Artists and Social Justice Preconference Committee

Individual Artists & Social Justice Preconference

The preconference will take place at San Francisco's SOMArts—a multicultural, community-built arts space where cutting edge events and countercultures commingle with traditional art forms—and will bring together a rich mix of artists, activists, cultural organizers, funders, and social justice advocates.

Registration for this preconference is limited to sixty.

Participants in the Individual Artists & Social Justice Preconference will depart by bus from The Fairmont San Francisco at 7:45 AM and return Sunday evening for the Opening Reception.

Schedule

7:45 Bus Departs from the Fairmont San Francisco

8:30-9:00 Breakfast

A breakfast of mobile comfort food will be provided by Oakland-based Nick's Wheely Good Breakfast.

9:00-5:00 Daylong participatory art project with Allison Smith

Organized by Ute Zimmermann, program manager, Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue.

Allison Smith investigates the cultural phenomenon of historical reenactment and the role of craft in the construction of the national identity. She produces interactive sculptures and public events that encourage participants to "take history into their own hands." Smith will present a daylong craft project that attendees will be invited to participate in throughout the preconference.

Artist's Website: www.allisonsmithstudio.com

9:00-9:30 Keynote: Rhodessa Jones

(Jones will continue to address the Preconference throughout the day, providing feedback on and insights into the proceedings.)

Organized by Ron Ragin, program officer, performing arts, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Drawing from her extensive experience utilizing the performing arts to work with incarcerated and HIV-positive women nationally and internationally, Rhodessa Jones will deliver a keynote presentation on the use of theater as a healing tool. Jones will address how art, creativity, and collaboration initiate dialogues and she will detail the methodologies, impacts, and challenges of art practiced as social activism. She will also read short excerpts from her upcoming book, Nudging the Memory: Creating Performance with The Medea Project: Theatre for Incarcerated Women, which chronicles the creative process of working with incarcerated women and disenfranchised populations around the world.

9:30-10:30 Plenary Session

CultureStrike: Cultural Strategy and Cultural Organizing For Social Change

Organized by Diane Sanchez, director of grantmaking and donor services, East Bay Community Foundation.

Presented by Jeff Chang, executive director, Stanford University Institute for Diversity in the Arts; Erin Potts, executive director, Air Traffic Control; Favianna Rodriguez, artist, Presente.org.

Culture is the realm of ideas, images, and stories; it is where people make sense of the world, where they find meaning and forge community. History shows that when the culture changes, politics follows. CultureStrike, consisting of Art Strike and Wordstrike, organizes artists and writers to create and collaborate on work that sheds new light on issues of migrant justice and immigrant rights. This session will provide an overview of how activist-minded artists, writers, and musicians, following the pioneering work of Air Traffic Control, are advancing theories and models of cultural strategy and cultural organizing.

10:30-11:00 Break

11:00-11:50 Breakout Artist Conversations

11:50-1:00 Lunch

Lunch will be provided on the patio (weather permitting) by San Francisco's popular food truck Roli-Roti.

1:00-2:10 Plenary Session

Rhodessa Jones

Feedback from morning sessions

Brett Cook and Amy Franceschini

Moderated by Jaime Cortez

Organized by Diane Sanchez, director of grantmaking and donor services, East Bay Community Foundation; Ute Zimmermann, program manager, Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue.

Brett Cook distills his diverse experiences with art, education, science, and spirituality into murals and other community-based, collaborative public projects. His work addresses shared local narratives, both historical and contemporary. Amy Franceschini is a pollinator who creates formats for exchange. Overarching themes in her work are a perceived conflict between humans and nature and the effects of globalization on local systems. In 1995, Amy founded Futurefarmers, an international collective of artists with a common interest in creating work that challenges current social, political and economic systems. Artist Jamie Cortez will facilitate a discussion between Cook and Franceschini about their practices, their intentions, and the different communities who inform and are informed by their work.

2:20-3:10 Breakout Artist Conversations

3:10-3:45 Break

3:55-4:55 Plenary Session

Las Jornadas de la Semilla Caminante, 2009-2011

Organized by Ron Ragin, program officer, performing arts, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

In this interactive presentation, Cherríe Moraga and Celia Herrera Rodríguez will address the ways Mesoamerican and Indigenous thought, as well as a two-spirit (queer) worldview, are integral to their current work as performance, visual art, and creative/critical literature artists. A short video presentation of an excerpt of the play, La Semilla Caminante, a kind of "living codex," designed by Herrera and written and directed by Moraga will be presented, as well as video footage of Las Jornadas de la Semilla Caminante. These "Jornadas," conducted during a full year's travel in 2009 by Herrera Rodríguez, involved visiting Indigenous & migrant communities in the Western States and Chicago and served as the foundation for the performance work.