Community Building for Change

Posted by on July 2, 2007

Community Building for Change…We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For
summer institute by Urban Bush Women
Brooklyn, N.Y.
July 27-August 5, 2007

“What worked best for me during the Institute was the opportunity to create and collaborate. As a person who does not consider herself to be a dancer, I thought it was very empowering to be encouraged to choreograph my own movements. The exercises helped me to believe in my own creativity.” – 2006 Participant

The purpose of the Summer Institute is to connect concert professionals and community-based artists together in a learning experience to better maximize the possibilities of the arts as a vehicle for social activism and civic engagement. Previously held in Tallahasee in partnership with Florida State University (1997-1999), and now in Brooklyn, New York since 2004, the Institute draws a cross section of participants from across the country. The culturally vibrant and racially diverse Fort Greene neighborhood serves as the backdrop for this unique and challenging educational experience.

The 2007 Summer Institute is titled “Community Building for Change…We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For.” The curriculum is designed to illuminate various ways that artists can define and support their own course of creative activism and shape their own personal strategies for progressive social change. One avenue of study will be an examination of the lives of exemplary activists, such as Fannie Lou Hamer and Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, as a way to help define one’s own activist path. By exploring the journeys and accomplishments of these powerful women, Institute participants will discover, deepen and strategize towards their own contributions to change movements.

http://www.urbanbushwomen.org/summer_inst.html