Literary
Write Your Block relates poetry and place in Philadelphia
Philadelphia has a rich heritage of poetry reflected in a diversity of poets and a vibrant poetry culture that includes respected institutions like the Kelly Writers House at the University of…
A gaffer finds her light in Pittsburgh
the gaffer lamplighter chief lighting technician the DP’s go-to guy dispenser of gaffer’s tape brute arc myths day for night & the anti-auteur theory transposer of sun/shadow nuancer of mood…
Recovering the Story: How Arts Contribute to Emergency Recovery and Resilience
How does storytelling help individuals and communities overcome disaster? East Coast Hurricane Sandy survivors became storytellers through Sandy Storyline, a participatory documentary that collects…
Marsha Music is a writer, community organizer, and lifelong Detroiter
An interesting counter-story has emerged to the national cliché of Detroit-as-post-industrial-wasteland recently – one of a "new Detroit" rife with young, educated, well-off techies…
How storytelling heals and strengthens communities
In April of 2014, Damian Woetzel and the Aspen Institute Arts Program convened a Strategy Group in Detroit. This convening brought together local and national experts: artists and leaders in arts,…
Welcome to Creative Exchange (again)
"I believe in the magic of storytelling, not only for teller but also the listener," says agrarian artist Nikiko Masumoto, who lives and works in California's Central Valley. "The possibility of…
Nikiko Masumoto cultivates connections between the art of food and farming and stories of place
Nikiko Masumoto is a farmer, and also an artist. Contrary what people might assume about these two different aspects of her life, they are not at odds with each other. In fact, each one informs the…
Satori Shakoor and the power of telling true stories
Stories heal. They provoke. They reassure. When told in the intimate setting of The Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers at the Charles H. Wright Museum of…
Anna Clark sees the future of a Literary Detroit
Last year, Anna Clark received an email from Anne Trubek, an author from Cleveland whom she had interviewed in 2010 for a blog feature. Since then, Trubek had gone on to…
Artists U teaches artists how to make a life
The hardest thing about making a life as an artist is actually making a life as an artist. That's where Artists U comes in. Andrew Simonet is a choreographer and a writer who directed the Headlong…
Terry Blackhawk teaches Detroit kids the power of poetry through the InsideOut Literary Arts Project
InsideOut Literary Arts Project started out as so many other well-intended projects do: as an idea that didn't quite seem realistic enough to become reality. Until it did. It is worth quoting…
The media is the message: Guante uses hip hop culture to educate and engage the community
Canadian philosopher and communication theorist Marshall McLuhan coined the expression "The medium is the message" in 1964 (long before the creation of the Internet), implying that it's not so much…
Y-O's Poetic Peace Arts poetry slams give a voice to unheard Macon artists
Poet and community organizer Y-O left her native Macon, Georgia to attend Georgia College in 1991. It was here that she "officially" became a poet, writing her first poem at the age of 17. From…