Table of Contents

Introduction / Roberta Uno  1
The Call / Jeff Chang  17
vestibular mantra (or radical virtuosities for a brave new dance) / taisha paggett  29
Part 1. Cultural Presence: Placekeeping and Belonging
Introduction / Daniela Alvarez  35
Aqui Estoy / Jose Ramirez  40
Beauty, Justice, and the Ritual of Performance / Patricia Berne & Nomy Lamm  42
An Accumulation of Things That Refuse to Be Discarded / Kiyan Williams  52
Counting Coup on the Compartmentalization of Indigenous-Made Rap Music / Talon Bazille Ducheneaux  54
Cultural Resiliency in the Face of Crisis: Learning from New Orleans / Carol Bebelle and Carol Zou  63
Collectively Directing the Current / Halima Afi Cassells  68
The New Eagle Creek Saloon / Sadie Barnette  74
Notes from Technotopia 3.0: On the “Creative City” Gone Wrong-An Antigentrification Philosophical Tantrum, 2012–2016 / Guillermo GÓmez-PeÑa  76
“Building Temples for Tomorrow”: Cultural Workers as Construction Crews / Alesia Montgomery 87
Invasive Species / Aaron McIntosh  94
Sunny and 150 Years of Placekeeping in Little Tokyo / Scott Oshima  96
Local Fruit Still Life / Daniel Andres Alcazar 102
Stage One: Establishing Community / Garrett McQueen 104
Red 40 / JazmÍn Urrea  108
More Noes from the Performance Essay Los Giros De La Siguinte/the turns of the Next / Devin Kenny  110
Part 2. Dismantling Borders, Building Bridges: Migration and Diasporas
Introduction / Sarah Sophia Yanni  123
Mano Poderosa / Rosalie LÓpez  128
A Cosmos of Dis/Joints / Vinhay Keo  130
Cross-Border Citizens / Teddy Cruz and Fonna Foreman  136
Indian Alley, Where Art Is Healing / Pamela J. Peters  146
Vessels: A Conversation / Chanice Holmes, Mykia Jovan, Rebecca Mwase, and Mahalia AbÉo Tibbs  151
Fence / Belise Nishimwe  158
A Touch of Otherness / Hayv Kahraman  160
Harmattan Haze / Njikeka Akunyili Crosby  166
Who Is the #EmergingUS? / Jose Antonio Vargas  168
Justice and Equity: We’re Coming for It All / Christine Her  171
building bricks for communal healing / Silvi NaÇi  176
We Never Needed Documents to Thrive / Yosimar Reyes  178
prop•er / Kassandra L. Khalil  182
Alongside: On Chinese Students in the United States and the Fight for Black Lives / Evelyn Hang Yin  185
Love Spirals: Notes on Brown Feelings / J Molina-Garcia  191
Part 3. Creating a World without Prisons: Culture and the Carceral State
Introduction / Kassandra L. Khalil  205
To Create in Prison / Spel  211
A Measure of Joy / Samara Gaev and Jarvis Jay Masters  214
There Is No Abolition or Liberation without Disability Justice / Lydia X. Z. Brown  224
HOGAR / Aydinaneth Ortiz  230
I Remember / Mark MenjÍvar  232
Coming Home / Dustina Gill  237
Singing Our Way to Abolition / Mary Hooks  241
Standing in the Gap: Music as First Responder / Duane Robert Garcia and Vijay Gupta  245
Locked in a Dark Calm / Tameca Cole  250
As Crazy as the World Is, I Do Believe / Kondani Fidel with images by Devin Allen  252
Jumpsuit Projects / Sherrill Roland  260
The Bonds of Aloha: Connecting to Culture Can Free Us / Hinaleimoana Kwai Kong Wong-Kula  262
The Nail That Sticks Out / Tani Ikeda  268
Art Is a Trojan Horse: Reclaiming Our Narratives / Faith Bartley, Courtney Bowles, and Mark Strandquist  272
Try/Step/Trip (Excerpt) / Dahlak Brathwaite  281
The Evanesced Series (2016–) / Kenyatta A. C. Hinkle  290
Part 4. Embodied Cartographies: Renegotiating Relationships with Land
Introduction / Elizabeth M. Webb  295
Kiksuya / Michael Two Bulls  300
American Doesn’t Exist / Lyla June  302
Between the Real and the Imagined: A Conversation with Lyla June and Tanaya Winder / Lyla June and Tanaya Winder  304
Sopa de OstiÓn / Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya  310
Island Earth: Water, Wayfinding, and the Currents That Connect Us / Nāʻāleu Anthony and Haunani Kane 312
ACCESS DENIED: Creating New Spatial Understandings / Jaklin Romine  321
Essential Economy / Jia Lok Pratt  326
Earth Mama II / Favianna Rodriguez  332
We Are Proud of This Land / Carlton Turner  334
Mauka House / Kapena Alapaʻi  340
Withholding an Image: Disciplinary Disobedience and Reciprocity in the Field / Ashley Hunt  343
Thinking through Fragments: Speculative Archives, Contested Histories, and a Tale of the Palestine Archaeological Museum / Dareen Hussein  354
Secrets That the Wind Carries Away / Morel Doucet  359
Ohiŋniyaŋ ded wati kte: This Place Will Always Be Home / Angela Two Stars  364
Ballers / Mel D. Cole  368
Part 5. Living Our Legacy: Ancestral Knowledge as Radical Futurity
Introduction / Kapena Alapaʻi  373
These Roots Run Deep / Dyani White Hawk  378
The Future Is Ancient / Allison Akootchook Warden  380
Being in Oneness: Conversations with Nobuko Miyamoto, Kamau Ayubbi, and Asiya Ayubbi / Nobuko Miyamoto, Asiya Amatullah Ayubbi, and Imam Kamau Ayubbi  384
1619 / Douglas Kearney  396
Encircling the Circle: Blood Memory and Making the Village-a Conversation between Cleo Parker Robinson and Malik Robinson / Cleo Parker Robinson and Malik Robinson  400
Culture and Tradition: A Monument to Our Resilience / Ofelia Esparza  408
EspaÑol / Yanina Chicas  410
ApsÁalooke Feminist #4 / Wendy Red Star  412
Mother’s Words and Grandmother’s Thoughts: Living the Right Way (a Conversation) / Maribel Alvarez and Ofelia Zepeda  414
The AIM Song / Elisa Harkins  421
Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Reflections of Futurity / Queen Quet Marquetta L. Goodwine  426
For Paradise / Elizabeth M. Webb  430
What Is the New Basket That We’re Going to Weave? / Lori Lea Pourier  436
I ka wā ma mua, i ka wā ma hope: Ōiwi Orientations toward a Radical Futurity / Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio and Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwoʻole Osorio  442
The Art of Peer Pressure: Black Fire UVA! / Kevin Jerome Everson and Claudrena N. Harold  450
Part 6. Currents Beyond: Artists Shifting Paradigms of Inequity
Introduction / Genevieve Fowler  461
Bang Bang / Natalie Ball  466
The Cultural New Deal for Cultural and Racial Justice / Michele Kumi Baer, Jeff Chang, MarÍa LÓpez De LeÓn, Tara Dorabji, Kassandra L. Khalil, Lori Pourier, Favianna Rodriguez, Nayantara Sen, Carlton Turner, Roberta Uno, and Elizabeth M. Webb  468
We Begin by Listening / Jeanette Lee  475
EMERGENYC: An Artistic Home for Emerging Artists / MarlÈne RamÍrez-Cancio  482
Listening through Dance / Antoine Hunter  491
Scenes and Takes / Carrie Mae Weems  495
Feminist Coalition and Queer Movements across Time: A Conversation between Alok Vaid-Menon and Urvashi Vaid / Alok Vaid-Menon and Urvashi Vaid  504
What Would Upski Think? / Devin Kenny  516
all organizing is science fiction / adrienne maree brown  519
Rebirth Garments / Sky Cubacub  522
A Call to Action / Eleanor Savage  524
SOVEREIGN / X  538
Flexing Hope Is a Practice / Ananya Chatterjea  540
Azadi / Arshia Fatima Haq  546
Afterword / Daniela Alvarez and Elizabeth M. Webb  549
emergence / Sarah Sophia Yanni  551
Acknowledgments  553
 

About the Author

Daniela Alvarez is REFRAME editor and Research Manager at Arts in a Changing America, and Public Programs Coordinator at the Getty Museum.

Roberta Uno is a theater director and Founding Director of Arts in a Changing America.

Elizabeth M. Webb is an artist and filmmaker and Senior Creative Producer at Arts in a Changing America.

Reviews

“FUTURE/PRESENT is an essential testament to the crucial work that artists, thinkers, and organizers are doing to work toward a more equitable future.” - Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation “FUTURE/PRESENT so elegantly proposes a clear solution to a complex issue: to resist the monoculture we must work from many interconnected creative centers. The myriad voices in this book express exciting ripples of change in the arts and beautifully insist on culture’s vital role in progress. May we all take the call.” - Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator, The Studio Museum in Harlem “FUTURE/PRESENT maps and captures how art, dance, and creative practice exist in our daily lives and act as mechanisms for anticolonial and antiracist practice. By lifting up the voices of artists and outlining the methods that can produce more inclusive spaces in the art world, this important book demonstrates how art is a constant source of strength for communities.” - Mishuana Goeman, author of (Settler Aesthetics: Visualizing the Spectacle of Originary Moments in The New World)