Art, Cultural Resistance & Transformation

Featured

"The apocalypse has already happened. That means that we are living in the beginning... THIS is the beginning. We are standing in the Garden of Eden... again..." Kelly Curry

"...Mujer mágica, empty yourself. Shock yourself into new ways of perceiving the world, shock your readers into the same." —Gloria Anzaldúa

The play explores the complexities of a prominent Oakland family dealing with the impacts of houselessness and police brutality,

Jarrel Phillips at IAMSF, San Francisco State University c.2017 Richard Lomibao/ Golden Gate Xpress)

"It’s important that we create the narratives as much as the narratives create us.”-- Jarrel Philips

Mujeres Mágicas is a bilingual Spanish-English anthology of domestic workers writing stories that cross languages, genders and borders to reveal lessons of survival and celebration for all.

How We Play: Play as a Form of Cultural Resistance

Prescott Circus Theater © Jarrel Phillips
Editor’s Note: How We Play is a photography exhibition curated by Jarrel Phillips (featured at the City College of San Francisco earlier this year), focusing on three art forms—Acrobatics (Circus), B-Boying (Break Dance), and Capoeira—that are a culmination of art, culture and resistance. These art forms are brought to life through play, a universal phenomenon as innate to life as breath. All three began as forms of resistance in response to oppressive environments. If play were given the cultural significance it deserves, civilization as we know it would allow us the much needed opportunity to review and reimagine our cultural values, traditions and processes in reference to what we do and how we do things.

Creative Placemaking—A Cautionary Tale

Courtesy of Megan Wilson By Megan Wilson

The term “creative placemaking”[1] is the latest spin on a decades-old strategy[2] of incorporating the arts into economic development models, the idea being that art can inspire shared economic prosperity while energizing the overall community. However, as I’ve learned from working closely on development and planning with many community-based organizations (CBOs) in the Bay Area over the past 18 years, if existing neighborhood stakeholders–i.e. longtime residents, CBOs, small businesses, social services, and public agencies that serve them–are not driving the process, community development (or revitalization, as it’s often characterized by city planners) can also be highly problematic. Outside interests (developers, real estate agents, corporations, policy makers, or new residents) without long-established roots in a neighborhood can end up destroying years of coalition-building, networks of trust, and community frameworks proven to be successful and integral to the health of a neighborhood and its residents.[3]

Sustaining Cultural and Creative Spaces

Joyce Gordon and Christine Joy Ferrer, Joyce Gordon Gallery © 2015 Jarrel Phillips

Download Joyce Gordon Interview

"So here I am! I get to be around all the kinds of people I like and enjoy, and who inspire me, motivate me, and make me happy. But I am also the poorest, the brokest, I’ve been in my whole life. In the beauty business, I made money because I was really good. This is a challenge, but I made the sacrifice and I’m probably the happiest that I’ve been in my life!” - Joyce Gordon

A Conversation with Joyce Gordon
Interview by Christine Joy Ferrer and Jarrel Phillips

You're listening to a conversation with Joyce Gordon on black identity, black-owned business, diversity, commitment to the arts, and owning a fine arts gallery in Oakland.

Racial and Gender Justice

More About the Cultural Exchange and Festival

By Joana Cruz

Courtesy of Dancing Earth On October 24, 2015, in honor of Indigenous Peoples Day, Dancing Earth will team up with Audiopharmacy Prescriptions Collective to bring about the Seeds & Soul Indigenous Cultural Exchange & Festival. The free festival will provide a creative, inclusive and welcoming environment where art, dance, spoken word, and music will be modelled as tools for community resilience and social change to raise awareness about issues, such as environmental sustainability, which affect Native and non-native peoples.

Interview with Stella Adelman, DMT Theater and Adult Program Manager

Interview with Stella Adelman, Dance Mission Theater's Adult Program Manager

Dance Mission Theater's Stella Adelman voices her opinions and concerns about the current social and economic conditions in San Francisco’s Mission district and DMT’s commitment to its vibrant community at the intersection of arts and politics.

Interview with Stella Adelman

Christine Joy Ferrer: What is it that places Dance Mission Theater at the crossroads of arts and politics?
Stella Adelman: What we do, I’d call social activism. Dance Brigade, the dance committee that runs Dance Mission Theatre (DMT), consciously decides to address issues facing the present day—be they global warming, our embargo against Cuba, gentrification, or immigration.

Dance Brigade is a feminist dance company. We really support the female artist, artists–in- residence, and various cultural performances and festivals. And we curate our festivals [to feature] social-political themes.

For example, we did the Manifestival for Social Change: Like Oil and Water – From Gaza to the Gulf, right after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It focused on the oil spill and oil politics in the Middle East right when we were pulling out of Iraq. It also looked at water issues in general, the privatization of water, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Racial and Gender Justice