ART IS CHANGE: Strategies & Skills for Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers

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. 

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

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. 

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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.

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.

?Can the creative process be a lifeline for people who are struggling?  

?Can art help us reimagine and recreate the social and cultural fabric of our communities?

?What was CETA and how did it give birth to an ever-expanding community arts movement?

? How can art help change the toxic nature of America’s prisons? 

?How can these transformative stories feed the development of a growing community of creative change agents?

?How can artists help re-build civic infrastructure, heal unspeakable trauma, and give new voice to the forgotten and disappeared?

?What is Change the Story / Change the World and why should anyone want to tune in?

• The Hangin' On, William Cleveland from Songlines, by Cleveland Plainsong
• 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."
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Art In Other Places: Artists at Work in America's Community & Social Institutions, William Cleveland
• Art and Upheaval: Artists on the Worlds Frontlines, William Cleveland

(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. 

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...

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.

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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.

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?

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.

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

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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 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

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

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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.

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.

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

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.

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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 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

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

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

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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.

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.

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

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".[

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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 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