MAKE ART. BUILD COMMUNITY. CREATE CHANGE.
2022 CREATE CHANGE HANDBOOK
02 | ABOUT THE LP 03 | Mission, Vision + Theory of Change
TABLE OF CONTENTS
04 | Organizational History 07 | Values 08 | P.O.C. Principles 10 | The LP Staff + Team
13 | CULTURE GUIDE 14 | Community Practice + Attendance 15 | Engaging Conflict 16 | LP Harassment Policy
17 | CREATE CHANGE 2022 18 | Program Overview 20 | Curriculum Components 21 | Tech Specs 22 | Artist Feedback 23 | Program Schedule 28 | Artist Cohort Profiles
ABOUT THE LP
WHO WE ARE The Laundromat Project is an arts organization that advances artists and neighbors as change agents in their own communities.
ABOUT THE LP
WHAT WE SEE
WHAT WE DO
We envision a world in which artists and neighbors in communities of color work together to unleash the power of creativity to transform lives.
We make sustained investments in growing a community of multiracial, multigenerational, and multidisciplinary artists and neighbors committed to societal change by supporting their artmaking, community building, and leadership development.
THEORY OF CHANGE When artists and communities collaborate toward collective goals, we create meaningful transformation and wellbeing. Making art and culture in community and fostering new leadership helps shape a world in which members feel truly connected and have the ability to influence and shape their communities in creative and effective ways. 3
LP HISTORY Our roots reach back to 1999, when The LP founder, Bed-Stuy resident Risë Wilson, left the corporate sector to build a life around art and community service.
The Laundromat Project (The LP) was incorporated in 2005 to make art accessible and relevant in New York City neighborhoods where people of color reside.
Risë’s original idea for The Laundromat Project was to meet people where they already were and use art as a tool for turning strangers into neighbors. A belief in creativity as a powerful means of self-determination—and a keen desire to redraw the lines between art maker and art consumer, art as luxury and art as necessity—led Risë to the laundromat: “No matter what was happening in the economy, people had to do their laundry, and this was a kind of de facto public space.” The idea of a laundromat as a primary place for engagement has expanded over time, now serving as a metaphor for a variety of settings in which artists and neighbors transform their lives and surroundings. Our programming has evolved to take place in community gardens, public plazas, local cultural
HISTORY TIMELINE 1999 Risë Wilson first dreams up The Laundromat Project as a vehicle for bringing art to spaces where community members already gather.
2006 The board expands and is joined by present-day ED Kemi Ilesanmi. Rudy Shepherd, Shinique Smith, and Miriam Neptune become The LP’s first Create Change Artists-inResidence, staging projects in existing laundromats throughout NYC Projects culminate with an installation at Skylight Gallery at the Bed-Stuy Restoration Community Development Corporation
2009 Create Change returns, with projects taking place in laundromats in Bed-Stuy and Harlem. The LP launches its Community Arts Education program in Harlem, a series of artmaking workshops at laundromats. Petrushka Bazin Larsen is hired as The LP’s first staff member, becoming an early and integral part of LP’s programming. 5
2005 The LP is incorporated by Risë Wilson and the founding board, including Alea Woodlee and Dawn Strickland. The LP receives its first funding via the Echoing Green Fellowship and a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council. Risë’s goal is to eventually purchase and operate a real laundromat that will host arts programming The first public LP art program, a fabric mural workshop, takes place at the Stuyvesant Heights Senior Center in Bed-Stuy, facilitated by Risë
2008 The Financial Crisis hits, making the purchase of a laundromat ever more difficult. The board suspends the Create Change program for one year to recalibrate.
2010 The LP officially becomes a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
2011 After 5 years offering the Create Change residency, The LP adds a fellowship program for artists looking to develop or deepen their community engagement practice. Kemi Ilesanmi joins The LP as the first full-time and paid Executive Director. Risë Wilson becomes Board Chair.
2014 The LP collaborates with Kelly Street Garden, Banana Kelly, and Workforce Housing to transform a two-bedroom apartment in the Hunts Point/Longwood neighborhood of the Bronx into a community art space
2019 The LP launches a new strategic vision to carry it forward through at least 2022. With great care and community engagement, The LP bids farewell to its Kelly Street space while setting intentions to bring its programmatic and administrative operations under the same roof. The organization holds multiple community listening sessions to determine where our new home should be.
2013 The LP completes its first full strategic plan with Yancey Consulting, and identifies three “anchor neighborhoods” for sustained programmatic focus: Bed-Stuy, Harlem, and Hunt Point / Longwood. The inaugural Field Day—a daylong activation of Create Change artist projects —takes place across the three neighborhoods, happening annually through 2017.
2018 The LP begins a communityengaged strategic visioning process in partnership with Buscada.
2020 The LP finds a perfect space in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. We sign a 10-year lease the same week that the COVID-19 pandemic shuts down New York City! While the move can’t happen exactly as planned, The LP is able to begin its community engagement process.
WHAT WE VALUE As we strive to achieve our mission and embody our vision, we are guided by our values, and always reflect upon how we can best:
NURTURE CREATIVITY
WRITE OUR OWN HISTORIES
We value creativity as a rich and renewable resource that turns strangers into a community of strong and resilient neighbors.
We value self-determined narratives as an essential basis for building lasting community power.
BE POC-CENTERED
PRACTICE ABUNDANCE
We value the voices, imaginations, knowledge, cultures, and leadership of people of color (POC).
We value our communities’ collective capacity to shape an equitable future. Together, we encompass everything we need.
CREATE CHANGE We value addressing community challenges and creating opportunities for new visions.
VALUE PLACE We value meeting people where they are and the legacies embedded in place.
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BE PROPELLED BY LOVE We value love as a radical and essential act of power and protest to create the kind of world we all deserve to live in.
POC PRINCIPLES Since our beginning, The LP has centered the voices, cultures, imaginations, knowledge, and leadership of people of color (POC). We do this to push against complex systemic injustices in pursuit of a world in which all people–across race, ethnicity, class, age, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality, disability status, and migration status–are free to be their whole selves. As we mature institutionally, The LP strives to more fully articulate how and why we do our work. We start from a place of bold visioning so we can help build the world we want to see. We manifest being POC-centered as an ongoing organizational practice rooted in multiracial solidarity. Below, we outline what being POC-centered and intersectional means to us. WELCOME COMPLEXITY We commit to diversity that is more than skin deep by continually asking ourselves and our communities how we can be a more welcoming and supportive organization across race and ethnicity as well as across class, age, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality, disability status, and migration status.
CULTIVATE REPRESENTATIONAL POWER We commit to maintaining a board and staff that is at least majority people of color, particularly leadership positions. We will continue to serve artists of color predominantly and communities of color exclusively.
MATCH ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES & ORGANIZATIONAL VALUES We commit to developing and enhancing our internal organizational policies, practices, and systems––e.g. advocacy, gift acceptance, and personnel policies––to be fully values-aligned.
NURTURE LEADERSHIP We commit to investing in the leadership and professional development of LP community members, including artists, neighbors, staff, and board. We will provide training to LP staff on anti-racist, gender, and disability equity practices. This commitment includes making space for reflection and self care in action and policies.
ADVANCE ECONOMIC DIGNITY & ACCESS We commit to being thoughtful when setting program fees as well as compensation for staff, interns, artists, faculty, partners, etc. We are committed to prioritizing POC-led and community-based vendors for needed services. When possible, we will use financial institutions that value and invest in POC communities. KNOW THAT LANGUAGE MATTERS We commit to using accessible, multimodal, and multilingual language that upholds the dignity, complexity, and full humanity of LP community members and communities––verbal and written, spoken and unspoken, virtual and otherwise. HONOR PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE We commit to grounding our work in concrete power analyses as well as the often intersecting histories, present day realities, and future dreams of POC communities. We strive to respect and record POC voices, creativity, and knowledge now and for the future. SHAPE CONVERSATION We commit to using our organizational voice to ignite, shift, influence, and amplify important conversations in our field for productive learning and engagement. BUILD A NET THAT WORKS We commit to fostering stronger relationships with values-aligned and POC-centered organizations, in order to partner as well as exchange knowledge and resources that strengthen our collective power. HOLD OURSELVES ACCOUNTABLE We commit to rigorous and transparent criteria, learning, selfreflection, feedback loops, and real time adjustments––e.g. programs, partners, resources––that help us grow our POCcentered practice. We will produce annual reports that detail our progress across these principles in order to manifest collective strength and understanding in our field.
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MEET THE LP STAFF
Moncho Alvarado she/her, they/them Operations Coordinator moncho@laundromatproject.org
Tiara Austin she/her, they/them Artist Engagement Coordinator tiara@laundromatproject.org 929 - 251 - 3294
Amelia Brod she/her, they/them Development Manager amelia@laundromatproject.org
Emma Colón she/her Media + Storytelling Manager emma@laundromatproject.org
Ebony Golden she/her Cultural Organizing Consultant ebony@laundromatproject.org
Brittany Grier she/her Community Engagement Fellow brittany@laundromatproject.org
Kemi Ilesanmi she/her Executive Director Kemi@laundromatproject.org
Ladi'Sasha Jones she/her Artist Engagement Manager ladisasha@laundromatproject.org 646 - 801 - 3024
Julia Mata she/her Storytelling Fellow julia@laundromatproject.org
Erica Rawles she/her Community Engagement Coordinator erica@laundromatproject.org
Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani she/her Interim Director of Programs gabrielle@laundromatproject.org
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Cievel Xicohtencatl she/her Community Engagement Manager cievel@laundromatproject.org
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Ayesha Williams she/her Deputy Director ayesha@laundromatproject.org
MEET THE LP TEAM BOARD OF DIRECTORS
NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD
Ashima Aggarwal Naomi Beckwith Alison Cuzzolino Susan (Suzy) Delvalle Patton Hindle Rasu Jilani Jessica Lee Panthea Lee Salvador Muñoz Kevin Rabsatt Diya Vij George Suttles (Chair)
Dr. Deborah Willis Erin Barnes Eugenie Tsai Glenn Ligon Javier Valdes Katy Rogers Larry Ossei-Mensah Laura Zabel Merele Williams Adkins Nelini Stamp Ryan Dennis Sonia Guiñansaca Susana Torruella Leval Teresita Fernandez Thomas Lax Tiana Webb Evans
SUPPORTORS The Create Change program is made possible in part by The Bay & Paul Foundations; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Artha Foundation; Ford Foundation; Jerome Foundation; Robert Sterling Clark Foundation; The New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowship Program; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and the New York State Council on the Arts. The Create Change Fellowship is supported in part by our Catalyst Circle members.
CULTURE GUIDE
COMMUNITY PRACTICE Be present Be gentle & enjoy yourself Ask for help & give help Be transparent about triumphs & challenges Presume charitable intention (we are on the same team) Prioritize open communication and feedback loops Listen to understand, not just respond or solve Never a failure; Always a lesson Lean into collaboration and co-creation with diverse voices
SHOWING UP WE WELCOME YOU TO: To have pets and people pass by your background. (We are still in a pandemic!) To bring how you really feel about being in a pandemic to the group. To stand, stretch, eat/drink as needed. To not be super tech savvy - we will show you everything you need to know to participate fully.
ATTENDANCE Please do your best to arrive on time and to not leave leave sessions early. There are two losses when you are absent: you miss out on the curricula and shared cohort development, and we miss out on your perspective! Sessions are connected, not as a bridge from one to another, but more as pieces of the puzzle; you won't see the complete picture if you miss one. Let us know if you can’t make it to a session by alerting Ladi'Sasha Jones at ladisasha@laundromatproject.org or 646 - 801 - 3024. After three absences, a staff member will be in touch to discuss your participation. We do recognize the schedules of daily life and the unpredictability of living in a pandemic may cause unintended disruptions; please do your best to minimize what you can control by planning ahead.
ADDRESSING CONFLICT Although we aim for your time within the Create Change program to be generative and abundant, we know that community and collaborative processes are not immune to conflict. Here are some tools to help you navigate situations you may encounter here and elsewhere. Please contact a Laundromat Project Staff member for support with mediation if matters escalate.
CONFLICT RESOLUTION TIPS* SAY "OUCH"
BE MINDFUL OF TRIGGERS
Speak up about what's making you uncomfortable, or when someone says something you find hurtful
Be respectful of your tone, body language, language choices, and personal space
TAKE A BREATHER AND REFLECT
REVISIT THE MOMENT
Take some time away from the matter and find time to process stressful encounters
Articulate the offense/moment clearly. What happened? How did it make you feel?
SELF-CARE COMES FIRST
LEAN INTO DISCOMFORT
Think about how to best care for yourself in the moment and throughout the program
Uncomfortable conversations aren't fun for anyone, but its a moment to grow
CHECK IN WITH YOURSELF AND OTHERS Talk to the other person to ascertain whether a constructive conversation is possible at this time
MAKE A DECISION
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Determine your capacity to engage the conflict further and ask for support when needed.
TALK IT OUT Allow and create space for dialogue
FIND WAYS TO MOVE FORWARD This can look like forgiveness, acceptance, or just a willingness to move on.. *From NEW INC. Community Values Guide
WE DO NOT TOLERATE HARASSMENT The LP believes that all team members including program participants should be in an atmosphere free from all forms of discrimination, including sexual harassment and any other form of harassment (such as harassment based on race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, marital status, veteran status, uniformed service member status, pregnancy, parenthood, genetic information or characteristics [or those of a family member] or any other characteristic or status protected by law) Sexual harassment is unwelcome verbal or physical behavior based upon a person’s gender/sex and includes unwanted verbal or physical sexual advances, requests for sexual favors or visual, verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. Sexual harassment can occur regardless of the gender of the person committing it or the person exposed to it. Harassment on the basis of an individual’s sexual orientation, self-identified gender, perceived gender or transgender status is all forms of prohibited sexual harassment.
PLEASE REPORT HARMFUL BEHAVOIR Individuals who believe that they or another individual have been subjected to harassment and or sexual harassment, or who believe another individual has been subjected to harassment and or sexual harassment, should as soon as possible, report it to the Deputy Director, Ayesha Williams via email at ayesha@laundromatproject.org.
CREATE CHANGE
CREATE CHANGE OVERVIEW The Laundromat Project invites all NYC-based artists, activists, neighbors, designers, organizers, healers, storytellers, and cultural producers to apply for the 2022 Create Change program as we explore social practices through a community engagement lens. The program will consist of a series of hybrid (virtual and in-person) convenings to engage The LP’s community-based art pedagogy and practices, which center collaborative, cooperative, and cocreated art projects. The Create Change program is shaped around three learning blocks:
MAKE ART
What role does art, culture, and creativity play in making meaning, shifting narratives, and creating change in the world?
BUILD COMMUNITY How can art and cultural practices build trust and accountability with communities?
Artists examine a range of artworks across the fields of social practice and creative placemaking that align with The LP’s approaches to cultural asset mapping and leadership development.
Artists will explore approaches to fostering attunement with community rhythms, building reciprocal partnerships, and the art of meeting people where they are.
CREATE CHANGE Understanding the power that exists within ourselves and our communities, how do we creatively leverage power for equity and positive societal change?
Artists will explore personal and collective relationships to race, power, and privilege in order to facilitate social transformation through their art and cultural practices.
FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM The Create Change Fellowship program is for artists and cultural producers who are interested in developing and deepening a collaborative, community-based, and socially-engaged creative practice. The Fellowship is philosophically grounded in peer-learning around art making, power analysis, and community building. The 2022 Create Change Fellowship requires Fellows to develop and incubate of a new collaborative, community-based, and sociallyengaged creative program. Through working in small groups, Fellows will incubate ideas for actionable projects within Bed-Stuy that incorporate The LP’s values and methodologies as a foundational approach.
RESIDENCY PROGRAM The Create Change Residency program supports the development of participatory and community-attuned creative projects by artists of color working within their communities. Projects may take place anywhere in the five boroughs either in person or virtually, across various community sites, from laundromats and urban gardens to playgrounds and community centers. The residency is a year-long program that runs from January to December. The program requires a significant time commitment as Artists-inResidence are expected to develop collaborative projects in-community through partnerships and engagement with neighbors, local stakeholders, and community organizations. The Residency offers a $15,000 honorarium and up to $5,000 in project production, a series of workshop sessions taken alongside the Create Change Fellows, monthly cohort coaching sessions, and professional development mentorship.
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CURRICULUM COMPONENTS COACHING
Coaching is a part of our professional development offerings to artists to explore tenants of cultural organizing in both a group setting and via 1-1 conversations with Ebony Noelle Golden.
FELLOWS GROUP WORK Fellows Group Work includes the development and incubation of a new collaborative, community-based, and socially-engaged creative program. Through working in small groups, Fellows will incubate ideas for actionable projects within Bed-Stuy that incorporate The LP’s values and methodologies as a foundational approach. FINAL PRESENTATIONS
Final Presentations is a moment of reflection and celebration of the creative and critical work produced throughout the Create Change program. Artists explore their takeaways from the learning space that was cultivated alongside the development of their project designs.
OFFICE HOURS
Office Hours are weekly open appointments for The LP's artist community to access Programs Staff. These 30-minute sessions take place every Wednesday from 2 - 3:30pm and are artist-led. You can use this space as a resource to brainstorm or receive feedback on project ideas, review upcoming application materials, etc. You can sign up for office hours here.
OPEN STUDIO
Open Studio is an opportunity for artists-in-residence to share the commissioned work that is currently in progress and for the larger LP community and general public to get a glimpse into their practices.
PEER EXCHANGE
Peer Exchanges are intimate convenings between the full cohort and alums, alongside artists and activists who are committed to communitybased artmaking.
RX HOURS
Rx Hours is structured as a micro studio sessions with leading artists, curators, writers, activists, etc.
WORKSHOPS
Workshops are sessions that deeply engage The LP's pedagogical framework around community-based art and social practice. These sessions are facilitated by LP Staff and members of our larger community.
TECH
SPECS As this year's program will administered in a hybrid virtual to in-person format, here are the platforms we will use to stay connected and to shape our creative learning:
GOOGLE GROUP LISTSERV This listserv is a space for you to post and share opportunities, project news, and more with your Fellow cohort members. You can make posts by emailing createchange@googlegroups.com.
GOOGLE CALENDAR The most up to date program schedule will live here in this Google calendar. You all have been invited to the calendar and you can access it here.
INFO CENTRAL Google site with resources to support your journey as Create Changers! Access here. MIRO We will be utilizing Miro during our workshop sessions and for Fellows collaborative work. If you do not have a personal Miro account, you can create one free of cost. If you are unfamiliar with what Miro is and does, check out this video for a tutorial.
SLACK This is a new element to the program as a way for cohort members to engage and interact with each other informally. You all have been invited to The LP's Slack Workspace as guest members to the following channels: #2022_residency #2022_fellowship #2022_create_change
ZOOM + GOOGLE HANGOUT These are the platforms we will be using throughout the program. Workshops, coaching, and events are hosted via Zoom. Small group and 1-1 meetings will be conducted via Google Hangouts. 21
ARTIST FEEDBACK We value feedback loops and appreciate your support in helping us reflect on the program. After each workshop and coaching session, please complete a shortform evaluation form to document your feedback on it impact and effectiveness. The same form will be used for all sessions. Simply select which session you are evaluating at the very top and proceed from there. Your responses are anonymous and greatly inform the way we shape the program for future cohorts. Here are links to the form via Google Forms:
LONG URL
https://forms.gle/a39bca5TkCvau ECs7
In addition to this session evaluation form, we invite you to directly share your refections, ideas and recommendations toward Create Change throughout the program and beyond. You can reach out to a Programs team member and offer your thoughts during the exit-interview conversation at the end of the program.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE JANUARY Orientation + Welcome Reception with LP Staff
January 29 | 12 - 5pm | Virutal Orientation is shaped around groundsetting and sharing more about the practices and goals for the Create Change programs. This is also an important moment to generate seeds of community building amongst the cohort members and the larger LP community.
FEBRUARY Cultural Organizing with Ebony Noelle Golden
February 9 | 6 - 8:30pm | Virtual Our legacies are ripe with technologies for liberation. During this workshop, we will reach back into the rich wells of justice we come from to build a framework for unearthing, understanding, and activating art and culture as tools for collective visioning and liberation. Participants will walk away with a working understanding of how collective power, vision and action should guide the development and implementation of creative cultural organizing strategies.
Entering, Building + Exiting Community with Urban Bush Women
February 23 | 6 - 9pm | Virtual This workshop is rooted in UBW's value-centered approach for work in communities, particularly those that are perceived as economically poor and in crisis, to build and expand a movement of practitioners that decolonize approaches and methodologies and move toward building self determined, liberatory engagements. Participants will explore UBW core values and experience a variety of community building exercises to implement into their practice. UBW asks participants to think beyond the immediacy of tools gained to instead embrace understandings that, with implementation and continued practice will enhance their understanding of their work and its impact, to ensure judgments don’t inadvertently privilege hierarchical values and reject our common humanity.
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PROGRAM SCHEDULE MARCH Building Community Partnerships with LP Staff
March 9 | 6 - 8:30pm | In-Person This workshop explores how to cultivate and sustain community partnerships and collaborative projects. We will cover The LP’s approach to building partnerships focused on shared values and language, community care, and authentic leadership. This will be a time for Fellows and Artists-in-Residence to explore community engagement strategies for their projects.
Centering POC, Power + Privilege with LP Staff
March 23 | 6 - 8:30pm | In-Person This workshop will serve as a laboratory for developing shared antioppression practices that we can integrate into our work as artists and cultural workers. Together we’ll reflect on the ways that white supremacy can seep into our own organizational / communal / collective structures and community partnerships. Individuals and groups involved in positive social change often need to think about the important context and relationships (between individuals, organizations, institutions, etc.) within the spheres of their work. Relationships are critical resources, as stronger networks yield stronger solutions. Power mapping is a valuable tool and process to better understand how to leverage relationships and networks. The goals for this session are: to build collective knowledge through participation and dialogue; to understand the value of relational power and privilege as an important dynamic in social change; and to arrive at shared best practices for engaging communities with art, all through the lens of racial dynamics.
Fellows Group Coaching with Ebony Noelle Golden
March 28 | 6 - 7:30pm | Virtual In their project groups, Fellows will meet with Ebony Noelle Golden (ENG) to help develop and hone their activations for the LP space. Fellows will have met prior to these coaching sessions and will bring materials / reflections for ENG to respond to and provide structured support. The following prompts can be used to help share about the process and the group needs: What is exciting you about your ideas, process or community of interest? What has been challenging with this process? Are there any questions that are guiding your process? What do you need? What is next to think through?
PROGRAM SCHEDULE APRIL Residency Group Coaching with Ebony Noelle Golden
April 4 | 6 - 7:30pm | Virtual AIRs will connect with Ebony Noelle Golden (ENG) as a cohort to reflect on where they are with their projects (what is on pause, what has shifted, what can they continue to develop) and receive input from ENG, LP Staff, and peers. ENG will share insight on community building and engaging potential partners / collaborators during this time; addressing how AIRs can stay connected to key project supporters and allies. This session will explore the cultural organzing strategy of community-asset mapping.
Open Studio with Ibi Ibrahim
April 6 | 6:30 - 7:45pm | In-Person / Virtual Created by Yemeni American artist Ibi Ibrahim, Reclaiming Realities is a photo and oral history project documenting Yemeni American bodega workers across New York City. The project will explore themes of home and multi-national identity.
Storytelling + Oral History with Fernanda Espinosa
April 13 | 6 - 8:30pm | Virtual Creative interventions that center listening can be powerful tools in reclaiming meaning and space, as well as centering voices and stories as sites of expertise, resistance and self-determination already existing in our communities. This workshop will review the basics of documenting people’s voices and get us thinking on practicing oral history approaches to shape and inspire creative projects. We will review some basic concepts, engage in activities to understand the options involved in this approach, and discuss the different aspects of documenting voices at a practical and ethical level.
Open Studio with Kendra J. Ross
April 27 | 6:30 - 7:45pm | In-Person / Virtual The Sankofa Residency is a multi-phase project by Kendra J. Ross and collaborators rooted in the history of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and an Afrofuturist imagining of Bed-Stuy moving forward. The project uses research, oral history, and collaborative imagining through dance to facilitate a plan for local residents, businesses, and stakeholders to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic in a place of healing, thriving, and progress. 25
PROGRAM SCHEDULE MAY Fellows Project Activations with Fellows Groups
May 2 - 31 | In-Person Fellows Group Work includes the development and incubation of new collaborative, community-based, and socially-engaged creative projects. Through working in small groups, Fellows will incubate ideas for actionable programs within Bed-Stuy that incorporate The LP’s values and methodologies as a foundational approach. Group work is the more self-guided and practice-based portion of the Fellowship program where fellows get to focus on communities of collective interest. This season, each Fellow group will receive a $1000 production budget to activate The LP’s storefront.
Fellows Group Coaching with Ebony Noelle Golden
March 2 | 6 - 7:30pm | Virtual In their project groups, Fellows will meet with Ebony Noelle Golden (ENG) to help develop and hone their activations for the LP space. Fellows will have met prior to these coaching sessions and will bring materials / reflections for ENG to respond to and provide structured support. The following prompts can be used to help share about the process and the group needs: What is exciting you about your ideas, process or community of interest? What has been challenging with this process? Are there any questions that are guiding your process? What do you need? What is next to think through?
Open Studio with Jamel Burgess
May 11 | 6:30 - 7:45pm | In-Person / Virtual Archiving East New York is a community archival project highlighting counter narratives about communities of color in East New York, Brooklyn. Jamel Burgess and community members will produce an accessible digital platform including oral histories and multimedia elements to educate East New York residents and the general public about the Brooklyn neighborhood.
Open Studio with Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong
May 18 | 6:30 - 7:45pm | In-Person / Virtual Reflective Urbanisms: Mapping NY Chinatown is a storytelling project about Manhattan’s Chinatown community as told through its built environment. The project will map Chinatown through changes the buildings and streets have undergone over time, and through community stories about the activities that took place there.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE JUNE Rx Hours with LP Staff
June 1 | 6:30 - 8:30pm | Virtual Rx Hours is structured as a micro studio-sessions between the Create Change cohort and leading artists, curators, writers, activists and cultural producers. The aim is to seed meaningful connections through open and generative conversations around the field of contemporary arts, cultural organizing strategies, participatory public art formats, and so much more.
Final Presentations Event with Fellows
June 15 | 6:30 - 7:45pm | In-Person Final Presentations is a moment to celebrate and reflect on the Create Change Fellowship program. During this virtual public gathering, each Fellow will share presentations on the development of their project designs and ideas, alongside any key takeaways from the overall Fellowship experience.
Fellows Exit Interviews with LP Staff
June 20 - 24 | Virtual Fellows will register for 1-1 conversations to share feedback and recommendations on the program.
JULY Residency Group Coaching with Ebony Noelle Golden
July 18 | 6 - 7:30pm | Virtual AIRs will connect with Ebony Noelle Golden (ENG) as a cohort to reflect on where they are with their projects (what is on pause, what has shifted, what can they continue to develop) and receive input from ENG, LP Staff, and peers. ENG will share insight on community building and engaging potential partners / collaborators during this time; addressing how AIRs can stay connected to key project supporters and allies. This session will explore the topic of project evaluation and analysis.
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PROGRAM SCHEDULE OCTOBER Residency Group Coaching with Ebony Noelle Golden
October 17 | 6 - 7:30pm | Virtual AIRs will connect with Ebony Noelle Golden (ENG) as a cohort to reflect on where they are with their projects (what is on pause, what has shifted, what can they continue to develop) and receive input from ENG, LP Staff, and peers. ENG will share insight on community building and engaging potential partners / collaborators during this time; addressing how AIRs can stay connected to key project supporters and allies. This session will explore the topic of sustaining a social practice and creative entrepreneurship
NOVEMBER Final Presentations Event with Artists-in-Residence
November 9 | 6:30 - 7:45pm | In-Person Final Presentations is a moment to celebrate and reflect on the Create Change Residency program. During this virtual public gathering, each Artist-in-Residence will share presentations on the development of their commissioned projects.
Residency Exit Interviews with LP Staff
November 14 - 18 | Virtual Artists-in-Residence will register for 1-1 conversations to share feedback and recommendations on the program.
SCHEDULE NOTES This schedule is subject to change. All sessions are scheduled on Eastern-standard time. The sessions marked with a hybrid location (In-person / Virtual) indicate that the locations will be decided by the leading artist(s) or facilitator(s). All virtual sessions will be convened via Zoom, unless otherwise instructed. All in-person sessions will take place at The LP storefront in Bed-Stuy located at 1476 Fulton Street, Brooklyn NY 11216.
BRIANNA CHERYL DUNESKA IBI JAMEL
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JESSICA JING KENDRA KYRA MADJEEN
MAYA MON NATALIA SHARI WALIS
CHERYL WING-ZI WONG SHE / HER
Reflective Urbanisms: Mapping NY Chinatown Reflective Urbanisms: Mapping NY Chinatown is a storytelling project about Manhattan’s Chinatown community as told through its built environment. The project will map Chinatown through changes the buildings and streets have undergone over time, and through community stories about the activities that took place there. Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong’s work investigates the transformation of space over time. She explores how spaces can perform on varying scales, ranging from smaller scales such as shelters and surfaces that accommodate the body, to larger spaces that extend their reach to entire environments. Her work questions the social implications of space through audience-sensitive architectural interventions, in which harnessing public interaction is integral. cheryl@cw-zw.com 917-232-4640
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IBI IBRAHIM HE / HIM
Reclaiming Realities: The Yemeni American Experience Reclaiming Realities is a photo and oral history project documenting Yemeni American bodega workers across New York City. The project will explore themes of home, multi-national identity, and the enduring impact on Yemenis and Yemeni Americans of political events such as the Yemen War and travel ban. Ibi Ibrahim is a Yemeni American visual artist, writer, and musician. His work is often inspired by his immediate surroundings, with an artistic practice that has steadily evolved to reflect his personal experiences and life stages over the past decade. His early work touches upon issues of sexuality, gender, and tradition across the Middle East, including in his native Yemen. ibiibrahimart@gmail.com 410-245-0317
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JAMEL BURGESS HE / HIM
Archiving East New York Archiving East New York is a community archival project highlighting counter narratives about communities of color in East New York, Brooklyn. Jamel Burgess and community members will produce an accessible digital platform including oral histories and multimedia elements to educate East New York residents and the general public about the Brooklyn neighborhood. Jamel Burgess is a multidisciplinary artist and community organizer. Through music production, Jamel explores musical lineage, sound manipulation, and hip-hop production. Jamel has over 10 years of experience producing instrumentals and received a music production degree from Queensborough College before completing a self-directed degree centered in art and activism from The New School for Social Engagement in 2021. He is also a founding member and former president of The New School’s Hip Hop Collective.
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burgessjamel05@gmail.com 929-255-7799
KENDRA ROSS SHE / HER
The Sankofa Residency The Sankofa Residency is a multi-phase project by Kendra J. Ross and collaborators rooted in the history of BedfordStuyvesant, Brooklyn, and an Afrofuturist imagining of BedStuy moving forward. The project uses research, oral history, and collaborative imagining through dance to facilitate a plan for local residents, businesses, and stakeholders to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic in a place of healing, thriving, and progress. Kendra J. Ross is a Detroit native working as a dancer, choreographer, facilitator and community organizer in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. As a dancer, Kendra has worked with Urban Bush Women, Ase Dance Theater Collective, and MBDance, to name a few. Her choreographic work has been presented at Dixon Place, Ailey Citigroup Theater, and Actors Fund Theater and as an Artist in Residence of the Neighborhood Project of 651 Arts. Kendra serves as the Founder/Director of STooPS, an outdoors-based arts community building event that uses art as a catalyst to strengthen ties in Bed-Stuy.
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kendra@thekendrajross.com 347-450-2226
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BRIANNA
Brianna Harlan is a multiform artist and organizer. She works in community intervention and re-contextualized objects to innovate on how sociopolitical identity affects health, selfhood, and community. Her current main mediums are community-based art, installation, public intervention, works on paper, and photography. She defines her work as, “a perfectly broken flower pot in the middle of the street, causing a slow down and close look at what is sublime and what is fractured.” briharlan@outlook.com 502-724-9486
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SUANNETTE MICHEL THEY/SHE
Duneska Suannette is an Artist, Educator, and Community Organizer whose work explores and re-imagines notions of connectedness throughout the Caribbean specifically focusing on Hispañola. In Suannette’s visual work they are currently producing paintings they title Portals as well as paper weavings serving to critique modern issues in Hispañola. duneska.suannette.michel@gmail.com 646-309-2720
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JESSICA CORTEZ
Jessica Cortez (she/her) is a Chicana theatre artist from San Diego, CA currently living in Brooklyn, NY. Jessica received her MA in Applied Theatre from CUNY School of Professional Studies and her BA in Ethnic Studies and Theatre Arts from the University of San Diego. She has worked as a teaching artist with the Creative Arts Team, Ping Chong + Company, Teatro Izcalli, and the San Diego Opera. She is passionate about centering POC in all of her creative work and views theatre as a tool for building community, education, and activism. jessccortez@gmail.com 619-888-0048
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DONG SHE/HER
Jing Dong is a theatre maker focusing on creating research-based and community-based interdisciplinary performances. She believes that theatre is a space for people to gather, share, and imagine a collective future. Jing developed her artistry in ensemble settings by taking multiple roles. She has initiated projects on the Lower East Side that investigate into personal memories and social historical context, and promote social justice and the well-being of community members. She was a 2019/20 AIR at University Settlement, and a LMCC Creative Engagement Grantee in 2020/21. jingdong024@gmail.com 917-886-1153 35
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KYRA
My time living and working in India, Spain, LATAM, and Brooklyn in fields ranging from education, digital marketing, and community building taught me that art. As an urbanist, I love creating safe spaces with a socio-anthropological mindset in order to embolden those stories we do not hear in mainstream media. I have been able to facilitate this work through my podcast around immigrants and emigrants from across the globe called @nocountryformoving, being a past original board member for a nonprofit called, BlackSpace as well as writing content that aligns itself with identity, her/history. kyra.bonsu@gmail.com
MADJEEN ISAAC SHE/HER
Madjeen Isaac (b. 1996) is a painter based in Brooklyn, NY. Her practice is rooted in her Haitian-American identity, upbringing and Afro-Diasporic stories. She explores themes of nostalgia and familiarity by reconstructing and assembling melanges of urban and tropical environments to create utopias and realms of her imagination. Isaac received a BFA in Fine Arts from the Fashion Institute of Technology (2018) and an MA in Art, Education & Community Practice from New York University (2021). madjeenisaacstudio@gmail.com 917-600-5990
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MAYA
Maya Jeffereis is an artist whose work shares the stories and experiences of people who are and have been historically marginalized. Her work has been shown in the United States and internationally, including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Queens Museum, New Britain Museum of American Art. She is a current Fellow at A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn. She has taught at The Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Hunter College. Maya received a MFA from Hunter College and a BFA and BA from the University of Washington. mjeffereis@gmail.com 425-985-2651
MONICA (MON) SHE/HER
Mon M is a propagandist, artist, and writer from India living on Canarsee and Black land whose work focuses on campaigns to free them all, institute jail construction moratoriums, and diminish the carceral and casteist state. pinkmohapatra@gmail.com 434-962-9189
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NATALIA GUZMÁN SOLANO
Natalia Guzmán Solano is a fugitive intellectual hailing from northwest Queens. Natalia has used testimonio as her main artistic practice to explore themes of gender and water protection. Natalia regularly contributes to programming in Washington University in St. Louis’s Prison Education Project and has been a guest curator for Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project’s The Warbler. nfg214@nyu.edu 347-891-1562
SHARI JONES SHE/HER
Shari Jones, creator of ASNEAA and TLP Create Change 2022 Fellow. Her educational background includes a B.A. in Economics and she is a proud graduate of the NYC public school system. In August 2018, she graduated with her Master of Social Work with a concentration in Leadership and Macro Practice. Her advanced year studies included a global community assessment on the lack of reparations for the African Diaspora. That same year, she launched ASNEAA- a “social justice enterprise” business start-up dedicated to the global mapping and narrative collection of the African Diaspora. asneaaorg@gmail.com 646-321-1029
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WALIS
Walis Johnson is a multidisciplinary artist/researcher whose work documents the experience and poetics of the urban landscape through oral history and ethnographic film, performance and artist walking practices. She holds an MFA from Hunter College in Integrative Media and taught at Parsons School of Design. walisjohnson@gmail.com 646-249-8919
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2022 CREATE CHANGE
