Voices from the Network

Our artist blog provides a curated online space where artists can share and connect through articles, interviews, and first-person accounts.

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“The Medicine Wheel Is Always Central to My Work”: An Interview with Take Notice Fund Artist Ivan Watkins

In this wide-ranging interview, 2023 Take Notice Fund grantee Ivan Watkins talks about the power of color and universal symbols, his disenchantment with the mainstream art world, and his multifaceted exploration of spirituality.

A Black man, Ivan Watkins, poses in an elaborate green feather head-to-toe Black Masking Indian costume.

Where Are You in This Story? Hali Dardar on Land Acknowledgments & Colonial Shout-Outs

United Houma Nation artist Hali Dardar talks to NPN about Colonial Shout-Out, a video-based project to highlight Indigenous dispossession and displacement in Bvlbancha (New Orleans).

Headshot of Hali Dardar.

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Resist, Reawaken, and Reclaim: Christopher K. Morgan’s The Dulling Effect Urges Audiences to Reject Detachment

Christopher K. Morgan‘s dance performance The Dulling Effect is both a celebration and a defense of freedom, individuality, and self-expression.

Performance still of "The Dulling Effect."

Reclaiming the Past, Reimagining the Future: Anna Beatrice Scott’s ART+FACT and the Power of Storytelling

Anna Beatrice Scott‘s interactive ART+FACT project uses performance and technology to shine a light on the buried Black history of Holly Springs, Mississippi.

Photo of Anna Beatrice Scott.

Spotlight: Black Rural Life: Jazzie Jelks on Reclaiming Traditions for the Future

Through her project Spotlight: Black Rural Life, Jazzie Jelks is creating space to honor the legacy and future of Black communities.

A close-up of part of the book cover for "Spotlight: Black Rural Life," curated and illustrated by Jazzie Jelks. The colorful illustration centers on a young Black girl with her fists crossed over her chest. A smiling Black woman to the left of her is braiding the girl's hair. Surrounding the girl are a quilt, black-eyed-peas, a mustached man in a suit and black bow tie, and collard greens.

CANOA: Bridging Cultures and Building Community in New Orleans

With CANOA, Tomás Montoya and Jebney Lewis have created a dynamic space where people from the Caribbean and New Orleans can celebrate their shared heritage.

Devonta Ravizee: Transforming Birmingham through the “5 Lil’ Penguins” Project

With 5 Lil’ Penguins, Devonta Ravizee expands the boundaries of traditional media in order to address critical issues within Birmingham’s Black communities and spark social and economic change.

Devonta Ravizee, wearing a white raglan t-shirt with red sleeves and a dirty white baseball cap turned backwards, stands in front of a painted corrugated metal security gate at dusk and stares back over his right shoulder at something off screen.

Bvlbancha Public Access: Amplifying Indigenous Voices in the Gulf South

Through their media group Bvlbancha Public Access, Jean Luc-Pierite, Ida Aronson, and Hali Dardar are leading artistic projects to reflect on the continued Indigenous presence in the Gulf South.

Three actors sit on a blanket in Nanih Bvlbancha at dawn and perform a dramatic reading of the original script of La Fête Du Petit Blé Ou L'héroïsme De Poucha-Houmma.There is a lamp between them and they are looking down at their scripts. Behind them is an irregular fence made out of rough-hewn branches and thin logs. Overlaid on the photo is the black and white logo for the media group.

The Sustaining Power of Conversation

NPN Board Member Mary Prescott shares her experience with “Sustaining in a Time of Change,” an Artists U workshop.

“Sheesh. Amen.”: The Power of Artist-to-Artist Conversations

Artists U, an organizing platform to change the working conditions of artists, spoke with 71 NPN-supported artists in workshops and community conversations.

Close up profile photo of a man standing in a field and grinning. He has short, dark brown hair that's peppered with gray, and he's wearing a dark blue denim long-sleeved shirt. His arms are extended and draped around a long wooden pole that runs behind his neck. Photo by Skye Simonet.

On Efficacy and the Institution

Ann Glaviano‘s work explores what happens to a community after it’s been abandoned by its central institutions.

Three dancers in white stand on a dark stage and stare up.

“Yenobak Eih? (What Do You Get?)”: Syrian and Mexican Cultures Come Together in Árabe

Amanda Ekery’s new work, Árabe, invites audiences to explore Syrian and Mexican shared history and culture on the El Paso border.

Reviving Heritage: Nant’a Cougar Goodbear and the Canneci People’s Journey

Nant’a Cougar Goodbear navigates the complexities of land acquisition, cultural preservation, and community engagement to preserve and celebrate the legacy of the Canneci people.

A man, Nant'a Cougar Goodbear, wearing a patterned shirt, a headscarf, and a beaded necklace, stands outdoors with trees in the background.

Greer E. Mendy: Weaving Cultural Legacies Through “Blues To Bounce”

With over fifty years of experience, Greer E. Mendy’s latest project, Blues To Bounce, is an eloquent narrative that captures the essence of New Orleans’ vibrant cultural tapestry.

A Black woman with a shaved head and wearing a form fitting strapless black dress is standing outside in front of a weathered wooden fence. She smiles and looks up at the sky with her back arched and her ams outstretched. Draped over her arms and extending down like open wings is a bold yellow length of fabric with black edges and large black flower silhouettes.

Roberto Bedoya, the Civic We, and the Archipelago of Cultural Policy

Roberto Bedoya, cultural strategist, sat down with NPN president and CEO Caitlin Strokosch to talk about the 20th anniversary of his influential paper on US cultural policy, and what Roberto 3.0 looks like.

Cosmic Wisdom: How a Channeled Poem Inspired Me to Create the Solo Piece Ouroboros

As a dancer and choreographer, Nejla Yatkin often finds inspiration in the most unexpected places. This time, it came from a channeled poem—a message from the universe that deeply resonated with her and became the cornerstone of her solo piece, Ouroboros.

Woman with blue head piece and colorful top with tribal prints and blue pants leaning backwards in front of a circle of seated audience members. The space is decorated and lit in purple colors.

Atomic Repercussions: Yvonne Montoya’s “Pajarito”

A video essay on Pajarito, a dance performance created by choreographer Yvonne Montoya as part of the Stories from Home dance series

Four dancers perform on a stage lit in blue and purple. Three of the dancers are running across the stage from left to right, and are slightly blurred from the motion. Two of these dancers are women and the other is a man The fourth performer, a woman, stands motionless upstage with her arms by her side, facing the audience.

Happy Fall: A Queer Stunt Spectacular

Queer culture, stunt showmanship, and puppetry all collide for the Rogue Artists Ensemble’s Happy Fall: A Queer Stunt Spectacular, informed by five plus years of conversations and workshops with the LGBTQIA+ stunt community.

A promotional image for "Happy Fall: A Queer Stunt Spectacular." The image has a saturated blue background. On the left side are blurred shadows of lighting equipment used in movie making, and on the right side are blurred shadows of scaffolding. Running vertically down the center 20% of the image are six saturated pink stripes. The stripes fan out at the top and bottom of the image to give the illusion of perspective and depth. Over the stripes is gray silhouette of a figure falling backwards. There are two lines of white text at the top of the image. The first line reads HAPPY FALL, and the second line reads A Queer Stunt Spectacular.

Musing on the making of IzumonookunI

Choreographer Aretha Aoki and sound designer and artist Ryan MacDonald created IzumonookunI, a hybrid dance/punk/glam-goth/synth-wave performance inspired by Izumo no Okuni, the 17th-century cis-female founder of the Japanese dance-drama form, kabuki.

On a stage lit in purple and blue, a female-presenting dancer in a short-sleeved dark shirt and dark shorts presses a knee onto the ground and extends the other leg, while tilting her head down and swinging it so that her long black hair flies out away from her skull. In front of her is a rumpled and highly reflective swatch of fabric, and behind her a disco ball rests on the ground. The left side of the background shows part of a backdrop for the performance, which is a series of sets of thin white lines crossing over each other like string art. On the right side we can see part of what appears to be a DJ table with cables and equipment.

La Mezcla: Behind the Scenes

A small look into the process of producing and choreographing La Mezcla‘s Ghostly Labor.

Executive Artistic Director, Vanessa Sanchez, gives dancers notes from the audience. Vanessa is seated in the theater, surrounded by empty seats, and is pointing towards the stage.

Jahni Moore’s WE Initiative: A Journey Through Art, History, and Community Empowerment

Jahni Moore‘s latest endeavor, WE Initiative, is a vibrant fusion of art, history, and community activism centered in Huntsville, Alabama’s Magnolia Terrace.

The Black artist Jahni Moore stands outside next to a hand-painted sign that displays two large eyes and the words, "We are still here." He is wearing faded jeans, a loose white shirt, glasses, and gardening gloves, and he is holding a rake. The sign is approximately five feet wide by two feet tall, and it's raised about four feet off the ground by two wooden posts. Behind him and the sign is a partial view of the Drake House, with yellow siding and a concrete-and-brick foundation that's painted a pale green. The sky is a clear blue, and the trees in the distance are bare, suggesting the photo was taken in late winter or early spring.

Subcontinuity celebrates South Asian-American cultural leaders

The podcast “Subcontinuity” explores the impact of South Asian-American leaders on the cultural landscape of the United States.

Cover art for the podcast "Subcontinuity" Episode 1: Vijay Gupta and Priya Krishna

Milan Daemgen’s “after angola”: Weaving Stories of Incarceration and Healing through Community-Driven Cinema

Southern Artists for Social Change awardee Carey Fountain writes about fellow awardee Milan Daemgen and his work.

In this still from the film "after angola," a middle-aged bearded man stares somberly at the camera while standing in darkness and bathed in red light.

Lauren Turner Hines: Orchestrating Change Through Artistic Resilience and Resistance

Southern Artists for Social Change awardee Carey Fountain writes about fellow awardee Lauren Turner Hines and her work.

The Art of Resistance: Kerrigan Casey’s Vision of Healing and Change

Southern Artists for Social Change awardee Carey Fountain writes about fellow awardee Kerrigan Casey and her project “The Art of Resistance.”

Detail of painting by Kerrigan Casey: against a bright green background are three oversized paintbrushes with the heads of young Black artists replacing the brush bristles

A Tale as Old as Time; or: If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Plunge ‘Em

Anthony Hudson, also known as drag performer Carla Rossi, shares experiences navigating anti-drag backlash and legislation.

Drag performer Carla Rossi, wearing a bold makeup look featuring black, smoky eyes and purple lipstick and wig.

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Off the Record: Acts of Restorative Justice

Off the Record: Acts of Restorative Justice is a theatrical intervention that changes lives. James Scruggs will work with community participants who have a misdemeanor or nonviolent felony in their past to legally expunge or seal their criminal records, while telling their stories, onstage and off.

A Black man stands in a dark blue polo shirt mid-lunge with his arms raised and his hands gesturing energetically. His face is turned profile and tilted down so that his thick beard melts into his shirt and the stage light gleams bright against the dark skin of his forehead. James’ expression is tense, with knit brows, a scrunched nose and a thin mouth.

Building Beauty with Spy Boy Walter

In New Orleans’ Masking culture, Spy Boy Walter (Walter Sandifer III) highlights the tradition of sewing suits rich in rhinestones, beads, and feathers as an expression of freedom. Tribal members spend the year crafting these vibrant suits to showcase on Mardi Gras Day, St. Joseph’s Night, and Super Sunday, embodying the community’s heritage and stories.

Call to Remember: Exploring Black Pedagogy, Artistry, and Activism in Dance

A dynamic exploration by Leslie Parker into Black pedagogy, artistry, and activism in dance. It’s a shared improvisation and experimentation endeavor aiming to prioritize Blackness and explore remembrance to cultivate community.

Moral Documents and Enforcement Tools: Modeling Equitable Contracting

Contracts are moral documents and enforcement tools. Drafting equity-driven contracts raises tensions between new and old relationship models, collaborative vision, capitalist pressures, and real conflict.

A Lesson for Living: How Watching My Father Learn to Walk Again Prepared Me for a Pandemic

Choreographer Helanius J. Wilkins reflects on how watching his father learn to walk again after a workplace accident taught him lessons in resilience that shape his art, his activism, and his way of living.

10 Hurricane Ida Experiences the Houma Language Project Can’t Describe

Three months after Hurricane Ida made landfall, the Houma Language Project describes Houma communities’ experiences there are no words for.

Logo for The Houma Language Project

Remade Ruins: A Cultural Heritage Oasis in the Magical Black South

Remade Ruins, by artist Zaire Love, will be a Black-owned Oasis in the magical Black South. The project establishes an arts destination in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Remade Ruins by Zaire Love

On the Eve of Abolition: Papel Machete Imagines the Last Day of the Last Prison

The play “On the Eve of Abolition,” from Puerto Rico-based group Papel Machete, dramatizes the end of the prison-industrial complex in the US and Mexico.

Hoktiwe: The First Film in Ishakkoy

Jeffery U. Darensbourg, Southern Artists for Social change artist and tribal councilperson of the Atakapa-Ishak Nation, shares the short film he created in collaboration with cinematographer Fernando López. Featuring two poems by Darensbourg, it is the first film in the Ishakkoy language.

Still from Hoktiwe, the first film in Ishakkoy, two poems by Jeffery U. Darensbourg

What Is A Man?: An Excerpt from the Play “And He Became Man” by Samuel Valdez

A Latino disabled man questions his manhood by looking back at his life and recalling major events that influenced him, asking, “What is a man?”

Turning Our Insides Out: On “Presenting” Indigeneity, Self-Commodification, and the White Gaze

Breadcrumb Navigation Home / Field / Artist Blog / Turning Our Insides Out I spent the years leading up to this pandemic trapped inside the hamster wheel of constant touring that many young artists know all too well. At some point in 2019, while wasting away in the minivan with my band Lula Wiles, I came…

Photo of Mali Obomsawin

Collect in Power: Conversations with Artists and Activists Working for Prison Abolition

A reflection by Jo Kreiter of Flyaway Productions. Conversations with artists and activists working for prison abolition. The Wait Room, a performance installation about women with incarcerated loved ones.

A Sense of Safety: Makoto Hirano on Assimilation, Fear, and Gun Reform

How safe are Asian Americans? How safe do they feel? Team Sunshine Performance Corporation co-director Makoto Hirano says The Great American Gun Show began as a feeling: “How safe am I again? Who are these people who own 400 million firearms in the country, and are they trying to harm me?”

Photo of a performance from "Japanamerica Wonderwave" by Team Sunshine Performance Corporation

Far Out on a Dirt Road

AN INVITATION FROM THE RURAL ARTS SECTOR “When we speak about bravery and audacity in the arts, my thoughts turn to what it takes to reach these rural populations and what we’re asking when we ask an artist to come into our community.”

Gesel Mason on Black Women and the Permission to Worry Less

“Who would you be and what would you do if, as a Black woman, you had nothing to worry about?” This question is at the core of choreographer Gesel Mason’s new performance project that recenters Black womanhood in the creative process.

Gesel Mason

“What Does Infinite Love Want Us to Know Right Now?”

Journeying with Mermaids, Oracles, and dem Blessings: Readings and Reflections/Prompting Creativity with dat Black Mermaid Man Lady/Sharon Bridgforth

Sharon Bridgforth

Thoughts from an Anti-Fascist Clown

A guide to a video about a guide to fight fascism. Agitprop-surrealist drag by Evan Spigelman.

Evan Spigelman

16 Things I Learned From the Hellscape that is Making Zoom Theater at Home During a Global Pandemic

This “doing a show from your computer” thing gives new meaning to the phrase “Opening the House.” By Kristina Wong

Kristina Wong

“Dastak: I Wish You Me” Short Films from Ananya Dance Theatre

This video is the first fruits of Ananya Dance Theatre’s collaboration with filmmaker Darren Johnson in their Documentation & Storytelling project of creating documentary films around the work Dastak: I Wish You Me (formerly Āgun).

Still from film "Dastak.1. Earth" by Ananya Dance Theatre and Darren Johnson

Inspiration and Adaptation: Art in the Anthropocene // a photo essay by Nina Elder

This multimedia project poetically explores how humans are implicated in the Anthropocene and are also tasked with moving towards a more holistic future.

Heroes Among Us

Caitlin Strokosch, President & CEO of NPN talks about cultural policy, NPN’s vision, and strategic direction.

What do artists need?

NPN reached out to artists in New Orleans and nationally with the question, What do you need? Here are their responses.

What do artists need?

Big Queen

Cherice Harrison-Nelson shares recent projects from the Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame and the Guardians Institute.

Cherice Harrison-Nelson, founder of the Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame and an elder in New Orleans’ Black Masking Indian community

Yours in the Struggle

NPN Board Secretary and Executive Artistic Director of Junebug Productions Stephanie McKee shares wisdom on facing new challenges from legendary activist, theatermaker, and ancestor John Milton O’Neal Jr. at the National Performance Network Conference, Dec. 13, 2019.

Stephanie McKee speaks at the 2019 National Performance Network Conference.

Try/Step/Trip

Hip-hop artist Dahlak Brathwaite‘s new work Try/Step/Trip comments on American Black subjugation through the story of his own experience in the criminal justice system.ahlak Brathwaite

Try/Step/Trip by by Dahlak Brathwaite

Blue Collar Artist

Puerto Rican born, Miami raised actor, writer, and director Teo Castellanos founded dance/theater company D-Projects in 2003. With Combat Hippies, he explores war’s impact on combatants and communities of color.

NE 2nd Avenue, Teo Castellanos

Opportunity to Exchange

Linda Parris-Bailey, Executive/Artistic Director of Carpetbag Theatre talks about NPN’s value and bringing her whole self.

DELIRIOUS Dances

by Edisa Weeks multi-disciplinary artist and Director of DELIRIOUS Dances • The United States Declaration of Independence states that, “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” As a child I believed in these three unalienable…

THREE RITES: Life by DELIRIOUS Dances/Edisa Weeks, performer J’nae Simmons. Photo by Rebecca Fitton.

Let ‘im Move You

jumatatu m. poe takes us inside “Let ‘im Move You”

We Have Iré

Paul S. Flores takes us inside the creative process behind his recent Creation Fund project We Have Iré, commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and co-produced by Pregones Theater in New York City.

Decolonizing Alaska

When Yup’ik artist Emily Johnson returns home to Alaska every year to spend time with her family, she makes time to share and collect stories that shape her work as a dancer, storyteller and Artistic Director of Catalyst.

Emily Johnson.

Art at the Center of Civic Planning

Artists are used to dancing in the complexity. We like to make something where nothing exists; to explore new language around a struggle; to listen profoundly; to create new ways to see the world. Why not put artists in problem-solving roles?

The Light Across Waters

Just days before the 2016 US presidential election, NPN/VAN Partners and staff landed in Kyoto, Japan to see adventurous new work from Japanese artists as part of the Kyoto Experiment.

Interview with Frederick “Hollywood” Delahoussaye

Frederick “Hollywood” Delahoussaye is the cultural co-director of Ashé Cultural Arts Center’s Kuumba Institute, a year-round program that provides critical arts training to New Orleans youth.

Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s Word Becomes Flesh

Bay Area Theatre director Ellen Sebastian Chang and La Peña Program Director Sarah Guerra speak with artist, author and father Marc Bamuthi Joseph about the remounting of his now-classic “Word Becomes Flesh.”

Word Becomes Flesh, Marc Bamuthi Joseph

The Transformative Power of “Caterpillar Soup” (Part 2 of 2)

In 2008, NPN and Sandglass Theater in Putney, Vermont, welcomed artist and performer Lyena Strelkoff for a one-week residency where she shared “Caterpillar Soup,” an autobiographical work about her journey to wholeness after a fall in 2002 paralyzed the former dancer. (Part 2 of 2)

Lyena Strelkoff performs "Caterpillar Soup"

The Transformative Power of “Caterpillar Soup” (Part 1 of 2)

How NPN and Vermont’s Sandglass Theater helped Lyena Strelkoff share her healing journey (Part 1 of 2)

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