Alternate Roots 2012 36th Annual Meeting and Artists' Retreat

AESTHETICS OF DIVERSITY

ALTERNATE ROOTS 2012

36th ANNUAL MEETING AND ARTISTS’ RETREAT

TRADITIONS AUGUST 7

LUTHERIDGE CONFERNCE CENTER ARDEN, NC

AUGUST 12, 2012

CONTENTS GREETING, CARLTON TURNER WELCOME, JAEHN CLARE ROOTS VISUAL ARTS INITIATIVE INTRODUCTION TO COLLABORATORIES COLLABORATORIES CONTINUED IN MEMORIAM IMPORTANT INFO SCHEDULE – TUESDAY INTRODUCTION TO PERFORMANCES SCHEDULE – WEDNESDAY PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE – WEDNESDAY SCHEDULE – THURSDAY PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE – THURSDAY SCHEDULE – FRIDAY PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE – FRIDAY SCHEDULE – SATURDAY & SUNDAY PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE – SATURDAY ASHEVILLE MAP GLOSSARY OF TERMS SPONSORS

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GREETINGS

THE DIRECTOR It is my sincere pleasure to welcome you to the Alternate ROOTS 36th Annual Meeting and the beautiful campus of the Lutheridge Conference Center. This year we honor the third and final year of Aesthetics of Diversity in the New South: People, Places, and Traditions.

This is the time of year that ROOTS’ members look forward to that opportunity to reconnect with old friends, start new friendships, and get the inspiration for their next groundbreaking project and artistic collaboration.

It’s been more than a year since ROOTS Fest 2011, Alternate ROOTS’ historic 35th anniversary event, which attracted more than 11,000 people to attend and participate in a five-day community arts celebration. The learning from this event, which was three years in the making, is still being unpacked and over the past year has offered valuable insight into how ROOTS can do its work in a more effective way.

This year is especially exciting, as we will share a new strategic plan with our members and the field. Since January of 2012 a team composed of ROOTS staff, members of the Executive Committee, and members of Resources for Social Change have been working on the development of a new three-year strategic plan to guide the work of Alternate ROOTS. We began with the ROOTS mission, which in my opinion is our heart and soul. Within the ROOTS mission there are three clearly articulated calls to action: to support CREATION, PRESENTATION, and to STRIVE FOR THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF OPPRESSION. These three actions have been the compass for our planning process, guiding us through an evaluation of our programs and services and plotting us on a course of renewed purpose and dedication to using our art to affect social change.

I hope that, as you get in the flow of what is sure to be one of the best weeks of your year, you remember your work and purpose, look around the rooms that you find yourself in and take a moment to comprehend the richness that surrounds you. This is Alternate ROOTS! Have a great annual meeting.

Carlton Turner Executive Director

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WELCOME

A Message from The Chair in the chair

jaehn clare , ma

C h a i r , A lt e r n at e R O O T S E x e c u t i v e C o m m i t t e e , A u g u s t 2 0 1 2

Welcome to the Alternate ROOTS 36th Annual Meeting & Artist Retreat. Or, as I think of it, Summer Camp for Creatives of all Sorts! This is our eight gathering at Lutheridge Conference Center, and it’s an exciting time for the organism ~ for that is how I think of ROOTS, as an organism: a living, evolving, breathing organism.

This year, several notable benchmarks have been achieved: a partnership with Georgia Council for the Arts and the Fox Theatre as hosts of a community arts conversation with National Endowment for the Arts Chairman, Rocco Landesman; our stellar staff has raised $1 Million since the Festival; a fresh and contemporary marketing plan is brewing; and development of the new organizational strategic plan is well underway.

As we approach the fourth decade of our collective endeavor towards creative social justice, Alternate ROOTS has firmly established its roots as a thought- and action-leader in the national arena of community arts. And we once again renew and enact our commitment to spending some time together, in community ~ making and celebrating our art(s), tending to the business of the organizational infrastructure … and of course singing, dancing, conversing, swimming, arguing, eating … and practicing our principles of shared power, partnership, open dialogue, individual and community transformation, and the aesthetics of transparent processes.

If you are a member of Alternate ROOTS, this is a vital time for your full and thoughtful participation. It is also very important for us to hear from those who may feel like “new members”; and if you are considering joining as a member, now is one of the best times ever to be in the room, at the table, and in the conversations about our vision and future. Please look for all the opportunities available to you in this space, during this week, to interact and collaborate with each other, and to intersect with the Best Practice(s) of arts and activism. Please do join us in our growing, evolving and expanding vision of Alternate ROOTS as a wellspring of resources for creative social change ~ and Welcome to the Tribe!

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WELCOME

ROOTS VISUAL ARTS INITIATIVE Alternate ROOTS was founded in 1976 by a group of extraordinary theatre artists. Today, we are a creative network dedicated to providing programs and services for more than 350 activist artists of all disciplines. There is a current initiative within ROOTS to:

» Increase the presence and visibility of visual artists » Generate dialogue about the visual arts for social justice perspective and process » Have a clear sense of how visual arts might connect with and find entry into the new ROOTS strategic plan » Make visual artists feel welcome, supported and that their work for social justice is relevant to ROOTS’ mission and programs » Create appropriate ways to exhibit the work and works in progress of visual artists at the ROOTS Annual Meeting

Alternate ROOTS received a grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, which has helped us to facilitate and energize some amazing new work around the visual arts and artists within our organization. The result has been multiple planning retreats, the hiring of an Annual Meeting Visual Arts Coordinator, Ashely Minner, and a culmination of scholarships and installations at our Annual Meeting & Artists Retreat.

ROOTS has extended the invitation to visual artists throughout our membership to bring work to share at the Annual Meeting. We have also connected with visual artists local to the Arden/ Asheville and have invited them to participate as well. Annual Meeting Visual Arts scholarship recipients, who were all nominated by ROOTS members, have a strong connection/commitment to working in community for social change. They are aligned with the ROOTS mission and are interested in having ROOTS members as their audience and collaborators. Many of them will be bringing work and works in progress to share at the Annual Meeting, although they were not required to do so. Many of them have never been to a ROOTS Annual Meeting, so this will be their first. Let’s give them a warm ROOTS welcome.

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WELCOME

COLLABORATORIES From D. Patton White,

Collaboratories Coordinator

Welcome to the 36th Alternate ROOTS Annual Meeting and ARTISTS’ RETREAT! I wish to draw attention to the retreat portion of this title, as we are conducting an experiment, of sorts, this year. As ROOTS embarks upon a new strategic direction, which will re-align the organization so that all programming of ROOTS will emanate from the core program of the Community/ Artist Partnership, we are taking this opportunity to place this relationship ‘under a microscope’, so to speak, at the Annual Meeting. In support of this, we are dedicating the time utilized for many years for ‘Studios’, and intentionally referring to this by another moniker: Collaboratories. Collaboration is at the heart of the C/APP, and we will experience this firsthand throughout the gathering here at Lutheridge.

For this experiment, all who are attending the Annual Meeting will make up the Community. We have engaged two lead artists, Ebony Golden and Jeff Mather, who have each assembled an ensemble of collaborating artists, representing a variety of artistic disciplines, to function as the ‘Artist’, in these partnerships. We, as the community will decide what topics we wish to address, as we assess our community for injustice and inequity. We will have two separate C/APP events occurring simultaneously, and will have the opportunity to experience the resulting ‘Art Event’ on Saturday evening, as part of the culminating celebration.

Our hope and expectation will be that we can all depart this year’s Annual Meeting and Artists’ Retreat with a newfound understanding of C/APP, and how we, as members and friends/ supporters of ROOTS can assist in sharing this program throughout our service area in the coming years. We are all the Resources for Social Change!

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WELCOME

About the Collaboratories… section 1 – FREEdom Bound: Cultural Arts for Action & Transformation Collaborators: Tufara Waller Muhammad- Cultural Organizer, Popular Educator, Artist; Carre Adams- Media Artist, Cultural Organizer, Writer; Shenelle Eaton-Foster- Dancer, Choreographer, Activist, Singer/Songwriter; Ebony Noelle Golden-Conceptual Performance Artist, Cultural Worker, Public Scholar “and before i be a slave/ i be buried in my grave/and go home to my lord/ and be free” Because creativity is a radical act of evolution, transformation and justice. Because collaboration is jazz and dance and swag and rhythm. Because each breath we take archives our journey to liberation. FREEdom Bound, a multi-disciplinary collaboratory, weaves cultural organizing, theatre, movement, media and sonic performance to explore the potential of art-making as a tool for sustained liberation and transformation. Participants are expected to come with a question they want to explore during the residency that is relevant to their community. Sessions will be co-facilitated by the creative team. FREEdom Bound culminates in a multi-media participant performance. www.bettysdaughterarts.com

Section 2 – Your Friendly Neighborhood Revolutionaries Collaboratory Name: Co-facilitators: Jeff Mather, public artist, site sculptor, artsinlearning. org; Paula Larke, musician, cultural animator, voicesinthetreetops.org; McKenzie Wren, cultural organizer, storyteller, clarkstoncommunitycenter.org; Lisa Suarez, actor, playwright, jumpstarttheater.org; Samuel Valdez, performer, director, playwright This community arts partnership within the experimental community that is an Alternate ROOTS Annual Meeting will be about art-making as action. Sometimes you’ve got to jump in with both feet and stomp the ground. Shake the trees and see what falls. Create a clearing for creativity.

This dynamic core group of artist co-facilitators will be looking and listening hard, scratching to see what’s below the surface, loosening the soil for ROOTS to grow. Hang out with us this week for an art-making learning exchange that aims to be as inclusive as possible. New to ROOTS? Come get dirty with us. We’ll be making sculptural props, figuring out how to make DIY outdoor lights, using tools, creating a space to activate with movement, music and improv theater. And making lots of sawdust, and negotiating the curves of collaboration, inventing patterns, and making a scene – or two. We want to focus on creating focus, a particular challenge when making art outdoors or outside of recognized frames for presentation. Visual artist, Jeff Mather, a long-time C/APP artist also a facilitator of RSC learning exchanges, has been asked to anchor this collaboratory as part of an examination of how visual arts are integral to the mission of Alternate ROOTS. Look for our documentation wall during the week to get glimpses into our process if you can’t be with us.

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in memoriam

Josephine catron carson october 9, 1946 – September 19, 2011 This year marks the first full Annual Meeting & Artists Retreat that has come since the passing of Jo Carson, writer, storyteller, and ROOTS’ founding member. Last year, Jo gave the keynote speech at the Alternate ROOTS’ 35th anniversary festival in Baltimore, MD, which turned out to be one of her final public appearances.

You will find an area at the kiosk in the courtyard between Lineberger Hall (the cafeteria) and Efird (the late night place) where we, as a community, will build a memorial to Jo. Please feel free to add pictures, poems, words, drawings, candles and anything else to the memorial installation that you would like to. Supplies for that endeavor will be found under the gazebo directly across from the kiosk.

Additionally, some of our participants, Ann Kilkelly, Vince DeGeorge, and Bob Leonard are at the beginning of The Jo Carson Project, a newly devised piece of theater that both explores and honors the writings and theories of Jo Carson. This work-in-progress is a tapestry of stories, some taken from the plays, poems and short story collections of Jo Carson, some coming from community members, all woven together in a celebration of the healing power of storytelling.

Located nearby the memorial installation, either in the gazebo or in one of the nearby buildings, the artists will be inviting participants to engage in the following spontaneous gatherings...

1. Story Circles: These small gatherings, 6 to 10 people, will explore Jo’s theory of Memory Patterning in the Brain. The facilitator will read a short excerpt of Jo’s writing. Each participant will then be encouraged to share a personal story triggered by the excerpt.

2. Story Corners: Listening to and collecting stories about Jo from people who knew her both professionally and personally.

3. Readings: Participants will be asked to read provided excerpts of Jo’s writings.

All three types of events will be audio recorded and the stories and readings that are gathered may be used as text for The Jo Carson Project.

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details

IMPORTANT INFO

(YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW ABOUT WHAT YOU’VE GOTTEN YOURSELF INTO...)

The ROOTS Annual Meeting & Artists Retreat is a fun, challenging, and life-altering gathering for many people. Because this is an experiential event, it may be difficult to describe the Annual Meeting to someone who has not attended before. Below are some questions to answer some of the things that might come up if this is your first Annual Meeting.

In case of an emergency, what do I do?

If the incident is in fact a real emergency, please consider that 911 might be the fastest and safest first line of defense. After that, or perhaps instead of, here are some other helpful numbers: Kinyatta Trice, Registration Intern Shannon Turner, Manager of Programs & Services Carlton Turner, ROOTS Executive Director Lutheridge Guest Services (a staff member is always carrying that phone) Parkridge Hospital (closest hospital) 100 Hospital Drive Hendersonville, NC 28792 Mission Hospital 509 Biltmore Ave, Asheville, NC 28801 Who attends the Annual Meeting?

Artists, cultural workers, educators, art supporters and activists/organizers, as well as many others from throughout the South, other parts of the US, and even some international friends, attend the Annual Meeting. They are people who want to learn new methods of interacting with their communities; people who want to work towards the elimination of all forms of oppression; and people who are concerned about the/their environment.

Who will be performing?

Check out the Collaboratories and Performances sections for a full line-up of who will be featured this year. In addition to a dynamic performance schedule, there are also informal opportunities for attendees to perform. Mini-performances are a regular feature of business meetings, and late-night cabaret/open-mic sessions are open to anyone who has something to share.

Is there wireless access? How will I check my e-mail?!?!?

Yes, there is wireless access in Efird Hall and in the Faith Center. If you do not have a computer, there are a few in and around the hospitality and registration areas in the Faith Center, and there are plenty of folks who have laptops that are very generous and will let you borrow to check your email. Additionally, we encourage you to be a low-tech as you can this week. It can be a lovely thing to step away from your computer for a week.

Can I drink at the Annual Meeting?

Yes ~ if you’re over 21. We like to let loose around here, but here are a few things to keep in mind. Not everyone drinks or feels comfortable around drinking, either because of personal/ health choices, religious convictions, or any other reason. Please be discreet about your alcohol consumption and do not push it on others. Additionally, not everyone at the AM is over 21. Please do not serve alcohol to an underage participant. There will be alcohol-alternative events planned in the evenings.

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the lineup

SCHEDULE TUESDAY

AUGUST 07, 2012

Time Location Event 12:00 – 7:00

Faith Center

1:00 – 5:00 2:00 – 3:00

Registration

Swimming Pool is Open Efird Hall

Work Co-op Team Captains Meeting

3:00 – 4:00 Mission Hall

Youth Village Gathering/ Orientation (All Parents, Guardians, Staff and Youth)

3:00 – 4:00

Lineberger Hall

ROOTS 101

4:00 – 5:00

Lineberger Hall

Work Co-op Team Meetings

4:45 – 5:15

Lineberger Hall

Visual Arts Scholarship Orientation

5:00 – 5:45

Efird Hall

Opening Night Reception

6:00 – 7:00

Lineberger Hall

Dinner

7:30 –10:00

Faith Center

Opening Night Celebration

10:30 – 11:30

Lineberger Hall

ROOTS 101 - Fireside Chat

10:30 – Until??

Efird Hall

Late Night

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about our performances

PERFORMANCES From sage crump,

production Coordinator

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Photo credit: Saddi Khali

Performance at the Alternate ROOTS Annual Meeting is all about maintaining tradition, demonstrating our practices and leading us into deeper conversations on the issues that effect our communities.

Artists have always viewed the Annual Meeting as a safe haven to try new ideas and hone their work. This year will be no different. ROOTS will continue to use the Liz Lerman Critical response process to assist in gathering helpful feedback. Please consider taking part in at least one Critical Response session as your responsibility as a community member. This Annual Meeting will also include two videos highlighting artists, culture and cultural organizing nationally and internationally. We will have an opportunity to see how artistic expression is being used to change the world we live in and hear not just the artist’s voice but the community’s voice as well. Lastly, performances will provide a platform for us as a community to talk in depth about the social justice issues facing ourselves, our communities, this nation and the world. Through performance, we will share, uplift, grow, and strengthen our analysis, our practice and our bond.

the lineup

SCHEDULE wednesday

AUGUST 08, 2012

Time Location Event 7:30 – 8:30

Efrid

Energize Your Roots

8:00 – 9:30

Lineberger Hall

Continental Breakfast w/ Omelet Bar

9:00 – 12:00

Faith Center

Registration

10:00 – 12:00

Swimming Pool is Open

Performances

Betty’s Daughter Arts Collective

Interweave Asheville

11:30 – 12:45

Lunch

Lineberger Hall

1:00 – 1:45

Siesta

1:00 – 1:45

Efird Hall (upstrs)

Energize Your ROOTS

2:00 – 5:00

Faith Center

Registration

1:00 – 5:00

Swimming Pool is Open

2:00 – 5:30

Collaboratories

6:00 – 6:30

Lineberger Hall

Work Co-op Team Captains Meeting

6:00 – 6:45

Lineberger Hall

Dinner

7:00 – 9:00

Faith Center

Registration

Performances 7:30 – 9:45

Faith Center

Critical Response Performances

Rising Appalachia

Nicole Gurgel

Carpetbag Theater

9:45 – ??

Various Locations

Critical Response & Artist Feedback

11:00 – Until ??

Efird Hall

Late Night

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performance schedule wednesday, AUGUST 08

Betty’s Daughter’s Arts Collective

FREEBIRTH

10:00 – 10:40 am Performance 10:40 – 11:10 am Dialogue Location: Faith Center After a billboard surfaced in SoHo proclaimed, “the most dangerous place for a black child is in the womb,” Body Ecology launched a visionary RingShout for Reproductive Justice cultural arts direct action campaign with radical performance as a major tool for sustained dialogue about reproductive freedom for Black women. FREEBIRTH is an interactive, multi-media performance exploring Black women’s power to liberate our bodies, lives and reproductive choices. Associate artists include: Kelly Thomas, Heather Lee, Jessica Valoris, Taja Lindley, Sydette Harry, Ebony Golden and Audrey Hailes. www.bettysdaughterarts.com.

Interweave Asheville 11:25 am – 11:50 am Performance Location: Faith Center Noon – 12:30 pm Critical response Location: Cafeteria rocking chairs In most of the communities across our country, people who live with disabilities are segregated and marginalized. They don’t have access to their cultural traditions of music, dance or art-making.

There are no opportunities to explore and develop a way to creatively express their personal reality.

What is also a loss and limitation to our communities is the fact that non-disabled (or “temporarily able-bodied”) people don’t have the chance to share and understand the unique perspective and artistic vision of community members who live with disability.

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Interweave Asheville is a small local theater ensemble that includes community members with and without disabilities. We have functioned well without a hierarchal leadership structure, and without funding, for the two years plus of our existence.

Interweave demonstrates a fresh and dynamic possibility for more just and inclusive communities--a possibility that is open to all.

The creative work between people with and without disabilities is transformative not only for the ensemble members, but for the audience and the larger community encompassed by it.

Rising Appalachia 7:40 – 8:10 pm Location: Faith Center Rising Appalachia is bringing to ROOTS new sounds, stories, and songs collected across oceans and originally scripted to embody our human journey, our global community, and the treasures and troves of soul harmony. With an ever evolving crew of musical accompaniment, sisters Leah and Chloe lead the group and tear into sound with sensual prowess as stages ignite revolutions and words light up spirit fires. Listen to their beautiful sound for poetic harmonies, soul singing, spoken word rallies, banjos, fiddles, many beats of drums, kalimbas, washboard rants, groove, and community building through SOUND. Joined by Imhotep on the New Orleans bass drum, Abram on contra bass, and Forrest on the beats, their style redefines performance. Rising Appalachia uses sound as a tool to spark a cultural evolution and birth a new movement, creating soul sounds for us all....

Music is our tool with which we wield political prowess. Melody is for the roots of each of us...spreading song and sound around the globe. Music has become our script for vision, not for aural pleasure, not just for hobby, but now as a means to connect and create in ways that we aren’t taught by mainstream culture. We are building community and tackling social injustice, making the stage reach out with octopus arms to gather a great family.

Rising Appalachia embodies the musical essence of family and roots while ever pursing the artists role of self-expression, defiance, and bridge building.

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Nicole Gurgel

900 GALLONS

8:25 – 8:50 pm Performance 9:45– until Critical Response Location: Faith Center/Faith Center “Nine people. Nine gallons a week. Which means, in the 18 years I spent living at the corner of Madison and Church Street I drank almost 900 gallons of milk.”

Part fact-finding mission, part transformational ritual, 900 Gallons weaves together dance, poetry and autoethnographic performance to explore the necessity of re-membering oppressive family histories. Over the course of nine vignettes and even more glasses of milk, Nicole Gurgel excavates her personal archive of photographs, songs and stories, uncovering the existence and persistence of white supremacy in her “nice,” white, Christian family. Repeating these shameful memories, 900 Gallons reveals how transformation can arise through a reckoning with the past.

900 Gallons was first performed as part of Nicole’s thesis project at the University of Texas–Austin in 2011. This evening’s performance will be an excerpt of the full-length work.

Carpet Bag Theatre

SPEED KILLED MY COUSIN

Speed Killed My Cousin 9:05 – 9:40 pm Performance 9:45 – until Critical Response Location: Faith Center/ Cafeteria Rocking chairs “Speed Killed My Cousin” is a multi-generational, multi-media performance work, set in a visual arts installation, that represents contemporary vehicles of war (the Humvee etc.). The work follows a “Woman Warrior”, recently returned from Iraq, as she struggles with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and suicidal thoughts. The central character drives along the Long Island Expressway with her Vietnam Veteran father, making life and death decisions about her future. Her father, who’s own cousin committed “ Vehicular Suicide” has been unable to speak to his daughter, giving her no clues to the damage caused by silence.

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the lineup

SCHEDULE Thursday

AUGUST 09, 2012

Time Location Event 7:30 – 8:30

Efird Hall (upstrs)

Energize Your Roots

8:00 – 9:30

Lineberger Hall

Continental Breakfast w/ Omelet Bar

9:00 – 12:00

Faith Center

Registration

10:00 – 12:00

Swimming Pool is Open

9:00 – 11:45

Collaboratories

11:30 – 12:45

Lineberger Hall

Lunch

1:00 – 1:45

Siesta

1:00 – 1:45

Efird Hall (upstrs)

Energize Your Roots

2:00 – 5:00

Faith Center

Registration

1:00 – 5:00

Swimming Pool is Open

2:00 – 5:45 Faith Center

All Conference Session: Alternate ROOTS Annual Business Meeting

6:00 – 6:45

Lineberger Hall

Dinner

6:00 – 6:30

Lineberger Hall

Work Co-op Team Captains Meeting

7:30 – 10:00

Faith Center

Performances (Showcase)

Acting Together

Night Life Collective

Teatro Journaleros/

Sin Fronteras

10:00 – ??

Various Locations

Critical Response & Artist Feedback

10:30 – Until ??

Efird Hall

Late Night

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performance schedule thursday, AUGUST 09

Acting Together (Video) 7:40 – 8:40 pm Critical response: Saturday during Open Space Location: Faith Center From the border between human suffering and human possibility emerges Acting Together on the World Stage, a 54-minute documentary film about performance and social transformation.

Acting Together, a collaboration between Brandeis University and Theatre Without Borders documents peacebuilding, justiceseeking performances, highlighting artists, peacebuilding and community leaders from every continent whose rituals and theatrical works speak truth to power and support communities to mourn losses, seek justice and built bridges across differences.

It features the work of John O’Neal, along with eight international colleagues who have documented and reflected on their work in communities marked by violence and oppression.

We invite participants in Traditions to witness their courage in the documentary, to learn about their stories by reading an accompanying anthology, and plan their own justice-seeking, peacebuilding performances using the resources of our toolkit.

Join in conversation with John O’Neal and Cynthia Cohen (cocreator of the film) as we consider the relevance of the stories highlighted in the film for the communities where you work.

Night Light Collective

MARILYN

8:40 – 8:55 pm 10:00 – until Critical Response Location: Faith Center/ Cafeteria rocking chaRS What happens when fame takes over a body? Who was Marilyn Monroe? “Marilyn” premiered in small house at the New Orleans Fringe Festival in 2011. Night Light Collective created Marilyn ARTISTS’ RETREAT

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from a desire to talk about our own struggles with body image, self-mutilation, and perfectionism in an image conscious society.

The piece physically journeyed with an intimate audience of 10 thorough the home in which it took place- ending with the small audience seated around a table for a dinner party, eating and conversing with the performers about their own bodies. The journey explores the life, death, and legacy of the starlet and sex symbol. In this stripped down remount we are using the vehicle of a one-woman theater piece to examine our relationship as women to our complicated heroines and to one another. We want to unpack the objectification and commodification of our bodies and our relationships so we can talk about it frankly, and eat a little something sweet in the process.

Teatro Journalero

EL INFERNO/ HELL

9:15 – 9:40 pm Location: Faith Center Teatro Jornalero Sin Fronteras /Day Laborers Theater Without Borders (TJSF) is a Los Angeles-based ensemble theater company comprised of day laborers whose mission is to improve the lives of day laborers everywhere by creating plays by, about, and for their community. Responding to an often degrading and hostile work environment and an increasingly anti-immigrant climate nationally, the troupe uses theater to educate immigrant workers about their legal rights; to empower the community by reflecting their stories in their own voices; to humanize the immigration debate; and to have an immigrants’ rights message reach an increasingly larger audience. This two-person piece, El Infierno/Hell, takes place at the intersection of food in/security, water politics, and the immigrant reality of journeying across the Mexican desert towards the US border.

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the lineup

SCHEDULE friday

AUGUST 10, 2012

Time Location Event 7:30 – 8:30

Efird Hall (upstrs)

Energize Your Roots

8:00 – 9:30

Lineberger Hall

Continental Breakfast w/ Omelet Bar

9:00 – 12:00

Faith Center

Registration

10:00 – 12:00

Swimming Pool is Open

9:30 – 12:00 Faith Center

All Conference Session: Strategic Planning Session

11:30 – 12:45

Lineberger Hall

Lunch

1:00 – 1:45

Siesta

1:00 – 1:45

Efird Hall (upstrs)

Energize Your Roots

2:00 – 5:00

Faith Center

Registration

1:00 – 5:00

Swimming Pool is Open

2:00 – 5:30

Collaboratories

6:00 – 6:30

Lineberger Hall

Work Co-Op Team Captains Meeting

6:00 – 7:30

Lakeside Pavillion

Cookout

8:00 – 10:00

Performances: Works In Progress

Will MacAdams Black Dirt Cycle

Highlander Center

ArtSpot Productions

10:00 – ??

Various Locations

Critical Response

10:30 – 11:30

Lineberger Hall

ROOTS 101 - Fireside Chat

11:00 – Until ??

Efird Hall

Late Night

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performance schedule friday, AUGUST 10

Will McAdams Black Dirt Cycle

8:00 – 8:40 pm Performance

8:40 – 9:10 pm Dialogue

Location: Faith Center

My solo performance will integrate selections from the “Black Dirt Cycle,” a series of four plays I’ve created in farming communities in NY and California: “Water and Stone,” from interviews with New York farmers and farm workers about disconnection, loss, and love for the land; “The Legend of Lucia Zenteno,” a bi-lingual play by South Bronx youth and farm working adults; “Bountiful,” a 20 minute solo show about gratitude for the soil and the folks who work it, which I toured to farmers markets and other venues in the US and Mexico in 2011; and, finally, a short section from “Flores,” a play I am currently writing with Cornerstone Theater in the community where part of “The Grapes of Wrath” was set and which, more recently, saw key battles in the UFW struggle (and which opens just one week before ROOTS). I will integrate slides from the actual production into this section of the performance, and share stories about the creative process throughout. In doing so, I will tell two stories: the story of the men and woman upon whom my food depends; and the story of finding my voice as our collaboration unfolds.

Highlander Research and Education (Video) Rural People, Rural Power

9:20 – 10:00 pm Location: Faith Center In its 80th anniversary year, Highlander Research & Education Center unveils its new documentary short “Rural People, Rural Power: Cultural Organizing - A Southern Tradition” produced and directed by Bailey Barash and Trey Haney of bbarash productions. Following three cultural organizers rooted in the U.S. South, the film documents their process to fortify active campaigns for social and environmental justice through the strategic use of art and culture. Witness the development of both Community Partners and Authentic Leaders in the practice of art, culture, and the healing arts.

Art Spot Productions Hotel Utopia

10:30 – 10:55 pm Location: Faith Center Hotel Utopia, an excerpt of Kiss Kiss Julie, is a performance/installation where the audience is free to look, participate or engage as much or as little as they want. There are multiple “stations” that are performer and audience activated exploring the multiple senses and types of pleasure.

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the lineup

SCHEDULE saturday

AUGUST 11, 2012

Time Location Event 7:30 – 8:30

Efird Hall (upstrs)

Energize Your Roots

8:00 – 9:30

Lineberger Hall

Continental Breakfast w/ Omelet Bar

9:00 – 12:00

Faith Center

Registration

10:00 – 12:00 Swimming Pool Open 9:00 – 9:30 Faith Center 9:30 – 12:00 Various 11:30 – 12:45 Lineberger Hall 1:00 – 1:45 1:00 – 5:00 Swimming Pool is Open 1:00 – 2:00 Efird Hall (upstrs) 2:00 – 4:00 Faith Center 2:00 – 2:45 Chapel 3:00 – 4:30 Faith Center 3:30 – 5:35 Faith Center 7:30 – 10:00 Faith Center

10:30 – Until ??

Efird Hall

sunday 8:00 – 9:30 9:00 – 11:45

11:30 – 1:30 12:00 – 1:30 12:30 PM

Open Space Technology Marketplace Open Space Technology Brunch Siesta Energize Your Roots Registration Conversations with Time Youth Village Sharing Time Keynote Speaker & Panel Journey Brave Spirit House Collaboratories-based Performance 1 Collaboratories-based Performance 2 Closing Night Jam Session

AUGUST 12, 2012 Lineberger Hall Continental Breakfast Faith Center All Conference Closing Session Faith Center (divider rm.)

Executive Committee Meeting Entire Camp Operation Cleansweep Lineberger Hall Left Overs Lunch EVERYONE MUST BE CHECKED OUT OF THEIR ROOMS! ARTISTS’ RETREAT

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performance schedule saturday, AUGUST 11

Journey Brave 7:20 – 7:35 pm Location: Faith Center Journey: Passage or progress from one stage to the next. Brave: Being able and ready to face and endure danger, disgrace, and pain.

“Journey Brave” is a mindset that transcends race, gender, and ethnicity. The artist will present a hip-hop musically driven performance piece that discuss’ ideas of faith, family, adoption, wealth, love, and life. The goal of the performance is to leave you inspired and motivated to change the world inside you so that you can impact the world around you.

Spirit House

COLLECTIVE SUN

7:40 – 8:15 pm Performance 8:15 – 8:45 pm Dialogue Location: Faith Center Collective Sun is an intergenerational body of work exploring the impact prison and policing have on the African American community. Through Collective Sun, families gain a voice to proactively address the prison-industrial complex (PIC). Sharing stories of resilience and hope in connection with the PIC, and reminding us to love one another even in “pieces and public installments” until we can all be whole. Collective Sun creates a platform where art and culture become the means for solutionoriented, civic engagement in local/regional political actions.

Collaboratories Performance 1 8:55 – 9:25 pm Location: Faith Center

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Collaboratories Performance 2 9:30 – 10:00 pm Location: Faith Center

Conversations with time Conversations with Time 2:00-2:20 Performance 2:20-2:45 Dialogue Location: Chapel Our work is a visual testimony to West Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Conversations With Time. It is an art installation with a small performance component, which includes a dialogue. We wish to highlight and question the practice that brought this installation to be developed outside of the grounds that generated it.

youth village sharing 3:00-3:30 Performance Location: Faith Center The Youth Village has been working hard all week in their own program called Telling Tales: Storytelling in Tradition. This will be their opportunity to share with us what they’ve been up to.

keynote speaker & Panel 3:30-5:30 Location: Faith Center Our keynote speaker/performance event is Robert Karimi. This event will feature performance, music, and a panel dialogue around food, healthy cooking, and cultural traditions. Panelists will include other artists from within ROOTS’ network who will help us talk about food justice and health.

ARTISTS’ RETREAT

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V E N U E I N F O & L O CAT O N

ASHEVILLE If you’re spending time in the Asheville area, here are a few “artist-friendly” local businesses to consider supporting: Downtown Rosetta’s Kitchen 116 N. Lexington Ave rosettaskitchen.com (whole food/local) Firestorm Cafe & Bookstore 48 Commerce St. www.firestormcafe.com (worker-owned cooperative) French Broad Food Coop 90 Biltmore Ave. frenchbroadfood.coop (grocery store) Greenlife Grocery 70 Merrimon Ave. (whole foods grocery store) Bobo’s Gallery 22 Lexington Ave www.bobogallery.com (wine, beer, music, art) Tod Tasties 102 Montford Ave todstasties.com (coffee shop/cafe) River Arts District Clingman Cafe 242 Clingman Ave clingmancafeasheville.com (coffee shop/cafe) Green’s Deli 414 Depot St (soul food) West Asheville West End Bakery 757 Haywood Rd www.westendbakery.com (locally-sourced food) Farmacy Juice & Tonic Bar in West Village Market 771 Haywood Rd in the Bledsoe Bldg.

The Hop West 721 Haywood Rd thehopicecreamcafe.com (locally-made ice cream) Hostels Sweet Peas 23 Rankin Ave (downtown) www.sweetpeashostel.com Bon Paul & Sharkey’s 816 Haywood Rd (west AVL) http://www.bonpaulandsharkys.com/EMain.html Healing Arts Asheville Community Yoga 8 Brookdale Rd ashevillecommunityyoga.com (donation-based yoga) Asheville Yoga Donation Studio 239 S. Liberty St. ashevilledonationyoga.com (donation-based yoga) People’s Acupuncture of Asheville 55 Grove St. (http://www.peoplesacupunctureavl.com/) ($15-35 sliding scale) Local Community Initiatives East of the Riverway eastoftheriverway.com (sustainable communities initiative) Asheville-Buncombe Food Policy Council abfoodpolicy.com

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V E N U E I N F O & L O CAT I O N

ARTISTS’ RETREAT

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terminology

AN ALTERNATE ROOTS

GLOSSARY OF TERMS ROOTS has a 36-year history of creating and defining language.

Here are a few things you might hear, though not all of these terms are ROOTS-specific: All-Conference Session: Creative program updates and evaluations; conducting organizational business, surveying the field; planning the future and clarifying our vision; voting in new members. All meeting attendees, no matter how new they are to the organization, are encouraged to participate.

Collaboratories: Previously known as studios, collaboratories provide attendees with the opportunity to work closely with one another and learn from a team of artists.

These experiences are meant to mimic an intense, distilled version of C/APP projects, which take place during the ROOTS program year.

Critical Response: Annual Meetings give members the chance to perform their original work, see other members’ work, and to participate in the Critical Response Process (created by Liz Lerman); a powerful, but user-friendly technique designed to provide artists with critical feedback on works-in-progress.

Ex Com: The “Executive Committee” of ROOTS is frequently referred to as the “Ex Com.” The Ex Com is comprised of elected representatives, a slate of officers, and the staff.

Late Night: Based on an open mic or cabaret format, Late Night is an opportunity for you to get up and show some of your stuff. Totally casual and off-the-cuff, Late Night is a place where our night owls come together to share poetry, dance, skits, monologues, blog entries, whatever you want to show. Each evening has a host/hostess/hosting team and that’s whom you would speak to about getting on the list.

Letter of Interest (LOI): Often granting organizations, such as foundations, ask for an initial 2-3 page letter introducing the organization, the project idea, and briefly outlining what a full request for funds would go toward. If the funder likes the LOI, a full application will be requested.

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Open Space: A meeting technique that acknowledges your power to set your own agenda. Come prepared to share with one another. Studios, workshops, discussion sessions, and performances can all happen during time designated as Open Space.

Region: ROOTS has a 14-state service area, plus the District of Columbia. Our service region is the geographic area of the United States often referred to as “The South”: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Request for Proposals (RFP): When a funder is announcing a new round of grant opportunities, or has a project to announce, they will sometimes broadcast throughout the field what is known as an RFP. The RFP typically gives a brief introduction to the foundation, describes the funding program, outlines the timeline for due dates and announcements, has contact info, and attempts to answer frequently asked questions.

Rhizome: Taken from a horticultural term that relates to plants that grow through their “root structure,” rhizomes are small groupings of ROOTS members and friends who convene and participate in ROOTS-related activities across the region. A Rhizome is sometimes a smaller grouping within a region, ex.: GA/AL/SC = Region, Charleston = Rhizome.

Spontaneous performance/happenings/combustion: Also known as “gettin’ ROOT-y.” We occasionally burst out into song during the middle of a meal, create an impromptu performance on the way to the pool, or make a sculpture of tin cans. You don’t need permission to join this sort of thing – you just have to give yourself permission.

Strategic Planning: This is the process of setting priorities and new directions for an organization. These priorities will serve as a road map for future programmatic decisions. Every 3-5 years ROOTS evaluates and sets new directions. This year we will be spending some time in an all-conference session in order to discuss and ratify our new strategic plan. All meeting attendees, no matter how new they are to the organization, are encouraged to participate.

ARTISTS’ RETREAT

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SPONSORS

SPECIAL THANKS! The 36th Annual Meeting and Artists’ Retreat is made possible through support from the following:

T H A N K YO U TA A C !

For this Annual Meeting & Artists Retreat, ROOTS is pleased to partner with The Association of American Cultures (TAAC). TAAC’s mission is “to convene artists and cultural workers that are reflective of our pluralistic society to inform and advocate for democratic cultural policy.” Specifically, the Annual Meeting will be a regional gathering opportunity for TAAC members. Additionally, TAAC is sponsoring our keynote speaker/performance event, Robert Karimi.

We’re delighted to have the folks at TAAC join us for this project and so grateful to have Robert Karimi “at the table.”

The Association of American Cultures The Annual Meeting Program was designed by Jimmy Mumford (Cercle Design Studio) Cover Art by Donna Shiver