Greetings,

Here is the weekly roundup of Black Lives Matter, protests and equity-centered news.

Best,

Jerelle Jenkins

Local Arts Services Coordinator

Americans for the Arts

202.371.2830 x2086

Pronouns: she/her/hers

From: Ruby Lopez Harper <rharper@artsusa.org>
Subject: October 28: Black Lives Matter, protests and equity-centered weekly news roundup

Hello/hola, esteemed colleagues:

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.

We invite you to share this news roundup with your networks and colleagues. Visit our Cultural Equity Resource Center for more information and past resources.

Thank you for your continued work.

PROGRAMMING/RESOURCES

(Times listed are Eastern time zone. We will feature new offerings here – free to low-cost opportunities. Previous listings have been moved down to below the signature)

• Oct 29, 2:00p: On the Implications of Trump’s Executive Order on Equity Trainings (Oct. MPU)

Presented by Independent Sector. The Trump Administration recently released its Executive Order on “Combatting Race and Sex Stereotyping” causing concern and confusion among nonprofit leaders who center racial equity in their missions, but also rely on government funding and grants to serve their communities. Join Independent Sector and legal experts from Sheppard Mullin for a special Monthly Policy Update focused on this key issue. In addition to our regular updates from Capitol Hill, we will provide an overview of the Executive Order, what its “ban on training and promotion of divisive ideologies” means, the implications for our organizations, and what to expect moving forward from the Department of Labor and other agencies.

• Oct 29, 8:00p: La Llorona: Myth, Memory, and Meaning (Donations welcome)

This event is offered in collaboration with the Roswell Hispano Chamber of Commerce and the Roswell Public Library. The Borderlands of Southern Colorado Lecture Series is generously supported by the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area and Colorado State University-Pueblo. Join us on Zoom on Thursday, October 29 at 6pm for our next Borderlands of Southern Colorado online lecture. In this talk, Dr. Fawn-Amber Montoya and Xavier Madrid will present "La Llorona: Myth, Memory, and Imagination."

• Oct 30, 2:15p: Race, Justice, Equity

Presented by The Atlantic. Amid a national conversation about race, what has emerged is an understanding that the Americans who interact with police, who are arrested, and who are in jails are predominantly Black and Latino men and women. Building on our pivotal conversations from the Atlantic Festival, we’ll explore how to reform, and possibly rebuild, a criminal justice system that has for too long been based on racial inequities.

• Nov 6, 12:00p: The Murky Middle: Sustainable Self-Care for Creatives Workshop

by Engage Houston | Mid-America Arts Alliance. As we navigate the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, the mental health impacts of this trauma cannot be ignored. Nor can we overlook the ways in which this crisis differentially impacts communities of color, coupled with, and intensified by, a backdrop of racial injustice. Highly sensitive people and BIPOC creators may be further vulnerable to these effects. The middle of any intense experience can feel the most hopeless- too late to turn back and not yet able to see the end. This webinar aims to normalize collective trauma responses for creatives as well as provide tangible coping frameworks. Using real-life examples, metaphors, and experiential exercises, we will explore the unique challenges of these trying times to better understand why familiar coping may be failing us. Rooted in the strengths and needs of highly sensitive people and traditionally marginalized communities, we will prioritize collective care and uncover ways of forging ahead with compassion.

**While this workshop is inclusive of all attendees, focus will be on centering the unique experiences of individuals who hold marginalized identities, especially BIPOC (Black, indigenous, people of color).

• Nov 7-8, Varies: Annual Convening ($35-75)

Join the Arts Administrators of Color Network for the 2020 Annual Convening. The only annual convening for and by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) individuals in the arts. With careful consideration and prioritization of the health and safety of our community, we are transitioning our annual gathering to a virtual one. While we may not be together physically in November, we are still curating a virtual experience that will allow space for us to learn, community build, and inspire in these challenging and unprecedented times.

• Nov 12, 2:00p: Practicing Resilience: Practical Steps for DEAI Plans

by Engage Houston | Mid-America Arts Alliance. Join us for Practicing Resilience: Practical Steps for DEAI Plans facilitated by Dina Bailey of Mountain Top Vision LLC. This two hour workshop will focus on the practical application of your DEAI plans through case studies, practical tips, and other resources. Together we will build on the theoretical content that was provided in the first 90-minute workshop on July 16th entitled, Practicing Resilience: Activating Your Antiracism and DEAI Commitments. To view the recording of the previous workshop, please visit www.maaa.org/engage. Participants will reflect realistically on what they have been doing, what they want to be doing, and how they may move forward to have greater impact.

• Nov 13, 6:00p: The Arts and Resilience: A Conversation with Vu Le

Presented by Emerging Arts Leaders Symposium at American University. With a non-stop world halted, how do we come back? Where will the Arts be? Questions are on a continual loop. Now more than ever, when facing our challenges, we must recognize the humor and enjoyment in our industry. EALS is proud to present The Arts and Resilience: A Conversation with Vu Le. A writer, speaker, and former Executive Director, Vu Le believes that "we should take the work seriously, but not ourselves. There's tons of humor in the nonprofit world, and someone needs to document it." In this conversation, Vu Le will explore how the arts and nonprofits can come back, and enjoy it. We have a challenge ahead of us, but we can conquer these time. 

• Monthlong: Through Tumultuous Times: Reimagining and Rebuilding ‘America’ ($0-30)

by Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life. This year, in place of an in-person National Gathering, Imagining America is hosting a month-long series of creative engagements providing opportunities for reflection, healing, and a radical reimagining of the world in which we live. Combining open call community creative work with a curated program of performances, artist and scholar dialogues, workshops, and community meals, this Collective Creative Engagement will reckon with the steep toll of Covid-19 and the systemic inequities it has laid bare while drawing on the power in the possibility of this moment.

• PODCAST: ¡Firme! The Latinx cuentos y arte platica By LTNX artes

¡Firme! is the real talk podcast on cultural heritage, inclusion in the pacific Northwest art community, multi-generational stories, and sharing the evolving community in Spokane, WA. Along with Chicano artist, Miguel Maltos Gonzales you'll hear from buena gente (genuinely good people) share their experiences on art, activism, social construct of gender, community, and other cuentos. Miguel is the principle artist of LTNXartes. com. The only online marketplace based in "el east WA" for POC creatives. #chicano #latino #latina #pnw #bipoc #gente #Spokane

• REPLAY: America Public Health Association, Racism: The Ultimate Underlying Condition

This kick-off webinar of APHA's Advancing Racial Equity series examined racism and its historic and present-day impact on health and well-being. The series includes transcripts of the sessions and resources to advance your knowledge.

• REPLAY: Centering Justice: Indigenous Perspectives on Art in Public Space
• REPLAY: Public Art, Public Memory

FIELD NEWS

• YBCA Announces a $250k Investment in an Artist-Led Giving Circle
• MyMCMedia: PLAYWRIGHT AYESIS CLAY USES THEATRE TO INSPIRE AND EMPOWER TEACHERS
• Penn Arts & Science: WHERE ARE BLACK WOMEN IN MONUMENTAL ART? Dixon Li, a doctoral candidate in English, reveals a critical missing piece in the public monuments discourse.
• The Phildelphia Inquirer: Philadanco names new artistic director, restructures company
• Hyperallergic: 100 Years of Photographs of Gay Men in Love Hundreds of photographs from the 19th and 20th centuries offer a glimpse at the life of gay men during a time when their love was illegal almost everywhere.
• Artnet News: New York Cultural Leaders Gonzalo Casals and Kemi Ilesanmi Compare Notes on the Threats—and Opportunities—of the Pandemic Era We spoke with the two following their keynote address at the Art World Conference.
• Hyperallergic: We Need New Institutions, Not New Art Coco Fusco writes on why “equity won’t be achieved by a new biennial, another emerging artist of color survey, or a record auction sale by a Black artist.”
• Forbes: This Founder Is CEO Of The First Black-Owned Anime Studio In Japan
• Hyperallergic: A Museum Sells a Prized Pollock to Acquire Art by Underrepresented Artists The Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York will sell the 1946 painting through Christie’s; it is estimated to garner between $12 and 18 million.
• Fast Company: Fashion makes people with disabilities feel invisible. This designer wants them to stand out People at the intersection of disability and queerness struggle to find clothes that reflect who they are. Enter Sky Cubacub.
• Artnet News: Two Baltimore Museum Trustees Resign and Donors Rescind $50 Million in Gifts as the Institution Prepares to Sell Off Blue-Chip Art Artists Amy Sherald and Adam Pendleton have stepped down from the board amid the controversy.

NEWS

• NYTimes: Protests in Philadelphia After Police Fatally Shoot Black Man Protesters clashed with the police after the death of Walter Wallace Jr., who the authorities said had a knife. The mayor said the shooting raised “difficult questions that must be answered.”
• CNN: In one week there were at least 9 instances of police using excessive force caught on camera
• Nonprofit Quarterly: Racial Equity in Co-ops: 6 Key Challenges and How to Meet Them
• CNN: Homeland Security agencies prepare for civil unrest amid heightened tensions nationwide
• Nonprofit Quarterly: Punishment of Nonprofits for Support of Black Lives Matter Grows
• Harvard Business Review: Companies Need to Think Bigger Than Diversity Training

TAKE ACTION

• Fast Company: I’m deaf, and this is what happens when I get on a Zoom call Can you hear me? No, but I can read you. A hearing-impaired product designer has his team experience his world and says we need to make work more inclusive for people living with disabilities.
• Chief Learning Officer: 5 moves that actually increase diversity, equity and inclusion Nearly every Fortune 500 company offers some variety of diversity training, yet many workers still face bias and discrimination. Here are five things you can do to help reduce bias and discrimination in your workplace.
• Ideas.Ted.com: How to have more inclusive meetings over Zoom

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 directly, click here.

____________________

Ruby Lopez Harper

Senior Director of Local Arts Advancement

Americans for the Arts

Pronouns: she/her/hers

PROGRAMMING/RESOURCES

• Oct 28, 12:00p ET: Enhancing Cultural Awareness Through the Arts

Hosted by the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. How does your organization determine which programs to present and whose cultures to privilege or promote? Do these discussions occur at all around your meeting tables? How can increased cultural awareness and understanding be an outcome of arts provision? Let's discuss over lunch!

• Oct 29; Times vary: 2020 LATINA EQUAL PAY DAY FOR OUR ¡LATINAS UNIDAS IN PURSUIT OF PAY EQUITY! FORUM

Presented by WELD. October 29th is 2020 Latina Equal Pay Day. Latinas make just $0.54 compared to every $1.00 that white men earn. Now more than ever, we must work collectively to eliminate pay disparity that women and women of color face. Join us for a three-part national forum that will include calls to action to close the gap.

• Oct 29, 7:00p ET: Ethical Storytelling Practices

Hosted by Creative Capital. This workshop takes artists through a framework for values-based storytelling and share examples of how to put those values into practice. As artists step into their power to build and shape narratives that affect the lives of those around them, it is important to consider not just what stories are told, but how stories are told. Values-based, ethical storytelling practices center the process as much as the outcome. Progressive cultural work requires that artists employ storytelling practices that are grounded in respect, ethics, nuance, and anti-racism. Led by creative strategist and documentary impact producer Sonya Childress, this workshop will take artists through a framework for values-based storytelling and share examples of how storytellers might put those values into practice. This workshop is taught by and for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) artist disruptors to strengthen their craft, practice and build power.

• Nov 3, 1:00p ET: Strange Fruit: A Sounding Board For Life, Death, & Justice Hosted by Reimagine, Comfort Homesake. Strange Fruit focuses on the impact of Black American music (West African griot music, spirituals, blues, jazz, Black symphonic and concert music, gospel, R&B, soul, free jazz, funk, and hip-hop) and its predictive, reflective, and often eerie depiction of Black life and death over time. This experience--facilitated by musicians Ali Sharif, Latoya Cooper, and Stephanie Rivers--will examine the impact, implications, effects, and rich meanings of these musical expressions to inspire us to action, instill greater empathy in our hearts, all the while considering the social, economic, and political struggles that have consumed Black and brown people with grief.
• Nov 25, 12:00p ET: Inclusive Language for Accessibility

Hosted by the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. Are you concerned you may be using the wrong titles, nomenclature, parts of speech, or colloquial terms when referring to, or speaking about, guests or visitors with disabilities? Wonder no more: enter a safe space where we can talk about just this and ensure that future conversations will be respectful and appropriate.

• Dec 16, 12:00p ET: Inclusive HR Practices: Being Considerate of Low-Income Employees, Various Family Structures, and More

Hosted by the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. Sometimes when we talk about inclusive cultures, we focus only on race, ethnicity, sexuality, age, and gender expression. Let's not forget that there are other employees and guests who are underserved because of family-unfriendly policies or practices. Talking openly and beginning to solve these issues will go a long way towards full inclusion.