- 6 weeks ago
Stephanie McKee-Johnson talks about her initiative and the importance of bringing activism into our communities.
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00:00To a conversation, so I love that you have this energy and hopefully we keep this energy, alright?
00:07So give thanks, this is the Afropump Blacktopia stage and part of the music and part of being live
00:15is we're also making sure that we stimulate you intellectually and have some conversations
00:20about tech, art, and right now we're going to have a conversation about community and activism, alright?
00:27within our community. So give thanks, I appreciate it, I appreciate all the love.
00:31Shout out to all the dancers that was on the runway.
00:37So my name is Masu Jelani, I'm from Brooklyn, New York. Shout out to anyone from New York out here.
00:43I also want to give a shout out to the city that we call Malmanja, also New Orleans.
00:49I want to give a shout out to the people that are from New Orleans for hosting us.
00:53We give thanks to the ancestors. We give thanks to all the bodies and all the bloods and all the tears that it took to create this land.
00:59And who still lives on this land, we honor them.
01:02We also want to give thanks to the technology and the activations that we have over here.
01:07So shout out to all the artists who contributed to this space.
01:10So these conversation series that we've been having is about thinking about Noah as a black utopia.
01:18What does that look like?
01:20So for the last two days we've been talking about art and technology.
01:23But right now we're going to ground the conversation in creativity, activism, and building communities.
01:29So today I have a friend with me, Stephanie McGee Anderson of June Park Productions.
01:35I'm going to bring you up to the stage.
01:37Stephanie is a cornerstone figure in normal.
01:41So if you don't mind, a round of applause for Stephanie McGee.
01:45How you doing, sis?
01:49So for the beautiful people out here, tell them who you are, what you're doing, why you do it.
01:53My name is Stephanie McGee Anderson.
01:57I'm executive artistic director of an organization called June Park Productions.
02:02June Park Productions is a 40 plus year old black theater institution.
02:20It's a leader of the black arts movement.
02:24It is considered the organizational successor of an organization that's called the Free Southern Theater.
02:30Founded in 1963 by John O'Neill, Doris Derby, and Will Ramosis.
02:36The second generation of leadership produced both actions.
02:39I do this work because I love my people.
02:42I do this work because I believe that we should have beautiful things and beautiful art.
02:48And I do this work because art, I believe, is essential to helping people.
02:53A round of applause for Stephanie.
02:56How many artists do we have in the room?
02:58Any artists? Raise your hand if you're an artist.
03:01Any performers, theater artists, dancers, okay?
03:06So what we're talking about today is how do we bring our cultural expression to the communities that are meaningful for us?
03:14How do we use that cultural expression as a tool?
03:18The same way we do with technology, but do performing arts and through the arts in order to bring solidarity, activism, and resources to our community.
03:28Stephanie, you have a history, a whole history of being an activist in your community, using the talents and the resources of Joomba to be supportive, kind of strong for the New Orleans.
03:42Can you talk a little bit about some of the work that we have done that's also in the background, about what you have done here in NOLA through Joomba Productions?
03:50So we consider the work that we do at Joomba Productions at the intersection of art and activism.
03:58I think we found our place when we understood the power of what it is that we had to offer, that being art.
04:06And we aligned ourselves with people who are doing organizing work.
04:10Because we feel like those things together are really powerful tools for making change.
04:15And so every piece that you see that we have that's represented here is work that's done in community, that is reflective of community.
04:25It's meant for us to see visions of ourselves reflected in that, the good, the bad, the ugly.
04:33We also feel like the work that we do examines the past, helps us understand where we are in the present.
04:44And it's also future-forward thinking.
04:47And that's what this particular series is really about, how do we future-forward ourselves?
04:53How do we imagine ourselves in the future?
04:55So, how many of you are avid patrons of cultural arts, whether it be theater, dance, museums?
05:05And when you go to these venues or when you go to see your own communities work, oftentimes where do you go?
05:14I'm going to talk to the sisters over here and they raise their hand.
05:16Where do you go?
05:17If you don't mind coming forward because they have cameras.
05:19Tell me where you go to see the work of your people, the work of the creators in your community.
05:26I'm here in New Orleans.
05:28And here in New Orleans, I support Jumbo Theater and I also support Oshké Cultural Center.
05:38Oshké Cultural Center is located on Mostyhead, Ocar.
05:42It is a historic corridor here in New Orleans.
05:46There's a beautiful theater that you can see art.
05:50You can also see your performance.
05:52And you will come in and look at us.
05:56There's a lot of people out there.
05:59I'm Carmen James Randolph and I'm Hira New Orleans, CEO of the Women's Foundation in the South.
06:08And we get this.
06:11Anyone else?
06:12See the same culture, cultural expressions in your community?
06:15Anyone want to speak to that?
06:16Where do you go?
06:17Who are often organizations that you get your time, your money, and your investment to?
06:23Anyone?
06:24Want me to get up?
06:25Okay.
06:26You're good.
06:27So, Stephanie, talk to me a little bit about some of the work that you've done in terms of creative life.
06:33And what particular topics you would come up with in your professions?
06:37So, there are a lot of topics.
06:40I think I wait for the topic to reveal itself to me.
06:44Off the top of my head, one of the things that we're examining right now is water.
06:51It sounds really very large and vague, but we do it through the lens of black people.
06:59Understanding that things like water, we live with water, we worship on side of water, we are baptized in water.
07:06And yet, there's also the transatlantic slave trade.
07:11So, we have a very complicated relationship with water.
07:14Here in New Orleans, we're surrounded by water.
07:17Mississippi River, all kinds of waterways, the threat of flooding is always imminent.
07:23And so, we wanted to see how, what is the stories that we, what are the stories that we have around water, around this complicated relationship with water.
07:34We always start with the seed and we just continue to dig and see where it leads us.
07:39So, speaking of what I think we're missing out to talk about it, we all know the tragedy of Katrina.
07:45And can you talk a little bit about the work that we have to do with your community and responding to the tragedy of Katrina when the community was pretty much disinvested in it?
07:56You know, pretty much people were all over and having different circumstances.
08:01How did you use your activism, your organizing, and creativity in order to bring communities together and offer them resources and support you?
08:09We have a couple of pieces of work that still stand right now.
08:12One is on our website.
08:14And it's a video that says, come home.
08:16We play that video every year at the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
08:21And part of the reason why we did that is because so many people were displaced and still remain displaced.
08:28And this was our love letter to the people who lived here every year, letting them know that this place will never be the same without them.
08:36Right?
08:37And so that's one of the pieces that we've done in response to that.
08:42Another piece is the Homecoming Project, which still exists today.
08:46The Homecoming Project is the brainchild of John O'Neill that he entrusted to me.
08:52That's our founding artistic director.
08:57But the Homecoming Project is designed, it looks different every time because it's in different communities here in New Orleans.
09:04And of course we know that we are not a monolith and neither are our communities.
09:08So it looks different in each community that we go in.
09:12It's an activation inside that community.
09:14It's an experience for the people that come to it.
09:17We come to the people.
09:18We bring the theater to the people.
09:20I love that.
09:21And so I understand this, but for people that may not know, women's creative sector is an ecosystem.
09:27And we often use ecosystem in the sense of like going beyond the ego and going to the ego, you know, and understanding how we can galvanize resources within our community, within our reach, and have a collective lift in order to gain to a common cause.
09:45Can you talk a little bit about being part of this ecosystem?
09:49You mentioned Ashae Center earlier, Joomba, but what other ecosystem partners do you work with in order to activate the community but also bring some of these issues forward?
09:59So it's interesting that you said ecosystem.
10:03We've been referring to ourselves as an ecosystem for a really long time now.
10:08Unlike other places, Atlanta, even New York, we have different boroughs and places like that.
10:15Black communities in New Orleans and black artists and cultural workers are more interconnected than in any other place that I've experienced.
10:24And as such, there's work that, you know, oftentimes artists do things at Ashae, they do things with Joomba.
10:31If we find ourselves in this sort of symbiotic relationship with one another, with Ashae, for instance, Joomba is a second generation partnership with that institution.
10:44Right?
10:45And so we continue to build on these relationships. We don't see relationships as things that are thrown away.
10:52We see people and we see these relationships and we continue to build on it and ask ourselves what can we do better?
10:59How can our community be made better from the work that we do?
11:02We see ourselves and we see cultural workers as first responders when these things happen.
11:07So this is really important for us, right? Like we're in Essence Festival. We have these big activations with these big corporations.
11:14No shame because we need the resources to know to do what we got to do.
11:18But it's also important for us to realize and recognize the local work that is done in the city as we sweep in and bring this big festival.
11:27And we acknowledge the work like Joomba, Baashe Center, Antenna, and so on, right?
11:33So, something that's more contemporary that I'm hip to, but I think it would be great to learn more about the pandemic.
11:44How did the pandemic impact Katrina's every year?
11:47What did you realize some breakthroughs from the pandemic?
11:50What did you do about organizing and how did you respond to the pandemic?
11:56Well, because Hurricane Katrina happened along with oil spill, Hurricane Ida, Hurricane this, that, the other, floods, unique tornadoes.
12:09We had lots of disruptions. So for us, the pandemic was yet another disruption, albeit one that the entire world kind of came to a stop.
12:19Global disruption. Global disruption.
12:21But what we found in that is that there are tenets and steps that happen and things that people do.
12:28The government tends to be reactive.
12:31What we know is that whenever they are reactive, they put something in place.
12:37And that means that is something that we will have to deal with eventually, right?
12:43We put something in place and it will have a long time effect.
12:47For instance, there are some things that are in place right now around gathering practices, right?
12:53And so during the pandemic, it made sense.
12:55You didn't want to hold large crowds to gather.
12:58But what they did was they put a permit there.
13:01So you have to have a permit even to do a concert on your front porch.
13:05These people were doing front porch concerts, which was lovely, right?
13:09That's what you have. You have a porch. You have your voice.
13:13You're going to do and bring music to the community.
13:17And people would go and gather on the blocks.
13:19They would listen to music.
13:21And it was a beautiful way for black people to stay connected because we recognize how much we need each other.
13:29We need each other. We depend on each other on the inside of this.
13:34But what they did was put things in place. So now you have to have a permit to do that, right?
13:40So that means that's something that requires resources.
13:44That thing is still in place, right?
13:47So the pandemic is starting to ease up, but those things still remain in place.
13:51And they affect our ability to turn around and gather.
13:54So now we want to do some of the large gathering.
13:57It means that there's that much more a level of bureaucracy to have to work on.
14:02Absolutely. So one of the things I think about is being in Brooklyn, New York.
14:06We have a big creative sector.
14:08But we're being disrupted by gentrification and overdevelopment of a city that's overdeveloped, right?
14:15Making a medical problem is what I worry about the spirit and the breadth of New York City being slumped out by this overdevelopment, overinvestment in structures.
14:27That's our issue.
14:29However, we talk about the ecosystem.
14:32We talk about the creative activism.
14:36And we also talk about the ability to galvanize your community.
14:40What I think about is what you have done with your partners to create a response bond and network.
14:46Talk a little bit about that.
14:47I'm just going to throw that out in the air.
14:49I'm going to allow you to make your friends and talking to the creative response network.
14:52Talk a little bit about that.
14:53So the creative response network was me and two of my sisters.
14:58And I would be remiss if I did not name them.
15:01Shayna Griffin, who at the time was the acting director of the Antena Gallery.
15:07She's a brilliant artist and organizer and activist.
15:12And then Asali Devon Ecclesiastes, the CEO of the Ashe Cultural Arts Center.
15:18The three of us just got on the phone.
15:20Mainly because Shayna was like, I know that you mentioned you had money stuff.
15:24But it's the money that we had if we were disrupted.
15:26I just said, let's give this money to the artists.
15:29But it was a small amount of money comparatively, right?
15:32So we decided what if we all pooled our money together?
15:36And what if we worked together?
15:38And let's use that as leverage to get more resources.
15:42So fast forward what started as like this egalitarian effort to like do something for the people that we love.
15:50Turned into almost a million dollars that we raised collectively to go back out into the community to cultural workers and to artists.
16:00And that is no money from the city.
16:04And none from some other resources.
16:09But a lot that we turned around and we leveraged.
16:11So there's almost a million dollars.
16:13And that's three black women.
16:15A very small organization.
16:16And a good applause for that.
16:18A good applause for that.
16:19And I shouted that out because for me, the creative response fund was one of a few initiatives across the country that was doing this type of organizing, right?
16:29So a lot of us were depending on PPP loans.
16:33It was depending on the government or depending on our jobs to give us, you know, provisions to survive.
16:39Some of us went out in the street and organized to get those provisions in order to survive through a global pandemic.
16:46But we didn't see a lot of things.
16:48We didn't really know what was going to happen, right?
16:50So to this day, what is happening with creative response fund?
16:52Are you still in a network?
16:53Are y'all still doing work together?
16:55How is that?
16:56So the network still exists.
16:58What we were clear about was that eventually that money will run out.
17:02But what was created was strong because it's the first time, and we had this reflected to us by the people who participated.
17:12It's the first time that there was this really diverse group of artists, cultural workers, and leaders coming together to self-define how it is that we care for the communities and how we support one another in it.
17:27So it is now a network that's fully activated and continues to meet.
17:31We continue to examine things like policies, cultural policies.
17:35We support one another on the inside of work.
17:38And from time to time, we might look at collective fundraising.
17:42But that is still an activated group because what we know is there may eventually be some other level of disruption.
17:52And so how are we continually organizing and building relationships because we know that relationships move at the speed of trust, right?
17:59Absolutely.
18:00And relationships is a different type of currency.
18:02You know, sometimes we think I have to all look at money and resources and not look at relationships as the corridor to getting that money and resources and that's what y'all do.
18:12So anyone have any questions, responses for Stephanie while we have her up here?
18:17Just wanted to put that out in the audience.
18:19Anyone?
18:20Check in.
18:21Cool.
18:22The other thing I want to land with is some of the tools that I'm taking away from this is as we're building out a runway for a long-term imagination of what the black utopia is,
18:35and I'm careful with this idea of utopia, right?
18:38Because it gives this kind of grand gesture that everything is going to be high.
18:43But we also know that a utopia comes with a dystopia not doing part of us.
18:47So one of the things I think about is what you're offering folks is how do you organize a utopia in the face of a dystopia, right?
18:55In the face of a calamity, in the face of chaos, and what are the tools and ideas and the case studies of what we can do if things get disrupted, if there's a paradigm shift, and we're not being supported by the government that makes that process.
19:11So thank you.
19:12We're going to wrap this up.
19:15Thank you so much for your time.
19:17We appreciate you.
19:18We have more conversations around black utopia.
19:20We thank Stephanie and Keith Anderson for our time and my shout out, y'all.
19:27Thank you so much.
19:33Peace, y'all.
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