If you’re already an artivist, or just want to know about how artists use their creativity as a conduit for social change, this is for you! It’s a reading list I’ve developed over the years as I’ve learned about social justice art making. :) This is Part Two, check out Part One here!
Hit me up with any questions you have about artivism! Most days of the week, this is the work I do, and I’d love to talk more about it with you. Hope these resources aid your journey!
MAPPING THE TERRAIN: NEW GENRE PUBLIC ART
Suzanne Lacy, ed. Seattle: Bay Press, 1995. San Francisco Bay Area-based performance artist and scholar Suzanne Lacy presents an anthology of original essays by artists and critics, exploring what happens when artists directly engage and address "real-world" audiences in public sites and use public art as an instruments of change. Writing by Baca, Gablik, Jacob, Kaprow, Lippard and others. Include compendium of 90 "pioneering" artists.
MIXED BLESSINGS: NEW ART IN A MULTICULTURAL AMERICA
Lucy Lippard. New York: The New Press, 2000. Update of the 1990 classic, with new introduction, discussing the cross-cultural process taking place in the work of contemporary Latino, Native, African- and Asian-American artists. Topics: uncertainty of exile, the confusion of identity in attempts to climb out of the melting pot. and art that speaks for itself, reversing stereotypes and reclaiming history and memory.
PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED
Paulo Friere
THE PENELOPE PROJECT
An Arts-Based Odyssey to Change Elder Care: Basting, Towey & Rose
THE PERFORMER’S GUIDE TO THE COLLABORATIVE PROCESS
by Sheila Kerrigan
PERFORMING COMMUNITIES
An Inquiry into Ensemble Theater Deeply Rooted in Eight US Communities. Located on the CAN Website www.communityarts.net. Click on Icon in Right Column of Home page!
PERFORMING DEMOCRACY
International Perspectives on Urban Community-Based Performance, Editors:Susan C. Haedicke and Tobin Nellhaus, University of Michigan Press
PLAYING BOAL
Theatre, Therapy, Activism. Mady Schutzman and Jan Cohen-Cruz, editors. Routledge, New York City, NY, 1994. Examination of the techniques and applications of Brazilian theatermaker Augusto Boal, political activist and creator of Theater of the Oppressed. Looks at uses of and modifications of Boal's exercises by scholars and practitioners in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. Includes a Boal glossary.
THE POLITICS OF PERFORMANCE: RADICAL THEATRE AS CULTURAL INTERVENTION
Baz Kershaw. London: Routledge, 1992. Addresses fundamental questions about the social and political purposes of performance through an investigation into post-war alternative and community theater. Analyses in detail the work of key practitioners in socially engaged theatre during four decades, setting each in the context of social, political and cultural history and demonstrating how they may have had a significant impact on social and political history.
PRESSURE ON THE PUBLIC
Hirsch Farm Project 1992. Hirsch Farm Project, Northbrook, IL, 1992.
PURSUING DEMOCRACY’S PROMISE
Craig McGarvey, Grantmakers concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (also a website)
RAINBOW OF DESIRE
Augusto Boal.
REBUILDING THE FRONT PORCH OF AMERICA: ESSAYS ON THE ART OF COMMUNITY MAKING
Patrick Overton. Columbia, Mo.: Columbia College. By the founding director of The Front Porch Institute, dedicated to exploring the role of the arts and culture in the community-making process, especially focusing on the essential role the arts play in engaging citizens in the democracy of civil discourse.
REIMAGINING AMERICA: THE ARTS OF SOCIAL CHANGE
Mark O'Brien and Craig Little, editors. New Society Publishers, Santa Cruz, CA, 1990. Anthology of articles about the impact of the arts on social movements, documenting such projects as Kids of Survival, Galeria de la Raza, Los Angeles Poverty Department, Goat Island, Teatro Pregones, Voices of Dissent, Gran Fury and more. Fifty contributors include artists, critics and community activists.
SITTING IN THE FIRE
Arnie Mindell. Conflict Facilitation.
STAGING AMERICA
Sonja Kuftinec. Book on Cornerstone Theater Company.
THE SUBVERSIVE IMAGINATION: ARTISTS, SOCIETY, AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Carol Becker, editor. Routledge, New York City, 1994. Contributors from South Africa, the Czech Republic, Iran, Poland, Mexico and the U.S. discuss the role of artists in their own societies and analyze their activist identities as a basis for their own work. Writers include Fusco, Ehrenberg, Ndebele, Dyson and Sadri.
SUMMARY EVALUATION OF THE ARTISTS AND COMMUNITIES PILOT INITIATIVE
M. Christine Dwyer and Susan L Frankel. Portsmouth, N.H.: RMC Research Corp., 2000. Professional evaluation of a government funded initiative in Canada during the late 1990s. Looks at 12 arts-and-community partnership projects, reporting findings about the structure of the overall grantmaking initiative and the design and outcomes of the projects. Useful evaluation model for the field.
TAKING IT TO THE STREETS : THE SOCIAL PROTEST THEATER OF LUIS VALDEZ AND AMIRI BARAKA
Elam, Harry J., Jr. Ann Arbor: U. of Michigan Press, 1997. A comparison of the performance methodologies, theories and practices of Luis Valdez (El Teatro Campesino, the farmworkers' theater), and Amiri Baraka (Black Revolutionary Theater) during the 1960s and ‘70s as examples of social protest theater during a tumultuous historical period.
TEACHING TO TRANSGRESS
bell hooks. Short articles on radical pedagogy.
THEATRE FOR COMMUNITY, CONFLICT & DIALOGUE: THE HOPE IS VITAL TRAINING MANUAL
Michael Rohd. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1998. A blueprint for the Hope Is Vital interactive theater techniques for creating dialogue and emotionally safe space for dialogue with young people. Includes exercises, scene work and theatermaking.
THEATRE FOR YOUTH THIRD SPACE
Performance, Democracy and Community Development by Stephani Etheridge. Woodson http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/T/bo22230202.html
THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED
Augusto Boal. London: Pluto Press, 2000. New edition of classic work on radical drama, brought up-to-date with a new introduction by the Brazilian author and director. Depicts theater as a popular form of communication and expression and instrument of social change, drawing on theories of Aristotle, Machiavelli, Brecht and Marx.
*Hi friend! I’m almost brand-new here, just over a week! I’m releasing content every day as part of @MarkRMorrisJr’s #DolphinSchool Bootcamp along with 20 other awesome emerging authors. I’ll be using steemit to share thoughts on artistic practice, arts opportunities, equity, my personal projects, and other fun things happening in my world (like hiking!). Check out some feminist truth for another taste! See you around! -- 
