At around 2 pm this past Sunday, 20 year-old Daunte Wright, an African American man, drove through Brooklyn Center, MN, with his girlfriend in the passenger seat. A few miles from where Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd, he was pulled over for the what the police said was an expired registration. Kim Potter, a long-serving …
NOTE: This post is to introduce you to the third episode of François Matarasso’s and my monthly podcast, “A Culture of Possibility.” You can find it and all episodes at iTunes along with miaaw.net’s other podcasts by Owen Kelly, Sophie Hope, and many guests, focusing on cultural democracy and related topics. You can also listen …
NOTE: This is a guest post by my friend Francois Matarasso, originally appearing at his website A Restless Art. It describes the second episode of our podcast, “A Culture of Possibility,” linked below on SoundCloud. You can also listen to it at iTunes and subscribe to miaaw.net’s other podcasts by Owen Kelly, Sophie Hope, and …
One thing we’ve been hearing a lot about since the quadruple pandemic hit is the hope that instead of trying to restore our civic and market systems to their former flawed and inequitable state, we should see this enforced pause as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make essential change. People see the opportunity to strengthen democracy, …
Over the last week or so, both my colleague Francois Matarasso in Europe and I have published excerpts from our dialogue about past public service employment programs in the US and UK. Yesterday, we discussed it all on Zoom with folks on both continents, and I want to share that conversation with you. (But first, …
NOTE: I’m delighted to be once again cohosting a “virtual residency” with my friend and colleague Francois Matarasso on my blog and his. (You can access the previous residencies here: on ethics and on the future of community arts.) Starting 29 September, we’re publishing excerpts from our dialogue on public service employment past, present, and …
NOTE: I’m delighted to be once again cohosting a “virtual residency” with my friend and colleague Francois Matarasso on my blog and his. (You can access the previous residencies here: on ethics and on the future of community arts.) Starting 29 September, we’re publishing excerpts from our dialogue on public service employment past, present, and …
After working with nonprofit organizations for a zillion years, I don’t put much faith in mission statements, for one simple reason. The process of articulating identity and values can be exciting, fun, and satisfying; to be sure, living the examined life is as important for organizations as for individuals. But most of the time, once …
Sometimes the memory is so fleeting I can’t quite bring it into focus, but most of the time, memories flow like a river carrying everyone I’ve ever known, everywhere I’ve ever been. It started a few weeks into the pandemic, and it’s been keeping a steady beat ever since. In the space between laying my …
Seven weeks ago I published two essays on the way U.S. arts advocates—the established institutions in particular—responded to the pandemic. The first one criticized the narrow, economistic, and backward-looking calls for funding issuing from red-carpeted marble halls. The second one called for very different statements and actions, grounded in social benefit, with investment in jobs …