Hidden Histories & Seeding Change Institute
Throughout the year, Pangea offered a variety of spaces for people to come together and tell their own Hidden Histories—personal, political. dreamscapes. We put people, and all their epic beauty and sorrow, at the center of the telling of where we are and where we have been and where we want to go. These poems, images, stories, art works, songs and dances will be gathered and woven into a large-scale timeline/map that will be displayed along Lake Street, and available as a print. The celebration for the 2023 Lakes Street Arts Season will be at Moon Palace Books on July 15, 2023.
Photos by Jenny Zander
This work took on a variety of shapes and sizes—from physically creating art that centers our histories and emotions-like with Keegan Zavi’s collage workshop and Sayge Carroll’s “Ancestor Vessels” workshop- to embodying those histories with our actual bodies, like with DejaJoelle’s "Body Reclamation" workshop and Sarah M Greer’s “Singing A Way Through”.
But these workshops were only the beginning of what we’ve done this year. We at Pangea World Theater wanted to create a generative, supportive space for artists to strengthen their critical skills and approach to making socially engaged projects and work. As such, the The Seeding Change Institute was born. The SCI is a new initiative developed by artists, for artists and those working in the arts seeking to connect to a larger community, and to a deeper understanding of community development— both to their audience and to each other. Outside of MFA programs, there are very few opportunities for any emerging or established artists, writers, dancers, singers, visual artists, performers to spend time in a collective setting, developing new skills and the rigor to ask big questions about their work and role as an artist. Isolation is a central tenet of this society, and this is true for artists as well. SCI seeks to create a space where artistic community is fostered and participants are supported and challenged to grow in their artistic practice.
SCI will be offered starting in the fall of 2024 for a 10-15 person cohort. It will offer workshops, conversations, hands-on learning with guest artists and readings with discussions. During the 9-month Institute each cohort member will develop their own project alone or in collaboration with other cohort members. There will be opportunities for the cohort to share their work with a larger audience and to have their work well documented. Additionally, a shorter summer intensive for youth will also be developed. For our initial cohort, we have invited ten artists and arts organizers to take part in a year-long Seeding Change Research and Creation Cohort to help us envision the institute.
In November 2023 the Seeding Change Research and Creation Cohort will offer a weekend gathering of free workshops, performances and conversations at Pangea World Theater to share with the community what we are creating.
Remembering Lake Street Arts! Love is Time Travel
Seven amazing writers, Venus DeMars, Anthony Ceballos, May Lee Yang, Ricardo Levins Morales, Ellen Marie Hinchcliffe, Miré Regulus, and Aegor Ray, came together to share their poems with our audience, reflecting on themes of ancestry, love, death, grief, and healing. We're looking forward to another reading in the 2023-24 Season.
Remembering Lake Street Arts! Life Born of Fire
Life Born of Fire, photos by Bruce Silcox
Life Born of Fire rose from the ashes. Complicated, unfinished, and unfurling. What insists on blooming forth— What raw, real gifts are we carrying from ancestors, towards descendants and for ourselves, our weary bodies, our lovely hearts. An ensemble created performance ritual with song, music, poetry and movement, Life Born of Fire acted as an invitation to be together to hold the grief and the healing, the breaking and mending.
It takes the generosity of the collective to keep programs like Lake Street Arts! Going— funding the individuals who make the art that truly heal the community it lives and thrives in. If you wish to help keep this energy alive, consider donating at http://bit.ly/Donate4Transformation