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ACCESS and the Arab American National Museum
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Since 1972, the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) has supported long-term community building and empowerment for the Arab-American community in Dearborn, Michigan (a suburb of Detroit).) In May 2005, ACCESS literally broke new ground when it opened the Arab American National Museum. The first museum in the world devoted solely to Arab-American history and art, it reflects the Cultural Arts Program's philosophy that art is an important tool for nourishing the spirit and building relationships.
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All-ages Movement Project
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Where do teenagers learn democratic values and recognize their own power to effect change on a civic level? According to All-ages Movement Project founder Shannon Stewart, one major avenue is involvement in youth-run music and cultural spaces. Writing about the role of these spaces in fostering democratic culture and youth leadership development, she describes places where young people creatively express themselves, independently produce shows, records, and publications, learn democratic practices, make values based decisions, gain access to resources usually outside their reach, build networks with social and political capital, and grow into innovative leaders."
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Appalshop and Robert Salyer
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Founded in 1969 during the national "War on Poverty," Appalshop is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary arts and education center in the heart of Appalachia that produces original films, video, theater, music and spoken-word recordings, radio, photography, multimedia, and books. Core to Appalshop's work are media training programs, such as Appalachian Media Institute, which is for central Appalachian youth, and the Community Correspondents Corps (CCC), which trains local people of all ages to gather news. Appalshop provides the tools for documenting local stories: equipment, materials, and knowledge of the basics of interviewing, recording, and editing. Both AMI and CCC connect people to the means of media production and build media literacy: even if their stories don't get on the air, they become less likely to accept whatever they see.
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Future of Music Coalition
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The Future of Music Coalition (FMC) gathers expertise in the fields of music, technology, public policy, and law to promote public understanding and discussion about freedom of speech, control of music production and distribution, and public ownership of the airwaves and bandwidth. FMC's focus is fundamentally educational: conducting original research, writing for and speaking to arts communities, translating highly technical and legal language into plain English, and offering expert testimony on the implications of policy.
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Hip Hop Congress
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The Hip Hop Congress (HHC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that uses hip-hop culture to foster social action, civic service, and cultural creativity among young people. HHC's Politics Initiative marks a transition from HHC's primary status as a music and cultural organization to a network with an articulated human rights and social justice movement-building focus. Rooted in a belief in the powerful potential of the hip-hop movement, the Politics Initiative seeks to build on this history to develop organizing skills and a civic-engagement focus among hip-hop artists and community members.
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John Malpede and Los Angeles Poverty Department
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LAPD was founded in 1985 to "create performance work that connects lived experience to the social forces that shape the lives and communities of people living in poverty." Since then, they have created numerous productions that have toured nationally and internationally, receiving critical acclaim for both their artistic quality and social impact. Rooted in Los Angeles' Skid Row neighborhood, LAPD's performances reflect the "realities, hopes and dreams" of the people who make up this community, giving them a way to raise awareness about social and political issues and create opportunities for people to intervene in policy decisions that affect their lives.
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League of Young Voters
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The League of Young Voters is a national youth-led organization with state-based affiliates in Maine, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New Mexico, and California that support young people in developing the power to solve problems facing their communities. As the League's website describes it, "We work with young people who have been shut out of the political process to make politics fun, engaging, relevant, and meaningful."
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Marty Pottenger
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Marty Pottenger is a critically acclaimed writer, director, and performer with more than 20 years of experience in creating and directing community-based arts initiatives. She uses art and art-making as a point of departure to "address social issues, reveal the underlying connection between people, and activate people's inherent desire and momentum for justice and equity."
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Sojourn Theatre
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Based in Portland, Oregon, Sojourn Theatre creates community-engaged theatrical productions that have explored a broad array of social issues, ranging from the Oregon school system (Witness Our Schools), the future of Portland as a city (One Day), and the meaning and impact of going to war (The War Project). The Sojourn company, headed by Artistic Director Michael Rohd, has worked together since the 1990s, settling in Portland in 2000.
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Urban Bush Women
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Throughout its 23-year history, the Urban Bush Women performance ensemble has resolutely danced the road less traveled. Company founder Jawole Willa Jo Zollar wanted to create a company that could explore the use of cultural expression as a catalyst for social change, and today that company-- "sassy, strong, and relevant" as proclaimed on its website--combines movement from a multiplicity of dance styles with music and storytelling infused with the spiritual traditions of African Americans and the African Diaspora. All this, and community activism, too.
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We Got Issues!
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We Got Issues! (WGI!) is a women-led movement and performance project dedicated to unleashing young women’s leadership through the transformative power of creative expression. Founded in 2003 by performance artist and activist Rha Goddess, WGI! is rooted in the belief that the voices of young women—their visions, poetry, song, battle-cries, and movements—have the power to transform the challenges facing them, their families, their communities, and the world. As a women’s initiative, WGI! is committed to creating a safe and supportive space for all women across race, class, gender, and socio-political lines, and to amplifying their diverse voices, ideas, beliefs, and experiences.
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Working Films
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In my work as a curator, I was excited that 200 people could sit in a dark room, see a film, be moved, and ask, "what can we do?"...So then, Judith Helfand and I began to think about an organization that could deliberately connect the non-fiction stories of struggles with ground-level activists and organizers. -- Robert West.
