Wendy Jane's Soul Shake

AS220 Panel: Future Worlds: Call To Action

AS220 Call To Action Panel. L to R: Marco McWilliams, Anjel Newman, Je-Shawna Wholley, Shey Rivera

On Thursday, September 8th, 2016, I attended the panel talk, Future Worlds: Call To Action, which was hosted by the non-profit art organization, AS220, at 115 Empire Street in Providence, Rhode Island.

The thriving, multi-facility, and internationally recognized arts organization held the panel in one of its earlier spaces–the intimate gallery/performance area adjacent to the organization’s restaurant. Shey Rivera, AS220’s Artistic Director, who served as moderator of the panel, welcomed the audience and shared the mission of AS220 as an artist-run organization committed to providing an unjuried and uncensored forum for the arts. AS220 also offers artists opportunities to live, work, exhibit and perform, and envisions a just world where all people can realize their full creative potential, and see the role of the arts as a catalyst for social change.

FutureWorlds: Call To Action panel discussion, was one of a series of events , along with […]

This past Saturday I attended a full day of cultural events around the city, all related in some way to race and social justice on both a national, and local to Providence, level. I started out visiting the […]

I think it’s always good to go beyond the cultural spaces you continually find yourself in.  Cross over to another part of town.  Explore a new artist’s work. That’s how I expand on my experience of the world, how my life becomes more full, more rich.

So much going on here in Providence this weekend culturally, and white folks, if you keep thinking you need to get out beyond the white bubble you’re living in, here are some opportunities to enter new spaces, explore new artists’ work, and ponder current matters of art, race and racism.

Invisible Upsouth, Thursday, March 3 – Sunday, March 6, 2016, with Christopher Johnson and Vatic Kuumba, Wilbury Theatre, 393 Broad Street, Providence (Tickets: $10 – $15)

Invisible Upsouth, The Wilbury Theater Group

I was excited when local, yet nationally-acclaimed poet and arts educator, Christopher Johnson, told me he was selected to write, direct and act in his first play. You wont’ want to miss (I’m going this weekend)  Christopher’s play, Invisible UpSouth a New Works Program play commissioned by  The Wilbury Theatre Group. 

Christopher wrote and produced the play along with poet, Vatic Kuumba.  The play, inspired by the important classic, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, is described as..“part reflection, part conversation, and part examination on living in [what we’re told is] a post-racial society. But what does “post-racial” mean to the people who suffer under conditions of “everyday” racism? What does modern-day poverty look like in our community? Who holds the power in the power structure? What is considered a riot? How is an act, a verb, a word, changed depending the culture associated with it – with the race engaging in it?  […]