It’s a little ironic that apologia, the Greek root of the word “apology,” basically means self-defense. Perhaps that’s also the root of what appears to be widespread confusion about what constitutes an apology. Jumping into the breach, I offer a public-service announcement in the hope of helping to set that right. An apology is something …
NOTE: This post is to introduce you to the seventh episode of François Matarasso’s and my monthly podcast, “A Culture of Possibility.” It will be available on 16 July 2021. 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 …
NOTE: This post is to introduce you to the fifth 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 …
Last week, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the launch of the City Artist Corps, a $25 million initiative that will give around 1,500 New York artists funding this summer to mount “performances, public artworks, pop-up shows through New York City’s Summer Rising program, new murals and canvasses, and more,” according to the official …
I recently heard a member of the Idaho Nez Perce/Nimiipuu say that if you have the sense of having lost something, you should gaze in that direction and it will come toward you. I’ve been trying to gaze in the direction of democracy. People mean a million different things by democracy, but it seems there …
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 …
What—apart from the fact that U.S. prisons are pandemic petri dishes and prisoners’ lives are officially regarded as dispensable—does the colossal, ongoing disaster of our criminal justice system have to do with the current disaster of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout? You might answer that having the world’s largest prison population (indeed, more than 20 percent …
NOTE: My too-modest friend Francois Matarasso writes about our new monthly podcast series, “A Culture of Possibility,” dropping today. Here’s the link to subscribe on iTunes. Let us know what you think! I’m not much for patriotic displays, so I was surprised when I teared up during Lady Gaga’s singing of the national anthem at …
NOTE: This article by Charles-Éric Blais-Poulin was translated from the original French version which appeared on 16 January in La Presse, published in Montreal. I was one of several people interviewed for it. You can find the original version here. The original article described me as “autrice et référence mondiale en matière de démocratie culturelle,” …
The year is almost over, friends, and I have yet to understand exactly what is happening. How about you? I mean, sure, the COVID numbers, the unemployment figures, the police murders, the packed prisons—all of this can be quantified and at least on the level of sheer numbers, comprehended. But what boggles my mind is …