Podcasts about California Arts Council

Now in its 31st year, the AfroSolo Arts Festival is thrilled to return to Commonwealth Club World Affairs with "We Come This Far by Music—Let Freedom Ring! Part 2," featuring African American artists and music. The AfroSolo Arts Festival, directed by Thomas R. Simpson, is showcasing a cast of classically trained artists. This program is led by Dr. Carl Blake, pianist and director, and features Bradley Kynard, baritone; Shawnette Sulker, soprano; William Underwood, flutist. It's a joyful, soul-stirring program of music based on African American experiences, as part of San Francisco's Juneteenth Celebration—a national celebration that commemorates the freeing of enslaved people in Texas two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.  AfroSolo Arts Festival is made possible through the support of the California Arts Council, Grants for the Arts, Dream Keeper Initiative, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, SF Arts Commission, and The Friends of AfroSolo. About the Performers Dr. Carl Blake, piano and program director. Carnegie Recital Wigmore Hall (London) and L'Hermitage St. Petersburg, Russia Toured in France, England, Central and South America, Caribbean as artistic ambassador for the U.S. Department of State. Currently, director of music, Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, San Francisco, and a board member, Noontime Concerts. Bradley Kynard, baritone. This season: The Emissary by Oh/Rourke and Prospero's Island by Shearer/Stevens, Zebul in Jeptha by Handel, Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet (BWV 212) by J.S. Bach, A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil by Wold, Sophia's Forest by Beecher/Moscovitch, and Harriet's Spirit by Shelby/Olvera with Opera Parallèle, Moby Dick, Heggie/Scheer with San Francisco Opera. Brooke. In Little Women, by Adamo. Shawnette Sulker, soprano. Featured artist with San Francisco Opera; Die Königin der Nacht, Cleopatra, Porgy and Bess, Jake Heggie's Intelligence, Allen Shearer's Prospero's Island. Soloist, Carmina Burana, Messiah, and Mahler's symphonies concert performances at Teatro di San Carlo, Lincoln Center, and Leipzig's Gewandhaus. William Underwood III, flutist. Performs in traditional, avant-garde, social and sacred arenas as a solo, collaborative and recording flutist. A veteran of AfroSolo Festivals in San Francisco. Toured Japan extensively with Kyodo Tokyo Incorporated . An Arts Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums. Organizer: Anne W Smith and Thomas R. Simpson  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adela Najarro's fifth poetry collection, Variations in Blue, was selected by the Letras Latinas/ Red Hen Collaborative for publication in March, 2025. The California Arts Council recognized her as an established artist for the Central California Region, appointing her as an Individual Artist Fellow. Her extended family left Nicaragua and arrived in San Francisco during the 1940s; after the fall of the Somoza regime, the last of the family settled in the Los Angeles area.Adela is the Board President for Círculo de poetas and Writers and works with the Latinx community nationwide, promoting the intersection of creative writing and social justice. Adelanajarro.comJoin the Hive Live! Tuesday, May 13, at Bookshop Santa Cruz, to hear Francisco Aragón and Adela Najarro.More about Letras Latinas here. 

What can we learn from artists who survived the chaos of 1980s prisons—and how can their lessons help us resist authoritarianism today?From the Center for the Study of Art & Community, this is Change the Story / Change the World: A chronicle of art and social change, where artivists share and learn the skills and strategies they need to thrive as creative community leaders. My name is Bill Cleveland. As censorship and threats escalate for activist artists and community leaders, navigating today's polarized world demands more than passion. This episode draws powerful insights from prison arts programs to help creatives and organizers thrive amid rising societal conflict and control.Discover 11 practical rules for building credibility, resilience, and respect in high-stakes, divided environments.Learn why sustained relationships and long-term commitment are the foundation for real, transformative change.Gain essential strategies for navigating us-versus-them traps, telling bold yet responsible stories, and protecting mental health in toxic climates.Listen now to unlock time-tested survival strategies that can empower your activism, deepen your community work, and sustain your creative mission.Notable Mentions1. PeopleBill Cleveland: Host of Change the Story, Change the World. Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community, he draws on decades of experience working with artists in prisons and conflict zones.Jim Reeves: Author featured in previous episodes, discussed teaching and writing inside prisons.Noel Raymond: Theater director and cultural leader, spoke about operating arts organizations under political duress.Vern McKee: Incarcerated artist, president of Vacaville Prison's Art and Musicians Guilds, who developed the core “Verne's Rules” that guide arts engagement in high-stakes environments .2. EventsCalifornia's Arts-in-Corrections Program (1980-90's): A transformative initiative bringing arts education into state prisons during the 1980s, led by Bill Cleveland. A current program under the same name is being operated by the California Arts Council and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is carrying on the program The Troubles (Northern Ireland): A period of political and sectarian conflict (late 1960s–1998) cited for comparison with the U.S. authoritarian climate.Khmer Rouge Regime (Cambodia): Post-genocide rebuilding efforts included cultural recovery, referenced here as a parallel to U.S. challenges.Serbia under Slobodan Milošević: Cited as a reference...

Adela Najarro is a poet with a social consciousness who is working on a novel. She serves on the board of directors for Círculo de poetas and Writers and works with the Latine/x community nationwide, promoting the intersection of creative writing and social justice. Her extended family left Nicaragua and arrived in San Francisco during the 1940s; after the fall of the Somoza regime, the last of the family settled in the Los Angeles area. She is the author of four poetry collections: Split Geography, Twice Told Over, My Childrens, and Volcanic Interruptions, a chapbook that includes Janet Trenchard's artwork. The 2024 Int'l Latino Book Awards designated Volcanic Interruptions as an Honorable Mention in the Juan Felipe Herrera Best Poetry Book Award category. The California Arts Council has recognized her as an established artist for the Central California Region and appointed her as an Individual Artist Fellow.The poems in Variations in Blue address the aftermath of domestic violence through the transformative power of language, leading to healing and empowerment via the author's journey into her Latine/x culture. They cycle through the traumatic residue of dysfunctional relationships, the complexities of Latinx representation through a series of ekphrastic poems, and reimagine Nicaragua as a homeland set in a volcanic landscape. Each section contains a series of poetic variations on a theme, and the poems reverberate and rotate through the indeterminacy of language. Najarro's Variations in Blue insists that the complexities of experience must be understood one version at a time, each distinctly unfolding its unique design.

We must disrupt and rebuild; our task is to shift how society thinks through art” - Ralph RemingtonPart one of this special episode, in collaboration with Arts for a Better Bay Area, delves into the discussions and insights from the 2023 State of the Arts and Culture Organization Summit. Host Eric Estrada and summit reporter Isa Nakazawa bring you the voices of key panelists and attendees who are shaping the future of the arts in the Bay Area. Guests:Maria Jenson, Creative and Executive Director, SOMARTS Cultural CenterRalph Remington, Director of Cultural Affairs, San Francisco Arts CommissionJonathan Moscone, Executive Director, California Arts CouncilJenny Cohn, Client Success Manager of TRGJeff Jones, Co-founder, Queer Cultural CenterVallie Brown, Director of the City of San Francisco's Grants for the ArtsCary McClelland,Chief Operating Officer & Registered In-House Counsel - YBCADon't just listen – get involved! For more information, guest details, and resources from this episode, visit our episode web page.  Dive deeper into these vital discussions and access the California Arts & Culture Summit Resource Guide todayMake a Donation: Support Voices of the Community, fiscally sponsored by Intersection for the Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and enjoy tax deductions for your contributions. Newsletter: Sign up  to stay updated on future episodes and events  Delve deeper into Voices of the Community Series on Arts & Culture, Making the Invisible-Visible, Covid-19's impact on nonprofits, small businesses and local government, City of Stockton's rise from the ashes of bankruptcy and our archives: You can explore episodes, speakers, organizations, and resources through each series web page. Watch and learn from all five series now!

Today's poem will leave you “knowing very well what it was all about.” Happy reading.Gary Soto was born in Fresno, California on April 12, 1952, to working-class Mexican American parents. As a teenager and college student, he worked in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley, chopping beets and cotton and picking grapes. He was not academically motivated as a child, but he became interested in poetry during his high school years. He attended Fresno City College and California State University–Fresno, and he earned an MFA from the University of California–Irvine in 1976.His first collection of poems, The Elements of San Joaquin (University of Pittsburgh Press), won the United States Award of the International Poetry Forum in 1976 and was published in 1977. Since then, Soto has published numerous books of poetry, including You Kiss by th' Book: New Poems from Shakespeare's Line (Chronicle Books, 2016), A Simple Plan (Chronicle Books, 2007), and New and Selected Poems (Chronicle Books, 1995), which was a finalist for the National Book Award.Soto cites his major literary influences as Edward Field, Pablo Neruda, W. S. Merwin, Gabriel García Márquez, Christopher Durang, and E. V. Lucas. Of his work, the writer Joyce Carol Oates has said, “Gary Soto's poems are fast, funny, heartening, and achingly believable, like Polaroid love letters, or snatches of music heard out of a passing car; patches of beauty like patches of sunlight; the very pulse of a life.”Soto has also written three novels, including Amnesia in a Republican County (University of New Mexico Press, 2003); a memoir, Living Up the Street (Strawberry Hill Press, 1985); and numerous young adult and children's books. For the Los Angeles Opera, he wrote the libretto to Nerdlandia, an opera.Soto has received the Andrew Carnegie Medal and fellowships from the California Arts Council, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in Northern California.-bio via Academy of American Poets This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe

"Artists must be at the center of decision-making, shaping policies and funding structures that directly impact their work and their communities” - Nataki GarrettShow GuestsTiara AmarTitle: Advocate for Art Workers' RightsKey Points:Advocates for fair pay and professional protections for musicians.Highlights the Fair Play Initiative for setting pay minimums.Showcases transformative impact through grassroots campaigns and fellowship programs.Nurit SmithTitle: Executive Director, Music Forward FoundationKey Points:Stresses the importance of aligning education with industry needs.Advocates for holistic creative economy education, including entrepreneurship and business skills.Explores solutions for workforce development and advocacy.Nataki GarrettTitle: Keynote Speaker and Arts Policy AdvocateKey Points:Discusses sustainable funding models for arts organizations.Emphasizes access and inclusivity in creative spaces.Highlights the transformative role of artists in policy and advocacy.Three Ways You Can Support the Work of our Guests:Advocate for fair pay and professional protections for artists by engaging with local policymakers and supporting initiatives like the Fair Play Campaign.Partner with organizations championing creative economy education to help bridge the gap between education and industry.Support place-keeping initiatives by investing in community-based projects and amplifying the voices of local artists.For more information, guest details, and resources from this episode, visit our episode web page. Dive deeper into these vital discussions and access the California Arts & Culture Summit Resource Guide todayMake a Donation: Support Voices of the Community, fiscally sponsored by Intersection for the Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and enjoy tax deductions for your contributions. Newsletter: Sign up to stay updated on future episodes and events  Delve deeper into Voices of the Community Series on Arts & Culture, Making the Invisible-Visible, Covid-19's impact on nonprofits, small businesses and local government, City of Stockton's rise from the ashes of bankruptcy and our archives: You can explore episodes, speakers, organizations, and resources through each series web page. Watch and learn from all five series now!

Send us a textThe recent wildfires in Los Angeles have devastated communities, including many artists who have lost their homes, studios, and livelihoods. These creators need our support now more than ever.Here's how you can help:Donate to relief funds: Organizations like the California Arts Council, CERF+ (Craft Emergency Relief Fund), and local wildfire relief efforts are providing crucial aid to artists in need. https://cerfplus.org/ Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation Emergency Grant Artists' Fellowship One-Time Emergency AidFoundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency GrantMutual Aid Resources For artists who need art supplies, and places to work here are some additional resourcesSuperchief Gallery is hosting an art supplies drive at their Chinatown gallery, contact  celina@thecelinarodriguez.com.for more infoThinkspace Projects is collecting supplies to donate to Red Cross LA and is also distributing N95 masks at their gallery spaceChinatown bookstore and gallery The Fulcrum Press is offering its space to those in need of internet, electricity to charge devices, filtered air, and space to store belongings. Reach out to them on Instagram to coordinate.Purchase their work: Many artists are selling their remaining pieces or creating new works to rebuild. Supporting them directly can make a significant impact.Share their stories: Spread the word about artists in need through social media to connect them with resources and buyers.Together, we can help these artists recover and continue to share their creative gifts with the world. Visit our website or social media for links to trusted resources.Let's come together to support our artistic community.Check out Skye's and Catherine's work at:Skye Becker-Yamakawa IG: https://www.instagram.com/skyesartshop/ Web: http://www.skyesart.com/ Catherine Moore IG: https://www.instagram.com/teaandcanvas/ Web: http://teaandcanvas.com/ Polka Dot Raven IG: https://www.instagram.com/polkadotraven/

David Starkey, Santa Barbara's 2009-2011 Poet Laureate, Founding Director of the Creative Writing Program at SBCC, and the Publisher/Co-editor of Gunpowder Press, published 11 full length collections of poetry and more than 500 poems in literary journals. His novel Poor Ghost was released in March 2024.Emma Trelles Santa Barbara Poet Laureate 2021-2023, received an Established Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council. She was named a Poet Laureate Fellow by the Academy of American Poets. Daughter of Cuban immigrants, she's author of Tropicalia, winner of the Andrés Montoya Prize.

"For the first time, we are centering artists in our work with an equity-centered, artist-centered cultural plan... with a big emphasis on affordable housing and live-workspace for artists” - Jonathon Glus, City of San DiegoIn this engaging episode of Voices of the Community, we spotlight transformative policy wins and the visions shaping the future of California's arts and culture sector. Recorded live at the second annual California Arts and Culture Summit in Sacramento, this episode features highlights from a dynamic PechaKucha-style panel discussion moderated by Jennifer Laine, Executive Director of the San Benito County Arts Council.Jennifer and fellow arts leaders explore local and statewide victories, including Measure P in Fresno, the California Creative Corps, and pioneering collaborations with California State Parks. These stories showcase how advocacy, cross-sector partnerships, and data-driven strategies can elevate the creative economy and inspire meaningful change.Join us as we discuss key insights from the summit and actionable steps for empowering artists and cultural organizations to tackle pressing issues like equity, climate resilience, and workforce development.Watch, Listen and Discover how you can support and shape the future of the creative economy!- Make a Donation: Support Voices of the Community, fiscally sponsored by Intersection for the Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and enjoy tax deductions for your contributions. Stay Connected:- Participate: Join our next virtual and live in-person community dialogue event.- YouTube: Watch this episode on our YouTube channel- Newsletter: Sign up to stay updated on future episodes and events  Delve deeper into Voices of the Community Series on Arts & Culture, Covid-19's impact on nonprofits, small businesses and local government, City of Stockton's rise from the ashes of bankruptcy and our archives: You can explore episodes, speakers, organizations, and resources through each series web page. Watch and learn from all five series now!

Ellen Bass joins the Hive in anticipation of her appearance at UCSC for the Morton Marcus Memorial Poetry Reading on November 7. Full details about the event can be found here. Poems by Ellen which she reads in this episode: Laundry, Because, Black Coffee, Any Common Desolation, and Bringing Flowers to Salinas Valley State Prison About Our Guest: Ellen Bass is a Chancellor Emerita of the Academy of American Poets. Her most recent book, Indigo, was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2020. Other poetry collections include Like a Beggar (Copper Canyon Press, 2014)—which was a finalist for The Paterson Poetry Prize, The Publishers Triangle Award, The Milt Kessler Poetry Award, The Lambda Literary Award, and the Northern California Book Award—The Human Line (Copper Canyon Press, 2007), and Mules of Love (BOA Editions, 2002), which won The Lambda Literary Award. She co-edited (with Florence Howe) the first major anthology of women's poetry, No More Masks! (Doubleday, 1973). Her poems have frequently appeared in The New Yorker and The American Poetry Review, as well as in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The American Poetry Review, The New Republic, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, The Sun and many other journals and anthologies. She was awarded Fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts and The California Arts Council and received the Elliston Book Award for Poetry from the University of Cincinnati, Nimrod/Hardman's Pablo Neruda Prize, The Missouri Review'sLarry Levis Award, the Greensboro Poetry Prize, the New Letters Poetry Prize, the Chautauqua Poetry Prize, and four Pushcart Prizes. Her non-fiction books include Free Your Mind: The Book for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Youth (HarperCollins, 1996), I Never Told Anyone: Writings by Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (HarperCollins, 1983), and The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse(Harper Collins, 1988, 2008), which has sold over a million copies and has been translated into twelve languages. Ellen founded poetry workshops at Salinas Valley State Prison and the Santa Cruz, CA jails. She currently teaches in the low residency MFA writing program at Pacific University. Maggie Paul is the author of Scrimshaw (Hummingbird Press 2020), Borrowed World, (Hummingbird Press 2011), and the chapbook, Stones from the Baskets of Others (Black Dirt Press 2000). Her poetry, reviews, and interviews have appeared in the Catamaran Literary Reader, Rattle, The Monterey Poetry Review, Porter Gulch Review, Red Wheelbarrow, and Phren-Z, SALT, and others. She is a poet and non-fiction writer in Santa Cruz, California. Maggie's print interview with Ellen Bass can be found here.

Moderator, Perie Longo, Santa Barbara Poet Laureate, 2007-2009, has published 4 books of poetry, the latest Baggage Claim (2014) and poems in numerous literary journals. This June will be her 40th year teaching poetry at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. She's thrilled and awed to be still poeting and standing.Melinda Palacio, current Santa Barbara Poet Laureate, is an award-winning writer. From South Central LA, she holds 2 degrees in Comparative Literature. A 2007 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow and a 2009 poetry alum of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, she published Bird Forgiveness in 2018.David Starkey, Santa Barbara's 2009-2011 Poet Laureate, Founding Director of the Creative Writing Program at SBCC, and the Publisher/Co-editor of Gunpowder Press, published 11 full length collections of poetry and more than 500 poems in literary journals. His novel Poor Ghost was released in March 2024.Chryss Yost is a Santa Barbara Poet Laureate who served from 2013-2015. She was awarded the 2013 Patricia Dobler Poetry Prize and other honors, including Pushcart Prize nominations. She's co-editor of Gunpowder Press. Her collection Mouth & Fruit was published 2014, and her poems have been included in the most popular poetry textbooks in the country and widely anthologized elsewhere.Enid Osborn Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara 2017-2019, published When the Big Wind Comes, set in New Mexico. A Pushcart nominee, her work appears in regional California and Southwest journals. She has a series of themed chapbooks, and she co-edited A Bird Black as the Sun / California Poets on Crows & Ravens in 2011.Laure-Anne Bosselaar Santa Barbara's Poet Laureate 2019-2021, is author of 6 collections of poems and is the recipient of a Pushcart. She taught at Emerson, Sarah Lawrence, UCSB, and is part of the faculty at the Solstice Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing. Lately: New and Selected Poems was published January 2024.Emma Trelles Santa Barbara Poet Laureate 2021-2023, received an Established Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council. She was named a Poet Laureate Fellow by the Academy of American Poets. Daughter of Cuban immigrants, she's author of Tropicalia, winner of the Andrés Montoya Prize.Paul Willis, Santa Barbara Poet Laureate 2011-2013 is an emeritus professor of English at Westmont College. His poems, stories, and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, and he's been featured on Verse Daily and The Writer's Almanac and nominated five times for a Pushcart Prize. His YA Elizabethan time-travel novel, All in a Garden Green, was released in 2020.

In this episode of *Art Heals All Wounds*, I sit down with Jimmy Ramirez, an artist and high school teacher from Oakley, California. We talk about Jimmy's film Above Ground, which delves into the ways that streams and creeks in Oakland have been ‘entombed' in culverts in Oakland, California. We also discuss re-imagining our relationship to water.**Key Topics Discussed:** 1. **Discovery of Hidden Waterways**:   - My personal experience of discovering the hidden Providence River during my college years in Providence, Rhode Island, drawing a parallel to the hidden creeks of Oakland. 2. **Jimmy's Film "Above Ground"**:   - The film explores how Oakland has buried many of its natural waterways under concrete, a practice known as "entombing." This impacts local ecosystems previously supporting species like salmon and trout. 3. **Personal Connection to Peralta Creek**:   - Jimmy discusses his family's history with Peralta Creek in Fruitvale, Oakland, emphasizing how urban development has drastically altered the waterway. 4. **Impact of Water Management Practices**:   - Water management practices designed to prevent flooding have dried out natural water bodies despite heavy rainfalls, disrupting ecological balance. 5. **Historical Decisions and Urban Planning**:   - The conversation addresses the historical decisions to bury natural waterways and how early urban planning overlooked long-term environmental impacts. 6. **Environmental and Mental Health Implications**:   - We discuss the concept of "slow violence" where the lack of natural elements in urban areas contributes to mental health issues and community stress. 7. **Neighborhood Disparities**:   - Disparities between wealthier neighborhoods with more greenery and lower-income areas in Oakland are highlighted, showing the uneven distribution of environmental resources. 8. **Community Initiatives and Successes**:   - Some residents have successfully removed culverts to restore natural water flow, though legal ambiguities persist. 9. **Government and Political Dynamics**:   - Oakland officials have shown interest in Jimmy's film to raise awareness about these environmental issues, and the conversation touches on the politicized nature of water management in California. 10. **Reimagining Water Use**:    - Jimmy advocates for a collectivist approach to water systems, inspired by indigenous wisdom, contrasting America's individualistic mindset. 11. **Challenges and Resistance**:    - Addressing restrictive regulations around rainwater collection and gray water reuse, and how contractors are now more conscious about concreting over backyards. 12. **Future Projects and Art's Role**:    - Jimmy discusses future projects and the significance of art in processing climate grief and inspiring change. He also expresses gratitude for support from the California Arts Council. **Closing Thoughts and Listener Engagement:**Don't forget to go to my website and leave me YOUR story of belonging to feature on a future episode!Buy Me a Coffee!Follow Jimmy! InstagramLinkedInFollow Me!●      My Instagram&

This episode of The Other Side of the Bell, featuring trumpeter, Sal Cracchiolo, is brought to you by Bob Reeves Brass. Tickets for the Youth Trumpet Scholars Trumpet Trilogy can be purchased here. About Sal Cracchiolo: Salvator William Cracchiolo II was born in Long Beach, California as the son of two talented music teachers.  His father, Sal Cracchiolo I, owned a music studio where he taught piano and played professional accordion.  His mother, Edith, was his first trumpet teacher and started Sal on trumpet at the age of 12.  He played in concert, marching and jazz band in high school.  By his Junior and Senior year of High School, he was attending Cerritos College playing in their jazz and concert bands. He started working as a professional musician at 15 in nightclubs with various R & B and Latin bands.   In 1975 he started a long musical friendship with Poncho Sanchez, which ultimately let to 18 albums.  Between working with Poncho, in the 1980s, he was a member of the Pasadena City College Big Band under the direction of saxophonist, Gary Foster.  While in this band, Sal played with such jazz greats as Warren Marsh, Lee Konitz, and Peter Erskine. In the late-80s, Poncho traveled internationally.  Since then, with Poncho and other acts, Sal has traveled to 45 countries globally.  With Poncho, he has played and recorded with Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Cal Tjader, Chick Corea, Stanley Turentine, Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaria, Clare Fischer, Gary Foster, Arturo Sandoval, Eddie Harris, Joey DeFrancesco, Dianne Reeves, Justo Almario, Andy Martin, Celia Cruz and Pete Escovedo.  He performed for and with these artists at the Monterey, Playboy, Concord, and Nice Jazz Festivals plus many others throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada, Mexico, South America, Thailand and Japan. He has also done worldwide tours with such artists as Tom Jones, Vicki Carr, Harry Connick and Brian Setzer. He was with the Clayton/ Hamilton Jazz Orchestra and has played with them since 2003. The CHJO has been rated as the #1 Big Band in the USA by Downbeat Magazine from 2007 to 2010.  He also performing with his own sextet featuring his wife, Melanie Jackson, on vocals  In 2001 “Fly” was nominated for a Latin Grammy. He has performed on the latest albums of Michael Buble, Gladys Knight, Joss Stone, Jamiroquoi, and Dr. Dre and on various sountracks for HBO. In 2001,  their CD, “Fly”, was nominated for a Latin Grammy.  In 2002 they performed at the Du Maurier Vancouver International Jazz Festival.  In 2003 they will be performing for the warm-up for the Playboy Jazz Festival. In 2004 through 2006  Sal and Melanie's sextet was sponsored by the California Arts Council.

Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists. On today's episode I get a whirlwind tour of the techniques, recipes and studio practices, of the spectacular Cianne Fragione. This conversation will be a two-parter, and will be concluded next episode. Today, in part one, we discuss making your own paints, why lead white is such a fantastic color, chaos vs organization, Cianne's warm-up books, adhesives, “the shake test”, prepping surfaces, rhythm, paper, and the joy of destruction. Cianne also speaks extensively on the making of her massive 24-part painting entitled Heaven and Earth are Dressed in Their Summer Wear, completed in 2012.Cianne Fragione was born in 1952 and currently lives and works in Washington D.C. She has developed her process-oriented work over five decades, crossing boundaries between abstract painting and sculpture, object, and image. She has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions at national and international venues and has been the recipient of many awards, fellowships, and residencies, including the Milton and Sally Avery Arts Fellowship and The Legacy Project sponsored by the Joan Mitchell Foundation to name just a few. Enjoy the episode!P.S. Cianne and I discuss multiple artworks in her studio which were included in the studio visit photo collection and can be found as a free post on my Patreon page. So feel free to click here and you can look while you listen:)About Cianne Fragione:Cianne Fragione b. 1952 (Hartford, CT)  Cianne Fragione, a Washington D.C., D.C.-based artist, has developed process-oriented work for five decades, crossing boundaries between abstract painting and sculpture, object, and image. She has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions at national and international venues including, Isole: A Voyage Among My Dreams (2024-25) St. Mary's College Museum of Art, Moraga, CA; traveling exhibitions, Pocket Full of Promise: Cecelia Coker Bell Gallery, Coker College, Hartsville, SC, and Anne Wright Wilson Gallery, Georgetown College, KY; Wiregrass Museum Biennial 24, Dothan, AL.; Arts-In-Embassies, Geneva, Switzerland; Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, New York, NY; American University Museum, Washington, D.C.; Regis College Fine art Center, Weston, MA; John D. Calandra Italian American Institute of Queens College, CUNY, New York, NY; Associazione di Museo D'Arte Contemporaneo Italiano, Catanzaro, Italy;  a ten-year retrospective at Harmony Hall Regional Center, Washington, MD;  the University of Scranton Art Museum, Scranton, PA; The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C.; Art in Embassies, Sofia, Bulgaria, and Vilnius, Lithuania; Elizabeth Foundation, New York, NY; Indianapolis Art Center, IN; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Gallery, CA; and Gallery Neptune & Brown, Washington, D.C. Her works are held in public collections, recent acquisitions; the Baltimore Museum of Art MD; and DC Commission Art Bank Collection (also in 2017), Art-In-Embassies Permanent Collection, Guadalajara, Mexico, US State Department; as well as St. Mary's College Museum of Art, CA; Italian American Museum, D.C; Department of Special Collections, Cecil H. Green Library, Stanford University, CA; and Comune di Monasterace, Calabria, IT; among others and private collections. Fragione has been the recipient of awards, fellowships, and residencies, Art Omi receiving the Milton and Sally Avery Arts Fellowship; The Legacy Project (Saving the Legacy) sponsored by Joan Mitchell Foundation; Studio dei Nipoti artist residency, Monasterace, Italy; Soaring Gardens, Laceyville, PA; Spoleto Study Aboard in Spoleto, Italy; and an Artist-in-Institution grants, project of the California Arts Council. Sacramento CA. She was nominated for the Joan Mitchell

Further Adventures of L. O. SloanIn this milestone 100th episode, Bill Cleveland engages in a deep, reflective, and often humorous conversation with his longtime friend and legendary activist, actor, dancer, playwright, impresario, and historian, Lenwood Sloan. The discussion spans many topics, including Sloan's incredible career in the arts, his reflections on social change, and the societal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The episode also touches on the roles of art and artists in activism and democracy, shining a spotlight on historical figures like Lydia Hamilton Smith and their untold contributions. The conversation serves as both a celebration of Sloan's legacy and a poignant commentary on current social issues.00:00 Introduction to the Episode00:33 A Rambling Conversation with Lenwood Sloan03:16 Reflections on Pain and Perseverance06:07 The Impact of COVID on Social Interactions08:06 The Power of Decision Making and Imagination18:43 Lydia Hamilton Smith: An Unsung Hero27:27 The Role of Art in Social Change31:52 Call to Action for Citizen ArtistsBIOFor the past 40 years, Lenwood Sloan has provided inspiration, leadership and technical assistance both in the public and private sector.On October 7, 2013, Mr. Sloan received the Distinguished Service Humanitarian award from Pennsylvania Humanities Council for his outstanding work in community organizing.He is currently an International Consultant collaborating with the U.S. Embassy in Brussels and the multi nation “Liberation Route” on a new international WWII heritage trail. He is creative consultant for the Cameron Museum of Wilmington, N. C. USCT project, collaborator on the innovative “Two Roads “ series for the Irish Cultural Center of New York, Throughout 2011 Sloan served as Pennsylvania's film commissioner and was certified by the Association of Film commissioners international (AFCI). In that capacity, he directed the 60 million dollar film tax credit office.From 2005 to 2011, Mr. Sloan served as director of Pennsylvania's Cultural and Heritage Tourism Program His portfolio included the Pa festival initiative, the Appalachian Regional Commission's 13 state geo- tourism initiative, the artisans' craft trails , the PA Civil War trails Lenwood Sloan has served as Director of the National Endowment for the Arts' Presenting and Commissioning program , Deputy Director of Services to the field for the California Arts Council , Director of New Orleans Arts and Tourism partnership . He is recipient of the Louisiana Travel and Tourism leadership award for business innovations, His artistic credits include creating “art in the market place” programs for the Rouse Corporation in New Orleans, St. Louis, Boston, and Baltimore. In addition, he participated on the artistic team for five national public television documentaries, Treme- Untold Story, Emmy award winning Ethnic Notions, Stephen Foster, the internationally acclaimed Re-imaging Ireland, and the Emmy award winning Dance Black America.For the past 40 years, Lenwood Sloan has provided inspiration, leadership and technical assistance both in the public and private sector. On October 7, 2013, Mr. Sloan received the Distinguished Service Humanitarian award from Pennsylvania Humanities Council for his outstanding work in community organizing. He is currently an International Consultant collaborating with the U.S. Embassy in Brussels and the multi nation “Liberation Route” on a new international WWII heritage trail. He is creative consultant for the Cameron Museum of Wilmington, N. C. USCT project, collaborator on the innovative “Two Roads “ series for the Irish Cultural Center of New York, Throughout 2011 Sloan served as Pennsylvania's film commissioner and was certified by the Association of Film commissioners international (AFCI). In that capacity, he...

Join the conversation by letting us know what you think about the episode!What is natural hair? Why are we talking about it? Find out in this week's episode where Raquel and Jennifer dive into it with guest Lyzette Wanzer. Lyzette Wanzer's work appears in over thirty literary journals and books. Her book, TRAUMA, TRESSES & TRUTH: Untangling Our Hair Through Personal Narratives (Chicago Review Press) appears on Library Journal's 2022 Top 10 Best Social Sciences Books list and was a 2023 Black Women's Studies Association Selection. Lyzette is a contributor to Lyric Essay as Resistance: Truth from the Margins (Wayne State University Press 2023), Civil Liberties United: Diverse Voices from the San Francisco Bay Area (Pease Press 2019), and the multi-award-winning The Chalk Circle: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays (Wyatt-MacKenzie 2012). A National Writers' Union and Authors Guild member, Lyzette's work has been supported with funding from Center for Cultural Innovation, San Francisco Arts Commission, California Arts Council, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Black Artist Foundry, The Awesome Foundation, and California Humanities, a National Endowment for the Humanities partner.Where to find Lyzette Wanzer:Website: www.lyzettewanzermfa.comLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lyzettewanzer/Mentioned in this episode:2024 TRAUMA, TRESSES & TRUTH: A Virtual Conference Interrogating Black Women's Natural Hair - https://shuffle.do/projects/trauma-tresses-truth-a-natural-hair-conferenceMuses & Melanin Fellowship for BIPOC Creative Writers - https://forms.gle/eP5KHEVD3S4AQY7h9The CROWN Act - The Official CROWN Act (thecrownact.com)Dove's CROWN Act campaign - www.dove.com/us/en/stories/campaigns/the-crown-act.htmlEpisode Photo by Jessica Felicio on UnsplashEpisode Photo by Jessica Felicio on UnsplashSupport the Show.Be part of the conversation by sharing your thoughts about this episode, what you may have learned, how the conversation affected you. You can reach Raquel and Jennifer on IG @madnesscafepodcast or by email at madnesscafepodcast@gmail.com.Share the episode with a friend and have your own conversation. And don't forget to rate and review the show wherever you listen!Thanks!

Raza! Esta semana tuve una conversación increíble con Carisa Gutiérrez, una líder en el espacio del arte y la cultura en California. Carisa is the Director of Public Affairs para el California Arts Council, donde ayuda a conectar a los artistas con los recursos que necesitan y promueve el arte y la cultura en todo el estado. El trabajo de Carisa no solo representa nuestra cultura inmigrante y Latinx, she also works on connecting other culturas with resources, apoya artistas y promueve el arte. En este episodio, hablamos sobre su pasión por las palomas (sí, la bebida), la relación entre la economía y el arte, y la importancia de mantener vivas nuestras tradiciones y cultura. Disfruté mucho esta conversación y aprendí muchísimo. Fue un intercambio de ideas donde Carisa me educó sobre muchos temas importantes. I am super excited to share this episode with you. Recuerden darle like, suscribirse y calificarnos en donde sea que nos estén escuchando. ¡Ánimo pues, cuídense y nos escuchamos en el siguiente episodio! Chao. Tags: #Podcast #QuéTeTomas #CulturaLatina #ArteYCultura #Inmigrantes #TradicionesMexicanas #EconomíaYArte #Entrevista Music this week by: La Noche Oskura, Silvermansound.com and LESFM. Social Media Handles Watch on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@betorizo_ Beto Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/betorizo_/ Carissa's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carissa______/ Disponible now on your favorite podcast platforms.

Dr. Giavanni Washington, creator of the Black Goddess Within Oracle card deck, joins me to discuss how her new deck is about liberation and remembrance, changing the narrative of Black bodies, Black women, and Black people through the images of Goddesses from all over Africa. Dr. G, as she is affectionately known, shares not only how we can use the deck, but why it is important to change the way the world sees the Black body. She also talks about how the images came into being – A deeply transformative experience for the women photographed representing the Goddesses. And her own personal experience and inspiration for creating this stunning deck. If you seek to support and uplift Black voices and perspectives, this deck is an empowering way to learn about these powerful Goddesses and their history. I hope you enjoy this episode and learn something new.  Thank you for listening and following my podcast. You can also follow me on Instagram at The Conscious Diva. More about Dr. G: Dr. Giavanni Washington, creator of the Black Goddess Within Oracle Deck, is an intuitive healer, mother, speaker and spiritual guide who holds a doctorate from UCLA's department of World Arts and Cultures and was recently selected for the California Creative Corps Artist and Culture Bearer Fellowship by the California Arts Council.  Called to the medicine of ancestral restoration, Dr. Giavanni creates healing opportunities for other Black diasporans to reconnect with lost histories and ignite hidden ancestral wisdom. Dedicated to amplifying Black Beauty, reconnecting to the deep roots of Black Divinity and encouraging the full expression of Black Joy, her latest creative expression, the Black Goddess Within Oracle Deck, is a 44-card deck and guidebook featuring photographs of real Black Women embodying Goddesses from Africa. When she isn't talking to ancestors or helping Black women connect to their divinity within, Dr. Washington enjoys hiking with her husband, son and her pup called Pumpkin. WHERE TO FIND DR. G: https://www.drgiavanniwashington.com https://www.instagram.com/blackgoddesswithin/

Millicent Borges Accardi, a Portuguese-American writer, is the author of four poetry collections, including Only More So (Salmon Poetry, Ireland), and Quarantine Highway (FlowerSong Press). Among her awards are fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Fulbright, CantoMundo, Creative Capacity, the California Arts Council, Foundation for Contemporary Arts (Covid grant), Yaddo, Portuegese National Cultural Foundation, and the Barbara Deming Foundation, "Money for Women." She lives in Topanga canyon. From re-definition to re-calibration, the poems in Quarantine Highway are artifacts to the early and mid-days of the pandemic. Though not specifically labeled as "Covid poems," they strike to the heart of the universal yet individual struggles of solitude, confinement, justice, isolation and, ultimately, self-reckoning. The poems push and pull between the constantly knocking global news cycle to the stillness of a surreal inner world. Find more of Millicent's writings here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Millicent Borges Accardi, a Portuguese-American writer, is the author of four poetry collections, including Only More So (Salmon Poetry, Ireland), and Quarantine Highway (FlowerSong Press). Among her awards are fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Fulbright, CantoMundo, Creative Capacity, the California Arts Council, Foundation for Contemporary Arts (Covid grant), Yaddo, Portuegese National Cultural Foundation, and the Barbara Deming Foundation, "Money for Women." She lives in Topanga canyon. From re-definition to re-calibration, the poems in Quarantine Highway are artifacts to the early and mid-days of the pandemic. Though not specifically labeled as "Covid poems," they strike to the heart of the universal yet individual struggles of solitude, confinement, justice, isolation and, ultimately, self-reckoning. The poems push and pull between the constantly knocking global news cycle to the stillness of a surreal inner world. Find more of Millicent's writings here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Millicent Borges Accardi, a Portuguese-American writer, is the author of four poetry collections, including Only More So (Salmon Poetry, Ireland), and Quarantine Highway (FlowerSong Press). Among her awards are fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Fulbright, CantoMundo, Creative Capacity, the California Arts Council, Foundation for Contemporary Arts (Covid grant), Yaddo, Portuegese National Cultural Foundation, and the Barbara Deming Foundation, "Money for Women." She lives in Topanga canyon. From re-definition to re-calibration, the poems in Quarantine Highway are artifacts to the early and mid-days of the pandemic. Though not specifically labeled as "Covid poems," they strike to the heart of the universal yet individual struggles of solitude, confinement, justice, isolation and, ultimately, self-reckoning. The poems push and pull between the constantly knocking global news cycle to the stillness of a surreal inner world. Find more of Millicent's writings here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/poetry

In this episode, we've invited Elena Yu to share her experience with Kenneth Tam's The Founding of the World, which she experienced in summer 2023 at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Elena is an interdisciplinary artist and community organizer from Los Angeles, where she received her BA in Art from UCLA. She moved to the Morongo Basin in 2016, where she founded two artist-run alternative art spaces, The Firehouse and Sun Spot. She also worked as Assistant Director of Programming for High Desert Test Sites and as Program Director for Arts Connection, the Arts Council of San Bernardino County. She recently relocated to Charlottesville, VA where she is an Incubator Artist at McGuffey Art Center. Elena co-curated our exhibition ‘Emergence,' featuring the Mojave Artists of Color Collective, with support from the California Arts Council. On view at Compound YV from September 9 through November 5, 2023, It was the first-ever public exhibition of works by MACC artists as a collective, aiming both to stabilize and uplift the group.

Join hosts Walid and Kavita for an exciting episode featuring the versatile artist, Donzell Lewis. Growing up in Virginia, Donzell honed his skills in martial arts, acting, and directing. His journey led him to meet Walid during their time in college at acting school, fostering a lasting friendship and professional collaboration from VA to LA.Catch Donzell in commercials for renowned brands like Hyundai and Warby Parker, as well as in the upcoming films "Divorce Bait" and "Dope Queens." His outstanding performance in the stage adaptation of "Dope Queens" earned him the BroadwayWorld Award for "Best Actor." In the acclaimed "The Book of Queer" series on Discovery+, Donzell portrays multiple iconic characters, including MLK and Glenn Burke. Notably, he is the winner of UCB's "Bad Drag Race" and also a 5th-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.Beyond acting, directing, and coaching, Donzell's passion lies in arts education. Delve into his insights on the challenges and rewards of juggling on-camera roles with his commitment to theater arts education. Discover Donzell's invaluable advice on authenticity in artistry, offering a glimpse into his thriving career both in front of and behind the camera.Tune in to this enlightening conversation with a true artiste, and uncover Donzell's wisdom on embracing authenticity and excelling in diverse roles within the entertainment industry.DONZELL LEWIS' BIO:Donzell Lewis is a distinguished actor, director and theater educator known for his unwavering commitment to the arts. Holding a BFA in Performance and an MFA in Theatre Pedagogy from Virginia Commonwealth University, his strong educational foundation complements his multifaceted skill set. His remarkable career has garnered acclaim from prestigious institutions such as The American Theater Wing, American Theatre Magazine, and The California Arts Council all highlighting his exceptional contributions to the theater education world.As an actor, his work can be seen on shows such as the television sketch show “The Book of Queer” (currently on HBO MAX), the Eric Andre Show, and Tosh.0, among many other tv, film, and voice-over credits. Additionally, he has appeared in commercials for esteemed brands such as Hyundai and Warby Parker while also maintaining a long-standing Los Angeles theater career as an actor and drag performer.With over 15 years of experience as an educator, Donzell consistently demonstrates his expertise in designing, delivering, and assessing outstanding arts education courses. WATCH THIS EPISODE:youtube.com/@LightsCameraConversationFOLLOW US AND LET'S CHAT:instagram.com/lightscameraconversationtiktok.com/@lightscameraconversationDISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast episode is provided for general informational purposes only. By listening to our episode, you understand that no information contained in this episode should be construed as advice from LIGHTS CAMERA CONVERSATION (LCC) or the individual author, hosts, or guests, nor is it intended to be a substitute for research on any subject matter. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by LCC. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. LCC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual's use of, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we presented in this podcast.

Creativity is hard AF, and sharing it with the world can be terrifying. That's just one reason why I'm so in awe of my guest this week, Dr. Giavanni Washington. She had the passion and persistence to develop a stunning oracle deck that honors African Goddesses with photography of amazing black women. She's here to talk about why she felt required to birth this project into the world, and how she sustained the belief in herself that was necessary to make it a reality.Mentioned: Dr. Giavanni Washington is the creator of the Black Goddess Within Oracle Deck, which is available to pre-order at https://www.drgiavanniwashington.com/deck. She is also an intuitive healer, mother, speaker, and spiritual guide. She holds a doctorate from UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures and was recently selected for the California Creative Creative Corps Artist and Culture Bearer Fellowship by the California Arts Council.The African Goddess Rising Oracle card deck by Abiola Abrams https://womanifesting.com/goddess-oracle-cards/ Make Magic:So much of cultivating the courage to create is about honoring yourself and your vision. Allowing yourself to feel the desire for things that mainstream culture tells you aren't appealing, and investing the time and energy that you and your creations truly deserve.

  "I spend a lot of my life, and even through my art, just looking for belonging." - Nicole Rademacher Join us as we delve into the world of art therapy and adoption with guest Nicole Rademacher. Discover how Nicole uses art to heal on her own journey as an adoptee, and explore her upcoming project, "We Are Not Our Cruxes," that aims to empower adoptees and former foster youth. In this episode, you will be able to: Discover the healing power of art therapy and how it can help adoptees do deeper work on their adoption trauma. Explore the complexities of transracial adoption and how it shapes an adoptee's identity through the lens of art Find out about "We Are Not Our Cruxes," Nicole's interactive, hybrid art project for the adoption constellation, starting on November 18, 2023 in Los Angeles and online. My special guest is Nicole Rademacher: Nicole Rademacher is an accomplished transcultural adoptee artist and art therapist based in Los Angeles. With a deep understanding of adoption trauma and personal experience as an adoptee, Nicole has dedicated her work to using art as a means of healing and self-exploration. Through her adventurous artistic creations and art therapy, she helps individuals tackle their nonverbal and often suppressed pain, offering them a safe space to express and process their emotions. Nicole's upcoming project, "We Are Not Our Cruxes," is a series of free, interactive, art-based healing events which is launching in November 2023 in the Los Angeles area and online. These events will provide participants with a unique opportunity to deepen their understanding of adoption while engaging in a transformative art therapy process. With her extensive expertise and compassionate approach, Nicole joins host Beth Syverson on Unraveling Adoption to share her insights and shed light on the power of art therapy in the journey towards healing. The resources mentioned in this episode are: Join Nicole Rademacher's adoption-related events: Attend the "We Are Not Our Cruxes" series of free, hybrid, interactive, art-based healing events in Los Angeles starting on November 18, 2023. Participate in person or online from anywhere. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/we-are-not-our-cruxes-session-one-tickets-712649603147 Explore art therapy for adoption trauma: Consider using artistic modalities to heal from adoption trauma. Connect with Nicole Rademacher through her website, or sign up for a free 15-minute intro call: http://nicrrad.com Find Nicole's film project "Nesting" that we talked about in this episode: https://nicolerademacher.com/portfolio_page/nesting/ Explore Nic's other art projects on her artist website: https://nicolerademacher.com/ Find Nic on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/nicrrad Explore the complexities and challenges of transracial adoption - Transracial adoption brings with it multifaceted challenges, as Nicole Rademacher, a biracial adoptee, elucidates. Adoptees often grapple with their racial identity and struggle to conform to expected societal norms and categorizations. Support from adoptive families in celebrating the adoptee's birth culture and maintaining a sense of identity is crucial, assuring adoptees that they're not confined by their racial backgrounds but can embrace all facets of their identity. Experience the healing and empowering effects of art therapy - Using art as therapy provides adoptees with an empowering platform to express their emotions and experiences. Nicole Rademacher's upcoming project "We Are Not Our Cruxes" incorporates art-based healing events for adoptees and former foster youth to aid in their healing process. By acknowledging their resilience and emphasizing that their identity and experiences aren't solely shaped by trauma, art helps participants foster a positive perception of self, resulting in a sense of empowerment. Timestamped summary of this episode: 00:01:29 - Early Childhood and Adoption Nicole shares her adoption story, explaining that she was born in 1978 and immediately placed in foster care. She was adopted into the Rademacher family in Milwaukee and grew up in North Carolina. Nicole reflects on her mixed-race identity and the challenges of fitting in visually with her white adoptive family. 00:05:04 - Transcultural Identity Beth asks Nicole about her identity as a transcultural adoptee. Nicole explains that she presents as white and often passes as such, but she also recognizes her biracial heritage. She discusses the complexities of racial identity and the challenges of fitting in with her adoptive family. 00:07:09 - Supportive Parenting Beth emphasizes the importance of adoptive parents supporting their child's cultural identity and interests. She encourages parents to listen to their adoptee's desires regarding exploring their birth culture and to be flexible and understanding. Nicole agrees and emphasizes the need for adoptive parents to be open-minded and supportive. 00:09:38 - Reunion and Family Dynamics Nicole shares that she reunited with her birth parents in 2004 and discovered that they had married each other, and she had two younger brothers. She reflects on the complex emotions that arose during reunion. 00:13:12 - The Complexity of Family Relationships The guest emphasizes that having a familial connection does not automatically guarantee a strong bond. She shares her personal experience of searching for belonging and finding it through her art and living abroad. 00:13:40 - Embracing Foreignness The guest talks about her experiences living in different countries as a foreigner and how it allowed her to explore her sense of belonging. She highlights the freedom that comes with not fitting into societal norms. 00:14:42 - Serendipitous Love Story The guest shares how she met her husband in Chile while doing research for her MFA. They were brought together by chance and their connection grew into a romantic relationship. 00:15:54 - From Architecture to Art The guest reveals her early aspirations of becoming an architect and her transition to art school. She explains how her interest in photography eventually led her to pursue a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree. 00:18:24 - Exploring Identity through Art The guest discusses her artistic process, which involves creating experimental videos and installations. She shares her journey of delving into the emotions surrounding her adoption and reunion through her art. 00:26:43 - The Embodiment of Singing Nicole and Beth discuss how singing is a unique form of artistic expression because the instrument is within the singer's body. Nic also mentions her collaboration with her birth father, a symphony percussionist. 00:27:53 - Growing Up in a Pragmatic Household Nicole reflects on her upbringing in a non-creative household and how she wishes she had grown up in a more artistic environment. She shares that her parents have always been supportive of her artistic pursuits. 00:28:57 - Overlapping Experiences of Belonging Nicole talks about the overlap between the experiences of adoptees and non-binary individuals in terms of not feeling a sense of belonging. She explains how she became involved in LGBTQ+ spaces through her connections in the art world. 00:29:42 - "We Are Not Our Cruxes" Project Nicole introduces her project, "We Are Not Our Cruxes," which aims to provide a space for adult adoptees and former foster care youth to share their struggles and create art as a form of healing. She explains the research component and invites people to participate. 00:35:27 - The Creative Corps Grant Nicole announces that the project will be offered for free thanks to her receipt of the Creative Corps Grant from the California Arts Council. She encourages people to attend the events, either in person or online, and shares the bit.ly link for more information.

YoloArts is the designated State-Local Partner with the California Arts Council. Confirmed each year by the Yolo County Board of Supervisors, YoloArts serves as the central agency for the arts in Yolo County. Working to collaborate with and support strategic partners, both public and private, to provide the community with resources and access to the creation, exhibition, and preservation of the diverse arts and culture of Yolo County.

“This is a time when the art community's creative expertise and skills and talents are being relied upon. And finally, really seen as major contributors to the local economy.” – Maria JensenThis is our first episode from the co-production with Arts for a Better Bay Area of the re-launch of the State of the Arts Summit on June 28th, 2023 . This episode features the opening and keynote speakers made up of community leaders, poets, artists, administrators, government officials, and representatives from arts and culture organizations; who share their wonderful insights and recommendations on the rebuilding of our communities through the arts. With Arts for a Better Bay Area's State of the Arts Summit theme, "Rebuilding Our Communities," our opening and keynote speakers below explore collective ways the arts community can develop and bridge supportive connections as we emerge from the pandemic. To find out more information about our guests and their respective organization's programs, and services, how to volunteer and make a donation please visit our episode landing page with links to resources for the arts and culture sector. Show GuestsHoney Mahoney / Co-Founder Compton's Transgender Cultural DistrictLyzette Wanzer / Writer/AuthorMichael Warr & Chun Yu/ PoetsSusie McKinnon/ Executive Director/ ABBAMaria Jenson / Creative and Executive Director, SOMArts Cultural CenterRalph Remington / Director of Cultural Affairs, SFACJonathan Moscone, Executive Director, California Arts CouncilWe hope that you enjoyed episode two of our new six-part series highlighting the issues and solutions of our arts and culture organizations and their workforce as they innovate to come back from the pandemic along with addressing the systemic racism in our performing arts ecosystem.We welcome your participation in our next virtual and live in-person community dialogue event. Our next community dialogue will be streamed as well as you can tune into our usual radio show, podcast, and television show with our friends at BAVC Media. Sign Up for our Newsletter to participate in our next live showPlease consider donating to Voices of the Community - Voices of the Community is fiscally sponsored by Intersection for the Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which allows us to offer you tax deductions for your contributions. Please consider making a donation to help us provide future shows just like this one.

Are You Addicted To Your Smartphone? - Steve Fogel is a principal and cofounder of Westwood Financial Corp., one of the largest owner-operators of retail properties in the United States. He is a licensed real estate broker and past chairman of the California Arts Council. Your Mind Is What Your Brain Does for a Living, publishing March 11, 2014, is his third book. He is also the author of My Mind Is Not Always My Friend: A Guide for How to Not Get in Your Own Way (Fresh River Press, 2010) and The Yes-I-Can Guide to Mastering Real Estate (Times Books-Random House). www.stevenjayfogel.com.

As kids many of us dreamt of building and playing in a tree house. For Donald Vaughn, also known as “fish”, that became his everyday reality… but it was far from a dream. Cold, hungry and all alone, Vaughn was kicked out of his house at 11 years old, and built a makeshift treehouse in order to survive. Anthony Ivy, an Uncuffed producer at Solano State prison, asked Vaughn to share his nightmare of being unloved, unkept and isolated. Thank you, Donald Vaughn, for sharing your story! This piece comes from our friends at Uncuffed. You can listen to KALW's Uncuffed, for more stories produced inside California state prisons, wherever you get your podcasts. Follow @WeAreUncuffed on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. To learn more, sign up for Uncuffed news, and support the program at www.weareuncuffed.org Produced by Anthony Ivy Sound design by Eric "Maserati-E" Abercrombie Edited by Andrew Stelzer and Sonia Paul Artwork by Teo Ducot Uncuffed's work in prisons is supported by the California Arts Council, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and donations from listeners. The producers fact-check content to the best of their ability. Content is approved by an information officer. Season 14 - Episode 25

Susan Albert Loewenberg is founder and Producing Director of L.A. Theatre Works, a non-profit media arts and theatre organization. Ms. Loewenberg has produced award-winning radio dramas, plays, and films in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and London.Under her supervision, LATW has created the largest library of plays on audio in the world, garnering numerous awards from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Writers Guild, The American Library Association, Publishers' Weekly, and others. Ms. Loewenberg also serves as host and is the Executive Producer of LATW's nationally distributed syndicated radio series, “L.A. Theatre Works,” broadcast on NPR stations nationwide.A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, she has served on innumerable boards and panels, including the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, The Fund for Independence in Journalism in Washington D.C., and was co-chair of the League of Producers and Theatres of Greater Los Angeles.Chapters is a multi-part series concerning the history and the lessons of civil rights violations or civil liberties injustices carried out against communities or populations—including civil rights violations or civil liberties injustices that are perpetrated on the basis of an individual's race, national origin, immigration status, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.This project was made possible with support from Chapman University and The California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, a state-funded grant project of the California State Library.Guests: Susan Albert LoewenbergHosts: Jon-Barrett IngelsProduced by: Past Forward

Peter has been photographing for several decades, specializing in documentary, portrait, and fine art forms. He has been working with socially oriented non-profit organizations for over 30 years. Some of Peter's prison arts photography was funded by the California Arts Council, which administers the state's Arts in Corrections program. https://petermerts.com/ Organizations Peter has worked with: Bread & Roses Arts in Corrections Mother Miracle School, a free school for poor children in Rishikesh, India --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/in-the-art-scene/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/in-the-art-scene/support

Millicent Borges Accardi, an NEA fellow, is a Portuguese-American writer. She has four poetry collections, including Only More So (Salmon Poetry, Ireland). Among her awards are poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, CantoMundo, Fulbright, Foundation for Contemporary Arts NYC (Covid grant), Creative Capacity, Fundação Luso-Americana, and Barbara Deming Foundation, “Money for Women.” She lives in the hippie-arts community of Topanga, CA, where she curates Kale Soup for the Soul and Loose Lips poetry readings. https://www.amazon.com/Millicent-Borges-Accardi/e/B003AOMTEI/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1 https://twitter.com/TopangaHippie https://www.instagram.com/topangahippie/ https://www.facebook.com/MillB/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwbXwQAICIc https://www.linkedin.com/in/millicent-borges-accardi-bb4b964/

“Human rights are held by all persons equally, universally and forever.Human rights are the basic standards without which people cannot live in dignity.These rights are inalienable. This means you cannot lose these rights just as you cannot cease to be a human.“                                                                                                                                          - The World As It Could Be In this episode, we learn from Sandy Sohcot and Ellen Sebastian Chang of The World As It Could Be Human Rights Education Program. We also learn about a collaboration between TWAICB and Talaterra that will help environmental professionals from diverse fields advance their work within a human rights framework.What circumstances led to the creation of The World As It Could Be?How do Sandy and Ellen introduce people to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?How have they strengthened the relationship between community members and law enforcement?How is The World As It Could Be and Talaterra collaborating to help environmental professionals view their environmental work through a human rights framework?These questions will be answered in this episode.We begin with Sandy explaining how The World As It Could Be, got its start.(A quick note to our regular listeners. This episode is a little longer than our usual episode.)LINKSThe World As It Could Be (TWAICB)TWAICB FacebookTWAICB Instagram (@TWAICB)TWAICB LinkedInJoin TWAICB Email ListAlameda County Deputy Sheriffs Activities League (DSAL)Rex FoundationRegister for Amplify Your Practice for People and the Planet (begins January 19, 2023). Join Sandy Sohcot and Ellen Sebastian Change of The World As It Could Be Human Rights Education Program to amplify the impact of your environmental education practice.In this workshop, you'll consider your educational objectives and the impact your programs have on people and the planet. You will engage in conversation about the fundamental purpose of environmental education and reflect on how the Universal Declaration of Human Rights connects with your practice and environmental education overall.Pre-enroll yourself (pre-enrollment ends January 1, 2023)Pre-enroll yourself and a colleague (pre-enrollment ends January 1, 2023)(Note: Regular Registration begins on January 2, 2023. Check back here for links on January 2.)___________________________________________ABOUT SANDY SOHCOTDirector and originator of The World As It Could Be Human Rights Education Program. Sandy holds a California Lifetime Teaching Credential. In July 2001, Sandy became Executive Director of the Rex Foundation and served as in that capacity through 2013, to help renew the Foundation in the absence of direct Grateful Dead concert funding. In 2006, as part of her work, Sandy developed The World As It Could Be initiative to raise awareness about the human rights framework. The initial work evolved to become a full program with curriculum that includes the creative arts as a vital part of teaching about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since January 2014, Sandy has been Director of TWAICB, now a program of the Alameda County Deputy Sheriffs' Activities League (DSAL). Sandy has been active in the small business and women's communities of San Francisco. She co-founded the Women's Leadership Alliance, and is past president of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners. In July 1999, the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women honored Sandy with their Women Who Make a Difference Award. Sandy served as a Commissioner on the San Francisco Human Rights Commission 2004 – 2008.___________________________________________ABOUT ELLEN SEBASTIAN CHANG:Ellen Sebastian Chang (she/her), whose creative practice spans 45 years, is a storied figure in the performing arts, as a multi-disciplinary director (theater, opera, dance, and installation) arts educator, and lighting designer. "I create as a director, producer, writer, and teaching artist.  I began my theater practice as a lighting technician (Berkeley Stage Company) and designer. In 1981, I shifted to directing/writing/creating devised experimental performances with the premiere of Your Place is No Longer with Us which followed a ten-year-old biracial girl throughout a Victorian mansion in San Francisco.  In 1986, I was the co-founder/co-artistic director of LIFE ON THE WATER, a national and internationally known presenting and producing organization at San Francisco's Fort Mason Center. In the 21st century, with Deep Waters Dance Theater I have co-created 14 Episodes of "House/Full of Blackwomen," in 2020 episode 14 called New Chitlin Circuitry: a reparations vaudeville; “How to Fall in Love in A Brothel” interactive installation, performances and short film with Sunhui Chang and Maya Gurantz commissioned by Catherine Clark Gallery;  “A Hole In Space (Oakland Redux) created with Maya Gurantz connecting to Oakland neighborhoods via 24-hour video portal; Consulting Producer for “Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley” HBO and interviewee; “Fabulation”  by Lynne Nottage Lorraine Hansberry Theater with Margo Hall and Daveed Diggs. Lost and Found Sound with The Kitchen Sisters. Since 2006 as the ongoing Creative Director and Teaching Artist for The World As It Could Be Human Rights Education Program (TWAICB) I co-created curriculum and a series of successful initiatives employing the creative arts to deepen learning about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and its principles. My perspective is an ongoing desire to engage creatively and collaboratively, to make works that connect us across disciplines, cultures, class, and break through our fears by challenging our learned beliefs. I have collaborated with and directed the works of KITKA, Gamelan Sekar Jaya, Eisa Davis, Youth Speaks, Holly Hughes, Word for Word, Center for Digital Story Telling, Fauxnique, Magic Theater, Lorraine Hansberry Theater, The Kitchen Sisters, Bill Talen, Anne Galjour, Felonious with One Ring Zero, Robert Karimi and George Coates Performance Works."Between 2013-2017, she was the co-owner and events planner for the award-winning West Oakland restaurant FuseBOX, with co-owner and Chef Sunhui Chang.She is currently serving as Resident Owner and Board Member for East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative/Advisor for Esther's Orbit Room Project/Artist Housing.She is a recipient of awards and grants from Creative Capital, MAP Fund, A Blade of Grass Fellowship in Social Engagement, Art Matters, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, NEA,  MAP Fund, Creative Work Fund, California Arts Council, Sam Mazza Foundation and Zellerbach Family Community Arts Fund.Diversity and Social/Human Justice Work through the Arts with Ellen Sebastian ChangFishing Lessons, a digital storytelling project in collaboration with StoryCenter MUSIC:So Far So Close by Jahzzar is licensed under a Attribution-ShareAlike License.

Edmond Richardson is an audio producer for Uncuffed, a KALW podcast produced by people in prison. Recently, Edmond and his love, Avelina, got married inside San Quentin and Uncuffed produced this story. The Kitchen Sisters are great admirers of KALW's Uncuffed podcast and are proud to share this story. KALW, San Francisco, has led rehabilitative classes in audio production inside San Quentin State Prison since 2012, and Solano Prison since 2018. Their mission is to provide media training to people in the carceral system. Radio producers from KALW visit the prisons to teach classes in audio production, and to help edit the stories. Audio engineers at KALW do some final polishing before it goes out to the world. Special thanks to the Uncuffed crew at San Quentin Prison: Tommy Shakur Ross, Edmond Richardson, Thanh Tran, and me, Greg Eskridge. Thanks to the team at KALW Public Radio: Ninna Gaensler-Debs, Angela Johnston, Sonia Paul, James Rowlands, Andrew Stelzer, Ben Trefny, Eli Wirtschafter, and sound designer, Eric Maserati "E" Abercrombie. Theme music by David Jassy, the Swedish phenom. And thanks to the staff at San Quentin Prison who make this possible: Mr. Skylar Brown, Ms. Madeline Tenney, and Lieutenant Sam Robinson, who approved this episode. We fact checked everything to the best of our ability. And a special thanks to Avelina and Carla for being a part of this episode. And Edmond and Avelina, Uncuffed wishes you all the happiness in your marriage. Thanks for listening. Uncuffed gets support from the California Arts Council and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. We are part of the Radiotopia podcast network from PRX. Special thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts and contributors to the non profit Kitchen Sisters Productions.

Martha Conway is the author of several novels including The Underground River, which was a New York Times Book Editor's Choice (titled The Floating Theatre in the U.K. and Europe). Her novel Thieving Forest won the North American Book Award for Best Historical Fiction. Martha's short fiction has appeared in the Iowa Review, Mississippi Review, The Quarterly, Carolina Quarterly, and other publications. She has reviewed fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle and the Iowa Review, and is a recipient of a California Arts Council fellowship in Creative Writing. In addition to writing, Martha is an instructor of creative writing at Stanford University's Continuing Studies Program. She received her BA from Vassar College in History and English, and her MA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Born and raised in Ohio, she now lives in San Francisco with her family, where the fog reminds her of lake-effect cloud cover in Cleveland. You can follow her posts about writing and reading on Twitter at @marthamconway. ***

Connectopod reporter Isabella Saeedy lost her battle with cancer this past summer at 17. She never told any of us about her illness and her dynamo energy gave us no clues. She led her team on the Connectopod/Los Angeles Public Library/CSUN Strength United collaboration -The Domestic Violence Awareness Project, which culminated in a published graphic novel and three podcasts.     She wrote the screenplay-Tree. We thought the best way to honor Isabella was to celebrate her talents and her energetic will to create in the service of making the world a better place.    In this fast-paced screenplay with a cast of quirky characters, Catherine, an environmental studies major at Columbia battles power, money, and hypocrisy to save the life of a neglected tree in Central Park who is slated to be cut down. All while struggling to finish her dissertation in time to graduate. Isabella imagined a college experience that she would never get to have. This production has three elements that we hoped would add to the imagined college experience for Isabella.  Our group here includes Connectopod peers, professional actors and audio producers,  a professional director who is also a USC professor,  and some of his students.  We thought about this project as a gift to Isabella's memory and to her family.  But in the end, it was her gift to us.  So thank you, Isabella.  Rest in peace.   Cast- Andrea Sogliuzzo (Tree), Lexy Cavinchey (Catherine), Trevor VanAuken (Matteo), Bob Bailey (Dr. Ankel)  Betsy Foldes Meiman (Michelle, Elder tree, stage directions), Christopher Geutig (Hamza), Allen Keller (Clarence, Jorge, Janitor), Anjelica Benitez (Thea, Woman, Tree 4), Victoria Benitez (Nanny, Jess, Tree 3), Ixchel Lopez (Toddler, Cashier, Demolition Worker, Tree 5), Rowan Bailey (Moto the Bird, Woman 1), Karina (Bad Girl, Jogger, Woman), Andrea Lopez (Mom) We recorded at Literati Audio with the sound engineer John Kavorek The production was directed by Robert Bailey and produced by  Betsy Foldes Meiman.   Post-production and sound design were done by Joe Foldes.   Changing the Narrative is funded by The California Arts Council  

November 11, 2022 -- The Arts Council of Mendocino County will soon receive over 3 million dollars in grant funding from a statewide program called the California Creative Corps. The California Creative Corps is a pilot program aimed to help communities recover from the impacts of the pandemic. The grant program invites artists to identify areas of need in their community, and to then create projects to ameliorate these issues. The program is funded through the state's 2021, one time allocation of 60 million dollars to the California Arts Council. The Arts Council of Mendocino will partner with the Nevada Arts Council to help local artists identify areas of need in our unique neighborhoods, brainstorm projects, and apply for grants when the money becomes available in the spring of 2023.

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. BIOSusan “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 director, she has led the company in the development of 16 documentary plays including Lady Beth: the Steelworkers' Play that toured 16 cities, co-sponsored by Bruce Springsteen and was profiled in the PBS documentary “A Steel Life Drama”. In 1982, Tanner was honored to share her work on a production of Brecht's A Man's A Man with members of the Berliner Ensemble. She was a member of the Living Stage Company/Arena Stage in D.C. for 6 years, performing and/or teaching workshops for at-risk and underserved children, teens and adults. Her work with the company included workshop/performances in prisons and treatment centers. In Los Angeles, her community-based work has included creating theatre with steelworkers, shipbuilders, critical care nurses, Latino immigrants workers, formerly incarcerated men and women, and youth. Since 2016, Susie has led teams of artists in theatre, writing and movement workshops for formerly incarcerated and those on work release through CAC and California Humanities grants. In January 2019 Susie and her artist teams will bring this work to California State Prison, Lancaster through a CAC Arts in Corrections contract.She is a member of the SAG-AFTRA Radio Play Committee, for which she has directed 5 live radio performances. As a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA, she has directed numerous staged readings and the critically acclaimed production of “To Serve Butter” for the 2016 One Act Festival, and has provided ongoing opportunities for young artists to work side by side with professionals. Producing/Directing credits include “The Luckiest Girl” and “No Word in Guyanese for Me”, staged at the Atwater Village Theatre, “Lake Titicaca” for the 2016 Short + Sweet Hollywood one act festival, “ISAAK”, which tours schools on an Actor's Equity Theatre for Young Audiences contract, and "Fathers & Sons".Susie was an adjunct professor of Theatre for Social Change at Woodbury University for two years. In 2014-15, she collaborated with Woodbury on a project with La Colmenita, the Cuban national children's theatre, and has collaborated with Mt. St. Mary's University to implement the Theatre Intervention Project, serving severely depressed and recovering low income women from South Central LA. Teaching Artist positions include/have included LACHSA, Sequoyah School, Mark Taper Forum Saturday Conservatory, College of the Canyons, UCLA Extension, CSULA/EOP, LACC Theatre Academy, College of the Canyons, LAUSD and PUSD.Grants and awards include: 2011 Bravo Award and CTG JP Morgan Chase Fellowships, a 2014 National Artist Teacher Fellowship and the LA County Federation of Labor Union Label Award for cultural work within the labor movement. Susie has been funded by the California Arts Council for nine consecutive years and her company, TheatreWorkers Project, has recently been awarded an LAUSD Arts Community Network contract to being theatre productions and classes to underserved middle and high schools. for her eighth consecutiveNotable MentionsTheaterWorkers Project: (TWP) is dedicated to providing opportunities for members of underserved and unheard communities to tell their stories through the medium of theatre and to providing classical and contemporary theatre experiences that reflect and illuminate the human condition.Lady Beth: the steelworkers play...

Today we have Sonia Mehrmand on the show. Sonia is currently the Field Manager for StoryCorps’ One Small Step project in the Central Valley. She received her Master’s degree in Public History and Museum Studies at UC Riverside, and shortly thereafter moved to Sydney, Australia. During her 4 years there, she worked across the art sector and eventually became Assistant Executive Director at Diversity Arts Australia, a national arts advocacy organization. Sonia is also a freelance creative producer and is on the leadership team for Fresno’s Inhabit Arts Collaborative (@inhabitartscollaborative). She is passionate about increasing equity and access in the arts, and regularly serves as panelist for California Arts Council grants. Her projects are grounded in inclusive storytelling, reciprocity, collaboration, mentorship. Sonia lives on Yokuts land in Visalia. About One Small StepOne Small Step from StoryCorps is an effort to reconnect Americans, one conversation at a time. Participants will meet someone new — a community member with different views, who they might never talk to otherwise — for a simple, personal, 50-minute conversation. One Small Step helps us move beyond labels like "Democrat" and "Republican" and into the life experiences that shaped how each of us sees our world. Click here to learn more about it. Books: Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age Annalee Newitz Circe and The Song of Achilles Madeline Miller Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents Octavia Butler MaddAddam Trilogy Margaret Atwood

In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha and photographer, Mimi Plumb talk about the experience of organizing and editing work from over 30 years ago into books that are meaningful and relevant today. They also discuss the political and autobiographical nature of Mimi's work and how that still motivates her to make work today. https://www.mimiplumb.com https://www.instagram.com/mimi_plumb/ Aperture PhotoBook Club with Wendy Red Star: https://aperture.org/events/aperture-photobook-club-wendy-red-star-delegation/ Mimi Plumb is part of a long tradition of socially engaged photographers concerned with California and the West. In the 1970s, Plumb explored subjects ranging from her suburban roots to the United Farm Workers movement in the fields as they organized for union elections. Her first book, Landfall, published by TBW Books in 2018, is a collection of her images from the 1980s, a dreamlike vision of an American dystopia encapsulating the anxieties of a world spinning out of balance. Landfall was shortlisted for the Paris Photo/Aperture Foundation First Photobook Award 2019, and the Lucie Photo Book Prize 2019. Her second book, The White Sky, a memoir of her childhood growing up in suburbia, was published by Stanley/Barker in September 2020. The Golden City, her third book, published by Stanley/Barker in March 2022, focuses on her many years living in San Francisco. Plumb is a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow and a 2017 recipient of the John Gutmann Photography Fellowship. She has received grants and fellowships from the California Humanities, the California Arts Council, the James D. Phelan Art Award in Photography, and the Marin Arts Council. Her photographs are in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Art Collection Deutsche Börse in Germany, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Pier 24, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Yale University Art Gallery. Plumb received her MFA in Photography from SFAI in 1986, and her BFA in Photography from SFAI in 1976. Born in Berkeley, and raised in the suburbs of San Francisco, Mimi Plumb has served on the faculties of the San Francisco Art Institute, San Jose State University, Stanford University, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She currently lives in Berkeley, California. Find out more at https://photowork.pinecast.co

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. BIOWayne Cook worked at the California Arts Council for 23 years, where he was Program Manager of the Artists in School's Program and the ADA/504 Disability Coordinator. He Currently consults for the William James Association and Arts in Corrections at Solano State Prison and other correctional institutions in California. In previous years, Mr. Cook consulted with the Educational Department for the Sacramento Theatre Company (STC) and was an actor in such productions as, “To Kill A Mockingbird” at STC. Other notable productions Wayne acted in were “The Iceman Cometh” for the Actor's Theatre of Sacramento and only a few years ago received the Elly award for acting in “Learning Spanish” at the Wilkerson Theatre. Mr. Cook is the author of a drama curriculum, “Center Stage”, A Curriculum for the Performing Arts can be purchased on Amazon.com. Notable Mentionshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers (Mr. Rogers): Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003), also known as Mister Rogers, was an American television host, author, producer, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presbyterianism (Presbyterian) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minister_(Christianity) (minister).https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers#cite_note-1 ([1]) He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Rogers%27_Neighborhood (Mister Rogers' Neighborhood), which ran from 1968 to 2001 https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-12-15-vw-828-story.html (Performing Tree): The Performing Tree was as arts education program that worked in schools in the Los Angeles area in the 1980's and 90's.  https://2c344e8e-a29e-4ce2-827a-c7606d272a42.filesusr.com/ugd/a178d6_6fee89fd7a12410aaa122b3540c27fdc.docx?dn=AIC%20Case%20Study.docx (Arts in Corrections): In the early 1970's, a time when work opportunities for artists and arts educators were diminishing in the mainstream culture, many professional artists began to look to society's forgotten corners for a new constituency. Patients and prisoners offered an alternative opportunity for artists to respond to a crying need to be valued. The emergence of these institutional art programs also provides a challenge to artists' preconceptions about the value and potential of the creative processes--a value which was as rooted in the issues of survival as those of aesthetics. https://arts.ca.gov/ (California Arts Council): Culture is the strongest signifier of California's identity. As a state agency, the California Arts Council supports local arts infrastructure and programming statewide through grants, programs, and services. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/langston-hughes (Langston Hughes): Langston Hughes was a central figure in the https://www.poetryfoundation.org/collections/145704/an-introduction-to-the-harlem-renaissance (Harlem Renaissance), the flowering of black intellectual, literary, and artistic life that took place in the 1920s in a number of American cities, particularly Harlem. A major poet, Hughes also wrote novels, short stories, essays, and plays. He sought to honestly portray the joys and hardships of working-class black lives, avoiding both sentimental idealization and negative stereotypes. As he wrote in his essay “https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69395/the-negro-artist-and-the-racial-mountain (The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain),” “We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And...

Ellen Bass's most recent collection, Indigo, was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2020. Her other poetry books include Like a Beggar, The Human Line, and Mules of Love. Her poems appear  frequently in The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, and many other journals. Among her awards are Fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, The NEA, and The California Arts Council, The Lambda Literary Award, and four Pushcart Prizes. She co-edited the first major anthology of women's poetry, No More Masks! (Doubleday, 1973), and her nonfiction books include the groundbreaking The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (HarperCollins, 1988) and Free Your Mind: The Book for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Youth (1996). A Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Bass founded poetry workshops at Salinas Valley State Prison and the Santa Cruz, California jails, and teaches in the MFA writing program at Pacific University. Ellenbass.com Twitter: @PoetEllenBass Facebook: @PoetEllenBass Instagram: @poetellenbass “The Morning After” was published in her collection, Like a Beggar (Copper Canyon Press, 2014). Text of today's poem and more details about our program can be found at: deerfieldlibrary.org/queerpoemaday/ Find books from participating poets in our library's catalog.  Queer Poem-a-Day is directed by poet and teacher Lisa Hiton and Dylan Zavagno, Adult Services Coordinator at the Deerfield Public Library. Music for this second year of our series is the first movement, Schéhérazade, from Masques, Op. 34, by Karol Szymanowski, performed by pianist Daniel Baer. Queer Poem-a-Day is supported by generous donations from the Friends of the Deerfield Public Library and the Deerfield Fine Arts Commission. Queer Poem-a-Day is a program from the Adult Services Department at the Library and may include adult language.

This is a four part series for Pride Month called, "Be Curious, Not Judgmental". On June 28, 1969  New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club located in Greenwich Village in New York City. The raid sparked a riot among bar patrons and neighborhood residents as police roughly hauled employees and patrons out of the bar, leading to six days of protests and violent clashes with law enforcement outside the bar on Christopher Street, in neighboring streets and in nearby Christopher Park. The Stonewall Riots served as a catalyst for the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world. In Volume One of our series we chat with Nicole Verdes (She/They) about what's going on in the Queer community. Nicole is the Board President of Lambda Archives–the first nonbinary person to hold this position. At Lambda Archives, she has been successful in using her passion for social justice, arts and culture, and cultural preservation to create policies that center equity and access to the arts. In the conversation, Will asks for Nicole to explain the significance, and importance, of using pronouns, which Will admits he hasn't thought much about them until this series began. The gang then switches gears and talk about the significance of Pride Month, mainly the Stonewall riots, and the monumental SCOTUS decision that allowed her and her wife to be lawfully married.  Learn more about Lambda Archives: https://lambdaarchives.orgGuest Bio:Nicole has been living and working in San Diego since 2002, when she relocated from San Bernardino for work. She is a passionate community leader with six years of experience in nonprofit management and board governance and more than twenty years of experience in the financial services industry. She is well-versed in client account management, budget development, tax laws and reporting, and conflict resolution. Nicole holds a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology and a Master's Degree in Sociological Practice from Cal State San Marcos. She enjoys volunteering in the Queer community, most recently as the Board President of Lambda Archives–the first nonbinary person to hold this position. At Lambda Archives, she has been successful in using her passion for social justice, arts and culture, and cultural preservation to create policies that center equity and access to the arts. In addition to her role at Lambda Archives, she has served on the Executive Committee of the San Diego LGBT Community Centers' Young Professionals Council, Board Treasurer for Volunteer With Cheli, and a member of the Steering Committee for Rising Arts Leaders San Diego. She has presented on topics such as Youth Archival Futures at the ALMS Conference in Berlin and has served on a grant panel for the California Arts Council's Administrators of Color Fellowship program.  Support the show

Our guests:DR. TAMU GREEN is a developmental psychologist and thought leader who brings expertise and lived experience in communities facing inequities in her pursuit of social justice through institutional and systems change. For nearly 30 years, she has been engaged in power building efforts that synergize resources, facilitate equity-oriented decision making, and turn advocacy into outcomes. Dr. Green is the CEO of the Equity and Wellness Institute, where she works collaboratively with a talented team of consultants to assess and meet a wide variety of clients' and communities' needs.JUDAH SANDERS' faith journey has fueled his passion for diversity, inclusion, equity, and wellness. As an Ordained Minister, Judah has served the Sacramento Region in full-time ministry since 2014. Judah's intersectional identity and his degrees in Communication and Theology help inform the way he participates in building a world where all people are free and safe. Judah specializes in coaching, training, and community healing for the Equity and Wellness Institute.The Equity and Wellness Institute excels at community engagement and capacity building that promotes connection, resource distribution, and power sharing; training and coaching on all aspects of personal, institutional, and systemic change; facilitation of emotionally charged subject matter; and transformational strategic planning, particularly the development of racial equity action plans and decision support tools to increase transparency and accountability.  Among others, we have conducted training, created plans, engaged stakeholders, and facilitated change for the California Department of Public Health's Office of Health Equity, the California Arts Council, CalABLE, the Oakland Family Resource Center Network, the California Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, and the Sacramento Continuum of Care.Connect with Tamu and Judah:Website: equityandwellnessinstitute.comLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/equity-and-wellness-instituteGreat people, places, or things we referenced during this episode:UCLA Implicit Bias Series -- https://equity.ucla.edu/know/implicit-bias/The podcast CodeSwitchBlink by Malcolm GladwellHow to be Less Stupid about Race by Crystal M. FlemingStamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. KendiFatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-Create Race in the Twenty-First Century by Dorothy RobertsBlack Futures by Kimberly Drew and Jenna WorthamCaste by Isabel WilkersonJen holds space for those who want to elevate and amplify their voice. If you desire support in speaking your truth and want to explore the ways you can work with Jen, let's connect: email: Jennifer@beingREAL.mewebsite: www.beingREAL.meInstagram @beingREALjenIf you believe conversations like these belong in the world, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast - and even better, share it with someone else as a REAL conversation starter. Subscribe to all things Jen Oliver at beingREAL. 

In episode 204 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on why photographers feel the need to label themselves, keeping photography simple, the importance of subject matter and trying to buy a camera. Plus this week photographer Mimi Plumb takes on the challenge of supplying Grant with an audio file no longer than 5 minutes in length in which she answer's the question ‘What Does Photography Mean to You?' Born in Berkeley, California and raised in the suburbs of San Francisco, Mimi Plumb received her MFA in Photography from SFAI in 1986, and her BFA in Photography from SFAI in 1976. She has served on the faculties of the San Francisco Art Institute, San Jose State University, Stanford University, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since the 1970s, Plumb has explored subjects ranging from her suburban roots to the United Farm Workers movement in the fields as they organized for union elections. Her first book, Landfall, published in 2018, and is a collection of her images from the 1980s. Landfall was shortlisted for the Paris Photo/Aperture Foundation First Photobook Award 2019, and the Lucie Photo Book Prize 2019. Her second book, The White Sky, a memoir of her childhood growing up in suburbia, was published in September, 2020. The Golden City, her third book, was published early this year and focuses on her many years living in San Francisco. Her photographs are in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Art Collection Deutsche Börse in Germany, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Pier 24, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Yale University Art Gallery. She is a 2017 recipient of the John Gutmann Photography Fellowship, and has received grants and fellowships from the California Humanities, the California Arts Council, the James D. Phelan Art Award in Photography, and the Marin Arts Council. She lives in Berkeley, California. www.mimiplumb.com Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). © Grant Scott 2022

Nicole Mueller is a San Francisco, CA based visual artist. Her work includes large-scale paintings, murals, and installations that mimic the effects of stained glass. Driven by process, her abstract works are highly saturated, built with layers of collage-like shapes. Her work explores the complexity of color, states of flux, dichotomies within painting, the transitional nature of being, and the threshold between interior and exterior, the tangible and intangible. Mueller earned her BFA in Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD in 2011. Her work has been exhibited in California, New York, and Maryland. She has been an artist-in-residence at ArtPoint (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco), the Vermont Studio Center, and Proyecto 'ace in Argentina. She has completed public projects in collaboration with the City of Alameda, California Arts Council and Downtown Alameda Business Association, ArtSpan and the Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco, as well as commercial businesses throughout San Francisco. In 2017 she was the recipient of the Mark M. Glickman and Lanette M. McClure Artist Award for emerging artists in California. Mueller is also co-host of Beyond the Studio, a podcast that interviews working contemporary artists about their career paths and aims to increase transparency in the art world by hosting candid conversations about their business practices, time management, financial planning, and how they're navigating the unique challenges of making a living, creatively. The podcast received an Alternative Exposure grant in 2017 from Southern Exposure in San Francisco, with support from Facebook's Artist-in-Residence Program and the Andy Warhol Foundation. Beyond the Studio is a cultural partner of Art World Conference, and a fiscally sponsored project of Independent Arts & Media. In this episode, we discuss... How Nicole became an artist Methods she uses for pricing her different kinds of works How she gets projects booked with big budgets How to break down the costs that go into a big budget of a project All the steps that went into creating the biggest commissioned painting of her career And so much more! Social Media & Links: www.nicolemariemueller.com www.beyondthe.studio @nicolemariemueller (Instagram) @devonastimpson devonastimpson.com artbydevona.com  

During this episode I talk with Alyce Smith-Cooper, the Golden Brown Fairy Godmother.We talk about her upbringing in Riverside, CA and how much her grandmother meant to her.We also discuss her work in the theatre, her journey as a storyteller and her recent Legacy Artist Fellow Award from the California Arts Council.

Episode Notes Show Highlights (0:11:38) The concept of generations in Kathak (0:13:05) How Rachna Di Teaches Differently (0:21:50) How Gurus used to teach (0:27:02) Starting Teaching (0:32:23) Balancing being an active performer and teaching (0:34:15) The responsibility of education (0:40:07) Dance Critics (0:46:04) Pride and South asian culture (0:52:56) Compensation in the arts (1:06:47) The concept of Endowments in the Arts (1:25:41) The story of Rachna di and the Harmonium Bio RACHNA NIVAS (@rachnanivas) is an artist, choreographer, educator, and activist in Indian classical dance, bringing a relevant voice to kathak. Deemed “charismatic” and “revelatory” by the San Francisco Chronicle and featured in 2021 by Dance Magazine, she is one of the most sought-after kathak artists and educators of her generation. A distinguished torchbearer of legendary master Pandit Chitresh Das' treasured lineage .Rachna is a fierce and passionate performer, a technical powerhouse with masterful creativity and infectious charm. She is a founding artist and artistic director of Leela Dance Collective, a nationally-based women-led and artist-led collective, producing powerful works by forward-thinking trailblazers in kathak dance. Rachna's original works include her collaboration SPEAK, which brings together leading women in kathak and tap, bridging Indian and African-American art and heritage along with co-creators Rina Mehta, Michelle Dorrance, and Dormeshia. Some notable SPEAK _tour stops have been Broad Stage in Los Angeles, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Mumbai Royal Opera House in India, Maui Arts and Cultural Center and University of Hawaii. Rachna is also co-creator of the large scale dance ballad, _Son of the Wind, featuring 20 dancers and a live orchestra. Tour highlights include Ford Theater in Los Angeles, Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, and Bhramara Festival in Mumba, India. Her original solo work, Meera, was featured at the ODC Walking Distance Festival in San Francisco and at Salvatore Capezio Theater in New York City. Her original work Stir, choreographed for Leela Youth Dance Company, was featured at the WorldWideWomen's Girls Festival. Her works have been funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, California Arts Council, and Zellerbach Family Foundation. Prior to work with Leela Dance Collective, Rachna was principal dancer with the Chitresh Das Dance Company for 15 years and received two nominations for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award while performing worldwide in productions such as Shiva, Sita Haran, Pancha Jati, Darbar, Shabd and many more. Some notable venues she performed at with CDDC, include Cal Performances at UC Berkeley, Roy and Edna Disney/Cal Arts Theater in Los Angeles, Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin, Scottsdale Center for Performing Arts in Arizona, National Center for Performing Arts in Mumbai, Birla Sabhagar in Kolkata, National Institute of Kathak Dance in New Delhi, and Shaniwarwada Festival in Pune, India. Rachna was also instrumental in building the Chhandam School of Kathak in San Francisco (founded by Pandit Chitresh Das in 1980). Pandit Das himself appointed Rachna to be Co-Director of the Chhandam School in 2009 (along with Seibi Lee). Rachna worked tirelessly under Pandit Das to institutionalize curriculum, build infrastructure, train teachers, direct school-wide dance dramas, and flourish the school into one of the world's leading and most influential academies of North Indian classical dance. Her passion and commitment to her own journey of the art and to building pride of Indian classical art amongst the South Asian community led her to emerge as a powerful role model amongst the Indian diaspora. In particular, Rachna has exceptional talent in teaching and training youth, making the art relevant, inspiring, and empowering to girls. Rachna was the successor to Pandit Das as Co-Artistic Director of the Chhandam School and Artistic Director of the Chhandam Youth Dance Company (now the Leela Youth Dance Company), shepherding excellence, leadership, and creative discovery amongst teens. Rachna has also taught numerous kathak workshops, after-school programs, and outreach events/residencies to communities of all backgrounds, including at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, Treme Center of New Orleans, Conservatory of Arts in Miami, Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, LA Tap Fest at Debbie Allen Dance Academy, National Center for Kathak Dance in New Delhi, and many more. Currently, Rachna is leading and directing Leela New York, the newest chapter of Leela Institute of Kathak, bringing the teachings of her lineage for the first time to the greater New York Metro area. Title Track Audio Credit: Doug Maxwell | Bansure Raga