By Naimah Bilal
The podcast currently has 22 episodes available.
This episode featuring Mark Williams, Chief Artistic Officer of the Cleveland Orchestra, is the continuation of our series focusing on black and brown leaders in the performing arts space.
This episode was recorded months ago- long before quarantine - long before our latest encounters with nationwide protests rejecting police brutalism and racism. But Mark Williams, as a man, as a cultural leader holds much meaning in our world. In a time where it’s not uncommon to read about, even in 2020, a black person becoming “the first of something”, Mark’s historical mark, pun intended on the world is one of significance as the first black man to manage artistic operations with a major symphony orchestra- a distinction he unequivocally deems a sad one.
In spite of the context of his place in history, Mark stands out as an exquisite voice in the orchestral world, casting out a compelling vision about how orchestras can widen opportunity lanes for black and brown leaders, and how he feels conservatories fail its students in the lack of curricular rigor around the history and repertoire of the black composers. I appreciated his candor with how these conditions have impacted his own work at the Cleveland Orchestra.
Mark, at the tail end of his talk, shares why in spite of being a black man in a largely white space he will not turn his back on the art form he loves and why he is devoted to providing windows and mirrors to black and brown emerging leaders in this space through mentoring.
I hope you can hear in his vision and his earnest expression why Mark Williams is at once a guardian of the symphonic art form art as well as a visionary prodding it into new realms of adventure and exploration.
Urban Consulate: Music. Equity. Cities.
Creative incubators & accelerators are emerging in cities across the U.S. to support artists and build more equitable ecosystems for the future. In this cross-city conversation, we cover a broad range of topics including how Covid-19 has impacted artists of color, what anti-racist policies are being applied to music accelerator work, how the sustained struggle to dismantle white supremacy making this work more pressing, and what our experts want to see as the culminating impact of their work.
This discussion was originally planned as a panel as part of the SXSW Festival and was canceled due to Covid-19. We re-booted this convo virtually via Facebook Live and garnered nearly 1,000 video views since our broadcast yesterday. Many thanks to our amazing panelists, Urban Consulate, Amplify Philly, Afrochine Productions, and the Anne and Ralph V. Haile/US Bank Foundation for their unending support.
On Thursday, June 18 on Facebook Live, Bawse With A Cause had an audience of some 2,000 viewers watching a conversation with six dynamic black women leading artistic operations around the nation.
Jennifer Arnold, Director of Artistic Planning and Orchestral Operations at the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Danni Gee, Curator at SummerStage in NYC, Kaisha Johnson, Co-Founder and Founding Director of Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA), Toya Lillard, Executive Director of viBe Theater Experience in Brooklyn, and Taneshia Nash Laird President and CEO of Newark Symphony Hall.
We heard their stories of how they came to their careers in the arts, about their dynamic leadership styles, heard how their institutions are being impacted by COVID-19, and about their triumphs and challenges as leaders in homogenous spaces.
We did many deep dives into the insidious and deadly manifestations of racism and white supremacy and how people of color can fight against internalizing these harmful and intractable social ills. Each of the five leaders also gives their take on what truth and reconciliation and restorative justice look like in the arts world.
in addition to our regular listeners, I hope reaches every cultural hallowed hall stagnated by old thinking and is now ready for new ideas and new leadership.
Five months ago, I asked BWAC podcast guest Weston Sprott a question which then fascinated me but today returns with the urgency of a coming storm – “How can we apply antiracist principles to the world of classical music?”.
As the interview unfolds, Weston Sprott, Dean of the Juilliard Preparatory Division and Metropolitan Opera Orchestra trombonist, gives us a master class in all things leadership, DE&I and yes, gives a clarion clear pathway to apply some of the core ideas from Ibram Kendi’s “How to be Antiracist” to the music world.
We also discuss how at Juilliard Prep work continues to make auditions “implicit bias proof”, how the concept of “mirrors and windows” is helping inform opportunity building alongside talented students who happen to also members of communities that are often forgotten. Ultimately these efforts all converge to answer the question: “Do our students have everything they need to be successful?”
There’s one section of this dialogue in particular which still leaves my mind and heart blown. When I asked Weston what he’s listening to, apart from operas and symphonies, he mentioned singer-songwriter Moses Sumney. He then quotes lyrics from Sumney’s song “Doom” which pretty much sums up the spirit of the whole dang episode: “Am I vital. If my heart is idle?”
If that doesn’t move you, I don’t know what will my friends! Enjoy this one.
Weston’s Recommendations:
https://www.composerdiversity.com/
Moses Sumney
George Floyd - Breonna Taylor - Ahmaud Arbery - Sandra Bland - Tamir Rice - Trayvon Martin - Eric Garner - Akai Gurley - Freddie Gray - Stephon Clark - Botham Jean - Atiana Jefferson - Michael Brown - Philando Castile
My heart cracks open with grief to say your names. The act of speaking your names out loud has become prayer. Prayers I imagine reach into the imperceivable place where you all rest in power with the ancestors.
As we find ourselves managing the surf and wipe-out from waves of sadness and pain, the many words exchanged in this podcast may wade into deep water but it may also leave you a little lighter, a little more curious, and hopeful. Months ago, Neesha Powell-Twagirumukiza, gave me a masterclass in how we can begin to ensure that #BlackLivesMatter in all spaces- around our world and within the nonprofit organizations we devote ourselves to.
Neesha Powell-Twagirumukiza is a young movement journalist and creative nonfiction student. Neesha grew up having a deep connection to books and it comes as no surprise that she would go on to become a skilled and talented writer of creative nonfiction. A regular contributor to national publications, Neesha also happens to have authored a brilliant conceptual framework to help nonprofits begin to apply the theoretical principles of decolonization to their work.
In this episode, Neesha gives us a high-level view of her decolonizing framework, shares her ideas about the intersectionality of being a black queer feminist, and she shares her views on how POC can identify and leverage our privileges to advance equity and dialogue about unity. We also wade into pop culture territory as we discuss the merits and pitfalls around celebrity activists.
@womanistbae
https://everydayfeminism.com/2018/05/decolonizing-nonprofits/
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/contributor/neesha-powell-twagirumukiza
The podcast currently has 22 episodes available.