The words Show (red) Don't ((yellow) and Tell (blue) and July 14-18 (white) in all caps against a black background. At the bottom right is the outline of hand holding a pen, and the words Culture Push Symposium 2022, all in white and all caps.
SHOW DON’T TELL
The Culture Push annual Symposium is HERE!
Events July 15-18, 2022
Go here for more information and event registration!
THANK YOU TO ALL WHO APPLIED FOR THE SPRING 2022 Fellowship cycle!
The Fellowship is a testing ground for new ideas that connect artistic practice, civic engagement, and social justice. Through the Fellowship for Utopian Practice, Culture Push serves artists by providing creative, analytical, and logistical tools in the creation of truly transformative projects. Please check back here in Fall 2022 for our next Fellowship cycle.
Culture Push Fellowship Information Session 4/6/2022 (Closed Caption available)
A .gif promoting Kwanzaa Krush, a fundraiser for the Black Utopian Fellowship. The .gif includes a kinarah with red and green candles, the Black utopian Fellowship logo (a saturn-like planet in purple and yellow) galaxy, stars and nebulae.
WELCOME TO KWANZAA KRUSH!
Denae Howard (Director of the Black Utopian Fellowship) and #DayOnesArt would like to invite you to a year-end extravaganza based around the celebration of Kwanzaa, lifting up the principles of Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility), Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity), and Imani (Faith) to create community and support the Black Utopian Fellowship.
Now ready for shipping is our long-awaited and gorgeous 10th Anniversary Publication, edited by Pelenakeke Brown, Shawn Escarciga, and Clarinda Mac Low and designed by Marianna Olinger, with contributions from 17 Fellows and special essays by CP co-Founders Aki Sasamoto and Arturo Vidich.
[Image Description: A light yellow background with a photo of the Culture Push 10th Anniversary publication: a thin, red, soft cover book. The image switches between showing the front and the back of the book. The front cover says “Culture Push” in white text in the top left, and “10 YEARS” in yellow in the top right. In the center of the front cover is a large photo of the acceptance letter Culture Push received in 2009 when it applied for 501(c)(3) status. In the center of the back cover is the Culture Push logo in white, and below it yellow text that reads, “Culture Push is an arts organization that creates programs to nurture artists and other creative people who are approaching common problems through hands-on civic participation and imaginative problem-solving.”]
Show Don’t Tell Symposium is an opportunity to get an up-close and participatory view into the projects that our Fellows and Associated Artists are doing as they work at the intersection of imagination, social justice, and civic participation.
APPLICATIONS FOR FALL 2021 CYCLE OF
THE FELLOWSHIP FOR UTOPIAN PRACTICE & BLACK UTOPIAN FELLOWSHIP
OPEN SEPT. 24, 2021.
CHECK OUR FELLOWSHIP PAGE FOR MORE DETAILS.
OUR Fall 2020 Fellows
The Art of Caring, Part Two
Our second panel on mutual aid, moderated by Alicia Grullón and featuring artists Suhaly Bautista-Carolina, Dalaeja Foreman, and Lisandra Maria .
Because our first Art of Caring panel was so popular, we decided to bring in more voices to this important conversation.
This panel looks at how artists have been working and organizing around mutual aid efforts in New York City since the COVID pandemic hit. Much of the work occurring has involved artists and cultural workers alongside residents, activists, and organizers to alleviate the stress and distress people in the city are experiencing. Some artists are directly on the ground serving food and providing PPE while others are helping promote the work of grassroots work in IBPOC communities in the city, nation or internationally. Oftentimes these initiatives have been the only reliable form of assistance many people in need have received. The Art of Caring takes a moment to talk to a small group of artists based NYC working in some of these networks since March.
Panther Pharohs feeding kings + Queens , Mixed Media Collage, 8” x 1o” 2019 courtsey @Artschoolscammer
#BLACKARTISTCHALLENGE
Hello Family,
I hope this message finds you safely. I am reaching out with sincerity and anx. As a Black Femme and artist I am filled with mixed emotions and confused perspectives on society's new awakening to the genocide of Black American Lives. I am fully aware that with this new momentum and focus on the safety and re-imagining of Black futures - corporate entities, government agencies as well as institutions (health, education, religious, fashion, entertainment etc.) will be making room for "initial change."
During this moment where the world has become aware, calling out and attempting to practice revised sensibility towards human life, I do not believe that, as Black Creatives, we are fighting the "same fight" as everyone else - I feel our responses and our fight are purely our own. More importantly the agency we currently are able to access due to social media and virtual existences aid us in foresting our own system of keeping access to the truth and essence of our culture.
Dismantling white supremacy, dealing with the pressures of white guilt and the anxiety of white rage is exhausting and should not be our focus. Those are pre-existing issues and the conditions of pressure that created our current conversations. Moreover, the result of eurocentric ideals of hegemony should be uprooted by those becoming enlightened, those descendants who are standing by our sides claiming allyship.
With all this said, I am working with Culture Push, for an hashtag campaign built to jam racist algorithms. I would like to amplify our voices and create a network within the structures that exist. The hashtag #BlackArtistChallenge will be a catalyst for Black Artists to respond with what they feel in this moment. By captioning with this shared hashtag – We will transmit these shared ideologies via all social media channels. Inspired by "challenge" culture I hope to have a snowball effect amongst our community, creating a visual database and a bookmark of the movement.
There are no rules. If you feel inspired to take part - my initial post will be shared via my @artschoolscammer IG page as well as shared via the @culturepusher IG page on, Thursday 6/18, at 3pm. I will also share this email on my personal story. Please feel free to share this message with anyone who you think would want to participate. Thank you for your time, consideration and existence.
"The artist's role is to raise the consciousness of the people. To make them understand life, the world and themselves more completely." - Amiri Baraka's words
Sending Light,
Denae Howard aka Artschoolscammer
Mamatropolis Lifeline is a relief fund and mutual aid effort for NYC parents impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, in terms of health and/or livelihood. This is part of an ongoing project through Culture Push called Samantha CC of Mamatropolis, which has the greater goal of connecting mamas and gestational parents from different communities to form coalitions around shared goals. Initially there were all kinds of in person events planned, but we have restructured for the current climate. Stay tuned for a publication, in depth conversations, and some live streamed art experiments.
Walking the Edge
New York City is defined by its waterways but New Yorkers may see our city as more land than water. Walking the Edge is a joint project of Culture Push, Works on Water and New York City Department of City Planning. Walking the Edge invites New Yorkers to reconnect to the diversity of the city’s shorelines and have a voice in the city planning process. Take a virtual or actual walk to your nearest waterfront, your closest edge. What is your waterfront? How do you get there? Have you ever walked there? Look on a local map and trace a path from your home to your nearest waterfront. Have you walked this path before? What is the waterfront? Send us your response by tagging us on Instagram, @works_on_water and @nycwaterfront or using the hashtag #WalkingTheEdgeNYC It can be a photo, a screenshot, a short video, a bit of text, or anything else collected along your journey.
10 YEARS of CULTURE PUSH
What have we done (for you) lately? ooo ooo ooo yeah.
OR a pictorial history of Culture Push. Just a few of the many events we’ve been overseeing for the past 10 years!
Our work is possible thanks to support from:
