Photo: Katina Parker By Katina Parker (Durham, NC) | March 20, 2017 8:40am, Saturday, January 21. The day after the Inauguration. I was hustling through the streets of DC trying to make the beginning of the Women’s March Rally. Pink…
It Is Still a GOOD Morning
Carlton Turner | November 9, 2016 Carlton Turner shared this message with Alternate ROOTS’ staff and Executive Committee the morning after the election. Good Morning, I know that you are all disappointed with the outcome of last night’s election. Take…
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Arts: It Is Possible
By Keryl McCord, Operations Director, Alternate ROOTS | June 17, 2016 A few weeks ago Alternate ROOTS published my article, and its follow-up piece, Why We Must Have Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Arts: A Response to the National…
Tagged with: ArtSpot Productions, Azule, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Junebug Productions, Mondo Bizarro, ROOTS Culture, Transformation
Archival Revival | A Call for Cultural Development
By Dudley Cocke and Ruby Lerner Originally published: 1989 | Republished: April 11, 2016 The Archival Revival Series looks back at articles by ROOTers, about ROOTS, in celebration of our 40th anniversary. This series, and the field of arts activism, owes…
Tagged with: Archive, community and culture, cultural organizing, Dudley Cocke, Roadside Theatre, The South
Community Artist Partnership: Building Community Power, A Conversation with Linda Parris-Bailey and Cristal Chanelle Truscott
Progress Theatre performs The Burnin’ at ROOTS Week 2014. Photo: Melisa Cardona. By Joe Tolbert This article is an edited transcript of a conversation that was facilitated by Joe Tolbert on February 8, 2016 with Linda Parris-Bailey, Executive/Artistic Director of…
“We Don’t Do Drive-Bys”: A Conversation with Don Harrell, ROOTS Meets Zora
Artists and Cultural Organizers gather at ROOTS Weekend-Eatonville. L-R: Don Harrell, King Shakur, Jan Cohen-Cruz, Sonia Baez-Hernandez, Monique Davis. Photo: Ariston Jacks. By Jan Cohen-Cruz I sat down with Don Harrell, liaison for the second ROOTS Weekend, in Eatonville, FL,…
How Can We Create A World Where No Youth Are Locked Up? Bringing Incarcerated Youth to the Forefront of the Movement for Youth Justice
Trey Hartt, (Richmond, VA) | February 3, 2016 Performing Statistics is part of Alternate ROOTS’ 2015-16 Partners in Action cohort. “If you were me you would know that I love my family; that I’m a respectful person; that I have the…
Meet Our Winter 2015-16 Artistic Assistance Awardees
For Immediate Release February 8, 2016 Contact: Nicole Gurgel-Seefeldt, Communications Manager 651-895-9206 nicole@alternateroots.org Alternate ROOTS is proud to announce our Winter 2015-16 Artistic Assistance Award Recipients. This group of 26 artists, activists, and cultural organizers spans eight Southern states and…
From Script to Screen: Documenting the Free Southern Theater
Early Free Southern Theater promotional image, circa 1970. Jason Foster & Kiyoko McCrae (New Orleans, LA) | February 2, 2016 “Through theater, we think to open a new area of protest. One that permits the development of playwrights and actors,…
ROOTS 40th Year: A Call to Action – Emergent Organizing
Members of Carpetbag Theatre perform Red Summer at the 1992 Annual Meeting, at Table Rock, NC. From L-R: Vida Werner, Bert Tanner, Adora Dupree, and Linda Parris-Bailey. Article by ROOTS Staff | January 6, 2016 In 1976, at the Highlander…
The Places We Call Home: ROOTS Weekend at Zora Fest
(L-R) Ausettua AmorAmenkum and Jarrell Hamilton perform in Junebug Productions’ Gomela/to return: Movement of Our Mother Tongue. Photo credit: Melisa Cardona, 2014. Article by Tamiko Ambrose Murray (Asheville, NC) | January 4, 2016 Interested in attending ROOTS Weekend-Eatonville? Click here…
ROOTS’ Year of Transformation: Learning From our Past and Holding Space for What Doesn’t Yet Exist
L-R: Carlton Turner and Sistufara Muhammad lead a community dialogue at ROOTS Week 2015. Photo: Melisa Cardona. Article by Jessica Solomon (Washington D.C.); Photos by Melisa Cardona (New Orleans, LA) December 7, 2015 As I reflect on this year at…
My 1968 in South Carolina 2015
Article and Photos by Omari Fox (Orangeburg, SC) | December 7, 2015 With official and ‘on the fly,’ #BlackLivesMatter chapters sprouting up everywhere in the country after non-indictments of law enforcement officers in late 2014, South Carolina’s two key cities,…
Resistance as Legacy
David Montana, Big Chief of the Ouachita Nation Mardi Gras Indians. Photo: Rebecca Mwase, 2015. Article by Rebecca Mwase (New Orleans, LA) | October 2, 2015 New Orleans is ten years post-Katrina. The landscape of the city has been ravaged…
“Lord knows we’ll never be the same again, but at least we started telling the truth.”* A Report Back from Environment & Economy Day at ROOTS Week 2015
Land, Water, Food, Story altar installed by Clear Creek folks, created from copies of deeds to the land and rusty farm implements found on the land over the years. Photo: Nicole Garneau, 2015. Article by Nicole Garneau (Chicago, IL) Editor’s Note: This…
Using Art to Undo Imperialism
Dora Arreola in “Telares (o el Olvido),” with Mujeres en Ritual Danza-Teatro at ROOTS Week. Photo: Melisa Cardona, 2015. Article by Anu Yadav (Washington D.C.) A woman silently gestures to me in the cafeteria, her face partially obscured by…
ROOTS Week 2015: A Preview
We are pleased, proud, and excited to announce the incredible artists, culture-bearers, organizers, activists, and scholars who will share their work with us at ROOTS Week under the banner, A Call to Action: Transformation. Within this theme, we’ll be focusing…
Tagged with: ROOTS Week
Symbols of Struggle: Black Lives Matter
Chen Lo in Soundtrack ’63 by Soul Science Lab. Originally commissioned and produced by 651 ARTS, Soundtrack ’63 will be presented by Junebug Productions and Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans in January 2016. Photo: Xy-Fy Fotography. Article by Kiyoko…
Teatro Sin Fronteras: Shifting Narratives to Include Latina/os in the Rebirth of Post-Katrina New Orleans
A packed house at Teatro Sin Fronteras #3 at Old Marquer Theatre. Photo: Craig Morse, June 2015. Article by José Torres-Tama (New Orleans, LA) “The workers and families who helped rebuild New Orleans live in terror today … If they leave their…
Indigenous Artists Gathering 2015 – Minneapolis, Minnesota
Lumhe “Micco” Sampson presenting his workshop, “Hoop Dance Teaching: Indigenous Circles of Leadership” at the Indigenous Artists Gathering. Photo: Ashley Minner, 2015. Article by: Ashley Minner, Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina Alternate ROOTS Executive Committee Member (Baltimore, MD) Way back…