Oprah Winfrey, Cecil B. deMille Award, 2018 Golden Globes

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A new day is on the horizon!

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"Confusing times" call for clarity: Discuss!

Judy Hussie-Taylor
Exective Director and Chief Curator
Danspace Project
(photo: Michael Kirby)

In these confusing times, why and how do performing arts presenters and curators decide what work to present in their season? What is the interplay of determining factors – sociopolitical climate, curatorial vision, audience trends, diversity, the bottom line?

--publicity text for "Commissioning and Presenting in Confusing Times," an Open Spectrum Community Dialogue presented by New York Live Arts and co-curated with Brian Tate of The Tate Group

"For some reason, I kept calling this panel Presenting in A Crisis," said moderator Judy Hussie-Taylor, introducing Commissioning and Presenting in Confusing Times, hosted by New York Live Arts last week. Her alternate title made more sense, really, since most of us in the arts are not at all confused. We're clearheaded enough to be damned angry.

That sense of specific, political outrage seemed elusive at this gathering of five of New York's most powerful curators and presenters--Lili Chopra (French Institute Alliance Française), Tim Griffin (The Kitchen), Kamilah Forbes (Apollo Theater), Jay Wegman (NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts) and Hussie-Taylor herself, an innovator who has made space for award-winning "Platform" programming at historic Danspace Project.

Referring to our current American moment as "a crisis, the turning point in a disease," Hussie-Taylor suggested that her panelists might tackle four questions:

• What needs to be explored?
• What or who needs to be honored?
• What or who needs to be challenged?
• What needs to be jettisoned?

Relatively new to their positions, Forbes and Wegman are both clearly still researching, experimenting and seeking their best path at institutions with, respectively, formidable cultural legacy (the Apollo) and conventional, somewhat muddled programming (NYU Skirball). Wegman--formerly, and famously, artistic director of Abrons Arts Center--was forthcoming about challenges he faces in replacing stodgy Skirball fare with something actually attractive to NYU students. To do so, he has let go of familiar acts that, as he put it, tend to do little but recycle their material. The 2016 election re-energized his focus, inspiring him to produce more adventurous events such as an appearance by author Ta-Nehisi Coates and the U.S. premiere of a controversial Palestinian play, The Siege.

All the panelists expressed, to one degree or another, dedication to supporting artists and putting artists' needs and concerns at the center of operations--with all the practical complications that can entail. Forbes argued that the job of the institution is to be the locus of transformation and a vehicle for creating the "21st Century canon." But, for the most part, I must say I walked away still questioning how this might be achieved, not just at the Apollo, but elsewhere in what is arguably the arts capital and most progressive city of our nation.

Even in New York's dance and performance community, we are still looking at citadels of power in need of the knowledge, skill, insight and visionary courage of more women and more people of color. The expertise and talent, which I witness regularly, are out here in abundance....and not in the least in a state of confusion. 

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That upcoming APAP theme is what again?

Have you heard? The theme of the 2018 Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) Conference in New York City (January 12-16) is...

trans.ACT.

Kind of makes your heart beat faster, doesn't it?

But hold on!

Not surprisingly, APAP's call for proposals for trans.ACT. caught the attention of trans dance and performance artist Ashley R.T. Yergens who noticed a curious absence of any mention of trans artists and their work.

Yergens took his questions about all this to Facebook:

The Association of Performing Arts Professionals, formerly known as the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, or more commonly known as APAP is calling for Professional Development Program proposals using the theme "trans.ACT."

They define the theme as the following:

"This year’s theme, trans.ACT, focuses on the transformative power of the arts and the multiple ways - 'trans' meaning across, beyond, and through – in which we 'act' upon our commitment to bring the full meaning, impact and experience of the arts to communities across the country and around the world."

While I understand the etymology of the prefix "trans," I can't help but notice that the theme reads as transact as in transaction. Also, it reads as Trans Act like an act that serves to protect trans people like me. This particular reading of the theme leaves me completely baffled.

There's zero mention of trans people - trans dance and performance artists - like me, which seems like a hugely missed opportunity and evidence of who was in the room to finalize this year's APAP theme for Professional Development Program proposals.

Again, I understand the etymology of the prefix "trans." I'm not here to police language. Words evolve. However, I question and I hold APAP accountable to how they're using the word at this point in the evolution of "trans." The word has finally entered the mainstream to describe people like me who don't identify with their assigned genders at birth. It's a word that empowers me and allows me to find other people who share similar experiences and hardships.

Honestly, this is like APAP naming the theme "Gay.ACT" and defining "gay" simply as happy and distancing the term from its loaded history pertaining to gay people.

Perhaps this theme wouldn't be so unsettling if it weren't for the fact that dance and live performance lacks history, documentation, and consistent opportunities for dancing and performing bodies of trans experiences. If you want proof of what this field is lacking, then 1) send money to my Venmo account, and I'll do the labor of sharing my research and personal experiences with you or 2) Google.

So, I'm holding APAP accountable to answering the following questions: 

1.) Did you consult any trans people when you selected this theme?

2.) Are there any trans people on your staff or board?

3.) How have you supported trans dance artists and performers in the past? How do you plan on supporting trans dance artists and performers in the future?

4.) While I understand the etymology of "trans," I find it odd that you chose to use a word that is currently used to describe identities that I and so many other people fight for on a daily basis. Why don't you mention trans people in your description? Was any of this discussed when selecting "trans.ACT" as a theme?

I look forward to APAP's thorough responses, and I am eager to see how they will transcend their faux pas with action.

I encourage you to contact APAP as well: https://www.apap365.org/About/Staff

Ashley R.T. Yergens

YERGEN'S QUERY

Yergens also sent the following email to APAP:

Hello,

My name is Ashley R.T. Yergens. I'm a trans dance artist and performer based in Brooklyn, NY.

I was reading your description about this year's PDP theme for proposals.

A few questions come to mind:

1.) Did you consult any trans people when you selected this theme?
2.) Are there any trans people on your staff or board?
3.) How have you supported trans dance artists and performers in the past? How do you plan on supporting trans dance artists and performers in the future?
4.) While I understand the etymology of "trans," I find it odd that you chose to use a word that is currently used to describe identities that I and so many other people fight for on a daily basis. Why don't you mention trans people in your description? Was any of this discussed when selecting "trans.ACT" as a theme?

I look forward to reading your responses and discussing this further.

Best,

Ash

APAP'S REPLY

Minutes later, Yergens received the following reply:

Dear Ash,

Thank you for reaching out with your questions about this year's APAP|NYC conference theme.  Given that we are heading into a holiday weekend, I wanted to be sure to reach out to you.

Our conference committee of artists, agents, presenters and producers spent a considerable amount of time discussing the multiple meanings of "trans" in creating the theme.  We hope to bring together a wide range of professionals, including transgender artists, next January to explore how we can collectively advance the role and value of the performing arts in today’s complicated world.
 
We invite you to submit a conference proposal or otherwise happy to touch base following the upcoming holiday.

Best regards,

Scott

Scott D. Stoner
Vice President, Programs and Resources
Association of Performing Arts Professionals
1211 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20036
202-331-1890 | APAP365.org

YERGEN'S REPLY

Dear Scott,

Thank you for touching base. I look forward to hearing your responses to my questions, learning more about the considerable time spent discussing the multiple meanings of "trans," how you arrived at the copy on the proposal form, and learning more about how you will include transgender artists at this year's conference.

Best,

Ash

Yes, I think it will be good to hear some direct, meaningful responses to Yergen's reasonable questions, and I welcome him to keep InfiniteBody's readers posted.

*****

Ashley R.T. Yergens is a 2016 boo-koo artist-in-residence at Gibney Dance, and a 2016-17 Fresh Tracks Artist at New York Live Arts. He's a former project coordinator for DanceMotion USA, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State, produced by BAM. Currently, he works at New York Live Arts as a development associate.

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"Activate Equity": energy, fresh directions for equity in the arts

Rajeeyah Finnie-Myers,
Project Manager, Field Leadership Fund,
welcomes Activate Equity participants
at Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
(photo: Eva Yaa Asantewaa) 

How are we? 
We are here! 
-- Goussy Célestin

Sarita Covington (above)
and members of B3W Performance Group (below)
 in Forgiveness Part 1: Forgiving the Personal
by Emily Berry
(photos: Kerville Jack)

This is New York City in 2017, and yet here we are still asking the question, How can we create a more equitable arts sector? And asking. And asking. And asking some more.

The latest inquiry was launched yesterday by The Field, a nonprofit organization that has served the performance and media arts for three decades.

The Field is committed to empowering artists and cultural workers of all identities to achieve their visions.  We provide strategic services to thousands of performing and media artists and companies in New York City and beyond. We foster creative exploration, steward innovative management strategies, and are delighted to help artists reach their fullest potential. Freedom of expression and the rights of all peoples will be honored and respected via our programs, services, staffing and policies.

-- from Mission & History, The Field

Activate Equity: Insights, Inspirations & Connections, hosted by Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, brought together artists, arts administrators, community-oriented arts activists, educators and many for whom those roles overlap. They gathered for a full day of activities addressing concerns that, while predating this time of white supremacist rule in our nation, have only grown in urgency.

Morning events offered inspiration from artists currently enrolled in the 16-month Field Leadership Fund Fellowship program--Haitian-American music and dance artist Goussy Célestin; B3W Performance Group with choreographer Emily Berry; and Eric Lockley, an actor, writer and producer with a strong focus on POC community health issues. A stirring keynote address was given by novelist Renée Watson (founder of I, Too, Arts Collective) who successfully campaigned to raise funds to lease Langston Hughes's Harlem brownstone for programs serving emerging writers. Watson reminded the audience of the risk of feeling isolated and hopeless at moments of crisis and struggle.

"We are not in this fight alone. Thinking you're alone in this work is self-destructive," she said and used the example of her #LangstonLegacy campaign which met its 30-day deadline, raising the necessary $150,000 to sign the lease. "Change," she told us, "is dirty, hard, grueling work. Still, we must plant. We must put in," and have the kind of faith in seeds that farmers have. She reminded us of Assata Shakur's charge:

It is our duty to fight. It is our duty to win. We must love and support one another. We have nothing to lose but our chains.

The morning continued with a choice of workshops:

JACK Be Nimble: Choosing Collaborative Governance for Organizational Agility and Radical Process, facilitated by DeeArah Wright and Alec Duffy, examined their process of moving their Brooklyn arts venue JACK "from an organization with a strong hierarchy to one that strongly values collaboration and accountability."

I participated in Art Power: Owning our Capacity to Disrupt Racism, facilitated by Rachel DeGuzman, president and CEO of 21st Century Arts. Inspired by DeGuzman's study of D.W. Griffith's racist feature film The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Ava DuVernay's documentary 13th (2016), this workshop mobilized participants to identify cultural artifacts that stereotype and endanger people of color and, conversely, identify art that highlights the real truths and strengths of people and communities of color.

DeGuzman's workshop, though brief, was remarkably effective. It left me feeling exhilarated. The walls of our meeting room, decorated by colorful Post-it® notes with each of our contributions, gave visual evidence of the abundance of positive, progressive artistry originating in and available to communities of color. In contrast, the negative Post-its seemed puny. Reflecting on this difference, we then each declared and committed to personal strategies for disrupting racism and fostering more equity through our work. These were also abundant in number, specific and actionable.

For my part, I committed to continuing the work I'm already doing but with renewed drive for using opportunities in writing, editing, teaching, coaching, mentoring and curating to create new space and resources for artists of color and people dedicated to anti-racism and equity. DeGuzman encouraged us to find check-in buddies to act as sounding boards and keep us on track with these commitments. I hope, as you read this, you will also keep me posted with your suggestions.

After lunch break, the group reconvened for interactive movement exercises facilitated by Wilfredo Hernandez, Program Manager for The Field. The group then collaborated on data and ideas to contribute to the city's CreateNYC cultural plan which examines issues of access and inclusion; social and economic impact of the arts; affordability of living, working and presentation space for artists; educational strategies and neighborhood development issues. The day ended with a networking reception.

Many, if not all, of the people who attended Activate Equity are already deep into the work of anti-racism, equity and social justice in the arts and society. Someday, I want to walk into one of these events and be blown away to see people from a much wider range of the dance and arts communities of my city, resourceful people who are curious, interested, ready to learn, ready to contribute whatever they can. If you're reading this, know that you're an essential part of our city and of the world we're trying to shape. Each of you have something special to share in this work. We all need one another.

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Act now! Brittany Williams launches challenge to arts leaders

OPEN CALL AND RESPONSE

TO ART AND CULTURAL-ART ORGANIZATIONS

TO STEP UP AND PUSH BACK

by Brittany Williams (choreographer/dancer; movement organizer)

The urgency for artists, art organizations, art-cultural organizations, gatekeepers, and funders to come together to collectively activate, strategically plan, and organize is greater now more than ever. Arts, culture, and creativity, for the next four years, will play a vital role in the creation of self-sufficient governing infrastructures for black and brown communities that can boldly push back against President Trump.

The start of January marked a new year and a new beginning like no other. President Trump’s inauguration has kicked off Trump’s first 100 days mandate. Trump's mandates burst open a dark wound of state-sanctioned violence, creating a new era that digs up the dark ancestry of the birth of the American nation built on white privilege and terrorism against people of color. It is a wary time for Muslim, LGBTQI, and black and brown communities as well as women, immigrants and First Nation indigenous people. This new era of white male militant-patriotic, racist, hegemonic fascism is blended up and embedded in nearly every single person recruited to join Trump's cabinet, and it has many citizens in fear and scared for their very lives.

However, I would like to encourage us in the art field to take some time to reflect and then actively get involved in constructive action. The need for artists, cultural leaders and art and cultural organizations to deeply invest in a racial and economic justice model is critical because all communities including white America will depend upon it. White people and white cultural institutions and leaders, it's time that you get your hands dirty in the struggle. It is time to put aside fragility and dive into fugitivity. It's time to put your whiteness on the line and organize your people. We need maroonage. The requirement for white fugitivity and maroonage is self-examination and a full investment in black liberation.

Definitions:

Maroonage historically refers to those independent societies formed by African slaves who escaped from the plantations during slavery. Many of these communities rose to become independent city and state republics that had to be recognized by white colonial powers. Many partnered with indigenous Native American nations. There were dozens of successful Maroon settlements all over the New World throughout the 300 years of chattel slavery. In modern terms, maroonage refers to the creation of sovereign self-sustaining institutions independent of the state and the dominant powers that be. These institutions by necessity have a special relationship to the 'Indigenous' and the concept of the 'Local' whilst having a global sense of context and work. The idea of being disconnected and sovereign from the dominant culture is important as it leads to decisions of self- sustainability, integrity of vision, and larger ideas of communities of like minds.

White fugitivity refers to the conscious physical, mental, social or institutional abandonment of the dominant culture by a member of that same culture.

Maroonage and fugitivity as a commitment requires that cultural leaders, arts organizations, funders, gatekeepers internally invest in temporal reform with incremental steps to dismantle their own internalized white supremacy structures, hierarchies within their organizations to ensure racial equity, economic sustainability for black and brown people. In short – white artists, cultural and art organizations and funders have long benefited from black bodies, arts, creativity and communities and if you are really about change it is time that you pay in full your debt for the use of our property, bodies and brilliance. We need reparations in form of dismantling your own racist practices, sharing of wealth, and or funding organizations, allies in cultural leaders who have done this work for years, and also we need you not to be the leaders when making decisions for us (black and brown artists and communities).

This call is for you to do more than create space for us to heal, to do more than give us space to talk to other artists about the issues we are facing. This is a call to change and most importantly disrupt the power dynamics. This call is for cultural leaders, art-organizations, funders, and gatekeepers to do more!

Here are my following questions:

•    Do you, as people who hold power in the arts, have a clear analysis of what is at stake going forward?

•   What are your goals in ensuring the safety of the people made most vulnerable by the Trump election?

•    What are you willing to give up, share, and restructure within your organization that will make a positive impact in the lives of black and brown people, immigrants, Muslims, women (black and brown women), LGBTQI people--today, not tomorrow or next week?

We need this type of commitment to these communities and artists of color and immigrants.

REFORMING CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS AND DISMANTLING THE CULTURAL SYSTEMS AND COMPONENTS THAT UPHOLD, SUPPORT, AND ENGAGE IN WHITE SYSTEMIC STRUCTURES THAT BENEFIT WHITE MEN AND WOMEN:

When we look at the boards and staff compositions of most cultural organizations, the majority are white men and women.

The local Arts Agencies 2016 Report on Staff:

Staff and volunteer demographics at the average LAA2:

•    83 percent of staff are non-Hispanic white,

•    6 percent are black/African-American,

•    4 percent Hispanic and other races constitute 7 percent.

Board:

•    Ninety-five percent of LAAs have a board of directors, commission, or another type of oversight group.

•    Of those, less than one in three have written diversity policies for their boards.

•    29 percent of LAAs have a written diversity policy for their board of directors.

•    46 percent consider diversity in their board operations but have no written policy.

•    25 percent do not take diversity into consideration when recruiting members.

Staff and board members are vital because they are the people making collective decisions. They are the gatekeepers. We need to hold them accountable for their expertise and how they are building relationships and challenging donors and foundations when it comes to how we collectively build power- and disturb power as well. They are hired to be "the experts." However, coming from a racial justice lens, I would like to challenge this "expertise," because I deeply believe if we want to make a collective change, we need people with power and resources who are most impacted by the targeted circumstances. We do not need white people's dreams of "reciprocity" or "benevolence" to be the "giving mechanism" married to a perception about black and brown people which label their communities and limits them to these labels. Labels such as “disenfranchised,” “poor,” “youth at risk,” “crime prevention targets,” “no culture,” and “illiterate.” Ya, feel me?

HOW CAN WE CHANGE THIS NARRATIVE?

How can we change this practice and these ways of culturing within the art field? Simple. Put those that are closest to the problem in the position to conjure solutions! They are the experts. In need of power and resources. This is an open challenge to all art institutions.

MOVING FORWARD I WOULD LIKE TO RAISE THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

•    How can we use this call and response to create a coalition of art and cultural organizations, funders, and gatekeepers to look at their own internalized/external system practices and make a commitment to change their practices and ways of culture to create leadership roles for more than one black and brown person in their organization?

•    How do organizations, funders, and gatekeepers collectively build collective power with black and brown people to create agency and access to authority roles and resources?

•    How can art and cultural organizations, funders, and gatekeepers create accountability structures--to the community and to each other-- to reform and or dismantle white supremacy within their organization?

SUGGESTION: SET A PLAN IN ACTION OVER Trumps Next 100 days with short-term goals and incremental markers for the next four years and 10+ years.

•    What can you do right now to re-imagine and implement racial equity and sensibilities that in turn liberates resources needed for and by artists and communities that will become most vulnerable under the Trump administration?

•    How can cultural organizations and funders find an equitable solution to address the needs of black, brown, LGBTQ, Muslim artists facing white supremacy hegemony, racism, xenophobia, and the haunting history of America?

•    What role do we all play in this change?

The Bessie Awards call for organizations to restate their mission and values publicly to the Trump administration was a great effort, but this is not the time to state your claim or disassociate from racism and hegemony. Patrons, this is the time to do some introspection and fix it! We do not need a public statement; we need short term, long-term plans/platforms to ensure safety! We you to stay in the frying pan! We need radical risk-taking, fierce gatherings, and collaborations to rehabilitate, protect, and empower communities. We need real spaces of marronage.

This is epecially timely, since the next report out will find art organizations more racist now than 10 years ago.

Please do take my words to heart because, at this point, I have everything to lose--including my chains, friends, loved one, job and community.

And if you made it to the end of this article and you are really about dismantling and standing as an ally for black liberation from a creative racial justice lens, please fill one of the forms below.

Black and brown individual or organization (Please note: you do not have to be located in New York city or the US to sign on) interested in signing on to the document, fill out this document:

https://goo.gl/forms/z7vwoQgsod6VYZjE2

Gatekeepers, funders, arts organizations, cultural leaders interested in shifting your power dynamic within your organization, please fill out this document:

https://goo.gl/forms/cDAeMuhI29t7PvXk1

Warm regards and with love,

Brittany Williams

Founder |Executive Director | Dancing for Justice

Founder |Obika Dance Projects

Core Supporting Team: 

Rubadiri Victor (Trinidad & Tobago)

Michelle Murray (Miami FL)

Preach R Sun  (Detroit)

Vivian Phillips: new leadership for Seattle's arts commission

Vivian Phillips
Chair, Seattle Arts Commission
(Photo by Jerry and Lois Photography)

Last month, the Seattle Arts Commission announced that Vivian Phillips--director of marketing and communications for the Seattle Theatre Group--would become the 16-member commission's new Chair (click here). Ms. Phillips has an extensive background in arts management, marketing and advocacy. She agreed to respond to a few questions about what's stirring with artists, communities and arts policies in Seattle.

*****

EYA: You have a background in media as well as marketing for arts organizations. What motivated you to become involved on a larger scale in arts advocacy and arts policy for your city?

VP: The majority of my work in media has been focused on elevating the arts. I’ve given 100% to arts advocacy, management, and support since the 1980’s. This is my second time serving on the Seattle Arts Commission, and it just happens that this time I’ve become chair. I have training as a political strategist and served a former Mayor as Director of Communications.

Policy is important to me, but assuring that a policy is implemented is often the challenge and even more important. As Chair of the Arts Commission, my experience and passion work together, and with my fellow commissioners, I advise on policy and its equitable implementation. 

The Seattle Arts Commission supports the Office of Arts and Culture as an advisory and advocacy body, so my primary responsibility is to lead the work of the Commission in ways that uphold that responsibility. This year, all of our work will be done with an eye on holding an equity lens up to all of our decisions, be it funding or community engagement. We are working closely with the Seattle Office for Civil Rights and developing a set of tools and philosophies that will help assure that we are being accountable to creating an arts environment that is more racially equitable in all areas.

In January, the entire Commission participated in two half-days of race and equity training so that we could all have a common starting place from which to move for our work together. A number of new initiatives and programs will launch in 2015, some of which could have incredible impacts on communities of color.  My job is to lead the body in a way that leads to successful outcomes.

EYA: What arts-related issues are top of mind today for Seattle's citizens?

VP: Equity! It’s not enough to be diverse. Along those lines, there is a big gentrification issue and we are in the process now of establishing the Central Area, as a Cultural Arts District. The Central Area is experiencing an enormous amount of development and gentrification and so with our capacity for applying an equity lens to all the work and investments we can make, this is a great opportunity to make a big difference. We don’t know yet how we will make it all come together, but we do know that we are willing to take a risk and do it in a way that increases not just the appearance but the true outcomes in an equitable fashion.   

Under the banner of equity, our work plan also touches on increased outreach and engagement with arts and artists from communities of color. Social justice is obviously a big part of achieving equity as well. The Office just held a #SeaArtsFem Twitter conversation yesterday, and the conversation garnered lots of participation. There are a lot of women making moves in the arts in Seattle right now. Women are expressing their leadership in the arts today in beautiful and effective ways. I think this is noticeable and also top of mind.

EYA: Do you see ways in which Seattle can model sound arts policy for other cities across the nation? What arts initiatives, resources or upcoming events are you particularly excited about this year?

VP: Seattle is already modeling. The Creative Advantage, an initiative to restore arts education to Seattle Public School classrooms, is a program out of our Office of Arts and Culture, and the Seattle Arts Commission. This initiative is unique and leading the path toward equitable arts access.

The Office just launched a Spacefinder Tool that literally documents and provides access to information on all of the cultural arts spaces in the city. And Artists Up is a program designed to support access to funding to targeted groups of artists. These are all programs are examples of sound arts policies that are of interest to arts policy-makers around the nation.  

I’m particularly excited about and focused on the successful transition of Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute into a private non-profit organization, and the designation of the Cultural Arts District for the Central Area. These are cultural assets that need to be fully supported in a thoughtful and strategic way and I’m thrilled to be in a position where I can take a more active role in shaping these two things.  

In addition to the two things listed above, Seattle will be experiencing it’s first District-based City Council elections in the coming year. Several current Council members are leaving and the field is getting quite full of potential candidates. The Commission will hold candidate forums this year so we are clear about who supports the arts and how they intend to deliver.  

It’s a very interesting moment in time, and I feel like this is where my experiences, skills, energy, contacts and history can all culminate for the benefit of the arts, artists and community I love so deeply!

*****

Keep up with Seattle's progressive arts initiatives here.

Museum's changes reflect a changing Brooklyn

With Expansion, Brooklyn Children’s Museum Is Accused of Forsaking Its Community
by Nikita Stewart, The New York Times, March 6, 2015

Sydnie Mosley reflects on "Power, Privilege, & Perception"

If you read my post discussing the Power, Privilege, & Perception: Voices on Race and Dance session of the 2015 Dance/NYC Symposium, you will remember that I made reference to panelist Sydnie Mosley (Artistic Director, Sydnie L. Mosley Dances and co-chair of Dance/NYC's Junior Committee). Mosley has written a series of three blog posts that detail her experience of preparing for and sitting on the final panel of that session, Making Change, Artist Voices. With cogent analysis, Mosley shows how an opportunity for open discussion of race and non-equity in dance got lost along with any chance of meaningful networking and follow-up action.

Read More to Say: Reflections on the 2015 Dance/NYC Symposium:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

We who believe in freedom: UBW invites you

2015 Urban Bush Women

Summer Leadership Institute

We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest: 

Organizing for Racial Equity

July 24 - August 2

New Orleans, LA

Michelle Alexander’s thought-provoking bestseller, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is the research touchstone that will inform Urban Bush Women’s 2015 Summer Leadership Institute -- We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest: Organizing for Racial Equity.

Click here for more details.

Click here to apply.

More on bias and privilege in the arts sector

The Hypocrisy of the Artistic and Critical Left
by Beca Rothfeld, Hyperallergic, February 23, 2015

A few thoughts on the 2015 Dance/NYC Symposium

I attended just one complete session at the Dance/NYC Symposium held yesterday at Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center. No surprise--given what is surely my explicit/implicit bias--it was the three-panel Power, Privilege, & Perception: Voices on Race and Dance session curated by Dance/USA Executive Director Amy Fitterer and former Dance/NYC Director Michelle Ramos-Burkhart.

Before attending those panels, I did manage to catch maybe the final ten minutes of Department of Cultural Affairs commissioner Tom Finkelpearl's presentation on Diversity & NYC Cultural Leadership, just enough to note that there's a serious disconnect between what neighborhoods, small, homegrown institutions and independent artists need and what city government can imagine and support. Under repeated questioning by Dr. Marta Moreno Vega (founder, Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute) and other audience members, Finkelpearl--former Queens Museum ED and president, well regarded in that post--sounded lightweight and defensive. I thought back to Bill de Blasio's lackluster performance at a 2013 mayoral candidates forum on the arts when, as a potential mayor, he clearly had one thing on his mind: the looming contract battles with city unions. De Blasio seemed reluctant to engage with the arts community, even under the constrained and very safe arts-are-wholesome-for-schoolkids premise that governed that forum. I also thought back to the recent New York Times item announcing that children and families of the South Bronx would soon benefit from "films, music, dance, opera and more from Lincoln Center’s resident organizations’ great and talented artists." As if the South Bronx has not long nurtured its own artists and initiatives worthy of much more exposure, funding and other resources that make creativity and survival possible.

As introduced by Fitterer, Power, Privilege, & Perception sounded far more promising. Panelists would examine how racist power and privilege within the arts ecology cannot be dealt with while ignoring systemic, societal racism. Moreover, panelists would be encouraged--as they were, repeatedly--to offer practical solutions.

In her opening section, My Lens, My Dance, Ramos-Burkhart argued that everyone harbors implicit bias which may be detected through a cognitive test. Earlier in the day, she had administered this test to two dance artists--a white woman and a Black man, both of whom joined Ramos-Burkhart at her presentation. The white dancer-choreographer confessed that the test had made her deeply uncomfortable; the Black artist recalled tensing up as he grappled with the test. We were left to imagine the test's content as Ramos-Burkhart reported that the white artist's test results were inconclusive while the Black artist's results showed a slight bias in favor of Black people. The white artist interpreted her results as a sign of ambivalence due to her wanting to not be, as she called it, "a bad white person." Ramos-Burkhart issued no judgement of the results, which was fine, but her silence around the Black artist's results troubled me.

This idea that everyone has bias might have merit (especially dear to a self-serving racist) but is merely part of the story. After all, why shouldn't this Black artist have, at the very least, some small bias in favor of Black people given what we have experienced under white supremacy? All things are not equal until they are. The white artist's possible bias (even as she struggled to not be a bad white person) would not be equivalent to the Black artist's bias.  I would expect the Black artist to embrace and struggle for his people. Racism, naturally, has created in people of color a spectrum of resistance from mild to militant. It has also shaped a people who, when truly healthy of mind and heart, love themselves fiercely and seek to uplift their own whenever possible.

BTW, I'd be delighted to see the typical New York dance critic or culture desk editor take Ramos-Burkhart's test. That could prove revealing--and useful--but that's a matter, perhaps, for another day.

Ramos-Burkhart also directed several people in a demonstration showing the limits of how we think about diversity and privilege, how we fail to take into account how possession of privilege shifts as the social context changes. Like, say, when a white actress, wielding her new Oscar, declares that it's time for gay people and people of color (all presumed to be men, I guess) to fight for women's rights as hard as women (white?) have surely fought for theirs.

Tammy Boormann, chair of Urban Bush Women's board, is a white ally to a venerable dance troupe founded by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, a Black choreographer and educator grounded in commitment to social justice. In Boorman's panel--National Voices--Fitterer and Ramos-Burkhart were joined by Denise Saunders Thompson (chair and ED of International Association of Blacks in Dance) and Carlton Turner (ED of Atlanta-based Alternate ROOTS). Boormann made repeated efforts to solicit solutions but, in this, the panel came up short. Instead, we learned how difficult it is to revise the Dance/USA mission statement in a meaningful, progressive way without alienating the organization's board.

I appreciated Turner's stark, contextual perspective: Why would we expect a society that does not value our lives to value our art? For Turner and Alternate ROOTS, the bottom line is transformation, and the choice is clear: You either contribute to societal transformation, or you do not. Not every artist is going to make explicitly political work or participate in overtly political actions, and yet, as artists make and share their work, they can consciously choose to strive to serve progress towards equity and justice.

Turner moderated the session's concluding panel, Making Change: Artist Voices, which included representatives from three major troupes--Dance Theater of Harlem (Virginia Johnson), Ballet Hispanico (Eduardo Vilaro) and American Ballet Theater (Richard Toda). In addition, Sydnie Mosley (Artistic Director, Sydnie L. Mosley Dances) and Alice Sheppard (independent dancer and choreographer) brought more of an urgent, activist, community-invested experience of resisting silence and invisibility. Mosley's work as a performer, choreographer and educator deals provocatively with issues of race and gender; Sheppard's work affirms the capacity and rich language of dancers with disabilities. Much more could have been learned, especially from these last two artists, had we had time to examine details of their ideas and projects. I would argue that Dance/NYC would do well to offer an expanded version of Turner's panel with indepth presentations by artists like Mosley and Sheppard on how to innovate around the challenges and opportunities of difference.

For the purpose of this afternoon's program, the Gibney theater proved to be fatally formal with the audience seated in rising rows opposite panelists lined up behind a long table. Off in the far distance, sheets of paper covered the theater's wall of mirrors, but few people accepted the many invitations to take markers and share their evolving thoughts and feelings. It seemed a little awkward to get up from your seat and cross in front of the panel to reach the paper. Maybe, for future events, each participant can be issued a sheet of paper or a few index cards or grab a few sticky notes to capture words or sketches while listening. We can then hand them in or tack them up when the event is finished--a better way to draw out spontaneous responses and feedback.

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For information about Dance/NYC Symposium's full day of programming, click here.