December 2021 Cultural Work Roundup

/// December 2021 ///

Here’s your monthly dose of BIPOC makers, radical thinkers, and resources featuring recommendations by Cultural Work Coordinator, Roshani Thakore. If you would like to include an item to a future Cultural Work Roundup, email Roshani at roshani@apano.org by the 20th of that month.

Please note that Cultural Work will be taking a break in December to rest up and restore. The next edition will be in February 2022!

WATCH

• Reimagining Safety – How do we co-create a world without prisons? We must cultivate the communities that support change, empathy, and accountability. Reimagining Safety gathers years of organizing wisdom through a conversation between Feedom Freedom’s, Myrtle Thompson-Curtis and Tawana Petty. Together we will learn how they are reimagining communal safety and reclaiming their healthy and safe communities without police.
• Art, Culture, and Climate Justice – In the midst of the 26th United Nations’ Climate Change Conference, known as COP26, Favianna Rodriguez traveled to Scotland with a delegation of Indigenous leaders from the Amazon as well as Native and Black climate justice leaders from North America. As a first-time attendee of COP26, Rodriguez's goal was to join and amplify Indigenous-led efforts, as well as to understand how marginalized communities are confronting the fossil fuel industry. She moderated two panels around the themes of “Art, Culture, and Climate Justice” that highlighted a chorus of artists, culture changers, and grassroots organizers. The panel featured a discussion on the role of art and culture in accelerating global climate justice solutions that center Indigenous, Black and impacted communities.

PRACTICE

• Monthly Keaton Otis Vigil – Keaton's father Fred Bryant started the monthly vigil on the 12 of the month after his son's murder on the spot where Keaton's life was taken. Fred Bryant passed away October 29, 2013. His family and community have committed to continuing the vigils every month on the 12th, until justice is achieved for Keaton, for Fred, for our whole community. Vigil is online on September 12th. If you would like log-in information, please message this page or Justice For Keaton Otis here on Facebook
• My People’s Market – My Peoples Market returns this season for three Sundays, December 5, 12, and 19. New vendors and a new experience each week. *Proof of Vaccination or Negative Test Required for Entry. Check My People's Market for the full line up go to MyPeoplesMarket.com
• Mesh – This exhibition at the Portland Art Museum features the bold work of four emerging and early career artists, Ka’ila Farrell-Smith, Lehuauakea, Leah Rose Kolakowski, and Lynnette Haozous, whose multidisciplinary work touches on current social issues including the ongoing fight against racial injustice and conflicts over Indigenous land rights. At the same time, through photography, painting, sculpture and mixed media they celebrate the ongoing presence of Native American art and culture and remind us that art is an essential form of activism. Tuesday - Sunday, 10 am - 5 pm. Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Avenue.

LISTEN

• Belong Circles – In this episode we speak with Angel Mortel and Aleena Gonzalez. Angel is a lead organizer with LA Voice, which is a multi-racial and multi-faith community organization that awakens people to their own power and trains them to organize together. LA Voice has been implementing the Belong Circles with their partner network, including at Dolores Mission Church. Aleena Gonzalez is a high school student that is part of the Dolores Mission community who has participated in Belong Circles and is now leading circles with other young people.

READ

• Covid-19: What Will We Remember? – Some events become a generational marker, an experience shared by so many in such profound ways that the ripples last decades. The “Great Depression” of the 1930s and the US war in Vietnam are examples. The Covid-19 pandemic is one of these, but how these ripples shape the future depends on the stories that stick about the pandemic. The stories might start with basic questions like, What happened? Who suffered from it? Why did it have the effects it had? But the deeper questions are where these stories must go. What did it teach us about who we are, how our society actually works, who we are becoming, and what futures are possible? These will catch on and become public narratives that shape culture and politics.

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LOCAL OPPORTUNITIES

APANO is hiring! – APANO is currently looking for a Director of Finance, a Field Manager and more! For a complete listing go to https://apano.org/join-us/jobs-at-apano/

This programming message brought to you by APANO Communities United Fund, a 501(c)3 non profit organization.