It Was Always Possible: Centering the Leaders Who Were Here All Along #ArtistResource Tue 7 Apr 2020
Channel: HowlRound Theatre Commons
Date: 2020-04-07

Livestreaming the #ArtistResource panel It Was Always Possible: Centering the Leaders Who Were Here All Along (ASL & Captioned) on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 7 April 2020 at 8 a.m. HST (Honolulu, UST-10) / 10 a.m. AKDT (Juneau, UTC-8) / 11 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC-7) / 1 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC-5) / 2 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC-4).

Erasure and isolation (geographic and social) is not new to people with disabilities, carers (caregivers) and parents of small children, folks in rural communities, and Indigenous artists. Despite burdensome, unwelcoming, and sometimes punitive arts and culture sectors, these leaders continue to bring their energy and labor to creative practice. Our current crisis offers an opportunity for us to center the leadership and expertise of artists who already know how to create sustainable and resilient practices. What can we learn from folks who have been developing strategies for combating isolation and cultivating online, digital, and transmedia practices all along? How can we follow the lead of those who have been advocating for a shift in the way our cultural sector values artists? Join Rachel Spencer-Hewitt (Parent Artist Advocacy League), Claudia Alick (CallingUP), Ashley Hanson (Department of Public Transformation), Ty Defoe (writer & interdisciplinary artist) and Cole Alvis (actor, theatre maker, and Artistic Producer, lemonTree creations) and more to be announced for a discussion about how to work collectively, collaboratively, and imaginatively in a system that was not built with them in mind.

Bios

Ashley Hanson is a social practice and theater artist, community organizer, entrepenuer and advocate for arts in rural areas. She is the Founder and Director of the Department of Public Transformation, an artist-led organization that collaborates with local leaders in rural areas to develop creative strategies for community connection and civic participation. She is also the Founder and Director of PlaceBase Productions, a theater company that creates original, site-specific musicals celebrating small town life. She was recently named a 2018 Obama Foundation Fellow and a 2019 Bush Foundation Fellow for her work with rural communities. She holds a BA in Performance and Social Change from the University of Minnesota and an MA in Applied Theater from the University of Manchester (UK) with an emphasis on the role of arts in rural community development. She is a firm believer in the power of people, places, play and exclamation points!

Cole Alvis is a 2 Spirit theatre artist based in Tkarón:to with Métis-Chippewa, Irish and English heritage from the Turtle Mountains. They are a leader of lemonTree creations, manidoons collective, AdHoc Assembly and led the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance from 2013 – 2017. Recently, they performed in Louis Riel (Canadian Opera Company / National Arts Centre) and directed the Dora nominated bug by Yolanda Bonnell (manidoons collective / Luminato), Lilies by Michel Marc Bouchard (lemonTree creations, Why Not Theatre and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre) and co-directed, with Michael Greyeyes, an Indigenous opera double bill called Two Odysseys: Pimooteewin / Gállábártnit (Signal Theatre, National Sami Theatre, Soundstreams Canada). This autumn, bug by Yolanda Bonnell will be presented on the Métis Homelands during FemFest in Winnipeg, Manitoba (manidoons.com).

https://howlround.com/happenings/livestreaming-it-was-always-possible-centering-leaders-who-were-here-all-along-asl