A Story of My Heart

 

Let us forge a state of union
A place where every child is
A child
Where you see me and I see you
I mean really see each other as extensions
one of one another

From People’s State of the Union commentary by
Makani Themba, Minister of Revolutionary Imagination,
U.S. Department of Arts and Culture National Cabinet.

I haven’t the faintest idea how to sum up the more than 500 stories uploaded to the People’s State of the Union website since late January. They came from story circles—a hundred people in a church basement or a handful in someone’s kitchen—organized in more than 150 places around the U.S. They came because people resonated with the USDAC’s assertion that “democracy is a conversation, not a monologue.” Because they know the stories that reveal the state of our union. Because—despite falling through the many rips in our social fabric—they believe in democracy and they want a say in how it unfolds.

I could say that a huge chunk of stories are about yearning for our stated ideals to be true, true enough to live into all day, every day. I could say that another huge chunk is about standing together despite the many discouragements unchecked power and privilege have put in our path. I could say that they speak of hearts broken by disappointment, and hearts remade by beauty and the hope of resilience. I could say that they demonstrate a powerful desire to share truth, risking vulnerability to find common ground.

I could say that the stories taken together prove that the quintessential act of art—turning one’s experience into something shapely that can be shared—is also the quintessential act of healing, the medicine we need. But I think I’ll let Luis J. Rodriguez say it with a few lines from the sonnet he wrote for another part of the People’s State of the Union, the Poetic Address to the Nation:

Give me Crooklyn, cowboys, cool jazz, cholos.
Give me libraries, gardens of the muse.
Give me songs over sidewalks, mad solos.
Big America improperly sized.
Give me your true value, realized.

I could say all of these things and they would be only part of the truth revealed by the People’s State of the Union, the USDAC’s first new civic ritual. See for yourself.

Many stories are rich in incident and detail, with characters and plots. A sizeable number comprise just a few sentences, like these by an 11 year-old Bronx resident named Jade:

In school they have special ed in every grade. A lot of people make fun of the special ed kids. I said, what’s wrong with them? They just have some problems, but they are no different. I got bullied too, but I stand up for them. There should be no difference.

These are the things that give me hope for the human race: that we open our hearts in compassion for others even when we don’t face the obstacles and injuries that dog them. That we refuse to cede room in our minds to the voices that tell us we are less than, as a young woman in Chicago wrote in describing a welcome epiphany:

As a mixed race person, you always feel stuck in between two worlds—I never feel Black enough, I never feel Hispanic enough, and then I never feel queer enough. But it was this one moment where I was like, “I am enough for that.” And I am enough of each of these things. That made me feel like a weight off my shoulders. I’ll be 27 next month, and after 26 years, I finally feel like I’m enough.

That we persist in reaching across the evident differences that can be barriers to find places of heart-opening connection, as a man in Brooklyn wrote of a mid-December taxi ride:

I got in a taxi to go from Manhattan to Brooklyn on a rainy winter’s night.

After requesting my destination, the cabbie said, “I’m sorry but we can’t take the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s been shut down for the past three hours.”

I smiled and said, “I’m so glad we can’t take the Brooklyn Bridge.”

“Me too,” he smiled back.

We looked at each other and silently understood.

The bridge was closed from tens of thousands protesting the Staten Island grand jury’s decision NOT to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo for the death of Eric Garner.

That despite the repetition of racism, the hammering injury of constant vilification, we persist in standing for justice, as a community arts student from Baltimore wrote:

I was saying, you know, there’s a lot of art being made, Selma and other art circulating in pop culture. I was saying that civil rights happened, but we still don’t have the right to be angry. If we’re angry, then we’re angry black men and women. We’re human. We have every emotion that everyone else has. But when we express emotions that everyone else has, we’re labeled, we’re crazy. We can be demonized.

That we have such a powerful drive to bring awareness to our lives despite many temptations to curtail self-questioning, as a man in San Francisco shared in this account of examining his own feelings:

I think I am still trying to make peace with my belief that race does not have to be the dominant way I experience this country. In a country dominated by a white culture, with a few token exceptions, there are no English Americans or Scandinavian Americans; so does there have to be Asian Americans and African Americans? Aside from the fact that this completely ignores what history has to say about it (race has always been important), I sometimes wonder if my conviction is in natural opposition to race pride and diversity. I’m not advocating for homogeny, but I wonder if I naturally incline towards dreaming an idealized world that may just never exist—because the reason why race pride needs to exist is because hate words and hate crimes and police brutality and institutionalized racism exist.

That we have the capacity to awaken from the trance of not-seeing, as a woman from Austin described in a moment that obliterated her sense of belonging:

I was raised Jewish in the Bible belt suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. One Monday during lunch my three best friends sat down at the cafeteria table with me and said, “We learned in Church yesterday that you’re going to hell.” They looked at me, questioning. I said, “Well, Jews believe anyone who is good can go to whatever they believe is Heaven.” After some silence, one said, “I like that better” and the conversation changed. The others never commented. I had taken for granted that I belonged, and in an instant that was shattered. When I was an adult I spent years traveling and living overseas. 26 years later I am only just starting to find feelings of belonging in the U.S. again.

My heart is full.

If you haven’t already, please sign up to receive USDAC updates, including our next national action, and take part in our work. 

Stevie Wonder has been touring with a live version of his classic, epic album, Songs in the Key of Life. This one has got to be the People’s State of the Union’s anthem, the trilingual (Zulu/Spanish/English) “Ngiculela – Es Una Historia – I am Singing.”

Es una historia de manana/It is a story of tomorrow
Es una historia de amor/It’s a love story
es una historia en la que el amor reinará/It’s a story in which love will reign
Por nuestro mundo/For our world
Es una historia de mi corazon/It is a story of my heart

Reflections from Chief Policy Wonk, Arlene Goldbard

PSOTU Remarks by E. Ethelbert Miller, Minister of the Sacred Word

From USDAC Cabinet Member, E. Ethelbert Miller, Minister of the Sacred Word

A few days ago President Obama delivered the State of the Union address before Congress. The State of the Union speech is the time when we listen to our President as if he was a teacher or doctor. The President takes the nation's pulse. At times he might recommend medicine that we should take in order to be well. The President is the person who warns us about what might be on the final exam and what we need to study and prepare for.

Often we want the President to tell us a story or share stories of people he might have met when stepping beyond the Oval Office. We want to know what's going on around our country. We want to be reminded about what it means to be American.

The building of our nation is a fascinating narrative. It's a tale of colonization, revolution, civil war, a Great Depression and many battles for freedom and equality. Out of many stories we attempt to construct one. But at times we struggle to form that more perfect union. We keep falling back into being a nation of blue and red states.

Still we are reminded by Howard Zinn that people make history. The President is one—we the people are many.

Across America, from today until January 30th, people will be meeting to share their stories.

There are a number of things we might first want to think about:

- Where do stories come from?  Do they have a beginning and end?
- How important are stories in helping us to define who we are?
- Why do we need them?
- What is the connection between stories and history?
- How do stories change over time?
- Does the storyteller have a responsibility to the listener/audience and community?
- Are all the stories true?
- What happens when stories are banned or censored?
- Does everyone have a right to his/her story?

Story Circles are a way of building community. They should be built around mutual respect for one another. The sharing of a story creates a spiritual exchange and what we might define as spiritual solidarity. Key to storytelling is listening and responding.

In many places the Circle becomes a place for honest dialogue and a way of resolving conflicts. Hopefully it helps us who form the circle to begin the quest for a common language, to shape the impossible into the possible.

If a story is told well then one will witness the transformation of the individual. This is how change begins. It is the sharing of this change that results in social movements reaching a higher ground. If we fail there is no healing and our wounds remain open to be filled by the crimes of ugliness.
 

People’s State of the Union Invites Cultural and Poetic Dialogue

"In response to the president’s speech, a new U.S. arts-and-culture agency issues a call for stories and poems as part of a plan create new civic rituals." Read the article in American Theatre

State of the Union—Fireside Chat

USDAC Deputy Secretary Norman Beckett gives a mini fireside chat inviting YOU to take part in the People's State of the Union. Watch and share your story: www.peoplesstateoftheunion.usdac.us

PSOTU EVENTS IN 150 COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY - Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

MEDIA CONTACT:

Liz Maxwell

liz@usdac.us

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ARTS AND CULTURE HOSTS “PEOPLE’S STATE OF THE UNION” EVENTS IN 150 COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY

Following Obama’s Speech, Thousands Gather to Share Stories, Inspiring Poetic Address Broadcast from New York City’s Bowery Poetry Club 

New York, NY (January, 14, 2015) – Following President Obama’s State of the Union address on January 20, the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC)* will host a week of events in schools, theaters and community centers across the country in which citizens will contribute their own stories to form the first-ever People’s State of the Union (PSOTU).

At story circles convened in over 150 communities between January 23-30, participants will gather to share stories reflecting on the state of the union as experienced in their own lives and communities. As a way to augment the President’s annual speech, these stories will be collected and shared through an online portal, supplemented by commentary from the USDAC National Cabinet. Inspired by these stories, a group of award-winning poets will create and deliver a Poetic Address to the Nation, broadcast live from New York City’s Bowery Poetry Club on February 1, 2015. Contributing poets include: Margaret Randall, Patricia Smith, Bob Holman, Luis Rodriguez, E. Ethelbert Miller, Claudia Rankine, Joy Harjo, Eileen Myles, and many others.

The People’s State of the Union is the first in a series of new civic rituals planned by the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture. 

WHAT:             People’s State of the Union story circles and Poetic Address

WHO:              Hundreds of individuals and civic organizations, partial list below

WHEN:             Story circles: January 23-30, 2015

Poetic Address: February 1, 2015, 6PM ET

WHERE:             Story circles: over 150 communities, partial list below;

Poetic Address: Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery, New York, NY

Attend Event: http://psotu.bpt.me/

Livestream: peoplesstateoftheunion.usdac.us

Online Conversation: #PSOTU, #USDAC

“We're holding these events across the country because we believe that democracy is a conversation, not a monologue,” said USDAC Chief Instigator Adam Horowitz. “Instead of a speech spoken by one, the Poetic Address is a work of art created by many.”

USDAC Minister of Poetry and Endangered Language Protection Bob Holman, an award-winning writer and creator of Language Matters (soon to be broadcast on PBS), is leading creation of the collaborative address inspired by the stories.   

A small sampling of participating communities and organizations includes:

• Ferguson Youth Initiative (Ferguson, MO)
• Gender and Sexuality Center and the University of Illinois at Chicago (Chicago, IL)
• Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Ashland, OR)
• Esperanza Peace and Justice Center (San Antonio, TX)
• Westmoor High School, 10th Grade English (Daly, CA)
• United Caring Services Homeless Shelter (Evansville, IN)
• Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City (Overland Park, KS)
• Migrant Education Program (Salinas, CA)
• University of Nebraska Social Practice Coalition (Lincoln, NE)
• Bronx Music Heritage Center Lab (Bronx, NY)
• Wise Fool Circus (Peñasco, NM)

“Coming out of a year as divisive as this past one,” Horowitz continued, “it is more important than ever that we forge new bonds of empathy by truly listening to one another’s stories.” Anyone who wants to take part but can’t attend a story circle is invited to submit a story online during the week of Jan. 23-30. For more information the first annual People’s State of the Union and Poetic Address, please visit http://usdac.us/psotu.

***

ABOUT THE USDAC 

*The USDAC is the nation’s newest people-powered department, committed to harnessing the power of art and culture to cultivate empathy, equity, and social imagination. Launched in October, 2013 (and immediately attacked by Glenn Beck), the USDAC is a growing national action network of artists and cultural organizers, embodying the values, actions, and policies that could and should shape any agency representing the public interest in art and culture. This past summer, USDAC Cultural Agents hosted large-scale community “Imaginings” in eleven cities, bringing together more than 2,500 participants to envision their communities 20 years on, when “mission has been accomplished” for the department. The USDAC is not a government agency. Learn more at www.usdac.us.

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Inauguration Celebration Oration

This talk was delivered by Chief Policy Wonk Arlene Goldbard on November 17th at Bowery Poetry in New York City, on the occasion of the inauguration of the first 22 members of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture's National Cabinet.

It is my honor and privilege tonight to welcome and inaugurate the first 22 members of the National Cabinet of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, a citizen-led, policy-oriented leadership group whose members have made themselves experts not just by studying but also by living the relevant knowledge.

We’re still building the Cabinet. Unlike typical presidential cabinets, we don’t ask one member to represent the entirety of an interest or issue—a secretary of defense, a secretary of state. We recognize that it takes the awareness and wisdom of people from many parts of the nation, many types of work, many cultural backgrounds, to bring the necessary knowledge to a subject as complex and encompassing as the public interest in culture. And it will take even more of us to activate the shift that needs to happen now, from a consumer culture to a creator culture, from a society swamped by fear, isolation, and competition to one based in equity, empathy, and interconnectedness.

Let me start by telling you a little bit about the Cabinet’s work, then introduce you to these remarkable individuals, some of whom are here tonight.

I’ll begin with the most important question: why are we doing this?

Now, we didn’t invent the idea of artists and their allies standing for the democratic principles of pluralism, participation, and equity and calling for attention to and investment in the public interest in culture. The USDAC may be going about it in a new and different way, but there’s a lineage to this work.

I could start back in 1936 by quoting the painter Stuart Davis who, opening the American Artists Congress said, “In order to withstand the severe shock of the crisis, artists have had to seek a new grip on reality.…in times such as we are living in, few artists can honestly remain aloof, wrapped up in studio problems.”

But I’ll just mention a few efforts I know from personal experience.

I co-authored the first-ever “California Comprehensive Cultural Policy” in 1978: “The overall goal of this policy is to develop cultural democracy, based on public participation in the cultural activity of a pluralistic society.”

I co-authored a new cultural policy proposal for the U.S. in Winning America: Ideas and Leadership for the 1990s, published in 1988 by the Institute for Policy Studies and South End Press: “The new democratic cultural agenda should promote diversity where government, market forces, and other powerful interests have discouraged it.”

Along with other activists, I co-authored the “Artists Call for Cultural Policy 2004,” addressed “to all candidates:” “We the undersigned artists and arts organization representatives come from all parts of the United States and reflect the heritage cultures of every corner of the globe. Our fundamental values are freedom of expression, diversity, equity, and a belief in art and culture as a means of building mutual trust and understanding, which is our best guarantee of peace and security.”

Following on an artists’ delegation to the White House I co-led in 2009, we authored “Art and Public Purpose:” “America needs a bold new investment in culture, a policy recognizing that culture holds the key to a future we can believe in. This Framework calls on Congress and the Obama Administration to support art’s public purpose.”

All of these efforts were serious, deep, and hopeful that someone in power would listen to us and respond. I’ll just say that our hopes were a little premature.

Now, I’m not giving up on influencing the powers that be to recognize the truth that art and culture are our most powerful and under-tapped resources for positive social change. I’m not done asking the questions that occur to me every time I consider that our nation is spending more than two annual National Endowment for the Arts budgets on war every single day, every time I see that we have the largest prison population on the planet, that comparing our spending on Incarceration Nation to our spending on education puts us to shame. I ask:

Who are we as a people?
What do we stand for?
How do we want to be remembered? For our stupendous ability to punish, or our vast creativity?

And then I recognize that we cannot afford to wait for answers, to wait for a response from that listening ear in the halls of power. We need to do it ourselves, to awaken a grassroots creative change movement, engaging millions in envisioning and enacting a world rooted in empathy, equity, and social imagination. Deepak Bhargava, Executive Director of the Center for Community Change, said that:

"There are only two kinds of power in America. There’s organized money, and there’s organized people. For the last thirty years, organized money has had its way with policy and legislation in our economy. The only possible solution to the predicament we’re in is that organized people find their voice and demand a different path."

I was talking the other day with a Cabinet member who—like all of us—is thrilled to be part of this great adventure. He’s an activist for social justice, using his skills as an artist—he performed on the streets of New York City as part of the recent Climate March, for instance. He told me that most of his work is about calling people’s attention to what’s wrong so it can be addressed. It feels really different and really good, he said, to live into the future we want to help create.

We call the USDAC an “act of collective imagination.” Back in the day, we called it “prefiguration.” The idea was live as if the social order of justice tempered by love was already here. We would organize ourselves and behave toward others as we wished everyone to do. We would show what could be done by doing it ourselves, inspiring others to do the same.

And that’s why we are forming this august Cabinet, to live into our dreams.

The Cabinet’s purview is cultural policy. When we say “cultural policy,” we’re talking about support for artists and institutions, education, communications, the built environment, leisure, immigration, social inclusion and the right to heritage—and much, much more. How do economic development policies affect the cultural life of rural communities? When policymakers choose to spend large portions of our commonwealth on the world’s largest war and incarceration systems, how does that statement of national priorities affect our collective culture? Where in the cultural landscape do tax breaks and subsidies go? What cultures are valued for preservation? How do education policies affect our creativity and therefore our future?

One of the initiatives the USDAC is working on is a “Cultural Impact Study” process, for example. This is analogous to the environment assessments that have been required for federal projects since the passage of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. This is one of the most powerful and influential tools of environmental policy, because it forces us to consider the impact of our actions on the environment before we take steps that might do damage.

Right now, for example, if a local authority is asked to approve the destruction of homes, parks, and businesses in a deeply rooted neighborhood so that a sports arena or freeway can be built there, NEPA mandates research into environmental harm such as possible destruction of endangered species habitat or potential pollution. If negative impact is found, the project can be disallowed or steps to mitigate the impact can be required before anything can be approved.

But what about the impact on cultural fabric? What about the sense of belonging, the sites of public memory, the gathering-places, the expressions and embodiments of heritage cultures that would also be destroyed? Every community should be authorized to assess, study, and act on these too. The purpose of a CIS would be to help public officials make informed decisions that reflect a deep understanding of negative cultural consequences and the positive alternatives available.

Kind of a no-brainer, hm? And that’s just one example of the policies we need. Cabinet members will be on the alert for all kinds of opportunities to call public attention to important cultural issues. They will take part in USDAC Action Calls such as the People’s State of The Union you’ve heard about tonight.

A year from now, they will turn the crowd-sourced vision of a 2034 infused with the transformative power of art and culture that has been built through three rounds of Imaginings—they will turn it into a roadmap, rolling out the policies and initiatives we need to get there, and they will help us ensure that organizations, local governments—everyone who can help it get traction—will endorse and support it.

In the history of cultural activism, there has never been a body like this, equipped with this knowledge, charged with this responsibility. Everything that is created must first be imagined. Here we are tonight, witnessing this historic event: We have imagined the USDAC’s National Cabinet, and together we are making it happen!

Are you excited to see what will come from the Cabinet? You will be even more excited when you meet these 22 individuals. (Here they are.)

Join me now in inaugurating these stellar founding members of the USDAC National Cabinet. Please repeat after me:

By the power vested in us by countless generations imagining a future they want to inhabit and moving heaven and earth to make it real;

And by the power vested in us through our creativity, integrity, and commitment to cultivate the public interest in art and culture and catalyze art and culture in the public interest;

We hereby welcome these 22 founding members of the USDAC National Cabinet and duly authorize them to take office and fulfill their collective mission with honor, beauty, and success.

Imagining America 2014 - Organizing. Culture. Change.

We had a great time at the Imagining America conference in Atlanta a few weeks back, investigating the theme of "Organizing. Culture. Change." with colleagues representing a wide scope of civic engagement initiatives within the higher education community. At our session, with Cultural Agents Lynden Harris (Cedar Grove, NC) and Jess Solomon (Washington, D.C.), over 40 participants investigated the question: "How might student led art & social change college chapters bridge town and gown?"  The conversations that day sparked a working group that will continue to explore what's possible within this theme.

This is part of an ongoing partnership with Imagining America to support culturally democratic movement building and bolster the field of community cultural development both on and off college campuses. (If this is a topic that is of particular interest to you, please let us know!)

P.S. Special thanks to all new allies and friends who made it out to our get-to-know-you happy hour later that night! Looking forward to continued movement building with many great Atlanta colleagues.

All Hands On Deck: Report Back

Report back by USDAC Archivist of Past and Future, Kelsey Bryden

We could not have imagined a more beautiful day to ring in the first birthaversary of the USDAC. The floating library may not have set its sails to carry us on any kind of physical journey, though its curious crevasses contributed to the limitless spirit of the day, garnering our sense of emotional voyage.

As we, the stowaway artists, huddled on shore preparing to embark, we informed each other of our methods of engagement. The range was wide—some sang, some typed, some collected wishes, all which lead back to the mission of immersing participants in a world outside of our own. What kind of world, you ask? One wherein humans trust widely and act consciously, corporate entities no longer rule over us, and our global issues are not met with radical cynicism. However unspoken, the collective goal was to transform the daily experience of whomever found themselves moseying through the temporary USS USDAC.

After becoming settled in our various corners of the historic vessel, it was clear that our engagement had an impact on participants. Upon realizing that we were tucked away in every nook, it appeared as though the engaged were excited to find how we the artists would interact with them around the next bend of the ship.

We acted without boundaries of which senses we could enlist, and as the public chose their path they saw, heard, felt, and breathed in the air of our reimagined world of interdependence. 

Bob Holman of Bowery Poetry offered some particularly tingly words:

All hands on deck! & here we go!

There ain't no status in the status quo

Hedge the funds! 'Tis a maritime drift

Awake, ye knaves! To the Paradigm Shift

As our journey neared its close, we reconvened at the ship’s end to reflect on the goings on of the day and the first year of the USDAC. Deputy Secretary Norman Beckett recapped it best in his closing remarks:

“By being here today, you’ve become a part of the USDAC story… Indeed, this Department is itself a collaborative work of art that asks everyone to play a part. Of the world’s many limited resources, creativity is not one. We have it in abundant supply and can harness it together, as artists of society, working to widen our collective circle of care.” 

The People's Climate March Maker/Speaker Party, Lawrence, KS

Reporting by Lora Jost, Deputy Agent, Lawrence KS Field Office and Photography by the USDAC Lawrence, KS Field Office.

On a beautiful early fall afternoon in Lawrence, KS, around a hundred people from the Lawrence area came together for “The People’s Climate March Maker/Speaker Party,” an afternoon of artful sign making, prayers, ceremonies, speakers, and a march.

The event was one of thousands worldwide on that day showing solidarity with “The People’s Climate March” in New York City. The local effort was sponsored by local environmental, business, and church groups and was coordinated together by the USDAC Lawrence field office, LETUS (Lawrence Ecology Teams United in Sustainability), and Oyate Wahacanka Woecun, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe's “Shield the People” project.

Gary Dorr, Nez Perce, of Shield the People, opened the event. Dorr had previously helped organize the Cowboy/Indian Alliance ceremonies and demonstrations in Washington, DC against the Keystone XL pipeline.  He explained that South Park had once belonged to the Delaware tribe, and that he had asked for and received the blessing of a Delaware elder to meet there for our event.  Gary led a prayer and then a moment of silence timed to coincide with New York’s moment of silence. After this, at noon sharp, the group joined together in “sounding the climate alarm” by blowing party whistles, drumming, rattling cans filled with rocks, and shouting.

After this opening, participants joined in a “maker party” by making colorful signs about their climate-change concerns. Organizers suggested that participants illustrate things that are threatened by climate change and are worth saving, encircled by a green heart as suggested by the group Avaaz (a coordinator of the New York march) .  While participants made these signs and many others, an MC wandered through the group and, using a microphone, interviewed people about their creations.

Participants then stood in a large circle as Pastor Thad Holcombe made introductions and asked people to think about what they would like to remember in the future given the threat of climate change.  People called out things like “the squirrels in the fall and the rabbits in the spring.” After each contribution, the whole group responded, “we remember.”

Theresa Milk, Lakota, and Gary Dorr then led a water ceremony. Milk is the author of Haskell Institute: 19th Century Stories of Sacrifice and Survival (2007, Mammoth Publications). After the water ceremony, Professor Daniel Wildcat, of Haskell Indian Nations University, spoke, drawing on themes from his recent book Red Alert: Saving the planet with Indigenous Knowledge. Gary Dorr concluded with a powerful reflection on the devastating environmental impacts of the Keystone XL pipeline, particularly its threat to the Ogallala Aquifer.

Then we marched around South Park led by the speakers, event organizers, and Native American drummer Grace Denning. In the day’s finale, participants held hands in a circle that we transformed into the shape of a heart. Then, marking next steps, participants drew around their hands on a large sign and added their signatures as a symbol of commitment to further action to stop climate change.

Note: This event is part of a series of climate change events that the USDAC Lawrence Field Office is helping with. Events include the Climate Change Pray-In Teach-In, and a series of three talks to include information about the science of climate change, the local impact, and what we can do to change climate change.

To the Border, with the Tucson Field Office

Reporting by USDAC Storyteller-in-Chief, Lauren Zanedis

President Obama, in an announcement to the American public, reported that he would delay executive immigration action until after the midterm elections in November.

For many of us, like those in Congress, like President Obama, two months will pass in a hurried rush from late summer to fall, virtually unnoticed. Yet for those waiting at the border to begin their new lives, two more months is interminable.

For New York-based artist Janet Goldner, the decision to postpone any action on the issue was simply unacceptable. Goldner decided to make a cross-country trip to Arizona, though her impulse wasn't solely politically driven: "My intent was to understand border issues from a human, intimate, firsthand point of view...The reports of the unaccompanied child migrants spurred my trip but I went not thinking yet about solutions. I wanted to understand for myself." She recounts that it is often difficult, perhaps impossible, to get a realistic understanding of what is happening at the border unless you're there. If you're not observing for yourself, she says, "it is easy for Americans to dismiss 'those people' and their problems."

Goldner got in touch with USDAC Cultural Agent Michael Schwartz and Tucson Field Office Deputy Agent of Details Sandra Bernal, flew from New York to Tucson, Arizona on Saturday, September 13, and planned an excursion to the border to obtain a vivid, on-the-ground understanding of the crisis.

The next day, Goldner, Schwartz, Bernal, and their team visited the Kino Border Initiative’s kitchen (KBI), a binational organization located in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. Run by Jesuit priests, its vision is to facilitate a humane, just, and workable migration between the U.S. and Mexico. Migrants often arrive to the KBI with nothing more than the clothes they are wearing and a small bag of items they’ve taken from home. At this pivotal moment in their lives, Goldner described some of the migrants as looking "incredibly haunted," presumably by their past journey, their present circumstances, and their undefined future.

KBI provides people who have just been deported and people who are about to cross the border with food, some clothing and sometimes first aid. Our USDAC team was particularly interested in the role of the arts during this difficult moment in the lives of the 78,000 migrants currently displaced. Can cultural diplomacy act as a lever to help support those who have left their home and who are eagerly in search of another? How might the arts offer a means of expression to the migrants themselves? Could  professional artists add context or a depth of analysis to the crisis?

Credit: Janet Goldner

With a fence that cost American taxpayers $40 billion to build the "imaginary line in the sand is reinforced by metal, laws and military," says USDAC Cultural Agent Michael Schwartz. As the border between Mexico and the United States becomes fraught with incredible tension, an insurgency of border artists, as it were, have cropped up, greeting those that make this hallowed journey with colorful murals, photographs, and resonant messages. (Agent Schwartz notes, "there is an ongoing conversation in many circles about what it means to be a migrant, [to have a particular] identity and [to] assimilate.") Known as “border art,” these works prompt compelling questions: what does it mean when art, when people, are not necessarily rooted to a place, but instead are mobile and ever changing? Such border art speaks exactly to this moment of transience in which each and every one of these migrants reside. But, it also speaks to the very real and tangible fence that serves as an immediate impediment to their journey. "The militarization of the border is clear," Goldner notes. It also acts as the first, very immediate, sign of the difficulty that the migrants will have to face on the 'other side.'

This is where Jon McLane, USDAC Tucson Field Office Deputy Press Agent and founder of SAFE Park, comes in. McLane founded SAFE Park as a place for those displaced, migrants, refugees and people down on their luck to have a place to sleep and store their belongings 24 hours a day without fear of arrest or harassment by local authorities. While providing for their basic needs, SAFE Park also provides provisional housing, a model they’ve landed on after two years of in-field study and testing the limitations on safe places to sleep and exist in downtown Tucson. McLane and those at SAFE Park are not only giving these homeless—with many migrants among them—a place to sleep, but also a place to store their IDs, their clothes, and anything else, however small, they’ve taken with them on their journeys.

Credit: Janet Goldner

Many of us, myself included, fall into thinking that as long as basic necessities are met, we’ve done our duty. This line of thinking is faulty, though. What is also integral—and it is a service that SAFE Park provides—is the ability to have a place to call home, to leave for the day and to come back, to know that your things, however many or few, are still there when you return.

But, it is also our duty to provide the infrastructure to encourage cultural sharing and belonging.

I asked of those who went on the excursion how migrants could possibly focus on art, on engaging in any cultural diplomacy at a time when their basic needs were barely being met. Those with whom I was speaking clamored to tell me just how wrong this assumption was, that each person doesn’t leave their culture behind when they move, when they emigrate from their home country, when they visit the U.S/Mexican border for a week to determine the work there is to be done, but that, instead, it is a sworn part of themselves. In a way, there are no borders when it comes to culture; what you say, how you say it, the songs you sing, the recipes you default to when you’re making a meal for your family, these are the pieces of culture that are so integral for each one of us, whether or not we've crossed national borders. In theory, there is no losing that part of ourselves, but we must create the conditions to welcome it.

Goldner describes the week as a "wildly successful collaboration which I hope will continue to grow." She says it will take some time for the photographs, video, and writing from the week to coalesce into action.  Cultural Agent Schwartz suggests that given sufficient time and reflection, "artists help provide context and deepen this discussion; [they] provide platforms and challenge assumptions about this issue." Migration is natural, he added. "People, plants, and animals continue to migrate back and forth, as they have since forever."

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All photo credit: Janet Goldner

One Year Anniversary Remarks

The following remarks were made by Deputy Secretary Norman Beckett on the occasion of the USDAC's one-year anniversary during a ceremony held on September 27th, 2014, aboard the Floating Library at Pier 25 in New York City. A full report and photos from the occasion will be posted soon.

Friends, collaborators, Citizen Artists, welcome aboard the USS USDAC. I’m Norman Beckett, Deputy Secretary of Art and Culture. It’s a great honor and pleasure to be here with you as we celebrate the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture. A lot has happened over this past year. I’d like to take this opportunity to reflect on our journey to date, and I’d like to share a bit of what lies ahead. 

But first let’s ground ourselves in the here and now. 

I invite you to take a deep breath. And to shake it all out a little. I invite you to turn to a neighbor. Look them in the eyes. Maintain eye contact, and if you’ll give me your trust for a moment, please repeat after me: You. Are. Not. My. Enemy.

This is not a typical office place. But we’re not a typical department. We have no federal line item or governmental affiliation. Rather, we’re a people-powered, artist-driven department, committed to harnessing creativity in the service of a more just and vibrant world. Cave paintings from thousands of years ago depict our ancestors dancing, not sitting in meetings. So, in our pop-up headquarters, devoid of board rooms and conference calls, we’re really taking our cue from the world’s first artists.

Aboard this boat, temporarily known as the USS USDAC, we are charting the often perilous waters of culture shift. As culture-makers is it our job to rock the boat or to keep it afloat? I say, yes! As our global ecological and economic systems teeter on the brink, as inequality rises, as racism persists, as the climate warms, as political stalemate stalls action on urgent issues, as corporate interests drive policy agendas, as the waters literally rise, we know that to change the world we’re going to have change the story. We know that we cannot sustain life on this planet with a story of business as usual, but must begin to tell a new story, where people and planet come first.

We also know that culture precedes politics.

And so, aboard the USS USDAC we’re asking: how might we sail from a culture of consumption to one of creation? From one of passivity to one of participation? From one of isolation to one of interdependence? And what’s the role of artists, creativity, and imagination in making that cultural change on a mass scale? 

Really, what we’re talking about here is nothing less than paradigm shift. Thomas Kuhn the historian of science who popularized the phrase paradigm shift, defines paradigm as “an entire constellation of beliefs, values, techniques, and so on, shared by the members of a given community…as a set of unassailable, unconsciously accepted truths.”

The consumer-oriented paradigm was and is a deliberate, crafted creation and it’s up to us to define and create the paradigm that eclipses it.

How many folks here have heard of Victor Lebow? He was considered an architect of modern advertising and corporate culture. In 1955 he wrote:
 
“Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. These commodities and services must be offered to the consumer with a special urgency. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing pace. We need to have people eat, drink, dress, ride, live, with ever more complicated and, therefore, constantly more expensive consumption.” 

As this consumption-as-ritual paradigm has taken hold we’ve witnessed an unprecedented privatization and eradication of the commons—of the creations of both nature and society that belong to all of us equally and should be maintained for future generations.

We’re losing species at an alarming rate, and human languages as well. We’re losing our water, air, land, seeds, public spaces, our traditions and cultural heritage. 

With a diminished number and quality of commons experiences in our own lives, our capacity to imagine what a thriving commons could look like and how it could come to be in the 21st century is also at stake.

Yet, as commons activists such as Julie Ristau and Alexa Bradley have helped articulate, within us there’s a yearning – a gnawing desire for deeper connection with the people and natural world that sustain us, an impulse emerging from the depth of our consciousness saying that another world is possible. At the USDAC we believe that artists can help lead the charge to that world. We’re committed to a radical reclaiming of imagination and to cultivating the empathy and creativity needed to preserve and to grow our commons.  

What new rituals will we create to change the paradigm and to reclaim the commons? As artists, how will we, as James Baldwin puts it, lay bare the questions which have been hidden by the answers? 

In a addition to a crisis of the commons, this country is suffering a crisis of cultural citizenship—not the kind of citizenship that demands papers at border-crossings, but the kind that leaves millions feeling unwelcome in their own communities, unknown to their own neighbors, unacknowledged for their contributions to society. Artists and creative organizers understand that culture is the wellspring of social change, that everyone has a story, and that our devaluing of creativity (as by cutting education, arts, and community development funding) diminishes our capacity to connect across difference and to build bonds of genuine empathy. 

So, how do we change the story? The obstacles are enormous and the cards are stacked. Every day the U.S. spends more than twice our national arts agency’s annual budget on war. What’s a people-powered department to do?

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them, said Albert Einstein. And to add the words of musician Sun Ra: "We have tried everything possible and none of it has worked. Now we must try the impossible.”

So, over the past year, the USDAC has been flirting with the impossible. Let me give you a quick highlights reel. 

One year ago, we launched with a press conference. With little more than a handful of buttons and a Statement of Values we imagined this new department into existence, asking: how might we shift art and culture from the margins to the center of civil society, given their true value and support as catalysts for social transformation?

One week later we were denounced by conservative pundit Glenn Beck, who warned his viewers [and I quote] “I guarantee you, with what they have just started, if you don’t have an equal and opposite reaction then in five years, the country is gone, with no chance of resetting.” 

With this stamp of disapproval we journeyed on, putting out a call for founding Cultural Agents to bring the USDAC and its values (which you have on the handout) to life in their communities. 

From more than 100 applications we chose 15 wildly qualified Agents of all ages, from all around the country, and began a series of training calls to prepare for our pilot round of Imaginings.  

These Imaginings, part performance, part facilitated dialogue, part celebration, bring together community members to imagine what their neighborhoods (and the world) might look like in the year 2034, when art’s transformative power has been fully integrated into all aspects of public life. 

Bernice Johnson Reagon the great singer in Sweet Honey and the Rock said that, “When you begin to imagine and act as if you live in the world you want to live in, you will have company.” 

And sure enough, in June and July more than 2,500 people came together in eleven towns and cities across the country to participate in these Imaginings. Our founding Cultural Agents used collaborative collages, live music, parades, facilitated dialogues, theatrical improvisations, time machines, open mics, and much more to engage Citizen Artists of all stripes in developing local visions for what USDAC mission accomplished looks like. 

As we like to say, the USDAC is not an outside agency coming in. It’s our inside agency coming out.

All of this was just the beginning. Imagination is the voyage into the land of the infinite. So where do we go from here? 

Agents who really tapped into the energy of their communities are now opening Field Offices, essentially local chapters of the USDAC. These Field Offices will begin to translate the ideas that came out of Imaginings into tangible local reality. 

In Tucson, Arizona, they’ve already created an after school arts program for refugee youth, and led a delegation of artists across the border to meet their colleagues in Mexico. 

In Germantown, Philadelphia, the local Citizen Artists are exploring what it would take to turn the abandoned high school into a cultural center.

In Lawrence, Kansas they’re exploring what it might take to implement a Cultural Impact Report. Since the 1970s the federal government has mandated environmental impact reports, whereby developers must first look at the potential negative environmental impacts of proposed initiatives. Well what if we could look at the cultural impacts? What if places were valued because of how much meaning they held in community? How many stories and memories had been generated and are stored there? How many bridges across cultures are built there? In Kansas, Agent Dave will be exploring the feasibility of implementing such a mandate, which could, if successful, ripple across many other sites. 

So across the country, USDAC Field Offices are opening to take on these kinds of local projects, and there will be another application for Cultural Agents announced later this winter.

Meanwhile, we’re in the early stages of designing a series of reimagined American Holidays that anyone anywhere can take part in. Stay tuned for opportunities to host a People’s State of the Union in late January, and to join us in celebrating the 5th of July, as we move from Independence to Interdependence.

We’re also building out a Shadow Cabinet of policy wonks and experienced practitioners to help translate some of the ideas that emerge on the ground into new policy and program proposals that could be enacted regionally or nationally.

And we’re beginning to explore how to harness technology to 1) seed the creation of online affinity groups, 2) source and spread participatory campaigns and projects, and 3) put out calls for large-scale creative response.

Our approach is a networked one, exploring the possibility for collective impact while maintaining that real change happens, as Eleanor Roosevelt, said “In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world.”

What would the world look like if everyone's cultural traditions and creative contributions were valued in small places close to home?

In pursuit of that world, I’m asking you not just to help barn-raise the new people-powered department but also to help disband it, to make it one day obsolete. 

Friends, we have a ways to go to get there. 

It’s been said that a sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind. But one cannot wield the wind as a painter might a brush or a musician a guitar. The sailor’s medium then, must be the sail. To quote E.F. Schumacher: "We cannot raise the wind, but each of us can put up the sail, so that when the wind comes we can catch it." Once we catch that wind, do we know exactly where we’ll end up? No. But we do have a north star, a sense of direction. We envision, to borrow a phrase from civil rights leader James Lawson: “a social order of justice permeated with love.” 

Last week some 400,000 people marched in this city, calling for urgent action in the face of climate change. There are more than 20 million people in this country who consider themselves artists. What might we accomplish together? 

By being here today, you’ve become a part of the USDAC story. If you haven’t yet please do enlist as a Citizen Artist. You don’t have to be a citizen in the legal sense of the word, or an artist to do so! Indeed, this Department is itself a collaborative work of art that asks everyone to play a part. Of the world’s many limited resources, creativity is not one. We have it in abundant supply and can harness it together, as artists of society, working to widen our collective circle of care. 

Thank you for joining us here today. Thank you to the Floating Library for inviting us on board. We look forward to the journey ahead!

A Dispatch from the Climate March

Dispatch from USDAC Deputy Secretary Norman Beckett, who served as a (30-minute) artist-in-residence at Melted Away, a sculptural installation in Madison Square Park on the occasion of the Climate March:

Mama Earth, her arms outstretched, paraded down Central Park West. A giant puppet, her plea was silent, but given voice by the more than 310,000 who marched today—of all ages, ethnicities, faiths, nationalities. The beekeepers chanted, the bicyclist danced, the musicians jammed, the frontline communities led the charge, the monks meditated, the grandparents marched and marched, marking a moment in which there can be absolutely no dispute about the devastating reality of climate change and the urgent need to act now. Yesterday. Three decades ago. But, indisputably, NOW!

Despite the dire state of affairs, there was an overwhelming sense of jubilance amidst the marchers. People-power, it turns out, can be a massively celebratory affair, especially when as well-organized as this march was, and as animated by art, music, and dance, as this one was. For months leading up to this date, artists have been hard at working crafting signs, floats, puppets, participatory rituals, and more so as to fill the streets with soul and signifiers. 

In 310,000 different ways we heard one truth: it’s time to awaken to the urgent need to heal our relations with each other and with nature, to act in accordance with the reality of our interdependence. 

“Earth to earth!” one dude shouted at us as we took a break on the sidewalk to watch the march go by. “Get back in here!”

We promptly did. 

EARTH TO EARTH!
Earth to art
Art to earth
Heart to heart
Heart to hearth
Hear the earth
Near to hear
Art at heart
THE FUTURE!

And now I sit in front of a three thousand pound ice sculpture that reads “The Future” and has been melting at Madison Square Park since 10am. A trickle is far less dramatic than a break. But a trickle over time leads to the same end: the eradication of all that we’ve built. Will we watch, taking occasional photos and drinking a smoothie? Or will we do something?

Of the world’s many limited resources, creativity is not one. We have it in abundance and it's time we invite everyone to step up as an artist of society, bringing our gifts and harnessing our creativity so that the future doesn’t melt before our eyes. Today showed us that we’re ready to take on that challenge as never before.

#melted_away, #USDAC #publicart #peoplesclimate #globalwarming

USDAC issues call: Creativity for Equity and Justice

On August 26th, 2014, the USDAC issued the following call, signed by leading artists and activists across the country:

The work of artists and creative activists can help to create a cultural democracy that prizes diversity, practices equity, and brings a deep respect for human rights to every aspect of civil society. Therefore, the people-powered U.S. Department of Arts and Culture* calls on all artists and creative activists to join in the movement to demilitarize the police and bring justice to victims of publicly funded racism.

DOWNLOAD CALL AS PDF

FIND/SHARE ORGS + RESOURCES

FIND/SHARE ARTISTIC PROJECTS

CALL TO ACTION: The USDAC calls on all artists and creative activists to use our gifts for peace and justice, sharing images, performances, experiences, writings, and other works of art that raise awareness, build connection, cultivate empathy, and inspire action.

The murder of Michael Brown (and Eric Garner, Renisha McBride, Jonathan Ferrell, Jordan Davis, Sean Bell, Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, and so many others) and the suppression of basic rights in Ferguson, MO (and so many other places) compel us to ask these questions:

• Who are we as a people? 
• What do we stand for? 
• How do we want to be remembered?

As a culture of punishment? Or a culture that values every human life, promoting true public safety grounded in justice and love?

As artists and creative activists, we understand that even as our present crises arise from economic and political conditions, these crises are rooted in culture. 

• Official violence is a cultural issue. 
• The denial of human rights is a cultural issue. 
• Racism is a cultural issue.

We join together in affirming to all public officials and policymakers that a culture of punishment cannot stand. We join together in applying our gifts to the public gatherings, organizing campaigns, and policy proposals that will support positive change. We stand together with generations of creative activists in communities across the nation who have been envisioning and working toward a world of equity and safety for all.

We call on all to break the silence that permits injustice, recalling the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.”

Together, we stand. Together, we speak. Together, we create. 

• Judith Baca, Venice, CA
• Lauren Bartone, San Rafael, CA
• Jack Becker, St. Paul, MN
• Ludovic Blain III, Berkeley, CA
• Roberto Bedoya, Tucson, AZ
• Eric Booth, High Falls, NY
• Brett Cook, Berkeley, CA
• Peter Coyote, Mill Valley, CA
• Malkia A. Cyril, S.F. Bay Area

• Eisa Davis, Brooklyn, NY

• Mark Dion, New York, NY
• Dana Edell, Brooklyn, NY
• Kathy Engel, New York, NY
• Arlene Goldbard, San Rafael, CA
• Beth Grossman, Brisbane, CA
• Lynden Harris, Cedar Grove, NC
• Bob Holman, New York, NY
• Adam Horowitz, Brooklyn, NY
• Douglas Kearney, Santa Clarita, CA
• Simone Jacobson, Washington, DC
• Stephanie Johnstone, New York, NY
• Glen Knapp, Philadelphia, PA
• Lucy Lippard, Galisteo, NM
• Dave Loewenstein, Lawrence, KS
• Jessica Robinson Love, San Francisco, CA
• Andres Marquez-Lara, Washington, DC
• Rev. Erik Martinez Resly, Washington DC
• Liz Maxwell, New York, NY
• Hannah Merriman, San Rafael, CA
• dominic moulden, Washington, DC
• Beverly Naidus, Seattle, WA
• Meena Natarajan, Minneapolis, MN
• Risikat I. Okedeyi, Washington, DC
• Martha Richards, Berkeley, CA
• Favianna Rodriguez, Oakland, CA
• Patrick Rosal, Philadelphia, PA
• Kara Roschi, Phoenix, AZ
• Brigette Rouson, Washington, DC
• Graciela Sanchez, San Antonio, TX
• Michael Schwartz, Tucson, AZ
• Frank Sherlock, Philadelphia, PA
• Jess Solomon, Washington, DC
• Gloria Steinem, New York, NY
• lamont b. steptoe, Philadelphia, PA
• Makani Themba, Washington, DC
• Rashaad Thomas, Phoenix, AZ
• Mark Valdez, Los Angeles, CA
• Amy Walsh, Providence, RI
• Arthur Waskow, Philadelphia, PA
• Roseann Weiss, St. Louis, MO
• Yolanda Wisher, Germantown, PA
• Francis Wong, San Francisco, CA
• Lily Yeh, Philadelphia, PA
• Rick Yoshimoto, San Rafael, CA
• Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Brooklyn, NY

Imaginings draw 2,500+

At the USDAC, we believe that with ecological, economic, and social crises unfolding all around us, we must strengthen our capacity to connect and collaborate across difference in order to collectively imagine a more just and sustainable society. In June and July more than 2,500 people came together in towns and cities across the country, harnessing the power of art and culture to do just that.Facilitated by the USDAC's founding Cultural Agents, our first round of  used participatory murals, live music, parades, facilitated dialogues, theatrical improvisations, time machines, collaborative collages, open mics, and much more to engage Citizen Artists of all stripes in envisioning their communities in the year 2034. Now the work truly begins, as our people-powered department seeks to translate these ideas, dreams, and visions into creative and tangible local and national projects in service of a more equitable world. See dispatches from the individual imaginings here: www.usdac.us/imaginings

The Imaginings Wrap Up in Philadelphia and Washington D.C.

This weekend, the USDAC organizing team traveled to two storied American cities: Philadelphia and Washington D.C. Both are steeped in lore and legacy, but this weekend—without abandoning the traditions of the past—these two cities leaped into the future, fueled by the power of collective imagination.

In Washington D.C., Cultural Agent Jess Solomon wanted everyone to be clear: "This is not your typical performance, art opening, music recital or town meeting" [via YIMG].

At the helm, she began the Imagining with a deep, grounding breath and a guiding question: how will you be vested in community and culture twenty years from now? [via Facebook]

Amidst the creative flurry of break-out groups and Go-Go music, our organizing team was listening in on the conversations taking place at Impact Hub D.C. "It's a web if we can find a way to connect all the nonprofits. Let's get people to talk about what each others projects are. Learn who's in the room and invite each other for a gathering. Link the non profits to the layers in the community" [via Facebook].

After a productive afternoon, the USDAC team headed up the east coast to meet up with Cultural Agent Yolanda Wisher in Germantown, Philadelphia, who put a unique spin on her Imagining: she hosted at midnight. Yolanda’s opening words playfully invoked those who came before us: ''Octavia Butler and Hoodini wanted to do this. We are going to close our eyes and time travel. Let your mind's camera capture images of your ideal life; what will the community look like in 2034" [via Facebook].

Until 2am, we closed our eyes, and listened. We heard that "everybody is an artist, and has the capacity to use creative processes in their lives and should be making art! Be empowered to start projects" [via Facebook].

As the Imaginings come to a close, we're left with more questions than answers, but we’ve begun to activate the communities that can help answer them. 

The Imaginings Continue; Dispatches From the Field

Over the past two weeks, we've been Imagining.

Out west in Tucson, Arizona, one was led by Cultural Agent Michael Schwartz.

“We are moving into the ‘we’ paradigm,” he said of undertakings like USDAC. “People are learning to share and it’s changing the economy” [via Arizona Daily Star].

Much like Lynden Harris and her Imagining in Carrboro, his journey is focused on drawing together his constituents based on this principle of 'we.' What ideas we can fashion, what plans we can draw up, and most importantly, how we—artists, businessmen, students, all creative citizens—can do it together.

Schwartz said his Imagining is a chance to “creatively engage our neighbors, fellow artists and community leaders” to come up with ideas to address everything from the lack of arts education in public schools to jobs and the economy [via Arizona Daily Star].

In Phoenix, Cultural Agent Kara Roschi infused her Imagining with the same spirit.

"This is not your typical performance, art opening, music recital or town meeting," said Roschi in a press release issued on June 8. "We're looking forward to a lively, creative gathering of community members envisioning the year 2034, when art's power to engage, connect, uplift and transform has been woven into all aspects of our hometown" [via Phoenix NewTimes].

And her hometown, Phoenix, a burgeoning site of art, fashion, and culture, is the perfect locus to try her hypothesis out.

But how are the Imaginings planning on moving beyond the gathering of ideas?

Kansas-based artist and Cultural Agent Dave Lowenstein, who went to Waco, Texas last year to help create the East Waco mural on Elm Street, says the mural he created with the help of scores of local volunteers hints at how effective this enterprise [the enterprise of coming together and completing a unified vision] can be, but at this stage it remains an all too “rare example" of this kind of community-driven creative work [via Waco Tribunal]. 

But, still, an example of how an idea flourished into a tangible project.

His Imagining, based in his hometown of Lawrence, Kansas, centered on building similar kinds of ideas that had tangible corollaries. At one corner table, Kate Dinneen helped her eight-member team summarize their findings. A strengthened urban core, environmentally friendly transportation and a "more holistic" approach to education were among the concepts envisioned during their hour-long brainstorming session [via LJWorld].

South in San Antonio at the Southwest Workers Union, Cultural Agent, dancer, educator, artist, and activist Fabiola Torralba hosted her Imagining. Drawing upon her rich and dense network of local artists, her session was hosted in conjunction with Mujeres Mercado: La Cultura Cura, which celebrates the work of female artisans and traditional healers [via Facebook].

What remains to be seen is how the Cultural Agents will use the rich conversation bourne of these pilot Imaginings to further action in their communities.

In Kansas, Dave Lowenstein captured the spirit of the endeavor: “We’re hoping to create new relationships and new networks within our own community but also nationwide...What comes of it is up to us" [via LJWorld].

The Imaginings Begin; A Taste from NC

What is an Imagining?

It's a way for people to come together to bridge the gap from what is to what could be—an opportunity to bring our full creative selves to envision possibility and then translate that into pragmatic social action.

The USDAC's pilot round of Imaginings has officially begun. On June 29th, Cultural Agent Lynden Harris invited the citizens of Carrboro, North Carolina to take part in a dynamic, arts-infused, county-fair inspired gathering. Harris comes to us as the Founder and Director of Hidden Voices, an organization modeled on the transformative power of the individual voice.

And the individual voice is just what we need to start the collective conversation.

During and in between performances in Carrboro, groups gathered at designated 'conversation stations' to discuss how creative tactics and collaborations could improve health, housing and neighborhoods, foodways and other systems [via The Herald Sun], imagining how life could be different in 2034 if art's transformative power was more deeply integrated into public life.

“I think as a culture we have tended to remove (art) from our lives and made it into something separate,” Harris said [via Chapel Hill News]. But it's not, she argues.

"Separation is an illusion," Harris says [via Chapel Hill News].

This is one of the first steps in the larger Imagining series, which will continue to invite individuals in communities across the country to imagine how different forms of art and culture have the potential to change the way we view, talk about, and drive both community development and national policy, from the ground up. With the Great Southeastern Imagining, Harris and her team created something that isn't normally a part of conversations surrounding policy: an inclusive opportunity to dream aloud within a context of celebration and play.

"The spirit of the conversation is ‘yes, and,’ and we aren’t debating, we aren’t trying to convince each other. It’s ‘We’ll be building on each other’s visions,’ and I think that’s really important" [via Daily Tar Heel].

Protesters in Kansas Boycott Imagining

By inviting anyone to step up as a Citizen Artist to imagine a more just and vibrant world—and having already evoked the ire of Glenn Beck—we knew that the USDAC might be subject to continued scrutiny and suspicion by those interested in maintaining the status quo. But we were surprised to see dissent pop up in the form of a group of protesters in Lawrence, Kansas, who call themselves “the Grays” and have postered the town, calling for a boycott of the Imagining. Watch this video of the protesters to see what we’re up against and why this work is more urgent than ever. Cultural Agent Dave Loewenstein of Kansas has vowed to carry on with the Lawrence Imagining despitethe naysayers.

Downloaded from a video originally posted on a Vimeo account in Lawrence, KS, with the following description: "On a regular Saturday morning trip to the Lawrence, KS farmers market I happened upon a group of mutely clad protestors speaking out against culture and creativity. When addressed they referred to themselves as the "Grays".

The USDAC Announces Founding Cultural Agents

On Saturday, April 26th, the USDAC released the names of its 17 Cultural Agents during a live announcement at the Bowery Poetry Club in NYC. Chief Dot Connector Liz Maxwell and Under-Over Secretary of Poetic License Bob Holman gave remarks and poetic invocations. Deputy Secretary Norman Beckett then gave a speech and announced the USDAC's founding Cultural Agents. Watch the recorded livestream announcement here and see the full transcript of the Deputy Secretary's remarks below.

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NB: Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman. Thank you for coming out to join us at the Bowery Poetry Club for this important announcement. And to those joining us from across the country as we livestream this event: welcome!

I am not the only person you’ve heard in recent weeks to suggest that this is an era of broken systems. From energy to education to the way our entire economy is structured—we inhabit a planet on the verge. The problems are complex and the solutions uncertain, but there is one truth we can hold onto: if we are going to keep our society and planet healthy, all people must be empowered to imagine and enact alternatives for a better world. In order to do this, to cultivate effective co-creators of new systems better aligned with equity and sustainability – we must deepen our investment in the tools and tactics that grow empathy, imagination, and the capacity to collaborate. In order to tell a new story of our common humanity—to shift our collective culture from one of consumption to one of creation, one of competition to one of compassion, one of isolation to one of interdependence—we must encourage creative thinking and risk-taking. We must nourish the artist in us all.

And that is why, just under 7 months ago we launched the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture at a press conference in Syracuse, NY. With little more than a handful of buttons and a Statement of Values we imagined this new people-powered department into existence, asking: how might we shift art and culture from the margins to the center of civil society, given their true value and full support as catalysts for social transformation? We set out to find new ways of thinking about community cultural development and arts engagement that could catalyze local action, connect that action across sites, and ignite a bold national rethinking about the power of arts and culture.

Since launching, the department has been met with great enthusiasm from artists, cultural workers, and educators across the country and with occasional antagonism from those worried about the ways in which robust cultural participation and creative expression can challenge the status quo.

Now, the USDAC is meant to live in the world not just as a button or an idea but as a community of practice taking action together to create a more vibrant and equitable society. Today, we are marking a truly historical moment for the fledgling department. A moment of landing, and of take off. A moment in which this act of collective imagination extends from language and ideas to real on-the-ground action.  

Less than two months ago we put out a call for founding Cultural Agents from across the country. Founding Cultural Agents are charged with bringing the USDAC to life where they are by hosting Imaginings, arts-infused events that bring together a diverse cross-section of neighbors to imagine their communities in the year 2034. We were searching for artists, civic leaders, and intrepid changemakers of all sorts, looking to both deepen their local work and to be a part of something bigger. 

We were awed by what we uncovered.

Nearly one hundred imaginative, experienced, deeply thoughtful and passionate folks from across the country stepped up, eager to spark creative conversations in their communities about our shared future. From bustling metropolises to rural towns we heard from students, filmmakers, professors, security guards, gallery owners, retirees, performers, parents, photographers, dancers, community organizers, state health officials, and so many others eager to see the arts transformative power fully infused into the fabric of society. It has been a great honor to read through their stories and hear their visions for the world. And it has been a real challenge to figure out what to do with this abundance of potential. 

Though we wish we could take in all applicants right now, we see the need to build solid foundations in this pilot round, to grow with care, so as to be able to feed the hunger that we now know is out there. In the next few months we’ll learn through trial and error and build the base for much greater participation. 

So, to everyone who applied to be a Cultural Agent, thank you for your dedication and your vision and for the culture-shifting work you’re already doing. We ask for your patience as we create the infrastructure to support meaningful engagement in our shared act of imagination. Know that we are looking forward to working together very soon.

And now without further ado, it is a great honor and privilege to announce the founding Cultural Agents of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture:

Krystal Banzon of Queens, New York
Carole Brzozowski of Syracuse, New York
Hayden Gilbert of Cleveland, Ohio
Beth Grossman of Brisbane, California
Lynden Harris of Cedar Grove, North Carolina
Patricia Hicks of Seaside, CA
David Kimball of Marlborough, MA
Teresa Konechne of Minneapolis, MN
Dave Loewenstein of Lawrence, KS
Michael Premo of Brooklyn, NY
Kara Roschi of Phoenix, AZ
Carissa Samaniego of Shafer, MN
Michael B. Schwartz of Tucson, AZ
Jess Solomon of Washington D.C.
Fabiola Torralba of San Antonio, TX
Amy Walsh of Providence, RI
Roseann Weiss of St. Louis, MO
Yolanda Wisher of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Please join me in welcoming all of our Cultural Agents to the Department. And get ready to cheer them on and support them in the months ahead, for their first mission with the USDAC is a tall order indeed. In just over two months, each Cultural Agent will be hosting a local “Imagining.” Taken together, these 18 Imaginings will help us understand what’s needed and what’s possible at a larger level, leading the USDAC to imagine new policies and programs that could make for a more creative, just, and culturally vibrant country. We can’t wait to see what our Cultural Agents come up with. 

And, what you too come up with. Because everyone is invited to step up as a Citizen Artist with the new Department. (You don’t have to be a citizen in the legal sense of the word, or an artist to do so!) Indeed, this Department is itself a collaborative work of art that asks you to play your part by deploying the resilience, resourcefulness, and imagination of artists at their best. Of the world’s many limited resources, creativity is not one. We have it in abundant supply and can harness it together, as artists of society, working to widen our collective circle of care. 

Thank you for joining us here today. We look forward to the journey ahead. 

Hundreds Visit the USDAC's Pop-Up Headquarters

During the month of April, the USDAC set up temporary headquarters at the Bowery Poetry Club in NYC and invited in hundreds of artists and organizations to come mix, meet, mingle, share, and help spark a grassroots movement that harnesses the power of art and culture to cultivate empathy, equity, and social change. Each Café was divided into two sections. First, open space for mixing and tabling. Then, an open mic for both performances and project sharing. Complete with a barter board, interactive video booth, break-out conversation tables, and pop-up performances, the USDAC Café created a vibrant space of encounter and dialogue for artists and cultural workers, catalyzing an array of new collaborations. Over the course of three weekends a powerful dialogue had begun.