follow the money...

There is a lot of stimulus money out there and it's hard to follow it but....

NYC STIMULUS TRACKER
NY STATE RECOVERY MONEY
FEDERAL RECOVERY $


PS...The New York Times Company Foundation closed on Friday. Quite abruptly. Lots of theaters got $$ from them. And many matching gifts too.

Stolen Chair: A social media manifesto (or...how to help Stolen Chair win $3,000 with 5 seconds of your time)

Hi there ERPA blog readers,

One of the major auxillary components of Stolen Chair's Community Supported Theatre business plan is the comprehensive web of collaborative social networking tools we'll be using (and, in some cases, already use) to enrich communication between our company and our audience. When The Jenzabar Foundation announced a call for such proposals for their $3,000 Social Media Leadership Award, we quickly drafted and submitted a summary of our social media outreach programs.

Good news: Our proposal made it to the semi-finals.

Even gooder news: You can be the vote that brings us to the finals (and the $$$!). The winner is the organization which reels in the most comments on their proposal.

You know how tough times are for artists right now. Help Stolen Chair expand our programs (and our reach) by writing a few encouraging words at the bottom of our proposal (you don't even have to read it!). The race is tight right now and your one vote could be the deciding factor which shapes our entire season. Whether you have seen our work or not (heck: whether you have heard of us or not!), I hope you'll take the time to post a few words here: http://thejenzabarfoundationblog.com/2009/04/09/the-stolen-chair-theatre-company/

(Comments take at least one business day to be moderated before Jenzabar posts them)

THANKS SO MUCH!!! (And please spread this around!)

Oxygenate your anchor institutions! Make the lions roar!

The instigator Robert Elmes over at Galapagos sent me this provocative audio file of New York Public Library "oxygenator" Paul Holdengraber. He is "making the [NYPL] lions roar with live conversations. And if you haven't peeked at what your library is doing: check it out! They offer all sorts of real classes (Resume building, Power Point class, Excel, Welcome to Google Docs! etc). And all for free (= also sustainable, green, etc!)

Part Two is by LA's Music Center of LA, Josephine Ramirez. I was a bit bored at first by her presentation but then she got into the "pro artist vs. hobby artist" issue which is crucial. Near the end of the mp3 she says (and I paraphrase!) "..that's the old model: make some art with us and then buy our tickets. It's all about getting someone to buy a ticket. We need to flip it over: make some art with us because making art is awesome and necessary and valid."

Ideas/words that struck me:

a) unexpected encounters

b) what if a city's anchor institutions (Library, Symphony, Museum, etc) aligned their goals and strategies to build/re-build a vibrant city

c) not a moderator but an instigator

d) high-level criticism is vital; no chumminess; gotta have edge

e) build your social captial

f) valid all art-making; separate ticket buying from artistic and social engagement

I know we may not feel like we have time to have these conversations, mull over big questions - but we don't have time not to!

eat it!

I love it!!!

"FEAST is a recurring public dinner designed to use community-driven financial support to democratically fund new and emerging artmakers.

At each FEAST, participants will pay a sliding-scale entrance fee for which they will receive supper and a ballot. Diners will vote on a variety of proposed artist projects. At the end of dinner, the artist whose proposal receives the most votes will be awarded funds collected through the entrance fee to produce the project. The work will then be presented during the next FEAST."

Oh Canada!

Our neighbors up north are stimulating the arts economy because they know it's worth it.

The Canandian government is pledging $43.4-million in new operating funds this year for six major players. "This marks the first permanent increase in operating funds to the agencies in a decade."

You gotta read the comments to the Globe and Mail's article. It is very telling. Even our Canadian friends fight about whether the arts are necessary. But I rarely see so many Comments on American papers' articles about the arts, particularly from non-artists.

hmmmmmmmm...

talk the talk and...

WHY ARE THE ARTS IMPORTANT?
if you don't have at least 3 exciting, dynamic, and powerful reasons in your back pocket ready to go, then how can we expect anyone outside of our inner circle to drink the koolaid.

If you need some help answering this question: check out Americans for the Arts handy dandy Kit for Talking, Explaining, Defending, and Inspiring. Easy, breezy.

Happy holidays....

100 Poems in 100 Days!

FROM ERPA ARTIST kahlil almustafa

Wednesday, April 8th 2009

A Letter From kahlil almustafa

The beginning of this year marked the historic election of Barack Obama. A Black president is something I never thought I would see. Like most of us, so many conflicting thoughts and emotions went through me. For the first time in my life, I have at least one thought about the president every single day.

What is the significance of this historic victory of our first Black President? Is “Change” in America even possible? What will it look like? How will this presidency impact the thinking of Black people in America? What will people say worldwide?

Not having any clear answer to the question: “How does the election of Barack Obama make you feel kahlil,” I set out to write 100 poems during the first 100 days of Barack Obama's presidency.

During April, which is National Poetry Month, I will be posting poems from this series on my new blog-site www.kahlilalmustafa.mvmt.com.

During the month of April I will be doing Living Room Readings, going into people's homes, reading poems and having conversations. At a recent Living Room Reading, the participants ranging from 5-to-90-years-old created their own poems by remixing the words in Barack Obama's Inaugural Speech. Contact me at kahlilalmustafa@gmail.com to find out about hosting a Living Room Reading.

I will be presenting poems from 100 Poems For 100 Days at readings throughout the city:

Thursday, April 16, 2009 6:30-8:30pm

Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund Benefit

Columbia University Teachers College

525 West 120th St., New York, NY

Go to main entrance at Zankel Hall,

120th St. b/w Broadway and Amsterdam

Sunday, April 19, 2009 5:00-7:00pm

Vox Pop

1022 Cortelyou Road

Brooklyn, NY 11218

Q train to Cortelyou

Thursday, April 23, 2009 7:00-9:00

Brecht Forum

451 West Street

b/w Bank & Bethune

New York, NY 10014

ACEL to 14th St. & 8th Ave.

SLIDING SCALE

Then I will be "Getting on the Bus" with the Institute of the Black World to DC

April 24-25, 2009

with the Institute of the Black World
on the eve of
President Barack Obama's
First 100 Days in the White House
featuring

• National Town Hall Meeting
• African-American Heritage Tour of DC
• Benefit Fundraising Event

Thank you for all your support.

• Check out poems from the series 100 Poems For 100 Days.
  
• Book kahlil almustafa at your university, community space or school.
• Forward this BIO VIDEO to someone you know to book me at their university.
• Purchase your copy of my collected poems "Growing Up Hip-Hop" today!
• Host a Living Room Reading in your home or community space.
• Check out www.myspace.com/kahlilalmustafa to listen to tracks from CounterIntelligence.

kahlil almustafa is the 2002 Nuyorican Grand Slam Champion, author of Grandma’s Soup (February 2001) and I’m Crying Everyone’s Tears (August 2002). He recently released his debut CD, CounterIntelligence. almustafa gained attention in the hip-hop community as a performer with GAME Rebellion, performing at the first solar-powered hip-hop concert, while participating in the “Hip-Hop 4 President Tour,” and as a grantee of the Future Aesthetics Artist Regrant (FAAR) Program selected by the Hip-Hop Theater Festival and funded by the Ford Foundation.

kahlil almustafa is a recipient of The Field's Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists (ERPA) grant. ERPA receives funding from The Rockefeller Foundation's Cultural Innovation Fund. For more information, please visit www.thefield.org or www.economicrevitalization.blogspot.com

I got engaged!

Audience Engagement is the new black.

Mellon is doing their Project Audience.
DanceUSA is doing their Engaging Dance Audiences.
Misnomer Dance is doing their Audience Engagement Project.

And here too is the City of Brotherly Love's (aka Philadelphia's) Audience Engagement research tool. I dig it, I do....

As they say, "the Cultural Engagement Index (CEI) is a new research tool that will enable the cultural community to track trends in consumer cultural engagement over time. The first CEI survey was conducted during the summer of 2008 and its findings were released in March 2009."

And as my super astute pal Morgan von Prelle Pecelli wrote to me:

"I don't know that the findings are necessarily surprising, but the shift [the shifting lens from "arts" to "culture"] .... makes me wonder about how the contemporary performance spaces/artists can position themselves in relationship to this shift. Does it mark a push to break-down the divide between "professional artist" and "hobby artist" or does it mark a push to re-value the hobby artist as a way to increase engagement in professionally planned/created events as audience members? Or does it simply recognize the anarchic proliferation of the means to production (i.e. Youtube, iTunes, IMovie and Garageband make it so anyone can make art and get it out there)? How does the person who makes art as a personal practice fit into our communities?"

Check out Morgan here

On another note: Can't we all get engaged together? Polyamory project management? Pool our $ and our precious human resources and attack the problem from the same unified front? Next on my dream list is "speed dating philanthropy"! Forget patient capital, venture philanthropy etc...give me SPEED DATING PHILANTHROPY!!

I am naive perhaps.