Issue #15
Fall/Winter 1997-98
Moving Communities

As guest editor Joan Hocky writes: “the contributors to this issue come from many places. They are pioneers who have been mining the field for years, novices who are making their first forays outside of the box, artists working in quiet, unheralded ways, and others with curriculum vitae nearly as long as this Journal. As someone who has been working for over fifteen years to combine interests in the arts, community development, and the urban infrastructure, I'm bemused by the odyssey– from the time I had the weirdest resume anyone had ever seen to now, when every artist, arts administrator and funder I speak to is (or claims to be) involved in community-based or educational art. I have been moved and inspired by the commitment and creativity people bring to this work…[and] wrestle with the assumptions, naivete, subtle but pervasively patronizing tones, or an "I" that overwhelms and overshadows this amorphous beast we call “community.” I grow frustrated by romanticized, convoluted notions of good public citizenship, as if teaching or community-organizing is inherently more generous an act than “pure” art-making. Can we admit that the same dualistic tendencies—aspiring to teach outside ourselves and wanting to be the center of the universe—co-exist whether locked in the studio or teaching hip-hop dance on a rooftop?”
Editorial team
Contributor
Joan Hocky - George Emilio Sanchez - Audrey Kindred - Merián Soto - Susanne Lacey - Jennifer Monson - May Joseph - Ryan Gilliam - Mierle Laderman Ukeles - Marty Pottenger - Patricia Hoffbauer - Grady Hillman - Terri Greiss - Amy Pivar - Teri Carter - Lucy Fradkin - Hope Clark
Intern
Vanessa Filley
Design
Andrew Fearnside
Contributing Editor
Sarah Michelson
Assistant Editor
Anya Pryor
Guest Editor
George Emilio Sanchez - Joan Hocky
Advertising
Sarah Michelson
Articles
Living in the Questions
The contributors to Performance Journal #15: Moving Communities come from many places. They are pioneers who have been mining the field for years; novices who are making their first forays...
No Blood/No Foul
Oakland, California—with its history of activism, diversity, and culture— is the site of a developing public voice for youth. With a public school population of 55% African American, 20% Latino,...
Refining a Sweet Process
The Sugar Project is a performance project created by students and artists working at El Puente's Academy for Peace and Justice. It developed out of an integrated curriculum on the...
Experiments in a Theater of the Oppressed
In the summer of 1978, I was involved in a cross-community theatrical experiment involving specific impoverished neighborhoods in Bangalore, India. The resulting involvement shed light on my assumptions about popular...
Mighty Mouth Speaks
Mighty Mouth began as a single production four years ago at Downtown Art. Ryan Gilliam, the Artistic Director of Downtown Art, had been working with children and teens outside New...
Yves Musard On Broadway: An interview with Joan T. Hocky
JOAN T. HOCKY: How did you begin doing this work? YVES MUSARD: After the Gulf War, I started asking myself how I can possibly find deeper roots and existence as...
Art in the Public Interest
Mierle: Where were you 20, 30 years ago when I needed you? I was so moved by your article in High Performance. You are like a long lost friend. You...
Whose Story Is It, Anyway?
The role of the artist in society is a question that sits in the center of my brain, perhaps a little to the left. Growing up in a country where...
Working Through Walls
Prisons are dangerous places in that the rules of law don't really apply. The punitive nature of prisons in the States require that they make conditions uncomfortable for inmates. They...
The Search for Authentic Stories: 2 Scenes from Institutions
I. “A nice place to live" I have just incited a highly subversive act, a beautifully covert bit of sabotage. I am standing in the back of an elementary school...
FAMILIAS: Anatomy of a Process
Experience has taught me that there are no ready-mades for creating art with communities. Each project has its own exigencies, each community its own interests, needs, dynamics. There are many...
What Is To Be Changed?
As an artist, one of the ways I advance my art is to build community. For me, community is not a geographic location nor a socio-economic state of being. It...
Dance Paths Crossing: An experiential look at integration
In the Fall of 1993 a disabled actor called Movement Research about mixed abilities dance classes in New York City. There were none at that time. He was referred to...
A Conversation with Peggy Pettit
[*This article contains racial slurs and violence used in a pejorative context] Peggy Pettit was raised by her grandparents in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1974 she began facilitating community based...
Sculpting A Dialogue
In my work as an artist/educator two Brazilians have played profound roles in formulating the context for how I participate in places, and with people, not conventionally linked with the...
In Residence: Lucy Fradkin
[Note: The arrangement of images are a central part of the text. Refer to the PDF and the images and captions for context.] "This drawing reminds me of a woman...
Moving Ringside
Developing a series of techniques over the past 20 years to facilitate her desire to fly, Elizabeth Streb started her company in 1985. She says, “Ringside is a platform for...