Afrofuturism for youth, Funda Fest 22, RADical Women, the Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading, and Undoing Racism
RIMOSA and ¡CityArts! Future Imaginings
RIMOSA and ¡CityArts! have developed a 10-week program which uses the science fiction genre, and Afrofuturism specifically, to launch a conversation about science, technology, society and the future with young people.
Future Imaginings will take the form of a traditional ¡CityArts! program at their site, for roughly 15 students aged 11-14 to attend free of charge. A RIMOSA educator will take the lead for the first few weeks, guiding the class through discussions and hands-on exercises on Afrofuturism, the role of science fiction as a road map for future innovation, and starting kids conceptualizing a future with their imagined scientific and technological advances as well as potential social or cultural changes. The ¡CityArts! educator will then take over the lead, introducing comic book art and design as a focusing and framing tool for kids thinking in a fantastical register.
The joint experience wraps up with both ¡CityArts! and RIMOSA educators focusing on aspects of the students’ science fiction comic books, and relating them to both the Providence we know today, and the Providence they want in the future. This last activity will result in a traveling exhibition of selected images from each participants’ futuristic comics, related to the future of Providence. The exhibition will spend time at both ¡CityArts!, RIMOSA.
For more information about enrollment, visit the ¡CityArts! website.
Rhode Island Black Storytellers Funda Fest 22
This much anticipated and highly visible event is the flagship of RIBS programming and reaches a statewide audiences of thousands. Each January, during the week of the Martin Luther King Holiday, RIBS tellers, local artists and invited national and international guests bring the best of Black Storytelling to Rhode Island and Southern New England.
Guests include Teju Ologboni, a master teller and folklorist from Milwaukee who shares stories that reflect on longstanding and contemporary cultural perspectives; Linda and Sumner McClain, a duo who bring together music, poetry, and storytelling to connect audiences to the past and the present; Nokugcina Elsie Mhlophe, a freedom fighter, activist, actress, storyteller, poet, playwright, director and author from South Africa; Nisha “Rugrat” Otonye, a Philly based songwriter, music producer, and entertainer; and poet Khwezi Becker, an acclaimed children’s theatre and television actress. For more information on performers, see the Funda Fest website.
FUNDA FEST 22: Schedule: January 25-Feb 2, 2020
Jan 25: North Kingstown Free Library, 100 Boone St, North Kingstown, RI
1 pm: Family Storytelling Concert
Jan 25: Lily Pads Music n’ More. $15 (free 12 and under)
Universalist Unitarian Congregation of South County, 27 North Rd, Peace Dale RI
Storytelling Concert
6:30 Doors Open; 7 pm Show
Jan 26: Words and Music. $15
Southside Cultural Center of Rhode Island, 393 Broad St, Providence, RI
4-6 pm: Storytellers, Poets, Musicians
Jan 27-31: Storytellers in the Schools
Jan 30 Family Storytelling Concert: Free!
YWCA Rhode Island, 514 Blackstone St, Woonsocket, RI
6:30 pm
Jan 31 Liar’s Contest and Awful Awful Singing Contest $10
American Legion Post 69, 2 Salem St, Providence RI
7 pm Doors Open
8 pm Contest Begins!
Feb 1 Family FUN Day: Free!
Southside Cultural Center of Rhode Island, 393 Broad St Providence, RI
10-12 am: Storytelling Workshop
12: Lunch and Market Place
1-3 pm: Family Storytelling Concert
Feb 1 Storytelling for Grown Folk $15
PCTA: Providence Career and Technical Academy, 41 Fricker St, Providence, RI
7 pm Doors Open: Music, Mix, Mingle, Market Place
8 pm: Show
Feb 2 Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading: 25th Anniversary
PCTA: Providence Career and Technical Academy, 41 Fricker St, Providence
1 pm
RIBS is still looking for volunteers to help with artist transportation during the festival week. Go to its volunteer page to find out more.
Women’s Fund of Rhode Island “RADical Women” exhibition at the RI State House Gallery
Women’s Fund of Rhode Island has created a ten-panel, pop-up exhibition, RADical Women, to mark the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. The banners look at Rhode Island and national histories of women’s, social justice and voting rights movements from colonial times up until 2019.
Visit the banners in the statehouse exhibition space (in the lower level) and follow the banners throughout the year as they travel around the state. https://wfri.org
RADical Women is made possible in part through funding from the League of Women Voters.
Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading
Sunday February 2, 1:00 PM
Providence Career & Technical Academy
41 Fricker Street
Providence, RI 02903
Free admission
Langston Hughes’ poems, dating from the Harlem Renaissance through the 1960s, continue to resonate today. These powerful, poignant, and often amusing works are read aloud by members of the community accompanied by vocalist and steel pan artist Becky Bass and Friends.
Coordinate d by the Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading Committee. Refreshments following the reading.
For more and updated information, see the event page on Facebook.
AS220 Staff Embarks on “Undoing Racism” Training with The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond
This winter ACT is supporting AS220 as it embarks on its first all-staff “Undoing Racism” training.
One of ACT’s core values is “Change and Transformation” – by this we mean that ACT, and its programs, work towards enabling artists and culture-brokers as they learn to take on new challenges and build capacity through planning and professional development. To this end, in winter 2017, ACT brought together leaders from the City of Providence’s cultural sector to participate in a two-day intensive with trainers from the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. This City-wide “Undoing Racism” training helped staff leaders and board members from a number of different organizations, as well as individual artists, to develop a shared understanding of America’s specific histories of anti-Black racism, and the ways that they affect and shape white supremacist cultures within non profit cultural organizations.
We are thrilled to continue supporting organizations interested in dismantling oppression in our cultural communities and look forward to ongoing with As220, and other organizations, as they take on this work in more robust ways.
ACT In the Community projects are funded through ACT’s Project Fund and its MicroGrants. To find out more about ACT grant-making, go to its Project Fund page.