Alternate ROOTS seeks a dynamic and visionary Visual Arts Coordinator for ROOTS Week. Thanks to continued support from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, ROOTS is able to dedicate time and energy to the cultivation of service to its visual arts members…
Breathing Room for Something Unstoppable
“Wholehearted.” Collage for June Jordan by Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Article by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Ph.D. (Durham, NC) A. Opening Prayer (take deep breaths in the stanza breaks) C(h)ant. Breathe. Dedicated to Eric Garner* And to…
Something to Behold in West Baltimore
By Jamie Haft, (Syracuse, NY) This article was originally published at Roadside Theater: Art in a Democracy. It is reprinted here with permission. This is a story about how residents, artists, community organizers, university professors, and students responded to a…
Decolonizing Aesthetics
Article by Nicole Gurgel (Albuquerque, NM); Photos by Melisa Cardona (New Orleans, LA) “For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable…
Call for Artists! Y’all Come Back: Stories of Queer Southern Migration
Y’all Come Back: Stories of Queer Southern Migration is a project of love and grit, created by Queer Southern artists to tell the rich and layered stories of migration to and from the U.S. South. Y’all Come Back seeks visual…
Aesthetics is a Verb: The Aesthetics and Documentation Learning Exchange, Transcribed
By Nicole Gurgel (Albuquerque, NM) This past ROOTS Week, several members facilitated a Learning Exchange on Aesthetics and Documentation, extending AlternateROOTS’ yearlong investigation into aesthetics as a concept and a practice. The panel was facilitated by Bob Leonard and Jan…
Tagged with: aesthetics, Bob Leonard, Cristal Chanelle Truscott, Linda Parris-Bailey, Mark Kidd, Nick Slie, ROOTS Week
Cucalorus Film Festival: A Work That’s Constantly in Progress
by Shannon M. Turner Alternate ROOTS Manager of Programs & Services For the past seven years, Alternate ROOTS has been sending artists to the Cucalorus Film Festival as facilitators for their Works in Progress program and emcees for other films…
Tagged with: Ashley Sparks, Bobby B, Cucalorus, Dan Brawley, Don Harrell, Ebony Golden, Nicole Garneau, Wilmington
Facing Race Spotlight: Southern Artist Carlton Turner
Check out this fantastic new article about our Executive Director, Carlton Turner. Click here. Thanks, Colorlines, for your leadership of the field.
Tagged with: Carlton Turner
Driving Sustainable Change from Our Cultural Roots
By Carlton Turner, Executive Director, Alternate ROOTS (Utica, MS) The following statements were prepared for and delivered at the Activating Networks: Changing Culture Through the Arts convening at the Ford Foundation on July 29, 2014. This program was made possible by…
The Aesthetics of Valuing Difference: Art & Movement Building in the 21st Century
By Collette Carter, Operations Director, Project South (Atlanta, GA) Alternate ROOTS is proud to be collaborating with Project South through our Partners in Action Program. Founded in 1986, Project South has developed thousands of leaders within communities directly affected by…
Territories on our Bodies
Article by Alison Hall Kibbe (New York, NY) this map creeps over my body I feel hills roll and rivers meander rushing to carve out space the highway carries the songs and stories of peoples etched into my side I…
Announcing New Webinars & Workshops on Digital Storytelling
Dear Friends, StoryCenter’s 2015 Public Workshop schedule will be posted on our website in the coming weeks, but we want to share a few exciting workshops and webinars taking place this summer. Please follow links below for more information or…
Tagged with: newsroom
“A Need to Make Something”: Opening Up a Year-long Exploration of Aesthetics
Article by Nicole Gurgel 2014 marks the beginning of Alternate ROOTS’ three-year initiative, A Call to Action, in which we will be deeply reflecting on our work as artists and cultural organizers. Each year of this initiative is focused on a…
Whisper, Howl, Sing: C/APP Projects Listen, Then Tell
This year’s Community/Artist Partnership Program (C/APP) projects share many connections. Each of the four projects merge art and activism, spring up out of local communities, and address the need for healing in the face of trauma and oppression. Last month we heard…
Magical Moments, Critical Connections and Cry You One
Article and Photo by Monique Verdin People keep asking me how I got involved with Cry You One. The journey deserves its own chapter really as it has been an unimaginable story involving a magical series of critical connections and unexpected…
Cristal Chanelle Truscott
The Burnin’ is an a cappella musical inspired by two nightclub tragedies; one in 1940 in Natchez, Mississippi (the Rhythm Night Club fire) and one in Chicago, Illinois in 2003 (a stampede at the city’s popular E3 nightclub). Occurring decades…