Hello/hola, esteemed colleagues (Apologies for the delay, I was out sick yesterday afternoon):

In response to requests for information, national context and what is happening in other communities, we are compiling this digest to support you in navigating current events and in your commitment to equity in the long term. We will circulate this news digest weekly, every Wednesday. While this is certainly not a comprehensive or exhaustive list, we hope it boosts you in your exploration, knowledge and awareness building.

We are looking at additional ways to support your equity work and welcome resources, ideas, examples and opportunities to share with the field. Please send them to services@artsusa.org.

Thank you for your continued work.

PROGRAMMING/RESOURCES

Jul 13-17, Various: BELONGING AT WORK SUMMIT

Presented by Rhodes Perry Consulting. Let’s face it, the world of work has changed overnight. Living through the Great Pandemic has underscored why our workplace’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments matter now, more than ever before. It also leaves many of us struggling with the following questions: How can we build a sense of safety, trust, and belonging at work (both virtually and in-person)? What are ways we can serve as inclusive leaders in uncertain times? How can we keep our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments on track during a crisis? How do we radically include and give our most vulnerable stakeholders what they need? What are ways our organizations can disrupt white supremacy culture in our workplaces and communities? If you find yourself grappling with these big questions, and want to connect with other DEI leaders, visionaries, & change makers, join our 2020 Belonging Summit. Together, we will grow the #BelongingMovement, and you will gain a community, new skills, and the confidence to build a greater sense of belonging at work.

Jul 20, 7:00p EDT: Ibram X. Kendi on "How to Be an Antiracist"

2019 Guggenheim Fellow and New York Times bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi will discuss his renowned book “How to Be an Antiracist” on Monday, July 20 at 7:00 p.m. with Dr. Charlene M. Dukes, president of Prince George’s Community College. Dr. Dukes is the first African-American woman to serve as president of the College and has 30 years of progressive leadership experience and administrative responsibility in higher education. The conversation will be streamed live online on Crowdcast, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter/Periscope, and will air on PGCC TV on a later date.

Replay: Remembrance as Resistance: Preserving Black Narratives

Remembrance as Resistance: Preserving Black Narratives celebrates the Ring Shout, a traditional African-American worship and gathering practice whose origins in West African ritual and ceremony predate slavery From its roots in West Africa, the Ring Shout was reborn during enslavement in the West in resistance to laws which prohibited those enslaved from gathering, except for worship, and forbid any form of cultural expression not in service to the enslavers, including drumming. These laws were imposed in an effort to systematically dismantle communication, and ultimately community. In response, those enslaved created Praise Houses—small usually wooden structures used for worship throughout the Southeast. As an act of resistance, congregants would gather in circle to stomp or shout (full body rhythmic movement) upon the wooden floors, ultimately creating a communal drum—secretly preserving their cultural rituals and collective prayers and traditions. These small hidden worship spaces were the first Black churches in the Western world.

Replay: Beyond the Board Statement: How Can Boards Join the Movement for Racial Justice? (Part One)

In this webinar session, nationally recognized governance, strategy, and equity consultants Vernetta Walker and Robin Stacia have an in-depth set conversation about how boards of directors can and should join the movement for racial justice.

The Latinx Project: Dismantling Anti-Blackness Together Two struggles—Black liberation and immigrant rights—are intertwined and must be confronted together, which means acknowledging there is racism in the project of Latinidad.
Podcast, Capacity Interactive: Perspectives on Anti-Racism from Six Leaders

FIELD NEWS

Stephen Larrick, an urban planner, has started an interesting project. He is developing a spreadsheet of the Black Lives Matter street murals and other street murals related to this moment, including images. If your city has a mural, sanctioned or unsanctioned, you can it add the info to this open spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-5U-UDOFnsPdi0lu3mKNCbcySoD5LXcPOU6is5_8KD4/edit#gid=0
Nonprofit Quarterly: The Writing on the Wall (and the Window, and the Street)
Fast Company: Can art change the world? Inside the debate raging over Black Lives Matter murals Is art a distraction from change or a catalyst? That’s the question at the heart of Black Lives Matter Plaza in D.C.—and across the United States.
CNN: The Dixie Chicks have changed their name
Fast Company: How 70 Black photographers see America A new initiative allows Black photographers to be the narrators of their own stories.

NEWS

Nonprofit Quarterly: Failure Is Not an Option: How Nonprofit Boards Can Support Leaders of Color
Medium: Glorifying White Authors like DiAngelo Erases Decades of Black Writing on Whiteness

TAKE ACTION

Harvard Business Review: Leaders, Stop Denying the Gender Inequity in Your Organization
Harvard Business Review: Confronting Racism at Work: A Reading List (Was in last week’s email without an active hyperlink)

Thanks for reading. We hope you find this news digest to be a helpful tool to support your equity work, and welcome feedback at services@artsusa.org. If you were forwarded this and want to sign up for the Local Arts Network listserv to receive it daily, click here.

____________________

Ruby Lopez Harper

Senior Director of Local Arts Advancement

Americans for the Arts

1000 Vermont Ave NW 6^th Floor

Washington, DC 20005-4940

202.371.2830 x2079

202.789.2830 fax

www.AmericansForTheArts.org

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Pronouns: she/her/hers