Animating Democracy: Artistic Imagination as a Force for Change  on Friday 18 November 2022
Channel: HowlRound Theatre Commons
Date: 2022-11-19

Art2Action and Animating Democracy present Artistic Imagination as a Force for Change, the third event in the series Animating Democracy: REFLECTING FORWARD, livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 18 November 2022 at 1 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 3 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 4 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).

For more than two decades, Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts, has created spaces for critical exchange and catalytic learning in the field. In supporting projects on the ground, so many issues and questions were raised and addressed by artists, cultural organizations, and their community partners. Many of these issues and questions persist, but in a changed and more charged context. In three fall events, the Animating Democracy: Reflecting Forward series considers the practice and progress of community-based and socially/civically-engaged art and culture over recent decades and its promise now and into the future. Each session brings together trailblazing artists and cultural leaders from Animating Democracy’s founding years with a new generation of leading-edge practitioners and thought leaders from the arts and other sectors. Through the lens of their work, featured speakers and artists will help articulate critical questions of the day, and for the future of arts and culture work, as a spark, invitation, and space for social and civic change.

Watch the livestream on this page, or register here to join the Zoom room, receive reminders, and request a free copy of the groundbreaking book Civic Dialogue, Arts & Culture: Findings from Animating Democracy.

Session Three: Artistic Imagination as a Force for Change
In October 2003, Detroit-based activist, cultural worker, and then-octogenarian Grace Lee Boggs energized and inspired a national gathering of artists, arts organization and community leaders, and activists with her speech at Animating Democracy's National Exchange on Art & Civic Dialogue. Enumerating conditions perpetuating inequities and injustices in America, she implored, "Can we create a new paradigm of our selfhood and our nationhood?" In Boggs' subsequent essay, "These are the times that grow our souls," (commissioned by Animating Democracy), she stressed the need for tremendous philosophical and spiritual transformation to effect social justice and change. She advocated a shift from politics as usual and protest alone to positive and holistic change making that also "grows our souls."

This session, honoring the vibrant legacy of the late Grace Lee Boggs, explores artists’ imaginative power to grow the personal and collective soul, featuring cultural activists adrienne maree brown and Sage Crump, both with deep roots in Detroit, and Urban Bush Women’s founder Jawole Zollar. Urban Bush Women was among Animating Democracy’s first grantees. Their project, Hair Stories, used a method of cultural sharing that alternates between dance performance and dialogue to examine the politics of hair within the African American community and as a path to deeper dialogue about issues of race, class, and social justice. These three powerful thought leaders delve into the relationship between the artistic imagination and civic/social/political action, and how artistic strategies and emergent strategies can bolster movements and make progress toward change.

https://howlround.com/happenings/animating-democracy-session-three