ART IS CHANGE: Strategies & Skills for Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers

 We've come up with four questions from listeners during 2022 that seem to jump out. They deal with creative partnerships in prison. teaching the arts online, something called the Tyranny of Comfort and what neuroscience can tell us about Arts and Change. ******* Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation , providing a platform f...

Rad Pereira is an old soul-young heart theater artist, writer, educator, and community activist with a very clear sense of purpose and direction --- defined by questions like: How can we imagine, and manifest alternate futures together? Was my body conditioned to survive in a world not made for me? and Can the natural world function as a moral compass? BIO I am a multi-spirit mixed Black, Indigeno...

Barry Marcus Redux- A Creative Culture Celebratory Remembrance This is a hard introduction to make. A good friend, a special soul has passed over. I am grieving over the loss of my dear brother Barry Marcus. I know, who in the hell wants to listen to a sad guy in mourning but bear with me for a moment here. I’m going to say my little piece, and then let you decide for yourself what to make of Barr...

This week follows from Episode 59 in which Susie Tanner, Bruce Springsteen, and a band of unemployed steelworkers take a play about the death of a steel mill called lady Beth across America. In this episode, Susie joins up with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated artists share their stories. Find TheaterWorkers Chapter 1 : Here ******* Change the Story / Change the World is a podcast that chron...

Once upon a time, theater Director Susie Tanner, steelworkers, & Bruce Springsteen teamed up to spread the devastating truth about steel plant shutdowns across the US. This is their story. BIO Susan “Susie” Franklin Tanner has worked as a Theatre Artist since 1973. In 1983 she received a California Arts Council Artist in Communities grant to create TheatreWorkers Project. As the founder and di...

Episode 58: Matthew Fluharty - Art of the Rural - Chapter 2 This is our second episode focusing on Matthew Fluharty's work at Art of the Rural. I n it we explore the continuing story of Sauget Illinois, the power of nostalgia, the iconic importance of Busch Light beer, and the amazing legacy of Family Video. Listen to Art of the Rural Chapter 1 HERE BIO Matthew is the Founder and Executive Directo...

Episode 57: Matthew Fluharty - Art of the Rural - Chapter 1 Matthew Fluharty is a curious, thoughtful, passionate, humble dot connector who asks as many questions of himself as he does of the cosmos in his roles as a poet, essayist, curator, and policy wonk. The Art of the Rural, the organization he founded in 2010, is at the forefront of the story liberation movement. BIO Matthew is the Founder a...

Never be afraid to sit awhile and think. Lorraine Hansberry In this bonus episode of Change the Story, Change the World , we're going to share an audio portrait of a project currently taking place at the subject of our past 2 episodes, Pillsbury House & Theater . The project is called To Sit a While and celebrates the work and life of playwright, journalist, and activist Lorraine Hansberry , w...

This is the second chapter of the Pillsbury House + Theatre story. At the corner of George Floyd Square & the Pandemic, PH+T is breaking the community development mold using the power of the arts & culture to stimulate community health, ownership & justice. Missed Chapter 1? Go To CSCW EP 55, Pillsbury House + Theater Chapter 1 BIO’s Signe V. Harriday is Artistic Producing Director at...

Pillsbury House + Theatre is a groundbreaking “new model for human service work that recognizes the power of the arts and culture to stimulate community participation, investment and ownership.” This is the first of two PH+T chapters. This is a 2 Part show . Here is a link to Chapter 2 and the Bonus Episode: Lorraine Hansberry @ Pillsbury House + Theatre - Gifted & Black BIO’s Signe V. Harrida...

The recorded conference presentation you are about to hear includes a made up game show, a scene from a novella about artists working in a fictional prison, and a visit to a fake town in the midst of a harsh reckoning around issues of race, justice, othering, and belonging. (A Reprise of Episode 27) Welcome to a Bonus edition of Change the Story Change the World —- as we pay a visit to the 16th An...

DAH SAYS: "In today’s world, we can oppose destruction and violence with the creation of meaning ... we create bold dramatic art to provoke, inspire, and incite personal and social transformation." Be sure to check out our CHANGE THE STORY COLLECTION OF ARCHIVED EPISODES on: Justice Arts, Art & Healing, Cultural Organizing, Arts Ed./Children & Youth, Community Arts Training, Music for Chan...

Felicia Young uses arts-based strategies and tools to spur community action. She has helped save hundreds of New York's community gardens, clean up a sacred river in India, stymie one of America’s most powerful politicians, bring attention to local solutions to the climate crises, and most importantly bring people together to make real change. BIO Felicia Young is a social action artist...

This Bonus episode of Change the Story / Change the World is in celebration of the publishing of Meeting the Moment: Socially Engaged Performance - 1965-2020 by Those Who Lived It, by Jan Cohen Cruz and Rad Pereira. Hi this is Bill Cleveland. I'd like to welcome you to a Bonus episode of Change the Story / Change the World in celebration of a publishing milestone. For the past 4 decades Jan Cohen...

Who would have thought that running away with the circus could lead to a career as a successful filmmaker. Gary Glassman's path to filmmaking also, includes, street theater, teaching, prison work, and media technology. The through-line for Gary's creative adventure has been asking questions and, what else, telling stories.  Bio Gary Glassman believes television can change the world. He comes...

From time to time on change the Story we share a short feature we call Subito Stories. In today's Subito Story We are traveling to a Greek Island to meet an artist who I think personifies the unrelenting potency of the imaginative muscle to entertain, to provoke, and to heal. Her name is Karina Kantas. At the Center for the Study of Art & Community we believe that the imagination, is the most...

Wayne Cook calls himself bumpy. Which is an apt metaphor for the story we are about to share. In it, Wayne plays a promising young athlete, a crash victim, a soldier in Germany, a child therapist, a stage actor, the Black Mr. Rogers, an arts administrator, a successful author, and Langston Hughes. BIO Wayne Cook worked at the California Arts Council for 23 years, where he was Program Manager of th...

When does a war truly end? What becomes of those left standing and, the ghosts that remain? In 2001, Vietnam vet, David Moragne returned to Vietnam with his comrades with those questions. His film, Flashback: Summer Sail One Revisited documents what they discovered. Bio David Moragne, was born in Manhattan, raised in the Bronx, nurtured in Greenwood, S.C. and grew up in Dong Ha, RVN. He is a retir...

Notable Mentions For this episode of Change the Story Change the World we are going to revisit some of those Art and Upheaval stories along with the song of the same name to make a point. Yea, some people think you can’t beat the devil with a song, but they don’t know! Art & Upheaval (song) From the CD Songlines by Cleveland Plainsong : Art & Upheaval: Artists at Work on the World’s Frontl...

Can small stories, from out of the way places make a big difference. Jennifer Williams not only thinks so, she has spent her life sharing those stories and spreading the good word. BIO Jennifer Williams is an American artist based in London. Before moving to the UK, she co-produced the Williams Toy Theater, a touring puppet theater. In 1978, she founded and directed the Centre for Creative Communi...

Carlton Turner understands that when you can't feed yourself the imagination is the first thing to go And if you can't "see" a different future you can't make change. Sipp Culture is about feeding both the body and the mind's eye. BIO Carlton Turner is an artist, agriculturalist, researcher, and co-founder of the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (Sipp Culture). Sipp Culture uses food and...

BIO Elise Witt was born in Switzerland, raised in North Carolina, and since 1977 has made her home in Atlanta. She speaks fluent Italian, French, German, Spanish, and English and sings in over a dozen languages. Her passion for music and languages has led her to take her Global, Local & Homemade Songs™ across the United States and around the globe. Among her ancestors, Elise claims “Wedding Ma...

Can a museum be a force for social change? Can history heal? Can our stories be unforgotten? Ron Chew says, "YES!, YES! YES!, and Much More!" Ron Chew has spent his life telling stories. Stories that reveal hidden history. Stories that inspire and mobilize. Stories that nurture and heal. The power of these stories has improved the lives of Seattle's Asian Pacific Islander Community, and by extensi...

In our second episode featuring Jeremy Kagan, we discuss the matter of trust in social impact art-making, and in the community writ large, particularly these days. We also talk about these issues as they relate to Jeremy's film Crown Heights, which deals with the violence and hatred that erupted between the black and the Orthodox Jewish Hasidic communities in Brooklyn in 1991. BIO Jeremy Kagan is...

In this episode we visit with storied Hollywood director Jeremy Kagan, whose career has proved that yes, the power of story on the big screen, the small screen, and the community screen can be both entertaining and help change hearts and minds for the better. BIO Jeremy Kagan is a director/writer/producer of feature films and television. His credits include the box-office hits  Heroes  (...