Artivism: Painting a Future of Justice and Peace
This article contains the content from the 7/02/2020 Bioneers Pulse newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter straight to your inbox!
Artivism = art + activism
Art is meant to elicit emotion. That’s what makes it a powerful tool for activists to advance movements of peace, love and justice. Art confronts social issues in ways that words alone cannot. From dance and theatre to painting and poetry, creative expression helps people share experiences and speak to the heart. Bioneers has always featured engaged arts and artists as core components of our annual conference.
This week, we explore how visionary artists around the world are critiquing the world’s most pressing challenges while inspiring hope and advancing solutions. The featured image is “Unite” by Barbara Jones-Hogu, 1971.
The Thrive Choir: Harmonies of Liberation
Oakland’s Thrive Choir, a collective of passionate activist musicians, has created a groundbreaking model of what a fully engaged vocal ensemble rooted in community can do to inspire and galvanize its audiences. We spoke with three leading members of the choir, Austin Willacy, Kyle Lemle and Joyous Dawn, to explore their history, motivation and process.
“Creating music in groups and singing with other people have always been powerfully healing practices, and that’s as important now as ever, or more so, even if we have to do it online,” says Dawn. “And art can play different roles. One thing it can offer is a kind of chronicle of what’s happening right now, but it can share it in a way that’s not just intellectual (which is also important of course). It can convey the feeling of the current moment in a form that’s charged with creative spirit and that can reach people in a different, more direct way.”
Read more and watch Thrive Choir perform here.
Ancient Arctic Wisdom and Cutting-Edge Sounds: Zarina Kopyrina of OLOX
Indescribable performer Zarina Kopyrina (one half of the musical duet OLOX) discusses her roots in Siberia’s Yakutia region, steeped in an ancient and still vibrant shamanic culture, and her extraordinary life trajectory that has taken her from a tiny village in one of the remotest and coldest places on the planet to playing her mind-bendingly original and hauntingly beautiful music around the globe.
Read more and watch OLOX perform here.
Your Invitation to Truth Mandala: A Community Ritual for Honoring Our Grief, Anger and Love for the World
This Sunday, July 5, join Bioneers Co-Founder Nina Simons for this two-hour ceremony, which will create a brave space to experience, witness and (if desired) express emotions you may be feeling about systemic racism, state violence, climate, the pandemic and all the roiling changes, challenges and movements uprising at this time.
Facing our Wounds: A New Narrative for a Time of Awakening
Jerry Tello is one of the most beloved wisdom teachers and brilliant storytellers we know. Of Mexican, Texan and Coahuiltecan roots, Jerry was raised in the South Central/Compton areas of Los Angeles and has dedicated himself for four decades to transformational healing, to the mentoring of men and boys of color, to racial justice, and to community peace and mobilization.
In this interview, Jerry discusses how we can begin to address the imbalances and injustices in our society by taking a deep look at the false narratives that have dominated our culture for far too long, and how we can begin to reclaim our understanding of the sacredness and interconnectedness of all things.
Art As Social Change: Birthing the Dawn Of A New Day | John Densmore & Climbing PoeTree
“Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.” (Bertolt Brecht). John Densmore, legendary drummer of the Doors, joins visionary spoken word duo Climbing PoeTree in an exploration of creativity and social change. This episode of Bioneers Radio features exclusive interviews with the artists and a special Bioneers performance of Jim Morrison’s poem, “American Prayer.”
Listen to the podcast episode here.
New Bioneers Media Collection: “Artivism” for Social Change
All significant movements for positive change are accompanied by outpourings of artistic expression that help open our eyes to injustice and convey powerful new visions and possibilities.
This key role of the arts in social movements is as true today as it’s ever been, and we at Bioneers have sought to feature the work of groundbreaking socially and eco-engaged artists from across different disciplines.
What We’re Tracking
- From the New Yorker: “A Community’s Struggle to Protect Itself from Land Mines in the Colombian Amazon” | The territory of the indigenous Siona people has been caught up in armed conflict for decades; now the group is balancing the needs for demining efforts and for isolation.
- From the LA Progressive: “‘Black Lives Matter’ Is About More Than the Police” | Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, pens this op-ed about how “black lives should matter in all stages of life — and to honor that truth, we must radically transform the system from its roots.”
- From Forbes: “What’s Next? Envisioning An Equitable Economy Post Covid-19 & Systemic Racism With Dr. Manuel Pastor” | If the economy in the past has been a tool for systemic racial oppression — what could a post Covid-19 economy look like?
- From Lion’s Roar: “May Disrupting Anti-Black Racism Never Cease” | This article is by Kamilah Majied, who coined a framework that Bioneers co-founder Nina Simons often turns to — that a pro-social triad of behavior includes: Cultural Humility, Discomfort Resilience and Fierce Compassion.
- From Lit Hub: “Layli Long Soldier on Wounded Knee and the Murder of George Floyd” | Layli Long Soldier’s brilliant essay explains how the long histories of anti-Indigenous and anti-Black violence are linked.
- From The Guardian: “World has six months to avert climate crisis, says energy expert” | This article warns that a post-lockdown rebound in greenhouse gas emissions could push us to the point of no return, but it also offers a chance for redemption.
Schumacher Conversations: Envisioning a New Economics
The annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures represent some of the foremost voices on a new economics, including a number of visionaries from the Bioneers community. Join Bill McKibben, Gar Alperovitz, David Orr and more in celebration of the 40th anniversary Schumacher Conversations series.
Registration for each virtual meeting is free, and the series begins on Thursday, July 9. Sign up today for the opportunity to hear these speakers reflect on their previous Schumacher Lectures given current economic, social, ecological and political realities.
This article contains the content from the 7/02/2020 Bioneers Pulse newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter straight to your inbox!
