Unpacking the Journey: Roots Week 2013 Program Book by Carlton Turner

I NG K C A U NP URN O J the

www.AlternateRoots.org

CONTENTS

Greeting, Shannon Turner..............................................................3 A Message from the Chair, Dan Brawley........................................4 ROOTS Visual Arts Initiative, Ashley Minner....................................5 Collaboratories, Studios & AAPPLES Introduction, D. Patton White.............................................................................6 Collective Accessibility...................................................................11 Work Co-Op, Rebecca Mwase........................................................12 Important Info...............................................................................13 Schedule.......................................................................................14 Performances Introduction, Sage Crump.........................................15 About Asheville, Tamiko Ambrose Murray.......................................24 Map of Lutheridge.........................................................................25 ROOTS Glossary of Terms...............................................................26

Alternate ROOTS supports the creation and presentation of original art that is rooted in community, p lace, tradition or spirit. We are a group of artists and cultural organizers based in the South creating a better world together. As Alternate ROOTS, we call for social and economic justice and are working to dismantle all forms of oppression - everywhere.

Unpacking the Journey. Whose journey? Where are we going? Where have we been? Who’s we? How will we know when we get there? This year’s ROOTS Week theme is powerful. It sparks the imagination with a hundred questions, yes, but more than that, it wakes us up to a thousand images and a million possibilities. Each day is a journey, each conversation, and certainly each year. From the time we pack up and leave one ROOTS Week until we gather back together, each of you goes on your own journeys with your personal lives, your artistic endeavors, and most importantly ~ your communities. We’ve got some particularly exciting work in store for you, our community for a week. Under the tutelage of D. Patton White, our Professional Development programming has continued to evolve far beyond studios and workshops. Now, adding to the Collaboratories we introduced last year, we also have AAPPLES: Artistic or Administrative Peer-to-Peer Learning Exchanges. This is the heart of our work ~ sharing our skills, our experiences, and advancing the work of the field. Our Visual Arts Caucus, particularly the new scholarship recipients, have brought even more bold work into our conversations through individual and group installations all over the camp. This group came together for a weekend back in June just to get started on what they wanted to offer to the rest of us. Additionally, we have some amazing performances brought together by Sage Crump, as we continue to explore our modalities of In the Cooker, Critical Response, and Performance & Dialogue. If you’ve been to ROOTS Week before, then you know that some of our most powerful moments have come from performances that make us wake up, see something differently, and have difficult conversations with one another. I don’t even have space here to mention the great work and planning that’s gone into the week by the Work Co-Op staff, but this year will be bigger, better, more organized than ever. So, let’s spend a little time together thinking about journeys and all the things that come along with them: new friends; road maps; getting lost & getting found; reaching the destination; exhaustion & renewal; travel snacks & amazing, lush meals; coming home with stories & pictures, bug bites & treasures. All of that can and will happen for you here this week. In community,

Greeting

From Shannon M. Turner, Manager of Programs & Services

A Message from the Chair we are alternate roots. we are not an organization. we are not historical. we are a people of justice, ready to fight but wanting to love. we gather. it is a dream. it is not a lutheran dream. it is not a capitalist dream. you are an artist, an organizer, a teacher, and you are a rooter. roots is a lover. she cradles you, fireside and bright lights. she lives in the woods, but sings in the streets. she was yours for a week, but now for a year. she leased you her tambourine, but now she’s married your soul. social justice through art. ha! sounds crazy to the warmongers and the monkeymen, the crazed suitmasters who name walls after streets and draw lines through streams and mountains. but where else does the voice of justice live? where is the crossroads - the sacred junction between emotion and politics? but wait, there’s no place for emotion in politics. ha! now you’re crazy. we are emotion, we are politics. art is our sacred stewpot. it is the soapbox of the oppressed. it is where we boil our troubles and birth our brothers and sisters. art and culture can give voice to the spirit of justice: bob leonard roots is a part of your life, for the rest of your life. we are here to work. to work on ourselves so that we might do our work better. the stewpot keeps boiling, the recipe changes. roots changes. ready to write, but wanting to sing, willing to wait, but ready, oh so ready for change. how many members does it take to build a better world? it takes the whole world. and it takes you. be vigilant but not vindictive. be ready to win, ready to love. roots is volatile but not violent. we are members of a family of fierce spirits, ready to fight, but wanting to love. where will you be when the songs come raining down, when the last soldier drops his crown? i’ll be at roots. not just this week, but every week.

From Dan Brawley

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. We are now in the second year of our Visual Arts Initiative, funded by the Joan Mitchell Foundation, to: • Increase the presence and visibility of Visual Artists within Alternate ROOTS • Generate dialogue about Visual Arts for Social Justice perspectives and processes • Have a clear sense of how Visual Arts might connect with and find entry into the new Alternate ROOTS strategic plan • Make Visual Artists feel welcome and supported within Alternate ROOTS • Create appropriate ways to exhibit the work and works in progress of Visual Artists at ROOTS Week • Support, showcase, and celebrate the work of Visual Artists local to the community where ROOTS Week takes place Through generous support from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Alternate ROOTS has hired a Visual Arts Coordinator, has hosted multiple retreats for Visual Artists, and has now awarded sixteen scholarships for Visual Artists who are new to ROOTS to attend and participate in our Annual Meeting & Artists Retreat, “ROOTS Week.” All of last year’s Visual Arts scholars have since become ROOTS members and have stayed involved within the organization. Alternate ROOTS has extended the invitation to Visual Artists throughout our membership to bring work to share at ROOTS Week and has also co-hosted a pre ROOTS Week Visual Art / Community Art show in collaboration with Asheville’s Burton Street Community Center and Peace Garden. The powerful image for ROOTS Week 2013 “Unpacking the Journey” was created by ROOTS Visual Artist Matthias Pressley, who submitted to our Poster Competition. Please congratulate him when you see him. And please help welcome this year’s amazing group of Visual Arts scholars! They are: Sonia Baez-Hernandez of Ft. Lauderdale, FL Lamar Barber of Decatur, GA Rodrigo Dorfman of Durham, NC Daniel Johnson of Jackson, MS

Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier of Atlanta, GA Maurice Martinez of Wilmington, NC Ivy Parsons of Baltimore, MD Kore Loy Wildrekinde of Burnsville, NC

ROOTS Visual Arts Initiative

From Ashley Minner, ROOTS Week Visual Arts Coordinator

Professional Development at ROOTS Week

From D. Patton White, Professional Development Coordinator

AAPPLEs, Collaboratories and Open Space Technology (oh my!) Welcome to the 37th Alternate ROOTS Annual Meeting and Artists’ Retreat! We are introducing a new acronym (AAPPLE), revisiting a concept inaugurated last year (Collaboratory), and renewing our commitment to ensuring everyone has the opportunity to make this gathering vital to them (through Open Space Technology). Let’s start with AAPPLE—Artistic or Administrative Peer to Peer Learning Exchange. As artists working towards social justice, we begin this journey as we enter into learning opportunities—facilitators and attendees sharing experiences and learning techniques. Our AAPPLE offerings this year will provide a broad spectrum of professional development opportunities, and will support the notion that we all have something to teach as well as learn. On to Collaboratory—this year, just one, and a 24-hour intensive one, at that. Our Collaboratory will take participants through a Community/Artist Partnership Project in a very compressed period of time. And finally, Open Space Technology—wherein everyone has the opportunity to convene a gathering inspired by our overarching theme this year: Unpacking the Journey. We will introduce the actual technology of Open Space on Wednesday morning, and open the marketplace for gatherings that will take place throughout the remainder of the meeting. To help everyone prepare for the Open Space marketplace, you can visit http://www.openspaceworld.org/cgi/wiki.cgi? and learn about the history and philosophy of this technique. Please note that space assignments are subject to change.

COMPLEX SCIENCE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE MOVEMENTS, WITH SAGE CRUMP AND INVINCIBLE Wednesday, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM Location: Kohnjoy Second Floor Meeting Room An interactive workshop and dialogue about the connections between complex science and social movements, with a particular focus on these ideas in application in local community organizing efforts. The presenters will also share insights into their collaborative creative project: Complex Movements’ Beware of the Dandelions, and how their creative and organizing process mirrors these ideas through hip-hop and multi-media installation based performance. ROOTS Week participants will then be invited to explore how concepts of complex science in the natural world such as emergence, self organizing systems, and fractals can be applied to the community practice of counteracting racism, injustice, and all forms of oppression. FINDING OUR WAY TO AN INCLUSIVE ARTS COMMUNITY: ARTISTS WITH DISABILITIES SPEAK OUT, WITH POLLY MOTLEY AND INTERWEAVE Wednesday, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM, Thursday, 3:00-5:45 PM, Saturday, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM Location: Kohnjoy First Floor Meeting Room (Wednesday and Thursday); Faith Center Large Assembly Room (Saturday) This three-session Learning Exchange, facilitated by Interweave Asheville, will cover historical perspectives on disability oppression and advocacy, information on the main types of disabilities, personal stories, and RSC principles for developing a more inclusive ROOTS community. Our goal is to deepen understanding in the ROOTS community of the experiences, aesthetics, and social justice issues of artists living with disability. Through discussion, story circles and the inclusive improvisational movement developed by Interweave, we will explore the aesthetics of ableism, pity, invisibility, touch, voicelessness, inter-dependence, and more. ART AND CONSCIOUSNESS WORKSHOPS, WITH ELIZABETH TRAINA DAY 1: Creating Space for Inner Answers - Meditation and Art making in Community Organizing DAY 2: Mural Making - Capturing Synergy of our Community Vision Wednesday 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM, Thursday, 3:00-5:45 PM Location: Faith Center Meeting Room #2 An overwhelming number of youth and adults are socialized to believe that they are not artists. “I am not an artist, I can’t draw” is a standard response when challenged with creative tasks. Learn an effective way to challenge, release and heal this false story in yourself and in communities that you work with. Explore the role of meditation as means to dissolve creative blocks for authentic creative empowerment and tools to integrate into your work in the field. Artwork generated on Day 1 will be used for the making of ROOTS Week 2013 Mural Project. Return to part two of the workshop and make the mural. Deepen your creative meditation practice, learn basic painting and compositional techniques and share in a fun art making experience! Artists from other disciplines highly encouraged to attend.

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AAPPLEs, Collaboratories and Open Space Technology

AN IMPROMPTU GLORIOUS CHORUS™, WITH ELISE WITT Wednesday, 10:30-12:30; Saturday, 9:30-12:00 Location: Efird Hall In our modern culture, a huge percentage of our western society has lost touch with their own voices. Somewhere in our journey, we have been told we are “unmusical,” “tone deaf,” or some other silencing admonishment. An Impromptu Glorious Chorus™ proposes to unpack these untruths, reveal them for the lies they are, and re-empower individuals and the community with the ability to “voice” themselves. An Impromptu Glorious Chorus™ will create a vocal community out of a diverse group of voices. We will learn songs from around the world that lend themselves to exquisite harmony. Using vocal improvisation games and exercises learned in Elise’s ROOTSsupported study with master teacher Rhiannon (original member of Bobby McFerrin’s Voicestra), we will unlock the secrets of what makes a group composition click, tick, and take off! We will create our own vocal orchestras, and try out our skills at unexpected times for some Improv Flash Mobs during the Annual Meeting. Whether you’ve sung all your life or think you “can’t carry a tune in a bucket,” in no time at all you’ll find yourself part of An Impromptu Glorious Chorus™!

FACILITATING SOCIAL JUSTICE CONVERSATIONS WITH YOUR COMMUNITIES AND ORGANIZATIONS, WITH ALISSA SCHWARTZ Wednesday 10:30-12:30; Saturday 9:30-12:00 Location: Thornburg First Floor Meeting Room Unity in collective work can be threatened by unnamed and unchallenged power dynamics, and participatory facilitation techniques increase our ability to sense, listen, and recognize both the dynamics in the room and the common threads among many voices. In this workshop (you can do one session or two), participants will learn about World Café, Pro-Action Café, Open Space, and Circle Practice and learn skills to build unity and provide feedback on power dynamics. Creative processes are infused throughout the activities. For example, participants will “harvest” and share key points of their conversations using poetry, song, visual arts, theater, and dance.

THE FUTURE IS ON THE TABLE #4: A CASE STUDY OF SOCIALLY ENGAGED VISUAL ART, WITH JEMAGWGA ARTS COLLECTIVE Thursday 3:00-5:45 PM Location: Mission Hall A case study of socially engaged visual art, using what we created at the Mississippi Museum of Art in 2012-13. The project generated art programs and artworks. We want to show and analyze the various levels of engagement for visual artists; from relationships to a museum, to collaboration with and between five different organizations representing areas of activity and emerging interest in Jackson; from a visual trail of the way content was created, to the way structures were changed/ exchanged by participants; how collaboration developed or did not; and how as lead artists we did not own the content, by design.

TECHNOLOGY FOR MOVEMENT-BUILDING: RETRIEVING AND RECONCEIVING ART AND SOCIAL JUSTICE PRACTICE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION, WITH ROADSIDE THEATER Thursday, 3:00-5:45 PM Location: Kohnjoy Second Floor Meeting Room Experimenting with a new way of working that integrates its signature live practice with the power of technology, Roadside Theater recently replaced its website with a collaborative platform called Roadside.org: Art in a Democracy. The platform is a ‘worksite’ – a base on which to build models for creating culturally specific, place-based art and for using the tools of culture to enable communities to solve their own problems in a fair and just manner. This workshop will engage participants in a critique of Roadside.org’s strategies and an exchange about the experiences and methods of their own, towards new synthesis.

PRAGMATIC VISIONARIES, WITH NICOLE GARNEAU Thursday, 12:00 PM to Friday, 12:00 PM Location: Efird Hall and other spaces Pragmatic Visionaries is an intensive 24-hour workshop and experiment in collaboration. Our goal is to develop ritual performance that helps us experience ecstatic connection to the earth. We will use movement, writing, ceremony, communing with the earth, singing, and storytelling in order to access levels of visionary wisdom required to honor our histories and deepen our social justice practice. We will meet each other with fierce and radical honesty and weave our dreams together as we sleep. The final result of Pragmatic Visionaries will be the creation of a performance/ritual to be presented on the last night of ROOTS Week.

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AAPPLEs, Collaboratories and Open Space Technology

REHEARSAL FOR LIFE: USING FORUM THEATRE WITH YOUNG PEOPLE, WITH SHANNON WOOLLEY Saturday, 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM Location: Faith Center Breakout Room #2 (Peace Room) Looking for Lilith’s Forum Theatre piece, “Choices: an interactive play on cyberbullying and suicide” will be used to explore using Augusto Boal’s Forum Theatre model with populations of young people. In Forum Theatre, an audience witnesses a dramatized oppression in which the protagonist journeys from strength to despair. The audience then practices interventions to resist the oppression. Forum Theatre has been used to resist unfair labor laws, segregation, and other oppressions. In a high school environment, oppressions may be more insidious than these--we will discuss “hidden” oppressions and their effect on young people, and generate ideas for other Forum Theatre models. LEARNING AND TEACHING ARTS AND ACTIVISM, WITH JEFF MATHER AND BARRY STEWART MANN Saturday 9:30 AM -12:00 PM Location: Kohnjoy First Floor Meeting Room One of the roads at the Intersection of Arts and Activism is the path of Arts Education. Where do we find the seeds of our activism in our own educational journeys and our learning experiences when we are young? How do teaching artists engage youth in Arts for Social Justice? APAL, an arts education program that was co-founded by Alternate ROOTS, piloted a course in Arts for Social Justice at the South Atlanta School of Law and Social Justice this year. It included residencies with five teaching artists, including 3 ROOTers. A description of this course will frame a learning exchange about our roles in educational systems and settings. We will explore: 1) participants’ journeys to this work; 2) the work we do with young people; and 3) strategies for identifying partners and formats for this work.

UPROOTING OPPRESSIONS TRAINING

FRI 2:00 - 5:00, FAITH CENTER

The Applied Research Center (ARC) is a 30-year old, national racial justice organization whose mission is to build awareness, solutions and leadership for racial justice by generating transformative ideas, information, and experiences. By telling the stories of everyday people, ARC is a voice for unity and fairness in the structures that affect our lives. Our multi-racial and diverse staff primarily pursues the organization’s mission through media, research and leadership development. 10

Photo: Melissa Cardona

Collective Accessibility Alternate ROOTS continually seeks to fulfill its mission of diversity and inclusive community building by consciously making the organization and its events accessible across the full spectrum of mobility differences, communication differences, learning differences, sensory differences, chemical injury, multiple chemical sensitivities, and environmental illnesses as we are able. In so doing, we commit to collective access as a guiding principle, and treasure a practice of “All of us, or none.”“Able”ism is a cultural of “normality”, which creates the assumption that able-bodied equals normal and different levels of people. We have a world together, and it’s not just the people with disabilities who have to adapt to it. Alternate ROOTS actively encourages all members & participants to help foster an environment that truly welcomes all people by providing ongoing support and training through the Collective Accessibility Innovation Ensemble, and the community as a whole about how to model, create, and grow a culture of accessibility, inclusivity, and integration. This includes, and is not limited to: • Education about the importance of keeping the camp and ourselves fragrance free; as well as how to continue inviting more of our community to integrate this practice fully (especially, as a starting point, for staff, members and others); • Education about the importance of language use related to a wide range of disabilities and differences, as well as how to model and integrate inclusive language that does not privilege and normalize non-disabled ways of thinking, communicating, feeling, and moving through the world (i.e. “moving through the world” rather than “walking through the world”; “coming forward for membership” rather than “stepping up for membership”). With that said, we ask that you refrain from the use of heavy laundry soaps, perfumes, and other chemicals/fragrances, particularly when you will be engaging in our public spaces. If you have not had a lot of experience with this particular realm of access, it may take a minute to get the issue. But trust us, your choices might prevent someone else from being able to be with us. Look for this symbol to help you remember sensitivity to this issue: This new language about our collective access relies heavily on a policy which was drafted by the East Bay Meditation Center and submitted to the EBMC Leadership Sangha (board).

Work Co-Op The five principles of Resources for Social Change that guide Alternate ROOTS’ work are shared power, partnership, open dialogue, individual and community transformation, and aesthetics of transparent processes. Within the work co-op we try to embody all of these values in the way we relate to and work with each other to move forward the work of ROOTS Week. There are six areas in which we utilize each participant’s energy to make sure we eat well, remain environmentally responsible, take care of each other, and document and cultivate for future generations. The work co-op is integral to the functioning of ROOTS Week and only works if each person is dedicated to their responsibilities. Once you’ve registered, be sure to learn the work of your co-op. Don’t hesitate to ask questions of your captain, jazz up your shifts with music and song, and ask questions if you are confused or in need of assistance. The work co-op exists to bring us together in a different space to build community and practice the values we strive to live by daily. Each time we gather to watch a performance, participate in a discussion, eat a meal, have our children taken care of, and are greeted warmly and taken to the airport on time, we’re reminded of the value of the co-op. From Rebecca Mwase, Work Co-Op Coordinator

If you need assistance, here are the captains of each co-op area: • Carre Adams, Documentation Team Captain • Carrie Brunk, Green Team Captain • Bonnie Gabel, Youth Village Captain • Mya Hunter, Culinary Team Captain • Billy Muñoz, Technology Team Captain • Louisa Sargent, Hospitality Team Captain

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 and answers to some of the things that might come up if this is your first ROOTS Week. 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: • Chisama Ku Penn, Registration Intern • Shannon Turner, Manager of Programs & Services • Ashley Walden Davis, C/APP Specialist • Lutheridge Guest Services (a staff member is always carrying that phone), 828-606-5684 • Keryl McCord, ROOTS Managing Director • Parkridge Hospital is the closest. 100 Hospital Drive Hendersonville, NC 28792, 828-684-8501 • Mission Hospital is also nearby. 509 Biltmore Ave, Asheville, NC 28801, 828-213-1111 Who attends the ROOTS Week? 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 ROOTS Week. Participants are people who want to meet and learn about the work of communitybased artists making change happen. 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 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 & meals, and late-night cabaret/open-mic sessions are open to anyone who has something to share. These performances are an integral part of a ROOTS gathering. 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 as low-tech as you can this week. It can be a lovely thing to back away from your computer for a week. Can I drink at ROOTS Week? Yes ~ if you’re over 21. We like to let loose around here. We do, however, have a few things for you 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 ROOTS Week is over 21. Please do not serve alcohol to an underage participant. Legally, we want to make sure that we look after each other – please don’t do something that would jeopardize the organization’s liability. Pool Hours The pool is open from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. every day Tues– Sat. 13

SCHEDULE MONDAY

AUGUST 5, 2013

TIME LOCATION EVENT 3:00 - 7:00 Faith Center

ExCom Pre-Conference Meeting & Planning

Faith Center, Mission Hall, Lineberger

Visual Arts Pre-Conference

TUESDAY

AUGUST 6, 2013

TIME LOCATION EVENT

12:00 - 7:00

Faith Center

1:00 - 5:00

Swimming Pool is Open

2:00 - 3:00

Efird Hall

Registration 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

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

From Sage Crump, Production Coordinator

Photo: Saddi Khali

About Our Performances Performance at ROOTS Week is all about maintaining tradition, demonstrating our practices and leading us into deeper conversations on the issues that affect 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. The 2013 performances reflect the growing need for safe spaces for artists to explore. A great deal of the work presented is in its developmental stages. There will be video, site-specific performance and even a Sound Play. These artists are exploring themes of body, race, education, and tradition and come to this community to grow. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s support them by committing to attend the critical response sessions and artist feedback moments. Several performances include strong language and content that some may not feel is appropriate for children. Â We will announce prior to each performance, but feel free to check in with me during the week.

A note for our audience: Bring your wallets & checkbooks to meetings and performances because you will be asked to give to Alternate ROOTS! Trust us, those Youth Village kids can be very compelling. 15

SCHEDULE WEDNESDAY

AUGUST 7, 2013

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

9:30 - 10:15

Faith Center

10:30 - 12:00

AAPPLES, Collaboratories, Visual Arts & Open Space

ROOT Vision Community Mural Art Project

Finding Our Way to an Inclusive Arts Community: Artists Living with Disability Speak Out

Facilitating Social Justice Conversation With Your Communities and Organizations

Movement building using the model of complex sciences

11:30 - 12:45 Lineberger Hall

Lunch Work Co-op Team Captains Meeting

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 Faith Center

All Conference Session: Community/Partnership Program & Uprooting Opression Opening Session

6:00 - 6:45

Lineberger Hall

Dinner

7:00 - 9:00

Faith Center

Registration

7:30 - 7:45

Faith Center

Visual Arts

7:50 - 9:45 Faith Center

Open Space Introduction & Marketplace

Performance & Discussion Junebug Lockdown Nicole Garneau

9:45 - ??

Lineberger Hall Artist Feedback Backporch

10:30 - Until ??

Efird Hall

Late Night

PERFORMANCES JUNEBUG PRODUCTIONS

WED EVENING

Lockdown, an original play written collaboratively with artists working within the New Orleans public education system, is about race, class, and the American Dream. The goal of the piece is to support and generate local and national discourse around racial and economic equity in the public education system and education reform movement. Set in the context of the privatization of public schools, Lockdown is an original play that explores the impact of education reform in New Orleans post-Katrina. The play follows five adults whose lives are touched by the education system in different ways: a veteran union teacher who is fired after Katrina and now finds her grandson suspended from school, an English teacher struggling to teach a progressive curriculum in the face of pressure from the administration, a part-time creative writing teacher struggling to teach gender, sexuality and oppression in a school that does not allow her to be openly gay, a newly transplanted Teach for America teacher questioning his place, and an attorney fighting the school-to-prison pipeline. In addition to traditional scenes, the piece uses spoken word and original music to explore the intersections between lives, institutions, and the ways we understand ourselves and our history.

NICOLE GARNEAU

WED EVENING

New Works by Nicole Garneau: Deer Remedies and Discomfort Deer Remedies are video documents of ritual performances that took place in the woods of rural northwest Michigan. These represent a new artistic exploration that has to do with the relationship between my body, the earth, and the earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s other living creatures (mainly animals). Discomfort is a performance which combines live singing with a body gesture. In these performances, I am working at the edge of the beautiful and the grotesque. I am trying to communicate directly with the earth and animals through song, and I am manipulating the flesh of my body as a metaphor. I am curious about the emotional responses that these works bring up for people at ROOTS, and I am also interested in the political/social issues and complications that come up in response to them. 17

THURSDAY

AUGUST 8, 2013

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 - 11:45 Faith Center

All Conference Session: Alternate ROOTS Annual Business Meeting

11:30 - 12:45 Lineberger Hall

Lunch Rhizome Caucuses Work Co-op Team Captains Meeting

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 - 3:00 Faith Center

All Conference Session: ROOTS 2.0, I Am a Resource for Social Change

3:00 - 5:45

AAPPLES, Collaboratories, Visual Arts & Open Space

A case study of socially engaged visual art

An Impromptu Glorious Chorusâ&#x201E;˘

Technology for Movement-Building: Retrieving and Reconceiving Art and Social Justice Practice for the Next Generation

Finding Our Way to an Inclusive Arts Community: Artists Living with Disability Speak Out

ROOT Vision Community Mural Art Project

6:00 - 6:45

Lineberger Hall

Dinner

7:30 - 7:45

Faith Center

Visual Arts

7:50 - 9:45 Faith Center

Performances Jasmine Coles Body Ecology Anna Roberts-Gevalt Critical/response/feedback

10:30 - Until ??

Late Night

Efird Hall

JASMINE COLES

THURS EVENING

A solo performance piece about an African American woman’s relationship with dance and disconnection to her heritage. As dance loses its innocence and consciousness remains temporary, a legacy is lost. During this performance the artist hopes to simplify themes and create through lines within those themes.

BODY ECOLOGY The statistics about black women who will encounter HIV/AIDS in their life time are staggering. While the media, politicians, and non-profit organizations profit on our collective fear, Body Ecology is using the technology of theatre and story telling to vision, de-stigmatize, and amplify the voices of those closest to this epidemic. RED TIDE seeks to figure out the intersecting themes and quality of life issues that make black women the largest population of new HIV/AIDS cases in the country. In doing so, RED TIDE tracks the journey from trauma to triumph, from pain to peace and from victim to vision.

ANNA ROBERTS-GEVALT

THURS EVENING

Photo: Journey Brave Photography

THURS EVENING

Here, a series of stories that I have been listening to, in my travels to Kentucky. Six years, visiting banjo players, fiddlers, ballad singers, and those who grew up dancing. I present these stories to you, as a one woman show in development-with my fiddle and banjo, in song and shadow puppetry, to bring to life the people and places from where I learned the music. Among them—I visited Letha Sexton, an 80 year old woman in Clay City, who told me about growing up next door to a fiddler, Miss Lella Todd. She fiddled for the neighborhood children after school, that they might dance. Miss Lella was an everyday person, Letha said to me, but she made life magical. Today, fiddle music and dance have drifted out of Clay City. And, out of so many small Kentucky towns. In this collection of stories and songs, I wonder how to carry on the legacy of people like Miss Lella? The spirit with which they used their music—to gather community, the spirit of folk music as an accessible form of expression of self and culture. This is my work in progress—I have more experience in listening to these stories, than in telling them. I would love feedback about how I may better bring these stories alive, in performance. 19

FRIDAY

AUGUST 9, 2013

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

9:45 - 12:00 Faith Center

Performances Sue Schroeder/CORE Rebecca Mwase Post Performance Discussion

10:00 - 12:00

Swimming Pool Open

9:30 - 12:00

Affinity Groups, Visual Arts, & Performance

11:30-12:45 Lineberger Hall

Lunch Work Co-op Team Captains Meeting

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 Open

2:00 - 5:30 Faith Center

All Conference Session: Uprooting Oppressions

6:00 - 6:30

Lakeside Pavillion

Mondo Bizarro/ArtSpot performance

6:30 - 8:00

Lakeside Pavillion

Cookout

8:00 - 9:00

Various Locations

Visual Arts: Gallery Tour

9:00 - 10:30

Lineberger Hall

ROOTS 101 - Fireside Chat

9:00 - ??

Efird Hall

An Early Late Night

New Noise Critical response Saturday

SUE SCHROEDER/CORE PERFORMANCE

FRI MORNING

The Heart of the Matter is a new and original narrated dance performance for school children developed to encourage selfawareness and positive body image. Inspired by the childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book, Full Mouse/Empty Mouse, by Dr. Dina Zeckhausen, CORE Performance Company has created a dance work that enables students to gain basic insights into the causes of disordered eating, encourages them to identify their feelings, and develops increased positive body image and healthy eating habits. The Heart of the Matter was created collaboratively by Sue Schroeder (Artistic Director/Concept Development/Movement), Priscilla Smith (Writer, Concept Development), D. Patton White (costumes), Kevin Dunn (composer) with the artists of CORE Performance Company. Created for 3rd and 4th graders, The Heart of the Matter was developed as part of the Moving Toward Health project, a partnership of CORE with The University of Central Arkansas College of Fine Arts and Communication Artists in Residence Program and supported in part by Alternate ROOTS. 20

REBECCA MWASE

FRI MORNING

Looking at A Broad is a multi-disciplinary, original, one-woman performative dialogue inspired by my international travels; specifically the implications and expectations that are associated with my brown skin, my sex, and the privilege that comes from my American passport. The show will discuss travel as a way black women can find freedom and self-discovery by de-constructing the identity boxes anchored in the American psyche. Part of the development of the project will be a series of interviews and dinner dialogues with other black women to share and analyze our experiences with travel, both internationally and within a divided America.

MONDO BIZARRO/ ARTSPOT PRODUCTIONS

FRI EVENING

Photo: Bruce France

CRY YOU ONE combines a site-specific performance with an outdoor procession to highlight how rapidly one of the world’s most vibrant cultures is disappearing. It is shared on the sites of erosion in South Louisiana, where water is reclaiming land once occupied by people’s homes. A project of ArtSpot Productions and Mondo Bizarro, CRY YOU ONE is a celebration for that rapidly eroding land that will premiere in multiple locations throughout Southeast Louisiana in the Fall of 2013, followed by a multiple city United States tour in 2014. CRY YOU ONE gives physical, oral, and musical shape to the themes of our home: converging cultures, creativity in all its forms, human error, forced evacuation, living with water, and the desire for permanence.

NEW NOISE

FRI EVENING

Runnin’ Down the Mountain is an Appalachian Sound Play. With a blend of original and traditional music, live looping and cassettebased soundscapes, NEW NOISE tells the story of Everett and Margaret Riddle, a brother and sister, grown and living alone on their family’s peach orchard in the Great Smoky Mountains. Everett stays up late nights, rebuilding a cassette tape made of Mama that was broken years ago. Margaret buries her head in the encyclopedia and dreams of running away to attend college. As the siblings sort through what their parents left behind and wrestle with their uncertain future, Runnin’ asks: Why do we hand down what we do? And why are so many raised to leave? Since our January premier in New Orleans, NEW NOISE has continued working, carving out a ‘House Party’ version of Runnin’ Down the Mountain - an intimate, 25-30 minute remix based largely in sound/ music, built especially for touring to nontraditional venues. At this point in the process, we are looking for critical feedback and guidance as we pare the piece down to its most essential form. 21

SATURDAY

AUGUST 10, 2013

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

AAPPLES, Collaboratories, Visual Arts & Open Space

An Impromptu Glorious Chorusâ&#x201E;˘

Choices: an interactive play on cyberbullying and suicide with Boal methods

Learning and Teaching Arts & Activism

Facilitating Social Justice Conversations With Your Communities and Organizations

10:00-12:00

Finding Our Way to an Inclusive Arts Community: Artists Living with Disability Speak Out

11:30 - 12:45 Lineberger Hall

Brunch Work Co-op Team Captains Meeting

1:00 - 1:45

Siesta

1:00 - 5:00

Swimming Pool is Open

1:00 - 2:00 Efird Hall (upstrs)

Energize Your ROOTS: Hip-hop Dance Break

2:00 - 4:00

Faith Center

Registration

3:00 - 3:30

Faith Center

Youth Village Sharing Time

3:30 - 5:30

Faith Center

All-Conference: Business Meeting

6:00 - 6:45

Lineberger Hall

Dinner

7:30 - 7:45

Faith Center

Visual Arts

7:50 - 10:00 Faith Center

Performances Bailey Barash Zoe Flowers Break Critical response

10:30 - Until ??

Closing Night Jam Session

SUNDAY

Efird Hall

AUGUST 11, 2013

TIME LOCATION EVENT

8:00 - 9:30

Lineberger Hall

Continental Breakfast

9:00-11:45

Faith Center

All Conference Closing Session

11:30-1:30

Entire Camp

Operation Cleansweep

12:00-1:30

Lineberger Hall

Left Overs Lunch

12:30 PM

EVERYONE MUST BE CHECKED OUT OF THEIR ROOMS!

BAILEY BARASH

SAT EVENING

Azule (working title), a video Azule is a nonprofit artists’ retreat in the North Carolina mountains, down winding two lane roads, about an hours’ drive from Asheville. This video shows the viewer a new concept in artists’ residences that serves not only the artist but the surrounding community. The story of Azule embodies the evolution of a place and a process created by Camille Shaffer, a visionary artist who worked alongside local artists and craftspeople to build the structures that serve as a gathering place for both visiting artists and the local community. The buildings are made of recycled materials and local timber and rock. Camille and her late husband Dave bought the property in the 70’s, living there in a log cabin without running water or electricity. Over many years, they changed the design of the buildings and the landscape to accommodate Camille’s desire to invite artists and educators to meet, perform, collaborate, meditate and exchange skills at Azule. In the critical response we hope to learn how the video connects to the viewers’ interests: whether it effectively explains why Azule is unique, whether the viewers are motivated to find out more, come to Azule, or create an artists’ retreat in their community.

ZOE FLOWERS

SAT EVENING

In 2002, Zoe Flowers conducted a series of candid interviews with African American women about their experiences with domestic and sexual violence. Dirty Laundry: Women of Color Speak up about Domestic and Dating Violence, was the book that emerged from those interviews. From Ashes to Angel’s Dust: A Journey Through Womanhood (FA2AD) utilizes monologues, poetry, and vignettes to breathe life into the original stories shared in Dirty Laundry and includes new stories about historical oppression, same sex violence, body image, and the journey to self-love. This ChoreoDrama is for little girls that grow into women looking for fathers in the arms of other men. It’s for all those who ask “why does she stay?” The writers and actors in this show recognize that protection, unconditional love, and unconditional freedom can occupy the same space. For all who understand that loving another and one’s self is a revolutionary act- the most revolutionary act. 23

About Asheville

From Tamiko Ambrose Murray

This June Alternate ROOTS hosted a community art show in Asheville with the intention of deepening the process of creating an authentic relationship between ROOTS and its host community and of tapping into the community of cultural workers, artists, and organizers in the Asheville area. The art show took place at the Burton Street Community Center and Peace Garden, the heartbeat of grassroots cultural organizing in Asheville. Keep your eye out for folks from Asheville on Community Day (Saturday), welcome them into the fold, and stop by the Burton Street Peace Garden if you can on your way out of town. If you are a lover of community art, creative placemaking and being outdoors, you will love the Burton Street Peace Garden (47 Bryant Street/Asheville, NC 28806). 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 Café & Bookstore 48 Commerce St. firestormcafe.com (worker-owned co-op) • French Broad Food Co-op 90 Biltmore Ave. frenchbroadfood.coop (grocery store) • Greenlife Grocery 70 Merrimon Ave. (whole foods grocery store) • Bobo’s Gallery 22 Lexington Ave bobogallery.com (wine, beer, music, art) • Tod Tasties 102 Montford Ave todstasties.com (coffee shop/cafe) River Arts District • Clingman Café 242 Clingman Ave clingmancafeasheville.com (coffee shop/cafe) • Green’s Deli 414 Depot St (soul food) West Asheville • West End Bakery 757 Haywood Rd 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) sweetpeashostel.com • Bon Paul & Sharkey’s 816 Haywood Rd (west AVL) 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. 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 24

Venue Info & Location Lutheridge Conference Center Asheville, NC area (Arden)

An Alternate ROOTS Glossary of Terms ROOTS has a 37-year history of creating and defining language. Here are a few things you might hear, though not all of these terms are ROOTS-specific:

AAPPLE: Previously known as studios, AAPPLES are Artistic or Administrative Peer to Peer Learning Exchanges. They may focus on topics related to professional development/technical assistance for artists; skill building that is discipline specific in focus either performance-based or visual art; or case studies focused on the experiences or methods of artists working in community. 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: Our gatherings 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 worksin-progress. Ex Com: The “Executive Committee” of Alternate ROOTS is frequently referred to as the “Ex Com.” The Ex Com is comprised of elected representatives, a slate of officers, and the staff. Innovation Ensemble: Alternate ROOTS coined this term as a new take on the concept of “work group” or “committee.” As members, we contribute to the rich work we do in different organizational areas. Through “innovation” we strive to be generative, and in “ensemble” we honor the creative and non-hierarchal way our members work together. 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.

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. Please look for an opening “marketplace” where Open Space will be explained and spaces/times will be negotiated within the ROOTS Week Schedule. Region: Alternate 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. Resources for Social Change (RSC): RSC was originally a training program developed by ROOTS to teach ideas and techniques for creating social change through art. With the adoption of our most recent strategic plan (2012), the organization has moved to a belief that RSC is not only a program, but rather a core tenet, “we are all Resources for Social Change!” You will hear that a lot this week! Rhizome: Taken from a horticultural term that relates to plants which grow through their “root structure,” rhizomes are small groupings of Alternate 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 Plan(ning): This is the process of setting priorities and new directions for an organization. These priorities will serve as a roadmap for future programmatic decisions. Every 3-5 years ROOTS evaluates and sets new directions. This year we will be spending some time in an allconference session in order to discuss and ratify our new strategic plan. All meeting attendees, no matter how new to the organization, are encouraged to participate.

Photo: Melissa Cardona