Going into the 3rd week with Re-Frame, I was a little "workshop-ed" out.

It had taken me the entire weekend to recuperate from the beautiful intensity of participating in the motiroti project Potluck: Chicago.

I came to Rumble Arts on Monday still feeling a bit frayed at the edges while at the same time wanting to sincerely witness some kind of progress from the weeks before.

This, the 3rd Monday, was a pleasant and juicy reminder of the possibilities of Re-Frame.

We did a much better job of prioritizing and implementing a bit more structure around time.

At the end of the breakout session, Iman, Mike, and I, arrived at an important evolution of the original question - "How do we value time?" and started to outline a few structures that would make sense as one moved along the artistic trajectory. I made a mental note to chat with Todd Brown, deYoung Museum Fellow about his newest artist service project, The ITCH (Investing in the Creative Hunch).

This is what I did when I arrived home from the first coalescing of artists that will be Re-Frame: A Gathering. I took out some black eyed peas I had soaked, started chopping onions and scallions, washed some collards, and set out to make a stew that I had made once before via some quick post-performance notes from Amara Tabor-Smith.  Immersed in that fertile collective of voices, each one making themselves vulnerable just a bit, I wanted to feed everyone a hearty meal.  I wanted to tone down my “administrator” voice and offer up something you could eat with a bowl and a spoon.  I promise myself, “Next time, Eboni, next time.”

I feel compelled to pause and write about what Re-Frame is not. Re-Frame is not a meandering of artistic intent. It is a tangible, sink-your-teeth-in process, framed by the seasoned experiences of both Baraka de Soleil and his co-collaborator, Awilda Rodriguez.  Baraka made it a point to mention, more than once, that, as collaborative processes go, this would be one where, if you wanted to see something, hear something, say something then you should DO something about it.  Simply called “Two Feet”, it is a way of reinforcing a sense of personal responsibility.  As someone who processes quickly and is usually first to speak and offer “solutions”, I instantly latched on to such a concept.  At the same time, however, I am intensely aware of my “default zone” of organizing and curating and tried to preface my words and phrases with disclaimers.

I have no idea what will come out of Re-Frame.  Some of the artists seemed interested in building on a shared experience that occurred during The Theatrical Jazz Institute with Sharon Bridgforth.  Others seem to be throwing themselves in out of trust and a burning desire to work on something that has taken shape, just a little bit.  I believe myself to be in the latter camp.  Over the past 6 years, I have willingly dedicated myself to NOT being the artist, to do everything I can to support the creations of others.  On some level, one could say that I have been “playing small”.  Over the course of the next 7 weeks, I will be planting the seeds of a performance practice. I have no idea what form this will take or how it will take flight but my willingness is there and I am already enamored of the steps we have taken.

On Criticism

• -- Know the difference between informed and uninformed criticism
• -- What are your driving principles?
• -- If a critic is being other than intelligent and constructive, he or she may have another goal.

I found myself in deep agreement as I, too, believe that the more the arts see, acknowledge, and explore our common connections, the more support we will receive as a whole.

Originally posted as part of the Emerging Arts Professionals - Bay Area, Spring 2011 Blog Salon.

“In a capitalist system, culture is an object of control.” – Todd Lester – Founder, www.freedimensional.org

It’s 3am.

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine – a talented visual artist – who is threatening to become a Republican and abandon her practice. She says that the American public has voted with their dollars and that she cannot continue to make a living in a society that doesn’t see art as relevant. Especially now that she’s a mother.

Our conversation started at 1am.

Throughout it all I had to draw upon the immense spirit of collective action present at the Emerging Program Institute, an intensive offered by the Alliance for Artists Communities for culture workers interested in creating or strengthening residencies for artists.  Todd Lester’s quote struck me to my core.  Upon hearing about Quan’s plan to cut arts funding, my first response was, “F— Oakland! We can do it on our own, we MUST do it on our own.” The personal is political, right? As a single woman, I would never wait around for a man who had courted me and left me dry to one day wake up and recognize my value. I would go out and seek other options, secure in my self-worth.

It is now all about options.

Lester’s organization, Free Dimensional, works with an international network of individuals who are interested in providing safe space for artists who have been persecuted for their work. They do not accept money from government agencies, depending on foundation and individual support.  I am ready for Oakland to do the same. To turn away from the City, turn to our neighbors, engage them as cultural stewards, and say, “Hey, I’m doing this really beautiful/amazing/RELEVANT work. Why don’t you come to a rehearsal, check out my studio? How would you like to support a show?”

I appreciate Randolph Belle’s wisdom and continued enthusiasm after years of working around Oakland arts and culture. I trust his proposal that “reforms to the permitting, planning and zoning processes to expedite housing, venues, and special event projects would generate significant impact.” It is a broader way of approaching recent roadblocks.  I want to temper the heat of my disbelief, the sting of budget rejection. I want to believe that Oakland will value its artists. But I know we have to value ourselves first. We have to take inventory – what we have, who we know – and leverage that to a sustainable future.  It is time for Plan B, C, and D.

My friend is not going to become a Republican. Of that I’m certain.  I can’t say that she’ll continue her practice. I know that she’ll forever be a mother. Faced with the economic realities of raising a child, my passionate words on policy meant very little. So I spoke about relationships.

I spoke about a neighborhood where a child might see an artist doing their art. Where that child, coming home from school one day might ask the artist a question, “What are you doing?” and follow up with a “Why?”  I spoke about the subtle shift that occurs when a child, a family, a neighborhood, a COMMUNITY maintains consistent contact with creative thinking. How creative thinking would seep into every day life. To the point that, hopefully, when it’s time to vote again, that art isn’t some thing on a pedestal. Art is your neighbor.

“Katrina played a big part in spreading bounce… We were displaced all over the world.  People were trying to find bounce music like it was a drug.” ~ Big Freedia (on Late Night with Carson Daly)

“Our communities need to see our artists doing their art.” ~ Senay Dennis (aka Refa 1)

As a transplant from New York (8 years and counting), I have come to expect the performing arts to take over the landscape during warm weather in major cities.  New York sets the bar withSummer Stage across 5 boroughs.  L.A. organizes Grand Performances in spite of its urban sprawl. Chicago, with only 2.5 real warm months, has a jam-packed schedule at Millenium Park.  San Francisco’s approach is a little disjointed but at least the effort is there: Stern Grove and Outside Lands fill a niche. And in SF, when all else fails, there’s always someone performing at BART & MUNI’s busiest stations.

So what’s going on in Oakland?

Oakland is home to some 90 parks, (compare that to Brooklyn’s 39).  With so much public space, why are we only graced with two days for the Art and Soul Festival, four days of Sundays in the Redwoods, and a smattering of lunchtime performances as part of Sweet Summer Sounds?  In the debate around encouraging arts appreciation in youth, why are we not making it simple, direct, and affordable?  While we’re at it, why not change the focus in favor of involving whole families through a dynamic network of outdoor, neighborhood-based performances that span the range from music to dance to theater?

Outdoor performances (usually) = free performances.

The economics don’t add up. Nor should they, according to Arlene Goldbard’s urging that we “start with open eyes: refuse to pretend this debate is about money; explain how the arts are being used to send a political message.”  Oakland’s political message is a charged one that mimics the overall United States emphasis to exercise control and boundaries rather than encouraging diverse communities to connect around public performance.  What if, post-Mesherle verdict, the City of Oakland spent less on overtime for law enforcement officials and invited Turf Feinz and Youth Uprising to engage the public in a dance demonstration at Frank Ogawa Plaza?

What if Oakland committed to outdoor performances as much as is its highly-publicized restoration projects?  CBS Outdoor contributed $6.5 million in billboard revenue so that Oakland School of the Arts could pre-pay its first seven years of rent to the Fox Theater.  What if the City negotiated with CBS Outdoor to use a portion of the billboard’s continued revenue to support site-specific performance activating the Uptown Sculpture Garden?

In the midst of the furor around Mayor Quan’s most recent push to cut Oakland’s arts funding, we also need to look at our neighbors’ understanding of “the arts”.

I would bet that the majority of Oakland-ers, like the majority of Americans, don’t define themselves as artists or see “the arts” as vital to their lives.  Even in the Bay Area, where we are supposedly so culturally-literate, I listen closely to the subtext when young second-generation business owners think artists are people who just want to “live off society” and graduates of Berkeley High are instantly cynical when a new acquaintance describes herself as “an artist.”  What if Oakland’s residents, encouraged by the presence of dance and music almost in their backyards, became more active cultural stewards, showing just as much enthusiasm for new bars and restaurants as the performance-packed but seemingly one-off Uptown Unveiled?

Performance artist, Adesola Akinleye, discussing the overlapping elements of bodies and buildings, writes:

“… The person who watches dancing does none of the physical work themselves but in perceiving the performance they experience the rhythm of it as though it were in their own body…  I see choreography working in such a way that the audience becomes aware of their own feeling of the aesthetic of the body in space.  I aim for my work to continue to be alive within the space when the dancing bodies have finished; for the dance to have left a trace.”

Dance demands a kinesthetic empathy, a way of experiencing art bodily simply by watching.  Another video featuring Turf Feinz is “RIP Rich D”.  The intense and simple beauty of humans finding an outlet for mourning through movement has accumulated over 2.5 million views on YouTube.  Such empathy has the potential to pierce the layers of urban existence and bring together Oakland’s diverse yet self-segregated neighborhoods.  Especially if we commit to it in public.