The New Orleans Blues Project and bluesproject.com would like to welcome the Convergence of Artists, Educators and Organizers attendees to New Orleans. The New Orleans Blues Project is a music and cultural economic development project. As a grass roots community effort founded on principles of inclusion, unity and community action, The New Orleans Blues Project seeks to promote communication, dialogue and understanding between diverse communities through awareness and appreciation of blues and roots music and its related culture and heritage.

 

Convergence of Artists, Educators and Organizers January 23-25, 2004 - New Orleans , Louisiana Registration is closed, info on these pages is for registered participants only. If you would like to receive information about the outcomes of this event please email: convergencefollowup@npnweb.org

 

Agenda Meeting locations/directions Housing info Case Study Abstracts Related Event Info Links and Inspiration

A national Convergence of Artists, Educators and Organizers will take place in New Orleans January 23-25, 2004. The opening dinner and discussion, including a keynote address by Bill Fletcher, President of TransAfrica Forum, will take place on Friday January 23, beginning at 6:00pm, at Tulane University’s Diboll Conference Center. All-day sessions beginning at 9:00am on Saturday are scheduled at Douglass High School, and a final half-day of events is planned for Sunday at Dillard University. This is a historic gathering of social change practitioners, educators, and artists from across the United States, Mexico and Canada. It is entirely self-organized by a core group of volunteers who are working in coalition—across generations, race, issue identifications, regions—with no formal staff or funding. The response has been overwhelming, attracting more than twice the number of participants expected. The extraordinary talent and vision of this group has shaped an event that will have a lasting impact on the ways in which artists, community organizers and educators work together to strengthen our communities and democracy. The impulse for this event and decision to hold it in New Orleans grew out of the energy generated in October by participants in Animating Democracy’s National Exchange on Art and Civic Dialogue. It was inspired by the insight that meaningful change requires the body, the mind, and the spirit to work in concert, challenging us as organizers, educators and artists to realize the necessary interconnectedness of our work. As civil rights activist Grace Lee Boggs observed, “this calls for nothing less than a revolution in how we think about and practice social change.” This gathering will focus on how artists, educators and organizers committed to grass-roots, bottom-up organizing efforts that strengthen and serve the interests of their communities can better work together. Participants List - Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader Organizing Committee Sandy Agustin, Intermedia Arts Andrea Assaf, Animating Democracy/Americans for the Arts Caron Atlas, Independent Consultant Euna August, New Orleans Organizing Committee Lee Bell, Neighborhood Roundtable Stanlyn Breve, National Performance Network David Carson, New Orleans Organizing Committee Jan Clifford, National Performance Network Deanne Feaster, New Orleans Organizing Committee Barbara Hayley, Tulane University Amy Koritz, Tulane University Alice Lovelace, Atlanta Partnership for Arts in Learning Jason Mellad, New Orleans Organizing Committee Lisa Mount, Artistic Logistics Curtis Muhammad, Color Line Project/Community Labor United John O'Neal, Color Line Project and Junebug Productions Carolyn Pierre, Tulane University Jim Randels, Color Line Project and Douglass High School Graciela Sanchez, Esperanza Peace & Justice Center Michael Marinez, Esperanza Peace and Justice Center Mathew Schwarzman, National Performance Network Hamilton Simons-Jones, Tulane University MK Wegmann, National Performance Network Talvin Wilks, New WORLD Theater Megan Finn, New Orleans Organizing Committee Rene Saenz, Esperanza Peace & Justice Center