, the larger system will shut down the work. And so, you're trying to find that level of tension.

      So, one of the ways that I've tried to do that is by naming some of these frameworks, whether it's white supremacy, culture, what fragility, white privilege, and like you said, trying to bring that into the organization so that, that can be part of the official speak. Because again, going back to that black studies beginning, there was a whole lot of language that wasn't allowed that I didn't see being taken advantage of the nonprofit arts sector at all.

      It was as though no one was even aware, which of course we are aware, we're just ignoring. And usually, you're partnering with somebody who feels the same way. So, I would say that's also part of that issue is that I'm not alone in that. There's a number of people who, I think, who feel similarly, and I think where I end up going is where someone's (saying) “I could use another partner. I think this way too, but I'm somewhat isolated in my organization, and I could use someone who could work with me, maybe bring some credibility to assist.” But that's ultimately what I find I end up doing is I end up partnering with people who have this, just to stay with the tiger analogy for a second. I think that they're also working on that.

       BC: [00:11:31] But that boardroom, often the reason they want you there is cause they want you to sit next to them in that boardroom. And there's a lot of people around the table who are going, “What's this about?”

      JL: [00:11:43] Yeah. Yeah. And I'll tell you that this, go back again to again, to the things that we're not allowed to talk about and things we're not allowed to say.

      And we're supposed to be the bravest ones, the creatives... and I've been starting to see, the class contradictions battle inside an organization. Cause you're raising issues that people have different interests in and I think that’s, that's a bit of the tension that you're facing, one thing I've been trying to understand more is the intersections of patriarchy, capitalism, racism inside organizations. And to the extent that we are talking about racism, there's some level of tension. I think the extent that we include capitalism in that, there's even more tension about that.

      BC: [00:12:30] Oh yeah, especially in a foundation, right?

      JL: [00:12:33] Yes. At this point I don't do as much work in foundations anymore actually. My work has actually moved. When I first left the (Heinz) Endowments that's primarily where I was working. But I'm not working in that many foundations anymore. Actually, I'm mainly working with arts organization. So, that probably says something about that drift.

      BC: [00:12:50] So I'm going to ask you to tell a story. But before I do that, I was thinking about your work. And I've been, the people who came to mind is a kind of interesting cast of characters. There's a thing in the New York times Magazine, where somebody gets asked, “Who do you want to have dinner with?” And the cast of characters that came to mind when I was thinking about you were James McBride and Octavia Butler.  

      JL: [00:13:13] Is the author Color of Water?

      BC: [00:13:14] Yeah, and then the book I just finished, which is The Good Lord Bird, and here are artists who are story storytellers, and they're taking on the same things you talked about that we're not supposed to talk about. But they bring them through characters, through drama, through humor, through a narrative, [and] through conflict. And actually, another that came to mind, Ta Nehisi Coates who just tried his hand at fiction. And, having heard him talk about it, for a particular reason, because there are certain ways you can say things in fiction that are harder in the “sitting around the board room” conversation.

      So the question is, is there a central role to...]]>88adad61-e881-47ab-ac57-a67bb1408694Fri, 19 Mar 2021 05:15:00 -070043:13falsefull121211Ponder, if you will, a few unlikely juxtapositions: Capoeira the Brazilian martial arts, spiritual and dance practice, Karl Marx, and The Pittsburgh Penguins. How about the Heinz Endowments, white supremacy anti-racism, and the Minnesota Orchestra? If you're curious, keep listening to Change the Story, Change the World20: How Oakland Culture Shaped Fantastic Negrito’s Fight for Balance and Belonging20: How Oakland Culture Shaped Fantastic Negrito’s Fight for Balance and BelongingEpisode 20 : Xavier Dphrepaulezz

      Fantastic Negrito / Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? REDUX

      On March 14th our friend and Change the Story guest Xavier Dephrepaulezz, also known as Fantastic Negrito will hear if he has garnered his 3rd Grammy in 5 years for his 2020 release Have you Lost Your Mind Yet.

      To help nudge the stars into alignment for Xavier we are re-broadcasting our Episode 6 conversation with him. This Episode not only includes great music and, of course, FANTASTIC stories, but also, an inspiring dialogue on next steps for the coming community revival.

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes:

      What is the danger of scapegoating?

      Well, of course, that's the biggest lie ever sold, not told. There should be a class on that. That is how every civilization has controlled other nations and its populace, from Genghis Khan. The Chinese say Genghis Khan was the bad guy that’s going to get us (he actually did get you). You know that. Yet the Romans did it. You know, everybody does. We do it.

      Is music a change agent?

      Music's a change agent, film is a change agent, art is a change agent, a bakery's a change agent, a coffeehouse is a change agent, a conversation is a change agent. They're all change agents, but the most important change agent is in your heart. That's the thing that changes the world. Change your heart and change the world.

      What do white folks and black folks need to talk about?

      But we got to at some point talk to each other. I want to do, a town hall like this. And I want the white people to stand the fuck up and say, you know what? I'm kind of scared of you guys. We need that shit, and the black people; don't you don’t call the person a racist.

      What's next for Oakland?

      What I'm doing right now is trying to build this hotel and this whole all these blocks in the California hotel, boutique hotel. The first African American town.

      Links

      Have you Lost Your Mind Yet: Fantastic Negrito's latest album

      A Letter to Fear: YouTube link to a cut from Xavier's second album, Please Don't Be Dead. which won the 2019 Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album.

      The Suit that Won't Come Off. : YouTube link to a cut from Please Don't Be Dead.

      Watts Prophets: Legendary west coast pioneers of the new music form with ancient roots, that has come to be called rap. Amde Hamilton, Otis O'Solomon, and Richard Dedeaux first met at the Watts Writers Workshop. Fusing music with jazz and funk roots, and rapid-fire, spoken-word poetry, they created a sound has deeply influenced the course of music and poetry in the US and the world. They released two albums, 1969's The Black Voices: On the Streets in Watts and 1971's Rappin' Black in a White World, which established a strong tendency toward social commentary and a reputation for militancy. (See also: Art & Upheaval, W. Cleveland, NYU Press, Chapters 11-13)

      Native American Community Development Institute: A Minneapolis based community deveopment organization that was "founded on the belief that all American Indian people have a place, purpose and a future strengthened by sustainable community development. NACDI initiates projects that benefit the Native community, often in partnership with other Indigenous-led organizations."

      Transcript

      Bill Cleveland:  It's early 2015, and I'm sitting in my living room watching the rain and wind turn my windows into a drip collage of streaking grays and greens. The phone rings, its daughter, Heather. As usual, she's quick. She says, “I just shot you a text with a link. Just watch and listen and I'll call you later”.

      It was a YouTube page with the NPR logo on a frozen frame of four musicians crammed into what looked like an abandoned freight elevator behind a small makeshift desk. As I move to click, I'm thinking, “Desk? Oh, yeah, tiny desk.” Then this hit me. 

      Music plays

      I'm knocked out. This was a one mike, one take video with the pulsing power of a locomotive. That tall, skinny guy up front with the voice that stretches like a rubber band says, “Get through the day, don't drown.” But I'm drowning --- in a good way--- in the music. 

      From the Center for the Study of Art and Community, this is Change the Story Change the World. I'm Bill Cleveland.

      Part One: Griot

      Heather tells me his name is Xavier. XD lives down the street from Heather, with his wife and kids, and from time to time, their families hang out. I thank her for the gift of connection. Since winning the tiny desk, things have more than taken off for Examiner, who goes by Fantastic Negrito on stage. Two Grammys for best contemporary blues albums in 2016 and 2018 have fueled non-stop global touring and an international fan base. 

      It's also given Xavier a platform as a change maker in his beloved hometown of Oakland, California. Over the past few years, Xavier and I have connected over both music and a shared passion for the power of imagination and story to make a difference for struggling people and communities. Xavier's own story exemplifies this belief and commitment. One of 14 children, Xavier, grew up with an obvious musical bent and a seemingly smooth road to musical notoriet. But a near fatal car crash that put him in a three-week coma, and left him with a disfigured hand, provided a hardscrabble detour that has spawned the birth of Fantastic Negrito’s one of a kind explosion of 21st century roots music.

      We met together at his studio a few weeks before the pandemic tilt. Actually, I was just realizing the last time we were together, you were doing the same thing for the second album as you're doing for the third. So, I'm going to fire away with some questions and look, Xavier. Yes. What is it you do in the world?

      Xavier Dphrepaulezz: I feel like I serve as a healer. I feel like I serve as a person in the community that has something to contribute to the narrative, that has something to contribute to the human saga. I feel like I'm an artist and musician. I tell stories that I hope are helpful to people. My new record is called Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? And a lot of it is based on people. My other albums were based on this big thing that I'm trying to fight the system, proliferation of pills, and last days of Oakland’s gentrification, and this big thing that's happening. But this record is about people, and it's the hardest record I've ever made because it's not something big that you're fighting, that you're imagining is your problem, your nemesis. It's the people, right? The community. It's the engineer you're working with. It's your buddy. It's yourself. So, I write stories about people, places, and things, and hope that they are contributing then medicinal to people's lives. 

      BC: So, you have told your life's story many times eloquently. But, there are many musicians who would not articulate their work in the way that you just did. Talk to me how you came to that definition of your work.

      XD: Well, through a lot of failure. Did a lot of trials, jubilation, doubt, crime. Yeah, a lot of really negative things and overcoming a lot of obstacles. You know there's going to be obstacles, but the problem is, how do we deal with it? You know, I mean. So, I think I've arrived here especially. Have you lost your mind yet? Because, you know, we're now in this period man, we're just getting all this information, and I don't know if we're really meant to handle all this information, but I think people are there's record levels of anxiety and mental illness. It's not the mental illness of people walking down the street talking to themselves. Those people are probably actually OK, because in living in this insane video game world that we're living in, where we're justifying who we are based on, how many views do you have? How many likes you have? Well, how many followers do you have? We're now validating ourselves based on those...]]>Episode 20 : Xavier Dphrepaulezz

      Fantastic Negrito / Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? REDUX

      On March 14th our friend and Change the Story guest Xavier Dephrepaulezz, also known as Fantastic Negrito will hear if he has garnered his 3rd Grammy in 5 years for his 2020 release Have you Lost Your Mind Yet.

      To help nudge the stars into alignment for Xavier we are re-broadcasting our Episode 6 conversation with him. This Episode not only includes great music and, of course, FANTASTIC stories, but also, an inspiring dialogue on next steps for the coming community revival.

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes:

      What is the danger of scapegoating?

      Well, of course, that's the biggest lie ever sold, not told. There should be a class on that. That is how every civilization has controlled other nations and its populace, from Genghis Khan. The Chinese say Genghis Khan was the bad guy that’s going to get us (he actually did get you). You know that. Yet the Romans did it. You know, everybody does. We do it.

      Is music a change agent?

      Music's a change agent, film is a change agent, art is a change agent, a bakery's a change agent, a coffeehouse is a change agent, a conversation is a change agent. They're all change agents, but the most important change agent is in your heart. That's the thing that changes the world. Change your heart and change the world.

      What do white folks and black folks need to talk about?

      But we got to at some point talk to each other. I want to do, a town hall like this. And I want the white people to stand the fuck up and say, you know what? I'm kind of scared of you guys. We need that shit, and the black people; don't you don’t call the person a racist.

      What's next for Oakland?

      What I'm doing right now is trying to build this hotel and this whole all these blocks in the California hotel, boutique hotel. The first African American town.

      Links

      Have you Lost Your Mind Yet: Fantastic Negrito's latest album

      A Letter to Fear: YouTube link to a cut from Xavier's second album, Please Don't Be Dead. which won the 2019 Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album.

      The Suit that Won't Come Off. : YouTube link to a cut from Please Don't Be Dead.

      Watts Prophets: Legendary west coast pioneers of the new music form with ancient roots, that has come to be called rap. Amde Hamilton, Otis O'Solomon, and Richard Dedeaux first met at the Watts Writers Workshop. Fusing music with jazz and funk roots, and rapid-fire, spoken-word poetry, they created a sound has deeply influenced the course of music and poetry in the US and the world. They released two albums, 1969's The Black Voices: On the Streets in Watts and 1971's Rappin' Black in a White World, which established a strong tendency toward social commentary and a reputation for militancy. (See also: Art & Upheaval, W. Cleveland, NYU Press, Chapters 11-13)

      Native American Community Development Institute: A Minneapolis based community deveopment organization that was "founded on the belief that all American Indian people have a place, purpose and a future strengthened by sustainable community development. NACDI initiates projects that benefit the Native community, often in partnership with other Indigenous-led organizations."

      Transcript

      Bill Cleveland:  It's early 2015, and I'm sitting in my living room watching the rain and wind turn my windows into a drip collage of streaking grays and greens. The phone rings, its daughter, Heather. As usual, she's quick. She says, “I just shot you a text with a link. Just watch and listen and I'll call you later”.

      It was a YouTube page with the NPR logo on a frozen frame of four musicians crammed into what looked like an abandoned freight elevator behind a small makeshift desk. As I move to click, I'm thinking, “Desk? Oh, yeah, tiny desk.” Then this hit me. 

      Music plays

      I'm knocked out. This was a one mike, one take video with the pulsing power of a locomotive. That tall, skinny guy up front with the voice that stretches like a rubber band says, “Get through the day, don't drown.” But I'm drowning --- in a good way--- in the music. 

      From the Center for the Study of Art and Community, this is Change the Story Change the World. I'm Bill Cleveland.

      Part One: Griot

      Heather tells me his name is Xavier. XD lives down the street from Heather, with his wife and kids, and from time to time, their families hang out. I thank her for the gift of connection. Since winning the tiny desk, things have more than taken off for Examiner, who goes by Fantastic Negrito on stage. Two Grammys for best contemporary blues albums in 2016 and 2018 have fueled non-stop global touring and an international fan base. 

      It's also given Xavier a platform as a change maker in his beloved hometown of Oakland, California. Over the past few years, Xavier and I have connected over both music and a shared passion for the power of imagination and story to make a difference for struggling people and communities. Xavier's own story exemplifies this belief and commitment. One of 14 children, Xavier, grew up with an obvious musical bent and a seemingly smooth road to musical notoriet. But a near fatal car crash that put him in a three-week coma, and left him with a disfigured hand, provided a hardscrabble detour that has spawned the birth of Fantastic Negrito’s one of a kind explosion of 21st century roots music.

      We met together at his studio a few weeks before the pandemic tilt. Actually, I was just realizing the last time we were together, you were doing the same thing for the second album as you're doing for the third. So, I'm going to fire away with some questions and look, Xavier. Yes. What is it you do in the world?

      Xavier Dphrepaulezz: I feel like I serve as a healer. I feel like I serve as a person in the community that has something to contribute to the narrative, that has something to contribute to the human saga. I feel like I'm an artist and musician. I tell stories that I hope are helpful to people. My new record is called Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? And a lot of it is based on people. My other albums were based on this big thing that I'm trying to fight the system, proliferation of pills, and last days of Oakland’s gentrification, and this big thing that's happening. But this record is about people, and it's the hardest record I've ever made because it's not something big that you're fighting, that you're imagining is your problem, your nemesis. It's the people, right? The community. It's the engineer you're working with. It's your buddy. It's yourself. So, I write stories about people, places, and things, and hope that they are contributing then medicinal to people's lives. 

      BC: So, you have told your life's story many times eloquently. But, there are many musicians who would not articulate their work in the way that you just did. Talk to me how you came to that definition of your work.

      XD: Well, through a lot of failure. Did a lot of trials, jubilation, doubt, crime. Yeah, a lot of really negative things and overcoming a lot of obstacles. You know there's going to be obstacles, but the problem is, how do we deal with it? You know, I mean. So, I think I've arrived here especially. Have you lost your mind yet? Because, you know, we're now in this period man, we're just getting all this information, and I don't know if we're really meant to handle all this information, but I think people are there's record levels of anxiety and mental illness. It's not the mental illness of people walking down the street talking to themselves. Those people are probably actually OK, because in living in this insane video game world that we're living in, where we're justifying who we are based on, how many views do you have? How many likes you have? Well, how many followers do you have? We're now validating ourselves based on those statistics, which are really quite irrelevant because how many followers did Hitler have? He had a lot of. Yes, he did. How many followers did Michael Jackson have? And he and he got on the floor. Yes. You know, I mean, so how many followers in Prince that many followers get to the younger generation? How many followers did Juice World have? The guy who died, Twenty-one years old, riding in his own parade with 70 pounds of marijuana and he overdoses on Promethazine, dizzying or whatever that is. I mean, heck, out of that answers a question. 

      BC: No, it does, and actually, I mean, the wit the way you describe it is that you've gone from the from the big story, the broad story, the universal story here, the obvious confrontations that we're having on a regular basis on the front page of the newspaper, and now you're looking, I mean, in essence…

      XD: Now I’m looking at you.

      BC: Yes. And you're also… what you're doing, is you're going hyper local…

      XD: I like that because then the ball's in your court.

      BC: Yeah, well, it's also touched. You can touch and feel and see. So, here's a question related to that. At the end of the day, what is it that you want to have happen as a result of your work?

      XD: What I would love to have happen is to help bring about some balance, because I think that in the end is what it's all about. I'm a parent, I'm a member of this human community, and I would like to do what I think human beings feel most fulfilled. When they contribute, and have a voice, and hopefully help make a difference, and hopefully all the things that have not stopped me because there's been a lot of things that were supposed to, I can now use them as a means to teach our youth, and that's I think that's what this life is. It's about we live, we get beat up, we go through it, we go through, and then we're older than we can help. The others come, and we can make that road easier.

      BC: There's a word for that. You know, Griot that is adapted by many cultures who have basically recognized that in their traditions, the older you get, the more you might have to pass on to one who is younger.

       XD: Well, you're more valuable, but, yes, you know, I don't think we do that here in the weather. Well, I think that that's you know, you got to live outside of the box if you want to be successful in America. Sure. It's a great country, but I’ll tell you what, you better live outside the box here.

      BC: So, in in your work, how do you know when the thing you just described, which is making a contribution and bringing potentially some balance? How do you know when that's happening?

       XD: I know it's happening when I don't fear the kids walking down the street, because I know I've done my part and you can feel the vibration because we fear these kids, these kids that come in, they look scary now that they sag and all that. You know, I feel like when I feel kind of comfortable, I feel like, you know, this is something much bigger than all this stuff that's happening, and I know I've done my part where I can look them in the eye I like this. I'm doing my part. I'm not scared of you, I love you, and I'm here for you. You understand? I've said and I know it when I can look in the mirror. I know it. I can sleep at night when I don't have a guilty conscience. I know it when I'm not judging people who haven't been as fortunate as I am, which is a quite popular thing to do these days. Yeah and I'm the hardest person I've got to face every day here. So long as I know that I'm doing it right. You know, I'm on asshole in the room, you know, and I've got to get past this dude and make him make the right decision. But that's how it is here. I don't fear these so-called predators on the streets. 

      BC: So, when you're in the music, do you see the visceral evidence of this kind of change in front of you?

       XD: Well, I don't think I see it. I think I feel it. The feeling one thing about music or creativity is you feel it because it's you're channeling into these… This is…I didn't do nothing. I need to say that I ain't done nothing. These seeds are planted a long time ago. I come from a whole long line of people man. that laid this down way before me. And I didn’t even know all of ‘em. People laid this shit down, I've said it before in Black Panthers laid it down. The Hells Angels laid it down. Whether you like them or not, they laid it down. The Grateful Dead laid it down. Sly laid it down, you know Too $hort laid it down. The guy at Cal Berkeley in the 80s who got me off the street and had me boxing and laid it down. The people that came here in the 30s from the Dust Bowl, they laid down, the Chinese people that came to build railroads. This has been getting laid down for us for so long. And then you could connect with those vibrations. Then you can feel your purpose and can feel life happening and when you touch it, that you're in pretty good shape. Cause there's a lot of protection in that context. 

      BC: So, the image that comes into my mind is an archaeologist going through layers and layers and layers of stories, of stories layered on top of one another, not emerging from nowhere.

      XD: From nowhere. That's bullshit. People make that up are insane. 

      BC: But they're entrepreneurs. 

       XD: Yeah, you're right there. I just had an engineer I'm working with is from Argentina and he just said that this morning. He said there's a lot of things imposed on us that are people who want to make a lot of money. Isn't this young Argentinean dude? It's the universe. But we know, therefore, we can't get out of our own fucking way. There's this fear because I'm scared of you and you kind of scared of me, and you come from here, and I come from there, and they tell us “you’ve got to watch out for these black people”, and “hey man, the white people are trying to kill you” and “you getting the flu shot. Oh, no, don’t do that”, “immunization, oh no those white people, they are coming to get you”, “hey the Mexicans are coming” […] You got a lot of that shit, you got a lot of that shit. And that's a bunch of fucking bullshit. 

      BC: It is. 

      XD: Excuse my language.

      BC: No, no, no. 

      XD: It really is, and so we got to fight that shit. Yes. And that shit is us. Yes. I got to look in the mirror. I got to go, man. I got to say have you then your mind, I’ve got to do that. Because when we can do that, when I can talk to you and look at you and shake your hand, when I can have dinner with you…How come can can’t have dinner? Why? Because they go “oh fuck, I’ve got to clean this, oh shit. Listen, I got to text this, and I got to do this. Oh shit. Wait, how many likes do I have…” And we don't even talk to each other. We don't look at each other.

      BC: So, here's an interesting thing to think about. The human species evolved as a as a mechanism for cooperation. That's how we're wired.

      XD: It's how we are wired. 

      BC: It is how we survived. As we become more isolated into the world of likes. Which is not a relationship. 

      XD It's slavery. It's called voluntary slavery. 

      BC: It is the tyranny of comfort and pseudo information and pseudo relationships. 

      XD: Pseudo information is the word, because it is not information.

      My dad was like, there's no television in his African accent, “you can not watch television, you read the book”. So I've read books for hours laying there, fucking reading books and I got to know some stuff through it. But now it “Siri, tell me, what's the capital of Uzbekistan. You kno, Pakistan. You know, I mean, it's I think that's bullshit. It's not knowledge. So then let's talk about Uzbekistan. You can’t. Who are they? How they become? you know. I mean, you know, there's no reason. You said it. Pseudo information. 

      BC: And they have children. They love each other. They have families. They're struggling with the exact same question. How do I make my family safe and how do I thrive in the world?

       XD: Can I tell you man, last year I had six continents, and I can't tell you how real that is. It's a real. The same thing. Same. 

      Part Two: A Letter to Fear

      BC: Your songs are stories. Okay, so can I just have mentioned some of your stories here. So, who is Benny Walker? 

      XD: It's actually my uncle Benny, who is a notorious… It’s my grandmother's brother, so that’s called my granduncle. After that, whatever his grandmother brother, he's a tall good-looking dude, mulatto, looking to from deep southern Virginia. Those are the summers I used to spend in deep southern Virginia, which really gave me a lot of my sound later. But Uncle Benny was a slick dude, and man he liked the ladies, liked to drink painted on mustache. Yeah, he was his character. Very quiet, very soft spoken. He moved up to Harlem and was doing all kinds of stuff there. Owned a hotel in Harlem. He was doing all kinds of deals on the side. So, Uncle Benny, you know I got all these people, characters that I grew up with. You couldn't write this dude into a movie. They wouldn't believe.

      The greatest hater of all time. He talked to Grandma like, I was in shit like this boy...]]>120cb109-02bd-45e7-b9e1-e6a60513af3aWed, 03 Mar 2021 07:00:00 -070035:57truefull120201There are four musicians crammed into what looks like an abandoned freight elevator behind a small makeshift desk. As I move to click, I'm thinking, “Desk? Oh, yeah, Tiny Desk” Then this hit me. I'm knocked out. This was a one mike, one-take video with the pulsing power of a locomotive. That tall, skinny guy up front with the voice that stretches like a rubber band says, “Get through the day, don't drown.” But I'm drowning --- in a good way--- in the music.19: Mary Cohen Brings Art & Social Change “Inside” & “Prisoners” & “Outsiders” Became One Choir19: Mary Cohen Brings Art & Social Change “Inside” & “Prisoners” & “Outsiders” Became One ChoirEpisode 19: Mary Cohen - Freeing Silenced Voices

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      How can singing a song help change the mind and the heart?

      ...the thing about singing that's really valuable for me at least is it's embodied. We're using our breath. We're using our voice. We're using our ears. We're feeling the vibrations in our bodies. So being able to do that with other people is super- it can be powerful. One of the students in the peace building class last spring shared such an insightful comment. She said, if you're in there singing together with your eyes closed, we don't know which voice is going to be walking out of the [00:31:00] prison at the end of the rehearsal, in which voices be staying in the prison.

      What is ubuntu, and how does it relate to prison choir work?

      Ubuntu Is that beautiful concept from South Africa, meaning a lot of things, a person as a person through other people. Desmond Tutu defined it as, "my humanity is inextricably bound with your humanity". ...But we need to know who we are and be at peace with ourselves in order to step forward and find our sense of common humanity with others...you can only imagine a choir has songs with lyrics and some of those lyrics may resonate with one person and not so much with someone else, particularly if it's songs that have some kind of a religious connection. However, if we [00:12:00] follow deeply the idea of Ubuntu, we ideally can sing these songs because we're looking at our relationship with the larger communal body when we're singing together.

      What do the Oakdale Prison, the Soweto Gospel Choir, and the TV show Friends have in common?

      I found a song called How Shall We Come Together by ... Maggie Wheeler. Do you know Maggie? ... on the TV show Friends, Maggie played the role of Janice. The character that would go "oh my God", that's Maggie! ...So, I contact Maggie completely out of the blue to ask permission to use her song. And after a series of conversations, Maggie's like "Mary, you want to use my song in a prison with the Soweto gospel choir? I'm coming to Iowa".

      How can a prison choir contribute to prison abolition, to excarceration?

      You know, we have 3,144 different stories of prison growth, one for every County. So this imagination that the abolition thinkers are requiring of us needs to [00:34:00] happen at a very local level, and the way that I've tried to apply it through the building class I've started, and through the work we do with the choir is that local space of creating the healing needs to happen internally, each person developing a sense of inner peace building. That's the project, the primary project we do in this class, and in the Oakdale Choir, we've actually done it these 10 years through the writing exchange changes where the choir members write reflective components and they share it with one another and that broadens their awareness of what people are experiencing, what their stories are related to each choir season, the songs we're doing, the original songs that have been created.

      Transcript

      Bill Cleveland: [00:00:00] I'm curious, is there something more to singing than just voices moving the melody and the words out into the world? Can the simple act of singing a song together, turn a deeply feared "other" into an "us"? Mary Cohen thinks so, actually, she knows, so because she's been doing just that for 11 years at Iowa's Oakdale Prison.

      This is Change the Story, Change the World, a chronicle of art and community transformation. I'm Bill Cleveland.

      As you're probably aware the us has one of the world's highest COVID death rates. Sadly, we also bear the distinction of the highest per capita prisoner rate, by far, leaving Turkmenistan, Russia, and China in the dust. The enormity of our prison population, we have a little over 4% of the globe's people in 25% of its prisoners, [00:01:00] make the hidden in plain sight, “what prison problem," attitude of many Americans, hard to fathom.

      But not really, because when you look a little harder and check out which communities are most effected by mass incarceration, the undeniable fact is the two thirds of the us prison population are people of color. In Iowa. Where the population is 90% Caucasian. Their per capita incarceration rate for blacks is nine times that of whites.

      If there ever was a perfect storm for building an us versus them society, well, that's it. Mary Cohen knows this and has dedicated herself to helping heal this horrible wound. This is no mean task, of course. So, it's a good thing that she's a dynamo, and takes her work inside very seriously as a musician, as an educator and as a scholar. Suffice it to say her prison work is not a side gig. But as daunting as it is, [00:02:00] it's not a heavy lift either. This is because, in addition to being a talented artist, she's a joyful force of nature. But don't take my word for it because she tells it best.

      Part One: Finding Ubunto

      Hello, Hello

      Mary Cohen: here I am. I'm here. I how's Bill today?

      BC: Doing good. Good.

      MC: [00:02:27] By the way, I'll show you one little picture since I'm changing my backdrop. This is what the Oakdale choir looks like. So, we have the purple shirts are the outside singers, green shirts inside singers, and this is a concert we had in the prison gym back when we got together and sang, in the same room.

      Hi. how are you today?

      BC: [00:02:54] Well, it used to be, that was a pro forma question. These days it's a [00:03:00] book, Mary, thank you for doing this. I really appreciate it. And so our goal here is just to add your story to the other stories that are being collected in the growing basket of Change the Story, Change the World.

      So, I'm going to begin by asking you the simple question that often is complicated, and that is what is it you do in the world?

      MC: [00:03:28] That is a simple and complicated question. I think I'm evolving in my answer to that question all the time, especially now. A simple answer might be connecting people and allowing people to express themselves.

      BC: [00:03:44] And, connection. By what means, Mary?

      MC: [00:03:48] Great question. So, connection through group singing, movement, self-expression, song writing, writing exchanges; sometimes as simple [00:04:00] as I know, 'person a' in Ireland doing this activity, and I know this 'person who's basically is in Canada now. They both are so similar. I think they should meet each other, and I'll send an introductory email. I love doing that kind of thing, and I feel like I'm doing that quite a lot.

      The larger connection, to be super specific to career is I'm working on a book. The current draft of the book title is Freeing Silenced Voices: Music Making in US Prisons

      Many times, when people hear about the idea of music in prisons, the default thought is, "Oh, great. A program inside a prison. A program to help people who are incarcerated deal with their time". And maybe that is part of what we're doing as Beth said, when you interviewed Beth, we are about transforming the broader society. So when I say connection, it's connecting people who are not in prison to realize we have more in common with people in prison, [00:05:00] than not in common. So how can we do that? Good question. I don't know. we're trying.

      BC: [00:05:06] But that picture you showed, which had yellow and purple t-shirts, which designated people from the outside and people from the inside, which is unique in a lot of the work that happens in prison. Art making, as a way for people inside and outside to find common ground. Often, it's an outside instructor or teacher and everybody else is an insider. Talk a little bit about that connective tissue that you build in that choir space?

      Absolutely!

      MC: [00:05:41] First of all, I want to give credit to amazing woman named Elvira Voth. At age 70. Elvira began the East Hills singers in 1995, and in 2002, I was reading the Sunday arts page in Kansas City on notice that the East Hill singers were performing a few miles from my house. And I went to one at a Lutheran [00:06:00] church just out of curiosity, I had friends involved arts in prisons in Kansas. And what she does is she had a group of outside volunteers come the day of the concert to meet a group of men in custody at the Lansing minimum security prison in Kansas. To see the two groups together and think about the philosophy and the general idea of a group of people that have been accused of committing a crime, singing in unison and harmony with people from that community was just... [it] really blew me away. When I decided to earn my PhD at the university of Kansas from 2003 to seven, I spent a lot of time in prison, literally and figuratively examining her project. So coming to the University of Kansas and researching to prepare to start the Oakdale choir, I followed her model.

      So to get back to your question, what is it about that connectivity? It was amazing Bill, the first three weeks of the [00:07:00] project in 2009, when the choir began we've always had a reflective writing exchange in addition to singing together and songwriting together. Three...]]>Episode 19: Mary Cohen - Freeing Silenced Voices

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      How can singing a song help change the mind and the heart?

      ...the thing about singing that's really valuable for me at least is it's embodied. We're using our breath. We're using our voice. We're using our ears. We're feeling the vibrations in our bodies. So being able to do that with other people is super- it can be powerful. One of the students in the peace building class last spring shared such an insightful comment. She said, if you're in there singing together with your eyes closed, we don't know which voice is going to be walking out of the [00:31:00] prison at the end of the rehearsal, in which voices be staying in the prison.

      What is ubuntu, and how does it relate to prison choir work?

      Ubuntu Is that beautiful concept from South Africa, meaning a lot of things, a person as a person through other people. Desmond Tutu defined it as, "my humanity is inextricably bound with your humanity". ...But we need to know who we are and be at peace with ourselves in order to step forward and find our sense of common humanity with others...you can only imagine a choir has songs with lyrics and some of those lyrics may resonate with one person and not so much with someone else, particularly if it's songs that have some kind of a religious connection. However, if we [00:12:00] follow deeply the idea of Ubuntu, we ideally can sing these songs because we're looking at our relationship with the larger communal body when we're singing together.

      What do the Oakdale Prison, the Soweto Gospel Choir, and the TV show Friends have in common?

      I found a song called How Shall We Come Together by ... Maggie Wheeler. Do you know Maggie? ... on the TV show Friends, Maggie played the role of Janice. The character that would go "oh my God", that's Maggie! ...So, I contact Maggie completely out of the blue to ask permission to use her song. And after a series of conversations, Maggie's like "Mary, you want to use my song in a prison with the Soweto gospel choir? I'm coming to Iowa".

      How can a prison choir contribute to prison abolition, to excarceration?

      You know, we have 3,144 different stories of prison growth, one for every County. So this imagination that the abolition thinkers are requiring of us needs to [00:34:00] happen at a very local level, and the way that I've tried to apply it through the building class I've started, and through the work we do with the choir is that local space of creating the healing needs to happen internally, each person developing a sense of inner peace building. That's the project, the primary project we do in this class, and in the Oakdale Choir, we've actually done it these 10 years through the writing exchange changes where the choir members write reflective components and they share it with one another and that broadens their awareness of what people are experiencing, what their stories are related to each choir season, the songs we're doing, the original songs that have been created.

      Transcript

      Bill Cleveland: [00:00:00] I'm curious, is there something more to singing than just voices moving the melody and the words out into the world? Can the simple act of singing a song together, turn a deeply feared "other" into an "us"? Mary Cohen thinks so, actually, she knows, so because she's been doing just that for 11 years at Iowa's Oakdale Prison.

      This is Change the Story, Change the World, a chronicle of art and community transformation. I'm Bill Cleveland.

      As you're probably aware the us has one of the world's highest COVID death rates. Sadly, we also bear the distinction of the highest per capita prisoner rate, by far, leaving Turkmenistan, Russia, and China in the dust. The enormity of our prison population, we have a little over 4% of the globe's people in 25% of its prisoners, [00:01:00] make the hidden in plain sight, “what prison problem," attitude of many Americans, hard to fathom.

      But not really, because when you look a little harder and check out which communities are most effected by mass incarceration, the undeniable fact is the two thirds of the us prison population are people of color. In Iowa. Where the population is 90% Caucasian. Their per capita incarceration rate for blacks is nine times that of whites.

      If there ever was a perfect storm for building an us versus them society, well, that's it. Mary Cohen knows this and has dedicated herself to helping heal this horrible wound. This is no mean task, of course. So, it's a good thing that she's a dynamo, and takes her work inside very seriously as a musician, as an educator and as a scholar. Suffice it to say her prison work is not a side gig. But as daunting as it is, [00:02:00] it's not a heavy lift either. This is because, in addition to being a talented artist, she's a joyful force of nature. But don't take my word for it because she tells it best.

      Part One: Finding Ubunto

      Hello, Hello

      Mary Cohen: here I am. I'm here. I how's Bill today?

      BC: Doing good. Good.

      MC: [00:02:27] By the way, I'll show you one little picture since I'm changing my backdrop. This is what the Oakdale choir looks like. So, we have the purple shirts are the outside singers, green shirts inside singers, and this is a concert we had in the prison gym back when we got together and sang, in the same room.

      Hi. how are you today?

      BC: [00:02:54] Well, it used to be, that was a pro forma question. These days it's a [00:03:00] book, Mary, thank you for doing this. I really appreciate it. And so our goal here is just to add your story to the other stories that are being collected in the growing basket of Change the Story, Change the World.

      So, I'm going to begin by asking you the simple question that often is complicated, and that is what is it you do in the world?

      MC: [00:03:28] That is a simple and complicated question. I think I'm evolving in my answer to that question all the time, especially now. A simple answer might be connecting people and allowing people to express themselves.

      BC: [00:03:44] And, connection. By what means, Mary?

      MC: [00:03:48] Great question. So, connection through group singing, movement, self-expression, song writing, writing exchanges; sometimes as simple [00:04:00] as I know, 'person a' in Ireland doing this activity, and I know this 'person who's basically is in Canada now. They both are so similar. I think they should meet each other, and I'll send an introductory email. I love doing that kind of thing, and I feel like I'm doing that quite a lot.

      The larger connection, to be super specific to career is I'm working on a book. The current draft of the book title is Freeing Silenced Voices: Music Making in US Prisons

      Many times, when people hear about the idea of music in prisons, the default thought is, "Oh, great. A program inside a prison. A program to help people who are incarcerated deal with their time". And maybe that is part of what we're doing as Beth said, when you interviewed Beth, we are about transforming the broader society. So when I say connection, it's connecting people who are not in prison to realize we have more in common with people in prison, [00:05:00] than not in common. So how can we do that? Good question. I don't know. we're trying.

      BC: [00:05:06] But that picture you showed, which had yellow and purple t-shirts, which designated people from the outside and people from the inside, which is unique in a lot of the work that happens in prison. Art making, as a way for people inside and outside to find common ground. Often, it's an outside instructor or teacher and everybody else is an insider. Talk a little bit about that connective tissue that you build in that choir space?

      Absolutely!

      MC: [00:05:41] First of all, I want to give credit to amazing woman named Elvira Voth. At age 70. Elvira began the East Hills singers in 1995, and in 2002, I was reading the Sunday arts page in Kansas City on notice that the East Hill singers were performing a few miles from my house. And I went to one at a Lutheran [00:06:00] church just out of curiosity, I had friends involved arts in prisons in Kansas. And what she does is she had a group of outside volunteers come the day of the concert to meet a group of men in custody at the Lansing minimum security prison in Kansas. To see the two groups together and think about the philosophy and the general idea of a group of people that have been accused of committing a crime, singing in unison and harmony with people from that community was just... [it] really blew me away. When I decided to earn my PhD at the university of Kansas from 2003 to seven, I spent a lot of time in prison, literally and figuratively examining her project. So coming to the University of Kansas and researching to prepare to start the Oakdale choir, I followed her model.

      So to get back to your question, what is it about that connectivity? It was amazing Bill, the first three weeks of the [00:07:00] project in 2009, when the choir began we've always had a reflective writing exchange in addition to singing together and songwriting together. Three weeks into the season, one of the inside singers he said, "being in prison is especially hard for a lot of people because there is so much negativism. I've learned through our practices and meeting people from the outside world that we are human."

       The fact that these people have come in has developed a sense of his self-esteem, with both worthiness and competence. So, I did one research study that examined that because if your self-esteem is only based on competence, and then you don't feel successful at a particular skill, that's not going to help. And if you only feel self-esteem from a sense of worthiness, there's a parallel between narcissism and just [00:08:00] problematic behavior. So, this project has allowed the men in the prison and to find that sense of self-esteem of worthiness and competence both.

      And the connections are combined, both the outside and the inside singers, they're all volunteers, but all the people together, basically created our own communal body. By singing together, and the project started in 2009, so this would have been our 25th season because we had three seasons in 2009 and then two seasons every year after that.

      I just want to acknowledge and express my gratitude to you, Bill, because you probably remember what I came to Iowa in 2007 and eight, we had a phone call trying to figure out how do I do this? What's the way to make this work? I've shared this with other people, your brilliant suggestion of “Mary don't build a summer camp, build a village.” I took that to heart. And the other thing I want to thank you for one of your articles that you wrote, In the eighties, the article was called Common Sense and Common [00:09:00] Ground: Survival Skills for Artists Going into Institutions. For the first four years of the Oakdale Choir, I had the outside volunteers read that article prior to coming in, to learn how to build them mutually respectful relationships with the people in the prison.

      BC: [00:09:15] Thanks for that, Mary, and it's interesting ... When I talk to people that are intensely involved in a practice like you is all of the relationships that are necessary for this to occur in the community that you build so that the end result-- beautiful music and working hard to blend different perspectives, different stories, different voices, together in a way that transcends the significant differences that exist. And actually one thing that I noticed that we haven't common also is this idea of Ubuntu could you [00:10:00] talk about that? I think it's related to what you mentioned in terms of connection.

      MC: [00:10:04] Absolutely. Ubuntu Is that beautiful concept from South Africa, meaning a lot of things, a person as a person through other people. Desmond Tutu defined it as, "my humanity is inextricably bound with your humanity". In fact, Kathy Roma in Ohio, she's named one of her choirs Ubuntu. She's been leading prison choirs for over 30 years.

      So ubuntu though, I think definitely comes to the idea that we were talking about before, about connection, and that until we can start learning more healing approaches to conflict management, I don't feel like our job's done. We have so many unjust practices in our U.S. prison systems, plural 3,144, one for every County in the country. [00:11:00] So problematic, and the idea that African worldview of our common humanity and learning, and I think it's more than just humanity, it's Gaia, the connection we have with all living creatures in our relationship to mother earth. But we need to know who we are and be at peace with ourselves in order to step forward and find our sense of common humanity with others.

      BC: [00:11:28] I am because you are.

      MC: [00:11:30] Yeah, that's beautiful. We have a little short one-page article about Ubuntu that everybody, inside and outside singers alike are required to read before they joined the choir, and we talk about it. It's also helped a lot when we were in a situation, you can only imagine a choir has songs with lyrics and some of those lyrics may resonate with one person and not so much with someone else, particularly if it's songs that have some kind of a religious connection. However, if we [00:12:00] follow deeply the idea of Ubuntu, we ideally can sing these songs because we're looking at our relationship with the larger communal body when we're singing together.

      BC: [00:12:12] One of the interesting things about my work is that it has led me down some garden paths, also some rabbit holes, and actually some very enlightening places. One of them is evolutionary psychology, in which there's a growing thesis that humans made what we call art before we had language, and that it was likely, vocal.

      I have a story in my head that the first miracle was when two voices came together, or maybe three, and created, harmony, and that once people tasted that delicious thing, they couldn't not do it, [and] then it [00:13:00] did two things. It created, beauty in the world that was codependent, and it intrinsically, physically, psychologically, and spiritually connected those voices. And there wasn't a whole lot of debate. It just happened. So when I think about your choir, I'm thinking that you are many eons beyond that moment. You are replicating that same miracle in the same spirit and with the same power that existed way back then.

      MC: [00:13:33] I love that idea of beauty being codependent. That's like a beautiful illustration of Ubuntu through voice. Connecting and singing together and making that connection and whether or not it's unison, dissonance, not even tuned together. We have some, we have some healing to do in the profession of music education. We need to acknowledge [...]. I tell you [00:14:00] this morning in my research, by the way, I read the last chapter of the book, Art in Other Places, I've got the copy right here, and wow! The person you interviewed Rebecca Rice. What she described with theater was so empowering, all answers are right.

      There are a couple music approaches that have that music for people is one music for people has a guideline. There are no wrong notes, every note lives with every other note in the universe. So, your story of voices connecting together. That's when we have the space. Boy, and there's another beautiful podcast, angel Kyodo Williams interview with Krista Tippett. Angel Kyodo Williams has that beautiful message of the idea of love creating a space that we can make that loving connection with others that have different views than us, and so [00:15:00] again, back to that symbolism of voices coming together, whether they're in unison and connecting slightly dissonant, or some kind of a harmony creating the space for that to happen. And I'd come back to that idea of music education. I am a believer currently we have some healing to do, and that we need to realize there are multiple ways of making music that are more healing, more empowering of everyone.

      There's so many times that. We've grown up as musicians, music teachers have said, that's the right way to do it. That's the wrong way to do it. I'm still, in progress here, and we hear that the choice we made was the wrong choice in a, in an artistic space. That's dis empowering in a way that can be really harmful and hurtful. Given the need for healing and wellness right now with COVID [00:16:00] and with all of the outcomes of COVID, I think there's a vital need for music and educators, maybe other arts facilitators to empower.

      By the way, speaking of arts facilitators that empower. My colleague at Boston University, Andre de Quadros, has created a brilliant program at two Massachusetts prisons called Empowering Song. It's a brilliant model of this, and it's going to be a highlight of chapter six of the book because he's done it. He uses Augusto Boal's Theater of the Oppressed, as a theoretical framework for what he's doing and it's just so amazing. So, I'm happy that there are some samples and ideas and examples of music educators following a more empowering approach to teaching.

      BC: [00:16:51] Well, connecting dots. my colleague, Sandy, Augustin....

      MC: [00:16:55] Did she interview? because I think I heard hers too where you talked about Augusta Boal...

      [00:17:00] Yes.

      BC: [00:17:00] And it's, there's a fairly common through line among and between people in lots of different disciplines that is this. Democratized idea of an art form that is not just led d irected, but in fact is a manifestation of the collective and Boal personified that in his practice along with Palo Freire and Pedagogy of the Oppressed, just the idea that this is collective work.

      Part Two Finding Joy.

      So I'm going to segue now, one of the questions, probably the most important question for a podcast called Change the Story, Change the World is there a story that rises up for you that really encompasses or personifies what it is [00:18:00] that you're up to, and particularly this idea of altering the trajectory of a person's story or...]]>90e5a87d-1287-4873-a090-2ad735e4741eWed, 17 Feb 2021 07:30:00 -070046:33falsefull119191Can the simple act of singing a song together, turn a deeply feared "other" into a trusted "us"? Mary Cohen thinks so, actually, she knows, so because she's been doing just that for 11 years at Iowa's Oakdale Prison.18: Cultural Organizing in Appalachia: Building Trust, Equity, and Economic Resilience – Part 218: Cultural Organizing in Appalachia: Building Trust, Equity, and Economic Resilience – Part 2CSCW EP 18: Ben Fink – A Communist Jew from the Northeast – Chapter 2

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      As a self described "communist Jew from the Northeast, what kind of hostility did you encounter in coal country?

      Honestly, the most hostility I got was from some of the liberals who are like, this is our way of doing things and we have this way of doing activism, and this way of doing community development, and this way of, who we relate to and who we don't relate to and blah, blah, blah.

      How can traditional hymn singing help build trust?

      And, you know what I have been told that a lot of ice was broken at some of these events. When I got up in front of the room, I didn't need a mic cause I'm loud, and I was able to line out, Poor Wayfaring Stranger, or What Wonderous Love is This, ... and that became my identity to a lot of people. I was the shape note guy. I was the guy who could come in and lead a sing and, line out of him. And it just, it broke down some walls.

      What is Performing Our Future?

      Yeah. So, Performing Our Future began as a community-based research project to figure out how can people tell their stories, communities that have long resisted, systematic, organized exploitation, how those communities can collectively tell their own stories, connected to building their own power connected, to creating their own and do so in coalition with each other, both locally, as well as nationally.

      "What is the difference between cooking and catering?"

      As Gwen said, we never done cater and we just done cooking. What's the difference between catering and cooking? The difference is what our economist friend Fluney Hutchinson calls, bounded imagination. Cooking is something you do for yourself and your neighbors to survive. Catering is something that you can do to add value and create jobs.
      And in this case, jobs for neighbors that were coming back from incarceration and addiction and serve in the armed forces overseas, with various kinds of trauma who were really having trouble finding other jobs.

      How did culture figure in the Letcher County organizing effort?

      A central building block was a play that roadside theater made alongside these folks, and with these folks, sharing their stories, developing this grip, performing in it called the future of Letcher County, which is literally people of all ages, ideologies backgrounds, debating about the political, cultural and economic future of Letcher County.
      We've now performed this, actually performed in West Baltimore just before the pandemic hit. It was... I'll tell you what happened was, I heard somebody in the audience say "I didn't know, white people dealt with that stuff too "

      Transcript

      Ben Fink: What is a thing that this group of people likes to do together or cares about, and it's not just cares about, but also wants to make together like that act of making things together and owning what we make. It's so central to the work, because when you make something together, then you are changing that story because you now have a story of, we built this we have added to our world in a way that is deeply meaningful of both of us. From that foundation. It is really hard to dehumanize someone. You can disagree, you can be pissed. You can have all sorts of, all sorts of conflict, right?

      Bill Cleveland: That was Ben Fink talking about how important the simple act of “making things together” is to creating trust in communities that have a history of being exploited and betrayed. In our last episode we learned how Ben, an activist theater worker and community organizer from the northeast came work for an arts-based community development organization called Appalshop, in Letcher County Kentucky. We also heard about how his hands-on approach to building partnerships panned out in his collaboration with a Trump loving, ex-coal miner, volunteer fire chief producing bluegrass concerts in the firehouse, and bringing solar energy into the heart of coal country. In this second episode with Ben, we hear more stories that confound easy us vs. them stereotypes about Appalachia and Appalshop’s work in other communities across the country.

      This is Change the Story / Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation. I’m Bill Cleveland.

      Part 3: Lining Out

      BC: So Ben...

      BF: yeah.

       BC: Be a dramaturge here and take me into this beautiful, physical place that you spent your five years and place it geographically and talk about it in terms of,, the rich culture that you've found when you're there.

      BF: Yeah. Before I do just want to say that I spent my first two to three years there really intensely. And then I spent the final years literally living on the road, building partnerships across divides, and so that, so we get to the point where we do have a van load at East Kentucky, and it's coming to the middle of Penn, North and West Baltimore.

      And so, I'll focus on East Kentucky for the moment. Because I hear you asking that, but I think it's really important. For people to understand that even in this really deep and granular and local work that we'll be talking about, there was always the outward facing component. We were always thinking about how do we, not only tell our stories to others and other places, but also invite them in from the very start.

      But, East Kentucky, I'd never set foot there before I interviewed at the Apple shop, I knew about it only through, media and all the other ways professional class, white guy growing up in West Hartford, Connecticut hears about a place like that. And I thought about beautiful mountains and beautiful music and terrible politics.

      [When} I get there, what I find are some of the most open-minded people I've ever met and a lot, yeah. People that disagree with me in terms of, national consumer politics. But a lot of people who are as devoted to their place and their land and their neighbors as any people I'd ever met anywhere, if not more. But these are people who welcomed me in as a communist Jew, from the Northeast, and joked about it and invited me into their homes.

      Since then, I have invited so many people down to the coal fields, and their reactions have been the same, that there are people who fundamentally are about hospitality and are about building their community and have had a lot of history with people, screwing them over and that has hit hard. There is a lot of distrust, a lot of inherent distrust, but that distrust has still never overshadowed the love. They are people that fundamentally lead from love and loving each other, and loving the place where they live, and that was not something I was fully prepared for, but, I kept seeing it again and again, and I'd meet people and they'd introduce me to their neighbors, and they'd introduced me to their neighbors, and I think they for a while waiting for me to get scared and run away, or waiting for me to pull up or waiting for me to impose some kind of program, and I don't blame them for any of that because that's the experience they've had for a lot of people. But nowhere in that was a hostility. Honestly, the most hostility I got was from some of the liberals who are like, can, we're this is our way of doing things and we have this way of doing activism, and this way of doing community development, and this way of, who we relate to and who we don't relate to and blah, blah, blah.

      With good mentorship from my colleagues at Roadside, I said, "no, I'm not going to deal with that".

      I asked one of the old guards early on "what's the limit, of who roadside we'll work with? Who do we not work with?" And the response was the question is where do you stand on organized exploitation?

      If you are for organized exploitation, the intentional taking of value from people who create it, we're probably not going to work with you, but if you are against organized exploitation, we're good to work with. You turns out pretty much everybody is against organized exploitation because it's pretty much 0.1% that's doing it. So, within that framework, we were able to understand each other pretty quick.

      BC: I was wondering, how did the cultural aspect show up in your work with your neighbors in East Kentucky?

      BF: The other thing I would say, which is not trivial is I was surprised how many of their favorite old songs that I knew. I'm a shape note him singer, sacred, harp gospel, all that stuff. I've done it for many years.

      And, you know what I have been told that a lot of ice was broken at some of these events. When I got up in front of the room, I didn't need a mic cause I'm loud, and I was able to line out, Poor Wayfaring Stranger, or What Wonderous Love is This, where in a lot of these old hymns, that again, I told them I was a communist Jew from the Northeast that was not claiming to be an old, regular Baptist or...]]>CSCW EP 18: Ben Fink – A Communist Jew from the Northeast – Chapter 2

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      As a self described "communist Jew from the Northeast, what kind of hostility did you encounter in coal country?

      Honestly, the most hostility I got was from some of the liberals who are like, this is our way of doing things and we have this way of doing activism, and this way of doing community development, and this way of, who we relate to and who we don't relate to and blah, blah, blah.

      How can traditional hymn singing help build trust?

      And, you know what I have been told that a lot of ice was broken at some of these events. When I got up in front of the room, I didn't need a mic cause I'm loud, and I was able to line out, Poor Wayfaring Stranger, or What Wonderous Love is This, ... and that became my identity to a lot of people. I was the shape note guy. I was the guy who could come in and lead a sing and, line out of him. And it just, it broke down some walls.

      What is Performing Our Future?

      Yeah. So, Performing Our Future began as a community-based research project to figure out how can people tell their stories, communities that have long resisted, systematic, organized exploitation, how those communities can collectively tell their own stories, connected to building their own power connected, to creating their own and do so in coalition with each other, both locally, as well as nationally.

      "What is the difference between cooking and catering?"

      As Gwen said, we never done cater and we just done cooking. What's the difference between catering and cooking? The difference is what our economist friend Fluney Hutchinson calls, bounded imagination. Cooking is something you do for yourself and your neighbors to survive. Catering is something that you can do to add value and create jobs.
      And in this case, jobs for neighbors that were coming back from incarceration and addiction and serve in the armed forces overseas, with various kinds of trauma who were really having trouble finding other jobs.

      How did culture figure in the Letcher County organizing effort?

      A central building block was a play that roadside theater made alongside these folks, and with these folks, sharing their stories, developing this grip, performing in it called the future of Letcher County, which is literally people of all ages, ideologies backgrounds, debating about the political, cultural and economic future of Letcher County.
      We've now performed this, actually performed in West Baltimore just before the pandemic hit. It was... I'll tell you what happened was, I heard somebody in the audience say "I didn't know, white people dealt with that stuff too "

      Transcript

      Ben Fink: What is a thing that this group of people likes to do together or cares about, and it's not just cares about, but also wants to make together like that act of making things together and owning what we make. It's so central to the work, because when you make something together, then you are changing that story because you now have a story of, we built this we have added to our world in a way that is deeply meaningful of both of us. From that foundation. It is really hard to dehumanize someone. You can disagree, you can be pissed. You can have all sorts of, all sorts of conflict, right?

      Bill Cleveland: That was Ben Fink talking about how important the simple act of “making things together” is to creating trust in communities that have a history of being exploited and betrayed. In our last episode we learned how Ben, an activist theater worker and community organizer from the northeast came work for an arts-based community development organization called Appalshop, in Letcher County Kentucky. We also heard about how his hands-on approach to building partnerships panned out in his collaboration with a Trump loving, ex-coal miner, volunteer fire chief producing bluegrass concerts in the firehouse, and bringing solar energy into the heart of coal country. In this second episode with Ben, we hear more stories that confound easy us vs. them stereotypes about Appalachia and Appalshop’s work in other communities across the country.

      This is Change the Story / Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation. I’m Bill Cleveland.

      Part 3: Lining Out

      BC: So Ben...

      BF: yeah.

       BC: Be a dramaturge here and take me into this beautiful, physical place that you spent your five years and place it geographically and talk about it in terms of,, the rich culture that you've found when you're there.

      BF: Yeah. Before I do just want to say that I spent my first two to three years there really intensely. And then I spent the final years literally living on the road, building partnerships across divides, and so that, so we get to the point where we do have a van load at East Kentucky, and it's coming to the middle of Penn, North and West Baltimore.

      And so, I'll focus on East Kentucky for the moment. Because I hear you asking that, but I think it's really important. For people to understand that even in this really deep and granular and local work that we'll be talking about, there was always the outward facing component. We were always thinking about how do we, not only tell our stories to others and other places, but also invite them in from the very start.

      But, East Kentucky, I'd never set foot there before I interviewed at the Apple shop, I knew about it only through, media and all the other ways professional class, white guy growing up in West Hartford, Connecticut hears about a place like that. And I thought about beautiful mountains and beautiful music and terrible politics.

      [When} I get there, what I find are some of the most open-minded people I've ever met and a lot, yeah. People that disagree with me in terms of, national consumer politics. But a lot of people who are as devoted to their place and their land and their neighbors as any people I'd ever met anywhere, if not more. But these are people who welcomed me in as a communist Jew, from the Northeast, and joked about it and invited me into their homes.

      Since then, I have invited so many people down to the coal fields, and their reactions have been the same, that there are people who fundamentally are about hospitality and are about building their community and have had a lot of history with people, screwing them over and that has hit hard. There is a lot of distrust, a lot of inherent distrust, but that distrust has still never overshadowed the love. They are people that fundamentally lead from love and loving each other, and loving the place where they live, and that was not something I was fully prepared for, but, I kept seeing it again and again, and I'd meet people and they'd introduce me to their neighbors, and they'd introduced me to their neighbors, and I think they for a while waiting for me to get scared and run away, or waiting for me to pull up or waiting for me to impose some kind of program, and I don't blame them for any of that because that's the experience they've had for a lot of people. But nowhere in that was a hostility. Honestly, the most hostility I got was from some of the liberals who are like, can, we're this is our way of doing things and we have this way of doing activism, and this way of doing community development, and this way of, who we relate to and who we don't relate to and blah, blah, blah.

      With good mentorship from my colleagues at Roadside, I said, "no, I'm not going to deal with that".

      I asked one of the old guards early on "what's the limit, of who roadside we'll work with? Who do we not work with?" And the response was the question is where do you stand on organized exploitation?

      If you are for organized exploitation, the intentional taking of value from people who create it, we're probably not going to work with you, but if you are against organized exploitation, we're good to work with. You turns out pretty much everybody is against organized exploitation because it's pretty much 0.1% that's doing it. So, within that framework, we were able to understand each other pretty quick.

      BC: I was wondering, how did the cultural aspect show up in your work with your neighbors in East Kentucky?

      BF: The other thing I would say, which is not trivial is I was surprised how many of their favorite old songs that I knew. I'm a shape note him singer, sacred, harp gospel, all that stuff. I've done it for many years.

      And, you know what I have been told that a lot of ice was broken at some of these events. When I got up in front of the room, I didn't need a mic cause I'm loud, and I was able to line out, Poor Wayfaring Stranger, or What Wonderous Love is This, where in a lot of these old hymns, that again, I told them I was a communist Jew from the Northeast that was not claiming to be an old, regular Baptist or anything like that. But there was just a sense of, okay, you get us on some basic level and we started regular shape note singings and Letcher County, but are still going on. There's a long history of it there, but there was no kind of regular activity and that became my identity to a lot of people. I was the shape note guy. I was the guy who could come in and lead a sing and, line out of him. And it just, it broke down some walls.

      BC: And it's called respect. You shared a common cultural experience that you loved, which is powerful.

      BF: Yeah.

      BC: Powerful.,

      BF: Because people unite based on what they share.

      BC: Exactly.

      BF: Talk about difference, find out what you share. No, two human beings on God's green earth would ever become friends because of what they don't have in common. Right now, once you get to know each other, based on what you do have in common than you realize the richness and diversity of other people's experience, and that adds to it, but the kernel is what you share.

      BC: Yep. Can you reach back into your portfolio of I'm sure, a thousand stories and it, is there an experience that you had, during that time that really personifies what you've, what you feel you were doing together with your neighbors?

      BF: Sure. I'll tell a story in Ms. Gwen Johnson, one of my most beloved allies and friends to this day. Gwen grew up in the coal camp of Hemphill, Kentucky, in Letcher County and pretty much everybody in your family of coal miners, including her former husband. [She] didn't know how to read till she was an adult, learned alongside her kids, ended up getting a master's and is now doing early childhood program administration through the University of Kentucky.

      But, you talk with Gwen and it is so clear that her accountability is to her neighbors. Gwen showed up at actually at that first Bluegrass concert that we did at the firehouse that I was telling you about, because she heard that "there was going to be a guy there and he had some money".

      'Cause my title for the majority of my time, there was lead organizer of the Performing our Future Project, but when I first came on, my original title was creative placemaking project manager. I was there to manage some grants.

      But  I am not a grant project manager. I'm a, I'm an organizer. If you want somebody to, administer programs, give away the money and then, we're done, then, hire somebody else. I will fully make sure these deliverables happen, but we're going to do it through building up a base that's going to continue and who knows where it's going to go.

      So, I had started talking with people I've met about, we had this pot of money for partnership funds that we'd use to for instance, finance this Bluegrass concert at the firehouse and it wasn't a grant, I was super clear about that. It wasn't a mini grant, three grants, sub grants. It was a partnership contribution. We're writing you this check; you spend it however you want. We're just also attaching a basic agreement with it saying, "Hey, we both agreed., We want this concert to happen". We want these things to happen. And so we'd done that, and it was actually one of the, one of the firemen at the firehouse has said, "Hey, Gwen, you got to get over here. There's this guy with some money". And shortly after I'd lined out Poor Wayfaring Stranger there, Gwen comes up to me and says, " Hey, can we talk?", and I'd heard about her too. And so I said, yeah, let's find time to talk. So we share a lot of stories, find out what's going on with her. and the stories were hard, right? She is living with her mother, who was in her eighties because when she wasn't living with her mother, Other people in the family would come to the house and take advantage of her in order to feed their meth addictions.

       This stuff is real, and that's important to say. There's a lot of talk about asset-based developments and, I've said, you gotta start with what you've got and what you share, but you got to take the problem seriously. And so Gwen was telling me this story about how the community center her mother helped to found, and that she was running in a closed down in school and her coal camp ; they were, under threat and running out of money 'cause the coal severance tax money stopped along with the coal mining. And I could have, at that moment, asked her "what do you need and how can we help you?" That's the typical nonprofit move. Thank God I had some better mentorship, by that point, and what I asked instead was "what are you looking to build and how can we build it together?"

       A few years later, the Black Sheep Brick Oven Bakery and Catering Company opened, in a community where they'd never had a caters before.

      As Gwen said, we never done cater and we just done cooking. What's the difference between catering and cooking? The difference is what our economist friend Fluney Hutchinson calls, bounded imagination. Cooking is something you do for yourself and your neighbors to survive. Catering is something that you can do to add value and create jobs.

      And in this case, jobs for neighbors that were coming back from incarceration and addiction and serve in the armed forces overseas, with various kinds of trauma who were really having trouble finding other jobs, but Black Sheet Bakery and Catering Company has taken them in continues to take them in, not without hardship, not without trouble. And Gwen was also one of the people who was most staunchly pro coal and anti-environmentalist. I heard her talk at a County government meeting one time at a fellow, a nonprofit liberal was there with me and Oh boy, freaked him out. It's Whoa, boy, she's talking about that.

      But she was first in line to get solar panels. Cause she knew and she actually canvas the miners in her community and said, “What do you think about this guys? Is this anti-coal”? And they said, “Honey, train's gone out on coal. We got to do what we can to survive, and if this is going to help us, and if this is going to help, this community center keep its doors open.”

      BC: Yeah. And that personifies what you were talking about before. Really changing the story together. Grounded in the things that matter most of the people in the community.

      BF: And that's another lesson I've learned doing this work, places like that, community center, places like that, volunteer fire department, the places that are of buy-in for communities in their full diversity, these are the places that we have got to invest in and strengthen.

      They're always there. They're constantly under threat, but they're always there. And when we say meet people where they're at, and when we say work with communities, that's what we mean, work with what we call community centers of power, where people gather to imagine and build together. And I do mean community is in their full diversity. So Gwen is as Hemphill as it gets, but she's constantly, fighting with her neighbors. They all come in, she said, no, I'm putting up this, LGBT acceptance sign, I'm putting up this Black Lives Matter sign and her learning over the past years in working with more people from more places now she's offering articles for Art Place America about Appalachian solidarity with Black Lives Matter.

      The values were always there, but she didn't have the language to articulate them in a way that made sense to the nonprofit industrial complex. That's part of the leadership development that we do. We work to identify when we say community leaders, we're talking about people like her. We're talking about people who their neighbors look to it's usually not the people and the positions of power. And a community leader is also somebody whose first accountability is to their neighbors. I ask this question all the time with people and institutions, who is your accountability too? Because a lot of us, our accountability is to our colleagues, other people in our field to funders that are funding as to inner city area organizations, we look for the people whose fundamental accountability is to their neighbors, and that is Gwen. She is accountable to them, and she pushes them in uncomfortable ways.

      Likewise, Gwen and I built a strong relationship where we are accountable to each other and we push each other. And Gwen has become a voice, on all sorts of different scales meeting with regional and national foundations, being part of the Art Place America assembly for the allocation of the last of their creative placemaking funds. She is on the steering committee of The National Performing our Future Coalition, where she is working closely alongside]]>69c325ae-6807-48ee-a251-9705c1954064Wed, 03 Feb 2021 07:00:00 -070024:30truefull118181In this second episode with Ben Fink , an activist theater worker and community organizer working in coal country, we hear more stories that confound Appalachian stereotypes and Appalshop’s work in other communities across the U.S..17: Cultural Organizing in Appalachia: Building Trust, Equity, and Economic Resilience – Part 117: Cultural Organizing in Appalachia: Building Trust, Equity, and Economic Resilience – Part 1CSCW EP 17: Ben Fink – A Communist Jew from the Northeast – Chapter 1

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      What defines the work of Appalshop and Performing our Future?

      The work is creating the conditions, for people in communities to tell their own stories, build their own power, and create their own wealth, and doing it really intensely locally rooted in local traditions and local values

      What is the difference between community engagement and working with your neighbor?

      ...What I'll usually say, I come in, I'm supposed to talk to a group about community engagement. First thing you got to know, fuck community engagement. And then they say, oh, what do you mean? Ben now, how do you describe your work if you don't talk about community engagement? I said, "I work with my neighbors". Sometimes my neighbors are across the street. Sometimes my neighbors are across the country. We are neighbors. We are living together and we're going to work together. Does that mean we're all the same? Hell no. What community is composed of all people that are the same.

      How can working with your neighbor help change a community's story?

      ...that act of making things together and owning what we make. It's so central to the work, because when you make something together, then you are changing that story, because you now have a story of, "we built this we have added to our world in a way that is deeply meaningful of both of us." From that foundation. It is really hard to dehumanize someone.

      Transcript


      So, where do I start. I think I start by asking your help. by joining in a little song. This may seem crazy on a podcast – but here is the lyric:  

      We who believe in freedom cannot rest.

      Before we sing it, please take a moment to ponder what these words mean to YOU, in your life, or in your work,

      OK here we go. Here is the beat ………and the melody.

      We who believe in freedom cannot rest. 

      Now you: We who believe in freedom cannot rest.  

      Again: We who believe in freedom cannot rest.

      If you actually did sing while listening here … Give yourself a hand.  

      So, what have we just done: In a little over a minute we have manifested the three human behaviors that many believe have most contributed to survival and proliferation of the human species. They also happen to be three of the THINGS, that artists are particularly good at making happen in the world. So, what are they? 

      First, if we were in a group, what we just did would have captured and focused the attention of those folks. If you are not alone, you may have had that experience just now. Of course, this singing thing is not new. In fact, our singing here, was a reprise of one of the first strategies that our early ancestors used maybe 100,000 years ago to capture and focus the attention of the tribe to support what we now call ----building community,

      Now next Beyond focusing attention, our singing together also provided a very simple and direct way of connecting our heads and our hearts — inside, individually, and with each other. This visceral, bodily connecting, is no small thing This is because we humans need nudges like these to begin forging the bonds, the trust we all need to join with others outside of our families and kinship circles to work together. There are no cultures that do not sing.

      Music…. A Wayfaring Stranger

      And finally our singing connected OUR STORIES: if we were singing these words together at the same place and time with others, like the members of the Indian Bottom Old Regular Baptist Church you hear in the background, singing A Wayfaring Stranger, we would have added one more tiny layer to the growing web of stories that we spin together every day to define our community—in this case a congregation in Letcher County Kentucky whose faith and hymn singing and sense of mutual support are viscerally connected to the stories they make and share together.

      Now, a bonus, those ten words we sang have also connected you and your stories to the extraordinary life of Ella Baker. Ella’s words are memorialized in the line you sang from “Ella’s Song” by Bernice Johnson Reagon, who worked with Ella at the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the early days of the civil rights movement.

      Bernice went on to found the extraordinary acapella group Sweet Honey in the Rock, and Ella became a prominent player in the civil rights struggle. She was also a contrarian of sorts, in that she felt that the hierarchical leadership model of the church-based civil rights movement was, largely undemocratic and unaccountable  

      The reason that I share Ella’s story with you today is that her belief in bottom up, community accountable, leadership very much informs the story you are about to hear.

      This is Change the Story / Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation. My name is Bill Cleveland.

       Our guest for our next two episodes is, Ben Fink, who sometimes introduces himself as a "communist Jew from the northeast". In it we will hear about a theater company called Roadside, a community building project called Performing Our Future, and a culturally centered economic development initiative called Culture Hub all of which operate under the auspices of a mother ship known as Appalshop. From its home in Whitesburg Kentucky, Appalshop has been a powerful agent of arts-based, community driven social change in Appalachia for the past 50 years. It would take 10 episodes to just scratch the surface of the full Appalshop story and they tell it best. So if you want to know more go to Appalshop.org. That’s A p p a l shop.org. or find the link in this episode’s show notes.

      Speaking of Appalshop, Ben, who recently left his position there wants to make it clear that he is sharing his own unique perspective here and not that of any of the organizations mentioned in our talk,

      Now on to Mr. Fink

      Part 1: Finding Roadside

      Bill Cleveland: [00:00:00] Yeah. So, Ben, how are you doing?

      Ben Fink: [00:00:03] I'm all over the place. I left Roadside after almost five years, and I'm living in a new place doing different work and just feeling general whiplash, and just not entirely figuring out where I belong in the world. But I imagine a lot of people are feeling that right now.

      BC: [00:00:22] Did you, imagine yourself spending five years?

      BF: [00:00:25] I was hired on a two-year contract and the work continued to grow an, I was continuing to learn. So, I, I chose to stay.

       BC: [00:00:36] This podcast is fairly new. Conversations with fellow travelers in the world of art and community development, and organizing, and activism. And the podcast follows on in a path that I've been on my entire, life, which is to tell the stories of, heroes and heroines that I encounter in my work. So, you're one of them Mr. Fink

      BF: [00:01:02] I will, I'll take that as a compliment.

      BC: [00:01:06] So when you show up at a Thanksgiving, gathering what do you describe your work as?

      BF: [00:01:12] The work is creating the conditions, for people in communities to tell their own stories, build their own power, and create their own wealth, and doing it really intensely locally rooted in local traditions and local values, and then as people build that collective power wealth story on a local level create opportunities for them to recognize that other communities that they may never have met before hey may even have been told, are their enemies, that they are doing the same work and they can do that work together.

      BC: [00:01:53] What is the the story of how you came to be in a position to be doing what you just described?

      BF: [00:01:59] Yeah, so two things to know about me. One is that I grew up in a household with a lawyer and former Planned Parenthood, social worker for a mother, and a political journalist for a father. And so the idea that anything I did was going to be divorced from a serious grounding in political context. It just didn't even register as a possibility in my childhood. I remember when I would go to elementary school and students and even teachers would say, "oh, I don't really follow politics" and it just didn't make sense to me. Because that's just the world, that's just the most important and exciting parts...]]>CSCW EP 17: Ben Fink – A Communist Jew from the Northeast – Chapter 1

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      What defines the work of Appalshop and Performing our Future?

      The work is creating the conditions, for people in communities to tell their own stories, build their own power, and create their own wealth, and doing it really intensely locally rooted in local traditions and local values

      What is the difference between community engagement and working with your neighbor?

      ...What I'll usually say, I come in, I'm supposed to talk to a group about community engagement. First thing you got to know, fuck community engagement. And then they say, oh, what do you mean? Ben now, how do you describe your work if you don't talk about community engagement? I said, "I work with my neighbors". Sometimes my neighbors are across the street. Sometimes my neighbors are across the country. We are neighbors. We are living together and we're going to work together. Does that mean we're all the same? Hell no. What community is composed of all people that are the same.

      How can working with your neighbor help change a community's story?

      ...that act of making things together and owning what we make. It's so central to the work, because when you make something together, then you are changing that story, because you now have a story of, "we built this we have added to our world in a way that is deeply meaningful of both of us." From that foundation. It is really hard to dehumanize someone.

      Transcript


      So, where do I start. I think I start by asking your help. by joining in a little song. This may seem crazy on a podcast – but here is the lyric:  

      We who believe in freedom cannot rest.

      Before we sing it, please take a moment to ponder what these words mean to YOU, in your life, or in your work,

      OK here we go. Here is the beat ………and the melody.

      We who believe in freedom cannot rest. 

      Now you: We who believe in freedom cannot rest.  

      Again: We who believe in freedom cannot rest.

      If you actually did sing while listening here … Give yourself a hand.  

      So, what have we just done: In a little over a minute we have manifested the three human behaviors that many believe have most contributed to survival and proliferation of the human species. They also happen to be three of the THINGS, that artists are particularly good at making happen in the world. So, what are they? 

      First, if we were in a group, what we just did would have captured and focused the attention of those folks. If you are not alone, you may have had that experience just now. Of course, this singing thing is not new. In fact, our singing here, was a reprise of one of the first strategies that our early ancestors used maybe 100,000 years ago to capture and focus the attention of the tribe to support what we now call ----building community,

      Now next Beyond focusing attention, our singing together also provided a very simple and direct way of connecting our heads and our hearts — inside, individually, and with each other. This visceral, bodily connecting, is no small thing This is because we humans need nudges like these to begin forging the bonds, the trust we all need to join with others outside of our families and kinship circles to work together. There are no cultures that do not sing.

      Music…. A Wayfaring Stranger

      And finally our singing connected OUR STORIES: if we were singing these words together at the same place and time with others, like the members of the Indian Bottom Old Regular Baptist Church you hear in the background, singing A Wayfaring Stranger, we would have added one more tiny layer to the growing web of stories that we spin together every day to define our community—in this case a congregation in Letcher County Kentucky whose faith and hymn singing and sense of mutual support are viscerally connected to the stories they make and share together.

      Now, a bonus, those ten words we sang have also connected you and your stories to the extraordinary life of Ella Baker. Ella’s words are memorialized in the line you sang from “Ella’s Song” by Bernice Johnson Reagon, who worked with Ella at the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the early days of the civil rights movement.

      Bernice went on to found the extraordinary acapella group Sweet Honey in the Rock, and Ella became a prominent player in the civil rights struggle. She was also a contrarian of sorts, in that she felt that the hierarchical leadership model of the church-based civil rights movement was, largely undemocratic and unaccountable  

      The reason that I share Ella’s story with you today is that her belief in bottom up, community accountable, leadership very much informs the story you are about to hear.

      This is Change the Story / Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation. My name is Bill Cleveland.

       Our guest for our next two episodes is, Ben Fink, who sometimes introduces himself as a "communist Jew from the northeast". In it we will hear about a theater company called Roadside, a community building project called Performing Our Future, and a culturally centered economic development initiative called Culture Hub all of which operate under the auspices of a mother ship known as Appalshop. From its home in Whitesburg Kentucky, Appalshop has been a powerful agent of arts-based, community driven social change in Appalachia for the past 50 years. It would take 10 episodes to just scratch the surface of the full Appalshop story and they tell it best. So if you want to know more go to Appalshop.org. That’s A p p a l shop.org. or find the link in this episode’s show notes.

      Speaking of Appalshop, Ben, who recently left his position there wants to make it clear that he is sharing his own unique perspective here and not that of any of the organizations mentioned in our talk,

      Now on to Mr. Fink

      Part 1: Finding Roadside

      Bill Cleveland: [00:00:00] Yeah. So, Ben, how are you doing?

      Ben Fink: [00:00:03] I'm all over the place. I left Roadside after almost five years, and I'm living in a new place doing different work and just feeling general whiplash, and just not entirely figuring out where I belong in the world. But I imagine a lot of people are feeling that right now.

      BC: [00:00:22] Did you, imagine yourself spending five years?

      BF: [00:00:25] I was hired on a two-year contract and the work continued to grow an, I was continuing to learn. So, I, I chose to stay.

       BC: [00:00:36] This podcast is fairly new. Conversations with fellow travelers in the world of art and community development, and organizing, and activism. And the podcast follows on in a path that I've been on my entire, life, which is to tell the stories of, heroes and heroines that I encounter in my work. So, you're one of them Mr. Fink

      BF: [00:01:02] I will, I'll take that as a compliment.

      BC: [00:01:06] So when you show up at a Thanksgiving, gathering what do you describe your work as?

      BF: [00:01:12] The work is creating the conditions, for people in communities to tell their own stories, build their own power, and create their own wealth, and doing it really intensely locally rooted in local traditions and local values, and then as people build that collective power wealth story on a local level create opportunities for them to recognize that other communities that they may never have met before hey may even have been told, are their enemies, that they are doing the same work and they can do that work together.

      BC: [00:01:53] What is the the story of how you came to be in a position to be doing what you just described?

      BF: [00:01:59] Yeah, so two things to know about me. One is that I grew up in a household with a lawyer and former Planned Parenthood, social worker for a mother, and a political journalist for a father. And so the idea that anything I did was going to be divorced from a serious grounding in political context. It just didn't even register as a possibility in my childhood. I remember when I would go to elementary school and students and even teachers would say, "oh, I don't really follow politics" and it just didn't make sense to me. Because that's just the world, that's just the most important and exciting parts of the world.

      And then the other thing is partially for maybe for that reason, I had trouble making friends growing up. But what I was really good at is getting on stage and I was a singer and a theater maker and. I didn't get cast in high school plays. So I started directing and doing dramaturgy and analysis and all that. I was the smart ass that directed The Cradle Will Rock as a student directed high school production at 17. And so, I was on my way toward doing political theater, Agitprop theater. Theater with a justice and liberation lens. And as I got more into doing that, I discovered that some of the most important work was being done in participatory traditions, where we weren't telling people what to think, but working with them and learning together.

      BC: [00:04:02] So, did you find that participatory theater was a more respectful way of working? With communities?

      BF: [00:04:10] A lot in those participatory traditions. And I'm thinking about theater of the oppressed and playback theater and a lot of educational theater. There was a kind of what I might call sadomasochism in the communities that practiced them, because we were always very worried about our privilege and very worried about the ways that, oh, we could never reach the community.

      And there was a fundamental divide between us and the community. Which meant that we were not recognizing ourselves as part of the community. That as much as we were trying hard to, check our privilege we still fundamentally saw ourselves being above the community, trying to administer something onto them, or just as bad below the community, just trying to selflessly help. And neither of those things produced very good politics, or good art, or good feelings. The small number of people that I met in that world that were actually taking themselves and their stories and their power and their contributions equally seriously to those they were working side-by-side, were all people that came out of the tradition of populism. And by populism, I don't mean demagoguery and racism and xenophobia. That's pseudo populism that it's got a long history too. I mean the actual tradition of people coming together in their communities, standing proud in their traditions to create together and own what they make.

      Which is deeply political, both in the micro sense of we are building something together, and we are insisting on our rights to create together, and to own what we make. And then also macro political, because of course there will always be the exploiters that are coming in to try to plunder that Commonwealth, and to take away what we have made from us, and generally the way that they do that is by sewing divisions among us and there's obviously a long history of that too.

      So in discovering the people that have that analysis and we're working in it, and I'm talking about theater makers, I'm talking about organizers, I'm talking about teachers. Those were the people that I realized, okay, these are the people I want to work with. Not only because. They were doing the most effective work and making change, but also because in working that way, we could all act with dignity, and it was directly through working with those people that I encountered, roadside theater. Which absolutely comes out of that tradition with roots in the civil rights movement.

      BC: [00:07:26] So, when was this, when did you cross paths with roadside?

      BF: [00:07:32] We ended up working together when roadside was in New York city in 2015. Doing a play off Broadway in collaboration with our long-time colleagues at Pregones Theater, a Puerto Rican theater company in the Bronx.

      I was working in New Jersey at the time and ended up working with them on that production. And then a few months later, I got a text saying, "hey, there's this job open doing this art and community development stuff" or creative placemaking as they were calling it, and would I be interested in applying and potentially moving to the rural coalfields of East Kentucky?

      Honestly, I didn't hesitate for very long because I knew that is where I needed to go in order to keep doing this kind of work in this legacy and continue to learn it, and hone it, and practice it, and grow it. So that's how I got here.

      BC: [00:08:29] And, as you said, you signed a two-year contract, you stayed for five years. When I visited you...

      BF: [00:08:36] yes.

      BC: [00:08:36]...it was so clear to me that, that condition that you talked about, which is the pulling back of the us-them, and the sense of, we have a show to put on here, here's a story to tell who's going to do what it felt very much like you were part and parcel of a community that had discovered its voice, and that you were in it, deeply in it. So, could you talk about what you encountered when you first began to, find your feet. Discover what was going on?

      BF: [00:09:09] Absolutely. So first, just to say I was invited in, and that's actually a really important point to make. Because again, there is so much handwringing in the art community development, social justice organizing field about, "oh, how do we as outsiders do this?" It's one of these things that Roadside is very clear on, which is we go where we are invited. Period. And likewise, I went to East Kentucky because I was invited there. Did that mean? Yeah, everyone was super happy that I was there? Of course not, but I was invited there, and that's really important.

      Part 2: “Working with My Neighbors”

      BC: [00:09:50] So, how do you go from being a fresh face newcomer in Eastern Kentucky to a five-year relationship?

      BF: [00:10:02] We work in reciprocal relationships of trust over a long term with the people that invite us places, and so I came down there. I had basically no relationships, the relationships with the people at roadside was about it. So the first thing I did was show up. I just showed up everywhere I could.

      And if there was a community meeting, I was there. If there was an event, I was there. If there was a concert or a square dance or a punk show or whatever was going on, I just showed up and I watched, and I participated, and that ended up being probably the most important thing I ever did. So often we get stuck talking to each other, being in our bubble, whether it be a class bubble or a profession bubble or a workplace bubble, but just showing up. I made a rough pact that I wouldn't spend more than two days a week in the office for any length of time, I'm going to be out there, both attending events and then also meeting people. ThIs is really part of the basic work of organizing, which is one-to-one relational meetings, and spending time hearing people's stories, and then the other important point is sharing my own story when asked. Again, when asked, because I ask people for meetings, I'm generally interested in them. I don't want to be so cocky to think they necessarily want to hear a lot from me. But they got to hear a little bit for me, because again, the point is I'm here and I'm not pretending not to be. And I would routinely in a first meeting drop in a reference to myself as a communist Jew from the Northeast. The farther right someone is, the more likely I was to do it, or at least the farther, I suspected that person to be. And their reaction was inevitably exactly the same as yours Bill. It was like a moment of what? And then they laughed. And then we laughed together, and what that demonstrated is this is not bullshit. I am claiming and owning who I am, and what I'm about. And for most, people in a community, that's what they're looking for.

      BC: [00:12:35] The real story, an authentic engagement that just respected them enough not to pretend...

      BF: [00:12:42] Yeah, a thing that I noticed [...] so years later, one of my very beloved colleagues who I've done a ton of work with, [who] is a former strip mine boss turned, volunteer fire chief, who is all sorts of right-wing, loves him. some Donald Trump thinks global warming is a hoax, not so sure about COVID-19 either. All of those things. And we met exactly the way that just talked about meeting and we shared stories for a couple of hours. And by the end of it, we were working together, and we were working together on his terms. I felt because I found out what he wants to do right now. He wants to have bluegrass concerts at his firehouse. It's got nothing to do with politics or culture, war, and he's he wants to make his firehouse, a place where his community can gather and wants to gather. And this is something I didn't have to in any way, deceive demure in order to say yes, that's awesome.

      BC: [00:13:50] Let's do that. That's how you build trust.

      BF: [00:13:52] Two years later, we're working on a solar energy project nd he is advocating with his fellow Republicans to stop this bill that would have made it harder for rooftop, solar energy to happen in Kentucky. Because, and again, not because he'd become a convert to the green new deal, but]]>107d61d1-ebd9-4f0c-9745-284920182239Wed, 20 Jan 2021 07:00:00 -070029:45truefull11717116: From Mingus to Folsom: Henry Robinett on Music, Mentors, & Thriving as an Artist for Change16: From Mingus to Folsom: Henry Robinett on Music, Mentors, & Thriving as an Artist for ChangeHere is the link to the Arts Extension Service: Creative Community Leadership Course Info.


      Episode 16: Henry Robinett - Jazz in the Joint

      Jazz musician, composer, educator Henry Robinett has the kind of calm, purposeful trajectory that allows him to ignore the detritus, and collect the sublime and the quirk, all in service to making and recording extraordinary award-winning music and helping heal heads and hearts in the largest prison system in the world.

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes:

      How are jazz legend Charles Mingus, the world famous Manhattan Plaza artist residence, and Henry Robinett connected?

      "I had a very famous cousin of mine, a jazz musician by the name of Charles Mingus.  Well in 1977, I lived with him in New York. We lived in these condos, it was a condo full of artists called Manhattan Plaza and it was subsidized housing for artists. It was great, cause you had some very famous musicians who lived there, and once a week, twice a week or something, they used to have a big band, like in the basement of the people who live there. And so, I'd go down there and play. He came down to watch and listen. And that was a big deal because he was the greatest of all the musicians who lived there. So even these famous musicians would go off. And so right afterwards, he came up to his place on the 43rd floor. And there I was it, so he said, "What are you doing?" I said, "Rehearsal and stuff", he said, "You're supposed to hang. You're "supposed to hang with all the men." I go, "I'm hanging with the greatest musician right now. Why would I want to hang with those guys when I can to hang with you?""

      How does a jazz guitar virtuoso and composer end up working at Folsom Prison?

      "So, Bill Peterson, who was the artist facilitator at old Folsom, called me. I hadn't been thinking about teaching prisoners at all. and my first thought was nervous. " Oh man, these guys are pretty tough hombre’s, this is interesting." And I went there, and it was an experience. And when you, you experienced an experience like that, where all of your, worst expectations don't take place in what you're really coming in contact with are human beings who aren't any different than I am, except there's a dark past that you are aware of must've happened with these guys or they wouldn't be here. But, you don't think about any of that stuff because I'm just in contact with a human being who is in need of something I have and so, I loved it."

      What role can artmaking play in the positive transformation of people who are Often characterized as "hardened criminals?"

      One guy said to me, “Look, Henry, I'm never getting out of here. I'm just never getting out, and I had to really change. So, the person I am now is not the person who was out there. I don’t do anything that I used to do. I don't smoke, I don't cuss, I don't do drugs, I don't drink, none of it, and I didn't change my life because I wanted to impress the parole board. I changed my life because I needed to change my life.”

      How can an open to all music program work in a place as racially segregated as a prison?

      "You have a lot of people who, are very gang related, and the music department is one of the areas where that breaks down. Because, on the yard you have yard rules where the Aryan Brotherhood, they don't mix with the Mexican gangs and the black gangs, and you have to fall in line. You have to do what they say. But behind the walls of the music room, you don't see the yard. So, you have white guys playing with black guys and Mexican guys, and that was things that would never happen on the yard, and that's really nice."

      Is there turning point for people trying to learn and master an instrument?

      "So, I try to get them to get this idea. If you feel like, "Oh my God, I can't do this anymore. I just can't do it." I go, "Okay. I understand. ..."Just continue. "Boredom? Oh yeah. Boredom that'll happen. You just need to get past the boredom part."

      And then it becomes self-motivating. He starts getting creative and that's the point. if you can take the tools and get to the point where, "Oh my God, I can be creative with this. I can use this as self-expression, or I'm winning there." There's a loss point, and there's a win point. And the catch point is when you actually have a win point. And "Oh, I finally get what he's saying.” Then it becomes really exciting. and a lot of times it's when someone starts writing music."

      Transcript

      Music.... ( Change, by The Henry Robinett Group)

      Bill Cleveland: That’s the Henry Robinett Group. So needless to say, its jazz time on Change the Story / Change the World. My guest, musician, composer, educator Henry Robinett is cool. Not just old -school hip cat, vernacular cool, but truly low in temperature. That’s because Henry moves through the jingly, messy stuff of life with a focused persistence -- the kind of calm, purposeful trajectory that allows him to ignore the detritus, and collect the sublime and the quirk, all in service to making and recording extraordinary award-winning music and helping heal heads and hearts in the largest prison system in the world. We talked as the truly terrible summer of 2020 was closing up shop. As usual, we started with our guest’s backstory.

      This is Change the Story, Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation. I’m Bill Cleveland.

      Before we join Henry. I would like to share something I’m really excited about. As some of you know, the Center has been providing in-depth professional development opportunities for creative community leaders across the country for the past two decades. Last year we joined up with the University of Massachusetts’ Arts Extension Service to create a new 13-week online course called Creative Community Leadership.

      So, starting on February 4th, Kathi Bentley and I will be offering a rigorous, engaging learning opportunity for anyone interested in exploring how art centered strategies and tools can help us rebuild and reform in these turbulent times. And, when we say anyone, we mean it. Artists, arts administrators for sure, but also folks involved in social service, community development, philanthropy, education, city hall--- we think the time is ripe for creative community change agents of all stripes to roll up their sleeves and get to work. So, if your interest is piqued do a google search for Arts Extension Service – that’s Arts Extension Service or click on the Arts Extension Service link in our show notes. And If you want to know more about Kathi and myself go to our Episodes 1 and 5. Now on with the show.

      Part 1: Practice

      Bill Cleveland: The nice thing about these conversations is that the people I'm talking to know their story.

      So, Henry, you and I go way back, with a quarter of a century in-between. Over that time, my experiences set me on a path to what has become the name of this podcast, which is Change the Story Change the World. That's my change theory, which is artists creators can help address critical community issues with seriousness and the power of our work--If we're smart and we're patient--can actually change things significantly. So that's why I'm talking to you because, you’re one of those folks, and one of the things we'll explore is how in the world you got down that road. But let me begin by asking you, how do you, describe what you do in the world? What is your work?

      Henry Robinett: I've always been inspired by art, and I've always been inspired by the idea of being an artist. And I want to say I probably grokked that in my early childhood because my mother loved the arts. She loved literature, she loved painting, she loved music, classical music. And so, she would take me to museums. And there was a time when I was interested in painting and I wanted to do paint, oil. Even as a little kid, I was inspired by the Impressionists van Gogh and Monet and Degas. We went to Paris and saw all these great artists, and I wanted to emulate that. So, I took classes and oil painting, and at my elementary school, they hung a bunch of paintings up, and that was very exciting, and I think the idea was, even before I understood it was self-creation self-expression and as I got older, it seemed to me that the artists are the ones who really create the world. They're the ones who inhabit the creativity. They're the ones who design the chairs, they design the houses, they designed, the roads that we use. But, more than that, they actually create an aesthetic that every age can be identified with.

      So, if you're studying the twenties, you really have to go back and read the literature, the twenties, you have to listen to the music of the twenties. You have to look at the paintings of the twenties. It's just not, it's just not a dry historical thing. So, I think in a very cheap way, the people who make the world are the politicians, but, in a very real way, the people who make the...]]>Here is the link to the Arts Extension Service: Creative Community Leadership Course Info.


      Episode 16: Henry Robinett - Jazz in the Joint

      Jazz musician, composer, educator Henry Robinett has the kind of calm, purposeful trajectory that allows him to ignore the detritus, and collect the sublime and the quirk, all in service to making and recording extraordinary award-winning music and helping heal heads and hearts in the largest prison system in the world.

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes:

      How are jazz legend Charles Mingus, the world famous Manhattan Plaza artist residence, and Henry Robinett connected?

      "I had a very famous cousin of mine, a jazz musician by the name of Charles Mingus.  Well in 1977, I lived with him in New York. We lived in these condos, it was a condo full of artists called Manhattan Plaza and it was subsidized housing for artists. It was great, cause you had some very famous musicians who lived there, and once a week, twice a week or something, they used to have a big band, like in the basement of the people who live there. And so, I'd go down there and play. He came down to watch and listen. And that was a big deal because he was the greatest of all the musicians who lived there. So even these famous musicians would go off. And so right afterwards, he came up to his place on the 43rd floor. And there I was it, so he said, "What are you doing?" I said, "Rehearsal and stuff", he said, "You're supposed to hang. You're "supposed to hang with all the men." I go, "I'm hanging with the greatest musician right now. Why would I want to hang with those guys when I can to hang with you?""

      How does a jazz guitar virtuoso and composer end up working at Folsom Prison?

      "So, Bill Peterson, who was the artist facilitator at old Folsom, called me. I hadn't been thinking about teaching prisoners at all. and my first thought was nervous. " Oh man, these guys are pretty tough hombre’s, this is interesting." And I went there, and it was an experience. And when you, you experienced an experience like that, where all of your, worst expectations don't take place in what you're really coming in contact with are human beings who aren't any different than I am, except there's a dark past that you are aware of must've happened with these guys or they wouldn't be here. But, you don't think about any of that stuff because I'm just in contact with a human being who is in need of something I have and so, I loved it."

      What role can artmaking play in the positive transformation of people who are Often characterized as "hardened criminals?"

      One guy said to me, “Look, Henry, I'm never getting out of here. I'm just never getting out, and I had to really change. So, the person I am now is not the person who was out there. I don’t do anything that I used to do. I don't smoke, I don't cuss, I don't do drugs, I don't drink, none of it, and I didn't change my life because I wanted to impress the parole board. I changed my life because I needed to change my life.”

      How can an open to all music program work in a place as racially segregated as a prison?

      "You have a lot of people who, are very gang related, and the music department is one of the areas where that breaks down. Because, on the yard you have yard rules where the Aryan Brotherhood, they don't mix with the Mexican gangs and the black gangs, and you have to fall in line. You have to do what they say. But behind the walls of the music room, you don't see the yard. So, you have white guys playing with black guys and Mexican guys, and that was things that would never happen on the yard, and that's really nice."

      Is there turning point for people trying to learn and master an instrument?

      "So, I try to get them to get this idea. If you feel like, "Oh my God, I can't do this anymore. I just can't do it." I go, "Okay. I understand. ..."Just continue. "Boredom? Oh yeah. Boredom that'll happen. You just need to get past the boredom part."

      And then it becomes self-motivating. He starts getting creative and that's the point. if you can take the tools and get to the point where, "Oh my God, I can be creative with this. I can use this as self-expression, or I'm winning there." There's a loss point, and there's a win point. And the catch point is when you actually have a win point. And "Oh, I finally get what he's saying.” Then it becomes really exciting. and a lot of times it's when someone starts writing music."

      Transcript

      Music.... ( Change, by The Henry Robinett Group)

      Bill Cleveland: That’s the Henry Robinett Group. So needless to say, its jazz time on Change the Story / Change the World. My guest, musician, composer, educator Henry Robinett is cool. Not just old -school hip cat, vernacular cool, but truly low in temperature. That’s because Henry moves through the jingly, messy stuff of life with a focused persistence -- the kind of calm, purposeful trajectory that allows him to ignore the detritus, and collect the sublime and the quirk, all in service to making and recording extraordinary award-winning music and helping heal heads and hearts in the largest prison system in the world. We talked as the truly terrible summer of 2020 was closing up shop. As usual, we started with our guest’s backstory.

      This is Change the Story, Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation. I’m Bill Cleveland.

      Before we join Henry. I would like to share something I’m really excited about. As some of you know, the Center has been providing in-depth professional development opportunities for creative community leaders across the country for the past two decades. Last year we joined up with the University of Massachusetts’ Arts Extension Service to create a new 13-week online course called Creative Community Leadership.

      So, starting on February 4th, Kathi Bentley and I will be offering a rigorous, engaging learning opportunity for anyone interested in exploring how art centered strategies and tools can help us rebuild and reform in these turbulent times. And, when we say anyone, we mean it. Artists, arts administrators for sure, but also folks involved in social service, community development, philanthropy, education, city hall--- we think the time is ripe for creative community change agents of all stripes to roll up their sleeves and get to work. So, if your interest is piqued do a google search for Arts Extension Service – that’s Arts Extension Service or click on the Arts Extension Service link in our show notes. And If you want to know more about Kathi and myself go to our Episodes 1 and 5. Now on with the show.

      Part 1: Practice

      Bill Cleveland: The nice thing about these conversations is that the people I'm talking to know their story.

      So, Henry, you and I go way back, with a quarter of a century in-between. Over that time, my experiences set me on a path to what has become the name of this podcast, which is Change the Story Change the World. That's my change theory, which is artists creators can help address critical community issues with seriousness and the power of our work--If we're smart and we're patient--can actually change things significantly. So that's why I'm talking to you because, you’re one of those folks, and one of the things we'll explore is how in the world you got down that road. But let me begin by asking you, how do you, describe what you do in the world? What is your work?

      Henry Robinett: I've always been inspired by art, and I've always been inspired by the idea of being an artist. And I want to say I probably grokked that in my early childhood because my mother loved the arts. She loved literature, she loved painting, she loved music, classical music. And so, she would take me to museums. And there was a time when I was interested in painting and I wanted to do paint, oil. Even as a little kid, I was inspired by the Impressionists van Gogh and Monet and Degas. We went to Paris and saw all these great artists, and I wanted to emulate that. So, I took classes and oil painting, and at my elementary school, they hung a bunch of paintings up, and that was very exciting, and I think the idea was, even before I understood it was self-creation self-expression and as I got older, it seemed to me that the artists are the ones who really create the world. They're the ones who inhabit the creativity. They're the ones who design the chairs, they design the houses, they designed, the roads that we use. But, more than that, they actually create an aesthetic that every age can be identified with.

      So, if you're studying the twenties, you really have to go back and read the literature, the twenties, you have to listen to the music of the twenties. You have to look at the paintings of the twenties. It's just not, it's just not a dry historical thing. So, I think in a very cheap way, the people who make the world are the politicians, but, in a very real way, the people who make the world or the artists. They define the world that we live in. And that's what always inspired me.

      BC: Okay so let’s say you're in a conversation with relatives that are distant, or people that you meet for the first time. What do you say to them when they say, 'Oh, Henry, what do you do? what's your thing? "

      HR: That's always funny. Cause I tell them, “I'm a musician " and they chuckle and go, "Yeah, that's great. But what do you do?" Oh, I know that your passion is, but how do you make a living? What do you do in life?" I say, "I play guitar, I'm a musician." And, and I've lived various places in the world and the West Coast, my life here, I've always had a problem with that. when I lived in New York in the seventies, I never had that issue. I would just, people say, what do you do? I'm a musician. Wow. That's great. Never what do you do for a living? similar. [When] I lived in Germany and people just accepted, Yeah, they're a musician.

      BC: So, you mentioned earlier about your home, your family, and that making, creating, and enjoying and experiencing those things, were a regular part of your everyday life. What set you on the journey to actually become a serious, maker/creator, with intention to be a professional in that arena?

       HR: I just think there's a picture. Somewhere in the back of my mind a guy, which would be me sitting in a little grotto or an attic with the little beanie on and a goatee, maybe smoking a cigarette and having a, coffee or a glass of wine, and he is an artist. That is what they do. So, it's the person who is painting or the poet who's writing or the musician who's playing. But for me, the musician who's playing really meant someone who practices every day. I somehow got this notion that you're not defined by the last gig you did. You're defined by the last practice session you did.

      In a couple of different places, I was in middle school and there was a vocal music teacher and I always wanted to be musician. I just always wanted to be a musician. And I felt at this point I was probably 12 or 13 years old, that time was passing me. I had this idea that great musicians really started by the time they were six, and look, I've blown it. I've really blown it. So, my vocal music teacher was someone that most people really did not like, but she loved me, and I loved her. They didn't like her because she would get off on these huge tangents. This was during the Vietnam war and something would happen, and then she would give a lecture about Nixon and about Vietnam and they would go, "Oh my God." But she loved me. She just absolutely loved me, and I told her one day, think I want to pick up an instrument. I finally decided I want to be a guitar player, and she got so excited about it. She says, first let me tell you, let me give you a tip right now. “I practice every single day” and I looked at her. She was old. She was an old person. She was probably in her forties. I said, “you practice every day?” And she goes “If I don't have time, I still do a half hour just scales”. And she showed me the muscle by her pinkie on both sides and they were big and fat. They look like Arnold Schwarzenegger muscles, and I just got the idea. this is what you do.

      And the other story that helps define this for me is, I had a very famous cousin of mine, a jazz musician by the name of Charles Mingus. He died of Lou Gehrig's disease; I think 1979. Well in 1977, I lived with him in New York. And I was on a practice tear. I was practicing six hours a day, and there was a magical time when he would get up at three o'clock in the afternoon, and he was sitting there, he was in a wheelchair and watching television. He was watching this movie with Sammy Davis Jr. Called A Man Called Adam, which was real interesting because Sammy Davis Jr. played a Miles Davis, character playing trumpet, So I'm sitting there watching this movie with Mingus, he said, "What are you doing?" I said, "I'm watching the movie with you." He paused, " Musicians, practice." Cause he was being my mentor. I say, "I practiced six hours today." He paused and said, "Musicians practice". So, I went, "Oh, okay." That hit me, that, okay. If I want to be a musician, If I dream about being a musician on that caliber, that's what I got. Those are the kinds of things that I have to listen to. Yeah. Yeah.

      BC: Did he, ever get to the point, or did you ever get to the point where he was, mentoring you in your, in your musical journey as a musician, directly.

      HR: Little bits. He would have me get some music that he had written and, he would have me read it. And that was a real challenge because it was written for piano, two staves, and look like Chopin. I wasn't the best reader, so, I struggled along, and he was saying, "Take your time, do what you can do." And he would give me tips. He would say, "Get your guitar" and would show me how to do things. 

      We lived in these condos, it was a condo full of artists called Manhattan Plaza and it was subsidized housing for artists. It was great, cause you had some very famous musicians who lived there, and once a week, twice a week or something, they used to have a big band, like in the basement of the people who live there. And so, I'd go down there and play. He came down to watch and listen. And that was a big deal because he was the greatest of all the musicians who lived there. So even these famous musicians would go off. And so right afterwards, he came up to his place on the 43rd floor. And there I was it, so he said, "What are you doing?" I said, "Rehearsal and stuff", he said, "You're supposed to hang. You're "supposed to hang with all the men." I go, "I'm hanging with the greatest musician right now. Why would I want to hang with those guys when I can to hang with you?"

      BC: So, one thing when I listened to your solos and of course I could be projecting on you is that I hear a horn influence. And yeah, listening to it, to those lines and, and voicing your guitar that way. Am I hearing the right thing?

      HR:  I was just talking to someone about this recently. Had I had the courage to change, I probably would have changed to the tenor saxophone. But I was already well enough along on my way of playing the guitar I started playing the guitar just because I fell in love with Jimmy Hendrix, but I really listened to Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Yusef, Lateef, Cannibal Adderley and the piano players, Chick Corea, Herbie, Hancock, Oscar Peterson. The, these are the guys that I really listened to, and the language of the music was what was, most important to me as opposed to the tambour of the sound of the guitar.

      So, I could listen to the music and just imagined I saw the fingers on the fret board, John Coltrane was playing, I didn't see a tenor player. I saw a guitar player, in my mind. So, I just translated all that stuff. And I said, it might help me come up with a style that's more of my own, that doesn't really sound like anyone else. And, once again, Mingus used to say, “Play your own shit, even if it stinks." So, I thought that"

      BC: You're stuck with it.

       HR: Yeah. Yeah.

      Part 2: Basements

      BC: So, when you talk about, rehearsal, I recall one of the first encounters I had inside, the Department of Corrections and we had, an interesting, gig. It was the Kronos String Quartet.  They were based in San Francisco. Their persona, their character was, "Yeah, we're a string quartet, but we're not like any string quartet you ever heard." And they typically wore motorcycle jackets. So, they came into the California Medical Facility at the time, it's Solono now, and, and they did a concert. Instead of wearing their motorcycle jackets, they wore tuxedos, which was great, and they played in the gym on top of lunch tables, literally, and they played a lot of music that these guys had never heard. And then, at a certain point they, they segued into Purple Haze.

      HR: I was going to say Purple Haze that's one of the big hits

      BC: And everybody, jumped up and yelled, just like you do it, all those string quartet, experiences, but then afterwards, and this was really probably the most important part of bringing artists in this is that not only that people got to hear what they did, but they got to ask questions

      HR: yes.

      BC: And, and I'll never forget this guy that said. “wow. you guys are really good and, and you probably been doing this for a long time, and they all shook their head. Yeah. and he says, so when was it that you got to stop, all that, practicing He assumed that if you make it, you coast?”

      And as far as they were concerned that the current on a string quartet had made it, so they must have reached the, the downhill part of their career. And I'll never forget. Joan, Jeanrenaud, who was the, cello. she said, “when I was young, I practiced two, three hours a day and everybody went, "Oh, wow, that's a lot." And she says, “You get older. You have to add to that....]]>fd6c1355-c613-45c8-96a4-80fc22a95ebeWed, 06 Jan 2021 07:00:00 -070045:26falsefull116161My guest, musician, composer, educator Henry Robinett has the kind of calm, purposeful trajectory that allows him to ignore the detritus, and collect the sublime and the quirk, all in service to making and recording extraordinary award-winning music and helping heal heads and hearts in the largest prison system in the world.15: Art Is Not An Extra: Why Artist Activists & Cultural Organizers Should Be Leading Community Recovery Efforts15: Art Is Not An Extra: Why Artist Activists & Cultural Organizers Should Be Leading Community Recovery EffortsEpisode 15: Sharnita Johnson – Queen of Community


      Threshold Questions & Delicious Quotes

      What was the path that led you into cultural philanthropy?

      I never saw anyone that looked like me, a black woman in philanthropy, in a city like Detroit, which is where I'm from, which has I think the population is like 90% African American so it just never clicked. that was something that I could do, even though I certainly had the skills and the education, et cetera. Until I did see someone who looked like me, a black woman in philanthropy, who became a mentor to me and, helped pave the way for me to get into the field, which was not easy.

      You were involved in some contentious debates about the appropriateness and value of public art when you worked in Flint Michigan. What did those struggles teach you?

      This commissioner at one point came up to me years later and said, I just want to apologize to you. I was a little bit confused, and I said, “Apologize for what? And he said, “I gave you so much flack about that mural, but I love it. I look at it every day. I can see it from my house and when my family and friends come to visit, it's the first thing that I showed them.”
      So that was again, transformational because I just saw what the power of love and the arts can do

      Are you thinking that when ... the doors reopen, when the streets repopulate, that there's a particular role for the makers and creators in our community to help with that. (pandemic reconstruction)

      There is a critical role, and I'll say, as devastating as the pandemic has been for all of us, and particularly, those who have lost loved ones, and the communities that have been devastated, but the creatives are still creating. I was on a zoom earlier with some young public artists, ...and they're telling this story ... in a way that journalism isn't going to tell it. They're going to tell ... it through pictures and stories and music and poetry.

      Transcript

      Bill Cleveland: Now, if you peel back the wrapping on a concert, play a festival, a poetry reading, or an art exhibit in most American communities. You'll find the indelible fingerprints of what arts folks call funders. These arts funders come in all shapes and sizes. There are local, state, and national funders on the public side. There are individual donors, and then there are private individuals and foundations whose contributions are often referred to as cultural philanthropy, which, in 2017, contributed nearly $3 billion to America's artists and arts organizations. Needless to say, the people who manage the programs that grant these funds have an interesting job.

      Who wouldn't want to give away money to deserving folks in their communities? But, as is often the case, it's harder than it sounds. The job certainly comes with the power to influence and do good. But, also the responsibility to apply that influence judiciously with the clear understanding that gifts given with the best of intentions can do harm as well.

      Throughout my career, I've worked with many funders on the giving side and as a recipient, and advisor. Along the way I've had the privilege of collaborating and learning from some truly creative and insightful souls. Shanita Johnson, who is the Arts Program Officer at the Geraldine. R Dodge Foundation, is one of these. As you will hear in this episode of Change, the Story, Change the World. She's one of those unique people who can deliver both the good news and bad inherent to her work, all the while, maintaining the trust of the people in communities she serves.

      This is Change the Story, Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation. My name is Bill Cleveland.

      In my conversation with Shanita Johnson, we start off with a short discussion of prison arts and the possibility of sharing videos of prominent poets performing at the Dodge Poetry Festival with incarcerated writers. After that we explore Sharnita’s journey into the world of arts, philanthropy and her work at the Geraldine R Dodge foundation.

      Part One. Call Me Community. 

      BC: Yeah, I’m good. I had my first, zoom concert.

      Sharnita Johnson: Oh, saw your, music stand, your guitar.

      BC: Yeah. Yeah, there's a prison choir. The Oakdale Choir run by Mary Cohen. They have this thing where they have guest artists come in. They use Liz Lerman's, critical response process. And so, I played the song and then they gave me all this feedback on it, which was fantastic. Yeah, it was really cool. So, one issue with prisons, is that, outside/inside digital access doesn't exist.

      SJ: Yeah.

      BC: So, they have inside systems and those inside systems are like from like 1975.

      SJ: Wow!

       BC: One of the things I'm thinking of doing is accessing your poetry festival videos and then trying to figure out a way to download it.

      SJ: I think that would be such a beautiful thing to do with this to really get the poetry to people who are the most isolated, who need to have this inspiration and joy. yeah.

      BC: And these are writers. These are people who are there. They are hungry to hear people who do what they're trying to do at the highest level. Yeah.

      For our conversation this morning I reconstituted my questions, in a way that hopefully will make them a little fresher. So almost everybody I talked to, my first, subject is how they define their work and what they do. And I’ve been asking people what their street name is, what their handle is. my friend, Sandy Augustin, she said, "Oh, I'm a navigator". And of course, Leni Sloan was a gun runner for the arts. Sharnita, have you got one that pops up for you?

      SJ: Actually, it's funny cause I have a very good friend that calls me "community." Like whenever I tell her about my work is "Oh my God, you are so community." And actually, when I left the Ruth Mott Foundation, they gave me a wand and I think a Tiara that said, "Queen of Community."

      SJ: So, it's interesting because, I didn't grow up in a household where we volunteered, my dad had his own business, so he worked all the time. My mother worked full time. I'm the youngest of six kids. So that sort of volunteering at a soup kitchen or serving on boards, that just wasn't my life growing up. And I think it was so important. Because my family moved from public housing into, we thought we were middle class. We were probably really working class, but that was so important, and I think my parents just really felt all those battles have been won. They had made it into, the next level and they thought that the protesting and the advocacy and the marching and the community organizing and the door knocking, they maybe hope that was done.

      SJ: So, I didn't experience volunteering and philanthropy and community in that way really until I was an adult, until I started to understand that things weren't equal. And things look different for, even in my own family. everybody didn't have the same opportunities and, there was disparity there. And then, I was the first college graduate in my family on both sides. proudly we have many more now, but that was quite a feat.

      And so, I really think becoming aware, for my parents, it was very important for us to be in that bubble. where everything is safe. You don't have to worry about what you're going to eat. You don't have to worry about where you're going to sleep. We've arrived. and I think as an adult, I really, during undergrad, I started to see, Oh, I am in a privileged place through the hard work and sacrifice of my family. And so, I think as I got into the nonprofit sector and started to volunteer on boards is when that really started to gel for me. So, I was probably my early twenties.

      BC: So, there's a, a path that led from. you're growing up in your bubble, to this world of philanthropy, and in a particular area --- not just philanthropy, but cultural philanthropy that has your street name right in the middle of it “community.”

      SJ: Yeah.

      BC: What's that journey.

      SJ: As I reflect, I’m at the point in my life where I am thinking about legacy and what my story is. And while I'd like to think in some ways, it was because of my own hard work. And, and it was a lot of hard work., in many ways I think about it as a destiny.

      Now, I'm not saying that the universe plotted out my life and said, this is what you're going to do. but it really sorta was, there were just some inflection points where I'm very clear that there was a bigger force that wanted me to be in places at tables, doing things and saying things and moving things beyond what my small mind could envision.

      BC: A part of your biography is a particular, attention to the story before the story, the history. could you talk a little bit about, the role history has played, in finding...]]>Episode 15: Sharnita Johnson – Queen of Community


      Threshold Questions & Delicious Quotes

      What was the path that led you into cultural philanthropy?

      I never saw anyone that looked like me, a black woman in philanthropy, in a city like Detroit, which is where I'm from, which has I think the population is like 90% African American so it just never clicked. that was something that I could do, even though I certainly had the skills and the education, et cetera. Until I did see someone who looked like me, a black woman in philanthropy, who became a mentor to me and, helped pave the way for me to get into the field, which was not easy.

      You were involved in some contentious debates about the appropriateness and value of public art when you worked in Flint Michigan. What did those struggles teach you?

      This commissioner at one point came up to me years later and said, I just want to apologize to you. I was a little bit confused, and I said, “Apologize for what? And he said, “I gave you so much flack about that mural, but I love it. I look at it every day. I can see it from my house and when my family and friends come to visit, it's the first thing that I showed them.”
      So that was again, transformational because I just saw what the power of love and the arts can do

      Are you thinking that when ... the doors reopen, when the streets repopulate, that there's a particular role for the makers and creators in our community to help with that. (pandemic reconstruction)

      There is a critical role, and I'll say, as devastating as the pandemic has been for all of us, and particularly, those who have lost loved ones, and the communities that have been devastated, but the creatives are still creating. I was on a zoom earlier with some young public artists, ...and they're telling this story ... in a way that journalism isn't going to tell it. They're going to tell ... it through pictures and stories and music and poetry.

      Transcript

      Bill Cleveland: Now, if you peel back the wrapping on a concert, play a festival, a poetry reading, or an art exhibit in most American communities. You'll find the indelible fingerprints of what arts folks call funders. These arts funders come in all shapes and sizes. There are local, state, and national funders on the public side. There are individual donors, and then there are private individuals and foundations whose contributions are often referred to as cultural philanthropy, which, in 2017, contributed nearly $3 billion to America's artists and arts organizations. Needless to say, the people who manage the programs that grant these funds have an interesting job.

      Who wouldn't want to give away money to deserving folks in their communities? But, as is often the case, it's harder than it sounds. The job certainly comes with the power to influence and do good. But, also the responsibility to apply that influence judiciously with the clear understanding that gifts given with the best of intentions can do harm as well.

      Throughout my career, I've worked with many funders on the giving side and as a recipient, and advisor. Along the way I've had the privilege of collaborating and learning from some truly creative and insightful souls. Shanita Johnson, who is the Arts Program Officer at the Geraldine. R Dodge Foundation, is one of these. As you will hear in this episode of Change, the Story, Change the World. She's one of those unique people who can deliver both the good news and bad inherent to her work, all the while, maintaining the trust of the people in communities she serves.

      This is Change the Story, Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation. My name is Bill Cleveland.

      In my conversation with Shanita Johnson, we start off with a short discussion of prison arts and the possibility of sharing videos of prominent poets performing at the Dodge Poetry Festival with incarcerated writers. After that we explore Sharnita’s journey into the world of arts, philanthropy and her work at the Geraldine R Dodge foundation.

      Part One. Call Me Community. 

      BC: Yeah, I’m good. I had my first, zoom concert.

      Sharnita Johnson: Oh, saw your, music stand, your guitar.

      BC: Yeah. Yeah, there's a prison choir. The Oakdale Choir run by Mary Cohen. They have this thing where they have guest artists come in. They use Liz Lerman's, critical response process. And so, I played the song and then they gave me all this feedback on it, which was fantastic. Yeah, it was really cool. So, one issue with prisons, is that, outside/inside digital access doesn't exist.

      SJ: Yeah.

      BC: So, they have inside systems and those inside systems are like from like 1975.

      SJ: Wow!

       BC: One of the things I'm thinking of doing is accessing your poetry festival videos and then trying to figure out a way to download it.

      SJ: I think that would be such a beautiful thing to do with this to really get the poetry to people who are the most isolated, who need to have this inspiration and joy. yeah.

      BC: And these are writers. These are people who are there. They are hungry to hear people who do what they're trying to do at the highest level. Yeah.

      For our conversation this morning I reconstituted my questions, in a way that hopefully will make them a little fresher. So almost everybody I talked to, my first, subject is how they define their work and what they do. And I’ve been asking people what their street name is, what their handle is. my friend, Sandy Augustin, she said, "Oh, I'm a navigator". And of course, Leni Sloan was a gun runner for the arts. Sharnita, have you got one that pops up for you?

      SJ: Actually, it's funny cause I have a very good friend that calls me "community." Like whenever I tell her about my work is "Oh my God, you are so community." And actually, when I left the Ruth Mott Foundation, they gave me a wand and I think a Tiara that said, "Queen of Community."

      SJ: So, it's interesting because, I didn't grow up in a household where we volunteered, my dad had his own business, so he worked all the time. My mother worked full time. I'm the youngest of six kids. So that sort of volunteering at a soup kitchen or serving on boards, that just wasn't my life growing up. And I think it was so important. Because my family moved from public housing into, we thought we were middle class. We were probably really working class, but that was so important, and I think my parents just really felt all those battles have been won. They had made it into, the next level and they thought that the protesting and the advocacy and the marching and the community organizing and the door knocking, they maybe hope that was done.

      SJ: So, I didn't experience volunteering and philanthropy and community in that way really until I was an adult, until I started to understand that things weren't equal. And things look different for, even in my own family. everybody didn't have the same opportunities and, there was disparity there. And then, I was the first college graduate in my family on both sides. proudly we have many more now, but that was quite a feat.

      And so, I really think becoming aware, for my parents, it was very important for us to be in that bubble. where everything is safe. You don't have to worry about what you're going to eat. You don't have to worry about where you're going to sleep. We've arrived. and I think as an adult, I really, during undergrad, I started to see, Oh, I am in a privileged place through the hard work and sacrifice of my family. And so, I think as I got into the nonprofit sector and started to volunteer on boards is when that really started to gel for me. So, I was probably my early twenties.

      BC: So, there's a, a path that led from. you're growing up in your bubble, to this world of philanthropy, and in a particular area --- not just philanthropy, but cultural philanthropy that has your street name right in the middle of it “community.”

      SJ: Yeah.

      BC: What's that journey.

      SJ: As I reflect, I’m at the point in my life where I am thinking about legacy and what my story is. And while I'd like to think in some ways, it was because of my own hard work. And, and it was a lot of hard work., in many ways I think about it as a destiny.

      Now, I'm not saying that the universe plotted out my life and said, this is what you're going to do. but it really sorta was, there were just some inflection points where I'm very clear that there was a bigger force that wanted me to be in places at tables, doing things and saying things and moving things beyond what my small mind could envision.

      BC: A part of your biography is a particular, attention to the story before the story, the history. could you talk a little bit about, the role history has played, in finding your place in the world?

      SJ: Sure, so, I do think, I joke, I majored in English, in undergrad and I minored in history and I didn't want to teach, and I didn't want to be a journalist and I didn't want to write novels. So, what that got me was unemployed. Like out of undergrad, and then just fell into, some writing at a publishing company and some opportunities to, work as an art assistant. And I bought art for magazines and all that fun stuff. And, and then I got into the nonprofit sector. And my first role in the nonprofit sector was at the (Charles H. Wright) Museum of African American History in Detroit. And that's a big museum that exists now, but the precursor to that museum was, which was about the third iteration of the museum. but I got there at a really important time in my life.

      And I think a really important time in the, museum's life. and I learned a lot and I was surrounded by all of these incredible people. And at that point I realized that I had a bigger mission, that this job wasn’t making my career. Although it was very foundational and a first step, certainly. But. I have been again, put in places and situations where I could be a voice where I could be an advocate. That really led to a number of other positions in other arts, and cultural, and healthcare organizations on the fundraising side. And so, I was a fundraiser for sort of the first half of my career, but it never occurred to me that I could be on the philanthropy side.

      Because I never saw anyone that looked like me, a black woman in philanthropy, in a city like Detroit, which is where I'm from, which has I think the population is like 90% African American so it just never clicked. that was something that I could do, even though I certainly had the skills and the education, et cetera.

      Until I did see someone who looked like me, a black woman in philanthropy, who became a mentor to me and, helped pave the way for me to get into the field, which was not easy. I certainly had. some people actively, working against me getting into the field. but I certainly have lots of people who were very helpful, and opened doors for me in opening those doors and working hard and being so gratified by the work that I was able to do, led me into this really kind of crazy philanthropy career. Cause whoever works at four foundations, it's hard enough to get into one, I’ve been so lucky, and been able to do work that I still see, years later is still very active in places like Flint and Detroit. and have I've had the opportunity to. Work in all kinds of philanthropy. So, a startup foundation, a $9 billion endowment foundation, smaller foundations. And now I'm a mid-sized foundation, mostly doing arts grant making and along the way, learning so much and honestly, this journey has given me the opportunity to meet people that I can't even imagine that I even know, it's been so incredible --- people like yourself, Bill. Like why would we know each other? We're like opposite sides of the world, different generations, different paths yet you have been a constant in my life over the years since we met in Detroit, by the way,

      Part Two: Animating Democracy

      In the next part of our conversation, Shanita talks about a historic meeting convened in the fall of 2003 in Flint, Michigan, through an initiative called Animating Democracy. The event also sponsored by Americans for the Arts was described as a national exchange on art and civic dialogue.

      Animating Democracy is an influential player in the development of the community arts movement in the United States. They're focus, at the time, was supporting artists across the country who were using arts-based tools and strategies to stimulate civic, dialogue and community organizing in communities in conflict around issues like discrimination, poverty, education, immigration and jobs.

      BC: Everybody I've talked to has, you pointed to a particular moment or story where, particularly people that are involved in this nexus of art and community building community development, where a light bulb went off and they saw that it was more than just a nice thing. That there is some power there. And I'm wondering if one of those stories rise up for you? I know Flint was a, was an important moment in your life.

      SJ: Definitely. And I have lots, I'll say that. cause I've been so lucky, over the years, but I think something that was really transformational for me was the final convening of the Animating Democracy Initiative, which was a Ford funded initiative. They had their convening, and there was some work in the community up to that point. So, there were some projects happening. There were, internationally renowned artists coming to Flint, working with community and actually, writing plays, performing, writing music. Doing visual arts. and it was at that point that I really understood the impact of the arts to just regular people. Like it doesn't have to be a thing that you have to get dressed up to buy a ticket to.

      That is something that is inherently existing in communities and neighborhoods. and then a place like Flint that is, again, a working-class blue-collar town. But they have a world-class museum. There's a symphony, and then to compliment that all of these community-based organizations that are doing, tap dance and African dance and folkloric dance and music. And so, it really shifted what I considered what was the value of community and the arts and the way that the arts can impact community in a transformational not a transactional way? And so that kind of really shifted my thinking and really led to a big public art project that was pretty contested at first. It was a grant to an organization that was doing community murals around the city, which meant in some instances, regular people, not artists were actually doing the art making.

      And some of the pieces were contested by some folks because the aesthetic wasn't what they expected. And the culminating project was a large-scale mural in a prominent downtown location. So, there was a lot of push back because people were really worried. Like how big, how prominent, where is it going to be?

      And who's going to actually paint it. so fast forward, there were a number of community meetings were pretty hostile. People came to the meetings to meet the muralists who actually happened to be from the Flint area, from Beecher. Hubert Massey and they were mad and then the next meeting, some more mad people would come.

      And then he just had such a way with people and he's so personable and he's such an advocate for public art. He believes that so important.

      Hubert Massey: When you give functionality to artwork, it has it a very important role other than just being a piece of artwork that hangs up on the wall.

      BC: That was Hubert Massey describing his work, the Crossroads of Innovation at the TCF center in Detroit. 

      HM: This right here is the, uh, the tile piece that's on the side. Hopefully here. This is the strength of the community and the suitcase represents the deportations of Mexicans back down to, um, Mexico during the thirties or so. I listen to people's stories and I translate those stories into pieces of our work.

      My thing is to talk about the revitalization of the city. And how to, uh, sort of give a, uh, a visual narrative on the positive things about communities, on how we can make a difference. Yes,

      SJ: So, around the third meeting, people were warming up to him. And he was asking them, what's important about the city to you? What do you love about the city? How'd you get here? And by the fourth or fifth meeting, people were coming to the meetings with photographs of their parents saying, “My parents, my dad came here to lay the bricks on the downtown thoroughfare,” which is made out of red bricks, or “My parents, my grandparents came here, and my grandfather worked in the factory,” or whatever the story was.

      And he incorporated all of those stories, into the mural. And, over time really became an important fixture. We set him up in a downtown studio. And folks could just wander in and ask him what he was doing and sharing the story. And that culminated in, an amazing mural that is in a prominent downtown location and is quite a source of pride, I think, for many people in the city. But that again influenced me in so many ways because we had so much opposition, even from elected officials around it.

      So, it really gave me some pause to think about what, how do we make something as maybe amorphous as a large-scale mural that nobody knew what it was going to look like important. To everybody in Flint and particularly the people in the neighborhood that it is located in. And I think we were pretty successful with that. And in fact, one of the commissioners from the Historic Commission who was a very vocal opponent of the mural, because it was in a historic neighborhood, we found out that when we went to the hearing and he said, “Murals are graffiti, and they should not be painted on buildings.”

      So again, fast forward, we were able to get the mural on the building because somebody brought to that little studio on Saginaw street a photo, an old...]]>56c1661f-b9d2-4fdb-888d-490841276c8dWed, 23 Dec 2020 11:45:00 -070033:36falsefull115151Who wouldn't want to give away money to deserving folks in their communities? But Sharnita Johnson, will tell you it's harder than it sounds. She has the power to do good, but, also understands that gifts given with the best of intentions can do harm as well.14: Forget Pipe Cleaners: Why Real Cultural Organizing Is Not What You Think It Is- Part 214: Forget Pipe Cleaners: Why Real Cultural Organizing Is Not What You Think It Is- Part 2Episode 14: DIVA CATS - PART 2


      Threshold Questions and Juicy Quotes

      

      You artists are volunteers right?

      "No! We're professional artists. Everybody gets paid and they get paid well" because I won't have it any other way" They may say, "Oh, well, isn't it nice that those men are able to learn some arts and crafts stuff?" No, we don't use paper plates or pipe cleaners, and to Pacia's point, we are not trying to help them. They are learning to figure out how they can help themselves. Con Christeson

      What does sustainability mean when you are working with vulnerable people and communities?

      I'm sure that Roseanne and Con can both attest to it, you don't really clock out from these kinds of things. you don't take your teaching artists or community care or counselor or administrator hat or smock off when you go home. Right. So the biggest way is that the work has shown up is that it's always present, you get phone calls, you get emails, you're invited to come to this thing, you don't, clock out, you know, It's like your partner or your child or your parents that you care for. Right. It's omnipresent. It's always kind of over here. Pacia Anderson

      What does "with not for" mean?

      Doing something with a group of people means you're side by side with them, you are succeeding and failing with them, you are listening to each other. You are understanding what needs to happen. When we come someplace and we have a plan, then we are doing something for a community. We're not listening to the community, to the people there. We don't know all the things that are going on underneath the surface because we think we're doing something for people because we decided they needed it. Who are we to decide? Roseann Weiss

      Where does the work fit? In the altered landscape that has emerged around us? 

      (I am experiencing) ...my accountability, shifting of power, amplification of marginalized voice, liberation of all oppressed people everywhere, more than I feel like I've ever seen in my forty-two years. (In this context the creative process works ) ...as medium, as conduit, as inspiration, as catharsis as an example of possibility as documentation. Yeah, as the material and inanimate embodiment of what an artist is. Pacia Anderson

      Transcript

      Pacia Anderson: ...And though distance may divide

      or routine in time

      rendering your spaces high as the tide

      Still the look that holds tight

      two the ends of the flash back

      I am rich memories

      I am fond intensity

      Held in place by the mere desire to create it

      When one comes alive

      When our atoms collide

      With twin flames, one desire

      Sacred names

      bathed in fire, bathed in fire, bathed in fire

      fire, fire, fire, fire

      Still life pretty and shinny

      I could hold its sweetness in my hand

      Tickle the linchpin

      Stroke the beautiful danger

      A delicate malevolence

      The simple and gentle miserable symbol

      hold this opus

      the explosive closeness

      So focused that I didn't notice

      the dagger in my back...

      BC: That was Pacia Anderson, or as she calls herself Pacia Elaine Anderson, one of the three remarkable women we have dubbed, the DIVA Cats, who shared their wisdom and stories in our last episode. In that conversation they talked about the different paths that led them CAT, the nationally recognized Community Arts Training Institute, at the Saint Louis Regional Arts Commission. In this episode we dig deeper into the CAT story with questions like: What makes a CAT, and what difference does it make in places like Ferguson and the Peter and Paul facility for unhoused men. 

      From the Center for the Study of Art and Community, this is Change the Story, Change the World. I’m Bill Cleveland 

      Chapter 4: Re-imaging the Village

      BC: So, Con. You've been involved now in putting pen to paper around practice a couple of times you got your beautiful little book, and the workbook that you've created for Americans for the Arts. So, you've forced yourself to sort of answer some of these questions, what's this for? what do we what are we learning here? What have you come up with? 

      CC: Well, I was one of those TIGERS that Pacia was talking about and. At the beginning of the end of the year long journey, one of the assignments was you have to you have to come up with a research project and you have to get a mentor and you have to check in regularly. And next week I want to know what it is. And I remember the consensus of all the faculty and the people who were there, the other 11 people, was that you need to write a book and you need to look at where you've been and what you've done. So, I, welcome that opportunity to get all of these stories and connections and all the different parts of my life that have been overlapping to get them on paper actually illustrated the book, which surprised the hell out of me. I find it's it's a continual job to to figure out with people what this co-creation looks like and to Give voice to the fact that transformation happens and Roseanne reminded me of the tears of transformation that have happened with the community arts training.

      by the way, Peter and Paul, the community service organization for which I work, we are very CAT infused. The former development director, the co-founder of the Arts Collaborative, that I manage at least four staff members went through CAT, but also four of my guys from the arts groups went through a cat. And that sort of 360-degree thing to happen is very humbling for me. Because I kind of feel like I'm at the center of it, But at the same time, stuff started growing And people make a lot of assumptions about what they see or hear. When I tell them what I do, you're like, oh, so "You artists are volunteers right?" "No! We're professional artists. Everybody gets paid and they get paid well" because I won't have it any other way" They may say, "Oh, well, isn't it nice that those men are able to learn some arts and crafts stuff?" 

      No, we don't use paper plates or pipe cleaners, and to Pacia's point, we are not trying to help them. They are learning to figure out how they can help themselves. And so the transformation happens at that individual level, and happens at the program level once the program directors realize they are creating a more authentic relationship with people, through creativity as they began to tell and hear each other's stories, I mean, none of us expected that particular level of intimacy and support. And all of a sudden, they were not people on their own journey out of homelessness or poverty or drug addiction or whatever. They were people working together to help each other. Now, It didn't did work for everybody, but the guys that did work for they come back. There was one guy after we published our first book, he was recalcitrant. He was defiant. He didn't want to do it. We felt we made that book. We bound that book. The day that we put it in his hands, he started to cry, and he said, oh, my God, I can't wait to show this to my grandmother.

      So. the magic is, there, and I feel blessed to be that person who can say this is who I am, and this is who we are, and we're going to figure out together how we're going to go forward. 

      BC: So, one of the things you just described, which is to me. It's kind of home base. Which is as a species, we do not survive without our capacity to connect to our fellow human beings Basic cooperation, succor and sustenance, that is spiritual, that is physical, that is emotional. And I think many of the gentlemen that you interacted with bear some of the consequences of being separated from their connections, to their community, to their families, to their peers. what you just described. Is an intentional recreation of the of the village, the ritual, the practice of being together in a supportive way where the power of our story together manifests unencumbered. And isn't it amazing when people are given access to it, even though they would say, I don't know anything about this art stuff. Right. It's like a magnet they come right to it. they know what's happening when they're in it.

      CC: Yeah, it's you know, there's they go back and forth between I want to make some stuff. I want to sell some stuff. I want people to see my stuff. But what keeps them coming back is the commitment to a relationship, I think. And I really feel like. I do it, Pacia does it, Roseanne does it. We hold the space for what it is that we believe, and even if there's a long dry spell, we hold that space and people come to count on that. And because we can hold the space and because people can count on it, that's where what you're talking about, where the village comes from.

      And the US Department of Arts and Culture, for which I am a cultural agent, imagines what it would be like if all aspects of daily life were infused...]]>Episode 14: DIVA CATS - PART 2


      Threshold Questions and Juicy Quotes

      

      You artists are volunteers right?

      "No! We're professional artists. Everybody gets paid and they get paid well" because I won't have it any other way" They may say, "Oh, well, isn't it nice that those men are able to learn some arts and crafts stuff?" No, we don't use paper plates or pipe cleaners, and to Pacia's point, we are not trying to help them. They are learning to figure out how they can help themselves. Con Christeson

      What does sustainability mean when you are working with vulnerable people and communities?

      I'm sure that Roseanne and Con can both attest to it, you don't really clock out from these kinds of things. you don't take your teaching artists or community care or counselor or administrator hat or smock off when you go home. Right. So the biggest way is that the work has shown up is that it's always present, you get phone calls, you get emails, you're invited to come to this thing, you don't, clock out, you know, It's like your partner or your child or your parents that you care for. Right. It's omnipresent. It's always kind of over here. Pacia Anderson

      What does "with not for" mean?

      Doing something with a group of people means you're side by side with them, you are succeeding and failing with them, you are listening to each other. You are understanding what needs to happen. When we come someplace and we have a plan, then we are doing something for a community. We're not listening to the community, to the people there. We don't know all the things that are going on underneath the surface because we think we're doing something for people because we decided they needed it. Who are we to decide? Roseann Weiss

      Where does the work fit? In the altered landscape that has emerged around us? 

      (I am experiencing) ...my accountability, shifting of power, amplification of marginalized voice, liberation of all oppressed people everywhere, more than I feel like I've ever seen in my forty-two years. (In this context the creative process works ) ...as medium, as conduit, as inspiration, as catharsis as an example of possibility as documentation. Yeah, as the material and inanimate embodiment of what an artist is. Pacia Anderson

      Transcript

      Pacia Anderson: ...And though distance may divide

      or routine in time

      rendering your spaces high as the tide

      Still the look that holds tight

      two the ends of the flash back

      I am rich memories

      I am fond intensity

      Held in place by the mere desire to create it

      When one comes alive

      When our atoms collide

      With twin flames, one desire

      Sacred names

      bathed in fire, bathed in fire, bathed in fire

      fire, fire, fire, fire

      Still life pretty and shinny

      I could hold its sweetness in my hand

      Tickle the linchpin

      Stroke the beautiful danger

      A delicate malevolence

      The simple and gentle miserable symbol

      hold this opus

      the explosive closeness

      So focused that I didn't notice

      the dagger in my back...

      BC: That was Pacia Anderson, or as she calls herself Pacia Elaine Anderson, one of the three remarkable women we have dubbed, the DIVA Cats, who shared their wisdom and stories in our last episode. In that conversation they talked about the different paths that led them CAT, the nationally recognized Community Arts Training Institute, at the Saint Louis Regional Arts Commission. In this episode we dig deeper into the CAT story with questions like: What makes a CAT, and what difference does it make in places like Ferguson and the Peter and Paul facility for unhoused men. 

      From the Center for the Study of Art and Community, this is Change the Story, Change the World. I’m Bill Cleveland 

      Chapter 4: Re-imaging the Village

      BC: So, Con. You've been involved now in putting pen to paper around practice a couple of times you got your beautiful little book, and the workbook that you've created for Americans for the Arts. So, you've forced yourself to sort of answer some of these questions, what's this for? what do we what are we learning here? What have you come up with? 

      CC: Well, I was one of those TIGERS that Pacia was talking about and. At the beginning of the end of the year long journey, one of the assignments was you have to you have to come up with a research project and you have to get a mentor and you have to check in regularly. And next week I want to know what it is. And I remember the consensus of all the faculty and the people who were there, the other 11 people, was that you need to write a book and you need to look at where you've been and what you've done. So, I, welcome that opportunity to get all of these stories and connections and all the different parts of my life that have been overlapping to get them on paper actually illustrated the book, which surprised the hell out of me. I find it's it's a continual job to to figure out with people what this co-creation looks like and to Give voice to the fact that transformation happens and Roseanne reminded me of the tears of transformation that have happened with the community arts training.

      by the way, Peter and Paul, the community service organization for which I work, we are very CAT infused. The former development director, the co-founder of the Arts Collaborative, that I manage at least four staff members went through CAT, but also four of my guys from the arts groups went through a cat. And that sort of 360-degree thing to happen is very humbling for me. Because I kind of feel like I'm at the center of it, But at the same time, stuff started growing And people make a lot of assumptions about what they see or hear. When I tell them what I do, you're like, oh, so "You artists are volunteers right?" "No! We're professional artists. Everybody gets paid and they get paid well" because I won't have it any other way" They may say, "Oh, well, isn't it nice that those men are able to learn some arts and crafts stuff?" 

      No, we don't use paper plates or pipe cleaners, and to Pacia's point, we are not trying to help them. They are learning to figure out how they can help themselves. And so the transformation happens at that individual level, and happens at the program level once the program directors realize they are creating a more authentic relationship with people, through creativity as they began to tell and hear each other's stories, I mean, none of us expected that particular level of intimacy and support. And all of a sudden, they were not people on their own journey out of homelessness or poverty or drug addiction or whatever. They were people working together to help each other. Now, It didn't did work for everybody, but the guys that did work for they come back. There was one guy after we published our first book, he was recalcitrant. He was defiant. He didn't want to do it. We felt we made that book. We bound that book. The day that we put it in his hands, he started to cry, and he said, oh, my God, I can't wait to show this to my grandmother.

      So. the magic is, there, and I feel blessed to be that person who can say this is who I am, and this is who we are, and we're going to figure out together how we're going to go forward. 

      BC: So, one of the things you just described, which is to me. It's kind of home base. Which is as a species, we do not survive without our capacity to connect to our fellow human beings Basic cooperation, succor and sustenance, that is spiritual, that is physical, that is emotional. And I think many of the gentlemen that you interacted with bear some of the consequences of being separated from their connections, to their community, to their families, to their peers. what you just described. Is an intentional recreation of the of the village, the ritual, the practice of being together in a supportive way where the power of our story together manifests unencumbered. And isn't it amazing when people are given access to it, even though they would say, I don't know anything about this art stuff. Right. It's like a magnet they come right to it. they know what's happening when they're in it.

      CC: Yeah, it's you know, there's they go back and forth between I want to make some stuff. I want to sell some stuff. I want people to see my stuff. But what keeps them coming back is the commitment to a relationship, I think. And I really feel like. I do it, Pacia does it, Roseanne does it. We hold the space for what it is that we believe, and even if there's a long dry spell, we hold that space and people come to count on that. And because we can hold the space and because people can count on it, that's where what you're talking about, where the village comes from.

      And the US Department of Arts and Culture, for which I am a cultural agent, imagines what it would be like if all aspects of daily life were infused with arts and culture. So much so that It would be who we are and how we live, not something we do and call it art group or art class or art program or whatever. So that's my goal, people being creative feeling good about themselves and keeping the process going. And if a product happens to come out of it, oh, golly, that's great.

       

      Chapter 5: CAT Stories

      BC:  So the jackpot of this conversation is for you to share a story that personifies what it is we've been talking about. Is there a story that rises up for you, that represents the value of being serious and committed to the work and its potential in community? 

      PA: So, my story, the story that I'll share is one that I've shared in our Americans for the Arts workshops on arts-based community development and wanting to be respectful that. Oftentimes, we're a part of the story, but it's not our story, so I'll do the best that I can to tell my part that I have played in this particular story and. went through my CAT class. During the time of the uprising that followed Michael Brown's murder. It's important because in St. Louis, that was a before and after moment. The region is completely changed by the events of that summer. Even the feel in the air is different. I would liken it to the way people say America felt different after 9/11. All right. There's a different sense of being. So, our CAT class, we had our first class on August 1st, 2014. On August 8th, 2014, a group of my friends and I who all live in the same neighborhood. a CAT from twenty ten myself, another who was in our class, one person who ended up being a CAT the following year, we had just ended a weeklong summer camp called Cherokee Street Reach, making art with young people in the neighborhood for that week. 

      So, our CAT class was August 1st. We ended our camp August 8th. Mike Brown was murdered. August 9th. We had our second class, August 11. Our class was an intensive, so instead of once a month, over several months, we were once a week for three, sometimes four hours, while the city in the county was on fire. And while activists, artivists were doing all this work, creating responsive pieces. Sitting on boards and commissions, being citizen journalists, being street medics, this is the fire that our class was forged in and we were such a tight community of people because it was 16 from one neighborhood. And so it was deeply, deeply, deeply impactful. Cherokee Street, where Con has a studio a block away from where I live, is a commercial district in St. Louis. It's separated by two wards, surrounded by four neighborhoods, largely black, swiftly gentrifying or slowly gentrifying, depending on who you ask. So, there's all these political and social things happening during the time of this class. 

      Our CAT class ended in November and shortly thereafter, the decision to not indict the officer who murdered Mike Brown happened. And so, we were on fire again. In the midst of all of this In the aftermath of all of this uprising, in this unrest, we found ourselves being asked to community care give. Right. Can you come to the neighborhood school down the street from Cherokee Street? we don't know what you can do, but can you just come and be present? We don't have any money, but if you have just some time. Right. And so, we went there, and we invited some of the artists who were still on the ground in Ferguson by night there in this elementary school by day showing the response of artwork that they were doing, wearing t shirts that say unarmed civilian. And these were CAT's. And so things just snowballed. And we we formed a group, in the fire of response and caregiving and unrest. So Cherokee Street Reach was born out of CAT's, out of the uprising, doing what we can do, which was show up for the young people.  

      So maybe a year and a half later on Cherokee Street, there was an abandoned lot. we use to do, some murals. There's still paint on the basketball court right now from that. And people on the street had asked young people, what should we do with this lot? And they said, we want to play basketball. So a basketball court ended up being on patch of grass and rough and tumble concrete And it activated the people in the neighborhood, the young people, the artists activated that broken down lot space and turned it into something magical. And there weren't, you know, raised garden beds and flowers It looks like the neighborhood. Right. And that's why it was the neighborhood. the neighborhood named it Love Bank Park for the bank shot. this was a big deal because there aren't any basketball hoops on the south side of St. Louis in city parks because of really old racist policies.

       So, you know, young people who come from all over to play in this park, but some days we don't know where Street Reach and Love Bank begin and end because they were both born in the aftermath of a socially and economically and politically changing climate in the region. But specifically, on this street, because it divides towards both of the aldermen for those wards on both sides of the street have been serving for 20 years. And in that time, they were both unseated by young progressives who actually, helped love Bank become, what it is. One of them where we're actually going to repaint some signs and make some murals up there starting this week. I know he's going to be there. 

      BC: You’ve been at it for quite a while in that neighborhood. Are there young people from Cherokee who have taken that journey with you? 

      PA: When we started Cherokee's Street Reach, we started it because there was a young man on the street. We wanted to, quote unquote, help him. Right. And we had all these ideas about how we were going to help him and get him into these different programs. And ultimately, just through the council of people like Regina Martinez, who I mentioned earlier, other people who were aware so full circle. 

       I mean, the circle is more like an infinity loop. We're going to repaint some signs, look at Love Bank and do a mural and I got some grant money through some neighborhood organizations and two of the young people who I'm hiring to be art assistants. One of them is this young man who is running around the street six years ago with nothing to do.

      I'm sure that Roseanne and Con can both attest to it, you don't really clock out from these kinds of things. you don't take your teaching artists or community care or counselor or administrator hat or smock off when you go home. Right. So the biggest way is that the work has shown up is that it's always present, you get phone calls, you get emails, you're invited to come to this thing, you don't, clock out, you know, It's like your partner or your child or your parents that you care for. Right. It's omnipresent. It's always kind of over here.

      That story, I feel like just really demonstrated other ways that it has overlapped. you know, community care and the politics of the thing and the built environment and these questions about ownership, we talk about in our workshops who made something versus who created it So, yeah, so, Yeah, I just love it. 

      BC: Thank you, great story, Con, you got a story?

      CC: In nineteen ninety when I moved here to work with the Social Service Agency, after about four years and I joined the Board of Peter and Paul Community Services. And in nineteen ninety-eight was my CAT year. I was in the second class. I went to a board meeting and Tom Burnham was the director of Shelter Services, was talking about a project that he had going on. Then we had single room occupancy hotel in St. Louis that was being renovated by a developer. They were going to take guys from the shelter and move them into this SRO and they could live there for free and they could save their money. And as they were working, they would be assigned to a realtor, a banker, and a team of people that would help them figure out how they were going to buy a house. it was very ambitious,

      I'm like, Tom, we got to document this. I'm seeing maps. I'm seeing pieces of paper. I'm seeing people on the margins on three ring binder paper. And most of us are to the right of the red line and we have a safety net. But the people that you're working with are on the left side there's a lot less room. there's danger there's holes in the side of the paper. People fall in those holes. And so this is like a map to me, Tom. We've got to give it some maps. Became a thing for me at that particular point. 

      Sitting here thinking about these stories, I realize that. All along the way, I've been helping people make maps you know, the murals are not really murals They're maps of where people live and how people move through this thing we call the social service system or the continuum of care. Mapping and murals and stories and all of these things that were all set in motion by my CAT training

      This is my favorite story of all time. I think I'm sitting in my studio with six men and I have this mapping exercise where, you know, you map your neighborhood where you grew up. Here was the corner store. Here was the school. It was the church. Here was my best friend's house. Just map that map a place]]>d592f128-5785-4b6e-914b-cc5bfbbf0b3dWed, 09 Dec 2020 07:00:00 -070039:09falsefull114141In our last episode we introduced three remarkable women we have dubbed, the DIVA Cats. In that conversation they talked about CAT, the nationally recognized Community Arts Training Institute, at the Saint Louis Regional Arts Commission. In this episode we dig deeper with questions like: What makes a CAT, and what difference does it make in places like Ferguson and the Peter and Paul facility for unhoused men.13: Forget Pipe Cleaners: Why Real Cultural Organizing Is Not What You Think It Is – Part 113: Forget Pipe Cleaners: Why Real Cultural Organizing Is Not What You Think It Is – Part 1Episode 13: DIVA CATs

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      What’s A CAT?

      I usually bring a packet of seeds and give everybody some seeds. Because I think that that's what we're doing. Planting those seeds in our field, right, ... because we're growing things and that notion of working with people, collaborating conceiving things together, imagining things together and co- creating things together. Roseann Weiss

      Actually, I don't teach, Parker Palmer says, you can't teach anybody anything, you can't teach math, can't teach science, you can't teach art, all you can teach is who you are. And so, I've spent most of my life being a listener and listening for stories and then helping people tell their stories, Con Christeson

      I make art in the community I'm a community caregiver, whatever is required, that's what I'm going to do. I'll go clean up the “beep” I just beeped myself. You know, sometimes I make that “beep”, and sometimes I clean it up. Pacia Anderson

      How does your work show up in the community?

      Taking what I've learned ... making work with other people, creating things that are visible to the community, building a community around the studio that I have in the Cherokee Arts District here in St. Louis ---a laboratory. Con Christeson

      I find that I'm a conduit or perhaps a bridge would be another way to talk about it. and maybe that's what training is. connecting people, putting people together, finding ways to put things in front of people that might be useful to them. Roseann Weiss

      What questions should activist artists be asking?

      ...have you been asked for your help? Have you been invited to do this particular thing? How do you know the people that you want to offer your help to even need your help? How do you know that your help isn't harmful? Pacia Anderson

      And if I if I'm going to consider myself successful. I want to know that you can answer the question, how do you see yourself? How do you see others and how do you see others seeing you? Con Christeson

      How do we gather what do we do when we gather? How do we make sure that everyone knows that they're welcome? How do we make it so that we can continue to do so for a purpose that benefits all of us and encourages the best parts of our humanity? Pacia Anderson

      Transcript

      November 17, 1998, St. Louis Missouri. The subtly illuminated room is filled by a circle of 18 utilitarian chairs. A large sheet of butcher paper spans backstage wall. At the very top, a five-inch-high hand lettered heading shouts out “SESSION 1: GETTING TO KNOW OURSELVES.” A series of questions are scrawled underneath. 

      What is Art? -What is Community?

      What is Community Development?

      What is the History and Ecology of Arts-based Community Development?

      Where do I fit in this landscape?

      A young woman carrying a backpack approaches the circle tentatively. She scans the wall briefly and takes a seat. Over the next ten minutes, she is joined by other women and men until the stage is filled with the stuttering chatter that often accompanies the awkward dance of new acquaintance. A few minutes later a lull in the murmuring chorus is filled by the piercing sound of a bell. The voices in the circle fade as the cyclic ringing descends on the group like a sonic curtain. After a few seconds, a woman sitting in the chair furthest from the room’s entrance breaks the silence. “Welcome everybody, to the St. Louis Arts Commission and the Community Arts Training Institute. She leans forward and carefully places a pair of Tibetan temple bells onto the floor next to her chair.” I can’t tell you what an honor it is to be sharing this circle with you this afternoon.”

      In this episode of CSCW we will explore how a small arts training program called CAT help build a powerful network of creative change agents and established St. Louis MO as an innovative leader in the burgeoning community arts field. 

      Bill Cleveland: From the

      and Community, this is Change the Story Change the World. I'm Bill Cleveland.

      The long and circuitous journey that led to the ringing of bells opening the Community Arts Training Institute, or CAT, began with a phone call some four years earlier. Dyan Wiley, then with the Arts Extension Service of the University of Massachusetts at Amerst, (AES), wanted to talk about creating a community arts training course for their summer institute for arts administrators. We both agreed that the time had come for this. Spurred by the availability of US Department of Labor (CETA) arts job funding in the late 1970’s, the number artists and arts organizations becoming involved in arts- based community development had been growing year after year. By 1994, community arts programming was showing up all over the country—sometimes with amazing results.

      Unfortunately, this proliferation was also exposing some significant problems throughout the nascent field. --- Namely, that many of the artists and arts organizations involved were unprepared for the extraordinary complexity of the work. 

      The result was a three-day intensive.1 The curriculum for the Community Arts Partnership Institute was conceived and presented by Dyan Wiley, community arts veterans Bob Leonard, and Alice Lovelace, and myself in the summer of 1995. The highly experiential, arts-infused program emphasized the history and dynamics of social change, the development of equitable community partnerships and deep reflection about the high level of responsibility inherent to the work.

      In the fall of 1997, Ann Haubrich, a participant our second summer institute, contacted me to talk about creating a similar program for the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission or (RAC) where she worked. For some time, RAC had been funding community arts project. The ups and downs of that experience convinced Ann that it was time to start professionalizing the field in St. Louis. To really serve the region, we agreed RAC’s Community Arts Training Institute or (CAT) program would need to have an annual presence. We also felt it should be cross-sector, which meant involving both artists and professionals from other arenas, like human service, healthcare, and public safety. The resulting five-month intensive had an cross-sector faculty and a curriculum designed with and for the local community.

      Now in its 23rd year, CAT has produced a network of over 350 arts, human service, health care, and community development collaborators who are using the arts to help build healthy communities throughout the St. Louis area, and helped establish St. Louis as a national community arts/creative placemaking hot spot. 

      A few months ago, I had the privilege of speaking with three women who have been deeply involved in the CAT as both participants and faculty over the years. Con Christeson, who was a member of CAT’s second class has established both a local studio / laboratory and global constituency as a community artist and trainer. Pacia Anderson, a 2014 CAT fellow and continuing faculty member, Is an award winning poet who has applied her skills as a writer and organizer in service to community programs all over the St. Louis region. Roseann Weiss, who coordinated CAT from 2004 to 2018 recently, joined with Con and Pacia to take a CAT inspired workshops sponsored by Americans for the Arts to communities across the country. That is, until the pandemic effectively shuttered the world. 

      In this episode, the first of two devoted this trio we are calling the Diva CATS, Pacia, Con, and Roseann share stories about how they became so deeply involved in the global community arts movement in one of its epicenters.

      Part 1: Where the Heck Are We? 

      Bill Cleveland: Let me begin by just asking checking in with each one of you as we go around, you know, obviously with the world that we live in currently. How are you doing, Pacia? Why don't we start with you? How are you doing?

      Pacia Anderson: I am well,...]]>Episode 13: DIVA CATs

      Threshold Questions and Delicious Quotes

      What’s A CAT?

      I usually bring a packet of seeds and give everybody some seeds. Because I think that that's what we're doing. Planting those seeds in our field, right, ... because we're growing things and that notion of working with people, collaborating conceiving things together, imagining things together and co- creating things together. Roseann Weiss

      Actually, I don't teach, Parker Palmer says, you can't teach anybody anything, you can't teach math, can't teach science, you can't teach art, all you can teach is who you are. And so, I've spent most of my life being a listener and listening for stories and then helping people tell their stories, Con Christeson

      I make art in the community I'm a community caregiver, whatever is required, that's what I'm going to do. I'll go clean up the “beep” I just beeped myself. You know, sometimes I make that “beep”, and sometimes I clean it up. Pacia Anderson

      How does your work show up in the community?

      Taking what I've learned ... making work with other people, creating things that are visible to the community, building a community around the studio that I have in the Cherokee Arts District here in St. Louis ---a laboratory. Con Christeson

      I find that I'm a conduit or perhaps a bridge would be another way to talk about it. and maybe that's what training is. connecting people, putting people together, finding ways to put things in front of people that might be useful to them. Roseann Weiss

      What questions should activist artists be asking?

      ...have you been asked for your help? Have you been invited to do this particular thing? How do you know the people that you want to offer your help to even need your help? How do you know that your help isn't harmful? Pacia Anderson

      And if I if I'm going to consider myself successful. I want to know that you can answer the question, how do you see yourself? How do you see others and how do you see others seeing you? Con Christeson

      How do we gather what do we do when we gather? How do we make sure that everyone knows that they're welcome? How do we make it so that we can continue to do so for a purpose that benefits all of us and encourages the best parts of our humanity? Pacia Anderson

      Transcript

      November 17, 1998, St. Louis Missouri. The subtly illuminated room is filled by a circle of 18 utilitarian chairs. A large sheet of butcher paper spans backstage wall. At the very top, a five-inch-high hand lettered heading shouts out “SESSION 1: GETTING TO KNOW OURSELVES.” A series of questions are scrawled underneath. 

      What is Art? -What is Community?

      What is Community Development?

      What is the History and Ecology of Arts-based Community Development?

      Where do I fit in this landscape?

      A young woman carrying a backpack approaches the circle tentatively. She scans the wall briefly and takes a seat. Over the next ten minutes, she is joined by other women and men until the stage is filled with the stuttering chatter that often accompanies the awkward dance of new acquaintance. A few minutes later a lull in the murmuring chorus is filled by the piercing sound of a bell. The voices in the circle fade as the cyclic ringing descends on the group like a sonic curtain. After a few seconds, a woman sitting in the chair furthest from the room’s entrance breaks the silence. “Welcome everybody, to the St. Louis Arts Commission and the Community Arts Training Institute. She leans forward and carefully places a pair of Tibetan temple bells onto the floor next to her chair.” I can’t tell you what an honor it is to be sharing this circle with you this afternoon.”

      In this episode of CSCW we will explore how a small arts training program called CAT help build a powerful network of creative change agents and established St. Louis MO as an innovative leader in the burgeoning community arts field. 

      Bill Cleveland: From the

      and Community, this is Change the Story Change the World. I'm Bill Cleveland.

      The long and circuitous journey that led to the ringing of bells opening the Community Arts Training Institute, or CAT, began with a phone call some four years earlier. Dyan Wiley, then with the Arts Extension Service of the University of Massachusetts at Amerst, (AES), wanted to talk about creating a community arts training course for their summer institute for arts administrators. We both agreed that the time had come for this. Spurred by the availability of US Department of Labor (CETA) arts job funding in the late 1970’s, the number artists and arts organizations becoming involved in arts- based community development had been growing year after year. By 1994, community arts programming was showing up all over the country—sometimes with amazing results.

      Unfortunately, this proliferation was also exposing some significant problems throughout the nascent field. --- Namely, that many of the artists and arts organizations involved were unprepared for the extraordinary complexity of the work. 

      The result was a three-day intensive.1 The curriculum for the Community Arts Partnership Institute was conceived and presented by Dyan Wiley, community arts veterans Bob Leonard, and Alice Lovelace, and myself in the summer of 1995. The highly experiential, arts-infused program emphasized the history and dynamics of social change, the development of equitable community partnerships and deep reflection about the high level of responsibility inherent to the work.

      In the fall of 1997, Ann Haubrich, a participant our second summer institute, contacted me to talk about creating a similar program for the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission or (RAC) where she worked. For some time, RAC had been funding community arts project. The ups and downs of that experience convinced Ann that it was time to start professionalizing the field in St. Louis. To really serve the region, we agreed RAC’s Community Arts Training Institute or (CAT) program would need to have an annual presence. We also felt it should be cross-sector, which meant involving both artists and professionals from other arenas, like human service, healthcare, and public safety. The resulting five-month intensive had an cross-sector faculty and a curriculum designed with and for the local community.

      Now in its 23rd year, CAT has produced a network of over 350 arts, human service, health care, and community development collaborators who are using the arts to help build healthy communities throughout the St. Louis area, and helped establish St. Louis as a national community arts/creative placemaking hot spot. 

      A few months ago, I had the privilege of speaking with three women who have been deeply involved in the CAT as both participants and faculty over the years. Con Christeson, who was a member of CAT’s second class has established both a local studio / laboratory and global constituency as a community artist and trainer. Pacia Anderson, a 2014 CAT fellow and continuing faculty member, Is an award winning poet who has applied her skills as a writer and organizer in service to community programs all over the St. Louis region. Roseann Weiss, who coordinated CAT from 2004 to 2018 recently, joined with Con and Pacia to take a CAT inspired workshops sponsored by Americans for the Arts to communities across the country. That is, until the pandemic effectively shuttered the world. 

      In this episode, the first of two devoted this trio we are calling the Diva CATS, Pacia, Con, and Roseann share stories about how they became so deeply involved in the global community arts movement in one of its epicenters.

      Part 1: Where the Heck Are We? 

      Bill Cleveland: Let me begin by just asking checking in with each one of you as we go around, you know, obviously with the world that we live in currently. How are you doing, Pacia? Why don't we start with you? How are you doing?

      Pacia Anderson: I am well, When the New World first gave birth to itself in the middle of March, which is a benchmark for a lot of people who work in the so-called gig economy or artists who are teachers. You know, it was weird. There was a feeling of this oddness in the air. But I think I've adjusted I've come to rest that. hopefully never go back to the way that things were. Being so overly taxed in every aspect of our lives physically, mentally, emotionally, creatively, always in pursuit of the do, you know, I'm really grateful for the time of sequester so we could practice rest. Also grateful for that time, because now when I feel myself falling back in that pursuit of the do, that's what feels odd, you know. So, I'm doing well. I'm feeling grateful for this shift and for living in just a new way of being that we actually had the time to sit still and imagine.

      BC: Thank you, Con, how is your journey? 

      CC: Everything that I was doing, including teaching at the universities, turned on a dime. And the stress of performance was juxtaposed by the sense that I've really been given a gift, and I have not been able to make art with other people except for one group. And that group of HIV positive men were locked down in their residence by a very wise program director, and because of that, I was able to spend some time each week creating a magic carpet and imagining not only what happens after homelessness, but what happens to after you survived a pandemic So it was a gift for the most part. And I've learned a lot from the parts that we not easy, but there were definitely lessons.

      BC: So, Roseanne.

      RW: Yeah, this is really been. A moment of thoughtfulness. I find this juxtaposition of intersecting upheavals, in and how we must relate to each other right now in spaces like this. And upheavals in the streets because of the things that have happened and the things that have been revealed to us. Those things also make an internal upheaval, right? So, I don't feel very peaceful right now, I feel very much like there is a disturbance. And I'm not sure what's going to happen. I tend to be an optimistic person, so I believe that we are going to figure this out, but I think it's taking the world a long time to understand the moment that we're at, because there's no going back. And first, you have to understand where you are to understand where you're going. And I think we're all still trying to understand where we are.

      BC: I spend a lot of time talking to myself, I Walk five miles every morning in a park and there are people there doing what people are doing in order to survive this. They are singing into the sky by themselves, they're drawing things on the sidewalk, messages to people, they are dancing. and then I'm I'm there talking to myself, and so every day, it's Covid Chronicles 

      To me, the most striking thing has been the fact that. It makes complete and absolute sense that our struggle with our racial history is manifesting right now and. The reason I say that is, is that this is a stress test for each individual, for families, for everything in society and I believe that at moments like this, the cracks that are most most vulnerable, that are ready to go, that have been there for the longest, that have the deepest pain attached to them, are the ones that are closest to the surface and ready to pop.

      Part 2: The Road To CAT

      BC: So let me segue into the first story I'd like you to tell. And that's your personal story. So let me begin with the first question and Pacia we'll start with you. What is your work in the world, and how did you come to it? 

      PA: My work in the world, is to see, observe, use, inspire, color, and imagination, and contemplation as a way of living out our purposes for being here on this planet. And, I do that in a variety of ways, sometimes it's just sitting on my porch shooting the breeze with my neighbors. Other times it is working in schools and rec centers and with different organizations as a teaching artist, teaching poetry and spoken word, history, language, visual art. Sometimes it is sitting on panels and boards and talking about civic duty and arts-based community development. And sometimes it is being in neighborhood and community meetings, yelling, or telling jokes, or railing against the system, or complimenting someone on the food that they brought. the center, the intersection of all of that is community. How do we gather what do we do when we gather? How do we make sure that everyone knows that they're welcome? How do we make it so that we can continue to do so for a purpose that benefits all of us and encourages the best parts of our humanity? 

      BC: How did you come to this. What led you to become the Pacia force of nature that you are 

      PA: How I came to the work, I feel like the work either came to me or was always there. In considering this question, I had to go like way, way, way, way back. I was born in the late 70s. I grew up in Springfield, Illinois, and our family had some challenges. And so I spent a lot of my three to 18 year old self in the foster care system, actually aged out when I was 18. 

      PA: And our situation was really unusual because my foster mother and my birth mother had a really wild, and crazy, and weird, and loving relationship. So, my mom would just come by the house. Sometimes we would just meet like we were family. So, we were afforded an opportunity to still have this relationship with my mother. The point being, I had these two mothers who were, you know, just awesome in their own way. My birth mother, was a songwriter an artist, you know, and I didn't really acknowledge that until I felt like it was OK to give myself permission to say that I was an artist, too. And she loved to write letters. If my if you made my mother angry, she would write you a ten-page letter and put it in the mail. Right. If she got bad customer service, she would write a letter. So, I have these memories of like my mom, like expressing her art through writing these songs and writing these letters. We got free cable a lot because she was writing these letters.

      But then my foster mother, was a super-duper church person. She was 60 years older than me. So we were always going at it. But she did these really amazing things. she was a nurse. And so she would go off to all these disasters, these floods and things and volunteer with the Red Cross. And she ministered to people who were in jail every Saturday, and over the course of her life, had taken in like 40 or 50 foster children. And when she found out that I was into poetry, she, literally made me like every Sunday get up and say these poems, right? So I had this mother who was an artist and then I had this mother who did all this work in community. And I never even considered how that was part of the makings of me until a couple of years ago, 

      And so I feel like the work kind of came to me in the same way that I used to have to make my bed and wash dishes every single day, and I hated it. Now I get up and I make my bed right away and I get done eating. I do the dishes right away, these two, you know, my mother and my foster mother kind of like showed me very, very early on what it means to be an artist and what it means to work in community. And I feel like I'm kind of the product of that. 

      BC: Wow, what a beautiful story. Everybody's story is. So unique, so unique. Con, what's your unique story, how do you define what you do and how did you come to it? 

      CC: So, I grew up in a pretty insulated giant Catholic Irish family in Nebraska. I don't remember needing for much, in spite of the fact that one time I saw my dad's paycheck and we had there were five sisters and two brothers, and his paycheck was, I don't know, six hundred dollars for the month And he was an alcoholic. All his brothers and sisters were alcoholics. But somehow, we managed to live in this neighborhood with two hundred other children and all went to the same school. And all through school and in college, I did a lot of creative things: calligraphy, dance, drama. Just, you know, working with other people, thinking together, moving together, engaging a creative process was what always made me happy.

      And I met the father of my children when I was in college the first time and married him, moved across the country several times. I. was in graduate school but did not ever finish because I spent six semesters in the ceramics department studying with Wes Smiley, who taught me many things about life. And I decided I just couldn't do that anymore, I just needed to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. And this was at the age of thirty-eight.

      And I remember standing in my garage and I said to myself, OK, I have to pick, I have to pick the music, the dance, the theater, the whatever, whatever. And a voice said. creativity is creativity, you've been given all the tools. And I I heard the voice, I don't know from whence it came, but I can clearly still hear it. And I left that marriage. I left that small town and I left one child behind because she was missing high school. And I came to St. Louis and after about six months, I got a job as GED teacher. And oh, by the way, since you're an artist, could you do art in the shelter five hours a week? I'm like, sure. 

      The shelter Con is referring to is a St. Louis facility for unhoused men where began to teach painting and drawing. She also collaborated with a photographer who to give the men camera’s so they could photograph and share what she was calling A Day in My...]]>3b1232a2-3e33-4285-8bae-079cd0e4c79aTue, 24 Nov 2020 12:00:00 -070041:03falsefull113131In this episode of CSCW we will explore how a small arts training program called CAT help build a powerful network of creative change agents and established St. Louis MO as an innovative leader in the burgeoning community arts field.12: STORY story12: STORY storyEpisode 12: Story story


      Check out the film version of Story story HERE

      And the book version HERE

      Transcript

      In the beginning there was a word, the word, a word, I don’t know but that word doing its best o state afloat at the confluence of time and space spinning at the hot center of the minds-eye vortex had no choice but to go forth and multiply and…beget a Story 

      These are the first few lines of a prose poem called Story story, which will be shared in full later in this podcast. It comes from the soundtrack of a film of the same name that explores the evolution of "story" as an essential aspect of human development and history. In this episode I will share the story of Story story, what prompted it and how it evolved. Along the way we examine some threshold questions: Where do stories come from; what is their function, and most importantly, what is their power for good or ill?

      From the Center for the Study of Art & Community, this is Change the Story / Change the World. I’m Bill Cleveland.

      Part 1: Art and Upheaval

      In the early spring of 2005, my wife Carla and I found ourselves unpacking in a small, well-appointed room in a 15th-century Italian palazzo named Villa Serbelloni, overlooking the blue expanses of Lake Como. We had traveled to northern Italy at the Rockefeller Foundation’s invitation to spend a month as residents of the Bellagio Retreat and Conference Center. I had come to write, and Carla, to paint. My book project, called Art and Upheaval, would tell the stories of artists working on what I was characterizing as the world’s frontlines, which translates literally as eleven communities across the globe facing extreme conflict and disruption. 

      During our time there, we shared meals and good cheer with the dozen or so artists and scholars who were our fellow residents. Many mornings Carla and I started our day across the breakfast table from a poet from Maine named Wesley McNair and his wife, Diane. Wesley’s poems, which I came to admire a great deal, were powerful, intense, and often very personal. 

      One morning, he shared a work in progress describing an abusive encounter between a New York couple and a clerk in a roadside store near Wesley’s home in rural Maine. Like most of his work, it was short and unsparing. By the time he looked up from the page, there was no mistaking the deep sense of violation he felt when fair weather and fancy cars heralded the annual migration of a particular species of callous interloper to his beloved rural refuge. 

      Over the next day or so, I pondered the story — particularly the blithely self-absorbed couple whose fast-accelerating BMW concluded the poem. No doubt, the clerk had been mistreated, and by extension, the community sullied. But I also felt an intense curiosity about what those two were talking about as they continued up the coast. Did they have any idea what they had left in their wake? Were they oblivious, or sorry? Did they argue? I guess you could say I was interested in the “other story” revealed in that disturbing scene in the store. Who were these people, and why did they act that way? 

      These questions led me to reflect on my work at the Villa. I was spending my days exploring the lives of artists working to heal and provoke change amid appalling conflict and trauma in places like Northern Ireland, Watts, California, Milosevic-ruled Serbia, and post Keymer Rouge Cambodia. My efforts to animate these harrowing and inspiring stories respectfully and compassionately had been humbling. In the process, I found myself caught up in, no, actually overwhelmed by the infinitely faceted, interconnected nature of these human narratives. I had convinced myself that my job was to make sense and meaning of all these threads. But the weave of people, places, and history I was trying to represent, the layer on layer, shifting, bubbling, boiling nature of the lives and events I was encountering; was seriously fogging my lenses. 

      I pressed on, but in the spaces between my book and time with Bellagio colleagues, a side-saga appeared. What emerged was my first attempt to acknowledge and understand the nature and power of human story-making. Indeed, the landscape I was exploring was immense -- the ubiquitous, indelible presence of stories; the fragility and mutable nature of stories; the powerful connections between the story and the imagination, story and belief, story and history, story and learning, story and the human struggle with power and difference – and on and on. Was I tilting at windmills? Likely so, but I had a head of steam, so I spent a day writing whatever came to mind and filed it --- working title: Story, Story. Maybe it was a safety valve because the foggy skies over Art and Upheaval soon cleared.

      There are hundreds of dead-end writing threads scattered across my hard drive that will never see the light of day. For some reason, though, I found myself being drawn back to Story story to poke and prod. At some point, I started including excerpts into talks I was giving to artists and organizers working for social change. I did this because I had come to believe that the care and feeding of stories are central to all change work. If you challenge and change the dominant narrative of a place, for good or ill, you will have taken a potent step towards community change. The shorthand version is --- Change the Story, Change the World.

      A slightly longer version is embodied in what follows in this podcast, namely a reading of Story story with an accompanying soundscape crafted beautifully by composer Judy Munson. But that’s not all. As we indicated in the intro what you will be hearing is the soundtrack of the film version of Story story based on an extraordinary suite of 30 photo collages created by artist Barry Marcus. And truth be told, one reason for sharing Story story here is to entice you to check out both the film, and the newly completed book version. Links to both can be found in the show notes accompanying this episode. 

      Part 2: Story story

      In the beginning 

      there was a Word

       

      The Word, a word,

      I don’t know…,

      but that Word

      doing its best to stay afloat at the confluence of time and space

      spinning at the hot center 

      of the minds-eye vortex

      had no choice 

      but to go forth

      and multiply 

      and…beget a Story 

      In no time at all 

      that Story was whispered, and sung,

      and gestured, and shouted

      until it gave birth to another story---

      and another and another

      that, well, given the fruitful nature

      of humans and stories,

      grew to become a family, a village, 

      a whole land of stories

      all alive in time

      to the pulsing rhythm 

      of all the story hearts 

      and story souls

      beating then, and now

      and forever in the 

      always emerging meta mother-story of the world


      Now, if you, my friend

      here and now

      can feel that rhythm 

      If you can move your feet and sing

      and lay yourself down 

      in the groove 

      of that tall tale dust and music


      If you can swim in the roiling roux 

      of all that telling, and listening, 

      you are tapped into in the crucible of the signifying, sanctifying transmogrifying power of stories 

      Yes, if you are plugged into that 

      You are holding a beaded parasol in the second line 

      of all those story births and passing’s

      If you are tapped into that

      Well it may just be that you are 

      on your way to taking your place

      as a link in the chain, of makers and tellers 


      And if that’s true, 

      Then you better listen up:


      Where do I start

      Well, I’ll begin with a warning

      We all know about stories, right? 

      Stories are fun, stories frolic, stories amuse, 

      YEA

      But stories are also nimble, tricky, malevolent,

      And, and … 

      well, you can fill in the blank. 

       

      Some say if you own 

      “the story” 

      Then you’ve got the power, 

      --the juice 

      But Others declare, stories are free- can’t be owned. 


      Then there’s those who say if you are creating the story then you are making the future

       and that stifling the story is killing the]]>Episode 12: Story story


      Check out the film version of Story story HERE

      And the book version HERE

      Transcript

      In the beginning there was a word, the word, a word, I don’t know but that word doing its best o state afloat at the confluence of time and space spinning at the hot center of the minds-eye vortex had no choice but to go forth and multiply and…beget a Story 

      These are the first few lines of a prose poem called Story story, which will be shared in full later in this podcast. It comes from the soundtrack of a film of the same name that explores the evolution of "story" as an essential aspect of human development and history. In this episode I will share the story of Story story, what prompted it and how it evolved. Along the way we examine some threshold questions: Where do stories come from; what is their function, and most importantly, what is their power for good or ill?

      From the Center for the Study of Art & Community, this is Change the Story / Change the World. I’m Bill Cleveland.

      Part 1: Art and Upheaval

      In the early spring of 2005, my wife Carla and I found ourselves unpacking in a small, well-appointed room in a 15th-century Italian palazzo named Villa Serbelloni, overlooking the blue expanses of Lake Como. We had traveled to northern Italy at the Rockefeller Foundation’s invitation to spend a month as residents of the Bellagio Retreat and Conference Center. I had come to write, and Carla, to paint. My book project, called Art and Upheaval, would tell the stories of artists working on what I was characterizing as the world’s frontlines, which translates literally as eleven communities across the globe facing extreme conflict and disruption. 

      During our time there, we shared meals and good cheer with the dozen or so artists and scholars who were our fellow residents. Many mornings Carla and I started our day across the breakfast table from a poet from Maine named Wesley McNair and his wife, Diane. Wesley’s poems, which I came to admire a great deal, were powerful, intense, and often very personal. 

      One morning, he shared a work in progress describing an abusive encounter between a New York couple and a clerk in a roadside store near Wesley’s home in rural Maine. Like most of his work, it was short and unsparing. By the time he looked up from the page, there was no mistaking the deep sense of violation he felt when fair weather and fancy cars heralded the annual migration of a particular species of callous interloper to his beloved rural refuge. 

      Over the next day or so, I pondered the story — particularly the blithely self-absorbed couple whose fast-accelerating BMW concluded the poem. No doubt, the clerk had been mistreated, and by extension, the community sullied. But I also felt an intense curiosity about what those two were talking about as they continued up the coast. Did they have any idea what they had left in their wake? Were they oblivious, or sorry? Did they argue? I guess you could say I was interested in the “other story” revealed in that disturbing scene in the store. Who were these people, and why did they act that way? 

      These questions led me to reflect on my work at the Villa. I was spending my days exploring the lives of artists working to heal and provoke change amid appalling conflict and trauma in places like Northern Ireland, Watts, California, Milosevic-ruled Serbia, and post Keymer Rouge Cambodia. My efforts to animate these harrowing and inspiring stories respectfully and compassionately had been humbling. In the process, I found myself caught up in, no, actually overwhelmed by the infinitely faceted, interconnected nature of these human narratives. I had convinced myself that my job was to make sense and meaning of all these threads. But the weave of people, places, and history I was trying to represent, the layer on layer, shifting, bubbling, boiling nature of the lives and events I was encountering; was seriously fogging my lenses. 

      I pressed on, but in the spaces between my book and time with Bellagio colleagues, a side-saga appeared. What emerged was my first attempt to acknowledge and understand the nature and power of human story-making. Indeed, the landscape I was exploring was immense -- the ubiquitous, indelible presence of stories; the fragility and mutable nature of stories; the powerful connections between the story and the imagination, story and belief, story and history, story and learning, story and the human struggle with power and difference – and on and on. Was I tilting at windmills? Likely so, but I had a head of steam, so I spent a day writing whatever came to mind and filed it --- working title: Story, Story. Maybe it was a safety valve because the foggy skies over Art and Upheaval soon cleared.

      There are hundreds of dead-end writing threads scattered across my hard drive that will never see the light of day. For some reason, though, I found myself being drawn back to Story story to poke and prod. At some point, I started including excerpts into talks I was giving to artists and organizers working for social change. I did this because I had come to believe that the care and feeding of stories are central to all change work. If you challenge and change the dominant narrative of a place, for good or ill, you will have taken a potent step towards community change. The shorthand version is --- Change the Story, Change the World.

      A slightly longer version is embodied in what follows in this podcast, namely a reading of Story story with an accompanying soundscape crafted beautifully by composer Judy Munson. But that’s not all. As we indicated in the intro what you will be hearing is the soundtrack of the film version of Story story based on an extraordinary suite of 30 photo collages created by artist Barry Marcus. And truth be told, one reason for sharing Story story here is to entice you to check out both the film, and the newly completed book version. Links to both can be found in the show notes accompanying this episode. 

      Part 2: Story story

      In the beginning 

      there was a Word

       

      The Word, a word,

      I don’t know…,

      but that Word

      doing its best to stay afloat at the confluence of time and space

      spinning at the hot center 

      of the minds-eye vortex

      had no choice 

      but to go forth

      and multiply 

      and…beget a Story 

      In no time at all 

      that Story was whispered, and sung,

      and gestured, and shouted

      until it gave birth to another story---

      and another and another

      that, well, given the fruitful nature

      of humans and stories,

      grew to become a family, a village, 

      a whole land of stories

      all alive in time

      to the pulsing rhythm 

      of all the story hearts 

      and story souls

      beating then, and now

      and forever in the 

      always emerging meta mother-story of the world


      Now, if you, my friend

      here and now

      can feel that rhythm 

      If you can move your feet and sing

      and lay yourself down 

      in the groove 

      of that tall tale dust and music


      If you can swim in the roiling roux 

      of all that telling, and listening, 

      you are tapped into in the crucible of the signifying, sanctifying transmogrifying power of stories 

      Yes, if you are plugged into that 

      You are holding a beaded parasol in the second line 

      of all those story births and passing’s

      If you are tapped into that

      Well it may just be that you are 

      on your way to taking your place

      as a link in the chain, of makers and tellers 


      And if that’s true, 

      Then you better listen up:


      Where do I start

      Well, I’ll begin with a warning

      We all know about stories, right? 

      Stories are fun, stories frolic, stories amuse, 

      YEA

      But stories are also nimble, tricky, malevolent,

      And, and … 

      well, you can fill in the blank. 

       

      Some say if you own 

      “the story” 

      Then you’ve got the power, 

      --the juice 

      But Others declare, stories are free- can’t be owned. 


      Then there’s those who say if you are creating the story then you are making the future

       and that stifling the story is killing the future

      and the past. 

       

      What we do know is that every person, every family, every community 

      is formed and shaped

      by their stories.  

      And, if we don’t know.. our story

      If we can’t shout out

      the story of who we are, where we came from, 

      where we are going 

      we lose our dignity, 

      our humanity,

      our souls

      as in East Germany,

      as in Chile, 

      as in Cambodia,

      As in Sharpeville, Tulsa, and Wounded Knee

      as in Attica, Solovetsky, Parchman, Soledad, 

       as in Toul Seng, and Dachau


      These particular stories teach us that 

      Tyranny is story subjugation driven by fear. 

      Here’s how it works:

      One-- Keep them from telling the story.

      Two-- Ignore the story.

      Three-- Control the story by altering or editing it.

      Four-- Romanticize the story

      Five-- Simplify the story, 

      Six-- Trivialize the story

      Seven- - Twist that story with a lie

      Eight- Buy, then smother the story

      Nine—Steal, then lose the story

      Ten— YEA If all else fails, just kill the sucker


      But, we all know

      stories do not die

      After the smoke settles

      those fugitive seeds,

      Those Neruda, Malcolm, Biko spores 

      murdered, buried, forgotten 

      FORGOTEN until they wake 

      yea, the rain and the sun

      Tug on memory’s twitchy trigger

      and they rouse… Yea, those seeds 

      remember, once again 

       to sprout and flower,

      growing with a vengeance

      that will not abate. 


      Just like the kudzu vines and blackberry canes that 

      crowd our lanes and clog our fences

       

      And of course, you all know the story about neighbors and fences, right?

      good fences ---make good neighbors and…

      well, I don’t know 

      is that true? 

      Actually, Mr. Frost didn’t seem to think so---neither did Mr. Aesop

      But, both knew that a good story 

      Could set powerful, unpredictable things in motion 

      Like an altered chromosome 

      or the floating spill of a new idea 

      caught in the hot updraft of a Santa Anna wind


      And as those incipient stories swoop and swirl

      Some fall 

      Some collide 

      And a few join together

      At the hip

      At the shoulder

      At the third eye intersection 

      of self-interest and common ground

      And those tall tale partners

      Become democracy zygotes


      Youre THINKIN’ WHAT?

      but, it’s true,

      Democracy is the art of collective story making.

      Democracy says: 

      LISTEN UP! “Here is the story to this point—Let’s decide together what’s next… and make it real… together!”-


      Now, this making thing 

      That it appears

      We’ve always done

      that we call art

      These are the tools we 

      use to nudge our stories 

      out into the world

      But it’s important to remember

      The artists hands 

      made that animal thing 

      that bison on the wall

      that became the words 

      that begat the first story!

      That gave birth to the 

      First tale tale

      The first myth 


      The first joke

      The first rumor

      The first vexing, no-easy-answer question

      And Hey,

      if you’ve got a mystery messing with you

      You’ve got to use that story making hand

      to help you paste it fast into the rest 

      of your world defining window 

      Do it quick, cause, you know, 

      unanswered questions 

      don’t sit well with us humans 

      If you don’t, that fugitive cipher, 

      ignored, and out of context, 

      IT will suffocate you in its shadow


      I know, I know you’re thinking, 

      well, that sounds kind of melodramatic

      But, you can’t ignore 

      the trickster’s spin

      Cause disrespected stories

      ARE nascent shadows. 

      You can’t close your eyes to them

      because the shadow GROWS with neglect

      Out of sight and out of mind

      They just bubble and ferment,

      And mark my word

      Those untold stories,

      Those unpeeled stories, 

      Those stifled stories,

      left to fester---

      are very, very dangerous


      Bottom line, 

      If you hold your ears,

      if you only pay attention 

      to your own ECHO 

      its hard to listen,

      its hard to CONNECT TO the rest of the stories

      Hovering all around

      And you need that…

      WE need that…

      to survive together.


      This is because 

      Everything out there is translated for us, 

      to us, by us, through us

      by story. 

      For good and for ill

      Everything we see, hear, touch, taste …feel 

      is just pregnant with story 

      ready to give birth to another 

      and another 

      helping us make sense and meaning 

      in this confounding jumble of a world


      Sense and meaning?

      WELL, That’s just story breath and story fire

      Feeding the future in the 

      mind’s eye furnace of 

      Imagining What’s next

       

      And You know, that imagination thing 

      It’s just a muscle up in there

      Working overtime 

      generating more power than it consumes 

      as it chugs along raising the temperature 

      in the hot house of stories.


      Talk about power. Change the Story, change the world

      Man, but you know, it goes both ways. That privilege thing. 

      Privilege is imagining your story, is THE story

         AND THEN If you are rich

      you can buy all the stories you think you need regardless of where they came from. 

      Not only is that corrupt, Its just plain undignified. 

        And that’s no small thing. Cause you see Dignity is the unfettered imagination, the untethered voice, the unleashed story. 

      And Wealth be damned, If that story holds great meaning you can touch a million hearts 

      Or just a precious one 

       Empathy happens when 

      I tell you my story 

      and you tell my story back to me --and I nod my head.


      Art well the art holds the story, but only just--- 

      for a while 

      The artist says, “This is how the story goes at this time and this place.”

      Sometimes that story sticks around

      Sometimes it mutates or migrates. 

      Sometimes it escapes


      What we call Improvisation is fishing for those fugitive stories 

      New stories get born 

      when improvisation and imagination converge

      bending time and space wide enough 

      for story sperms and the story eggs 

      to find each other and join. 


      But of course, 

      there are no new stories

      And all stories are new

       

      Some people say

      Look, Have a seat while I tell my story

      Some say

      Have a seat 

      while I tell someone else’s story

      Some folks say

      Have a seat while I tell your story

      Some artists say

      Stand up 

      we have a story to tell


      I say,

       

      Once upon a time…

       

      Thank you for being here, for tuning in. Please join us for our next episode. Change the Story / Change the World is a production of the Art and Community. It’s written and directed by Bill Cleveland. Its theme and soundscape are by Judy Munsen. 


      And please if you have been provoked or inspired, join the continuing conversation, and check out our show notes at the Center’s website at www.artandcommunity.com. Please know that subscribing to Change the Story / Change the world is a great, no cost way of supporting out work. 





      ]]>e7acbf59-8389-4927-a962-0eea2cf3039eThu, 12 Nov 2020 07:00:00 -070020:35falsefull112121This episode shares the story of Story story, a film and book that asks: Where do stories come from; what is their function, and most importantly, what is their power for good or ill?      11: Ida Oberman: Centering Love, Story, and Art for Social Change in a Public School?11: Ida Oberman: Centering Love, Story, and Art for Social Change in a Public School?Special Thanks to Camila Guiza-Chavez for her beautiful performance of "Over the Rainbow" that introduces this episode.


      Threshold Questions & Delicious Quotes


      What is the role of the imagination in the development of the child?

      I think that now we more and more feel it, as particularly now, under COVID, when we're all pressed against our screens, how life-giving imagination is. And sometimes it feels ephemeral. But, if we realize that imagination is really at heart, thinking about the relationship amongst things that have not been yet, that's when you create new things.

      What distinguishes Waldorf education?

      So that imaginative power means not only preparing the children, this distinguishes our school and Waldorf schools overall, it's not just to prepare the children to succeed against the benchmarks that have been set to win on in the race that has already been outlined. It is to think of new benchmarks, it's to blaze new trails to build a better tomorrow to build something that has not yet been yet. And that is creating a better future. That's the ultimate purpose of education.

      How does Waldorf education prepare its students for an increasingly ambiguous and unpredictable future?

      Really, that is the heart of Waldorf education is to start to hear more and more clearly your purpose in your path in the world and feel … your agency to quest for it and then fulfill it, which is of course a lifelong journey.

      How can creative education best respond to the significant changes that have been taking place in our society?

      I'm thinking of an elder who said that fabric of our society has been rent asunder. And as we sew it back together, we want to sew a stronger cloth, and more tightly woven cloth that will hold us all better. And in that spirit, everything that I just described to you should be true. Even when we return back to brick and mortar, we really need to think about parents as partners, the privilege of working intimately with our parents, them working intimately with us.

      What is the role of story in the education of the whole person?

      There's one thing I want to lift up that runs through all of this from kindergarten on. And that is the power of the story. That power of story is such a heart piece of the imagination. And for those starting to critically think, but always having your thinking be deeply connected to moral thinking. Because, the stories are not just to teach you the facts of history, to teach you the facts of algebra, to teach you the facts of science. They will also teach you the purposes of life and that there is something like good and bad and courage and meeting challenge.


      Transcript

      Bill Cleveland:  Imagine this, the camera zooms in on a vibrant, festive scene that somehow matches up perfectly with that rainbow soundtrack. We see kids dancing, playing with puppets parading in costume laughing and singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” You know, kind of Disney-like only, unlike the Disney I grew up with, this rainbow movie is not all white. Quite the contrary. There is no dominant hue here either playing games or on the walls and windows which are truly beautiful -- awash in subtly shifting colors, textures, and fairy tale images. But this isn't just a kid movie. There are adults here too. Quite a few actually moving purposefully watching joining in and leading -- yeah, well, teaching. That's right, you guessed it, it's a school, K through 8 to be exact. And given all the fun and games and extras, you're probably thinking it's a special school. One with a curriculum that caters to the uniquely special needs of the special students who are privileged to go there; clearly one of those schools they call public in Great Britain and private here in the USA. But there, you would be mistaken.

      The Community School for Creative Education was authorized by the Alameda County Board of Education to operate as a Waldorf inspired charter in the fall of 2010.

      Alejandra Baez: We all embrace what Community School is about. It's about equity. It's about love. It's about caring. It's about bringing the best to the children, especially in San Antonio, that we're so proud of. This is a dream come true.

      BC: That was Alejandra Baez in the school's front office describing the impact the community school has had on Oakland San Antonio neighborhood.

      Today, like most public schools in California, the Community School is currently serving its students from a distance. To learn more about the school's unique history and approach I spoke with Ida Oberman, the school's founder and executive director in late September of 2020.

      From the Center for the Study of art and community, this is changed the story changed the world, a chronicle of art and transformation. I'm Bill Cleveland.

      Part One: Free and Proud.

      BC: Good morning.

      I O: Good morning. I'm sorry, I'm late.

      BC: No problem. No problem. You know, time is, is a completely different construct in the in the digital universe. We could be any place and anytime

      I O: Were you playing your guitar this morning?

      BC: I play my guitar in between everything I do. Yeah. Yeah. So first of all, thank you so much for taking the time to share your story. And as you know, I've spent a good part of my adult life being associated with Waldorf education. So I'm particularly excited because your brand of this educational journey is different than the typical one and particularly here in the Bay Area. So I'm just going to begin with a question I start off with everybody, which is what is it that you do in the world what's what's your work? What's your mission?

      I O: So my mission is to work with others to ensure that an intercultural Waldorf option is available to any community of families who so choose, regardless of income, regardless of race, or class or color, returning to Waldorf education's original intent almost to the month 101 years ago.

      BC: Yes, because the first Waldorf school was in fact, a publicly available school for factory workers?

      I O: It was an openly available school. That title free Waldorf education was then proudly held. And when I went to the Waldorf school in Tubingen, in Germany, very close to Stuttgart, the founding site in the 1960s. We were always so proud of those letters "free" "frie" by the free Waldorf school. And it was not just freedom of heart in mind, but also of pocketbook.

      BC: So for those people who are listening who are going, Waldorf Yeah, what, what is that? What? Could you just do an elevator description of what Waldorf and the Waldorf movement is all about? Yes,

      I O: Of course, I'd be glad to. While their education is cousinly related to Montessori, which many of your viewers might be more familiar with. They were from the same time about 100 years ago, Dr. Maria Montessori in inner city, Rome, Italy and Dr. Rudolf Steiner in inner city Stuttgart, Germany. And what brought them to the fore is that they recognize that education was not just a matter of educating the head, but it was educating the heart in the hand.

      And, just one more point of reference, when Maria Montessori really understood learning by hand and all project-based learning very much grows out of that. Dr. Steiner added to that the emphasis of the heart that everything is a matter of the heart. And we have brain research now that confirms that if we do not have relational trust, if we are not engaged with our heart, then learning can't occur with the head. So 100 years ago, Rudolf Steiner focused on head heart and hand. The other important thing is that children are not shrunk adults, but that there's actually a developmental arc to learning and to living, and that children should learn in different ways, in sequential ways, in scaffolded ways, and meaningfully scaffolded ways as we go through the years of our lives. So it's head heart and hand. It's developmental. And it's deeply relational -- that if we do not have a relationship, we will not learn. So at the heart of Waldorf education is relationship which actually means love.

      BC: So most Waldorf schools are, in fact, like Montessori, private schools, but your school is a little different. Could you describe how it's different and how that came about?

      I O: Gladly, so many Montessori and Waldorf schools became private school options, contrary to the intent of either founder, we should say. And when Waldorf education came to America in 1928, it was beautifully and thankfully bankrolled by a couple of deep pocketed funders, and first with intent of large scholarships, but then money's dried up and as things changed and it became a much sought after private school option. What we did from our founding on (before founding) is say let us return to the original intent as you say, it was for the children of the workers of this Waldorf Astoria cigarette factory, it]]>Special Thanks to Camila Guiza-Chavez for her beautiful performance of "Over the Rainbow" that introduces this episode.


      Threshold Questions & Delicious Quotes


      What is the role of the imagination in the development of the child?

      I think that now we more and more feel it, as particularly now, under COVID, when we're all pressed against our screens, how life-giving imagination is. And sometimes it feels ephemeral. But, if we realize that imagination is really at heart, thinking about the relationship amongst things that have not been yet, that's when you create new things.

      What distinguishes Waldorf education?

      So that imaginative power means not only preparing the children, this distinguishes our school and Waldorf schools overall, it's not just to prepare the children to succeed against the benchmarks that have been set to win on in the race that has already been outlined. It is to think of new benchmarks, it's to blaze new trails to build a better tomorrow to build something that has not yet been yet. And that is creating a better future. That's the ultimate purpose of education.

      How does Waldorf education prepare its students for an increasingly ambiguous and unpredictable future?

      Really, that is the heart of Waldorf education is to start to hear more and more clearly your purpose in your path in the world and feel … your agency to quest for it and then fulfill it, which is of course a lifelong journey.

      How can creative education best respond to the significant changes that have been taking place in our society?

      I'm thinking of an elder who said that fabric of our society has been rent asunder. And as we sew it back together, we want to sew a stronger cloth, and more tightly woven cloth that will hold us all better. And in that spirit, everything that I just described to you should be true. Even when we return back to brick and mortar, we really need to think about parents as partners, the privilege of working intimately with our parents, them working intimately with us.

      What is the role of story in the education of the whole person?

      There's one thing I want to lift up that runs through all of this from kindergarten on. And that is the power of the story. That power of story is such a heart piece of the imagination. And for those starting to critically think, but always having your thinking be deeply connected to moral thinking. Because, the stories are not just to teach you the facts of history, to teach you the facts of algebra, to teach you the facts of science. They will also teach you the purposes of life and that there is something like good and bad and courage and meeting challenge.


      Transcript

      Bill Cleveland:  Imagine this, the camera zooms in on a vibrant, festive scene that somehow matches up perfectly with that rainbow soundtrack. We see kids dancing, playing with puppets parading in costume laughing and singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” You know, kind of Disney-like only, unlike the Disney I grew up with, this rainbow movie is not all white. Quite the contrary. There is no dominant hue here either playing games or on the walls and windows which are truly beautiful -- awash in subtly shifting colors, textures, and fairy tale images. But this isn't just a kid movie. There are adults here too. Quite a few actually moving purposefully watching joining in and leading -- yeah, well, teaching. That's right, you guessed it, it's a school, K through 8 to be exact. And given all the fun and games and extras, you're probably thinking it's a special school. One with a curriculum that caters to the uniquely special needs of the special students who are privileged to go there; clearly one of those schools they call public in Great Britain and private here in the USA. But there, you would be mistaken.

      The Community School for Creative Education was authorized by the Alameda County Board of Education to operate as a Waldorf inspired charter in the fall of 2010.

      Alejandra Baez: We all embrace what Community School is about. It's about equity. It's about love. It's about caring. It's about bringing the best to the children, especially in San Antonio, that we're so proud of. This is a dream come true.

      BC: That was Alejandra Baez in the school's front office describing the impact the community school has had on Oakland San Antonio neighborhood.

      Today, like most public schools in California, the Community School is currently serving its students from a distance. To learn more about the school's unique history and approach I spoke with Ida Oberman, the school's founder and executive director in late September of 2020.

      From the Center for the Study of art and community, this is changed the story changed the world, a chronicle of art and transformation. I'm Bill Cleveland.

      Part One: Free and Proud.

      BC: Good morning.

      I O: Good morning. I'm sorry, I'm late.

      BC: No problem. No problem. You know, time is, is a completely different construct in the in the digital universe. We could be any place and anytime

      I O: Were you playing your guitar this morning?

      BC: I play my guitar in between everything I do. Yeah. Yeah. So first of all, thank you so much for taking the time to share your story. And as you know, I've spent a good part of my adult life being associated with Waldorf education. So I'm particularly excited because your brand of this educational journey is different than the typical one and particularly here in the Bay Area. So I'm just going to begin with a question I start off with everybody, which is what is it that you do in the world what's what's your work? What's your mission?

      I O: So my mission is to work with others to ensure that an intercultural Waldorf option is available to any community of families who so choose, regardless of income, regardless of race, or class or color, returning to Waldorf education's original intent almost to the month 101 years ago.

      BC: Yes, because the first Waldorf school was in fact, a publicly available school for factory workers?

      I O: It was an openly available school. That title free Waldorf education was then proudly held. And when I went to the Waldorf school in Tubingen, in Germany, very close to Stuttgart, the founding site in the 1960s. We were always so proud of those letters "free" "frie" by the free Waldorf school. And it was not just freedom of heart in mind, but also of pocketbook.

      BC: So for those people who are listening who are going, Waldorf Yeah, what, what is that? What? Could you just do an elevator description of what Waldorf and the Waldorf movement is all about? Yes,

      I O: Of course, I'd be glad to. While their education is cousinly related to Montessori, which many of your viewers might be more familiar with. They were from the same time about 100 years ago, Dr. Maria Montessori in inner city, Rome, Italy and Dr. Rudolf Steiner in inner city Stuttgart, Germany. And what brought them to the fore is that they recognize that education was not just a matter of educating the head, but it was educating the heart in the hand.

      And, just one more point of reference, when Maria Montessori really understood learning by hand and all project-based learning very much grows out of that. Dr. Steiner added to that the emphasis of the heart that everything is a matter of the heart. And we have brain research now that confirms that if we do not have relational trust, if we are not engaged with our heart, then learning can't occur with the head. So 100 years ago, Rudolf Steiner focused on head heart and hand. The other important thing is that children are not shrunk adults, but that there's actually a developmental arc to learning and to living, and that children should learn in different ways, in sequential ways, in scaffolded ways, and meaningfully scaffolded ways as we go through the years of our lives. So it's head heart and hand. It's developmental. And it's deeply relational -- that if we do not have a relationship, we will not learn. So at the heart of Waldorf education is relationship which actually means love.

      BC: So most Waldorf schools are, in fact, like Montessori, private schools, but your school is a little different. Could you describe how it's different and how that came about?

      I O: Gladly, so many Montessori and Waldorf schools became private school options, contrary to the intent of either founder, we should say. And when Waldorf education came to America in 1928, it was beautifully and thankfully bankrolled by a couple of deep pocketed funders, and first with intent of large scholarships, but then money's dried up and as things changed and it became a much sought after private school option. What we did from our founding on (before founding) is say let us return to the original intent as you say, it was for the children of the workers of this Waldorf Astoria cigarette factory, it was free because this Waldorf, factory owner Emile Molt bankrolled the effort. And at the time, that that was that if we do well, then other businesses will recognize and there'll be a continual bankrolling to make up the difference so that rich and poor, girls and boys, different cultural backgrounds could all live together. That didn't happen. So now we recognize if it's not the private sector, closing the delta, we need to go back to what we know. This is the gift of public education where America has been so leading for over a century. That we ensure that through the public system, this option would be available to all. 

      And so, ten years ago, I started working with fellow community leaders, fellow parents, through a very respected community-based organization -- one to build relationships and trust for me to also learn a lot. I sat at the feet of organizers who've been working in Oakland for decades, so that I could learn about community organizing, and then work with other parents who so chose to first see what is Waldorf education, many parents have never heard of it, actually, almost all. And if they heard anything, they knew it was white, wealthy, and weird. And we were going to show that it was so much more. And so we did it. We started with the support of a very wise organizer to visit Waldorf schools, private Waldorf schools, the beautiful San Francisco Waldorf school, the beautiful East Bay Waldorf school. We also visited public Waldorf charters, we had to say none of them look like your children and you they're all highly white and wealthy. But let us see what if this is for us. What if this is for our community what is for our future, and it's the parents who visited, with thanks to that gracious hospitality of the Novato Waldorf School, The Napa Waldorf, School, the Sacramento public Waldorf schools -- they came back and said, "Oakland is ready for Waldorf education', where others said, "Is Waldorf ready for Oakland?" And we've proven to be so.

      Part Two: Not Done, But Unfolding

      So when you started, did you consider this an experiment? Or did you have a sense that in fact, the conclusion, the foundation, the ground was was fertile for this to be planted here in Oakland?

      I O: I did not see it as an experiment in the sense of, it's never been done before. because we were resting on the shoulders of 100 years of elders and wise sages. I didn't know that it was a deep innovation, as Dr. Steiner said that none of it is imitation, but innovation, none of it is replication, but research and Waldorf is not done but unfolding. This is what Dr. Steiner taught. So in that spirit, it is the most deep extension of his teachings. I did know that there was great risk involved because it's so bumped up against many conceptions that had been, I almost want to say encrusted, but at least sort of rigidify into being regarded as Waldorf truisms. Where I would suggest it and runs exactly against what Dr. Steiner in the founding teachers taught, most fundamentally, that the Waldorf curriculum needs to be deeply responsive to the community it serves, that the Waldorf organizational structure needs to be deeply responsive. And mostly, Dr. Steiner said, teachers need to be "velt mensch" they need to be people of the world -- it needs to be responding to the call of the future today to build a better world, not looking back to the reality of 100 years ago. So this is not replicating 1919. This is building 2025

      I O: A great way of putting it. So, if we could move out of the story and the history and the intent, if you could take us into your school. So, what's the story of the school, what's the feeling of the school that a new student might feel when they walked through the doors? What's happened,

      I O: The story of the school, the history of the school in what people feel, maybe I'll slip that in first, say what you hopefully feel when you come in where people report, and then that the story and the history, I would think that everybody feels You are welcome here. And hoping that it's you come in a stranger, you leave a friend. That everybody knows when they come that they'd like to stay. And it's not just because of the welcome of the people, but it's the beauty that we learn from Waldorf education. The Lazured walls, and music that filters through the halls, the children that are holding hands and singing as they walk. I would also say that it's among the most diverse schools in Oakland. I think we would also see that it's a deeply community-based organization. So when you come in you see community met, families come in and are very active in our always buzzing Family Resource Center. There's an open door between classrooms and Family Resource Center and the outside world. But community leaders come, the local pastors come, and they offer mentoring, the local food bank comes and helps build with us so that we offer food services to our community, etc.

      The history of the story of the school my personal history is that I myself Dutch and moved to Germany when I was nine and have a family that's Jewish. So, it was very scary in the 60s. And the one place our parents enrolled us, just because they'd learned that this was a school that might be more tolerant of non-German speaking students was the Waldorf school. And so, in that time, those following 12 years that I was at the Waldorf school, I felt it to be so embracing of me. That it was about learning through the arts learning through music, learning through recitation, learning through relationship, and so feeling that I'm leaving, becoming a very strong leader for others. Then, I was able to go to America for college, to Stanford PhD, but always knowing I so got that inspiration from Waldorf education. That wasn't a hammering away direct instruction, but really letting me live with my fellow students through the arts and beauty and purpose. So, the story of the school is wanting to bring that to our school as well. And that is really what binds our teachers, our parents and our children. We now have our graduates coming back very loyal.

      BC: The school has a name and interesting name, the Community School for Creative Education. So could you talk a little bit more about what that means? Creative education?

      I O: in 2007, when I was really thinking about starting the school in Oakland, my mother, my elder mother, and I did a trip through South Africa to learn about the Waldorf schools there because that has such a deep legacy of Waldorf schools really being far ahead and boundary breaking in terms of integration long before apartheid had been abolished legally. And there I went to the Rudolf Steiner college that had just gotten through it very conscious name change, to rename themselves, Center for Education. And I asked why they said, because if you say Rudolf Steiner College, only people who know Rudolf Steiner will come, it's inward facing if we say Center for Education, it's outward facing. And I brought that to Oakland, and spoke with our families who are leading, and said, "What do you think of Center for Education?" And they said, that can be but one word has to be in there too. And that's community, because we are a community school, hence, Community School?

      BC: Yes. And could you talk a little bit about the importance of the imagination for your school, for developing children, and how that shows up in what happens for students in the school.

      I O: I think that now we more and more feel it, as particularly now, under COVID, when we're all pressed against our screens, how life-giving imagination is. And sometimes it feels ephemeral. But, if we realize that imagination is really at heart, thinking about the relationship amongst things that have not been yet, that's when you create new things. Imagination is where you actually can bridge what is before us right now. And think of a better, more beautiful world. And beauty is important, because that is also about relationship -- relationship of colors, relationship of matter, relationship of people. So that imaginative power means not only preparing the children, this distinguishes our school and Waldorf schools overall, it's not just to prepare the children to succeed against the benchmarks that have been set to win on in the race that has already been outlined. It is to think of new benchmarks, it's to blaze new trails to build a better tomorrow to build something that has not yet been yet. And that is creating a better future. That's the ultimate purpose of education.

      BC: Part Three, Education From the Inside Out.

      My experience with Waldorf, and probably one of the things that was most important to me, as a musician, and as a writer, and a person who's been involved in the human creative process for my whole life is that coming into the school, seeing the school feeling the school and learning about the curriculum, there's a child's development deeply involves their imagination, and how critical that is. Could you talk a little bit about how that shows up in the classroom?

      I O: Thank you, I think I'd need to really go back to the point that learning is developmental. So it will show up differently in our kindergarten than in our eighth grade. But each set of the way it is that the children are creating out of themselves. It's that education from the inside out rather than the outside in. So in kindergarten, it's the free play. Just as in eighth grade, it's the free imagination of your class project, of how you're doing a literary project, how you're doing a woodwork project. But it is always that it...]]>42c88d78-d4a4-494e-96de-56a188205b14Tue, 27 Oct 2020 15:30:00 -070034:28falsefull111111At the Center for the Study of Art & Community we believe that arts-centered learning is necessary for the healthy development of every child. Ida Oberman has spent the last 10 years making this a reality for public schools students in east Oakland. Hear the story and get inspired on the most recent episode of Change the Story / Change the World10: How Activist Artists Like Milenko Matanovic Are Rebuilding Democracy From the Ground Up10: How Activist Artists Like Milenko Matanovic Are Rebuilding Democracy From the Ground UpThreshold Questions / Delicious Quotes

      Why is our democracy struggling, What's wrong?

      Right now the default modality is that we are at our worst with each other. And that troubles me because we are robbing ourselves of the possibility to understand, first of all, the complexity of our time and second of all, to prepare ourselves for a future that would work for all of us.

      How can the process of community art-making help strengthen a struggling democracy?

      This is not an academic idea. This has been tested, and I'm more convinced than ever that we live in this treacherous and wonderful in between times right now, and the quality of this in-between time is that the music, the background, the understanding has changed, but our habits have not. So, we still dance to the music with all the dance steps. And so, it's absolutely vital to start learning the new dance, ... unless we learn these new qualities and apply them to daily activities, and everybody has a chance to that. A staff meeting can be a mini kindergarten for learning collaborative practice, ... what interests me right now, is everyday democracy and how opportunities are everywhere and inviting us to rise to the occasion. ... That's the foundation for which the change will happen

      Under what conditions can we rise to our better selves?

      So what we've learned is when something specific is at stake, it's easier for people to flip from their differences into what can I contribute ... which is powerful. So, when it's abstract, we just argue about how we're different.

      What is the artists job when our collective capacities are threatened?

      We artists do not do it for them, they do it with them. Artists need to accept responsibility that they ... they need to put their ego aside. And when they exercise, the ego is within the framework of what the community wants, rather than what the artist wants, and then you invite people to become artists, to turn into construction workers and artisans and crafts people for a few days and do something together.


      Transcript


      Bill Cleveland: I met Milenko Matanovic on the US/Mexico border. We were there to confer with a couple of dozen other citizen artists from both countries to explore the audacious idea of creating a common ground cultural space, that literally straddled the border physically and creatively. The aim was to establish a creative laboratory for arts-based strategies for changing borders from dividers to cross community connectors--- not just for North America but for the whole world. Like I said it was audacious. 

      Anyway, one amazing outcome from that cross-cultural collaboration festival was that one of the two countries actually signed on to crazy idea. I’ll leave it to your imagination to figure which one opted out. Another important outcome was the birth of the Pomegranate Center, which has served as the platform for Milenko’s community collaborations for the past three decades. In the decades since that border summit, I have come to know that challenging assumptions, poking holes in the impossible, and good-times-for-all are hallmarks for Milenko's way in the world. As an artist and designer, as a writer and speaker, as a teacher and philosopher, as an organizer and provocateur, Milenko Matonovic above all a hands-on maker and doer--- a creator on a lifelong journey to help communities realize what he views as the real American Dream -- grassroots democracy.

      Our conversation took place in February of 2020, just as the gathering storm of the pandemic was appearing on the horizon.

      Part 1: An American Dream

      BC: I like to dive in and first of all, begin with you describing what your work is.

      Milenko Matanovic: My work now is to think about the invisible currents that are moving through our society, and try to answer the question, how can a democracy work better? So, I'm interested in questions that are much more than questions of an artist, a traditional artist would ask. I think that something is happening in our society that should be worrisome, and I'm trying to look at that now that I have the privilege of more free time, and reading, and researching, and talking with my colleagues like yourself. Something is going on and I'm trying to understand what it is and I'm trying to provide some answers. 

      BC: So given that there is a long history that preceded this particular moment where you are in a space where you can reflect, could you describe how you came to this and just a bit of your history and obviously touching bases on your on your artistic career, but also, the time you spent, in the trenches at the pomegranate center? 

      MM: Sure. So, I'll go way back, I grew up in former Yugoslavia in a truly remarkable city with roots going back 2000 years. A kind of city where you walk and feel safe and you explore all the time and you bump into friends. Architecturally designed around the principles of placemaking because it was intuitive to the people who built that place. It's not by coincidence that we had to invent the term placemaking because it was lacking here. It was not needed in that city. 

      So great, great memories of the city, great memories of spending several in a tiny village that basically existed in a pre-industrial fashion when I first visited it. But the society itself was a little bit foggy. It was like people were covered with heavy blankets and the joyfulness, the lightness, the excitement about the future, the optimism, creativity, all those were qualities lacking from the daily culture that I bumped into. I had a sense early on that something was wrong with that picture. You know, I think in retrospect, the leaders, political leaders in former Yugoslavia worked very hard to keep an arranged marriage between different cultural groups going, and that all exploded, as we know, in those atrocities after a hard hand of Tito disappeared. I was born only three years after the end of the Second World War, so my early memories was of very humble existence. You know, we turned off the lights because if police would see lights in two rooms from the street, they would knock on your door. So, the energy was so precious. 

      Memories that everybody was trying to tell me who I should be, and who I should become, and how to behave, and I've rebelled against that. I looked with envy across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States, and I said to myself, here is a country where people deliberate their future together. They go to town halls, and they float different ideas, they wisely select the best ideas and they join their forces to make them happen. You know, that was the idealistic perception of healthy democracy, and I had this yearning for that state of affairs because it was utterly electing lacking in my early experience. Nobody ever asked me what I thought.

      BC: So, you became an artist [chuckles] 

      MM: That's exactly right. That's led me to the only place where I could go and still keep some kind of integrity with myself, and I was very lucky to bump into friends who were thinking similar thoughts. Long story short, I ended up working with a collaborative artist called Group OHO, which is kind of a combination of two Slovenian words or "oko," for eye "uko," for ear. And we said that's kind of the media in which will be working in the center. The senses will engage.

      But I think, you know, I started in a very traditional way. I painted and I start to make some sculptures. But then one summer I discovered the different approach that shaped my entire career afterwards. Everybody was making objects, and what was the most important is the object that they were created. And I scratched my head and said, what if I start playing by different rules, which is that I will always try to learn from the setting first and then I will do something that highlights the setting rather than boast my own genius, and so this idea of collaboration has been with me for a very, very long time. But that was kind of a conscious beginning of that journey. 

      BC: So could you talk about some of this work, share some examples of how It actually placed the setting and the foreground. 

      MM: So I use the simplest of materials, like wooden sticks and string, connecting them together into a long snake and put them on top of the river, they would float on the river, and start visualizing the invisible currents that were under the surface of the river. So. So what kind of art is that? It's an art that highlights something in a relationship, right? It's not Milenko putting sticks in the river. It's highlighting what was there already. So, it is this idea that collaboration can be expressed in any way, not just between people, but between the artist and the river. I had summer jobs in the printshop, and I would beg them to sell me for very few cheap money, discarded roll of newspaper paper. about maybe 400 feet long. And I would take it to the rolling hills and fold it in the gravity of the hills would start shaping this pathway. So again, is art the paper? No, the paper was just a method to highlight something inherent in the situation that I found. 

      BC: And, then you left Slovenia to expand on these ideas, but your idealistic view on the United States didn’t exactly pan out, did it?

      When I came to the United States, I...]]>Threshold Questions / Delicious Quotes

      Why is our democracy struggling, What's wrong?

      Right now the default modality is that we are at our worst with each other. And that troubles me because we are robbing ourselves of the possibility to understand, first of all, the complexity of our time and second of all, to prepare ourselves for a future that would work for all of us.

      How can the process of community art-making help strengthen a struggling democracy?

      This is not an academic idea. This has been tested, and I'm more convinced than ever that we live in this treacherous and wonderful in between times right now, and the quality of this in-between time is that the music, the background, the understanding has changed, but our habits have not. So, we still dance to the music with all the dance steps. And so, it's absolutely vital to start learning the new dance, ... unless we learn these new qualities and apply them to daily activities, and everybody has a chance to that. A staff meeting can be a mini kindergarten for learning collaborative practice, ... what interests me right now, is everyday democracy and how opportunities are everywhere and inviting us to rise to the occasion. ... That's the foundation for which the change will happen

      Under what conditions can we rise to our better selves?

      So what we've learned is when something specific is at stake, it's easier for people to flip from their differences into what can I contribute ... which is powerful. So, when it's abstract, we just argue about how we're different.

      What is the artists job when our collective capacities are threatened?

      We artists do not do it for them, they do it with them. Artists need to accept responsibility that they ... they need to put their ego aside. And when they exercise, the ego is within the framework of what the community wants, rather than what the artist wants, and then you invite people to become artists, to turn into construction workers and artisans and crafts people for a few days and do something together.


      Transcript


      Bill Cleveland: I met Milenko Matanovic on the US/Mexico border. We were there to confer with a couple of dozen other citizen artists from both countries to explore the audacious idea of creating a common ground cultural space, that literally straddled the border physically and creatively. The aim was to establish a creative laboratory for arts-based strategies for changing borders from dividers to cross community connectors--- not just for North America but for the whole world. Like I said it was audacious. 

      Anyway, one amazing outcome from that cross-cultural collaboration festival was that one of the two countries actually signed on to crazy idea. I’ll leave it to your imagination to figure which one opted out. Another important outcome was the birth of the Pomegranate Center, which has served as the platform for Milenko’s community collaborations for the past three decades. In the decades since that border summit, I have come to know that challenging assumptions, poking holes in the impossible, and good-times-for-all are hallmarks for Milenko's way in the world. As an artist and designer, as a writer and speaker, as a teacher and philosopher, as an organizer and provocateur, Milenko Matonovic above all a hands-on maker and doer--- a creator on a lifelong journey to help communities realize what he views as the real American Dream -- grassroots democracy.

      Our conversation took place in February of 2020, just as the gathering storm of the pandemic was appearing on the horizon.

      Part 1: An American Dream

      BC: I like to dive in and first of all, begin with you describing what your work is.

      Milenko Matanovic: My work now is to think about the invisible currents that are moving through our society, and try to answer the question, how can a democracy work better? So, I'm interested in questions that are much more than questions of an artist, a traditional artist would ask. I think that something is happening in our society that should be worrisome, and I'm trying to look at that now that I have the privilege of more free time, and reading, and researching, and talking with my colleagues like yourself. Something is going on and I'm trying to understand what it is and I'm trying to provide some answers. 

      BC: So given that there is a long history that preceded this particular moment where you are in a space where you can reflect, could you describe how you came to this and just a bit of your history and obviously touching bases on your on your artistic career, but also, the time you spent, in the trenches at the pomegranate center? 

      MM: Sure. So, I'll go way back, I grew up in former Yugoslavia in a truly remarkable city with roots going back 2000 years. A kind of city where you walk and feel safe and you explore all the time and you bump into friends. Architecturally designed around the principles of placemaking because it was intuitive to the people who built that place. It's not by coincidence that we had to invent the term placemaking because it was lacking here. It was not needed in that city. 

      So great, great memories of the city, great memories of spending several in a tiny village that basically existed in a pre-industrial fashion when I first visited it. But the society itself was a little bit foggy. It was like people were covered with heavy blankets and the joyfulness, the lightness, the excitement about the future, the optimism, creativity, all those were qualities lacking from the daily culture that I bumped into. I had a sense early on that something was wrong with that picture. You know, I think in retrospect, the leaders, political leaders in former Yugoslavia worked very hard to keep an arranged marriage between different cultural groups going, and that all exploded, as we know, in those atrocities after a hard hand of Tito disappeared. I was born only three years after the end of the Second World War, so my early memories was of very humble existence. You know, we turned off the lights because if police would see lights in two rooms from the street, they would knock on your door. So, the energy was so precious. 

      Memories that everybody was trying to tell me who I should be, and who I should become, and how to behave, and I've rebelled against that. I looked with envy across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States, and I said to myself, here is a country where people deliberate their future together. They go to town halls, and they float different ideas, they wisely select the best ideas and they join their forces to make them happen. You know, that was the idealistic perception of healthy democracy, and I had this yearning for that state of affairs because it was utterly electing lacking in my early experience. Nobody ever asked me what I thought.

      BC: So, you became an artist [chuckles] 

      MM: That's exactly right. That's led me to the only place where I could go and still keep some kind of integrity with myself, and I was very lucky to bump into friends who were thinking similar thoughts. Long story short, I ended up working with a collaborative artist called Group OHO, which is kind of a combination of two Slovenian words or "oko," for eye "uko," for ear. And we said that's kind of the media in which will be working in the center. The senses will engage.

      But I think, you know, I started in a very traditional way. I painted and I start to make some sculptures. But then one summer I discovered the different approach that shaped my entire career afterwards. Everybody was making objects, and what was the most important is the object that they were created. And I scratched my head and said, what if I start playing by different rules, which is that I will always try to learn from the setting first and then I will do something that highlights the setting rather than boast my own genius, and so this idea of collaboration has been with me for a very, very long time. But that was kind of a conscious beginning of that journey. 

      BC: So could you talk about some of this work, share some examples of how It actually placed the setting and the foreground. 

      MM: So I use the simplest of materials, like wooden sticks and string, connecting them together into a long snake and put them on top of the river, they would float on the river, and start visualizing the invisible currents that were under the surface of the river. So. So what kind of art is that? It's an art that highlights something in a relationship, right? It's not Milenko putting sticks in the river. It's highlighting what was there already. So, it is this idea that collaboration can be expressed in any way, not just between people, but between the artist and the river. I had summer jobs in the printshop, and I would beg them to sell me for very few cheap money, discarded roll of newspaper paper. about maybe 400 feet long. And I would take it to the rolling hills and fold it in the gravity of the hills would start shaping this pathway. So again, is art the paper? No, the paper was just a method to highlight something inherent in the situation that I found. 

      BC: And, then you left Slovenia to expand on these ideas, but your idealistic view on the United States didn’t exactly pan out, did it?

      When I came to the United States, I was shocked to discover cities lacking those qualities that I became familiar with and become became second nature to me in Lubyanka (the Slovenian capital). Walk-ability, fresh food, bumping into friends, a sense of community. All of that was lacking in many cities that were designed much better for cars than for people. So that shocked me and the other thing that shocked me is that when I would go and start to attend public meetings, I remember the very first one I attended in the United States had to do with widening a bicycle path on the shoulder of a of a street. And I went there because I was a bicyclist and I wanted to learn how true democracy works. And I was shocked to discover that it was dominated by a few very, very selfish people whose argument it was that they would not want to widen the road because we just don't want bicyclists obstructing our entry on the road when we exit from our homes 

      BC: So, your bubble burst, but it didn’t deter you did it? Instead you went into inquiry mode and problem-solving mode, right?

      MM: And so that piqued my interest. How come there was such a discrepancy between the ideals of participatory democracy and the reality? And eventually that started to really dominate my work, so even as we build artistic products with pomegranate, we had to learn how to convene meetings in a different way that downplayed those negative, selfish tendencies that I saw that have become the norm, and highlight creativity and forward looking and thinking on behalf of future generations. And this became gradual. My main work, how to design processes where people step up to their better selves. And so, as I said at the beginning, what is my work? That's my work now, too, to ask myself under what conditions can we rise to our better selves? Because right now the default modality is that we are at our worst with each other. And that troubles me because we are robbing ourselves of the possibility to understand, first of all, the complexity of our time and second of all, to prepare ourselves for a future that would work for all of us. So that's kind of how I got through this long journey of more than 50 years.

      Part 2: Gathering 

      BC: So, one of the things that has always attracted me to the work of the Pomegranate Center is the fact that every time an idea emerges, there's actually a story of the experience of working in communities with people who may seem skeptical at first, but actually end up taking responsibility for not only the ideas, but the manifestation of those ideas. One of them that that I was particularly enamored of was the one in San Diego, which really was a very compressed period of time, and a lot of people in a neighborhood who didn't necessarily know each other very well, who did some amazing projects. Could you talk a little bit about the on the ground experience of helping people really find a sense of common ground and taking responsibility for it?

      MM: Well, so that's basically been the model for the Pomegranate Center's work with gathering places, and the method is very simple. So a lot like a young artist in Slovenia where I was the only one in charge of what was I was going to do. Here I had to become a kind of artist that will say, I will serve the desires of the community. And in order for me to do that, I had to trust their input. I could not just serve their anger and their negativity. So, the contract we created with the community is you tell us what needs to happen, but in the process, can you be honest with your ideas and what really ought to happen here, rather than what you do not want to see, which is so often the case? And then we will design it with your help. You have the power of veto, but we promise you that will design it around your wishes rather we learned that there are some architects who would simply not buy into that premise. They knew better. There were specialists who knew better than the community. We will resist the temptation and learn how to really pull out to the communities their best sentiments. 

      BC: Actually, another way of engaging people that reinforce the connectiveness and interdependence of community. Could you talk about how that actually works? 

      MM: So, we have to develop some tools for doing that. So, ground rules for participation that diminished the negativity. So, for example, simple rules, everyone will participate. Why did we impose that rule? Because we learn without it, few people would have the tendency to dominate the meeting. Or are you willing to change your mind after you hear other people talk about the project, so that we diminished people being fixed on their ideas and has the idea of learning. So, there are tricks to this, and we learn tons about what makes community meetings work. In any case, they are driving this rather than us. We design, they have the veto power, and then we orchestrate a joint series of daylong workshops. Usually projects would go anywhere from four to ten days, depending on the complexity of the project, and they were expected to work alongside with us. The basic idea was we do not work for you. We work with you will add something to your value, but you need to put the skin in the game also invest. The reason why it works so well, and we have some as you mentioned, you are familiar with the project down in San Diego, the Manzanita, a gathering place. But I think what made it work is that there was something specific at stake. 

      BC: I had the privilege of helping to document the Manzanita gathering place project in San Diego that Milenko is referring to. In many ways, this was a prototypical Pomegranate Center project, a derelict and blighted road end, a concerned community that just wanted to turn it into a safe and beautiful little where everybody could gather, and connect, and play. From the city’s perspective this was at a minimum, a one year, one half-million-dollar project. Pomegranate and 200 community volunteers, planned, designed, and built it in three months for $20,000. I asked Milenko to share the alchemy that makes something like this possible. 

      MM: So what we've learned is when something specific is at stake, it's easier for people to flip from their differences into what can I contribute to kind of a modality, which is powerful. So, when it's abstract, we just argue about how we're different. But when something specific, in this instance was the safety of kids, that dead end street, which the neighborhood blocked off with barbed wire, and then this tiny space, one hundred square yards, something like that, started to be occupied by drug dealers, and everybody knew that. There was an elementary school that used to be accessed through that space until this negative activity started to happen there. So, the project was about doing something to transform it from this black hole, into something exciting and, you know, let's do something beautiful, something functional, and now what they tell me is the community gathers there to watch the sunset because the place faces west towards the Pacific coast and they gather there in the evening, ritualistically kind of and bump into each other. How great right? And the space had to be designed for that kind of an easy encounter.

      So, again, the principle I think here is the community needs to be involved. We artists do not do it for them, they do it with them. Artists need to accept responsibility that they will be that they need to put their ego aside. And when they exercise, the ego is within the framework of what the community wants, rather than what the artist wants, and then you invite people to become artists, to turn into construction workers and artisans and crafts people for a few days and let's do something together. And if that's enough right. And surprisingly, people step up to their better selves when we do art together. You know, people are not jerks to each other anymore, is just something about the activity of that nature. Now, let's do the mosaic together. You cannot argue. I would not just say “you jerk, you put this pink piece right here”. You kind of say in that context. Oh, that's interesting. Let me be them. There is that kind of a feeling starts exploding between people. And then I think those are the unexpected results. So, at the end, they feel safer with each other, more trusting of each other and they're excited to be involved again in something similar. That's what a powerful, powerful sentiment that is in our cynical times where people say, watch me not come to another meeting, 

      BC: Now, Manzanita was a little park project that had a profound impact on a little community. But you see much broader implications for this work. Could you talk about that?

      MM: And so what I'm learning from that, Bill, I'm asking the question, can this be applied more broadly beyond our projects to kind of the way we work between elections when with decisions about new community garden and new library and widening of the street, and you want whatever is being contemplated and often their community meetings, they're complementing those processes. It's not just professionals and government agencies doing it. There is a structured place for people to be involved. Unfortunately, they are involved through negativity, and I'm scratching my head and say, wait a minute, there's thousands of those meetings happening every month in the United States. What if we turn them into laboratories for collaboration and for learning from each other, for looking into the future, for all those good qualities that I dreamt about when I was in former Yugoslavia. That to me, what represents a living, breathing democracy. So, in some ways I'm connecting the...]]>7b4807fe-aaf2-47c0-8ba2-f1bc60aaa3bdWed, 14 Oct 2020 12:00:00 -070038:34falsefull110101Milenko Matanovic is, above all, a hands on maker and doer-- a creator on a life long journey to help communities realize what he views as the real American Dream -- true grassroots democracy.9: Art Isn’t Just Decoration—Cultural Organizing is Democracy’s Secret Weapon9: Art Isn’t Just Decoration—Cultural Organizing is Democracy’s Secret WeaponEpisode 9: Erik Takeshita - Creative People Power

      Dear Listener: In this podcast Erik describes agency and connection as essential elements for emergence of creative people power. If you are interested in exploring this idea further here are two resources that might be of interest.

      Creative People Power Web Site & Report @ Springboard for the Arts

      Small Towns, Big Stories: Arts-based Community Development Makes its Mark in Southwest Minnesota - A Center for the Study of Art and Community Blog Post


      Threshold Questions & Juicy Quotes

      What do the challenges inherent to equitable philanthropy, light rail construction and the sanctity of sacred space have in common?

      Art and Culture exists everywhere... it needs to be be nurtured. You know, there is solar power, because the sun exists, or there is wind power because the wind exists. And what we need to do is create the capacity to harness and transmit that (cultural) power that exists.

      Why art and culture in these challenging times?

      I would say that art and culture is... most essential when we as individuals, and we as communities are struggling, because it's actually part of what makes us human. It's part of what creates our connections to our humanity, but also our connections to one another. But it's it can be the kind of glue that can help bind this together and common experience and inspiration and ideas.

      How do human creative capacities contribute to building caring, capable, just communities

      When people have hope, and agency, and they have connections, that can then lead to collective efficacy, That's a kind of a necessary underpinning for me about how change happens in communities. And what's interesting to me is that art and culture becomes an easy on ramp for this, it becomes a way to practice some of those skills. it becomes a way to help give people a sense of agency and a sense of hope.


      Transcript


      Bill Cleveland: So, what do the challenges inherent to equitable philanthropy, light rail construction and the sanctity of sacred space have in common? Well, according to Eric Takeshita, they all meet in a place he refers to as creative people power. Now, Eric is one of those rare individuals who make an impression and a difference by calling upon both the head and the heart. I spoke to him about his life's path in early 2020, just before the COVID justice/stew began to boil over. 

      From the Center for the Study of Art and Community, this is Change the Story, Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation. I'm Bill Cleveland.

      Part One: Shoulders, and Ladders. 

      BC: You are the first person that I have ever seen use one of those back scratchers. Yeah. 

      Erik Takeshita: Oh yeah, I love these. I have one here on my desk, I use it all the time.

      BC: That is wonderful. That is 

      ET: I have two, I have one here and one upstairs.

      BC: There you go. Okay, a true addiction. So, I'll just start. You've had a long and a storied career in a world that spans many realms, some of which don't normally come together, our community development, storytelling, art making being a potter. So, I'm just going to ask, how do you describe what you do in the world? 

      ET: I’ll try to answer your question by naming what I'm most interested in. And my passion is this nexus of, of how art and culture can be leveraged to create a healthy, more equitable, and sustainable world and planet and community. I have been very, very fortunate to have had a number of different platforms from which to pursue that passion. I've had the opportunity to work in the community development sector, I've had the opportunity to work in the arts community, I've had a chance to be an artist, I've had a chance to work in philanthropy, I've had a chance to work in government. But what I would say is that through the through line for all that work is really the, for me, it's this intersection of how art and culture really ties to building healthier and stronger communities, particularly within historically marginalized communities, communities of color, in particular, and other historically disinvested [communities]. So that's what I do, right, I do work, but really, it's about supporting those communities, by helping them tap into that the power of art culture that I believe exists in every person in the community. And really trying to help support and facilitate the unleashing and channeling of that energy.

      I think one of the important things I will mention is that there's no such thing as an art desert, which is sometimes just false. Art and Culture exists everywhere and is available to everyone. Perhaps it needs to be supported somehow seems to be nurtured or it needs to be brought out. But I think that it exists, and it needs to be celebrated and facilitated. I think it's much like, you know, kind of how there is solar power, because the sun exists, or there was wind power because the wind exists, and what we need to do is perhaps sometimes create the capacity to harness and transmit that power that exists. I want to give credit to Helicon Collaborative and Springboard for the arts, because those are ideas that come out of their credit People Power Report. So, this idea that the people power that exists, and that we just need to tap into it. And I very much believe in it. 

      BC: So, there are some people who would say that we live in a very challenging time, and the issues of the day are daunting. Why would something like art and culture be a primary resource for addressing these kinds of things? Why art and culture? 

      ET: I guess I would actually challenge the first part of that statement, which I mean, should be sure we live in challenging times, relative to most many of our lifetimes. Sure, things are kind of interesting right now in terms of geopolitics or climate change. But when we look back at the 20th century, we go back to the civil rights, the Vietnam protests, you know, Kent State, you go back further to World War Two and the Holocaust, the depression, the Great War, the flu pandemic. So that's the 20th century, right. So, I guess, I feel that we have a distorted view of history. I'm not diminishing the difficulty of the pain and suffering. I will be interested in how this era in this period plays out in history.

      Second, as I would say that art and culture is always essential. And, in fact, it's perhaps most essential in most trying times. Right? It is, is perhaps the most essential when we as individuals, and we as communities are struggling, because it's actually part of what makes us human. It's part of what creates our connections to our humanity, but also our connections to one another. But it's it can be the kind of glue that can help bind this together and common experience and inspiration and ideas. So, to me, the answer is, it's not, why would we do it? It's that in those challenging times, it's the very time in which we must fight. That's, that's the path forward. That's the way that we will emerge from any challenges I think we have right is by seeking that inspiration by seeking that meaning making by seeking those connections that art and culture can uniquely help to provide. 

      BC: So how did you come to this, you have a pretty clear outline, and focus for your work. I would imagine growing up there were not a lot of people doing what you're doing now. And yeah, so what's the path? 

      ET: So, my path is one of a lot of luck is what I would first say. I've been very blessed, I would be quick to say that I've been given a lot of privilege in terms of the opportunities I was given by family, and by parents, and those that came before me, things in terms of education, and more had the access. I was allowed at early age to explore my creative expression, and I found that outlet through ceramics right through as I went through high school and received a scholarship to go to undergraduate offers on the court. And so, I found that as a as a vehicle for expression. Another piece of my journey, though, is being the son of a social worker, and a public-school librarian. You know, this idea of service, this idea of needing to give back.

      Another piece of my journey is that I'm a fourth generation Japanese American that was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. And I grew up at a time when I thought you were the whiter black and I was neither. And it was through the arts that I was able to find my place in this geography. Right so through the work of Asian American Renaissance, and theatre, moved from fine arts to really help me find my place and identity here in this community. 

      And the other piece, I would say is, and it's also that I might just by biographically for me, it was sent to private high schools and private colleges, I have been given a lot of privilege and a choice along the way to either kind of say, ‘wow, look at me, aren't I great and fortunate, and I'm going to take all my marbles and go home’, or I can make a choice to say now I have an obligation or responsibility to ensure that those are coming behind me have those types of opportunities, right? Like that is...]]>Episode 9: Erik Takeshita - Creative People Power

      Dear Listener: In this podcast Erik describes agency and connection as essential elements for emergence of creative people power. If you are interested in exploring this idea further here are two resources that might be of interest.

      Creative People Power Web Site & Report @ Springboard for the Arts

      Small Towns, Big Stories: Arts-based Community Development Makes its Mark in Southwest Minnesota - A Center for the Study of Art and Community Blog Post


      Threshold Questions & Juicy Quotes

      What do the challenges inherent to equitable philanthropy, light rail construction and the sanctity of sacred space have in common?

      Art and Culture exists everywhere... it needs to be be nurtured. You know, there is solar power, because the sun exists, or there is wind power because the wind exists. And what we need to do is create the capacity to harness and transmit that (cultural) power that exists.

      Why art and culture in these challenging times?

      I would say that art and culture is... most essential when we as individuals, and we as communities are struggling, because it's actually part of what makes us human. It's part of what creates our connections to our humanity, but also our connections to one another. But it's it can be the kind of glue that can help bind this together and common experience and inspiration and ideas.

      How do human creative capacities contribute to building caring, capable, just communities

      When people have hope, and agency, and they have connections, that can then lead to collective efficacy, That's a kind of a necessary underpinning for me about how change happens in communities. And what's interesting to me is that art and culture becomes an easy on ramp for this, it becomes a way to practice some of those skills. it becomes a way to help give people a sense of agency and a sense of hope.


      Transcript


      Bill Cleveland: So, what do the challenges inherent to equitable philanthropy, light rail construction and the sanctity of sacred space have in common? Well, according to Eric Takeshita, they all meet in a place he refers to as creative people power. Now, Eric is one of those rare individuals who make an impression and a difference by calling upon both the head and the heart. I spoke to him about his life's path in early 2020, just before the COVID justice/stew began to boil over. 

      From the Center for the Study of Art and Community, this is Change the Story, Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation. I'm Bill Cleveland.

      Part One: Shoulders, and Ladders. 

      BC: You are the first person that I have ever seen use one of those back scratchers. Yeah. 

      Erik Takeshita: Oh yeah, I love these. I have one here on my desk, I use it all the time.

      BC: That is wonderful. That is 

      ET: I have two, I have one here and one upstairs.

      BC: There you go. Okay, a true addiction. So, I'll just start. You've had a long and a storied career in a world that spans many realms, some of which don't normally come together, our community development, storytelling, art making being a potter. So, I'm just going to ask, how do you describe what you do in the world? 

      ET: I’ll try to answer your question by naming what I'm most interested in. And my passion is this nexus of, of how art and culture can be leveraged to create a healthy, more equitable, and sustainable world and planet and community. I have been very, very fortunate to have had a number of different platforms from which to pursue that passion. I've had the opportunity to work in the community development sector, I've had the opportunity to work in the arts community, I've had a chance to be an artist, I've had a chance to work in philanthropy, I've had a chance to work in government. But what I would say is that through the through line for all that work is really the, for me, it's this intersection of how art and culture really ties to building healthier and stronger communities, particularly within historically marginalized communities, communities of color, in particular, and other historically disinvested [communities]. So that's what I do, right, I do work, but really, it's about supporting those communities, by helping them tap into that the power of art culture that I believe exists in every person in the community. And really trying to help support and facilitate the unleashing and channeling of that energy.

      I think one of the important things I will mention is that there's no such thing as an art desert, which is sometimes just false. Art and Culture exists everywhere and is available to everyone. Perhaps it needs to be supported somehow seems to be nurtured or it needs to be brought out. But I think that it exists, and it needs to be celebrated and facilitated. I think it's much like, you know, kind of how there is solar power, because the sun exists, or there was wind power because the wind exists, and what we need to do is perhaps sometimes create the capacity to harness and transmit that power that exists. I want to give credit to Helicon Collaborative and Springboard for the arts, because those are ideas that come out of their credit People Power Report. So, this idea that the people power that exists, and that we just need to tap into it. And I very much believe in it. 

      BC: So, there are some people who would say that we live in a very challenging time, and the issues of the day are daunting. Why would something like art and culture be a primary resource for addressing these kinds of things? Why art and culture? 

      ET: I guess I would actually challenge the first part of that statement, which I mean, should be sure we live in challenging times, relative to most many of our lifetimes. Sure, things are kind of interesting right now in terms of geopolitics or climate change. But when we look back at the 20th century, we go back to the civil rights, the Vietnam protests, you know, Kent State, you go back further to World War Two and the Holocaust, the depression, the Great War, the flu pandemic. So that's the 20th century, right. So, I guess, I feel that we have a distorted view of history. I'm not diminishing the difficulty of the pain and suffering. I will be interested in how this era in this period plays out in history.

      Second, as I would say that art and culture is always essential. And, in fact, it's perhaps most essential in most trying times. Right? It is, is perhaps the most essential when we as individuals, and we as communities are struggling, because it's actually part of what makes us human. It's part of what creates our connections to our humanity, but also our connections to one another. But it's it can be the kind of glue that can help bind this together and common experience and inspiration and ideas. So, to me, the answer is, it's not, why would we do it? It's that in those challenging times, it's the very time in which we must fight. That's, that's the path forward. That's the way that we will emerge from any challenges I think we have right is by seeking that inspiration by seeking that meaning making by seeking those connections that art and culture can uniquely help to provide. 

      BC: So how did you come to this, you have a pretty clear outline, and focus for your work. I would imagine growing up there were not a lot of people doing what you're doing now. And yeah, so what's the path? 

      ET: So, my path is one of a lot of luck is what I would first say. I've been very blessed, I would be quick to say that I've been given a lot of privilege in terms of the opportunities I was given by family, and by parents, and those that came before me, things in terms of education, and more had the access. I was allowed at early age to explore my creative expression, and I found that outlet through ceramics right through as I went through high school and received a scholarship to go to undergraduate offers on the court. And so, I found that as a as a vehicle for expression. Another piece of my journey, though, is being the son of a social worker, and a public-school librarian. You know, this idea of service, this idea of needing to give back.

      Another piece of my journey is that I'm a fourth generation Japanese American that was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. And I grew up at a time when I thought you were the whiter black and I was neither. And it was through the arts that I was able to find my place in this geography. Right so through the work of Asian American Renaissance, and theatre, moved from fine arts to really help me find my place and identity here in this community. 

      And the other piece, I would say is, and it's also that I might just by biographically for me, it was sent to private high schools and private colleges, I have been given a lot of privilege and a choice along the way to either kind of say, ‘wow, look at me, aren't I great and fortunate, and I'm going to take all my marbles and go home’, or I can make a choice to say now I have an obligation or responsibility to ensure that those are coming behind me have those types of opportunities, right? Like that is I can either pick up the letter behind me, or I can choose to step back now, for those that may be coming as future generations options.

      BC: That challenging history you mentioned earlier though, World War Two, the depression, the Holocaust. These are times when selfless human cooperation made all the difference. Some would say, right now we're living in a time when sharing those ladders is really an open question. Could you say a bit more about the sense of responsibility you grew up with? 

      ET: I think for me, it's really clear that I have an obligation or responsibility to kind of pay it forward. Like I stand on the shoulders of those who came before me, and I hope to be shoulders upon which future generations can stand by. My goal is to really try to carve a path, to create shelter, to whatever it may be, is needed to support those who are going to be coming in the future, because that's truly how we're going to change the world. It's not going to be one person that will do that. So, you know, my grandfather was a plantation. He was a laboror, he was a janitor and not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. My mother was the first in her generation first woman to graduate from college. My father was the first in his family. My grandmother, my mother's mother, was born a US citizen and she lost her citizenship when she married my grandfather, who immigrated when you're 16 to work in the sugarcane fields because he was an alien ineligible person. So, my grandmother was undocumented most of her life. She lost her US citizenship, when she married my grandfather, and had to take the citizenship test to get a passport so, she could leave the United States. Even though she was born a U.S. citizen. 

      My mom, (their family, was relocated five different times because of highway construction, right? As you're building the freeway in Honolulu, they had a move, they were poor, and they lived in the section of town where the freeway was. And so they had to move five, she went to six different schools and seven years because they kept on having the move. So, these issues around whether it's immigration, or if it's about displacement, these are the stories of my family. Certainly, it's ever happened to me. But I but I know of these stories, I know these things happen. And they shape who I am, and they give me the sense of obligation or responsibility. If I don't speak up, if I don't do what I can, to help others and my family, I need to make sure that…I don't often use the term social justice, I guess, because I don't think it's a social justice, I think it’s about doing the right thing. But for me, that's how I come to the focus of my work. I really see the power of people centered approaches to building stronger communities. So you know, over time we've constantly over in the history we’ve build, you know, having built environments, and the ones that I believe are the strongest, healthiest, best, are those that are driven by and kind of been formed by those that are going to be looking at

      BC: What a story, and as long as I've known you, a good portion of that is new to me, and I appreciate your sharing, particularly the generational layers. One of the things that is obvious is that you are not doing work separate from this story of your life and your family. It is organically connected to that lineage and your own personal life experience, which is another privilege to be able to manifest a work that rises up from who we are. 

       

      Part Two: Agency and Connections.

      BC: When I asked Erik to share a story or two about his work, it was obvious that this sense of responsibility for extending ladders that translated directly to his work with communities, he began by describing a new program he helped develop at the Bush foundation in St. Paul.

      ET: The story that I would say that is top of mind for me comes from my most recent work, which was at the Bush Foundation, which is a private foundation that's located in St. Paul, that that serves North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and over 23 native nations. 

      At the time, I was stood in a role as director of Community Creativity, really looking at the role of arts and culture and helping foster creative problems in the classroom. Part of it was to recognize that if we want to help make the region better for everyone, we need to help make the region better for those who do least well. And in that process, we also need to have strategies that are geared towards specific populations within that broader goal, we all will do better. So, we were able to create a program where it was really focused on and centered in black indigenous people of color, as well as in rural communities. If you look at the numbers and statistics to say, okay, well, those communities have been historically under invested. And perhaps not coincidentally, those are communities that offer statistically doing least well. You have income, wealth, health outcomes, educational outcomes.

      So, the idea was to really say can we invest in culture in these communities, really, as a way of helping to achieve those other outcomes, right? For me, it was never sufficient to invest in your tech culture as much as invest in arts and culture as a way of driving towards these other community outcomes of health disparities or income disparities or educational disparities. And I named that because to me, the story is thatI believe that the only way that we can change some of these broader social ills is it has to start with the individual. An individual must believe he or she can actually make a difference in their life. And this idea that we've seen over and over that if one is in despair, and one has nothing to lose, then one doesn't actually try to make things better. So, it has to do with hope, and a belief that they can actually make a difference in their life, sometimes called agency. 

      BC: So, it sounds like you're starting to do describe a theory, a story of change. If a community is going to move towards social economic health towards justice, these are the foundations. 

      ET: Right? So, one has to have hope and inspiration, and one has to have agency at the individual level. [Then] you also need to have connections, right, and I've already outlined for me, like what I saw through the work of Theater MU, or at Asian American Renaissance is the power of having that sense of community that sometimes-called bonding. And finally, that when people have hope, and an agency, and they have connections, that that can then lead to collective efficacy, people can come together, and together they can try and solve. So that's a kind of a necessary underpinning for me about how change happens in communities, and what's interesting to me is that art and culture becomes an easy on ramp for them, it becomes a way to practice some of those skills, it becomes a way to help give people a sense of agency and a sense of hope. But it can be inspiring, and they can participate in things and say ‘oh, I can make a difference in the world’. But as a potter, when I throw pot, I literally take a month lump of mud, and I can transform it into you know, this coffee cup, I can drink my coffee. Like, that's kind of amazing, right. And it's been happening for millennia.

      BC: Every day, throughout history and prehistory,

      ET: Like humans have been doing this for thousands of years, in a similar way. Like, wow, that's really interesting, too. But I've made a difference little like, there's a physical difference that I've created in the world. So that's, to me, art and culture can help give people a sense of agency, they can also connect people in new and exciting ways. It can be fun, it can be surprising, it can be, you know, in ways that we wouldn't expect. Yet, when you dance, the light rail shuffle with the mayor, your interactions with him changed forever. But because you have a different relationship now to this human being because you participated in this article. Right. So, it can create different connections hoping that agency can then create power that can change systems. And so, to me, what we were trying to do with the Bush foundation was to support art and culture, focus on that idea of building agency help creating connections with an eye towards changing their communities for the better. We selected 40 organizations, all of which were led by or serving people of color and led by rural communities. And we said, you know, what's best we will support you will give you general operating money, we're not going to dictate what needs to be used for, and we will support you and your growth, what capacities you want to build, we will support you by going to a conference, going to do a site visit with another partner, going to training hiring a consultant, maybe we will support that in an unrestricted kind of way. 

      BC: So, what's changed?

      ET: Just I just heard that that the internal evaluation, we're kind of tweaking, and then we started to see the results that people are doing well, they are picking up that responsibility for themselves, in terms of helping them make those connections, and really helping to build the capacity and that you're then seeing results in the community that you're seeing, you know, more activities are happening, where they feel they're having more impact in their community. And to me, that's the promise, right? To your earlier question about, you know, in challenging times, why our culture. Well, in challenging times, there's a huge opportunity for art and culture to then […] when there's a...]]>15d8a189-1968-4e43-b13b-65569588a360Wed, 30 Sep 2020 10:45:00 -070041:24falsefull1991What do the challenges inherent to equitable philanthropy, light rail construction and the sanctity of sacred space have in common? Well, according to Eric Takeshita, they all meet in a place he refers to as creative people power.8: If You’re Not Letting Struggling Kids Make Art, You’re Missing the Boat8: If You’re Not Letting Struggling Kids Make Art, You’re Missing the BoatEpisode 7: Barry Marcus - Creative Culture

      Dear Reader: Barry Marcus' story about Creative Culture touches on a number of questions related to the impact that arts learning can have on youth development. One of these is how active art making can strengthen a sense of ownership and agency in young artists. If this peaks your interest you might want to take a look at : 23 Admonitions, Insights and Ideas from the Great Masters at the Center for the Study of Art and Community's website.

      Transcript

      Bill Cleveland: Barry Marcus is clever, funny, and a good friend. He also personifies one of my favorite human characteristics; that's quirkiness. You never know what he's going to do, or say, or sing for that matter.

      Barry Marcus:

      The duck goes quack, the cow says moo

      I say hello, how do you do?

      You talk to me and I'll listen to you

      Talking and a squawkin’’ till our lips turn blue 

      BC: Now, that's Barry singing the title track from his CD of children’s songs. These days, he describes himself as a visual storyteller. Back in the 90s, when I met him, he was not only a prolific songwriter, but also a therapist and a director of children's mental health programs. Although the first spark in our friendship was through music, our enduring connection has been fueled by our mutual passion for exploring the kinds of questions that have sustained our lives work and giving rise to this podcast. Namely, can the creative process be a potent force for healing and change, and if so, how do we do that really, really well? 

      From the Center for the Study of Art and Community, this is Change the Story, Change the World and I’m Bill Cleveland. We're calling today's episode creative culture, and today's conversation with creative culture, facilitator, and advocate Barry Marcus took place during May of 2020. For myself in Alameda, California and Barry on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, we were coming to the end of our third month living at the intersection of six feet and Sequesterville.

      Part One: Rhythms and Seasons.

      With your permission, I would like to ask you to recount a piece of your history. A focus of bringing creative process to bear on very difficult circumstances, particularly for young people that you were serving at the place called Families First. Would you be willing to talk about how it came about, how you came to it, and what happened?

      BM: Well, can I give a little prelude to that? 

      You know, I was at the Sacramento children's home for 13 years prior to that. And because of my role as one of the directors, holding the position of intake, and seeing how people translated what an intake summary looked like into their day to day residential care. These kids were 24 hours a day in the care. In both circumstances--the children's home and Families First--these are kids that blew out of foster homes. Multiple, five, seven foster homes are had very acute and dramatic needs to be removed. They were in institutions, and the people that worked with them primarily besides the clinical step are really the line staff, and they're called childcare work. And they would look at an intake summary, and they would see this description of a troubled child, most often, behaviorally, because that's how children experience trauma, and they would define them by their deficits. So, the first thing I did was I created a thing called “guess who's coming”. Instead of saying, here's this broken-down kid and that's it, I said, here's the profile of our newest guests. And the first they thought it was a joke, but it said, Oh, no, I want you to treat this child like a guest. 

      So, in essence, what I really knew was that these children could be relegated to the garbage basket, as soon as they entered the door or sometimes even before. I was recruited as a creative person. What I wanted to do is use the institutional setting as a community of creativity, and use the children's lives and their brokenness, his deep feelings, to connect to a creative process that could allow them to be seen different, and experienced different, and seeing themselves different.

      BC: So, what I'm hearing is that Families First was really a golden opportunity to integrate your ideas about using the creative process as a healing force for these kids. 

      BM: I did some things that children's home, as I said, the “guess who's coming”, but the transition was the CEO of Families First said, “I just want your creativity.” You figure a way to do it. Now I had done a song site called “Our stuff, our song” and it was helping children create their song individually, then bring it together as a group and then bring it to a public a community parents, family, mental health associates, but also the outside community, to give them a chance to give voice to their inner being as an artist. I had a band learning their songs, and I brought them all together to practice, and then the performance became a ritual and a rite of passage, which I always incorporated and all the work I did is as that community, a living and breathing community, and having rituals and rites of passage. We had this amazing drumming thing with a Ghana drummer, and what the kids created was these chants and narratives with reused plastic water bottles as drums, and they were painted and adorned in various ways, and we had a public ceremony and it was really profound and deep and rich. 

      BC: Could you describe how creative culture manifested, first of all, and also describe Families First, what its mission was, who its clients were... 

      BM: Well, Families First started out as a professional foster care program, and kind of blocks them while I was there growing into a more of a residential treatment program with foster care. It was a range of service program. But what fascinated me about it, as did Sacramento Children's Home was it was its own community, with its own values, its own rhythms, its own kind of timing and seasons in the life of a child who live there. 

      Now, before I say anything more about that, who lived there?

      Again, these were kids in and out of places like Napa State Hospital. So, they would get in a hospital for all kinds of sometimes it was psychotic, but very often it was assaultive behavior. That parents and other foster family stuff that couldn't handle or was runaways. 

      Now, an interesting aside about runaways, we learned in the 70s that girls… well, they were considered offenders only as teenagers, they wouldn't have been charged with crimes for what they did if they were adults. And the crime was they ran away, while we began finding out why girls were running away, and really (…not sure word…) they were molested, and that was your only way of dealing with it. 

      So, these were kids that were used to their energies being coming and going, running, and having no sense of permanency. And the residential treatment home, particularly Families First said, we're going to stick with this kid unless it gets really, really dangerous because we know the next step from us, is an inpatient Napa State Hospital, a warehouse still. And we make a commitment to work with the child, and when there was the family, but in the circle of having the community and the physical ground, I recognized the structure was {…} it was like in a Eureka kind of moment. We had individual kids working on their individual stuff, they lived in individual houses, up to 12 kids. So, you had a child who was a member of a group, not only were they a member of the group, they went to the on-campus school, and so they were a member of a class, but together they were all Families First. 

      BC: This facility had many components to it. It had an educational component; these kids lived with each other. They had activities all day, they had counseling, talk about how creative culture really meant that creative process was integrated into every aspect of their time in the facility.

      BM: Culture is a very big important word in this situation, because it's this kind of inbred system of “this is appropriate, and this is not appropriate”. And by the way, “appropriate” is a power word. Who determines “appropriate”?, you know, I mean, there are conventions, but again, I don't want to do anything appropriate. But what I was trying to point to is, regardless of whether you see the whole fabric or not as a childcare worker dealing with a kid spitting at you, you're still in a culture. This is a culture, and we have the opportunity to both define it and refine it by looking for the creative juices because even as a mental health facility, the only way you solve problems is to be creative. The only way you connect with other people is to create that energy. So, I was also asking staff to stand back a little and give themselves a chance to look at kids as creative. 

      Eventually, one of my favorite projects, and actually this is with Oprah, […] we were able to have Oprah come and see them and say, you know, the difference between you and me isn't where I started, It's where I am now. And that happened to me, and the arts, and expression leads me to healing. So, I saw that as an opportunity to build great of culture where the...]]>Episode 7: Barry Marcus - Creative Culture

      Dear Reader: Barry Marcus' story about Creative Culture touches on a number of questions related to the impact that arts learning can have on youth development. One of these is how active art making can strengthen a sense of ownership and agency in young artists. If this peaks your interest you might want to take a look at : 23 Admonitions, Insights and Ideas from the Great Masters at the Center for the Study of Art and Community's website.

      Transcript

      Bill Cleveland: Barry Marcus is clever, funny, and a good friend. He also personifies one of my favorite human characteristics; that's quirkiness. You never know what he's going to do, or say, or sing for that matter.

      Barry Marcus:

      The duck goes quack, the cow says moo

      I say hello, how do you do?

      You talk to me and I'll listen to you

      Talking and a squawkin’’ till our lips turn blue 

      BC: Now, that's Barry singing the title track from his CD of children’s songs. These days, he describes himself as a visual storyteller. Back in the 90s, when I met him, he was not only a prolific songwriter, but also a therapist and a director of children's mental health programs. Although the first spark in our friendship was through music, our enduring connection has been fueled by our mutual passion for exploring the kinds of questions that have sustained our lives work and giving rise to this podcast. Namely, can the creative process be a potent force for healing and change, and if so, how do we do that really, really well? 

      From the Center for the Study of Art and Community, this is Change the Story, Change the World and I’m Bill Cleveland. We're calling today's episode creative culture, and today's conversation with creative culture, facilitator, and advocate Barry Marcus took place during May of 2020. For myself in Alameda, California and Barry on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, we were coming to the end of our third month living at the intersection of six feet and Sequesterville.

      Part One: Rhythms and Seasons.

      With your permission, I would like to ask you to recount a piece of your history. A focus of bringing creative process to bear on very difficult circumstances, particularly for young people that you were serving at the place called Families First. Would you be willing to talk about how it came about, how you came to it, and what happened?

      BM: Well, can I give a little prelude to that? 

      You know, I was at the Sacramento children's home for 13 years prior to that. And because of my role as one of the directors, holding the position of intake, and seeing how people translated what an intake summary looked like into their day to day residential care. These kids were 24 hours a day in the care. In both circumstances--the children's home and Families First--these are kids that blew out of foster homes. Multiple, five, seven foster homes are had very acute and dramatic needs to be removed. They were in institutions, and the people that worked with them primarily besides the clinical step are really the line staff, and they're called childcare work. And they would look at an intake summary, and they would see this description of a troubled child, most often, behaviorally, because that's how children experience trauma, and they would define them by their deficits. So, the first thing I did was I created a thing called “guess who's coming”. Instead of saying, here's this broken-down kid and that's it, I said, here's the profile of our newest guests. And the first they thought it was a joke, but it said, Oh, no, I want you to treat this child like a guest. 

      So, in essence, what I really knew was that these children could be relegated to the garbage basket, as soon as they entered the door or sometimes even before. I was recruited as a creative person. What I wanted to do is use the institutional setting as a community of creativity, and use the children's lives and their brokenness, his deep feelings, to connect to a creative process that could allow them to be seen different, and experienced different, and seeing themselves different.

      BC: So, what I'm hearing is that Families First was really a golden opportunity to integrate your ideas about using the creative process as a healing force for these kids. 

      BM: I did some things that children's home, as I said, the “guess who's coming”, but the transition was the CEO of Families First said, “I just want your creativity.” You figure a way to do it. Now I had done a song site called “Our stuff, our song” and it was helping children create their song individually, then bring it together as a group and then bring it to a public a community parents, family, mental health associates, but also the outside community, to give them a chance to give voice to their inner being as an artist. I had a band learning their songs, and I brought them all together to practice, and then the performance became a ritual and a rite of passage, which I always incorporated and all the work I did is as that community, a living and breathing community, and having rituals and rites of passage. We had this amazing drumming thing with a Ghana drummer, and what the kids created was these chants and narratives with reused plastic water bottles as drums, and they were painted and adorned in various ways, and we had a public ceremony and it was really profound and deep and rich. 

      BC: Could you describe how creative culture manifested, first of all, and also describe Families First, what its mission was, who its clients were... 

      BM: Well, Families First started out as a professional foster care program, and kind of blocks them while I was there growing into a more of a residential treatment program with foster care. It was a range of service program. But what fascinated me about it, as did Sacramento Children's Home was it was its own community, with its own values, its own rhythms, its own kind of timing and seasons in the life of a child who live there. 

      Now, before I say anything more about that, who lived there?

      Again, these were kids in and out of places like Napa State Hospital. So, they would get in a hospital for all kinds of sometimes it was psychotic, but very often it was assaultive behavior. That parents and other foster family stuff that couldn't handle or was runaways. 

      Now, an interesting aside about runaways, we learned in the 70s that girls… well, they were considered offenders only as teenagers, they wouldn't have been charged with crimes for what they did if they were adults. And the crime was they ran away, while we began finding out why girls were running away, and really (…not sure word…) they were molested, and that was your only way of dealing with it. 

      So, these were kids that were used to their energies being coming and going, running, and having no sense of permanency. And the residential treatment home, particularly Families First said, we're going to stick with this kid unless it gets really, really dangerous because we know the next step from us, is an inpatient Napa State Hospital, a warehouse still. And we make a commitment to work with the child, and when there was the family, but in the circle of having the community and the physical ground, I recognized the structure was {…} it was like in a Eureka kind of moment. We had individual kids working on their individual stuff, they lived in individual houses, up to 12 kids. So, you had a child who was a member of a group, not only were they a member of the group, they went to the on-campus school, and so they were a member of a class, but together they were all Families First. 

      BC: This facility had many components to it. It had an educational component; these kids lived with each other. They had activities all day, they had counseling, talk about how creative culture really meant that creative process was integrated into every aspect of their time in the facility.

      BM: Culture is a very big important word in this situation, because it's this kind of inbred system of “this is appropriate, and this is not appropriate”. And by the way, “appropriate” is a power word. Who determines “appropriate”?, you know, I mean, there are conventions, but again, I don't want to do anything appropriate. But what I was trying to point to is, regardless of whether you see the whole fabric or not as a childcare worker dealing with a kid spitting at you, you're still in a culture. This is a culture, and we have the opportunity to both define it and refine it by looking for the creative juices because even as a mental health facility, the only way you solve problems is to be creative. The only way you connect with other people is to create that energy. So, I was also asking staff to stand back a little and give themselves a chance to look at kids as creative. 

      Eventually, one of my favorite projects, and actually this is with Oprah, […] we were able to have Oprah come and see them and say, you know, the difference between you and me isn't where I started, It's where I am now. And that happened to me, and the arts, and expression leads me to healing. So, I saw that as an opportunity to build great of culture where the individual does their work, but they can't do it independent of what the group is doing, be it the house or the school.

        

      Part Two: Release the Hounds

      BC: So, Barry, individual, group house, school. Is there a particular initiative or project that you feel really, manifested really connected, at all these levels you just shared? 

      BM: The easiest thing to talk about is a book, which we did with a very famous artist named Roy De Forest, The Secret of Dogmore Island. And what he did was he gave us cards, just little cards of outlines of what each chapter should be. So, if you read chapter one in your class, you may have an idea but your class or your house, better buy it to fit the overall narrative that they're developing. And it was group collaboration and Bill, as you know, because you were a part of it. It was very profound and deep and rich and complex. 

      BC: So, in that circumstance, Roy De Forest created an outline, a visual outline, in the beginning of a story, and then these groups of young people, basically filled in the voids with their own images and their own narrative. Is that right?

      BM: Yes, and how it worked is there, you know, there were two sentences per little card. I'm a very big believer in--this is part of creating culture--and having a goal and a process that comes to a conclusion where there is an artifact. Whether it's a book, song cycle, the Davis family mural ceramic, there's something concrete that the whole, the whole community can point to and say, we did that! And also, I didn't mean we did that. But I think Dogmore represents partnership. I brought in our working writers and artists of different kind, and I introduced them as like the kids, and the kids were like them, because they had deep feelings, they had need to express them and they used arts isn't a way to express the complex feelings, complex feelings.

      BC: Wow, in a complex environment working together on a really complex project where you have different groups, classes, negotiating separate parts of this one evolving story. Yeah. It sounds complicated.

      BM: So, what I think was very specifically embedded in the concept of creative culture, is I said, you can't create your chapter without your whole class. But your class can't rely on the whole chapter being either honored or related to what else is there without all the other chapters by example. Okay, so wait for structure I hired five visual artists Five authors, the guy who wrote the last unicorn Peter Beagle was one of them. 

      Okay, so but here's what happened. Let's start with chapter one. The class is getting near writing kind of a sense of a narrative, it's not written and solidified, but they got a sense of who Dr. Dogmore is and who PEP the flea is and all these characters and where the narrative was heading. And one kid gets up and he goes, “Wait a minute, Barry, what are they going to do in chapter two?” And, “How will we know how it ends? We don't want PEF, good example, we don't have to get killed, you can't kill them.”

      And I said to him, “Well, you know, you know, we don't know. But one way you might resolve that if you have an interest in how it moves along, and how the whole thing is done is pick what chapter you're most concerned about. Are you most concerned right now about how it will be picked up from you right now. Yeah, yeah, what are they going to do? Well, you know, what would you like to send an emissary or two into group two, and make a presentation on what you've come up with? and how you want them to know about who these characters are and why you love them?.” 

      And, and, again, Bill, they chose two kids, and they got up there. And we had a class where even the most troubled kid was saying ideas and coming up and when we left, I asked the kids in group one, are you satisfied and do you… here's a key word, trust group. These are kids that don't trust nothing. And they left and said, we will leave it in their hands. And so, we had these interlacing webs of people coming and going and kind of reading the stories that moved on.

      BC: So, they forge partnerships, working together and building the story together. How did the artists and writers figure in this mix? 

      BM: The writers would go into classes maybe six times, six weeks, and work with them to refine what it was. And from that, we also had the artists come in and they would work with him to draw their ideas and integrate some of their art, so that it became again a collaboration. You also collaborated with the artists in your class, and so styles came out. 

      BC: At this point, some of you listening may be wondering what all this festive collaboration produced. From what I understand, this is how the Dogmore story goes. Dogmore Island is of course an island of dogs, lots of dogs. With big ones, little ones skinny and thick, shaggy ones and short haired, peppy and slow all living together in elative harmony until the questions who's to dig up an answer to a question that is desperately needed to address a problem. A mystery actually, that needs to be solved, that must be solved, or chaos will ensue. Given the number of authors--over 50 and the number of pages, nearly 120--there are lots of surprising twists and turns and tangles in the labyrinth things search that unfolds. Ultimately, of course, all ends well for the dogs and yes, even the fleas who by the way figure prominently in the stories unlikely though satisfying conclusion. After hearing the Dogmore saga, I asked Barry how the real world adventure that produced it ended up 

      BM: The end was this big, whoop dee doo, ceremonial ritual, probably more ritual than a rite of passage where the books were released, and the media was there. We had the local media and they were, […] one of the media came up to me said, Barry, you didn't tell us we'd be crying. 

      BC: So, when you say books released, you're saying that there was an edition of the book that was printed. And so, a couple questions number one is big picture. What did you want to have happen? and how did that turn out? 

      BM: Well, you know, okay, in an individual basis, I want each child to have a sense of self-worth in the project. It's that simple. And to also be able to bridge that air between ‘I’ and ‘we’ and to be able to identify that my success is also made more rich by my group success, which is also made more rich and complete by my communities’ success. I wanted the community into in turn from someone else the childcare workers with all the celebrate and see what came up. 

      But I wanted the community of Davis it Davis is a very fine institution of learning the University of California Davis. I wanted them to go Families First, these aren't the troublemakers, these are source of richness. And that was important. Really important.

      Oh, one more important thing. I remember when we did the mural, and we had the ceremony in public on the streets, and several, many of the parents came in this woman came up and was hugging me. I didn't know her, and she was crying. She says, “my son had all of his school never got congratulations for his work”. I don't ever remember a teacher saying this is fine work. He was identified very early as learning disabled and behaviorally disordered. And she said, you know, and she just was crying. I I've never experienced this in my life. So that was equally important. 

       

      Part Three: Turning the Page on the Prussians. 

      BC: So, at a certain point, you know, my understanding is that if this were to take in essence, if this were to become a way of working at Families First, rather than Barry's project, you needed a buy in by everybody who was on staff. Is that something that you you've felt evolve over time? 

      BM: Yes. The first and primarily most important thing was that the CEO brought me in for that purpose. She was a very powerful personality as you remember, and what she said went. So, they expressed the great deal excitement I learned later, you better be excited if Evelyn tells you to be. But I think they gained some excitement. One of the things that just came up again in my gut. When we did the drumming thing, there were five groups again, and it was a public performance, and the kids were coming apart then the night before. And some of the childcare, senior childcare workers came to me and they said, “you know, I don't know you're putting too much pressure on these kids, I'm sorry”. And, you know, maybe I just trusted myself and I said, “I know those guys, they're okay, they're going to do it”. But and sometimes there was conflict. And I have to say, sometimes I think, in retrospect, I over stressed the creative parts and maybe needed to look more at the trouble it was to really serve these kids in difficult circumstance. 

      BC: So, here's, here's a question. I remember. very specifically, you're talking to me about how certain kids responded well to their access to making, to creating. What do you think is going on with a young person with a history of chaos and in some cases violence when they encounter not just a little workshop, but an environment that is infused with this way of thinking about the world with making and creating?

      BM: Well, you know, if you look at violence, you can call it acting. Children act,...]]>d9518bec-b24d-43ef-b76e-95f627d3d0b2Wed, 23 Sep 2020 07:00:00 -070035:28truefull1881Barry Marcus is a visual storyteller, songwriter, as well as a therapist and a director of children's mental health programs. He has spent his life exploring the kinds of questions given rise to this podcast. Namely; Can the creative process be a potent force for healing and change.7: Sandy Agustin on Navigating the Art and Social Change Landscape (Activist Artist Spotlight)7: Sandy Agustin on Navigating the Art and Social Change Landscape (Activist Artist Spotlight)Transcript

      Episode 7: Sandy Agustin - The Navigator

      Sandy Agustin: Why do you want to change? Why do you want to change? Now? What do you all hold true? What do you see as missing? It's asking the right questions, finding really generous and generative questions. And when people get stuck, sometimes we push, and we name what's hard. Sometimes we just shake it up and we have to move around. We have to play a little bit; we have to think and move physically through the space to get to something different. So, in many of the cases of the groups I've been working with lately, I find out that they've had the ruby slippers on, and the ability all the time. They just are looking at things through a lens that wasn't necessarily theirs, you know. 

      Bill Cleveland: From the Center for the Study of Art and Community, this is Change the Story Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation.  I’m Bill Cleveland.

      Like Leni Sloan, from our first two episodes, SA: is what one might characterize as a creative polymath. A dancer, choreographer, university and community educator, a producer, a community leader, healer, an artful alchemist whose work in the US and overseas spans three decades. She's fueled her explorations and adventures with questions. “What's your story? Who are your heroes? Where do you want to go? And how can we help you get there?”. I spoke to Sandy in mid-May of 2020 in the midst of the global question, mark that I've been calling Planet COVID. Certainly, a suitable moment for a lively conversation with somebody who describes herself as a navigator.  

      Part One, Learning to Drive.  

      So Sandy, this may be a daunting task for you because you're so many things to so many communities, and so many different people, but give it a shot. Try to describe what it is you do in the world. 

      SA: Okay. I have had to define this more and more right, as the world has gotten more complex, and for me to say what I do is that I'm a creative navigator. If you say, you want to go to a place, let's say you want to go up north to a particular town, my job would be to help you figure out what kind of car is the right car? What kind of fuel is the right fuel? If there are stops along the way, to define why is that the best place, and who are the people that should be in the car or who are the people in those places that you want to see along the way. So, it really is helping me individuals and organizations that navigate where they're going. My methodology is creative, and creative means anything that will get us out of only intellectualizing the story. But to find the heart of the story, that may be writing, it might be movement, it might be being really silly and playful and being humorous, it might be individual writing, and it might be talking in small groups or communicating and story sharing with one other person.

      BC: So, the metaphor you're using is the journey. road trip, actually one of my absolute favorite things, using creative tools and strategies to help folks and communities navigate a journey of decision making or change. Can you share an example?

      SA:  Maybe most recently, the Regional Arts Council, they're looking at equity and equitable giving, giving to communities that haven't typically been given to before. You want to look at what, what has been your vehicle of choice or inherited vehicle. Are those still the right ones? Why do you want to change? Why do you want to change? Now? What do you all hold true? What do you see as missing? It’s asking the right questions, finding really generous and generative questions, and when people get stuck, sometimes we push, we name what's hard. Sometimes we just shake it up and we have to move around. We have to play a little bit; we have to think and move physically through the space to get to something different. So, in in many of the cases of the groups I've been working with lately, I find out that they've had the ruby slippers on and the ability all the time, they just are looking at things through a lens that wasn't necessarily theirs. You know, I just said an eye exam, right? Which lens is clear one two, or two three? Yeah, well that one works, but it's a lot clearer if I get the right ones that fit my eyes. I can see better; I can see clearer, and then I can function in the world better from looking through the right lenses. So, I feel like that navigation is really helping people find the right lenses, and often times they've had them or they've had access to them. They just didn't know they did.

      BC: Now, you've done a lot of work, advancing social change with communities and organizations. Some people may not really understand how the creative process that you use, these methods of inquiry that you use, can be relevant to people dealing with issues of poverty or crime or feelings of safety, or a sense of belonging in the world. Can you talk about that?

      SA: Yeah, I have been taking Tango in the last few years, and in interviewing veteran dancers, good leaders will say a good leader’s job is to make you feel safe and feel beautiful. I'm not going to impose something on you, I want to make you feel safe so that you could get there, and that you can shine and feel beautiful. Okay, so I'll just say that as a mover, that one's really resonating with me. In the case of working with, let's say a group of folks that have been struggling with addiction and chronic homelessness who are desperately trying to get themselves together so they can be good parents or good partners, what does it mean to feel safe and good in your own skin? How can building community helps in that quest for oneself?

      BC: So, safe and good! Talk about how these creative tools and strategies can help these wounded souls begin to feel safe and good in their own skin. 

      SA: So, for instance, would be offering up some creative tools, some designated time for people to focus on themselves, to be creative and exercise something that is really about their own expression. It's their opinion, there's no right or wrong, that allows them to find their own flow and express themselves in a way that they're not invited to very often. In that case, if the individual feels like their creative badge has been shined and polished, and other people are sharing in that, sharing in their work, they're giving an exchanging, it's still sharing story in a safe and comfortable context that allows them then to flourish and perhaps understand each other really one to one human level. So, if communities feel comfortable with the people in those communities, whatever they describe themselves to be, feel confident, safe, comfortable enough to be beautiful to be creative, I think we've got a healthier, more functional community.

      BC: So, your experience is that when you make art with folks, these things happen, a sense of safety, a sense of connection, a sense of coherence, and that people who are struggling with issues of substance abuse or poverty or equity, for these folks, this provides a foundation for individual and collective problem solving and action.

      SA: You know, it gives them agency in their own lives where maybe they haven't felt control over a lot of things. This is something you can't, you know, can't take that away from me, as the song says. I wonder, you know, there's perhaps a reason why that brain stores music, musical memories in a different place when the rest of the brain can be in trauma. What's sacred about that music? So. what is sacred about those creative juices? You know, when people's brains are otherwise traumatized, there's got to be something about the sanctity of one's own creative expression.

      BC: You know, there's an interesting theoretical conversation that's been taking place among anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists who speculate that prior to the development of language in human species, you're describing them making a musical sounds and patterns with the voice was actually an early adaptive behavior that advanced our survival as humans. First, you know, because it's a powerful way to focus the attention of the community, the tribe, and second because it reinforces that thing that you described earlier, which is a sense of identity or agency within that community. So, the answer to your question about why the brain seems to process music differently, may in fact just be that our brain evolved in a way that reinforces those things that work for us in the world, and that music is one of those. 

      SA: Yes, and I, you know, I harken back to, I mean my own upbringing was when we had people over which was often, we always had out the tinkling sticks, which are the long bamboo poles, and we did a tinkling dance, which is jumping in and out in the polls, I call it our own version of jump rope or double dutch. The idea was not to get caught by the sticks. […] Tinkling, it means it's a bird. It's mimicking these bird movements don't we always send music and dancing at all our parties. And to this day, people still talk about that. I remember all the parties in your backyard. I took it for granted that it's, it's always been a part of me to celebrate through music and through dance. It's a way of gathering family, It's a great way of sharing experiences, it’s a way of celebrating.

      BC: In your sharing this family history, you're touching on your influences and how you came to this kind of work. Could you tell more of that story?

      SA: Well, I harken all the way back to as a child grew up again the daughter of a...]]>Transcript

      Episode 7: Sandy Agustin - The Navigator

      Sandy Agustin: Why do you want to change? Why do you want to change? Now? What do you all hold true? What do you see as missing? It's asking the right questions, finding really generous and generative questions. And when people get stuck, sometimes we push, and we name what's hard. Sometimes we just shake it up and we have to move around. We have to play a little bit; we have to think and move physically through the space to get to something different. So, in many of the cases of the groups I've been working with lately, I find out that they've had the ruby slippers on, and the ability all the time. They just are looking at things through a lens that wasn't necessarily theirs, you know. 

      Bill Cleveland: From the Center for the Study of Art and Community, this is Change the Story Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation.  I’m Bill Cleveland.

      Like Leni Sloan, from our first two episodes, SA: is what one might characterize as a creative polymath. A dancer, choreographer, university and community educator, a producer, a community leader, healer, an artful alchemist whose work in the US and overseas spans three decades. She's fueled her explorations and adventures with questions. “What's your story? Who are your heroes? Where do you want to go? And how can we help you get there?”. I spoke to Sandy in mid-May of 2020 in the midst of the global question, mark that I've been calling Planet COVID. Certainly, a suitable moment for a lively conversation with somebody who describes herself as a navigator.  

      Part One, Learning to Drive.  

      So Sandy, this may be a daunting task for you because you're so many things to so many communities, and so many different people, but give it a shot. Try to describe what it is you do in the world. 

      SA: Okay. I have had to define this more and more right, as the world has gotten more complex, and for me to say what I do is that I'm a creative navigator. If you say, you want to go to a place, let's say you want to go up north to a particular town, my job would be to help you figure out what kind of car is the right car? What kind of fuel is the right fuel? If there are stops along the way, to define why is that the best place, and who are the people that should be in the car or who are the people in those places that you want to see along the way. So, it really is helping me individuals and organizations that navigate where they're going. My methodology is creative, and creative means anything that will get us out of only intellectualizing the story. But to find the heart of the story, that may be writing, it might be movement, it might be being really silly and playful and being humorous, it might be individual writing, and it might be talking in small groups or communicating and story sharing with one other person.

      BC: So, the metaphor you're using is the journey. road trip, actually one of my absolute favorite things, using creative tools and strategies to help folks and communities navigate a journey of decision making or change. Can you share an example?

      SA:  Maybe most recently, the Regional Arts Council, they're looking at equity and equitable giving, giving to communities that haven't typically been given to before. You want to look at what, what has been your vehicle of choice or inherited vehicle. Are those still the right ones? Why do you want to change? Why do you want to change? Now? What do you all hold true? What do you see as missing? It’s asking the right questions, finding really generous and generative questions, and when people get stuck, sometimes we push, we name what's hard. Sometimes we just shake it up and we have to move around. We have to play a little bit; we have to think and move physically through the space to get to something different. So, in in many of the cases of the groups I've been working with lately, I find out that they've had the ruby slippers on and the ability all the time, they just are looking at things through a lens that wasn't necessarily theirs. You know, I just said an eye exam, right? Which lens is clear one two, or two three? Yeah, well that one works, but it's a lot clearer if I get the right ones that fit my eyes. I can see better; I can see clearer, and then I can function in the world better from looking through the right lenses. So, I feel like that navigation is really helping people find the right lenses, and often times they've had them or they've had access to them. They just didn't know they did.

      BC: Now, you've done a lot of work, advancing social change with communities and organizations. Some people may not really understand how the creative process that you use, these methods of inquiry that you use, can be relevant to people dealing with issues of poverty or crime or feelings of safety, or a sense of belonging in the world. Can you talk about that?

      SA: Yeah, I have been taking Tango in the last few years, and in interviewing veteran dancers, good leaders will say a good leader’s job is to make you feel safe and feel beautiful. I'm not going to impose something on you, I want to make you feel safe so that you could get there, and that you can shine and feel beautiful. Okay, so I'll just say that as a mover, that one's really resonating with me. In the case of working with, let's say a group of folks that have been struggling with addiction and chronic homelessness who are desperately trying to get themselves together so they can be good parents or good partners, what does it mean to feel safe and good in your own skin? How can building community helps in that quest for oneself?

      BC: So, safe and good! Talk about how these creative tools and strategies can help these wounded souls begin to feel safe and good in their own skin. 

      SA: So, for instance, would be offering up some creative tools, some designated time for people to focus on themselves, to be creative and exercise something that is really about their own expression. It's their opinion, there's no right or wrong, that allows them to find their own flow and express themselves in a way that they're not invited to very often. In that case, if the individual feels like their creative badge has been shined and polished, and other people are sharing in that, sharing in their work, they're giving an exchanging, it's still sharing story in a safe and comfortable context that allows them then to flourish and perhaps understand each other really one to one human level. So, if communities feel comfortable with the people in those communities, whatever they describe themselves to be, feel confident, safe, comfortable enough to be beautiful to be creative, I think we've got a healthier, more functional community.

      BC: So, your experience is that when you make art with folks, these things happen, a sense of safety, a sense of connection, a sense of coherence, and that people who are struggling with issues of substance abuse or poverty or equity, for these folks, this provides a foundation for individual and collective problem solving and action.

      SA: You know, it gives them agency in their own lives where maybe they haven't felt control over a lot of things. This is something you can't, you know, can't take that away from me, as the song says. I wonder, you know, there's perhaps a reason why that brain stores music, musical memories in a different place when the rest of the brain can be in trauma. What's sacred about that music? So. what is sacred about those creative juices? You know, when people's brains are otherwise traumatized, there's got to be something about the sanctity of one's own creative expression.

      BC: You know, there's an interesting theoretical conversation that's been taking place among anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists who speculate that prior to the development of language in human species, you're describing them making a musical sounds and patterns with the voice was actually an early adaptive behavior that advanced our survival as humans. First, you know, because it's a powerful way to focus the attention of the community, the tribe, and second because it reinforces that thing that you described earlier, which is a sense of identity or agency within that community. So, the answer to your question about why the brain seems to process music differently, may in fact just be that our brain evolved in a way that reinforces those things that work for us in the world, and that music is one of those. 

      SA: Yes, and I, you know, I harken back to, I mean my own upbringing was when we had people over which was often, we always had out the tinkling sticks, which are the long bamboo poles, and we did a tinkling dance, which is jumping in and out in the polls, I call it our own version of jump rope or double dutch. The idea was not to get caught by the sticks. […] Tinkling, it means it's a bird. It's mimicking these bird movements don't we always send music and dancing at all our parties. And to this day, people still talk about that. I remember all the parties in your backyard. I took it for granted that it's, it's always been a part of me to celebrate through music and through dance. It's a way of gathering family, It's a great way of sharing experiences, it’s a way of celebrating.

      BC: In your sharing this family history, you're touching on your influences and how you came to this kind of work. Could you tell more of that story?

      SA: Well, I harken all the way back to as a child grew up again the daughter of a Filipino immigrant and a white mom in Minnesota. A very interesting combination of elements. My mother, who is not a dancer nor was she Hawaiian, took great interest in for some reason, Hawaiian culture and dance and signed me up for hula lessons at a very, very young age. I was nine. And much to my chagrin, I actually started to like it and it somehow moved me to do it. It felt good to dance that way.  

      Speed ahead, my older brother had a party planning business. He was 18 years my senior. And whenever the party had a Hawaiian theme, he would pay me $5 at the time, which was a lot of money to do the hula. I learned at a young age which groups of people I wanted to do that with or for, and which I did not, when I felt like a novelty, when I was being condescended to and used in a way and when I was being appreciated for what I was doing, which I took actually very seriously because it resonated in my body. And so, at a really early age, I think I started making a distinction.  

      Speed forward, I did perform a lot, I choreographed. But what was most rewarding was when people got involved in the forum itself. I felt like there was more excitement in the room. There was something more to talk about once the performance, or once the time was over, and people felt connected and I felt more connected to them. 

      Moving forward in time, as I was doing my own work and invited into places to be artists and residents at a place called the Pillsbury House in Minneapolis, this is early 90s. I wanted to bring other artists into my evening of performance, and so they were drummers, and they were other choreographers and performers, sharing the space. And along the way, [I] met some other artists were involved in a place called intermediate arts.  

      SA: I realized that there was a need to share stories and experiences through and around and on behalf of our art. And not only those who are professional artists, or aspiring to do more through their art, but those who somehow wanted to be connected to it, who would say at first that they were not creative. I took that on as a challenge because I really thought that everybody, everyone is creative. They just at some point, we're told, not in these ways. You're not painting like you're not coloring within the lines; you're not moving, you know the body like a real dancer. I pushed back against that because I would see beauty in bodies that didn't look like mine that could really move and express. I was just exposed to so many different ways of being in the world, and seeing the world.

      So, at one point, curating an intergenerational series called Thicker than Water, Art as a Family Value, and presenting the work of two very well-known musical families in Minnesota, the Petersons were sort of the family of jazz and Minnesota, and the Buckner family who were gospel. Putting those family women together on the same stage inspired our bookkeeper at the time, who had been born on the Iron Range, was 60 years old, 65, divorced, five children,  avery quiet woman, grew up on a farm, had a background in some bookkeeping, and she came to me after seeing the program a couple of times and said “I have an idea I would like to run by you”. She was so inspired by what these other families were sharing, and she thought I have that in my family. Huh, we had a family reunion coming up. I wonder if we could do it through the arts and creative expression.

      So, she had just renovated a duplex, the lower level of her duplex, and she turned that into a gallery, [and] invited all her family from around the country to submit things that they thought were creative, that they wanted to show off, and it was everything from quilts, to the family Bible, to ice skating medals, to carving, and it ran the gamut. She invited everyone and there was just a different energy at this thing, and I actually interviewed folks, they had no idea the depth of the people in their family. I got really turned on by that by somebody else getting turned on to do something really cool, that inspired multiple generations in their own corner of the universe.

      That got my juices flowing, and I decided that --again, and learning from other folks like yourself, Bill--when we're when we create the right conditions for people to shine creatively and exercise their creativity, incredible things happen. The spirit in the room is different, conversations are different, people are divided into space differently. So, their engagement, their level of engagement, what carries on after the thing just ripples exponentially, and that is really turns me on. So that's my trajectory. I think.

      Part Two, The Rubber Meets the Road

      BC: I think this snapshot that Sandy shared about the bookkeeper’s family celebration illustrates how deeply our stories influence the ways we see each other. Through her simple invitation to share, Sandy's friend helped to reveal all those hidden layers and, in the process, nudging their family's story in different directions. I asked Sandy if she could talk more specifically about some of her own experience bringing these kinds of creative tools and strategies to bear in her own community.

      SA: Another regular practice that I have that relates is working with young people in the public schools. Storytelling, doing theater, using Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, which is really letting people make change by telling stories through just very simple snapshots, creating shapes and snapshots of a scene with their bodies and changing one element and really exploring what does it mean to change that thing, and how does that change the story.

      I am really moved and surprised, not surprised by working with a lot of young people, young kids of color, who are in many cases in dire financial and resource situations, and watching them, take control and take power situations through theater and watching change happen, and hearing their comments and listening to what questions arise, and feeling their level of excitement to get engaged in to make change. It's on a small level, but when we could see something that accessible, that small change, I think bigger things can be built upon it.

      BC: Sandy makes mention of Augusto Boal here. There's such a thing as legends in the field of art and social change, Boal certainly qualifies. He was a Brazilian theatre artist who pioneered a practice he called Theatre of the Oppressed using drama to stimulate social change in his native country and around the world. In the early 1970s, his successful work earned him the enmity of Brazil's military regime, which resulted in his being kidnapped, arrested, tortured and ultimately exiled to Argentina. His approach, often referred to as forum theatre, radically shifts the role of the audience from spectator to collaborator in performances that not only explore social issues but seek to mobilize citizen driven solutions. Here's Boal describing Forum Theatre on June 3 2005, broadcast of KPFA’s Democracy Now 

      Augusto Boal: “The Forum Theater is exactly the image of the mirror, no. We present the problem because sometimes we know what the problem is. All of us agree we have this problem, so far as the workers that go to claim for better conditions of work or better salaries or whatever everyone agrees. But how to do it we don't know. So, what we do is we present the play, whatever the theme is, whatever the problem is, we present the play, and then we look at it like normal spectators, but at the end, we say, “okay, this ended in failure”.

      So how could we change the events, everything is going to change in society in our biological life, everything's always changed, nothing's going to stay the way it is. So, how can we change this for better, and then we start again, the same play and we invite the audience to at any time that they want to say, “stop”, go to replace the protagonist and show alternatives. So, we learn from one another, you have in the scene, the wrong solution, the wrong way, and then we try to see what is the right way --- we don't know. We don't do the political theater of the 50s in which we had the propaganda, you had an idea, you have a message; we don't have the message, we have the questions, we bring them out, what can we do? And democratically everyone can say stop and jump on the scene and try solution or an alternative and then we discuss that alternative and then a second or third, as many as people are there. So, what we want is to develop the capacity of people to create, to use their intelligence, to use their sensibility

      BC: I asked Sandy how Boal's approach had worked in the context of a particular class or individual student. She told the story of a fifth grader, she called M describing him as untethered, because he would at times literally wander in and out of the classroom. Sandy asked M’s teacher if she could spend some time with him one on one. Over lunch they talked about what they were doing in class and despite his inattention, Sandy was surprised by how much had sunk in. One particular question she had asked the class seemed to have struck a chord. “If you could, what part of your story would you change?” This prompted him to talk about his parents who had been in prison. Sandy felt this sharing could be an important step forward. She found out when M returned to class and they continued their work exploring story snapshots, which Boal called tableau's.

      SA: The story was about in real...]]>b729e3ab-50a3-43eb-b899-e12f71511c7dWed, 09 Sep 2020 17:00:00 -070033:52falsefull17715: Love at the Rivers Edge: How One Activist Artist Bridged Race & Place With Shakespeare:5: Love at the Rivers Edge: How One Activist Artist Bridged Race & Place With Shakespeare:Threshold Questions and Juicy Quotes:

      Can collective creation change settled world views?

      I mean, there are a couple of Mexican families in Brussels. They're no black folks. So, I would always kid that I was like, you know, that's a cute little house, and if I bought that, I'd be okay. Like, yeah. You know, for some of those students, this was prayerfully life changing in how they see folks and communities that are different than them and for our students from Normandy.

      Can we build lasting bridges between communities separated by race and culture?

      You’ve got to have people love each other. You’ve got to have people like, "Can't wait to see you at rehearsal."... because then on stage, I got your back ... that experience it was so affirming to me about the power of just having people just talk to each other, you know, so they fell in love with each other. I fell in love with them.  

      What kind of leadership grows community ownership and accountability?

      I'm humbled by the whole experience. You know, because often people don't know or really care who the director is, and that's okay. That's my goal. So, it's nice to just be on the ferry and nobody know what my roll was in it and hear people like, this is so cool. Oh my gosh, I can't believe we're doing this.

      Links

      Blackberry Productions

      St. Louis Shakespeare Festival:

      Shakespeare, in the Streets

      Art and Upheaval,

      Wedding Community Play.

      CHIPS Health: Community Health-In-Partnership Services (d/b/a CHIPS Health and Wellness Center) is the place where uninsured and underserved people in the St. Louis metropolitan area can receive free primary and preventive health care services.

      Bread and Roses Missouri An organization with the mission of organizing arts and humanities projects about workers and their families.

       Transcript

      Margaret Mischeaux Next week is a very big week. It will not only be the 24:1 festival, but it will also be the premiere of Shakespeare in the Street, Love at the River's Edge, a rendition of As You Like It with a little bit of a twist. We are combining the counties of Brussels and St. Louis's 24:1. So basically, we talk about the divides into two communities; our similarities, our differences, our very unique ways of living.

      Bill Cleveland: From the Center for the Study of Art and Community This is Change the Story, Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation. I'm Bill Cleveland:.

      The voice you heard at the beginning of this week's episode was Margaret Mischeaux. A student and actress from Normandy High School, near St. Louis, who was one of the dozens of people touched by the story we are about to tell. We call this week's episode of Change the Story, Change the World, Love at the River's Edge. In it, we hear from actor, director, dancer and educator Kathi Bentley, whose life's journey has taken her from St. Louis, to the Freat White Way, and back again to the home of the Gateway Arch. Along the way, we learn how an aspiring young thespian grows to become a respected theatre professional, anti-racism activist, and recipient of the 2020 St. Louis Visionary Award. 

      This tale of two cities segues nicely into another powerful story of two extremely different places: the very rural Brussels, Illinois, and the St. Louis ring city of Pagedale, Missouri whose citizens are brought together by way of the unlikely interlocutor of William Shakespeare's, As you Like It in the fall of 2019. Kathi's direction of this ambitious collaboration initiated by Shakespeare Festival St. Louis's Shakespeare in the Streets Program involved hundreds of community members from both towns, as well as the Normandy School’s Collaborative, Brussels High School, and Beyond Housing, a regional community development organization. The yearlong undertaking produced a performance that not only took audiences and actors from both towns across the Mississippi River to stages in each community, but it forever changed the story of both places. My conversation with Kathi took place on May 27th, just 38 hours after George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

      Part One, Love Hate.

      BC: How are you Kathi?

      Kathi Bentley: Um, I think I'm okay. I thought I was doing good, and then I made the mistak, of getting on social media and looking at stuff and I'm just you know, I mean I already knew about the killing in Minnesota and that mixed with man in Central Park, people dying of Coronavirus. It's just a lot. So today you know, so I you know how you wake up? I'm like, Oh, I'm doing good. And then I'm then I'm just yeah. 

      BC: I mean, it's really weird. We're isolated, but we're bombarded.

      Yeah. Kathi, hopefully this conversation will be different because I want you to tell a story which of all the people in the world you know best, because it's yours. I'd like to begin by asking you to reflect that you're sitting across the table from your colleagues, and you're sharing with them what it is you do in the world. What's your work, what's your mission?

      KB: Okay! My mission is to bring people to together to create a space where we can jointly create, excavate, build, nurture, and activate stories from our shared experiences, or maybe not shared experiences, where we can have space for each other's unique experiences, and places where our experiences intersect. My work is about leading people to that place of self-discovery and affirmation that helps them to see themselves in a different way as storytellers, as members of a collective group of people. My work is to hold space for people who may not feel like they have a place or space to be who they are 

      BC:  What was the path that led you to that mission? What's the story of how you came to that work? 

      KB: Well, you know, I think as a person who's always been connected to the arts, just for my entire life, as a dancer and an actor. I moved to New York to perform, and did that, and love-hated it a lot, and got connected with an organization in Harlem that helped me to see all these other ways that I could be creative and artistic. And they had to do with working with schools or community groups, or you know, just in ways that didn't look like the traditional ‘going to an audition’, and that was really gratifying. Like, oh, I can help build a curriculum around Harlem Renaissance and how it relates to being a young boy or girl in Harlem right now, you know, or in the 90s. So that that led me to look at my creative self in a different way. As somebody who could actually instigate these kinds of stories and not solely be someone who is given a story to recreate as an actor, so it had me very excited in and like, oh, okay, I could actually help people create, help people devise work and direct other people's stories and, you know… I think that my lifelong mission of building community, it's just been part of what I've been raised to value is that community is really, really important, and the only way I know how to do it is through the arts. So that just has been the center of how I do what I do, this community building piece that's really important to me.

      BC: What was that organization that you mentioned

      KB: Oh, Blackberry Productions. I'm still really good friends with the founder. She's like a sister, she's like a big sister to me, and we did a play together, and I thought she is Looney Tune. This woman, you know […] Stephanie Berry, and she was just the most talented and creative person that I had met. I mean, she just, it was like, you know somebody wakes up with, like 15 ideas, her feet hit the floor. That’s how I felt about her, and we had we came up with a bunch of stuff, we, we still, every time we talk, we get something new. But that as a young performer, she was so inspiring as far as just the limitless creativity that we have as human beings. So, I got to work with Blackberry Productions after we worked together as performers. I worked with the company for maybe five years or so in different capacities, writing grants, I mean, stuff that I was like, Okay, well, yes, and creating curriculum, you know, all that. Just really directing. That's when I first started directing was with her company, and I got really excited about that.

      BC: So, you ended up, you're in St. Louis. I'm in St. Louis, Missouri. What Took you from finding a new spark on the street in New York, back to St. Louis?

      KB: Yeah, right […] Well, yes, I'm from here, and then right after...]]>Threshold Questions and Juicy Quotes:

      Can collective creation change settled world views?

      I mean, there are a couple of Mexican families in Brussels. They're no black folks. So, I would always kid that I was like, you know, that's a cute little house, and if I bought that, I'd be okay. Like, yeah. You know, for some of those students, this was prayerfully life changing in how they see folks and communities that are different than them and for our students from Normandy.

      Can we build lasting bridges between communities separated by race and culture?

      You’ve got to have people love each other. You’ve got to have people like, "Can't wait to see you at rehearsal."... because then on stage, I got your back ... that experience it was so affirming to me about the power of just having people just talk to each other, you know, so they fell in love with each other. I fell in love with them.  

      What kind of leadership grows community ownership and accountability?

      I'm humbled by the whole experience. You know, because often people don't know or really care who the director is, and that's okay. That's my goal. So, it's nice to just be on the ferry and nobody know what my roll was in it and hear people like, this is so cool. Oh my gosh, I can't believe we're doing this.

      Links

      Blackberry Productions

      St. Louis Shakespeare Festival:

      Shakespeare, in the Streets

      Art and Upheaval,

      Wedding Community Play.

      CHIPS Health: Community Health-In-Partnership Services (d/b/a CHIPS Health and Wellness Center) is the place where uninsured and underserved people in the St. Louis metropolitan area can receive free primary and preventive health care services.

      Bread and Roses Missouri An organization with the mission of organizing arts and humanities projects about workers and their families.

       Transcript

      Margaret Mischeaux Next week is a very big week. It will not only be the 24:1 festival, but it will also be the premiere of Shakespeare in the Street, Love at the River's Edge, a rendition of As You Like It with a little bit of a twist. We are combining the counties of Brussels and St. Louis's 24:1. So basically, we talk about the divides into two communities; our similarities, our differences, our very unique ways of living.

      Bill Cleveland: From the Center for the Study of Art and Community This is Change the Story, Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation. I'm Bill Cleveland:.

      The voice you heard at the beginning of this week's episode was Margaret Mischeaux. A student and actress from Normandy High School, near St. Louis, who was one of the dozens of people touched by the story we are about to tell. We call this week's episode of Change the Story, Change the World, Love at the River's Edge. In it, we hear from actor, director, dancer and educator Kathi Bentley, whose life's journey has taken her from St. Louis, to the Freat White Way, and back again to the home of the Gateway Arch. Along the way, we learn how an aspiring young thespian grows to become a respected theatre professional, anti-racism activist, and recipient of the 2020 St. Louis Visionary Award. 

      This tale of two cities segues nicely into another powerful story of two extremely different places: the very rural Brussels, Illinois, and the St. Louis ring city of Pagedale, Missouri whose citizens are brought together by way of the unlikely interlocutor of William Shakespeare's, As you Like It in the fall of 2019. Kathi's direction of this ambitious collaboration initiated by Shakespeare Festival St. Louis's Shakespeare in the Streets Program involved hundreds of community members from both towns, as well as the Normandy School’s Collaborative, Brussels High School, and Beyond Housing, a regional community development organization. The yearlong undertaking produced a performance that not only took audiences and actors from both towns across the Mississippi River to stages in each community, but it forever changed the story of both places. My conversation with Kathi took place on May 27th, just 38 hours after George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

      Part One, Love Hate.

      BC: How are you Kathi?

      Kathi Bentley: Um, I think I'm okay. I thought I was doing good, and then I made the mistak, of getting on social media and looking at stuff and I'm just you know, I mean I already knew about the killing in Minnesota and that mixed with man in Central Park, people dying of Coronavirus. It's just a lot. So today you know, so I you know how you wake up? I'm like, Oh, I'm doing good. And then I'm then I'm just yeah. 

      BC: I mean, it's really weird. We're isolated, but we're bombarded.

      Yeah. Kathi, hopefully this conversation will be different because I want you to tell a story which of all the people in the world you know best, because it's yours. I'd like to begin by asking you to reflect that you're sitting across the table from your colleagues, and you're sharing with them what it is you do in the world. What's your work, what's your mission?

      KB: Okay! My mission is to bring people to together to create a space where we can jointly create, excavate, build, nurture, and activate stories from our shared experiences, or maybe not shared experiences, where we can have space for each other's unique experiences, and places where our experiences intersect. My work is about leading people to that place of self-discovery and affirmation that helps them to see themselves in a different way as storytellers, as members of a collective group of people. My work is to hold space for people who may not feel like they have a place or space to be who they are 

      BC:  What was the path that led you to that mission? What's the story of how you came to that work? 

      KB: Well, you know, I think as a person who's always been connected to the arts, just for my entire life, as a dancer and an actor. I moved to New York to perform, and did that, and love-hated it a lot, and got connected with an organization in Harlem that helped me to see all these other ways that I could be creative and artistic. And they had to do with working with schools or community groups, or you know, just in ways that didn't look like the traditional ‘going to an audition’, and that was really gratifying. Like, oh, I can help build a curriculum around Harlem Renaissance and how it relates to being a young boy or girl in Harlem right now, you know, or in the 90s. So that that led me to look at my creative self in a different way. As somebody who could actually instigate these kinds of stories and not solely be someone who is given a story to recreate as an actor, so it had me very excited in and like, oh, okay, I could actually help people create, help people devise work and direct other people's stories and, you know… I think that my lifelong mission of building community, it's just been part of what I've been raised to value is that community is really, really important, and the only way I know how to do it is through the arts. So that just has been the center of how I do what I do, this community building piece that's really important to me.

      BC: What was that organization that you mentioned

      KB: Oh, Blackberry Productions. I'm still really good friends with the founder. She's like a sister, she's like a big sister to me, and we did a play together, and I thought she is Looney Tune. This woman, you know […] Stephanie Berry, and she was just the most talented and creative person that I had met. I mean, she just, it was like, you know somebody wakes up with, like 15 ideas, her feet hit the floor. That’s how I felt about her, and we had we came up with a bunch of stuff, we, we still, every time we talk, we get something new. But that as a young performer, she was so inspiring as far as just the limitless creativity that we have as human beings. So, I got to work with Blackberry Productions after we worked together as performers. I worked with the company for maybe five years or so in different capacities, writing grants, I mean, stuff that I was like, Okay, well, yes, and creating curriculum, you know, all that. Just really directing. That's when I first started directing was with her company, and I got really excited about that.

      BC: So, you ended up, you're in St. Louis. I'm in St. Louis, Missouri. What Took you from finding a new spark on the street in New York, back to St. Louis?

      KB: Yeah, right […] Well, yes, I'm from here, and then right after college, I moved to New York with my high school friend, no clue. And I lived there for 10 years, you know, a lot of growth happens between the ages of 23 and 31, perform all over the place, you know, and just be an actor. A lot of that did happen, you know, in different ways. I made friends for life there, had experiences that I just could never have had any place else but New York, because there's nowhere like it, and I'm so grateful for that experience, you know, and would advise anyone to do that. If it's in your heart to move somewhere, do it, do it.

      I lived there for 10 years and got married, had a baby. A couple years later got separated, I felt like I needed to be back home close to family, and so that brought me back here, and my mentor who I've known for since I was in college actually got me to finish my degree, convinced me build Scrivener. He just kept, you know, he talked me into it and he got me on SIUE (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville) where I teach, I want to direct I love this and I want to do some other things with this theater stuff. 

      Part Two, the Golden Eagle Ferry. 

      BC: Kathi has a growing reputation for her social justice and undoing racism work. She's made this a central part of her practice as both an educator, and as a theater director. In part two, we explore one prominent example of how this has played out in the community. 

      One of the things that I would like to ask you to do is to think about one or two stories of your work that represent the kinds of things that you're trying to accomplish with your efforts in community.

      KB: I feel so grateful because I feel like I put in in the path of projects that can be so fulfilling. I'm thinking of a wonderful experience that I got to have last year, at the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival. I got to direct their Shakespeare, in the Streets production, which is a big community involved production. It's like a yearlong prep period. I was asked to come on board, and it was going to be something unique that they hadn't done before. So, it was Love at the River's Edge, and it was an adaptation written by a phenomenal writer, Mariah Richardson, a good friend of mine, and this was going to be bringing two different communities together. A rural community and an urban community in the area separated by the river. 

      How do we do this? Usually a production is done over the course of a weekend, and now we have these two different communities where you have to take a bus and a ferry to get to the different communities.

      BC: This sounds fairly complicated. What was it about this production that really attracted you?

      KB: I love puzzles. That's the one thing about theatre that I love about directing is I get to figure out, you know, like, work with people. I love the collaboration. How do we fit all these pieces together? So, this was a true test. It was a way to really validate building community. We work with schools first. So, when you're working with a school in Brussels, Illinois, a town of 150 people I believe. 

      BC: Am I right that the other community was in Pagedale near St. Louis? They're not on each other's dance card typically, are they? 

      KB: Never, they didn't know each other. They had heard of each other. Well, Brussels had heard of Normandy, because Normandy in St. Louis, it's part of St. Louis County. Michael Brown went to Normandy High School who died in in Ferguson. So, Ferguson is part of that community. So, the people in Brussels their idea of what Normandy, what St. Louis is just like a lot of them, “We don't go there,” they just would not come to that part. You know, there's a lot of work that we had to do as a team as to you know, getting people together. 

      You had a journey where the schools came over and visited each other. A couple of the parents did not want their children coming to Normandy, so they had to miss out. You know, it was so funny when we first got them together. And you know, we had all these activities. First of all, the Brussels school is a little schoolhouse. It's a smallest one building. Normandy is huge, it looks like a college campus. Beautiful, big, beautiful school. So, when they came over here, we're like, wow, okay. This campus is huge. And, and so they were just so shocked to discover that they listen to the same radio stations, that their parents said the same kinds of things. I mean, those kinds of things that you know, we know how important that is and that it is, and yeah, we know that this is true, but to have them experience that, I'm like, oh God, please let us. 

      BC: This reminds me of one of the stories that we covered in my book, Art and Upheaval, called the Wedding Community Play. It's about a young Protestant and Catholic couple in Belfast, Northern Ireland during the troubles. They produced the play in both neighborhoods going from one to the other four different acts. Needless to say, it was a logistics nightmare. So were there any bumps in the road that you encountered trying to move people back and forth between Brussels and Normandy, Normandy and Brussels. 

      KB: When we were going over to Brussels, the river flooded, and when [that] happens, it's devastating. You cannot get to the other community. So, we didn't know what we were going to do with this production. If indeed the water rose, and we, you know, together for the year trying to like figure out how are we doing […] When we think about it now, it's like unbelievable that that got pulled off. But yeah, so we because we were trying to figure out, is it to separate casts, and I knew this was important, there has to be one cast of folks from both communities or why do this? … Why do this? 

      If no one other than these, I forget how many people right now 15-20 people… if they build a bond, then that's it. That's what we got. You know, so why else do this. So, I'm glad that we stuck to that, and we found a middle ground. We [could] only rehearse like two hours at night, because they'd have to get that last ferry to get back home. It was all the things that any you know, theater people are like that His disaster waiting to happen and I was like this is not this is like, phenomenal waiting to happen is what it was.

      BC: At this point, I thought it might be useful to share a very brief summary of As You'd Like It. So here goes. Rosalind is a young and frisky royal who is banished to the Arden forest with her cousins Celia. While there Rosalind, who is disguised as a shepherd boy named Ganymede encounters Orlando, Rosalind’s true love, who is also in hiding and in fact pining away for her. After Orlando shares his desperation with his new unsympathetic friend Ganymede, the Wise Shepherd convinces him that he can be cured of this terrible affliction and proceeds to do so, winking and nodding all the way. In the end of course, Ganymede reveals that he, or she, is Rosalind and cutting to the chase, marries Orlando during a festive and raucous group wedding at the close of the play. In it, Shakespeare takes aim at Elizabethan beliefs of love and romance, particularly the notion that these amorous entanglements are a disease that captures the heart and wounds the souls of its victims. He also posits that, depending on the circumstances, humans are both capable of extraordinary change. And yes, quite often silly. 

       Getting back to our story, I asked Kathi, how this cross country to state two-step unfolded in the early fall of 2019. 

      KB: You know, it's exciting and nerve wracking, like I would be up at night, like, “What are we going to do? How are we going to figure this out?” I mean, hundreds of people came to see, we only did show two nights and one dress rehearsal. We had 10 busloads of people. We tried to do the bus rides so that people could get to we could build more community on the bus. That was hard. It's a school bus, not a greyhound. The ride was bumpy, it was hot, it was dark. But we had actual games that we had the actors play. So, people, they were just like, “Wow!” It was like nothing they had experienced before. 

      BC:: This sounds like an amazing five ring circus. Given all the moving parts, how was the play configured in a way that worked for everybody artistically and logistically? 

      KB:: So, people would come from Brussels to see the first act, they came to Normandy just to see Act One. We had a whole two whole sets and two whole setups. So, we had a time all this perfectly. So, there were the city folk, that was Normandy, and then they go into the forest that was in Brussels. Alot of it takes place in the forest, but we managed to have a lot of the scenes that happened in that first act with the background of Normandy … You're sitting on the parking lot of this right there in the neighborhood console outdoors, right students built this beautiful set and you can See the backup. So all of that that happened in what would be called the court in the play, and some things like we really talked about, she incorporated the flood, that actually did happen, that kept us apart from each other. We...]]>d150eb03-c489-44a1-99b6-f25a5540b240Wed, 26 Aug 2020 07:00:00 -070034:31truefull1551Shakespeare building bridges across rising rivers, a generational divide, and cultural and racial difference. Two acts, on two stages, in two states, 31 miles, (an hour and a half) apart -- including ferry. All this and more in, Change the Story / Change the World’s Episode 5: Love at the Rivers Edge.3: The Gunrunner for the Arts: L.O. Sloan’s Half-Century of Thriving as an Artist for Change (Part 2)3: The Gunrunner for the Arts: L.O. Sloan’s Half-Century of Thriving as an Artist for Change (Part 2)THRESHOLD QUESTIONS AND DELICIOUS QUOTES

      ?Many older monuments are being challenged these days for for their distorted representation of history. What challenges confronted this effort to create a new monument to an an important but forgotten story?

      Well, the Department of General Services told us to do that you are going to have to get the vote of the House, the vote of the Senate, the endorsement of the governor, and you're going to have to raise the money yourself. The only word in the dictionary that I really love is no, because when you say no to me, that's like a green light. So, you know, I said, “cool beans” you know. I know how to do that, you know. So, we got a unanimous decision from the House, a vote of acclamation by the Senate, the governor's endorsement, and we raised the money to place this monument sometime this summer.

      ?How can monument building become a community organizing strategy?

      I will be sad to see the monument go in the ground, because what it has caused is a coming together a purpose, and an advocacy, and a civic dialogue, about the value of the vote and the engagement of individuals, not the leaders. The leaders all step back, said it's on you people to do this. So, this is a way that people project and the process has been monumental. It's the process that I'm hoping will continue engagement, and that many coalition efforts will come out of bringing these people together.

      ?What is the relevance of a monument building initiative like this in the time of COVID?

      And so now I'm, I'm saying, well, perhaps the dedication of a monument will be an equation and a prescription for gathering again, you know, the name of the monument was with a gathering at the at the crossroads takes on new meaning, when we look at how long will it take for people to feel comfortable about gathering, again.

      ?How does does this story inform this current moment in history?

      The story of the of the demise of the old Eighth Ward is the story of redlining today, I mean, you know, the practices of changing your polling place, redrawing neighborhoods, the suppression of black women candidates. I mean, all of the history, which we thought of in a sepia tone way that we were going to recall, we are actually reliving you know, right down to the pandemic that they suffered.

      ?What lessons can cultural organizers starting out take from a project like this?

      So, listening, humility, knowing that things come through you not from you. And you try to contain your ego that insists it was your idea. My chosen culture is New Orleans. You know, the notion of gumbo is you got two crabs, I got okra, somebody else has the roux, you know, we go make up something really good here. So be humble enough to know that you are but an equation, in any idea.

      Links

      The Crossroads Project official website. https://digitalharrisburg.com/commonwealth/ 

      Digital Harrisburg: Exploring the history, society, and culture of Pennsylvania’s capital city: //digitalharrisburg.com 

      A short documentary on the Crossroads project https://youtu.be/5bzRWI6PKYI

       

      TRANSCRIPT


      Change the Story, Change the World 

      Episode 3—LS: Gunrunner for the Arts (Pt. 2)


      Leni Sloan My current project, which is about African Americans, suffragists, 1918 to 1920, who were trying to not only support the vote for women, but to find a place for themselves and that. They were doing that against the landscape of the 1918 flu. They were doing it in a pandemic year too. They were doing it with their man coming back from World War One having fought segregation in their communities. They were doing it on the eve of a national election of 1920, and they were doing it on the eve of the 1920 Census. 

      And I felt that we needed to do something, Bill that was not about ribbon cutting or confetti, but that we needed to do something bold and audacious.

      Bill Cleveland  From the Center for the Study of art and community, this is Change the Story Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation. I'm BC. 

      In our last episode, we began our conversation with activist performer impresario and historian Linwood O Sloan, who among other things, refers to himself as a gun runner for the arts. In it he described how his love of dance, theater and history merged into a life path of creative change making across the globe that has been filled with opportunities, obstacles and a lot of learning. As a case in point he introduced us to A Gathering at the Crossroads, a work in progress currently taking place in his hometown of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. This initiative explores the history of Pennsylvania's black suffragists, the struggles bringing the franchise to African Americans and women through the US constitutions 15th The 19th amendments, Harrisburg role in the Underground Railroad and much, much more. 

      Now we rejoin our conversation with Leni, which took place in the spring of 2020 in the midst of the COVID pandemic.

      So, Leni… As you began to understand the profound importance of the history you were exploring in Harrisburg, you came to the conclusion that telling the story properly would require something bold and audacious. So, tell me, how will bold and audacious make its presence felt in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 2020?

      LS  So, I discovered that of the close to 300 iconic objects on the Pennsylvania State Capitol, 77 of which are statues, there was not a single statue or a monument to an African American, or a woman on the state capital of Pennsylvania, you know… So, I said, okay, you know, we got to fix that first, you know, and the power of public art to create public dialogue, public engagement, the power of placemaking, and cultural and heritage tourism. I was like let's find a place on this campus, which as in 2016, in 2020 will be a deciding factor in the national election, and let us make our moment that's make our place. 

      We discovered that a number of orators between 1866 and 1870, when the 15th amendment was passed, came to the Capitol from all over the Mid-Atlantic states to speak on behalf of the franchise, and through a public process we collected the names of 100 important people who had been influential between 1870 (when the 15th amendment was passed) and 1920 (when the 19th amendment was passed) in the progression of Equity and parity in the value of the vote. 

      We selected four of them, three men and one woman, to create as full life-sized bronze statues standing on a corner in Harrisburg, Pa with the 15th amendment in their hand. Yeah, in deepened dialogue bronze monument made up of the four statues standing around an orders pedestal. We also place the names of the other 96 on the body of the pedestal. Our goal was to take K. Leroy Irvis, who is passed now, Speaker of the House of Pennsylvania, who was the first black Speaker of the House since reconstruction. The Pennsylvania House of Representatives building is named after him, but the lawn on the Irvice building is the only unmanicured, un-landscaped [lawn]. It's a no place. Okay, let's use his lawn. This is an act of reparation. Let's place this monument to the vote on the K. Leroy Irvice lawn, and let's rename it to K. Leroy Irvice equality circle.

      BC   So, the proposal was to turn this neglected corner of the state capitol grounds into what constitutes a new state park. I'm assuming there are a few hoops and hurdles involved in an endeavor like that.

      LS  Well, the Department of General Services told us to do that you are going to have to get the vote of the House, the vote of the Senate, the endorsement of the governor, and you're going to have to raise the money yourself. The only word in the dictionary that I really love is no, because when you say no to me, that's like a green light. So, you know, I said, “cool beans” you know. I know how to do that, you know. So, we got a unanimous decision from the House, a vote of acclamation by the Senate, the governor's endorsement, and we raised the money to place this monument sometime this summer. We were going to do a week of celebrations from Monday, June 15th, to Friday, June 19th, using the 15th and the 19th as our emblematic dates, and also June...]]>THRESHOLD QUESTIONS AND DELICIOUS QUOTES

      ?Many older monuments are being challenged these days for for their distorted representation of history. What challenges confronted this effort to create a new monument to an an important but forgotten story?

      Well, the Department of General Services told us to do that you are going to have to get the vote of the House, the vote of the Senate, the endorsement of the governor, and you're going to have to raise the money yourself. The only word in the dictionary that I really love is no, because when you say no to me, that's like a green light. So, you know, I said, “cool beans” you know. I know how to do that, you know. So, we got a unanimous decision from the House, a vote of acclamation by the Senate, the governor's endorsement, and we raised the money to place this monument sometime this summer.

      ?How can monument building become a community organizing strategy?

      I will be sad to see the monument go in the ground, because what it has caused is a coming together a purpose, and an advocacy, and a civic dialogue, about the value of the vote and the engagement of individuals, not the leaders. The leaders all step back, said it's on you people to do this. So, this is a way that people project and the process has been monumental. It's the process that I'm hoping will continue engagement, and that many coalition efforts will come out of bringing these people together.

      ?What is the relevance of a monument building initiative like this in the time of COVID?

      And so now I'm, I'm saying, well, perhaps the dedication of a monument will be an equation and a prescription for gathering again, you know, the name of the monument was with a gathering at the at the crossroads takes on new meaning, when we look at how long will it take for people to feel comfortable about gathering, again.

      ?How does does this story inform this current moment in history?

      The story of the of the demise of the old Eighth Ward is the story of redlining today, I mean, you know, the practices of changing your polling place, redrawing neighborhoods, the suppression of black women candidates. I mean, all of the history, which we thought of in a sepia tone way that we were going to recall, we are actually reliving you know, right down to the pandemic that they suffered.

      ?What lessons can cultural organizers starting out take from a project like this?

      So, listening, humility, knowing that things come through you not from you. And you try to contain your ego that insists it was your idea. My chosen culture is New Orleans. You know, the notion of gumbo is you got two crabs, I got okra, somebody else has the roux, you know, we go make up something really good here. So be humble enough to know that you are but an equation, in any idea.

      Links

      The Crossroads Project official website. https://digitalharrisburg.com/commonwealth/ 

      Digital Harrisburg: Exploring the history, society, and culture of Pennsylvania’s capital city: //digitalharrisburg.com 

      A short documentary on the Crossroads project https://youtu.be/5bzRWI6PKYI

       

      TRANSCRIPT


      Change the Story, Change the World 

      Episode 3—LS: Gunrunner for the Arts (Pt. 2)


      Leni Sloan My current project, which is about African Americans, suffragists, 1918 to 1920, who were trying to not only support the vote for women, but to find a place for themselves and that. They were doing that against the landscape of the 1918 flu. They were doing it in a pandemic year too. They were doing it with their man coming back from World War One having fought segregation in their communities. They were doing it on the eve of a national election of 1920, and they were doing it on the eve of the 1920 Census. 

      And I felt that we needed to do something, Bill that was not about ribbon cutting or confetti, but that we needed to do something bold and audacious.

      Bill Cleveland  From the Center for the Study of art and community, this is Change the Story Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation. I'm BC. 

      In our last episode, we began our conversation with activist performer impresario and historian Linwood O Sloan, who among other things, refers to himself as a gun runner for the arts. In it he described how his love of dance, theater and history merged into a life path of creative change making across the globe that has been filled with opportunities, obstacles and a lot of learning. As a case in point he introduced us to A Gathering at the Crossroads, a work in progress currently taking place in his hometown of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. This initiative explores the history of Pennsylvania's black suffragists, the struggles bringing the franchise to African Americans and women through the US constitutions 15th The 19th amendments, Harrisburg role in the Underground Railroad and much, much more. 

      Now we rejoin our conversation with Leni, which took place in the spring of 2020 in the midst of the COVID pandemic.

      So, Leni… As you began to understand the profound importance of the history you were exploring in Harrisburg, you came to the conclusion that telling the story properly would require something bold and audacious. So, tell me, how will bold and audacious make its presence felt in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 2020?

      LS  So, I discovered that of the close to 300 iconic objects on the Pennsylvania State Capitol, 77 of which are statues, there was not a single statue or a monument to an African American, or a woman on the state capital of Pennsylvania, you know… So, I said, okay, you know, we got to fix that first, you know, and the power of public art to create public dialogue, public engagement, the power of placemaking, and cultural and heritage tourism. I was like let's find a place on this campus, which as in 2016, in 2020 will be a deciding factor in the national election, and let us make our moment that's make our place. 

      We discovered that a number of orators between 1866 and 1870, when the 15th amendment was passed, came to the Capitol from all over the Mid-Atlantic states to speak on behalf of the franchise, and through a public process we collected the names of 100 important people who had been influential between 1870 (when the 15th amendment was passed) and 1920 (when the 19th amendment was passed) in the progression of Equity and parity in the value of the vote. 

      We selected four of them, three men and one woman, to create as full life-sized bronze statues standing on a corner in Harrisburg, Pa with the 15th amendment in their hand. Yeah, in deepened dialogue bronze monument made up of the four statues standing around an orders pedestal. We also place the names of the other 96 on the body of the pedestal. Our goal was to take K. Leroy Irvis, who is passed now, Speaker of the House of Pennsylvania, who was the first black Speaker of the House since reconstruction. The Pennsylvania House of Representatives building is named after him, but the lawn on the Irvice building is the only unmanicured, un-landscaped [lawn]. It's a no place. Okay, let's use his lawn. This is an act of reparation. Let's place this monument to the vote on the K. Leroy Irvice lawn, and let's rename it to K. Leroy Irvice equality circle.

      BC   So, the proposal was to turn this neglected corner of the state capitol grounds into what constitutes a new state park. I'm assuming there are a few hoops and hurdles involved in an endeavor like that.

      LS  Well, the Department of General Services told us to do that you are going to have to get the vote of the House, the vote of the Senate, the endorsement of the governor, and you're going to have to raise the money yourself. The only word in the dictionary that I really love is no, because when you say no to me, that's like a green light. So, you know, I said, “cool beans” you know. I know how to do that, you know. So, we got a unanimous decision from the House, a vote of acclamation by the Senate, the governor's endorsement, and we raised the money to place this monument sometime this summer. We were going to do a week of celebrations from Monday, June 15th, to Friday, June 19th, using the 15th and the 19th as our emblematic dates, and also June 19, ending in the annual revisit of Juneteenth. Of course, as a gun runner for the arts, I was saying, Why Juneteenth?, because those folks in Texas didn't know the war was over, and these people in Pennsylvania don't know the war is over, and we are still on the battlefield. Yeah, so we will we take this place on the Capitol lawn, and we will make this this piece of history. 

      I have to say, the monument, the physical bronze paints, the monument is only the thing that people can lay their hands-on Bill. It's the preparation for the monument that has brought over 45 organizations across the state, and more than 200 individual artists, humanists, and scholars together. It’s the preparation for the progress. So in a way, my colleagues would hate it if I said this, I will be sad to see the monument go in the ground, because what it has caused is a coming together a purpose, and an advocacy, and a civic dialogue, about the value of the vote and the engagement of individuals, not the leaders. The leaders all step back, said it's on you people to do this. So, this is a way that people project and the process has been monumental. It's the process that I'm hoping will continue engagement, and that many coalition efforts will come out of bringing these people together.

      BC  So, Sloan speaking of processes and coalitions, you mentioned four people who figure prominently in this franchise, this neglected democracy story. I know, one of them was a guy named Jacob Compton who worked for Lincoln's Secretary of War, Simon Cameron. Who were these people and how do they personify the Crossroads?

      LS  Jacob Compton is an every man. Jacob Compton is like, the guys who are on the Iwo Jima monument, you know. He was Simon Cameron's coachman. 


      BC Simon Cameron was Lincolns First secretary of war, and a Pennsylvania native’s son.

      LS In 1861, when Abraham Lincoln came to Harrisburg on his way to his first inauguration, he was on a whistle stop tour, and when he got to Harrisburg, his guard Pinkerton, the same one that Pinkerton guards are named after, came to him and told him about the first assassination plot. This is an assassination plot on Lincoln before he is even inaugurated in 1861. Can you imagine that? Lincoln was speaking at the state capitol. Pinkerton came, and he was supposed to go to a place called the Jones Hotel. There were 1000 people waiting for him in the street and they took him through the lobby of the hotel out through the kitchen, and there a carriage was waiting and Jacob Compton, the carriage driver, who had been an agent on the Underground Railroad, knew a secret way out of Harrisburg, and spared Abraham Lincoln out of Harrisburg, and to a coach where Pinkerton took him to Washington, and to his inauguration and into history. And I asked Republicans, if Jacob Compton didn't know the way out of dodge, would there have even been a party of Lincoln?

      So, this obscure man who has not written anywhere in the history, he went on to become dig in, in the AME church, a great speaker in the 1866 Negro Convention in Pittsburgh, and a passionate advocate of the 15th amendment, and use the AME church pulpits across Pennsylvania to promote

      William Howard Day intersects with Jacob Compton's life in that William Howard Day was an orator, and an educator. He was trained at Oberlin College. John Brown was his teacher, and John Brown laid the base coat for William Howard Day’s social advocacy. When Jacob Compton joined the United States Colored Troops 180,000 black men fought in the Civil War on the Union side as the United States Colored Troops. At the end of war there was something called the Grand Review of Soldiers, of all the Union soldiers marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House where they were mustered out and officially ended their service, except for the 180,000 black soldiers. They were not invited to march in the Grand Review. Since Simon Cameron had been the secretary for Lincoln, and he lived in Harrisburg, they staged a grand review in Harrisburg. William Howard Day was the keynote speaker of that grand review. So, he helped Jacob Compton to finish his public service. He then stayed in Harrisburg and became the first black superintendent of schools in the state of Pennsylvania and also the one of the founding members of the library society that started the Pennsylvania Public Library System. 

      Thomas Morris Chester’s family lived about four blocks away from that, and Thomas Morris Chester had grown up in Harrisburg, was schooled in Pittsburgh under Martin Delaney. Martin Delaney, St. Thomas Chester to Africa before the Civil War. They believe that a black man was not going to get a chance in in America, and so they were going to take all freeborn blacks who were landowners, combined together, they were going to buy land in Africa and they were going to get out of here. They were going to book you're going to use the vernacular. Chester was an Exoduster. Chester had organized an incredible group of men together from all over the Mid-Atlantic states to respond to Abraham Lincoln on the Emancipation Proclamation. They were not convinced about the Emancipation Proclamation at all. And in fact, they elected 70 men to go to Washington DC and present their rebuttal to the Emancipation Proclamation. They don't teach that as in any history book, you know, there's no history people can tell you that three men of color had a rebuttal to the Emancipation Proclamation.

      BC  So am I right that Lincoln was actually on board he was partial to this notion of getting on boats going back across the ocean?

      LS  He was like “I'm with you. Pack up your guys. We'll get you your freedom if you get out of dodge”. That's not a Lincoln story either. Chester continued to work and he became first black journalists of a major American newspaper. Philadelphia and bear he met a woman by the name of Francis Ellen Watkins Harper, who had been a suffragist. She had been at Seneca with Elizabeth Caddy and Lucretia Mott. They had put it to her to use the vernacular. They were the white suffragists, were very concerned that black men would get the right to vote before white women, and they told Francis Harper that either she had to be a abolitionists or suffragist. You know, she couldn't be on both teams And she made a very famous speech, which asked the question, am I a black woman or a black woman, and she was also the first black woman to have a major newspaper in Pennsylvania. 

      BC  So, how are these incredible stories going to show up in the development and design of the monument that we'll be playing placed on the State Capitol grounds?

      LS  And so, these four people Jacob Compton, Thomas Morris Chester, William Howard Day, and Francis Harper are standing around this orator’s pedestal. One last piece about that, Francis has the 15th amendment in her hand and the statues animation is that she's handing it back to William Howard Day saying, “I don't see myself in this thing anywhere”, you know. “Boys, this is not good enough”. That's my own little like, secret caption, you know, through the artist, three of the brilliant sculptors, you get it, that she's like, she's not convinced. Also, that all between 1870 and 1920 is Jim Crow. It’s the end of reconstruction, it’s lynching you know, is it well you know, so it's just not those two dates on the calendar. It's the 50 years of struggle between the two that monument speaks to.

      BC So one of the things that Leni mentioned when we first started to talk about this project is the juxtaposition of history, human creativity, and the power of story. Whose story gets told, or erased, or whose stories are embellished, whose or distorted? Throughout the years, one of the constants of Leni's work has been his reverence for an investment in those discarded and distorted stories. I know the statue being installed as an important symbol, but my sense was that for this project, it is more a means than an end. That Leni's primary interest here is in the living, breathing, engagement of the social sphere of provoking civic conversation and changing consciousness. As is often the case when I asked Leni to respond on to this, he not only answered with an apt metaphor, he revealed yet another layer of inquiry and organizing.

      LS  Yes, the bronze is a GPS marker for the dialogue. It's a point of reference for the social engagement and for the dialogue. I have no idea, as you well know, what I am doing. I just get up and do it. So, when we chose the place for the monument, the K. Leroy Irvis lawn, we didn't know at the time that the site that we chose have been a dynamic free black community that had grown up since 1850, after the Fugitive Slave Act. We didn't know that it was an authentic side of the Underground Railroad, that it was a community called the Eighth Ward, that the majority of the people of the Eighth Ward had been freemen and freedmen. We didn't know that it took 70, 80 years for that black community to build the community around the Capitol, and it took exactly 26 months for it to be all torn down through eminent domain to build the Capitol Park. 

      So suddenly, I was on another mission, and that was defined the children of the old Eighth Ward. A block away from the main street of the old eighth Ward was the Federal Fugitive Slave Office. And the bounty hunters used to come into the black neighborhood every morning and tack up wanted signs, and what kind of intimidation must that have been for people to continue to function as agents on the Underground Railroad in a safe house?

      BC  So, Leni, I can just say there...]]>868fea77-8ff9-4020-9656-753cb0861708Wed, 12 Aug 2020 07:00:00 -070034:22falsefull1331In our last episode, we began our conversation with Lenwood O. Sloan, who among other things, refers to himself as a gun runner for the arts. He introduced us to A Gathering at the Crossroads, that explores the history of Pennsylvania's black suffragists, the struggles bringing the franchise to African Americans and women through the US constitutions 15th The 19th amendments and Harrisburg role in the Underground Railroad.2: The Gunrunner for the Arts: L.O. Sloan’s Half-Century of Thriving as an Artist for Change (Part 1)2: The Gunrunner for the Arts: L.O. Sloan’s Half-Century of Thriving as an Artist for Change (Part 1)This week we'll meet activist/performer/impresario and historian Lenwood O. Sloan, a man whose extraordinary career has unfolded like a half century-long social change musical.

      THRESHOLD QUESTIONS AND DELICIOUS QUOTES

      ?What defines a "gunrunner for the arts?"

      "I try to take things that already exist, and through positioning and repositioning to create magic, you know, to motivate, but performance and visual art, literature and writing, film, you know, whatever medium is the best catalyst or elixir for the magic, but I'm a gun runner for the arts"

      ? How does history become an art form?

      "Well, you know, everything has a history, and everything has a story, and it's the human person that is the juice that brings the linear, sequential, chronological history, and oral tradition of storytelling together into art. It's not what happened in 1864, 1791, or 2018 you know. It's who were the people? What does it mean to you? What relevance does it have for your story today?"

      ?What can the historic struggles for the passage of the 15th and 19th amendments to the U.S. Constitution teach us as we navigate the Covid Universe?

      "You know African American women, 1918 to 1920, who were trying to not only support to vote for women but to find a place for themselves and that they were doing that against the landscape of the 1918 flu. They were doing it in a pandemic year. You know, they were doing it with their men coming back from World War One having segregation in their communities. They, they were doing it on the eve of a national election of 1920, and they were doing it on the eve of the 1920 Census."

      ?Monuments have often been used to distort and obscure our complex history. How can a monument reveal and celebrate these buried stories?

      "So I felt that it was essential that we do something old and big and exciting between the primary and the national election to call African Americans and women through the vote, and I felt that we needed to do something Bill that was not about ribbon cutting or confetti, but that we needed to do something bold and audacious"

      TRANSCRIPT

      Episode 2—Leni Sloan: A Gunrunner for the Arts

      Bill Cleveland: Leni Sloan's father was an iron worker in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He made his mark scaling and helping to erect the tallest buildings in that city's newly soaring post World War Two skyline. When he wasn't climbing iron, Leni's dad would wander local fields lovingly netting butterflies for his precious collection. When Leni was a teenager, his dad took a fall on the job that put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. When I met Leni in the late 1970s, he described a play he was working on. A tribute to his father called Wheels and Butterflies, which, in turn inspired me to make this song.

      From the Center for the Study of Art and Community, this is Change the Story Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation. I'm Bill Cleveland.

      When I was a kid, I fell in love with the 1930s movie musicals that would often appear on late-night TV. I'm not sure what it was that attracted me. I suppose their airy predictability was reassuring, a little romance, a little drama all wrapped up in a comforting embrace of those inevitably over the top song and dance numbers.

      "Hey, kids, listen up. I'm going to write a show for us, and we could put it on right here."

      Now, my friend Leni Sloan grew up watching those old TV shows too, and like me, he took them to heart.

      The first time I saw, Leni was on a Sacramento stage, starring in a musical played also written and directed called the Wake. The Wake also had a provocative subtitle, three black, and three white refined Jubilee minstrels. It had been commissioned by San Francisco's de Young Museum as a part of the 1976 us bicentennial celebration. The production I saw was in the middle of a three-year World Tour. The story was set in the backstage dressing room at the Ziegfeld Follies, where the ghosts of six famous minstrels, three black and three white from the past, were gathered for a week to lament the death of Bert Williams the last and arguably the greatest black minstrel. As the play unfolded, the minstrels sang and cakewalk, and argued the hundred- and 50-year story of minstrelsy. Looking back, the show was a quintessential Leni Sloan production, combining music, dance, and drama with a heavy dose of long-forgotten and often painful history. It was both a tribute to a great musical tradition and a condemnation of the brutal racism that helped define it.

      In this week's episode of Change the Story, Change the World, we'll explore the life and times of activist/performer/impresario and historian Lenwood O. Sloan, a man whose extraordinary career has unfolded like a half century-long social change musical. Some see Leni as an artistic shapeshifter. I just think of him as a creative dynamo.

      However you characterize him, he's certainly done a lot as a dancer with Alvin Ailey and the Joffrey Ballet; as an arts leader at the San Francisco Arts Commission, California Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts; as a manager of cultural tourism initiatives in Pennsylvania and California and Louisiana: as a contributor to numerous award-winning television productions; and as a producer, director and performer of dozens of performance works, including Voodoo Macbeth, the Creole Mass, Her Talking Drum, Sweet Saturday Night and the show where we met, The Wake. [AN1]

      Our conversation took place at the end of April 2020, a couple of months into this surreal strangeness of what I've come to refer to as Planet COVID.

      So, I'm happy to be here talking to my friend and colleague, Leni Sloan. Let me start by saying thanks in advance for what I'm sure is going to be a great conversation. I'd like to start by scratching into your history a bit, given the many years we've known each other, I don't know that I've ever asked you, how do you define you work?

      Leni Sloan: Well, as you well know, my nom de plume and my book is catalytic agent. So, my work is to be glue or yeast or baking soda or to cause things to come together and bond and bind them when they're not, so I have used whatever art form necessary. My spirit is as a dancer. For almost 40 years, when people said, "What do you do? I would say, “I am a dancer.”

      I've come across at 1906 definition of magic, and The Webster's dictionary in 1906 says that magic is the manipulation of ordinary things in extraordinary ways. And so now I refer to myself as a magician. I try to take things that already exist, and through positioning and repositioning to create magic, you know, to motivate, but performance and visual art, literature and writing, film, you know, whatever medium is the best catalyst or elixir for the magic, but I'm a gun runner for the arts. It's really, I really am

      Bill Cleveland: I really can't argue with that, but Leni, Tell me, how did you come to that? You know, as a young person growing up. How did you become this creative gunrunner catalytic healer troublemaker using art to ask hard questions and, and, move mountains?

      Leni Sloan: I've always wanted to be a dancer. There was an elderly lady that lived across the street from my parents named Mrs. Jones, and she would call my mother up, and she'd say, your son is at it again, you know. We lived on a hill with 27 steps to the house, and I had seen I'll [AN2] Build a Stairway to Paradise. Whenever I had to take the garbage down the steps, I would go dance up and down the stairs. My grandparents were religious about watching Lawrence Welk, and I would see these guys dancing Lark Well, I was like, "You can make a living dancing. You mean, they actually pay?" Of course, I always wanted to be Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly, depending upon which movie.

      I chose early to be a dancer and an artist. My parents said, "No, you're going to be a historian". And so, you know, well, Cleveland, that I am a dance historian, you know? (laughter) …Yeah. I think that I finally found the amalgamation between work, history and performing arts, in the looking at social systems and social periods and trying to glean from them. Now,

      Bill Cleveland: I'm a student of history too. I really do believe that if you don't know your history, you're very likely to repeat it, particularly the bad parts. As Leni points out. In the second part of our interview in Episode Three, that's happening right now in 2021 of the so-called pillars of democracy is that an informed citizenry is necessary for good government. It's not just a nice thing or an ideal thing. It's essential for our experiment in self-governing to function. Otherwise, it doesn't work, so being well informed about what has happened in the democracy laboratory before we put on our lab coats is pretty basic. But for most of us what passes for history in school is just a gray moment in the schedule when the minute hands on the clock on the wall seemed to go backward.

      Somehow, though, after his parental course correction from performing arts to history, Leni Sloan not only fell in love with history, he also found a way to expand his universe to include not only his first love dance and theater, but also the added mission of changing the world. Needless to say, I was curious about how that all came together.

      Leni Sloan: When I was in high school, we had...]]>This week we'll meet activist/performer/impresario and historian Lenwood O. Sloan, a man whose extraordinary career has unfolded like a half century-long social change musical.

      THRESHOLD QUESTIONS AND DELICIOUS QUOTES

      ?What defines a "gunrunner for the arts?"

      "I try to take things that already exist, and through positioning and repositioning to create magic, you know, to motivate, but performance and visual art, literature and writing, film, you know, whatever medium is the best catalyst or elixir for the magic, but I'm a gun runner for the arts"

      ? How does history become an art form?

      "Well, you know, everything has a history, and everything has a story, and it's the human person that is the juice that brings the linear, sequential, chronological history, and oral tradition of storytelling together into art. It's not what happened in 1864, 1791, or 2018 you know. It's who were the people? What does it mean to you? What relevance does it have for your story today?"

      ?What can the historic struggles for the passage of the 15th and 19th amendments to the U.S. Constitution teach us as we navigate the Covid Universe?

      "You know African American women, 1918 to 1920, who were trying to not only support to vote for women but to find a place for themselves and that they were doing that against the landscape of the 1918 flu. They were doing it in a pandemic year. You know, they were doing it with their men coming back from World War One having segregation in their communities. They, they were doing it on the eve of a national election of 1920, and they were doing it on the eve of the 1920 Census."

      ?Monuments have often been used to distort and obscure our complex history. How can a monument reveal and celebrate these buried stories?

      "So I felt that it was essential that we do something old and big and exciting between the primary and the national election to call African Americans and women through the vote, and I felt that we needed to do something Bill that was not about ribbon cutting or confetti, but that we needed to do something bold and audacious"

      TRANSCRIPT

      Episode 2—Leni Sloan: A Gunrunner for the Arts

      Bill Cleveland: Leni Sloan's father was an iron worker in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He made his mark scaling and helping to erect the tallest buildings in that city's newly soaring post World War Two skyline. When he wasn't climbing iron, Leni's dad would wander local fields lovingly netting butterflies for his precious collection. When Leni was a teenager, his dad took a fall on the job that put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. When I met Leni in the late 1970s, he described a play he was working on. A tribute to his father called Wheels and Butterflies, which, in turn inspired me to make this song.

      From the Center for the Study of Art and Community, this is Change the Story Change the World, a chronicle of art and transformation. I'm Bill Cleveland.

      When I was a kid, I fell in love with the 1930s movie musicals that would often appear on late-night TV. I'm not sure what it was that attracted me. I suppose their airy predictability was reassuring, a little romance, a little drama all wrapped up in a comforting embrace of those inevitably over the top song and dance numbers.

      "Hey, kids, listen up. I'm going to write a show for us, and we could put it on right here."

      Now, my friend Leni Sloan grew up watching those old TV shows too, and like me, he took them to heart.

      The first time I saw, Leni was on a Sacramento stage, starring in a musical played also written and directed called the Wake. The Wake also had a provocative subtitle, three black, and three white refined Jubilee minstrels. It had been commissioned by San Francisco's de Young Museum as a part of the 1976 us bicentennial celebration. The production I saw was in the middle of a three-year World Tour. The story was set in the backstage dressing room at the Ziegfeld Follies, where the ghosts of six famous minstrels, three black and three white from the past, were gathered for a week to lament the death of Bert Williams the last and arguably the greatest black minstrel. As the play unfolded, the minstrels sang and cakewalk, and argued the hundred- and 50-year story of minstrelsy. Looking back, the show was a quintessential Leni Sloan production, combining music, dance, and drama with a heavy dose of long-forgotten and often painful history. It was both a tribute to a great musical tradition and a condemnation of the brutal racism that helped define it.

      In this week's episode of Change the Story, Change the World, we'll explore the life and times of activist/performer/impresario and historian Lenwood O. Sloan, a man whose extraordinary career has unfolded like a half century-long social change musical. Some see Leni as an artistic shapeshifter. I just think of him as a creative dynamo.

      However you characterize him, he's certainly done a lot as a dancer with Alvin Ailey and the Joffrey Ballet; as an arts leader at the San Francisco Arts Commission, California Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts; as a manager of cultural tourism initiatives in Pennsylvania and California and Louisiana: as a contributor to numerous award-winning television productions; and as a producer, director and performer of dozens of performance works, including Voodoo Macbeth, the Creole Mass, Her Talking Drum, Sweet Saturday Night and the show where we met, The Wake. [AN1]

      Our conversation took place at the end of April 2020, a couple of months into this surreal strangeness of what I've come to refer to as Planet COVID.

      So, I'm happy to be here talking to my friend and colleague, Leni Sloan. Let me start by saying thanks in advance for what I'm sure is going to be a great conversation. I'd like to start by scratching into your history a bit, given the many years we've known each other, I don't know that I've ever asked you, how do you define you work?

      Leni Sloan: Well, as you well know, my nom de plume and my book is catalytic agent. So, my work is to be glue or yeast or baking soda or to cause things to come together and bond and bind them when they're not, so I have used whatever art form necessary. My spirit is as a dancer. For almost 40 years, when people said, "What do you do? I would say, “I am a dancer.”

      I've come across at 1906 definition of magic, and The Webster's dictionary in 1906 says that magic is the manipulation of ordinary things in extraordinary ways. And so now I refer to myself as a magician. I try to take things that already exist, and through positioning and repositioning to create magic, you know, to motivate, but performance and visual art, literature and writing, film, you know, whatever medium is the best catalyst or elixir for the magic, but I'm a gun runner for the arts. It's really, I really am

      Bill Cleveland: I really can't argue with that, but Leni, Tell me, how did you come to that? You know, as a young person growing up. How did you become this creative gunrunner catalytic healer troublemaker using art to ask hard questions and, and, move mountains?

      Leni Sloan: I've always wanted to be a dancer. There was an elderly lady that lived across the street from my parents named Mrs. Jones, and she would call my mother up, and she'd say, your son is at it again, you know. We lived on a hill with 27 steps to the house, and I had seen I'll [AN2] Build a Stairway to Paradise. Whenever I had to take the garbage down the steps, I would go dance up and down the stairs. My grandparents were religious about watching Lawrence Welk, and I would see these guys dancing Lark Well, I was like, "You can make a living dancing. You mean, they actually pay?" Of course, I always wanted to be Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly, depending upon which movie.

      I chose early to be a dancer and an artist. My parents said, "No, you're going to be a historian". And so, you know, well, Cleveland, that I am a dance historian, you know? (laughter) …Yeah. I think that I finally found the amalgamation between work, history and performing arts, in the looking at social systems and social periods and trying to glean from them. Now,

      Bill Cleveland: I'm a student of history too. I really do believe that if you don't know your history, you're very likely to repeat it, particularly the bad parts. As Leni points out. In the second part of our interview in Episode Three, that's happening right now in 2021 of the so-called pillars of democracy is that an informed citizenry is necessary for good government. It's not just a nice thing or an ideal thing. It's essential for our experiment in self-governing to function. Otherwise, it doesn't work, so being well informed about what has happened in the democracy laboratory before we put on our lab coats is pretty basic. But for most of us what passes for history in school is just a gray moment in the schedule when the minute hands on the clock on the wall seemed to go backward.

      Somehow, though, after his parental course correction from performing arts to history, Leni Sloan not only fell in love with history, he also found a way to expand his universe to include not only his first love dance and theater, but also the added mission of changing the world. Needless to say, I was curious about how that all came together.

      Leni Sloan: When I was in high school, we had something called the Student United Nations. High school was assigned a country in the United Nations, and for that entire year, every Saturday, you went to Carnegie Mellon, and you became the delegate from that country, following that country's position, it's history, chins on the floor. When I was in 10th grade, our school had Morocco, and so I would go to the meeting dressed in my mother's tablecloths, and you know, wrap my head with shawls and tablecloths. "This is not fair," they said, you know, I said, "Oh, no, all, all life is theater. All life is theater."

      We advanced in my junior year we were Spain and my senior year we were Haiti, and each year the organizers would say you have to stop wearing costumes you know, and I'd say "but you told us to become" you know, this is what I saw that delegate wear.

      Bill Cleveland: So, what is it about history? What is it about becoming immersed in the story of a place that so beguiled you that motivated you that captured your imagination?

      Leni Sloan: I that's a very good question. I love studying gestures, stance, and attitude. And I felt that all of history is really the dates and the markers are not nearly as important as the culture, the language, the mores, the attitudes of the people. And so, in each aspect of history, I try not to capture the linear, sequential chronology of place and time, but the nuance, the texture, the emotion, that temperament, the fascia that really defines one people from another.

      Bill Cleveland: Now, wasn't there a point back then when you came to that proverbial fork in the road where you're supposed to go one way or the other, and didn't you sort of end up taking both? How did that come about?

      Leni Sloan: In my senior year, there was an incredible woman her name was Jean Gant, and I'll always remember Mrs. Gant. Billy, she wore huge hats like Jackie Kennedy hats, or breakfast at Tiffany hat and veils. And I didn't know at that time she had cancer, and that's why she hid behind the veils, but she called me to her side in my senior year, as I was entering my senior year, and she lifted her veil, and she said "You will never be a diplomat, but you're a damn good actor." And she gave me a scholarship in my senior year to the Pittsburgh Playhouse. That's how I entered theater in my senior year in the Pittsburgh Playhouse.

      It happened to be the same year that WQED was doing Mr. Rogers and they needed kids on the set, and so, I was sent from the Pittsburgh Playhouse to be on the set. That won me a scholarship to Temple University for theater and I thought I was leaving history and entering the theater at that that time, but it was before the Civil Rights Movement, and I got the Temple and I was told there are no roles for you. There are no there were no plays written for black people, either. You can become a designer, you can become a set designer, you could be a lighting person, but you can't perform. And so I went back to the to the history department.

      Bill Cleveland: Sadly, that's not an uncommon story, but it didn't stop you did it?

      Leni Sloan: It was important because it gave me the grounding for my historical approach my analytical approach to history, and it also gave me in my I belong to the theater clubs, and I eventually did get my minor in costume design and in choreography, and that led me to a scholarship with the Joffrey Ballet and opportunity to study at the Alvin Ailey School, so those two things have always been my grounding influences; my love of the art and my desire to decode and reconstruct historical events.

      Bill Cleveland: So when was it that you realize that decoding and reconstructing history could be disruptive in ways that some people didn't exactly appreciate --- that pushing for change was not always going to win you friends?

      Leni Sloan: I think I realized in my senior year We're in, at Temple University, when I challenged my professors in the theatre department to rethink character. I got kicked out of school for a semester for that challenge, but eventually won my first and only role in a play called Queen in the Rebel, by Hugo Betty, and Dr. Randall, who does theater building at Temple University is named after allowed me to play Malpa the sadistic soldier.

      And so I studied every sadistic soldier in history and revolutions. And yeah, I was like, what made him what made him this way, you know, and I decided I was going to wear a hump on my back and a wooden lock in my shoes. He had only 12 lines, but I had to create what caused him to be sadistic. He created the narrative. So I took Malpa to a new place.

      Bill Cleveland: I think one of the reasons that our history loses its vibrancy is that much of the color literally and figuratively has been drained from the body of stories that rise up from the dusty attics and archives in the past.

      Ron Chew, the founder of Seattle's Wing Luke Museum understood this instinctively when he began considering how to best find and share the Hidden History of Seattle's Asian communities. Instead of assuming the traditional curatorial role as the authority as the teller, he turned to his neighbors in those communities and asked, "What stories do you have to share from your family's experience? What do you have in your attic? in basements that can animate those stories".

      One of my mentors, the historian Paige Smith knew this too when he wrote his eight-volume People's History of the United States, he focused almost entirely on original First Voice sources from the times he was researching and writing about. The reason I'm mentioning this is that Leni Sloan seems to have followed a similar path, but with a slightly different twist. To me his way of exploring history combines both documentary and creative processes. As a result, most of his initiatives contain elements of research, making, and translating, as well as provocation and celebration. To probe this idea, I asked him how he sees the two characters, the historian and the artist showing up in his work.

      Leni Sloan: Well, you know, everything has a history, and everything has a story, and it's the human person that is the juice that brings the linear, sequential, chronological history, and oral tradition of storytelling together into art. It's not what happened in 1864, 1791, or 2018 you know. It's who were the people? What does it mean to you? What relevance does it have for your story today? How does it resonate.

      My current project which is about African American suffragists and the 19th amendment, is a project that I'm working on now. You know African American women, 1918 to 1920, who were trying to not only support to vote for women but to find a place for themselves and that they were doing that against the landscape of the 1918 flu. They were doing it in a pandemic year. You know, they were doing it with their men coming back from World War One having filed segregation in their communities. They, they were doing it on the eve of a national election of 1920, and they were doing it on the eve of the 1920 Census.

      Bill Cleveland: Just like the spring of 2020.

      Leni Sloan: All those conditions are happening today. You know, we have only to look at the history of 1918 to 1920 and figure out how did those women keep true Bill? Yeah, how did they maintain the integrity of their actions when they weren't being counted in the census, when they weren't being allowed to vote, when they were afraid that they were going to die of the flu, when their men were broken from the war. Well, that's, that's, that's yesterday's news, you know. So it's not an old inky dusty sepia-tone thing. It's a vibrant thing that if you if you take out and you hold the same way that a scientist or a doctor would use an X-ray to look at what's wrong with you and prescribe something, I'm telling my colleagues this day, do not be afraid of the corona virus, let us look at these women doing the influenza thing and see how did they survive and thrive and endure in their advocacy? There are lessons to be learned, looking backward to go forward.

      Bill Cleveland: So, let's jump into that. looking backwards to see the way forwards because you have this extraordinary parallel universe of history repeating itself where the past has been both forgotten and ignored and what we're going through now is being seen as unprecedented. So, describe this project and how you're going to animate the historical record with these familiar elements, along with the passage of the 15th and 19th amendments, bringing the franchise to black men and women in a way that resonates somehow with the upside down world that we're experiencing right now.

      Leni Sloan: Well, the project is called A Gathering at the Crossroads. A Gathering at the Crossroads is a new monument to be placed on the Capitol grounds of the Pennsylvania State Capitol. June 15th was supposed to be the dedication date. We will see, but, June of 2020 is simultaneously the hundred and 150th anniversary of the passage of the 15th amendment, and the hundredth anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment. It's extraordinary that those two days, that those two events would cross each other at the height of the 2020 national election.

      Pennsylvania was the fourth state in the Union to ratify the 15th amendment, and Pennsylvania was the seventh state in the Union to ratify the 19th amendment. So the Commonwealth has real ownership in the best sense of that of the legacy of voting. But there are two Pennsylvania, which is also the crossroads, you know, Pennsylvania was a swing state in the 2016 election of Trump, you know, and Pennsylvania, a speaker of...]]>22ea0606-9926-4cac-9dfb-273211553063Tue, 21 Jul 2020 07:00:00 -070024:59falsefull12211.: How Art and Social Change Shaped My Life1.: How Art and Social Change Shaped My LifeBad home, Drugs, and prison. A predictable story? Sure, except when you throw in the National Cathedral choir, a geodesic dome, and the stubborn belief that art can save the world.

      This is the first episode of a podcast produced by the Center for the Study of Art & Community called Change the Story, Change the World. (now called ART IS CHANGE) My name is Bill Cleveland. In this first episode I share the very personal story of how this podcast came to be and try to answer why would anybody want to listen to it. It’s a journey of many decades. It begins in the leafy suburbs of our nation’s capital around the time that America started losing what some have called its innocence---Along the way we encounter hippie communes, the requisite drugs, sex and rock and roll, art colonies in prisons, and armies of artists doing battle with the likes of the Slobodan Milosevic, Pol Pot and the US Department of Justice. This week on Change the Story, Change the World, I share how my story crosses paths with the early history and extraordinary growth of the global community arts movement.

      THRESHOLD QUESTIONS AND DELICIOUS QUOTES

      ?Can the creative process be a lifeline for people who are struggling?

      "The pervasive, penetrating pulse of all that music was a god damn miracle, all at once a soothing balm, a shattering depth charge, and a transcendent window into other dimensions."

      ?Can art help us re-imagine and recreate the social and cultural fabric of our communities?

      "One of the bedrock understandings of the hippie universe was, to coin a phrase “you can’t always get what you want, but if you really need it, well, you can make it yourself.” So, in no time at all, we found ourselves imagining that we could make our OWN music.”

      ?What was CETA and how did it give birth to an ever-expanding community arts movement?

      "The prison partnerships we forged … were both groundbreaking and challenging. They taught is a whole lot in a hurry about what artists need to do to build trust with new communities and neighborhood organizations."

      ? How can art help change the toxic nature of America’s prisons?

      "In those instants, we could see prison artists kind of tuning in, you know, moving from static to clear reception."

      ?How can these transformative stories feed the development of a growing community of creative change agents?

      "By the end of the Art in Other Places Conference, we had a mountain of documentation on artists and programs from all over the country. We had made a commitment to NEA to produce … a report, but to really tell the story of what was going on we had to do more, much more."

      ?How can artists help re-build civic infrastructure, heal unspeakable trauma, and give new voice to the forgotten and disappeared?

      "Art and Upheaval took me on an 8-year global journey, documenting artists working in communities facing intense, real-time conflict and trauma.”

      ?What is Change the Story / Change the World and why should anyone want to tune in?

      "We are doing this because we believe that meeting the obvious and daunting challenges of this century is going to require a revolution of thought and deed — in essence, a new set of stories powerful enough to change beliefs and behaviors."


      LINKS

      1. The Hangin' On, William Cleveland from Songlines, by Cleveland Plainsong
      2. Washington's Howard Theater played host to many of the great Black musical artists of the early and mid-twentieth centur was billed as the "Theater of the People."
      3. Fritz Perls, a German-born psychoanalyst Perls coined the term 'Gestalt therapy' to identify the form of psychotherapy that he developed with his wife, Laura Perls, in the 1940s and 1950s. Perls became associated with the Esalen Institute in 1964, and he lived there until 1969.
      4. CETA and the Arts (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act) Here is an analysis of the impact of the U.S. Federal Government's largest annual investment in the arts.
      5. The William James Association's Prison Arts Project contracts with visual, literary and performing artists to provide in-depth, long-term arts experiences for incarcerated men and women in California state prison facilities.
      6. Art In Other Places: Artists at Work in America's Community & Social Institutions, William Cleveland
      7. Art and Upheaval: Artists on the Worlds Frontlines, William Cleveland


      TRANSCRIPT

      (Music) THE HANGIN ON

      “The Hangin On” is probably the saddest song I’ve ever written. But its more complicated than that, because, you see, the unfortunate story it represents also precipitated its creation. So, for me, it’s also a song of redemption, one of many that have emerged over the years that have both taught me, first-hand, about the healing power of human creativity and, to put it bluntly, probably saved my life.

      From the Center for the Study of Art and Community this is Change the Story, Change the World, A Chronicle of Art and Transformation. I’m Bill Cleveland.

      Bad home, Drugs, rock and roll, prison. A not uncommon and fairly predictable trajectory, but not really, especially when you throw in the National Cathedral choir, a geodesic dome, and the stubborn belief that art can save the world. You’ve tuned in to the first episode of Change the Story Change the World. In this first chapter we share a very personal and, no doubt highly biased account of how I came to believe that assertion with all my heart and soul.

      It’s a journey of many decades. It begins in the leafy suburbs of our nation’s capital around the time that America started losing what some have called its innocence---Along the way we will encounter hippie communes, the requisite drugs, sex and rock and roll, art colonies in prisons, and armies of artists doing battle with = the likes of the Slobodan Milosevic, Pol Pot and the US Department of Justice. This Change the Story, Change the World, I share how my story crosses paths with the early history and extraordinary growth of the global community arts movement.

      Part 1

      I’m a lucky man. Lucky and incredibly fortunate. To be sure I am a white guy who grew up in the suburbs with good public schools and a swimming pool down the street. All obvious markers of middle-class white privilege in post WW II America. But no, what proved to be the real impetus for what I now think of as a charmed life, came from a different, less obvious place. A place that has much more to do with survival than the silver spoon.

      You see, the story unfolding in the Cleveland house was, like too many others I came to know, not what it seemed. My brother, sister and I grew up in a in a slow-moving nightmare born of my parents making what some folks call bad choices and I call just doing bad shit when they drank too much, particularly my dad.

      Don’t get me wrong, I loved my parents, and they taught me a lot, but, sometimes bad is just bad. The obvious antidote was, of course, to split as soon as possible. So, as we came of age, the three of us, ran in different directions. Predictably, the compass for my own escape, pointed, well--- due nowhere. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate, my one-way ticket was...]]>Bad home, Drugs, and prison. A predictable story? Sure, except when you throw in the National Cathedral choir, a geodesic dome, and the stubborn belief that art can save the world.

      This is the first episode of a podcast produced by the Center for the Study of Art & Community called Change the Story, Change the World. (now called ART IS CHANGE) My name is Bill Cleveland. In this first episode I share the very personal story of how this podcast came to be and try to answer why would anybody want to listen to it. It’s a journey of many decades. It begins in the leafy suburbs of our nation’s capital around the time that America started losing what some have called its innocence---Along the way we encounter hippie communes, the requisite drugs, sex and rock and roll, art colonies in prisons, and armies of artists doing battle with the likes of the Slobodan Milosevic, Pol Pot and the US Department of Justice. This week on Change the Story, Change the World, I share how my story crosses paths with the early history and extraordinary growth of the global community arts movement.

      THRESHOLD QUESTIONS AND DELICIOUS QUOTES

      ?Can the creative process be a lifeline for people who are struggling?

      "The pervasive, penetrating pulse of all that music was a god damn miracle, all at once a soothing balm, a shattering depth charge, and a transcendent window into other dimensions."

      ?Can art help us re-imagine and recreate the social and cultural fabric of our communities?

      "One of the bedrock understandings of the hippie universe was, to coin a phrase “you can’t always get what you want, but if you really need it, well, you can make it yourself.” So, in no time at all, we found ourselves imagining that we could make our OWN music.”

      ?What was CETA and how did it give birth to an ever-expanding community arts movement?

      "The prison partnerships we forged … were both groundbreaking and challenging. They taught is a whole lot in a hurry about what artists need to do to build trust with new communities and neighborhood organizations."

      ? How can art help change the toxic nature of America’s prisons?

      "In those instants, we could see prison artists kind of tuning in, you know, moving from static to clear reception."

      ?How can these transformative stories feed the development of a growing community of creative change agents?

      "By the end of the Art in Other Places Conference, we had a mountain of documentation on artists and programs from all over the country. We had made a commitment to NEA to produce … a report, but to really tell the story of what was going on we had to do more, much more."

      ?How can artists help re-build civic infrastructure, heal unspeakable trauma, and give new voice to the forgotten and disappeared?

      "Art and Upheaval took me on an 8-year global journey, documenting artists working in communities facing intense, real-time conflict and trauma.”

      ?What is Change the Story / Change the World and why should anyone want to tune in?

      "We are doing this because we believe that meeting the obvious and daunting challenges of this century is going to require a revolution of thought and deed — in essence, a new set of stories powerful enough to change beliefs and behaviors."


      LINKS

      1. The Hangin' On, William Cleveland from Songlines, by Cleveland Plainsong
      2. Washington's Howard Theater played host to many of the great Black musical artists of the early and mid-twentieth centur was billed as the "Theater of the People."
      3. Fritz Perls, a German-born psychoanalyst Perls coined the term 'Gestalt therapy' to identify the form of psychotherapy that he developed with his wife, Laura Perls, in the 1940s and 1950s. Perls became associated with the Esalen Institute in 1964, and he lived there until 1969.
      4. CETA and the Arts (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act) Here is an analysis of the impact of the U.S. Federal Government's largest annual investment in the arts.
      5. The William James Association's Prison Arts Project contracts with visual, literary and performing artists to provide in-depth, long-term arts experiences for incarcerated men and women in California state prison facilities.
      6. Art In Other Places: Artists at Work in America's Community & Social Institutions, William Cleveland
      7. Art and Upheaval: Artists on the Worlds Frontlines, William Cleveland


      TRANSCRIPT

      (Music) THE HANGIN ON

      “The Hangin On” is probably the saddest song I’ve ever written. But its more complicated than that, because, you see, the unfortunate story it represents also precipitated its creation. So, for me, it’s also a song of redemption, one of many that have emerged over the years that have both taught me, first-hand, about the healing power of human creativity and, to put it bluntly, probably saved my life.

      From the Center for the Study of Art and Community this is Change the Story, Change the World, A Chronicle of Art and Transformation. I’m Bill Cleveland.

      Bad home, Drugs, rock and roll, prison. A not uncommon and fairly predictable trajectory, but not really, especially when you throw in the National Cathedral choir, a geodesic dome, and the stubborn belief that art can save the world. You’ve tuned in to the first episode of Change the Story Change the World. In this first chapter we share a very personal and, no doubt highly biased account of how I came to believe that assertion with all my heart and soul.

      It’s a journey of many decades. It begins in the leafy suburbs of our nation’s capital around the time that America started losing what some have called its innocence---Along the way we will encounter hippie communes, the requisite drugs, sex and rock and roll, art colonies in prisons, and armies of artists doing battle with = the likes of the Slobodan Milosevic, Pol Pot and the US Department of Justice. This Change the Story, Change the World, I share how my story crosses paths with the early history and extraordinary growth of the global community arts movement.

      Part 1

      I’m a lucky man. Lucky and incredibly fortunate. To be sure I am a white guy who grew up in the suburbs with good public schools and a swimming pool down the street. All obvious markers of middle-class white privilege in post WW II America. But no, what proved to be the real impetus for what I now think of as a charmed life, came from a different, less obvious place. A place that has much more to do with survival than the silver spoon.

      You see, the story unfolding in the Cleveland house was, like too many others I came to know, not what it seemed. My brother, sister and I grew up in a in a slow-moving nightmare born of my parents making what some folks call bad choices and I call just doing bad shit when they drank too much, particularly my dad.

      Don’t get me wrong, I loved my parents, and they taught me a lot, but, sometimes bad is just bad. The obvious antidote was, of course, to split as soon as possible. So, as we came of age, the three of us, ran in different directions. Predictably, the compass for my own escape, pointed, well--- due nowhere. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate, my one-way ticket was stamped Forgetsville which is just north of nowhere.

      The fuel for this journey came from what I knew best from my time in our suburban fun house. Some call it dissipation, I call it oblivion. Oblivion in search of the numb or to be brutally honest just plain dumb. As dumb as imagining that my escape route was in the vanguard of a new social revolution, totally unaware of the ugly truth that my future had been hijacked by the only movie I had ever known – a script with the most obvious and predictable plot line in the book—Namely, if it hurts just do whatever it takes to make it go away, at least for now. And there’s no denying that us hippies were really into the NOW.

      The general pattern of this version of freakdom was pretty simple—essentially, hanging out, getting wrecked and chowing down. Different days in different ways but inevitably ending up a little bit behind, where you started. Surprisingly, my headlong embrace of this flight-no fight treadmill also pointed me in the direction of what I have come to know of as the promised land. This was also the path that led to my lifelong obsession with the power of stories. This is because these episodes of stupor and gluttony also included heavy doses soul, blues, acid rock, metal, country, R&B, gospel, folk, and whatever else was being channeled through those old car radios and thrift store stereo’s --- blasting out and through in continuous waves of one exhilarating, liberating, sonic groove marvel after another.

      I had always been beguiled by music. In fact, when I was in the third grade my mother took note of this and had me tryout for the National Cathedral Boys Choir. I’d like to say that getting in proved to be my immediate salvation but like many things in life, the benefits of boy choirdom showed up much later. At the time, though, I hated it. I hated the three-day-a week rehearsals, and two-hour Sunday services, I hated the purple vestments with the cute white collars. Most of all, I hated not having time to play baseball with my buds, which I did the minute my voice started to change.

      Like I said, that music fever really hit me after I put high school and home in my rear-view mirror. It was about this time when my friends Alan, Arthur and I started making regular visits to the Howard Theater, D.C.’s version of the Apollo. I suppose you could say my latent condition was severely aggravated from repeated exposure to Otis, Marvin, Smoky, and the Marvelettes sweating and shakeing on that stage. Whatever it was, it was a passion of a different order. Why, then I don’t know, maybe it was the perfect medicine for the moment. But, as far as I was concerned the pervasive, penetrating pulse of all that music was a god damn miracle, all at once a soothing balm, a shattering depth charge and a transcendent window into other dimensions. A place to go, here and not here all at once, where I could bathe in the funk and flash of someone else’s story – It was amazing, not so much that it took me completely out of my stupor. That’s not how this story goes. but It certainly planted a seed.

      Now if you are still with me you may be thinking hey this is supposed to be a show about the power of stories to change the way we think and act, which I am assuming you were thinking might be somewhat uplifting. So, at this point I want to reassure you that its coming—

      Part Two

      After a crash and burn interlude at the University of Maryland and some unfortunate encounters with the criminal justice and the mental health systems my luck, most definitely fortified by birth privilege, (which gave me lots of do-overs) seemed to re-emerge north of Toronto Canada at a falling down farm that we called Buckhorn Center. Buckhorn was community of I guess what you’d call helping professionals and fellow travelers, like me, following in the path of freaky psychoanalyst named Fritz Perls. Dr. Perls, new age thing was referred to as Gestalt. Which means, you or we, are more than just the some of our parts. The basic aim was helping troubled people move from broken to whole.

      This made sense to me because I was definitely in need of serious rebuilding. At first Buckhorn was a personal refuge, but eventually it became my family and a kind of celebratory healing place for lots of folks who came there. Back then, the neighboring farmers called it a gad damn hippie commune. I called it home.

      Buckhorn was a community of helpers, makers, growers, and, most importantly builders. Early on, our first order of business was getting the place habitable, so we set to fixing and building – A rock wall, a garden, an outhouse for two, a big round dining room table for 16, a performance space, and a geodesic dome, painted orange, all in the short interlude between the melting snows of March and the first flakes of October, 1972. Needless to say, that first year, It was all hands, in the dirt and build, build, build -- no time for pondering, wallowing or bitching.

      I loved it. This was just the place I needed for funky seeds of my re-entry to find the soil and water and air needed to sprout and flower and fruit, and surprise, surprise, seed again, and again, spreading roots, and shoots, grabbing hold of whatever would help me make some sense and meaning of my upside down world.

      And that was pretty much the deal, for the 8 of us that stuck it out through the winter. The sense and substance that we all craved, was, of course, in all that making. Making and sharing. Taking the rocks and building a wall, together. Planting the seeds and growing the zucchini, and corn and tomatoes together. Harvesting the bounty and feasting, as a family together and, of course when the electricity was flowing cranking up the stereo and boogieing together.

      Now, one of the bedrock understandings of the hippie universe was, to coin a phrase “you can’t always get what you want, but if you really need it, well, you can make it yourself.” So, in no time at all, we found ourselves imagining that we could make our OWN music.

      For me this translated to long stretches with pen and paper, stealing, imagining procuring, discovering words and rhymes every time I found myself with an idle moment. Not that l all those songs of were worth a hill of beans. But, being lost in that world was an amazing deliverance from the underworld I was crawling out of. The coolest thing was that I was driving the magic bus, no, actually I owned that bus and no one could take it away.

      The great part though was that I was NOT alone on this journey. Far from it, because, each evening Marty, and Arthur, and Didy and I would gather in that big orange dome, humming a tune, connecting the rhymes, and the stories, with the chords, harmonies, and beats rising up, and making that music together, our music, and our story coming alive in the songs, over and over, and over. Like I said, the community we were building was called Buckhorn, so was the band.

      Like many good things, Buckhorn, the healing place and the band came and went. But the legacy, and the lessons, left a taste that would not fade. Like I said, for me it was akin to an addiction. I had come up there caught in a stupid, vicious circle, snake eating its tail, story. Getting my hands dirty, sharing responsibility, and the two-hole outhouse, becoming a maker, and a partner had smashed that narrative to smithereens. And, you know, as hard as I tried, I just couldn’t put that poor me, pity party back together. I was stuck with a new saga. And that was it. Change the Story, Change the World. – my world at least.

      Part Three

      It’s the spring of 85. I am standing next to three pottery wheels in the corner of what used to be storage closet in the bowels of a place called the California Medical Facility. Although it sounds like a hospital CMF is actually a prison with a few bits and pieces of hospital thrown in for sick prisoners. My path here has been circuitous with one constant. Music, lots songs and bands birthed and forgotten, lots of late nights, crumby bars and free beer, but also odd jobs, like house painting, and newspaper delivery, cause, well, you know, you have to eat.

      There was also a weird job with the city of Sacramento called CETA ARTS that was hiring artists to work in unlikely places like senior centers, parks, public housing, and well, the Sacramento County Jail. Amazingly, It was funded by the US Department of Labor. CETA, that’s C, E, T. A, or Comprehensive Employment and Training Act was actually a national jobs program. Hiring artists was not the intention, but lots of them were jobless and it did – to the tune of $300 million a year. Which was and still is America’s largest public investment in the arts.

      It affected hundreds of thousands of people in and out of the arts. Here’s some of them talking about their experience in a 1970’s Department of Labor Documentary on the program.

      The disembodied voice of the Federal government notwithstanding, the partnerships we forged in Sacramento were both groundbreaking and challenging. They taught is a whole lot in a hurry about what artists need to do to build trust with new communities and neighborhood organizations.

      To be sure CETA was serious work. But we also kept it playful. At one point someone suggested we needed a CETA song. Here is what we came up with.

      CETA, Oh my CETA, So completa', your so sweeta'
      You done me good, you done me good

      Anyways that strange gig, somehow landed me, so to speak, in prison., newly hired as the head of something called Arts in Corrections. The idea was pretty simple. Idle inmates, as the prisoners are called, mixed with overcrowding made for trouble. So, give them something to do. The art part the inspiration of a force of nature, named Eloise Smith who, given her extraordinary political savvy and influence,]]>6ebd19e1-72cd-407f-8038-13a1ca0c6a8cFri, 17 Jul 2020 05:15:00 -070038:07truefull1111CSCW Episode 1: Genesis Bad home, Drugs, rock and roll, prison. A not uncommon and fairly predictable trajectory, but not really, especially when you throw in the National Cathedral choir, a geodesic dome, and the stubborn belief that art can save the world. This is the first episode of a new podcast produced by the Center for the Study of Art & Community called Change the Story, Change the World. My name is Bill Cleveland. In this first episode I share the very personal story of how this podcast came to be and try to answer why would anybody want to listen to it. It’s a journey of many decades. It begins in the leafy suburbs of our nation’s capital around the time that America started losing what some have called its innocence---Along the way we encounter hippie communes, the requisite drugs, sex and rock and roll, art colonies in prisons, and armies of artists doing battle with the likes of the Slobodan Milosevic, Pol Pot and the US Department of Justice. This week on Change the Story, Change the World, I share how my story crosses paths with the early history and extraordinary growth of the global community arts movement.