Artist / Activist Matchmaking

Artist/Activist Matchmaking, 2017 at DiverseWorks, as part of Lines Drawn curated by Xandra Eden, in collaboration with Art Takes Action Houston

After the election I joined a cohort of 20 activists in New Leaders Council.

They encouraged my contributions and asked for more creative tactics,
that might move stuck struggles forward or brainstorm past burn out.

I was simultaneously hearing a cry from artists desiring to be more politically relevant but not knowing where to start/how to help.

I compiled and shared this Creative Tactic Toolkit video

We invited activists from 6 different issues at stake in Houston to come have a circle of creative people brainstorm around them

Anti-Gentrification Eureka Gilkey - Emancipation Economic Development Council
LGBTQ Rights & Access Jace Valcore - Transform Houston
Criminal Justice Reform Elisabeth Johnson - Houston Justice Coalition
Harvey Relief Brandi Holmes + Secunda Joseph - Black Lives Matter Houston and Malik Muhammad - National Black United Front
Pro-Immigration Oscar Hernandez - United We Dream

The activists were all in the fights of their lives in Harris County, and the attempt was to surround them with care and creativity. Click through the photos below to see how it went.

We paid for the activist’s time, and made videos for them to use in their work. We also provided these video and text interviews to the brainstormers at sign up so they could do their homework and find the circle they could most contribute to.

Some groups worked together afterwards on actions, including the Environmental Justice circle. I continue this work with year 5 of curating public conversations between artists, activists, and academics.

Diana Arce from Artists Without a Cause and White Guilt Clean Up and Rebecca Bray and Steve Lambert with The Center for Artistic Activism were advisers, along with every activist involved.