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Rhodessa Jones, how should I begin?
Yes you are a performing artists, writer & director, founder and artistic director of The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women – is everyone following me? Stay with the tour, people.
The Individual Artists & Social Justice Preconference
I am really honored to be one of the bloggers at this year’s Grantmakers in the Arts 2011 Conference in San Francisco. Here is some great stuff I took away from the Saturday preconference.
Maurine Knighton and Lynn Stern
We spent the day at SOMArts getting into a single question: How are artists changing the world?
Ron Ragin and Frances Phillips
Rhodessa had us cooing like pigeons, insisting, “Nobody told her” like a restless Greek chorus as she folded that question into poetry, quotes and stories.
“The team is everything” Lionel Ritchie
“The Creator has a plan” John Coltrane
Rhodessa Jones
Rhodessa says the job of an artist is to introduce different communities to each other, such as incarcerated, HIV positive women and theatre. She changes the world through the theatre of everyday tragedies and unexpected glories such as Cassandra Steptoe, an HIV positive woman who not only is surviving, she is thriving. She is the story of a woman whose life was transformed through the crucible of theatre into a positive life force and more importantly, a way for others like her to achieve a full life.
Oh, by the way. Did I mention that the food trucks were awesome?
Frances in front of the breakfast truck
Jeff Chang, executive director, Stanford university Institute for Diversity in the Arts, said something very cool about waves.
He said that the waves on the south shore of Tahiti, perhaps the most beautiful in the world, are a process that begins with Antarctic storms that are a gathering force that push their way thousands of miles to Tahiti and manifest themselves as waves. So these waves are actually part of a process of visible and invisible forces.
Jeff said that culture is like the ocean. Culture is the realm of ideas, stories, identity, where public sentiment is formed. It is where people are at.
Cultural change always precedes political change. Culture is essential in the theory of change.
Artists are essential to the process of shaping public sentiment from the beginning.
This one I really like – Communication is surfing. Artists want to be makers of waves.
We believe we can move national imagination.
We can make some waves.
Favianna Rodriguez, the artist who designed the image of this year’s GIA conference, is interested in opportunities for visual artists and cultural workers to become part of the core movement, specifically in:
- Publishing
- Rapid response
- Convenings
- Education and skills
What are the ideal conditions to inspire artists?
What ideas can reshape the situation?
Art reframes the debate.
Erin Potts, executive director of Air Traffic Control, spoke of how small investments can yield great results. Taking 75 artists on a four day retreat empowered them to engage their 16.6 million Facebook friends, 2.5 million Twitter followers, and 3 million YouTube viewers to think about their world differently. For example, one band encouraged their fans to rethink carbon consumption caused by driving to their concerts and created phone apps with information about utilizing public transportation to get to the concerts.
In this session, these models of cultural strategy and cultural organizing were, at their core, all about creating support for artists, moving hearts to create art and to become waves of change.
L. Frank
“I am a decolonizationist,” says L. Frank, an artists and activist, who is a member of the Tongva/Ajachemen Nations. “Being extinct is not easy.”
She also says,
I was once a shadow of my former self
I followed my footsteps to the past but the journey was too far
I turned away failing to run but succeeding to fly
Allison Smith remarked that more and more conference were including hands-on art making experiences. She offered a workshop on trench art, inviting us to create beaded and embroidered pieces that can “bridge the gap between civilian arts and crafts people and military service people and veterans.”
She says, “It is a way to start a conversation. Crafts and textiles make visible a hidden history.”
Allison Smith
What did I learn from all this?
In the larger picture, you have artists in communities engaged in social practice. On a smaller one on one level, you have engaged personal experiences and storytelling.
About the Author: Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer writes about how to be a nimble nonprofit, make life creative and make a difference at www.hoongyee.com.
She is also the Executive Director of the Queens Council on the Arts. Hoong Yee can be found surfing in the Rockaways whenever there are waves.
Do you want to know the fears, visions of perfect worlds and world changing advice of your peers and keynote speakers? I have a special bonus post for you of interviews I conducted with people during the conference. Just leave me a comment with your email or better still, subscribe and get new style notes for people who change the world at www.hoongyee.com.
“You would really enjoy it, and you will meet lots of fabulous people – like you – doing great work,” June tossed back her hair and waved her fork in the air at the little Greek restaurant in Forest Hills where we often have lunch.
The compliment was really not a compliment but code for an invitation to attend the Beautiful Foundation USA’s 4th Seed of Giving Conference with her, to meet some of the people she tells me about, and to find out a little more of what is going on in this particular universe. ”You meet, you eat.”
June and her gift of synopsis. How could I not go?
Good question.
But unlike many great questions that will hover like unanswered mysteries during our brief sparklike lifetimes such as what is the meaning of life, there are some puzzling enigmas that, under the bright klieg light of research and data, are startled into revealing their answers.
One question caught my attention at the conference and I listened intently to the panel of speakers, searching for answers.
The question is:
How can shopping and drinking change the world?
You may be thinking that personal vices are hardly worth more than a disgusted snort and airy dismissal but I am a big believer in being open to opportunities and certainly after Hali Lee of AWGC, the Asian Women Giving Circle, talked about how they invest in change as “philanthropy virgins” who can become future philanthropists, board members and engaged civic citizens who like to shop and drink, well, I could hardly keep from jumping up and down from joy.
Picture this. A small committee whose members:
- contribute $2500 to a pot of money that is granted out to AAW, Asian American women, who use the arts to further their activism
- increase the visibility of AAW doing philanthropy
- educate donors by voting during grantee selection
- and as Wayne Ho of CACF, Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, mischievously pointed out, “Did everyone notice Hali mentioned drinking three times?”
Yes, they have a lot of fun shopping, drinking, raising dollars and yes, this is how they are changing the world.
Every field, every self-defined group has their leaders. The more successful ones also have advocates, a growing awareness of what work needs to be done and most importantly, a lot of people who are not shy about making some noise about what they need.
I was impressed by the eagerness of this crowd to ask pointed questions and agree passionately with keynote speaker Peggy Saiko of AAPIP, the Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, who said, ”I prefer framing our work as ‘enduring challenges’ rather than ‘institutional racism’”.
How do you even begin?
Here are four questions Peggy asked to jumpstart our collective thinking:
1. Why are there such low numbers of API on foundations, boards and higher positions of decision making?
2. Why are there no overarching strategies in philanthropic support to the API community?
3. Why does the API community continue to remain invisible and in need during times of crisis?
Peggy says that current data shows that philanthropy could be doing more in supporting a “democracy of distinct communities”. Last I heard, a very large number of foundations target distinct and diverse communities as funding priorities. Do you think it is possible that we, the “model minority” have become more than invisible? Do you think we are now, white? What is the best way to transform our message from “invisible” to “inevitable”?
4. How can we be better at arguing and advocating for presence at the table and in decision making roles?
Can I say something here?
I consider myself part of the Asian American community, OK, I married a nice Jewish guy but that doesn’t change my gene pool. I am immersed in emerging and diverse communities. I work in Queens for crying out loud and you cannot avoid running into a huddled mass anywhere in this borough. But I was slightly bewildered by the acronyms and the shorthand speak of this group. Like most people, I like to know what everyone is talking about, especially when I am the newcomer.
API stands for Asian/Pacific Islander. APA stands for Asian Pacific American. I suppose if I read the stuff in my folder this would be a non-issue. My bad.
How can we expect people new to us to feel part of what we do if our message is jargon heavy. Clarity, at all times. You never know who may be listening and not reading.
Just a thought.
And another great phrase, “the culture of shame”! Is this what stops people from talking about their needs publicly? Does the need to save face make us lose the opportunity to heal?
Another question Peggy answered was, “Are there too many nonprofits?” Could this possibly be the reason such a low percentage of support trickles down to API?
“Lucy Bernholz asks the better question, which is,” she exclaimed passionately. ”do we have the right set of groups who can deliver the services and goods our community needs? Here is where investments must be made to sustain the just society that belongs to all of us.”
Back to enduring challenges. AAPIP decided to become grantmakers to mobilize investments in “cultural competency” and to nurture “signs of hope”.
The story of their fourteen giving circles on grass root levels is a lovely sign of hope.
“These circles are not just about fundraising. It is a way for people to understand the field and how it is structured.” And shop and drink, I was glad to hear.
A Beautiful Story
“In their first year of existence, the Los Angeles giving circle of Korean American women emptied their closets, held a street sale, inspired a noted Korean golfer to write them a check for $10k and a local restauranteur to donate $2,500. AAPIP contributed a 50% match helping the circle in raising $32k in total for an evening of having fun and, taking care of each other.”
Peggy paused for a moment.
“It is so true what they say about beauty,” I thought to myself with a smile growing inside my soul. ”Beauty is rarely skin deep.”
What do you think is the best way to change the world?
Do we need more data, more stories?
What about more “cultural assets” to move our faces into the mainstream of buzz?
I have a few ideas. Tell me yours.
me, at the beach in Rockaway
Some people will do anything to stay young.
I am not satisfied with staying young at heart. I want to be young.
Let me be clear. It is not my youth that I am chasing. It is the childlike wonder and simple fearlessness that I want. That is why I surf.
And of course, in order to be good at it, I run every morning and I take hot yoga classes for strength, balance and focus. Somehow, the stars and the surf are in alignment here in the Rockaways and it is now reinventing itself as the coolest beach with the skyline of Manhattan just over the bay. There are yoga classes on the beach during the week, beach tennis, a skateboard park and the big deal of the day is the food vendors along the boardwalk now have a liquor license!
How to Rock the Rockaways
You want to know how to do this?
- Listen, get up early, get out here around 7:30 am on a Saturday. At this time you can probably find a parking spot off 96th street in the big lot across from the library. The A train stop is 96th Street.
- Walk over to 108 street and set up your yoga mat by the water. The class is free, usually taught by my friend Helen who is fabulous, and begins at 8:00 am for one hour. There is no better way to start off your weekend.
- Afterwards, you can rent a bicycle for the day and cruise up and down the boardwalk. Check out the surfers at 91 street, I’ll be there. You can grab a bite at Rippers – great veggie burgers and juice bar. My fave is the Dreamcatcher.
- Find yourself a piece of sandy heaven and relax.
- Rinse and repeat.
Hey, this is a lot of work but it is so worth it.
Sky and his new surfboard
I am lucky to have a friend to go running with every morning.
I am blessed to have a son I can go surfing with every summer. He is the reason I paddle out to catch waves and try to hang ten.
Today, I saw him surfing with his friends up around 143 street in Neponsit. It was a whole scene – lean, tan boys laughing in the tumbling waves out past the first set of breakers, giggling girls in bikinis waving at them. Getting called in by reluctant lifeguards under the stern gaze of their supervisor and whispering conspiratorially,
“Hey guys, I know you guys can swim out there. My boss is here so I have to call you guys in. You know I won’t bother you when he’s not around. We’re surfers too.”
Sky grabbed his board and his eyes barely flickered a hello as he dashed by me with his crew. Does that bother me? I suppose it could but, I surf too.
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Hoong Yee
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