“You” holds a possibility of liberation for it is both singular and plural. By embracing the complexities of "you", “Being You” means to be one’s self and part of a collective body / bodies. This holistic framing can help integrate the often disparate and fractured identities / histories / cultures / territories / geographies that make us who we be.
The Be You Crew: on belonging in an era of othering will produce a regular, sustained virtual space of critical exchange between a small cohort of intergenerational, cross-geographic / territorial, diverse artists / musicians / writers / healers / cultural organizers that collectively investigates and shares insights on how “being you” cultivates individual and systemic practices of othering and belonging
The Be You Crew: on belonging in an era of othering will produce a regular, sustained virtual space of critical exchange between a small cohort of intergenerational, cross-geographic / territorial, diverse artists / musicians / writers / healers / cultural organizers that collectively investigates and shares insights on how “being you” cultivates individual and systemic practices of othering and belonging
The Crew
ZENA CARLOTA
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‘Say You Know My Name’ is the chorus of the song, and for musician-healer Zena Carlota it’s, "a reminder that to speak something, to give it voice, whether though words, dance, storytelling or song, is a powerful way to conjure what we may have lost on our path and to invite what is sacred to us back into our live." Carlota thinks hopes to share the sentiment that what we are searching for is also searching for us in many ways. "This song, really spoke to my inspiration in combining Indigenous West African harp music, and classical music from the African Diaspora with American chamber music to allow a space for these different cultures to find their common denominator and create a language of their own outside of geography and time."
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JASON WYMAN
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Using community workshops, public programming, and large-scale installation, #StickyQuestions asked bold, thought provoking questions on a giant mural across from City Hall on the corner of Fulton and Larkin Street in San Francisco's Civic Center neighborhood, and asked any and all passersby to respond to them, read others' responses, and strike up conversations with the stewards who tended them or a neighbor next to them. It was an act of public discourse about how one heals when someone hurts them, what they would change about their neighborhood, and what they would say to the ocean. Through simple, open, direct inquiry people of all ages began sharing deeply person stories about the pain caused by sexual assault, the movement of migrating bodies, and desires for all to have shelter. It was a call for understanding and empathy; it was love made public.
#StickyQuestions was created by San Francisco Artists Mary Claire Amable, Celi Tamayo-Lee, and Jason Wyman in collaboration with the Asian Art Museum, CounterPulse, Emerging Arts Professionals Network, Downtown Streets Team, Civic Center Commons Stewards, Tenderloin / SOMA youth and residents, and the Art Speak Internship program of the Asian Art Museum. It was part of the Village Artist Corner as part of Groundplay, a City collaboration co-led by the Mayor's Office of Civic Innovation, San Francisco Planning, and the San Francisco Arts Commission. |
TRAYVON SMITH
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Working across practices, identities, and issues, youth artists Trayvon Smith, Izza Anwar, and Mosiah Concha in collaboration with artist Jason Wyman conjured / created both a participatory happening and a short film that brought together neighbors ranging in age from 5 to 75 at the Emerald Tablet in San Francisco on April 11, 2015. At You Belong Here, Commissioners from the San Francisco Youth Commission hosted an interview booth and mapping activity about personal and familial migration; youth-run pop-up shop Mamacita's Cafe served hot coffee and fresh donuts; and intergenerational performers showcased their talents through poetry, music, theater, and film. The Transition also premiered at the event, which told the story of a young woman who felt she didn't belong at her school until she realized she didn't care what others thought and found belonging in herself.
You Belong Here and The Transition were a part of the #WhereDoYouBelong Project by 14 Black Poppies. Smith, Anwar, and Concha were paid for their work / creativity through California Lawyer's for the Arts Spotlight on the Arts program. The happening and film were produced with no budget other than the salaries paid to Smith, Anwar, and Concha. |
ANGELA ANDERSON GUERRERO
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Art practice is the strong possibility to invoke Spirit(s) stirring in place and among one one another. Ceremony, ritual, the altar is a liberatory act to contemplate its mystery and to critically engage the tensions within the modern world. It is Spirit(s) giving space to the trauma of my indigenous and ancient lineages and the contradictions of de-indigenized ceremonies and territories. The artist I work with represent a process of seeking to relinquish the possibilities of a tethered modernity. Their art represents manifestations of this inquiry and their art are testimonies challenging dominant epistemologies. Within this comes healing… healing histories, people, and our planet.
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LAIWAN
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REMOTELY IN TOUCH Trailer from Laiwan on Vimeo. Starting with a re-investigation of the five elements: earth, fire, water, air and love, REMOTELY IN TOUCH explores how digital, visual and informational processes alter the way we perceive the world, ourselves and the act of perception in general.
Images created by remote digital signals sent via satellite or robotic camera from the Internet etc. are used to poetic and surreal effect. The digital are jammed between analog images of a visceral moment or an embodied movement to raise questions: what is real? what is body? how is representation inadequate? how does technology predetermine what and how we see? how are images construction or a fiction fo science? Approached with a philosophical yet humorous sense of metaphor and meaning, REMOTELY IN TOUCH plays with what we know as an image. The artist's blood cells, NASA's mission to mars, ultrasound imaging, an underwater volcano, exploratory surgery by robotic camera, Wing Chun martial arts, and other found images are lyrically woven together with text and audio. Continuing in a playful spirit, the music is designed from the first 24 notes of J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. Digitally altered, Bach is transformed into a new composition no longer recognizable as Bach. |