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

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. 

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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).

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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

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!

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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.

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

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

What is Cafe Bezzoso?

Was the Crack Attack an art exhibition?

Who was the Last Inca?

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,...