The InterGen Café: Arts and Activism — Energizing and Activating Communities

I believe in the arts’ ability to energize and activate communities… When people are creating together, they are building community together while experiencing their humanity together. All of that is very important in terms of building any kind of movement or social justice work — if people don’t feel they can make change, then change won’t happen. You have to, somewhere inside of you, have that hope, that inspiration, that feeling, that “yes, I can make a difference, change things. Things can be different.”

That’s what we do with young people through the Encampment — help them understand through their own voices and creativity that they can make a difference. — Jane Sapp, EFC Education Director

The April InterGen Café focused on the critical importance of arts in social justice organizing — for people of all ages. The Café is created and organized by an intergenerational group of EFC alums and staff who are part of the Alum Outreach Committee. In this café, two other alums were also guest speakers and small group moderators: Hausson Byrd and Aaron Richardson. They were joined by Faya Ora Rose Toure’, community organizer, songwriter, civil rights attorney and founder of the Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee.

While the speakers each provide inspiration, the heart of the café is the small-group approach of sharing experiences, information and support in an intergenerational community. Participants spanned ages 16–90 and states represented included California, New York, Georgia, North Carolina, Nebraska, Massachusetts, North Dakota, and New Jersey. The best way to experience the support and caring of the small groups is to be there but here are a few of the takeaways that were shared.

Finding a way for the Encampment to be part of a larger conversation about changing the narrative in the U.S. from the traditional American dream (a house and a car) to mutual honoring, respect and finding new ways to partner.
What does it take to create a critical mass of people organized to counteract the racism of millions of Americans?
The importance of artists taking themselves seriously, putting in the work over time, networking, and getting support for their dreams — not just fitting into societal expectations that poets and other artists cannot make a living.
The EFC’s Pesticide-Free Soil Project as an example of community organizing using the arts (social media visuals/video and the virtual gathering The Other Strawberry Festival (Sunday June 4, 1-3 p.m. Pacific)).

Arts and Activism Speakers (and Small-Group Leaders)

Aaron Richardson, EFC alum 2014
Faya Ora Rose Toure’
Hausson Byrd, EFC alum 2014

To view Hausson Byrd’s spoken word presentation, click here.

Aaron Richardson explained how he created a musical album as his final project in Politics and Education and shared his song “Krysis.” Click here to hear audio. You can also find it on Spotify (See Resources.)

Ms.Toure’ ended the program with an inspirational talk about the necessity of arts in community organizing and especially with engaging young people in activism.

We have to look down the road 10–20 years if we are going to save this fragile democracy. We’ve only had it for a few years. We got in 1965 with the Voting Rights Bill, but [the bill] was gutted in 2013 and it’s been downhill ever since. The problem is we have not been as studious and determined to save this democracy as we were to get it. If an unarmed black man is not killed by a white man, there’s no real organizing. When George Floyd was killed there were masses of demonstrations, but it was a moment; it was not a movement. At least, it was not a sustained movement. How do you get communities to organize in their self-interest in the long run? … I think you have to deal with the children …

It has to be deliberate; it has to be intentional. It’s like we’re facing a big army and that army appears to out-gun us, more resources, they have a philosophy that’s 300 years old that millions of Americans buy into. We have to be deliberate about countering that philosophy by developing young leaders. First you got to get their attention and there’s no way to get their attention without the arts … Young people are programmed to not read — it’s not fun, not fast enough, boring.

… Like-minded people, like the people on this call, who want to see an inclusive democracy where people of all ethnic groups and sexual orientations — where everybody is respected — then we have to understand that is something that has to be taught. The whole country is built on separatism and all kind of isms. We have to deliberately and intentionally get the attention of young people who are our future leaders and policy- makers. And the only way to get their attention, in my humble opinion, is the arts.