Readings
he sits on the stone seat in the river of Market
and looks into the light
the light changes he said and I feel time
he speaks of the slant of the golden light when the season turns
and it seems the night with its mystery is coming
the light is a veil of life
he speaks of the sidewalk wet in the rain
I think of his words when I’m out in the wet
The occult perfume of cement
I wake up in the morning and call for my mother like I never did before
what was that you dreamed about time? that word you made?
“Every system is perfectly designed to get the result it gets.”
— W. Edwards Deming (possibly apocryphal)
Cultural equity is critical to the arts and culture sector’s long-term viability, as well as to the ability of the arts to contribute to healthy, vibrant, equitable communities for all. At the core of the challenges related to cultural equity are the historically inequitable distribution of resources and the value systems, biases, and systemic barriers associated with that distribution.
Read More...The depression and the depressed
The religion and the sinner
The lie and the truth
The psychosis and the psychotic
The fruit and the infectious weeds
The tear and the retraction of sadness
The ache and the needle and the stitch
The family and the estranged
The kitten and the lion
The poet and the poem
The ten and the zero
The date and the dated
The empty pot and the full belly
The wink and the snicker
Introduction
John Ton, Robby’s Arc. Photo courtesy of author.
When I applied for a position at the Howard Gilman Foundation in the summer of 2014, there was very little I could do in the way of research or preparation. Online material about the late Howard Gilman was sparse. His foundation appeared to have a website, but upon closer inspection, it was just a single home page, and even that seemed out of date.
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ABOUT THIS POEM: “‘Muddy’ is inspired by the motion and cadence of Diné words. Looking at it on the page, one sees kinetic text and hears onomatopoeia, so the repetition of ‘tł’ish’ reenacts the sound of someone stepping in mud, and then the word itself turns into a poem.” — Orlando White
Read More...In the fall of 2019, SMU DataArts — in partnership with Theatre Communications Group (TCG) — released a paper examining the financial health of nonprofit theaters in the years leading up to, during, and following the Great Recession. With data pointing to an economic slowdown, the researchers explored the financial preparedness of US theaters to weather the coming period of uncertainty and turbulence.
Read More...Many of us working in arts philanthropy believe deeply in the power of art and culture to create shared experience and connection, and to contribute to strong, healthy, and resilient communities. We spend a lot of time making the case for the value of the arts to our colleagues in other fields, to our public officials, and those in other sectors. Over the past several years, there has been a noticeable and significant increase in interest among folks outside of the arts in how arts, culture, and creativity can play a role in equitable community development.
Read More...Black father
tells daughter
that she is now
Black
daughter is not convinced
she has grown up
in the same
brown skin
she sits in
as she listens
to Black father
tell her
of her newfound Blackness
but
Blackness
is something
her child mind
is not yet
able to understand
it jumps to
more familiar things
like
cartoons
The MCA Denver’s new and multi-tentacled Octopus Initiative is based on an old and familiar concept. It is a lending library at its core, and those have been around, in one form or another, for nearly five thousand years, ever since humankind started committing cuneiform to clay.
Despite its unusual name, the program sticks to the basic structure libraries have honed ever since: a public institution holds in trust valued materials of common interest and allows borrowers to take possession of them for a set amount of time. Nothing too original in that regard.
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