Marcus Young describes sidewalks as "the blank pages of our city as a book." Inspired by names or initials stamped in concrete, Young capitalized on sidewalks as an underutilized public space to give poets a new place to showcase their writing.
Through a contest open to all residents of Saint Paul, a panel of judges chose twenty winning pieces and fourteen honorable mentions. Young constructed large stamps of the winning poems and teamed up with the city’s sidewalk maintenance program to create 100 prints across the city.
Profiles - Projects
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New York, NY
Exit 12 Dance Company focuses on nonverbal communication to bridge communities and healing through creative expression and has choreographed several productions about the issues faced by service members and their families. Roman Baca, a professional ballet dancer, put his dance career aside and enlisted in the Marines in 2000. He was deployed to Fallujah in 2005 and by the time his tour was over, he thought he would not dance again. In a February 2013 Village Voice feature story, Baca described the anxiety, anger, and depression he experienced upon his return home.
Los Angeles, CA
Based on themes of migration and displacement, Expulsion explored the temporary and often fragile nature of the concept of “home.” Conceived by Heidi Duckler and Merridawn Duckler, the cross-disciplinary performance incorporated a set designed by architect Alex Ward and original music composed and performed by Daniel Rosenboom and Alex Noice. The production, a contemporary retelling of the ancient story of Cain and Abel, drew from the stories of local community members.
Durham , NC
Face Up: Telling Stories of Community Life, a collaborative public art project in Durham, North Carolina, engaged more than 1,500 people in a series of events hosted between 2007 and 2009 that fostered new connections and dialogue, expanded awareness of local history, and resulted in the creation of fourteen permanent public murals.
Los Angeles, CA
In its four-and-a-half year Faith-Based Theater Cycle, Cornerstone Theater Company created original community-based plays in collaboration with faith-based institutions and inter-faith communities. The project explored how faith both unites and divides American society through experimentation with a variety of dialogue approaches that gave congregation members and others who attended the plays a chance to reflect on the issues and questions that rose from them.
Baltimore, MD
Feminine Transitions: A Photographic Celebration of Natural Beauty is a refreshing and inspiring, full-color book of photography. Its pages present a series of portraits that reveal the elegance and subtly honest beauty of female faces between the ages of 7 weeks and 103 years. For women, aging brings with it an inner grace and beauty that is more than skin deep. From birth to old age, women transition through many physical, psychological, and emotional phases that are recorded on their faces.
Takoma Park, MD
Liz Lerman Dance Exchange’s 2006 Ferocious Beauty: Genome project, a touring performance created in collaboration with geneticists and educators, explored how knowledge of the genome “will change the way we think about aging, perfection, ancestry and evolution.” The performance integrates elements of dance and theater with state-of-the-art recorded and live-feed video and multichannel soundscape, including dialogue with scientists.
Tempe, AZ
Everyone has a story. Every city has a history. In the spirit of community building, the Herberger College of Fine Arts Community Partnerships Office will launch its Finding Phoenix project this summer. Community members are invited to come to the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center in downtown Phoenix on June 26 to share stories about the former George Washington Carver High School and its place in the history of the Phoenix community.
Tucson, AZ
Finding Voice is an innovative literacy and visual arts program in Tucson, Arizona dedicated to helping refugee and immigrant youth in LEARN Center English Language Learner (ELL) classes at Catalina Magnet High School develop their literacy and second language skills by researching, photographing, writing, and speaking out about critical social issues in their lives and communities.
San Francisco, CA
The documentary Food, Inc. lifts the veil on America’s highly mechanized, corporate-controlled food industry, revealing a system that is an increasing threat to the health of consumers, the safety of workers, and the future of the environment. Active Voice, together with Participant Media, ran the Ingredients for Change Campaign, a year-long initiative consisting of a series of community engagement screenings and discussions.
Free Poetry For
Baltimore, MD
It Takes a Village is an auxiliary workshop developed by Towson University Alumni, and Poetry in Community founders, Douglas Mowbray and Christophe Casamassima—who is also a Towson University Staff and Faculty Member—for the Village Learning Place’s LINK After School Program. Poetry in Community and the Village Learning Place share the common goal of supporting, educating, and mentoring the youth enrolled in LINK.
Minneapolis, MN
Part studio and part gallery, part lounge and part caucus, Freedom of Assembly evolves from bare walls as students explore their political identity as individuals and as a community through creative collaboration. Organized by MCAD’s Student Advisory Council.
Orange County, CA
Pacific Symphony’s Frieda Belinfante Class Act program, initiated in 1993, is a comprehensive symphony education partnership between the Symphony and 30 elementary schools throughout Orange County. The program introduces over 16,000 students and their families to the musicians of Pacific Symphony and educates them about orchestral music. The participating students and families served reflect the wide ethnic and socio-economic diversity of the county.
Philadelphia, PA
Funeral for a Home commemorates the slow decline and gradual rebirth of Philadelphia’s housing stock and the lives these homes contain. Arranged by Temple Contemporary at Temple University's Tyler School of Art, Funeral for a Home aims to bring the community together to share the life and passing of a single home in the Mantua community through community gathering, dialogue, and reflection.
Clarksburg, WV
Jaeson Parsons started the Graffiti of War Project after he returned from Iraq, where he served as an Army medic, and found that not all of his therapy needs could be met through the Veterans Affairs hospital. Sparked by the off-hand and impromptu thoughts and artwork scrawled on the latrine walls in Iraq and Afghanistan, Graffiti of War has evolved into a collection of original artworks and photos of war zone graffiti by service members. Project organizers traveled to bases in Iraq and Afghanistan to document and preserve the murals and makeshift memorials painted by troops.
Cincinnati, OH
Green Acres: Artists Farming Fields, Greenhouses, and Abandoned Lots explored artist’s creative use of farming practices to inspire self-reliance, improve food quality, demonstrate sustainable farming techniques, engender community actions, and foster local identities. Curated by Sue Spaid and featuring works by over 24 American artists, the exhibit was followed by a book that discusses related projects by nearly 240 international artists and architects.
New York, NY
The Habeas Lounge is a space for civic dialogue where project staff, and volunteers work together to curate a series of public discussions and exchanges on critical civic and democracy-related topics. The Lounge uses the built environment to provide a publicly available space that promotes dialogue. Artists design a space aimed at breaking away from the typical dynamics of the panel discussion. The space is laid out using special materials, backdrops, and arrangements so as to create a more fluid and inclusive atmosphere where candid civic exchange is encouraged and promoted.
Brooklyn, NY
Urban Bush Women led a series of performance-based dialogues called “Hair Parties” in racially and economically diverse neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York.
New York, NY
The injustice of solitary confinement and the transformative power of art are explored in Herman’s House, a feature documentary that follows the unlikely friendship between a New York artist and one of America’s most famous inmates as they collaborate on an acclaimed art project. In addition to following the usual festival and broadcast path, Herman's House is being used as a tool for public awareness raising by organizations which are actively working on issues of solitary confinement in the US. Herman's House is opening in New York on April 19, 2013.
Ridgewood, NY
Artist Rha Goddess’s Hip Hop Mental Health Project (HHMHP) seeks to shift the cultural paradigm of shame and alienation surrounding mental illness and satisfy the need for a safe place to confront mental health issues and obtain vital information.