Why Culture Matters to Justice

A series of commissioned essays

About the Series

Torn strips of paper laid out in overlapping rows, each handwritten with questions and notes about culture, collective understanding, systems change, fascism, the state, cooperation, and individualism. The separate pieces suggest the ideas can be rearranged and recombined.

Culture, and the artists and cultural workers who help shape it, are an integral part of all revolutionary movements. If we want to inspire collective action in this time of authoritarianism and proto-fascism, we must intervene on the level of belief by experimenting, investing in, and uplifting ways of being that counter the current hegemony. “Why Culture Matters to Justice” is a series of essays commissioned by the Culture Justice Initiative (CJI), designed to grow our understanding of culture as a force for transformation. Through these works, we hope to provoke dialogue, influence strategy, and deepen practice.

These essays are cross-published by National Performance Network and our series partners Convergence, A Magazine for Radical Insights, HowlRound Theatre Commons, and Landscapes, a digital platform from A Blade of Grass.