An Antidote to the Negativity Surrounding Rural America
With all the news of downward trends in rural America, this rural sociologist says he finally has something to smile about.
Interview with Rip Rapson, president and CEO of the Kresge Foundation
If you look at what Rip Rapson has accomplished and the insight he brings to his current work, you'll get a much better picture of who he is and the challenging work he spearheads at the Kresge Foundation.
If We Want the Arts in Baltimore, We Need Its Artists
Artists have left their mark on Station North and paved the way for an arts district, but the organically-developed communal live/work spaces that play such a vital role in helping make Baltimore an arts mecca are an endangered species.
New Visions of Justice Through the Camera Lens
An experimental learning opportunity allows formerly incarcerated individuals to use photography to explore ideas of freedom, complex relationships, and their personal experience with the criminal justice system.
Poem: “Tires Stacked in the Hallways of Civilization”
Yes, Your Honor, there are rodents, said the landlord to the judge, but I let the tenant have a cat. Besides, he stacks his tires in the hallway.
The $9 Jar of Artisanal Pickles: Equity and Local Food
Sustainability is about thriving, not just surviving. We will not thrive if we are poorly paid martyrs to a good cause, and thus, in a healthy, diverse and vital food system, some of our efforts might need to be directed to those who can pay nine dollars for a jar of pickles.
Interview with Richard Baron, CEO of McCormack Baron Salazar
It still surprises many people that Richard Baron, the CEO of one of the largest for-profit affordable housing developers, got his start in the field supporting public housing tenants in a rent strike.
A Community Planning Process–Even A Good One–Is Not Enough
Just the inherent language of community “transformation” signals that what has come before is not worth holding on to, and renders the history of these public housing sites insignificant.
The Next Generation of Indigenous Knowledge Keepers
A tribal college program works to preserve crucial Native American cultural elements while training indigenous women to step into leadership roles in their communities.
The Catalyzing Power of Art
Art can be an economic engine for neighborhoods, but sometimes locally-based artists need some support to kick their businesses into gear, and community-based organizations are stepping up.
Poem: “Gentrification”
I have seen a neighborhood eat itself for dinner
How Artists Helped a Housing Organization Adapt to Demographic Change
An in-depth look at the lessons one housing organization learned after receiving a multimillion grant to integrate arts and culture strategies in its work. Has the organization changed the way it operates?
Poem: “What Must Be Done”
Do not hate them.
Do not be angry with them:
The real estate agents, appraising
the value of other peoples lives,
calculating the profit that someone’s home
of twenty...
Poem: ms. margaret on her landline phone with ruth, talking about her new neighbors...
A poem engaging equity for the author's godmother and other women who begin their sentences with the word "chile."
Ballin’ at the Graveyard
The documentary Ballin’ at the Graveyard looks at the hardball culture and strong supportive ties between players that have brought two generations of men...
Not Your Average Community Garden
A good community garden is a space that nurtures hope, natural abundance, and growth, and eventually moves beyond food and into the realm of relationship-building that can help sustain healthy communities.
Harnessing the Creativity of Artists to Unlock Community Wealth
With collaboration among Dallas' arts community, a place-based initiative called CultureBank invests in social impact artists in order to steward community assets to promote the health and well being of residents.
An Artist’s Way of Seeing: Community Engagement in Creative Placemaking
How are artists converting the power and creativity of art into community-led change?
We Need the Data—But Can’t Forget the People—in Creative Placemaking
However difficult, altering one’s viewpoint of a community is a crucial step, because creative placemaking’s overarching goal is to reach everyone where they are, and you can’t do that if you begin with a well thought-out plan in hand.
A Creative Impetus for Cultural Pride
The Little Tokyo Service Center uses art to inspire activism, and increase awareness of the community’s cultural assets.