Roots Week 2014 Program Book by Carlton Turner

CONTENTS Greeting, Carlton Turner .......................................................................................3 A Message from the Chair, Dan Brawley ...............................................................4 ROOTS Visual Arts Initiative, Jessica Valoris.............................................................5 Learning Exchanges & Open Space, Jess Solomon .................................................6 Important Info.......................................................................................................8 Collective Accessibility...........................................................................................9 Uprooting Oppressions........................................................................................10 Work Co-Op, Rasha Abdulhadi.............................................................................11 Performances, Jess Solomon................................................................................12 Schedule.............................................................................................................19 Partners In Action Sessions, Ashley Davis..............................................................22 ROOTS Glossary of Terms.....................................................................................26 Sponsors & Special Thank You..............................................................................28 Map of Lutheridge...............................................................................................31 Alternate ROOTS supports the creation and presentation of original art that is rooted in communities of 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. 2

GREETING Carlton Turner Executive Director

Welcome to ROOTS Week! And for those of you that have been before, “Welcome home!” I am truly excited to be back at Lutheridge Conference Center to enjoy the beautiful scenery, reconnect with friends and family, meet new artists, see new and developing work, and to collectively engage in critical analysis of our world, our work, our passions, and cultural transformation. I am also excited to be back after a much-needed sabbatical. I spent a good deal of time with my family, got a chance to start some long overdue writing projects, and deepened my commitment to theatre with Progress Theatre. Hopefully you will get a chance to see some of that work this week. I can still remember my first ROOTS meeting. It was 2001 at Camp Mishemokwa, when the organization was still in its mid-twenties. It was new and strange to me, and it has been one of the most defining experiences of my adult life. This is the space where I was first introduced to so many mentors, friends, and comrades. It is a space that has nurtured my growth as an artist, a leader, and as a person.

My life would be drastically different without this organization and the people that contribute to its well-being. It’s been thirteen years and ROOTS, not unlike myself, is nearing the big 40. I have realized that as I near my own fortieth birthday in 2015, I have to be more conscious about my family, my health, and the imprint I leave on those around me. Similarly ROOTS has to think about those same things. How do we stay in shape as we mature as an organization? What have we been doing that no longer serves us? What do we need to change or modify so that we can express our mission in all that we do? These are some of my thoughts as I return to my tribe in the semi-wilderness of North Carolina. I look forward to seeing you, to sitting for a few minutes and catching up with you, to breaking bread with you, and to bearing witness to our collective awesomeness. There’s no place like home. 3

A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR Dan Brawley ExCom Chair

tick tock, tick tock. we all live trapped inside of an hourglass. the time is always running out, never running over. we’ve inherited a world where time is a scarcity. its value weighs us down. it’s a demanding monster. it wants and wants. the winning team always seems to have just the right amount of time, rarely too much. take this time, this week. it is yours. you just won. what did you win? it’s called alternate ROOTS. i believe it is an organism, a symbiotic expression of an ancient need for community, healing and justice. it manifests itself in so many places that no one person can know it all, know all of its secrets and its mysteries. it knits justice into everything. its always dressed as freedom. and only sometimes hiding a snifter of tyranny under its misty cloak. ROOTS draws learners and leaders to its fires. dancing, singing… drumming, talking… writing, rubbing… these things keep it moving, but where to? let’s talk about where we’re going, how we’ll get there. i want to know where to look when the flash goes off. there is an upheaval on the stage. politics broke free from the industrial skeletons of the 20th century and the result amplifies urgency. we have new 4

powers. the world is remaking itself right in front of us. the paradigms that we’ve inherited from our ancestors, the stories that still haunt our shadows, will become fainter and fainter. where will you be when the faded shadows retreat from the stage? i, for one, will be plugged in, ready to bring my brain to the far corners of the earth for justice. and to also remind me that my closet is full of injustice itself. i’ll still bring myself to the mountains, to dig deeper. i want the dialogue to be about what’s happening in the world. i want dudley cocke’s critical discourse to erupt into action and change. i want it to happen at ROOTS Week but I also want it to happen every week. don’t ever assume that you know who will win. you should be more and more aware that you know less and less the older you get. i don’t know why it works this way, but it’s what makes old people so cool. i don’t know where we’re going, but i’m ready for the ride. welcome to ROOTS week, friends, buckle up.

Jessica Valoris Visual Arts Coordinator

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 artists of all disciplines. Alternate ROOTS artists serve as community organizers and catalysts for social and environmental justice. We are now in the third year of our Visual Arts Initiative, funded by the Joan Mitchell Foundation, to: Increase the presence and visibility of Visual Arts within Alternate ROOTS Generate dialogue about Visual Arts for Social Justice perspectives and processes Have a clear sense of how Visual Arts connects with and finds entry into the new Alternate ROOTS strategic plan Make Visual Artists feel welcome and supported within Alternate ROOTS With the generous support of the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Alternate ROOTS has hired Visual Arts Coordinators, has hosted multiple Visual Arts retreats, and has now awarded 24 scholarships for Visual Artists who are new to ROOTS to attend and participate in ROOTS Week. With a growing community of visual artists, Alternate ROOTS has engaged a wide range of mediums to activate social justice for our various communities. Furthermore, Visual Artists have found a community that supports collaboration and sharing of knowledge and resources. The Visual Arts Innovation Ensemble is excited to explore this year’s ROOTS Week theme of Aesthetics. When we speak of aesthetics, we speak of what makes us come alive, feel, awaken, and connect! Alternate ROOTS’ visual artists are exploring what it looks like to be present in the world, present for our communities and for our planet. We are celebrating the powerful role that artists play as creators, healers, and as messengers of a “wake up call”! Sprinkled throughout the Lutheridge Campgrounds are powerful images that illuminate stories about our lives, about our communities, about oppression and silence and death. And also stories about rebirth, healing, about traumas, triumphs, and visions for a transformed future. Check out the visual art showcased throughout Lutheridge both from long-time ROOTers and new ROOTers alike.

Please help welcome this year’s incredible Visual Arts Scholars: Keith Calhoun - New Orleans, Louisiana

Lisa Mandle - Marshall, North Carolina

Peter Eversoll - Durham, North Carolina

Chandra McCormick - New Orleans, Louisiana

Chris James - Little Rock, Arkansas

Lorna Shelton-Beck - Charleston, South Carolina

Soraya Jean-Louis McElroy - New Orleans, Louisiana

Sheena Vaught - Shallotte, North Carolina 5

LEARNING EXCHANGES & OPEN SPACE

Jess Solomon Program Coordinator

In the spirit of moving from theory to practice and from principles to action, this year’s Learning Exchanges focus on capacity building and artistic skill building. Each session connects to at least one of the Resources for Social Change Principles: shared power partnership open dialogue individual and community transformation aesthetics of transparent processes Learning Exchanges are an extension of the ideas and practices of ROOTS’ previous program, Resources for Social Change (RSC) [Note: RSC is no longer a standalone program at ROOTS. Rather, as of the 2013 strategic plan, we operate under the organizing principle that we are all resources for change.] A Learning Exchange is an opportunity for a community, a group of people, artists, facilitators/trainers, and any combination thereof to come together around an agreed upon topic. A Learning Exchange looks different wherever and whenever it happens. Inspired by the principles of Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal, we have adopted the term “learning exchange” to show that all the knowledge that is needed to solve any given problem is already in the room. Facilitators are learning as much as they are teaching and operating from the principle that there are no ‘outside experts’. Another way to to sum up this idea is in a very popular saying at Alternate ROOTS - “Who comes, is.” Essentially, we are the ones we’ve been waiting for. ARTISTIC SKILL-BUILDING Discipline-specific focus, either performance-based or visual art; Case studies focused on the experiences or methods of artists working in community

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Exchanges will include: artistic methods of strengthening connection to community, artistic development in specific disciplines, and multidisciplinary combinations. CAPACITY BUILDING CB Capacity building is an ongoing process through which we enhance our ability to leverage artistic and cultural opportunities, identify challenges and strategically face them. Alongside the Artistic Learning Exchanges, the Capacity Building Learning Exchanges provide a chance to reflect, interrogate and reimagine what it takes for us to be sustainable in our work in our communities and the world.

OPEN SPACE TECHNOLOGY SESSIONS This year we’re bringing more elements of Open Space Technology into the ROOTS Week calendar, creating space for attendees to self-organize, rather than over-programming or directing the conversations. Open Space is a process for convening that is reflective of our five principles of working in community. It is an opportunity for shared power, partnership, open dialogue, transformation and aesthetics of transparent processes. During ROOTS Week there are 3 scheduled opportunities for attendees to self-organize and convene “open space” learning exchanges. Each convener of a session takes responsibility for creating it, posting it on the Open Space bulletin board at the Open Space Marketplace, assigning it a space and time to meet, and then later showing up at that space and time, kicking off the exchange.

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IMPORTANT INFO

(you might want to know what you’ve gotten yourself into…)

ROOTS Week: The 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 ROOTS Week to someone who has not attended before. However, we’ve provided answers to some of the questions you might have if this is your first ROOTS Week. WHO ATTENDS 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 community-based 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 AND SHARING ART? Check out the Visual Arts, Learning Exchanges, and Performances sections for a full line-up of who will be featured this year. In addition to a dynamic schedule, there are also informal opportunities for attendees to share art. 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. These spontaneous happenings 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, Thornburg, Kohnjoy, 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 step 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. But, please keep in mind ~ not everyone drinks or feels comfortable around drinking, either because of personal/health choices, religious convictions, or for other reasons. Please be discreet about your alcohol consumption and do not push it on others. Additionally, not everyone is over 21. Please do not serve alcohol to an underage participant. There will be alcohol-alternative events planned in the late evenings, which you can participate in, even if you just want to take a break from Late Night. 8

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: Lutheridge Guest Services (a staff member is always carrying that phone), 828-606-5684 Shannon M. Turner, Manager of Programs & Services, 540-552-3482 Keryl McCord, ROOTS Managing Director, 404-934-6008 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

FOR YOUR INFORMATION POOL HOURS: The pool is open from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. every day on Tuesday – Saturday. PLEASE BRING YOUR WALLETS OR PURSES TO EVENING EVENTS! Alternate ROOTS is a not-for-profit organization that frequently relies upon the kindness of strangers, who become friends, to help support this incredible network of artists. This year we are asking everyone at ROOTS Week to become a Friend of Alternate ROOTS! PLEASE BE MINDFUL OF YOUR PERSONAL FRAGRANCES Some ROOTS Week attendees experience sensitivity to strong fragrances. 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.

COLLECTIVE ACCESSIBILITY Alternate ROOTS aims to provide inclusive community building by making our organization and its events accessible across a full spectrum of abilities. We are sensitive to - and attempt to accommodate - mobility differences, communication differences, sensory differences, chemical injury/sensitivities, and environmental illnesses. In so doing, we commit to our practice of “All of us, or none.” This practice of collective accessibility includes, but is not limited to: Selecting a conference site that is as fully accessible as possible to participants with mobility challenges Providing an American Sign Language interpreter for participants that are deaf or hard of hearing Practicing awareness when maintaining our hygiene, e.g. avoiding the use of strong fragrances that might irritate other participants Sharing the importance of mindful language, particularly related to a wide range of disabilities and differences. It is our desire that ROOTS Week attendees 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”). 9

UPROOTING OPPRESSIONS

TRAINING FRI 2:00 - 5:00 FAITH CENTER

RACE FORWARD: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation is a national racial justice organization advancing racial justice through research, media, and practice. We bring systemic analysis and an innovative approach to complex race issues to help people take effective action toward racial equity. We publish the daily news site Colorlines and present Facing Race, the country’s largest mulitracial, inter-generational gathering for organizers, educators, creatives and other leaders. This year’s Facing Race Conference will be held November 13-15, 2014 in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon and Toshi Reagon are the keynote speakers. As key figures in social and racial justice movements, Dr. Reagon and Toshi Reagon tell a story of how art and activism can help us transcend barriers, mobilizing generations and our nation toward justice in the 21st century. Race Forward is also proud to present the Colorlines’ monthly editorial series “Life Cycles of Inequity,” which explores the ways in which inequity impacts the lives of black men. The mission of Race Forward is to build awareness, solutions and leadership for racial justice by generating transformative ideas, information and experiences.

WORK CO-OP Rasha Abdulhadi Work Co-Op Coordinator

Most of us are familiar with cooperatives. Neighborhood grocery co-ops, bicycle co-ops, farming co-ops--what most cooperatives have in common is that they are founded on a set of shared values and a sense of shared stake in the outcomes. To me, it makes sense that Alternate ROOTS relies on the participation of all members (and even first time visitors!) to make lively all the parts of ROOTS Week. Most organizations hosting a gathering of 200 people or more would involve caterers and event planning staff. ROOTS flexes the genius and joy of members from states across the South and beyond to put on one of the most delightful events I’ve ever been graced to witness. The Work Co-op supports members to come to ROOTS Week and elevates leadership among our folks. ROOTS is a really special gathering of people in the world and through time, and ROOTS Week is a precious time to be together. The goal of the Work Cooperative is to support the infrastructure that makes that possible --from meals to transport to orientation to child-care to clean-up and all the production for the amazing performances. Did I mention there’s an Arts Marketplace? Go check it out and support our folks! I hope you’ll join me in saying hello to and thanking the crew of captains and special agents who’ll be holding space for our collaborations this year. They (and I!) are on hand to answer questions and help us uncover and grow what ROOTS Week has to offer. Welcome back to the mountain.

ROOTS WEEK CO-OP TEAM CAPTAINS Culinary Captain: Audrey Hailes Concierge: Alison Kibbe Documentation Team Captain: Ennis Carter Green Team Captain: Karen Smith Roots 101 Captain: Nicole Garneau Local Coordinator: Jonathan Santos Youth Village Coordinator: Jasmine Coles Camp Counselor: Mecca Burns Arts Marketplace Coordinator: Taja Lindley

PERFORMANCES

Jess Solomon Program Coordinator

ROOTS Week is where we throw out new ideas, think critically about our processes and move the conversation on art, activism and community forward by showing our work. This year’s theme of AESTHETICS is the launch of our Call to Action - a three-year initiative to investigate our work as artists and cultural organizers. This year’s performances deepen our understanding of the arc of arts, community and activism through the lens of aesthetics. Aesthetics is a complicated term in our organization and in our field. As one of the principles of Resources for Social Change, it has taken on several variations within Alternate ROOTS – Aesthetics of Transparent Processes, Aesthetics of Diversity, Aesthetics of Beauty and Justice. I look forward to seeing how ROOTS Week artists embrace, interrogate and reimagine the notion of aesthetics. This year as with past gatherings there will be indoor and outdoor performances. For the artists these are opportunities to share and gain critical feedback from this dynamic community. For the community, this is a moment for inspiration, connection and visceral understanding of aesthetics. This year there are three types of performances: 1. In Development - 15-minute time slots with an engaged audience to present an excerpt and discuss the direction and intent of a new performance or work of art.

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2. Critical Response - 25-minute performances/presentations with an assigned time for a facilitated Critical Response conversation.

3. Performance & Dialogue - 45-minute performances that promote critical dialogue during the week.

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Please bring your wallets or purses to evening events! Alternate ROOTS is a not-for-profit organization that frequently relies upon the kindness of strangers, who become friends, to help support this incredible network of artists. This year we are asking everyone at ROOTS Week to become a Friend of Alternate ROOTS! 12

Anu Yadav

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Anu Yadav is a criticallyacclaimed actress, playwright, and theater based educator. She wrote and performed two solo plays, Capers, and Meena’s Dream which both debuted to soldout houses. She has performed nationally, as well as at Studio Safdar in Delhi, and Beijing’s National Academy of Dramatic Arts. Featured in the documentaries Walk with Me and Chocolate City, Yadav is a 2014 DC Artist Fellow and holds an M.F.A. in Performance from University of Maryland, College Park. Anu Yadav shapeshifts between characters in Meena’s Dream, a solo play about Meena, a nine year old dreamer who wishes her mother, Aisha, had the medicine she cannot afford. By night, Hindu God Lord Krishna arrives in her dreams, pleading with her to battle the ‘Worry Machine’ to save the universe from destruction. Meena’s Dream acts as a modern day fable in homage of the classic Hindu treatise, The Bhagavad Gita, in which the great warrior Arjun consults with God in a moment of crisis on the battlefield. Meena must also face her deepest fears, as she alternates between reality and fantasy, while still dreaming of a world where everyone, including her family, has enough. At a critical moment of public attention on healthcare, Meena’s Dream aims to support dialogue about our society’s wealth inequality, invite audiences to remember their own childhood dreams, and keep envisioning the possibilities for a world where everyone can truly have enough.

black* magik women

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black*magik women is circle a of Creatresses organized around liberation and artistry. This band of women offers sister-positive healing sounds to unite heart chakras all over the planet. Part meditation, part investigation and part celebration, the music of black magik women stirs the spirit to soar in song. Current members include Althea Charles, Nicole Lewis, BlkBrryMolassez & Director Kelly Greenlight. “Release into the mind of love” let the black*magik women take you on a journey into the soul! This live musical performance includes storytelling, theatrical improvisation, movement and audience engagement. Facilitating a sound healing for the healers, the focus of this showing is to create a community powered fountain of love that will keep on flowing long after ROOTS Week has ended!

Cristal Chanelle Truscott/ Progress P&D Theatre Progress Theatre is an international touring ensemble of multidisciplined performers committed to using art to encourage social consciousness, crosscommunity dialogue and cultural awareness. Founder Cristal Chanelle Truscott creates NeoSpirituals, a capella musicals that fuse theatre, dance, blues, storytelling, spirituals, R&B, poetry, and hiphop to explore social justice issues. Crafted from legacies and contemporary experiences of African Americans, PT’s thematic signature is the exploration and breakdown of sociocultural stereotypes designed to impact audiences toward critical dialogue.

The Burnin’ is an a cappella musical inspired by two nightclub tragedies; one in 1940 in Mississippi, one in Illinois in 2003. The piece examines the meanings of communitybased identities, family/relationships, performances of “self” and what happens when identity politics play out under circumstances of extreme trauma. Straddling time and space, The Burnin’ is an imaginative exploration drawing on the tragedies as a narrative inroad to examining central themes of identity and stereotype. We follow a group of young adults through the “before” and “after” (even if “after” is death for some) of the events to examine the complexities of race and gender and to explore boundaries and definitions of “community” during times of survival. 13

D. Patton White/ Beacon Dance D. Patton White has worked as a performing artist since 1987. He has danced with numerous companies in the metro Atlanta area, and has been with CORE since 1992. He has served as the Artistic/Administrative Director of Beacon Dance, based in Decatur, GA, since 1990. He has taught on the faculty of Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA, and is currently on the faculty of Emory University in Atlanta, GA. White has toured nationally and internationally as a performer, and his choreography has been performed by numerous companies throughout the US. He has been a member of Alternate ROOTS since 1997, and has trained extensively in the realm of community engagement and social change through art making.

A Life Well Seasoned was created by Beacon Dance members in collaboration with senior citizens who attend programs at the Roberts Center. Four members of Beacon Dance, a contemporary dance/theater organization based in Decatur, Georgia, conducted workshops with the elders over the course of a year long creative movement residency. The workshops were designed to enhance the seniors’ physical abilities and give them an opportunity for creative expression. Each visit by the Beacon artists focused on one of the four seasons – summer, fall, winter and spring. The elders shared stories and memories associated with each season. Beacon’s artistic director, D. Patton White, and dancer/choreographers Lynn Hesse, Susan Keller and Ann Ritter, led the workshops over a nine-month period, starting in August 2013.

The Bosch Institute

The Bosch Institute is an energetic stage act that celebrates art, improvisation, and creativity. Since 1999, the collaborations between poet/performance artist, Thandiwe Shiphrah, and musician/composer, Daniel Arite, have been captivating audiences with dynamic oratory, illuminating poetry, and incredible music made from traditional instruments and unconventional devices chosen for their unusual sound possibilities. Their “audio collages” are characterized by a playful inventiveness and feature compositions influenced by classical, free jazz, blues, and folk.

The Hear(th) Project is a series of compositions written in the imagined voice of various aspects of the natural world. The compositions include traditional music and experimental soundscapes that promote joy and appreciation for Earth’s resources and beauty. The performance is best described as a live audio collage of music, poetry, and sound that focuses on the need for environmental stewardship and the development of sustainable lifestyles.

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Emily Mendelsohn Celeste Miller

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Celeste Miller is a solo dance +text artist; a choreographer who creates work using an intentional collaborative process; a community arts animator; and an educator. Grants and awards for her work include the National Endowment for the Arts Choreographers Fellowship. After extensive touring for over 25 years, Celeste shifted her focus to examine other ways that the performative might serve in the act of participating in the world as a citizen artist.

Out Foxing the Wolf is part of a series of work within the feminist practice of “resistant reading.” The narrative threads woven into the excerpt for performance at ROOTS are drawn from legendary wolf imagery and what it means to resist how our stories are told. Cixous writes, “censor the body and you censor breath and speech at the same time.” The range in which the female body is “permitted” onstage reflects the ways in which anybody finds its permission to be heard. The opening of OutFoxing the Wolf sets up the problem from the beginning: “Once upon a time there was an old woman, a little girl, an old woman, a little girl... In this particular construct we are only allowed two choices... so we will go with: little girl.”

doris davenport

“i am a 65 year old Educator / Writer / Performance Poet; a lesbianfeminist bisexual anarchist working class Affrilachian from Northeast GA; with a BA / English from Paine College and a Ph.D. (African American literature; University of Southern California). Working against all the isms for all my life, i use caustic humor, satire and hyperbole to achieve my (artistic) ends. ROOTS Member since 1993, presently working at an HBCU in Alabama.”

65/performance poetry is a work based on my new book of poetry, 65. Intended as a tour piece, the performance and the book acknowledge and celebrate the aesthetics of growing older (i turned 65 this year), as it deals with ways to creatively combat or deescalate the violence and escalation from whitemalesupremacy & other forms of vileness and ignorance. A work that incorporates the book, offbook, (offthechain?); movement, sound, and anything deemed relevant, including spontaneous participation and collaboration.

Emily Mendelsohn is a Brooklyn based theater director. With an ensemble of artists from the US and East Africa, she has directed Deborah Asiimwe’s Cooking Oil (presented in Kigali, Kampala, and LA) and Erik Ehn’s Maria Kizito (scheduled for a New Orleans production Fall 2014 in collaboration with ArtSpot Productions). She directed the American premiere of Katori Hall’s Children of Killers, exploring the legacy of genocide in Rwanda with an ensemble of professional actors and graduates of a NY inner city talent program. Emily received a Fulbright Fellowship to Uganda and an MFA from CalArts.

Anne in Actual Sight is a meditation on progress, mortality, and identity using an unfinished play my mother was writing about Anne Morrow Lindbergh as a starting point. Anne, the daughter of a JP Morgan bank mogul, and her husband aviator Charles Lindbergh became the first world celebrities, embodying an image of material progress in an age of world wars and mass produced destruction. In the middle of her life, Anne stepped out of her husband’s shadow to write her protofeminist, environmentalist novel Gift from the Sea. I imagine a woman on an island facing the rising sea level following Anne in dreamlife to a deeper understanding of freedom, as the sea continues to rise. Using dense, poetic language and everyday objects, the play blends the 20th century American history, Anne’s life, and my mother’s personal journey to face her death into my own reflection on the world I have inherited and how I am responsible to it. 15

Lisa Q Mount/Auntie Q and her Wayward Girls

Lesole’s Dance Project

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Lesole’s Dance Project is a 10 year old company grounded in Southern African heritage that uses innovative choreography and an indigenous/ contemporary movement vernacular to engage cultural exchange through touring, education and performance. My work is influenced by traditional tribal dances and rhythms from my country and the Modern Dance tradition. I have developed schoolbased Edudance programs utilizing South African dance, singing, and drumming to facilitate cultural exchange for children.

Robben: Section B, #5 will convey the physical, psychological and spiritual sacrifices of one man, former president Nelson Mandela, on behalf of all basic human rights.

Lisa Q Mount refuses to specialize. As a performer, she is primarily known as a banjo player and singer, as well as the Mistress of Ceremonies for various late night shows. As a director and producer, she was responsible for the seven year series of Headwaters plays in Sautee Nacoochee, as well as Late Night OffCenter, and the Lilies of the Valley concerts. As a consultant, she works with arts organizations all over the US.

Auntie Q and her Wayward Girls is a performance concept in its developmental stage. Lisa Q

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Mount (Auntie Q), banjoplaying troubadyke, travels to just about anywhere, meets up with local musicians and turns them into the Wayward Girls – an instant backup band. What results is a mix of traditional and original songs, featured solos for the local musicians, and stories about place and identity that weave the whole performance together. For this performance, the Wayward Girls are Sean LaRocca (guitar) and Melisa Cardona (bass) and the songs will be four different experiments in how to characterize a place and the people in it.

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NEW DANGER Educator, poet, visual artist and community organizer. Omari Fox is an artist and founder of his own signature visual style he coined “Hop Art”, establishing as an outgrowth the New Danger Arts Movement, a play on the new or “fresh” ideas of creativity and the old or “dangerous” thinkers and change agents in society. As an art education major at Benedict College in Columbia, SC, he established a student arts organization known as BCARTI (Benedict College Arts Intelligentsia). After completing his credentials for art education Fox went on to establish the ‘Artists In Schools’ or more affectionately known “Freestyle Fridays” program, bringing, poets, artists, writers and other creatives to Marlboro County High School and other underserved school districts affected by the construction and presence of Interstate 95. He currently serves in the leadership of Alternate ROOTS on the Executive Committee and the Resources for Social Change

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innovation ensemble. As an artist and cultural worker he advocates for intergenerational encounters and the transformation of personal passions into daily life professional practice. Call and response performance to a video. Spoken word and dance movement fusion, iconography descriptions of visual arts and lyrical deconstruction of a poem. The issues run the gamut from Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, Don Sterling comments about black people at Clippers games, Richard Sherman’s emotional response to a reporter, an African-American president, Newtown & Ft. Hood shootings and so on. A visual and performing arts throughline will be drawn from the microcosm of racism from one African American’s perspective to larger issues of humanity around the globe that include colonialism, capitalism, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Ukraine.

New Orleans Queer Youth Theater New Orleans Queer Youth Theater is an ensemble of queer and trans youth creating original performances together with the guidance of three adult directors. Our core values are solidarity, anti-oppression, youth leadership and devised theater. Utilizing theater, our ensemble explores questions of safety and selfexpression in the performance of gender and sexuality. We utilize performance as a tool to mirror, process, and question those experiences, educate our audience and ourselves, and promote a more nuanced understanding of the lives of LGBTQ people at the intersection of our identities.

Beyond Acceptance is an original play that was devised by the members of New Orleans Queer Youth Theater. The performance combines scenes of realism inspired by lived experiences of the ensemble with moments of physical theater, musical numbers and a lot of glitter. The story follows four high school students as they navigate their intersecting identities within the confines of a transphobic, heteronormative environment. 17

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Rising Appalachia

Sandra L. Holloway/ CR Holloway Arts Project

Rising Appalachia brings timeless songs, sounds, and stories to their performance, steeped in their Southern folk background and deep commitment to global travel. Led by sisters Leah and Chloe, and joined by the beloved Imhotep, Biko Casini, and David Brown, the band tears into sound with sensual prowess as stages ignite and words light up. Listen to their sound for poetic harmonies, soul singing, banjos, fiddles, and the beats of many drums; building community through SOUND.

Sandra L. Holloway, director and choreographer, became interested in using the performing arts to examine social conditions shortly after college. She added social change and awareness trainings to her craft and soon her art began to reflect her combined passions. Ms. Holloway became the Artistic Director and choreographer for the youth development organization, City at Peace. Her work there garnered her the Artist Sea Change Residency Award for Arts and Activism from the GAEA Foundation.

Expect everything during a Rising Appalachia concert from swooning lullabies, to full on dance parties. Our concerts create an elaborate mix of original music, rewritten traditional tunes, blues and soul songs, Appalachian boot stomping, Southern Hip-Hop references, and even a little salsa thrown in there. We try to create a container within each concert that opens our audience to focus on the intricacies of contemporary social justice issues at hand, consider the power of tradition, as well as release and delve into the catharsis of music as a full body experience. We build our set to embody the human journey, deepening into a full evening of sound scope, emotional participation, and release.

Ballon: the oomph that keeps you up there, is a choreopoem that examines the thoughts, feelings, and actions of a diverse group of young

people who are struggling to find their place as gentrification tears through their community. At the neighborhood community meeting, these young people will meet and together discover that it won’t be enough to just maintain the status quo or sustain their own agenda, they’ll have to rise higher to create conditions that make room for something new. Using dance, spoken word, interviews, and personal experiences Ballon...captures the perspectives of the gentrifiers and the long standing families, the renters and the home owners, the merchants and consumers, all from the perspectives of young adults.

SCHEDULE

TUESDAY

AUGUST 5, 2014

TIME LOCATION EVENT 1 - 6pm

Faith Center

Registration

4pm

Faith Center

ROOTS 101

5pm

Faith Center Porch

Opening Night Cocktail Hour

6pm

Lineberger Hall

DINNER

7:30pm

Faith Center

OPENING NIGHT CELEBRATION

10pm

Efird Hall

LATE NIGHT

WEDNESDAY

AUGUST 6, 2014

TIME LOCATION EVENT 8 - 9am

Lineberger Hall

BREAKFAST

9am - 12pm

Faith Center

Business Meeting

12 - 1pm

Lineberger Hall

LUNCH

1 - 2pm

Siesta/Pop-Up Cinema

2 - 6pm

Faith Center

Business Meeting

6pm

Lineberger Hall

DINNER

7:30pm

Faith Center

Visual Arts Scholars Presentation

Faith Center

CRITICAL RESPONSE PERFORMANCES

D. Patton White/Beacon Dance

doris davenport

Sandra L. Holloway/ Holloway Arts Project

Faith Center

Critical Response Facilitation

11pm

Efird Hall

LATE NIGHT

Energize Your ROOTS will take place every day from 1-2pm at EFIRD Registration Hours after Tuesday: 9-12 & 2-6 Evening Hours - On Call/By Appointment

THURSDAY

AUGUST 7, 2014

TIME LOCATION EVENT 8 - 9am

Lineberger Hall

BREAKFAST

9am - 12pm

Faith Center

Business Meeting

12 - 1pm

Lineberger Hall

LUNCH

1 - 2pm

Siesta/Pop-Up Cinema

2 - 4:30pm

Faith Center

PARTNERS IN ACTION SESSION

5pm

Faith Center

Partners in Action Fair

Open Space Marketplace

6pm

Lineberger Hall

DINNER

7:30pm

Faith Center

IN DEVELOPMENT PRESENTATIONS:

Lesoleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Dance Project

Emily Mendelsohn

From NoWhere to NowHere

Celeste Miller

Auntie Q & Her Wayward Girls

Faith Center

PERFORMANCE & DIALOGUE

10pm

FRIDAY

Efird Hall

InD

P&D

Progress Theatre

LATE NIGHT

AUGUST 8, 2014

TIME LOCATION EVENT 8 - 9am

Lineberger Hall

9am - 11am

LEARNING EXCHANGES

Efrid

Bernard Hankins, Mecca Burns, Cullen Wade - Capacity

Thornburg

MK Wegmann - Capcity/Aesthetics

Mission

Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier - Artistic

11am

Faith Center

OPEN SPACE

12 - 1pm

Lineberger Hall

LUNCH

1 - 2pm

Siesta/Pop-Up Cinema

2 - 5pm

Faith Center

UPROOTING OPRESSIONS

5 - 6pm

Faith Center

ROOTS 101

Efrid

OPEN SPACE

Faith Center

Pop-Up Cinema

Kohnjoy Lounges

Partners in Action Breakout 1

6pm

Lineberger Hall

DINNER

7:30pm

Faith Center

Visual Arts Scholars Presentation

Faith Center

PERFORMANCE & DIALOGUE

New Danger

Anu Yadav

10pm 20

BREAKFAST

Efird Hall

LATE NIGHT/MARKETPLACE CRAWL

CB Art

P&D

SATURDAY

AUGUST 9, 2014

TIME LOCATION EVENT 8 - 9am

Lineberger Hall

9am - 11am

BREAKFAST LEARNING EXCHANGES

Efird

Sonia Baez-Hernandez, Morgana Wallace-Cooper - Artistic

Faith Center

Bob Leonard, Jan Cohen-Cruz, Mark Kidd, Linda Parris-Bailey & CB Nick Slie - Aesthetics - Capacity

Nicole Garneau - Artistic

Mission

11am - 12pm

OPEN SPACE

Kohnjoy Lounges

Partners in Action Breakout 2

Faith Center Siesta/Pop-Up Cinema Pop Up Cinema Room

12 - 1pm

Lineberger Hall

2 - 4pm

Art

LUNCH LEARNING EXCHANGES

Faith Center

Kathy Randels & Co. - Capacity

Efird

Elise Witt - Artistic

Mission

Jasmine Coles - Artistic

4 - 5pm

Faith Center

New Members Coming Forward (Business Meeting)

6pm

CELEBRATION BARBEQUE

7:30pm

LEARNING EXCHANGE & OPEN SPACE CULMINATION

8:30pm

PERFORMANCE & DIALOGUE

Faith Center

Art

Visual Arts Exhibit Engagement

5 - 6pm Faith Center Picnic Shelter

NOLA Queer Youth Theatre

10pm

Efird Hall

LATE NIGHT

SUNDAY

AUGUST 10, 2014

P&D

TIME LOCATION EVENT 8 - 9am

Lineberger Hall

BREAKFAST

9am - 12pm

Faith Center

CLOSING CELEBRATION

PERFORMANCE

12 - 1pm

Lineberger Hall

black* magik women C/O Kelly Thomas

LUNCH

PARTNERS IN ACTION SESSIONS

Ashley Davis Community Partnerships Specialist

2014 PARTNERS IN ACTION (All-Conference Session) Thursday, August 7th from 2:00-4:30 pm in the Faith Center In this all-conference session, we will introduce the 2014 Partners and their projects. ROOTS will facilitate a dynamic conversation amongst the partners that will highlight the commonalities of the projects, dig deeper into the communitiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; systemic issues addressed by their art, and link the projects to the culture work and movements taking place throughout the new South. In turn, members will be able to engage with the partners by asking questions and sharing resources. ROOTS will also host a Partners Fair on the same day from 5:00-6:00 pm where members will have the opportunity for a one-on-one exchange with the partners. 2014 Partners: Junebug Productions, Elise Witt and the Global Village Project, Clear Creek Festival, Appalshop, Project South, JosĂŠ Torres-Tama and New Orleans Congress of Day Laborers 2013 PARTNERS IN ACTION BREAKOUT SESSIONS Friday, August 8th at 5:00-6:00 pm - Spirithouse (Kohnjoy Upstairs) and Mondo Bizarro & ArtSpot Productions (Kohnjoy Downstairs) Saturday, Aug 9th at 11:00 am-12:00 pm - Carpetbag Theatre Inc. (Kohnjoy Upstairs) and Cucalorus Film Festival (Pop Up Cinema Lounge) Each session taking place in its own space independently. The 2013 Partners of the Partners in Action Program formerly known as C/APP (Community/ Artist Partnership Program) will lead one-hour breakout sessions. During the small group case study, the partners will present to fellow members and attendees best practices that they have learned about entering and engaging community through their project. Each project showcases the Resource for Social Change Principles in action. CB 22

= Capacity Building

Art

= Artistic

Bernard CB Hankins, Mecca Burns, Cullen Wade Mecca Burns and Bernard Hankins are two members of Presence Center for Applied Theatre Arts in Charlottesville, Virginia. The current Presence troupe formed in 2010 to support our Community Dialogue on Race. We utilize drama, poetry, music and dance to gently and playfully coax change to occur. We have a sustained focus on racial and gender conflict and inequities. Activist groups may fragment or stagnate due to numerous factors, including splits between old timers and new timers, core members and peripheral members, activists and analysts. Demoralization can take the form of members leaving or chronically showing up late. These and other stories reveal underlying strife within and between groups. Augusto Boal’s Image Theatre and Rainbow of Desire shed light on the internal dynamics that interfere with capacity building. These techniques can help us accept the past and transform the future. These games and techniques illustrate a model of shared power. Instead of the actors solving the problem, it is up to the spectators to step into the action and pose solutions.

Bob Leonard, Jan CohenCruz, Mark Kidd, Linda Parris-Bailey, and Nick Slie CB

Art

Bob teaches in the School of Performing Arts at Virginia Tech, where he heads the MFA program in Directing and Public Dialogue. He has most recently directed: Measure for Measure and Three Days of Rain. His article Building Home: Dramaturgy for Theatre as Civic Practice in Public: the eJournal of Imagining America, features his work in community dialogue. He is a co founder of the Network of Ensemble Theaters (NET) and Alternate ROOTS. A sequential conversation about how documentation, critical exchange, and critical writing in the field of Community Cultural Development can capture and reflect the aesthetics (the means by which art and artmaking stimulate sensory and emotional experience) of specific art works/artistic experiences and deepen relationships amongst artists and their partners from different communities, regions, and contexts, all working for social justice.

Art

Elise Witt Elise’s concerts of Global, Local & Homemade SongsTM and her Impromptu Glorious ChorusTM workshops create and connect singing communities around the world. Born in Switzerland, raised in North Carolina, and living in Atlanta since 1977, Elise speaks 5 languages fluently and sings in at least a dozen more. The Elise Witt Choral Series features her original compositions. Elise serves as Artistin Residence at the Global Village Project, an artsintegrated school for teenage refugee girls. “Harmony” in the world can be defined as people of many different cultures, customs, and beliefs recognizing and celebrating each others’ differences while also identifying with and sharing the traits common to us all as one human family. Likewise in music, harmony is the celebration of different sounds that, blended together, are pleasing to the ear and the spirit. However “pleasing” to one ear may be strange to another. Harmony is subjective and cultural. In this learning exchange, we explore harmonies from many different cultures and traditions – from the familiar Triad Harmonies of folk, blues, bluegrass, spirituals, country, and gospel, to vibration unifying chants from Africa and the Middle East, to the exciting tight harmonies of the Balkans and the Appalachians. Through song and improvisation, singers experiment with creating different kinds of harmonies to become more confident and creative harmony singers. 23

Kathy Randels, John O’Neal, Stephanie McKee, Linda ParrisBailey, Dudley Cocke, Robert Martin, Paloma McGregor, Nick Slie Kathy Randels, founding AD of ArtSpot Productions, has written, performed in, and directed numerous original solo and group works for professional, student and incarcerated ensembles in Louisiana and beyond. She joined Alternate ROOTS in 1999. Awards include: VDay Leadership Award, the NEA/ TCG Career Development Program, and an OBIE. She founded the LCIW Drama Club in 1996 and an ensemble of formerly incarcerated women, The Graduates in 2012. Since 1998 she has worked with Students at the Center, with whom she cofounded iROC: www. artspotproductions.org In 1998, Junebug Productions hosted the ECOArts Festival in New Orleans, that examined Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism in throughout the country with an acute focus on Louisiana. The festival was supported by, among others, the American Festival Project. Guests included Carpetbag Theatre, 24

Roadside Theatre, Urban Bush Women, ArtSpot Productions and several individual artists.From 2006 to the present ArtSpot and Mondo Bizarro created a trilogy of sitespecific performances around the theme of coastal land loss in Louisiana. The elder companies started a conversation that the younger generation is continuing. How do we learn from our artistic ancestors’ strengths and weaknesses? How do we participate in large movements across time, geography and generations? How do our aesthetics contribute to or compete with the movement we seek to build around environmental racism and environmental justice? John O’Neal, Stephanie McKee, Linda ParrisBailey, Dudley Cocke, Robert Martin, Paloma McGregor, Nick Slie and Kathy Randels discuss using stories from their work together and individually over the past 30 years.

Art

Lynn MarshallLinnemeier Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier is a Visual Mythologist, a Creator of Things. Her work is deeply rooted in public collaborations, where she creates largescale textile based sculptures, installations, and assemblage works, through the Journey Projects, an interdisciplinary, intergenerational effort that addresses and embraces ancestral memory. This learning exchange will utilize cyanotype to demonstrate how the photographic/printmaking medium can be used across disciplines. This nonsilver photographic process was invented in 1841 by Sir John Hershel. The process uses the sun to make a photographic print. The first book of photography was created by Anna Atkins, who knew the scientist. The photographic/printmaking nature of the medium lends itself to numerous possibilities including writing and performance. For this exchange we will be using large sheets of fabric that have been sensitized with the cyanotype chemical to create table cloths that will serve as backdrops for a larger conversation about the aesthetics of social activism.

Art

MK Wegmann Nicole Garneau Sonia BaezMK Wegmann, President & CEO, Nicole Garneau is an interdisciplinary Hernandez National Performance Network has artist making site-specific 30 years experience in presenting performance and project art that is and Morgana and producing for nonprofit directly political, critically conscious, visual and performing arts. NPN and community building. She Wallacesupports the creation and touring is currently completing a book of contemporary art, providing an about the 5-year (2008-2012) Copper organizing link among communities, UPRISING project. UPRISINGs are artists and presenters. Wegmann works with organizations and artists in planning, organizational development and systems management.

Current Issues in National Cultural Policy is a roundtable discussion about trends in policy making in the national arena which have an impact on how artists are able to support their work and thrive in a healthy community. Trends from the foundation world as well as different aspects of federal legislation and the role we can play in advocacy are topics that will be on the table. Two specific trends, Creative Placemanking and Capitalization will be part of the discussion.

Jasmine Coles

monthly “public demonstrations of revolutionary practices.” She also teaches, makes ceremonies, and does healing work. nicolegarneau.com. Pragmatic Visionaries will be a workshop exploring the creation of secular ritual and ceremony as artistic practice. The workshop will draw on the experiences of all participants in order to create collective strategies for enabling all participants to enjoy an ecstatic experience of connection to the earth. A metaceremonial structure will be co-created and transparent. Pragmatic Visionaries will explore movement, writing, meditation, sacred sensuality, singing, and storytelling in order to access deep levels of visionary wisdom.

Sonia Baez-Hernandez is a multidisciplinary artist and scholar working in issues of social justice, integrating aesthetics, research, filmmaking, and visual art.

Reinventing Borders expands the Call to Action: Aesthetics by reflecting on border art and promoting an aesthetic of contestation and partnership. It shares our case study of partnership, curatorial, and artistic experiences in the exhibition Redrawing Borders. A partnership between two ROOTS members Sonia Baez-Hernandez from Florida and Morgana WallaceCooper with the International Sonoran Desert Alliance (ISDA) in Arizona.

Art

Jasmine Eileen Coles is a storyteller. This learning exchange is a facilitated movement/dance workshop that explores evolution of movement in relation to music, race, culture, sex, and power. (Please be aware that music lyrics will have explicit lyrics and may be inappropriate for children under 18.) 25

An Alternate ROOTS Glossary of Terms ROOTS has a 38-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. Critical Response: ROOTS Week gives 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. ExCom: The “Executive Committee” of ROOTS is frequently referred to as the “ExCom.” The ExCom 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. Learning Exchange: A Learning Exchange looks different wherever and whenever it happens. It is an opportunity for a community, a group of people, artists, facilitators/trainers, and any combination thereof to come together around an agreed upon topic. Inspired by the principles of Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal, ROOTS has adopted the term “learning exchange” to show that all the knowledge that is needed to solve any given problem is already in the room. 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 26

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 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 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.

is made possible through support from the following: