Alternate ROOTS Turns 40Moving Forward, Looking Back

Three-year Organizational Report

ROOTS Reunion

ROOTS Week ProgramA Call to Action: Emergent Organizing

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Table of Contents

Welcome: Carlton Turner, Executive Director

Three-year Organizational Report- Introduction- Organizational Strategy- Programs- Institutional Development- Communications

ROOTS Reunion- About the Reunion- Founders of Alternate ROOTS- Honors- 40 Key Milestones

ROOTS WEEK PROGRAMA Call to Action: Emergent Organizing

- Welcome: Robert Martin, Executive Committee Chair- A Note about Programming- Learning Exchanges & Self Organized Space - Performances & Exhibitions

Funders, Sponsors, and Special Thanks

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Welcome: Carlton Turner, Executive Director

It is my esteemed pleasure to welcome you to the 40th Anniversary of Alternate ROOTS. Reaching 40 years in the field of arts, culture, and social justice is a tremendous milestone for any arts organization, and particularly special for one founded on the explicit principle of engag-ing creativity to manifest the world we want to live in. In his book What is Life?, New Orleans writer Kalamu ya Salaam posits that it is the strength of the extended family that has always provided us the ability to weather the constantly shifting seas of life. ROOTS is that extended family for so many artists, activists, cultural organizers, ed-ucators, and youth across the South. ROOTS has supported the creation, presentation, and professional and cultural development of hundreds of artists since its inception, and because of that legacy, ROOTS is now a leading contributor to the national cultural landscape in areas of diversity, inclusion, and equity. I’m not only the executive director, I am a son of ROOTS – raised up through the ranks from a regional representative, to the Executive Committee, a grant recipient, and receiver of profes-sional development, mentorship, and guidance. I am a son of John O’Neal, Nayo Watkins, Kathie deNobriga, Dudley Cocke, Alice Lovelace, Bob Leonard, and many others. Their prac-tices and wisdom are part of my cultural and artistic DNA. The constant struggle to ensure that our humanity is recognized becomes an act of collective resistance because this extended fam-ily supports and loves its folks. What is really important about many artists’ relationships with ROOTS is that (((the organization doesn’t make a distinction between being an artist and a citizen. We work hard to honor the complexity of the human experience by valuing the artist as a full being.))) It is this foundational purpose that makes ROOTS a unique place for cultural development. A 40th anniversary is a momentous occasion, so you have before you a fairly epic volume. This document includes three sections: a three-year organizational report, writings about the 40th Reunion celebration, and the program book for ROOTS Week. We've placed these pieces to-gether to help us reflect on the past, present, and future, so that we can weave these reflections into a compelling story about who we are and who we will be.

Congratulations, Alternate ROOTS! Thank you for your investment in arts, culture, and social justice, and thank you for your investment in me.

Carlton TurnerExecutive Director

Utica, MS

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THREE-YEAR ORGANIZATIONAL RE-PORT

2013-2015

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INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE-YEAR REPORT

Reflections from Ron Ragin, Editor of 40th Anniversary Publications

When I received an email from Nicole Gurgel, asking me if I would consider working as editor for the 40th Anniversary publication and authoring Alternate ROOTS’ three-year organizational report, I couldn’t help but smile. In the five years that I’ve been part of the ROOTS family, I have learned and grown in ways that I couldn’t have imagined. I’ve met some of my best friends, seeded new artistic collaborations, sat at the feet of so many elders, and fundamentally shifted my practices as an artist and cultural organizer. The opportunity to make a contribution to ROOTS through this report seems like the least I could do.

The past three years witnessed profound growth for Alternate ROOTS, and not in the areas of finance and operations alone. The strategic planning process that unfolded during this report period led to some deep changes in the organization’s strategy of engagement with its members and peer institutions, as well as attendant changes in programs. ROOTS’ current strategic plan, which extends through 2018, is the outgrowth of decades of work, but especially reflects the thoughtful work in which the members and staff engaged from 2013 to 2015.

Working with staff, we’ve tried to keep this report easy-to-read, engaging, and well … ROOTS-ey. So readers will notice use of the words “we” and “us,” the meaning of which move fluidly de-pending on whether we’re talking about staff (many of whom are members), the larger ROOTS membership, or the many people and organizations with whom ROOTS partners. This fluidity may go without saying, but I want to clearly name it.

In keeping with ROOTS’ strong tradition of honoring history and learning from the past, this re-port attempts to trace the recent trajectory that led us to the present. You can think of it as a prequel to the current strategic plan, the story of the continued diversification and deepening of ROOTS members’ work – locally, regionally, and nationally. In looking back, we ask ourselves not just what we’ve done and what we’ve learned, but how we will apply those lessons as we move strongly into the future.

I am excited to see how this story continues to unfold and to do my part to contribute to the nar-rative.

Ron RaginEditor of 40th Anniversary Publications

Ontario, CA by way of Perry, GA

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ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY

Over the past three years – and beforehand – it has become increasingly clear that Alternate ROOTS has numerous opportunities to deepen its impact. As an organization of member-artists working intensively in their communities, this impact ranges from hyper-local to regional to (in-ter)national. Building our potential to make profound and fundamental changes toward a more just world is slow and complex work over time, and the shifts in organizational strategy and col-laboration described below are only a few of the efforts that have helped ROOTS move the nee-dle in that direction.

Looking Inside: Resources for Social Change, from Program to Core ValueResources for Social Change (RSC) began in the early 1990s as a training program, developed by ROOTS, to strengthen the practice of artists working for social change through their art. The program began in recognition of the need to institutionalize ROOTS’ knowledge in the field and grew into a kind of think/do tank, with core members holding monthly meetings and collectively building a praxis.

RSC trainers were artists experienced and schooled in the methods of using and bringing art into communities that traditionally may not have considered the important role that the arts can play in addressing oppressions and effecting social change. Trainers taught methods for initiat-ing and building partnerships between cultural workers and their community partners, and ways of using the arts as “search engines” in community work. In addition, the program provided train-ing, mentorship, and peer education to artists, cultural workers, arts administrators, students, and community activists from diverse cultures and disciplines. Local artists presented case stud-ies of model projects taking place within their communities.

The program developed as a part of its core curriculum the following five principles of working in community, values that are now present throughout all ROOTS programs and operations:

● Power● Partnership● Dialogue● Transformation● Aesthetics

Additionally, two notable publications by RSC members remain valuable contributions to the field and are still used by ROOTS members and our organization: The RSC Workbook and The Partnerships Work Kit.

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In 2013, the program transformed in recognition of the fact that we are all resources for social change. Now, RSC has become an organizational principle, embedded in all programs and threaded throughout all actions and decisions. We can see this shift from program to principle reflected in many of the areas of the report that follow, from the deepening of partnerships with ROOTS-funded projects in Partners in Action to the creation of ROOTS Weekends that highlight the ongoing transformational work of artists in communities throughout the South.

As ROOTS continues to grow and develop, the organization more broadly is shifting from a ser-vice orientation to that of action. So, what does this mean?

Historically, ROOTS has primarily acted as a passthrough for resources but aspired to be an ac-tive collaborator in member engagements. The shift toward action is one that brings the growing ROOTS staff into deeper partnership with members across all programs and allows the organi-zation to build deeper partnerships with peer organizations across the South region and the country. This partnership-in-action stance will allow the entire ROOTS community to have a deeper and wider impact through its work.

Over its 20-year lifespan, RSC provided vibrant annual programs to hundreds of participants, and its committed core of trainers consistently evolved the program, helping to catalyze change throughout the ROOTS region. We, as individual and organizational members as well as staff, will continue to steward the legacy of this important work in all of our social change efforts going forward.

Building a Regional Movement: Southern Movement Assembly

Reflections from Nikki Brown, Member of Southern Movement Assem-bly Governance Council

My first Southern Movement Assembly or “SMA” encounter was at the first gathering in Lown-des County, Alabama in 2012. Individuals, activists, and organization members honored our movement ancestors, sat at the feet of movement elders such as Scotty B. and Gwen Patton, and heard from a new generation of youth leaders working on The Student Bill of Rights. We looked at the reality of our local and national political landscape, from the 60s into this new mil-lennium, and we created our own tent city. From this first gathering was birthed The People's 100 days, a series of actions taking place in multiple cities across the South to put newly elected “powers that be” on notice. The people are watching. Will you keep your promises? “So what exactly is an SMA,” you ask? The Southern Movement Assembly is an organizing process, a convergence space, and a form of movement governance that centers the voices and experiences of grassroots leadership on multiple front lines. SpiritHouse and Alternate ROOTS are two of 13 anchor organizations supporting this effort, and we’ve helped create a space that increasingly honors the role of artists and cultural organizers in this new branch of social justice movements.

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Over the past three years, we’ve organized a total of five SMA gatherings across the South. Many important developments and actions have occurred, including organizing a rapid response Dignity Walk across Florida to commemorate the unjust deaths of people like Trayvon Martin and to shout down the injustice of the court system that had Marissa Alexander fighting for her freedom. We developed principles of unity to help govern our movement work, which is happen-ing locally and regionally, and created an organizing institute and 10-city organizing tour to share skills across communities. It wasn’t until the fourth gathering at the Project South office in Atlanta that SMA deeply incorpo-rated the work of artists and culture workers into our approach. It took time and many conversa-tions with our co-anchors, but we created a healing space with a counselor on call, brought in a massage therapist and reiki and energy work practitioners, and incorporated arts supplies and a break out session lead by Alternate ROOTS on the importance of art in the social justice move-ment. SMA V, which occurred in New Orleans during the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, was the most art-infused to date. It included a vibrant healing space, a day of performances in Congo Square (featuring ROOTers such as Sunni Patterson and Shaka Zulu), and art installa-tions throughout the city, including ECOHYBRIDITY: LOVE SONG FOR NOLA, a visual [black] opera in 5 movements, created by ROOTS artist Kai Barrow. And still other ROOTers such as Carlton Turner, Tufara Muhammad, Trap Bonner, and SpiritHouse facilitated front line assem-blies. All these efforts have brought us to the current Southern People's Initiatives:

● May 1st Initiative for a New Social Economy● People’s Democracy Initiative for Power & Movement Governance● Protect & Defend Initiative to End State Violence

You can learn more at http://southtosouth.org. Clearly, the work of ROOTers falls into each of these initiatives, and I sincerely hope to see more ROOTS members, as well as the overall spirit of ROOTS, continuing to infuse the SMA process.

Nikki BrownSouthern Movement Assembly Governance Council

ROOTS Executive CommitteeDurham, NC

Shaping the National Equity Conversation: Intercultural Leader-ship Institute

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The U.S. Census Bureau predicts a people-of-color majority by 2044. As this shift emerges, we cannot assume solidarity across cultures. We must cultivate it.

Throughout history, divide-and-conquer strategies have hampered efforts at building the diverse coalitions necessary to sustain long-term and systemic social change. How do we move beyond cross-cultural efforts, which emphasize comparing and contrasting differences, to intercultural efforts, which stress where and how we meet and foster mutual accountability? How do we culti-vate interculturally competent leaders who are deeply culturally rooted and can also work to-gether across difference to co-create solutions to the most pressing challenges of our time? What experiences, skills, and tools do they need?

The Intercultural Leadership Institute is a response to these questions in these times. It is a col-laborative effort between Alternate ROOTS, First People’s Fund, the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, and PA’I Foundation. Developed through years of conversations and collaborations between the partner organizations, the initiative has four long-term outcomes:

1. Build stronger, strategic intercultural collaborations and solidarity in the field of arts, cul-ture, and social justice

2. Promote the traditional and contemporary practices of artists and culture bearers, within old and new structures

3. Enhance the capacity of artists, culture bearers and arts organizations to pursue cultural equity and sustain their work in a changing environment

4. Shift discourse and endow greater resources in multiple sectors to support transforma-tive practices of artists and culture bearers

To date, the Intercultural Leadership Institute has hosted one pilot session (September 28 - Oc-tober 1, 2015), which engaged 25 leaders from across the country and from many cultures. The curriculum for the pilot emphasized deepening the understanding of who we are, how we work, where we are, and why we matter. The full initiative will be launched in the spring of 2017, as a series of convenings in the Southwest, the South, the Plains, and Hawaiian Islands. Given ROOTS’ longstanding commitment to eliminating all forms of oppression and to open dialogue, ROOTS members will certainly be strong contributors to and beneficiaries of this growing com-munity of intercultural practice.

PROGRAMS

Partners In Action

The evolution of the Community/Artists Partnership Program (C/APP) into Partners in Action (PIA) marks one of the largest programmatic shifts that the ROOTS organization has made in an effort to grow its capacity to support members. While C/APP was a long-term and successful

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re-granting program, providing more than $500,000 dollars to over 100 community-based projects, there was an increasing awareness that members and their communities were looking for more than money. Alternate ROOTS staff began to ask, “How can we leverage the collective resources of the organization in service of the artist-community partnership? How can we con-nect the local work of ROOTS members to relevant national movements and resources?" Building on C/APP’s strong history, the transformation to PIA signifies a deeper connection be-tween ROOTS and the funded projects. In the past, ROOTS took a somewhat distanced stance from individual C/APP projects, primarily providing funds, and requiring a mentor and final re-port. In this new PIA approach, ROOTS is more integrally involved in partners’ projects, envi-sioning them as an on-the-ground opportunity to demonstrate our collective approach to com-munity organizing through the arts. This focus on multi-faceted partnership brings additional support and resources to partners, including:

● Increase in maximum award amounts from $5000 to $20,000● A simpler application with added community visits during the selection process; these

visits are an intentional organizing strategy and even applicants who aren’t funded report to staff that the visits are an enormous resource and benefit for their work

● Explicit provision of technical and staff support from ROOTS In addition to these structural shifts to the program, each year ROOTS Week’s themes and pro-gramming are now directly linked to the issues and concerns of the PIA cohort.

2015 Partners in Action Cohort Ariston JacksPennsylvania Avenue Film SeriesBaltimore, Maryland$14,000

This five-week series, hosted in collaboration with Jubilee Arts, will feature local film and visual artists to engage community residents in dialogue about social change and Baltimore’s culture. Located on the historic Pennsylvania Avenue, the series will create a unique opportunity for res-idents and local artists to engage and transform the area into a space of rich cultural dialogue and community building.

Chris JamesThe Roots Art ConnectionLittle Rock, AR$13,000

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The Roots Art Connection advocates for the integration of arts in education and community to support the transformation and development of underserved communities. Through partner-ships, the ROOTS Art Connection engages diverse segments of the community through out-reach, cultural exchanges, and collaborative art-making, and engages in activism through art – supporting legislation that will decrease mass incarceration and that improves the lives of under-served citizens throughout our community.

Community LIFTMemphis, TN$10,000 Community LIFT is working with the Soulsville Neighborhood Association and tactical urbanism program, MemFix, to reimagine and repurpose an abandoned property into an outdoor lounge, in order to improve access to food venues, recreational space, and performance space. Stax Academy for youth and Slim House musicians will produce community storytelling performances with citywide institutions like Opera Memphis.

Girls Rock CharlestonCharleston, SC$14,000 Girls Rock Charleston is planning a year-long after school program for girls and transgender youth ages 12-17. Local artists, activists, musicians and youth organizers will support the Rock-ers in producing a multimedia body of work that explores their burgeoning identities as girls, women, and/or queer youth, and addresses the impact of police violence and the prison system in their communities.

Highlander Research and Education CenterSeeds of Fire Living Legacy TourNew Market, TN$10,000

The Seeds of Fire (SOF) program convenes and supports emerging and experienced grass-roots organizers to build collective power and influence critical policy decisions and practice shifts. The SOF Living Legacy Tour brings together youth and young adult organizers and allies from communities of color and low-income communities to travel through key Southern move-ment sites, exchanging skills and tools with local organizers, artists, and communities.

JEMAGWGA (Gwylene Gallimard and Jean-Marie Mauclet)conNECKtedCharleston, SC$5,000

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"conNECKted" is an art-in-community project centered on the human consequences of gentrifi-cation, indiscriminate growth of neighborhoods, and New Urbanism. The goal is to challenge Charleston political institutions and developers by amplifying the voices of the people subject to displacement, utilizing creative community-engaged arts that develop organically in a few neigh-borhoods, through the partnership of artists, activists, and their connections.

Trey HarttPerforming StatisticsRichmond, VA$10,000 Performing Statistics is a cultural organizing project that brings incarcerated youth and commu-nity experts together to collaboratively produce media campaigns, public installations, and per-formances supporting juvenile justice reform. Working with Legal Aid Justice Center, Performing Statistics utilizes collaborative and public art to connect diverse community experts, including currently incarcerated adults and youth, around community-based alternatives to incarceration.

Working FilmsWater WarriorsWilmington, NC$14,000 Water Warriors is a photo-based, multimedia exhibit and short documentary film (in progress) by Michael Premo and Andrew Stern. It honors the story of one Native community that united to drive out an energy company and protect their land and water. Through touring to communities in the South at risk for drilling, Water Warriors supports the growing movement for the transition to an equitable, low-carbon economy and cultivates creative strategies for locally appropriate models of organizing resistance.

2015 PIA Summary:8 PartnersProject Support: $98,000Technical Support: $10,000Grand Total: $108,000 2014 Partners in Action Cohort

Elise WittGlobal Village ChorusDecatur, GAProject Funding: $15,000 | Technical Support: $5,000 Based in the Global Village Project, a school for teenage refugee girls located in Decatur, GA, this project expands and develops the school’s music program, including the Global Village

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Chorus. The Global Village Project is a model for arts-integrated English for Speakers of Other Languages education, and the music program enhances students’ experiences with a focus on vocabulary building, pronunciation, ear training, writing skills, improvisation, and kinesthetic learning.

Project SouthAtlanta, GAProject Funding: $5,000 Visual art, music, theater, film, literature, and poetry can be used as a strategy for teaching de-colonization. Through this partnership with ROOTS, Project South’s University Sin Fronteras ex-plores how to infuse art and cultural work within their organizing work. Specifically, Project South’s goal is to infuse art and culture within the actions encompassed in its summer organiz-ing plans and the larger Southern Freedom Movement Assembly process.

Robert “Bobby B” MartinClear Creek FestivalClear Creek, KYProject Funding: $10,000 | Technical Assistance $3,000 Clear Creek is devising and presenting a series of original performative community meals with artists and craftspeople, farmers and foragers, and all sorts of other creative folks in the rural Clear Creek community in the foothills of Appalachia. The intention is to have a lasting impact on participants’ consciousness about their own lives and opportunities to build toward lifestyles, economies, and communities that foster greater harmony with the land and with one another.

AppalshopHarlan/Whitesburg, KYFunding: $10,000 Appalshop’s Youth Media Program is partnering with the Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College to offer college credit for those participating in the media programs offered by Appalshop. Current efforts are dedicated to strengthening the project and moving forward to find a way to offer university level classes so that residents of Letcher, Harlan, and Bell County can acquire a Bachelor’s Degree without having to move out of the area, potentially through creation of low residency programs.

Jose Torres-Tama, ArteFuturoALIENS Taco Truck Theater Project/Teatro Sin FronterasNew Orleans, LAFunding: 10,000 | Technical Assistance $ $5,000

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This project aims to transform a food vehicle into a mobile theater to bring the stories of immi-grant day laborers to immigrant communities across New Orleans, and to engage day laborers in telling their own stories as a means of making them active protagonists in their fight for hu-man rights. At the heart of the project is using theater as a tool for organizing and movement building.

Stephanie McKeeJunebug Productions presents SOUNDTRACK ‘63New Orleans, LAFunding: $15,000

In February 2016, Junebug Productions presented SOUNDTRACK ‘63, an interactive documen-tary production with live music and multimedia that commemorates the historic events of 1963. This project was built from the partnerships of artists, activists and educators interested in docu-menting and reflecting on the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. In tandem, Junebug pro-duced several videos about Free Southern Theater and partnered with Amistad Research Cen-ter to make historical documents about both companies’ impact publicly available.

2014 PIA Summary:6 partners$65,000 Project Funding$13,000 Technical SupportGrand Total: $78,000

2013 Partners in Action Cohort*

Carpetbag TheatreSpeed Killed My CousinKnoxville, TNProject Funding: $15,000

The Carpetbag Theatre collaborated with organizations in Tampa, Florida to engage in and be a catalyst for intergenerational dialogues about war and its aftermath as well as the impact of mili-tary service on communities of color. In conjunction with the presentation of Carpetbag’s Speed Killed My Cousin – a play about an African American woman soldier who returns from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder – CBT worked with community partners to host dialogues, story circles, and theatre workshops.

Cucalorus Film FestivalWorks in Progress ProgramWilmington, NCProject Funding: $10,000

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The Cucalorus Film Festival Works-in-Progress Program plays on the double meaning of the word “progress” by supporting films in production by progressive filmmakers exploring social justice issues. Through outreach events, public screenings, strategy gatherings, and community engagement sessions, the program creates an intimate opportunity for documentary film artists to share unfinished works and engage unexpected audiences in the filmmaking process.

Mondo Bizarro & ArtSpot ProductionsCry You OneNew Orleans, LAProject Funding: $10,000

Cry You One is an outdoor performance and online storytelling platform from the heart of Louisi-ana’s disappearing wetlands. Led by the New Orleans based companies ArtSpot Productions and Mondo Bizarro, Cry You One celebrates the people and cultures of South Louisiana through music, dance and story while turning clear eyes on the crisis of our vanishing coast.

SpiritHouseHarm Free Zone OrganizingDurham, NCProject Funding: $5,000 | Technical Support: $7,500

Spirithouse’s Harm Free Zone Organizing (HFZ) aims to provide tools and trainings that will re-duce violence and conflict in local communities. HFZ works across race, age, and gender using diverse creative cultural tools to envision a better world. The newest phase of work attempts to break the school-to-prison pipeline in Durham by creating a community-led campaign to build a model Harm Free Zone.

2013 PIA Summary:$40,000 Project Funding$7,500 Technical SupportGrand Total: $47,500

*Note: In 2013, the above projects were still funded under a program called “C/APP.” However, the programmatic shifts toward deeper partnership had already begun to be implemented prior to the name change.

Artistic Assistance

From 2013-2015, the Artistic Assistance program provided more than $275,000 to 131 projects. ROOTS members can apply for resources to support presenting, professional development, or the development of artistic projects. Though the average award amount per project is a modest $3,115, a little can go a long way in communities that don’t always have strong institutional or

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government support for artists working for positive social change. As 2015 recipient, Rebecca Mwase shared, “Support from Artistic Assistance was critical in supporting the creation, devel-opment, and premiere of my first solo-produced work, Looking at A Broad. It allowed me to reach a milestone in my career and to support ROOTS members who were part of my creative team.”

These investments in ROOTers and their communities help to strengthen the artwork and skills required to get the work done. Artistic Assistance has seen slow and steady growth in the an-nual number of funded projects, the number of dollars granted, and the average size of the grant award.

In Spring 2013, ROOTS received a grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation to support two Vis-ual Arts Artistic Assistance grant opportunities – one for professional development and another for project development – which led to an increase in the number of grants and amount of fund-ing awarded in 2013.

ROOTS WeekendsAlternate ROOTS is a community in diaspora, so one of the most important things we do is gather together – to find fellowship, to learn, and to celebrate each other. ROOTS Weekends are a new addition to our programmatic repertoire. They serve as a condensed, three-day ver-sion of ROOTS Week that allows the organization to engage artist members where they live and work. Six regional gatherings will be held throughout the South from 2015-2017, bringing artists, activists, and cultural organizers together to build community and exchange practices through workshops, dialogues, visual arts, and performances.

ROOTS Weekends deepen our collective understanding and analysis of the work of social change, lifting up the ways artists and cultural organizers are working with communities to de-velop creative solutions to long-standing issues.

The first ROOTS Weekend took place September 18-20, 2015 in New Orleans, Louisiana. We explored the theme “Resilience to Resistance” with sessions on topics such as mass incarcera-tion, the principles of cultural organizing, climate change readiness, and the role of healing within our social justice movements. In the wake of the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Kat-rina, there was a lot of energy and power in beginning the ROOTS Weekend series in the Cres-cent City, where ROOTS also has a particularly strong member hub.

The site of the second ROOTS Weekend was Eatonville, Florida, one of the first all-Black-gov-erned towns in the United States and home of Zora Neale Hurston, famed Harlem Renaissance writer and anthropologist. Produced in partnership with the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities, from January 28-31 we celebrated the long legacy of artists working at the nexus of arts and social justice with programming that included workshops on entering and exit-ing community as artists engaged in social change, many electrifying performances, visual arts

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presentations, and an introduction to the People’s Movement Assembly process. And, of course, at each ROOTS Week, we’ve had an amazing party.

As of the writing of this report, more than 300 people have participated in two ROOTS Week-ends. We are looking forward to the future gatherings in New Market & Knoxville, TN (June 23-36, 2016), Dallas, TX (October 20-23, 2016), Richmond, VA (Spring 2017), and Atlanta, GA (Fall 2017).

We hope to see many of you at these upcoming ROOTS Weekends and welcome your ideas and feedback on how to make them inspiring, informative, and engaging.

Visual Arts Initiative

Reflections from Ashley Minner, Executive Committee Member

Visual art and artists have been present in the work of Alternate ROOTS since its founding, even if the primary label placed upon the work has often read “performance.” In 2012, ROOTS received a planning grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation (JMF) to launch an initiative to in-crease the presence and visibility of visual art and artists within the organization. ROOTS sought to generate dialogue about visual arts-for-social-justice perspectives and processes; to gain a clearer sense of how visual arts might connect with the organizational strategic plan; to create appropriate ways to exhibit the work of visual artists at the Annual Meeting; and to make visual artists feel welcome and supported.

In 2013, JMF gave ROOTS a significant three-year grant, which allowed many exciting develop-ments to occur. A new visual arts chairperson was appointed, and a position for visual arts coor-dinator at the Annual Meeting was created. The “Visual Arts Innovation Ensemble” was revived and quickly populated by members eager to continue this work together.

A visual art scholarship program was implemented and carried on through 2015. Through this program, visual artists within ROOTS’ membership identified other visual artists within the re-gion whose mission and work aligned with that of ROOTS and who would be interested in hav-ing ROOTS members as their audience and collaborators. Each year, new visual artist scholars were selected to present their work at ROOTS Week, and ROOTS made calls for visual artwork and direct commissions for publications and fundraising. Also through the initiative, visual artists have been invited to participate in annual planning retreats, and apply for funds in multiple rounds of ROOTS Artistic Assistance dedicated specifically to visual artists.

Major themes of discussion within the Ensemble over the past three years are worthy of men-tion.

● The membership of Alternate ROOTS, on the whole, is still learning to interact with vis-ual art (as such). An appropriate tool to offer feedback for the work is needed.

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● What is the distinction and/or the overlap between visual art and performance? Many ROOTers are interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary artists. Lines differentiating media and form are ever being nudged, erased, redrawn. In keeping with a recurring theme of “aes-thetics,” ROOTS visual artists continually ask themselves how visual art is or should be defined.

● If and when visual arts are truly integrated into the organization, is a Visual Arts Innova-tion Ensemble still needed?

The Visual Arts Initiative has been a transformative process for the organization. Thirty-one vis-ual arts scholars have participated in ROOTS Annual Meetings, twenty-five of whom have be-come members. Funding received from JMF this year is earmarked for re-granting to visual artists within the organization, rather than a continuation of the scholarship program.

Recently, the Visual Arts Innovation Ensemble transformed into the Visual Arts Workgroup. Stewarded by one chairperson since 2012, the baton has been passed on to two dynamic, vi-sionary co-chairpersons, who are leading this work into the future.

Ashley MinnerVisual Arts Workgroup Chair, 2013-2015

ROOTS Executive CommitteeBaltimore, MD

Learning Exchanges

A Learning Exchange is an opportunity for a community, a group of people, artists, facilitators/trainers, and any combination thereof, to come together around an agreed-upon topic. Inspired by the principles of Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal, we have adopted the term “learning ex-change” to show that all the knowledge that is needed to solve any given problem is already in the room. Facilitators are learning as much as they are teaching and operating from the princi-ple that there are no “outside experts.” Over the past three years, ROOTers created and hosted 15 of these events across the South, engaging a wide range of topics, tactics, and talents.

Aesthetics and PowerWashington, DCSeptember 21-22, 2013

Community Organizing/Building a Movement Learning ExchangeAtlanta, GANovember 1-3, 2013

How to Fund Your Work: The Nuts and Bolts of Proposal WritingAtlanta, GA & Live StreamFebruary 8, 2014

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Creative Place-Making with ROOTS PrinciplesCharleston, SCFebruary, 2014

North Carolina Cultural Organizing ExchangeAsheville, NCJanuary, 2014

Community Organizing Learning ExchangeDurham, NCNovember 22-23, 2014

Facilitation TrainingLittle Rock, AKFebruary 6-7, 2015

Facilitation TrainingMemphis, TNApril 24-26, 2015

#Black Lives Matter: Mothers & Artists Learning ExchangeNew Market, TNMay 1-3, 2015 Facilitator: Aleta Alston-Touré, New Jim Crow Movement This learning exchange facilitated the cross learning and story sharing of artists and mothers who are featured in the Black Lives Matter campaign and who have experi-enced the loss of their children. The mothers performed a concert reading of a play they have created as a healing tool, A Woman’s Cry: We Charge Genocide Direct Action Play. ROOTS artists shared feedback and skills that could enhance the mothers’ process and performance for future campaign use.

Visual Arts RetreatAsheville/ Hot Springs, NCMay 29- 31, 2015 and September 17-18, 2015

Cultural Organizing: Race and InclusionLouisville, KYJune 20, 2015Presented in association with Arts & Democracy, Appalshop, and local social change or-ganizationsThis annual Kentucky Cultural Organizing workshop explored approaches to cross-racial inclusion in the US South in order to create more inclusive cultural organizing strategies

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in Kentucky, a predominantly white state with geographic divides. The workshop directly addressed cross-race inclusion as a core principle and strategy for Kentucky movement building.

From Cradle to Prison: Disrupt the Criminal Justice SystemRichmond, VAJune 16-19, 2015

ConNECKted Gentrification Learning ExchangeCharleston, SCJune 20-21 2015Facilitators, Keryl McCord and Maya HunterThe Charleston Rhizome in exchange with local residents of five neighborhoods, includ-ing the neighborhood known as The Neck, engaged in porch conversations incorporating artistic tools to energize them around the topic of 'displacement and belonging'. Organiz-ers, artists, educators and activists participated to reimagine the community possibilities.

Community Organizing Learning ExchangeDallas, TXOctober 2-4, 2015

Theatre Action Group: Intro to Theatre of the OppressedBaltimore, MDNovember 8, 2015

INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Alternate ROOTS continues to expand its capacity to partner with members and their communi-ties to deepen impact. In this section, we’ve highlighted a number of important changes and growth indicators that have strengthened ROOTS’ ability to do its work effectively and sustain-ably over time.

Shift in Membership PoliciesFrom 2013 to 2014, ROOTS participated in EmcArts’ Innovation Lab, which explores ways orga-nizations can build their capacity to adapt to a rapidly changing environment and question core assumptions that may prevent positive organizational change. Membership structure emerged as a critical area for assessment and adaptation for ROOTS. In 2013, an intergenerational group of members crafted a statement that sums up the need to look critically at membership:

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As the need for our services grows, as our community churns and becomes more di-verse, and as the systems of our organization become more nuanced, we need organi-zational membership and governance structures that are more clear, adaptive, and nim-ble, honor multiple forms of participation, promote network building, and champion cre-ative expression as a pathway to equity.

Through the EmcArts process, we engaged in much planning and dialogue, and we decided it was time to lower barriers and enable more people with more diversity to formally join and con-tribute to the ROOTS family. In 2014, ROOTS’ voting membership approved two changes.

First, the membership structure now has three formal categories: Voting, General, and Organi-zational. In brief, Voting Members assume trusteeship for the organization and must live in the U.S. South. General Members can live anywhere and do not assume trusteeship. Organiza-tional Members too can be based anywhere, as long as their work aligns with ROOTS’ mis-sion.

Second, membership induction now happens throughout the year, rather than at ROOTS Week alone. General members are now accepted on a rolling basis by staff. Becoming a Voting (Board) Member still requires a vote by the voting membership and still happens primarily at the Annual Business Meeting, although applications for Voting Membership are accepted through-out the year.

So what have the results been over the past two years? Since the changes occurred, ROOTS membership has steadily grown, with a current paid membership of 216. While we cannot say with certainty that changes to the membership policy caused these shifts to occur, we consider them positive indications that we are headed in the right direction, and ROOTS staff and the Membership Work Group will continue to monitor these trends.

ROOTS’ work is movement-based, so we should note that the ROOTS membership is actually larger than those who are current with their dues. Fundamentally, our membership is based on affinity, affiliation, and allyship. As ROOTS members move in and out of the region, and the country, they continue to say, “I’m a member of Alternate ROOTS.” This spirit is part of what makes the ROOTS family vibrant, strong, and enduring. As a growing family of artists working for social change in our communities, it is exciting to imagine the ways in which the increase in our number and diversity will precipitate new ideas, art, and strategies for creating a more just world.

Number of members by year (Voting & General)2012 -- 1472013 -- 1412014 -- 1922015 -- 216

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Increased Staff Capacity

Throughout its history, the staff structure of ROOTS has erred on the side of lean and nimble. However, in recent years it became clear that this approach was preventing ROOTS from pur-suing opportunities to deepen and expand its impact. In 2015, after an extensive process of evaluation and visioning, Alternate ROOTS shifted our staff structure to enable deeper partner-ships with and support for members, to proactively seek collaborations with peer organizations, and to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of our operations.

The resulting staff structure is more team-oriented and cooperative, removing silos and increas-ing knowledge building among staff. It is also larger, consisting of six full-time and two part-time employees. This represents significant growth. Only five years ago, ROOTS had three full-time staff alone.

This new structure has four teams:

Organizational Strategy Team: Led by the Executive Director, this team holds executive-level oversight and management of the organization and ensures the organization’s work is aligned with the strategic plan.

Operations Team: Led by the Operations Director, this team’s primary responsibility is to man-age ROOTS’ finances and development, including fiscally sponsored projects; payroll, billing and interns; membership renewals and records; office management; and logistics such as travel, contracts, catering, etc.

Programs Team: Led by the Programs Director, this team is responsible for managing all of ROOTS programming done through Artistic Assistance and Partners In Action, and for events such as ROOTS Week and Learning Exchanges.

Communications Team: Led by the Communications Manager, this team ensures that ROOTS’ internal and external communications (website, newsletters, social media, and archive) are strong, in support of our operational and programmatic needs, and position us as a thought leader in the field of arts and social justice.

Already, we are seeing benefits from our increased capacity. ROOTS is now able to plan projects and events one year in advance, which is necessary now that the organization increas-ingly works across the region and supports a larger number of partnerships. ROOTS’ board and staff will continue to evaluate and refine this new structure to align with the needs of members and deepen the organization’s impact.

Financial Health and Sustainability

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The ROOTS organization and its members have committed ourselves to responsible steward-ship of the organization’s financial resources. Over the past three years, ROOTS has achieved consistent growth in income, assets, and our cash reserve, which could currently support four months of organizational operations. Our goal is to build a cash reserve equal to nine months of operating costs, and we are well on our way. Consistent multi-year general operating support grants from a number of institutional funders have enabled the board and staff to financially plan with reasonable accuracy and certainty. Increased financial stability is a hallmark of ROOTS’ or-ganizational development and sets us up to move strongly into the future.

- Cash Reserves - 2012 -- $25,0212013 -- $25,0342014 -- $93,9302015 -- $150,1242016 -- $201,121

- Balance Sheet/Assets - 2012 -- $965,1932013 -- $855,8212014 -- $1,448,3932015 -- $2,039,418

- Income - 2012 -- $1,140,8772013 -- $444,3172014 -- $1,407,1012015 -- $1,646,989

Institutional Funders

2013-2016

Catalytic Fund and DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the Kennedy CenterEmcArts Inc.Fund for Southern CommunitiesJoan Mitchell FoundationLeveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC)National Endowment for the ArtsRobert Rauschenberg Foundation

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Surdna FoundationThe Andrew W. Mellon FoundationThe Community Foundation of Greater AtlantaThe Ford FoundationThe Kresge FoundationThe Nathan Cummings Foundation

Uprooting Oppressions “As a coalition of cultural workers we strive to be allies in the elimination of all forms of oppression. ROOTS is committed to social and economic justice and the protection of the natural world and ad-dresses these concerns through its programs and services.” This section of the Alternate ROOTS mission statement is the marrow of our organizational body. It establishes ROOTS as an organization with a purpose larger than the arts and itself. We understand that to live this aspect of our mission requires a consistent ebb and flow of re-flection and action. A few examples of how this practice has changed our organization stand out. ROOTS has actively worked to address racism within our organizational structure, leadership, and practice. Over the past few years, we’ve partnered with Race Forward to provide work-shops during ROOTS Week, and in 2015, ROOTS invited Carmen Morgan of ArtEquity to help expand our conversation and look at the intersections of oppressions. Throughout the year, the Executive Committee builds on our ROOTS Week learning by making this work a part of our regular board meetings.

Another important example is ROOTS’ Collective Accessibility policy, mandating that any venue used for ROOTS events must be fully accessible. Thus for gatherings such as ROOTS Week-ends, which take us across the region, accessibility is a factor that determines whether or not a venue is appropriate. This policy arose because member-artists such as Jaehn Clare, Camille Shafer, and Nikki Brown, brought these issues to the forefront, demanding that we pay attention to any barriers to artists with disabilities having full access to the organization. Building on this work, we are partnering with partnering with Elizabeth Labbe-Webb, an accessibility consultant, to conduct a full accessibility audit of ROOTS Week 2016.

Looking externally, ROOTS also addresses issues of equity and eliminating oppression through its collaborations with organizations like the Art x Culture x Social Justice Network, the Southern Movement Assembly, and the Intercultural Leadership Institute. In a learning community, the learning is never complete. ROOTS will continue to look for ways we can invite and equip each other to identify and eliminate oppressions wherever we find them – out in the world or at home at our kitchen table, in the actions of others or in our own.

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Reflections from a Long-Time ROOTS Funder

Roberta Uno, Director, Arts in a Changing America, California Institute of the Arts

I first heard of Alternate ROOTS when I was the Artistic Director of New WORLD Theater in Amherst, Massachusetts. Artist Dan Kwong told me about a gathering he attended every sum-mer in the South and said it embodied the kind of national community he wanted to build with. He said that ROOTS Week was inspiring. I was intrigued that an Asian American artist, based in California, would feel a sense of home in a part of the country I had always thought of as black and white. My call was always towards the Pacific of my birth. But I thought something very spe-cial must be going on there… In 2002, I arrived at the Ford Foundation at a moment where I had the agency to develop new initiatives as the program officer for arts and culture. I had the privilege to work with Ford’s pres-ident, Susan Berresford, Holly Sidford, Sam Miller, and others on a complement of grantmaking initiatives that resulted in the founding of LINC (Leveraging Investments in Creativity) and United States Artists, and the funding of a dozen service organizations that served individual artists through innovative programs, including ROOTS. It was an unprecedented table where one fourth of the organizations were Native American, yet the overriding issue was one of in-equity. Ford awarded larger-budget organizations large grants ($400K-$500K over 2 years), and the smaller-budget organizations were only eligible for small grants based on the percentage of their budget size ($50-75K over 2 years). And due to systemic racism, the latter were also those organizations led by people of color, including ROOTS. This inequality continues to be the sta-tus quo across America, where large budget historically non-diverse institutions, receive the ma-jority of arts funding, despite many being located in places that have already undergone the de-mographic shift to a future America. Thus began my walk with ROOTS and a decade of collabo-rative work to level the playing field by building capacity and increasing funding for diverse orga-nizations in order to strengthen arts practice as social transformation. Synergistic with the individual artists initiative, I launched two initiatives. Future Aesthetics for-warded hip-hop generational culture and organizing, and Artography: Arts in a Changing Amer-ica also used the lens of aesthetics, arts processes, and artists to shift the paradigm from utility (audience development, community engagement, etc.) to leadership/artistic excellence/commu-nity building. Both ROOTS and National Performance Network approached me for travel grants to bring hip-hop inspired artists to their gatherings, which they reported helped to transform their constituencies. Organizations like ROOTS, First Peoples Fund, and National Association of Latino Arts and Cul-tures became case making partners that moved beyond innovative service to address the deeper social justice issues that Ford champions. Their innovative thinking, generosity of spirit, and openness to learning as well as leading, resulted in unprecedented collaboration in the field, in particular, the Intercultural Leadership Institute. These strategic collaborations have made progress in leveling the playing field, by showing that key organizations are essential to

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changing the game. Over a decade, Ford went from funding ROOTS at $75K to $750K. And the commitment to building strategic support of ROOTS has been strengthened by funders like Mel-lon, Surdna, and others. Describing the partnership with ROOTS towards equity is important, but hardly speaks to the spirit of the work and why so many artists and their communities participate in ROOTS to be in-spired, laugh, sing, find community, and gain strength in an enacted future now.The staff and board embody the soul of the larger ROOTS community and Carlton Turner’s prin-cipled, insightful, and courageous leadership has been at the heart of ROOTS’ national impact. I’m always inspired that Carlton manages a meaningful arts practice – it’s a huge benefit to ROOTS, not just for the perspective and profile he brings as an artist, but the capacity to con-nect authentically throughout the field. When I conceptualized my new project, Arts in a Chang-ing America (ArtChangeUS), Carlton was one of the first people I invited to join as a Core Part-ner. The demographically changed America we are part of now stands on the shoulders of Southern leadership – and the possibility of a truly pluralistic America is ROOTS’ value to the future of our field.

Roberta UnoDirector, Arts in a Changing America

California Institute of the Arts

COMMUNICATIONS

The last three years have brought dynamic changes to Alternate ROOTS’ communications, changes that we will continue to build on in the coming years.

From 2012-2014, we partnered with Ennis Carter of Social Impact Studios, developing strategy for our communications and, ultimately, a redesigned website which launched in 2014. The goal of this redesign was to create a web presence that more clearly reflected ROOTS as an artists’ organization, something more vibrant, visual, and accessible for members to navigate.

In 2013, we piloted a content development initiative, commissioning our members to write arti-cles about the art, activism, and cultural organizing work they are engaged in across the South. This initiative supported our members – financially and editorially – in reflecting on and docu-menting the stories of Southern artist activists and shared these stories with our membership, as well as our partners and supporters across the country. Since 2013 we have published 110 member-written articles. Combined with other strategies, including increased social media activ-

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ity and capacity to respond quickly to pressing issues, ROOTS continues to position itself and its members as thought leaders in the field of art and social justice.

In this anniversary year, we are reflecting deeply on ROOTS’ history, and we are working on several initiatives that engage ROOTers in telling the story of of this dynamic organization. One of these initiatives, the ROOTS Book Project, was introduced last year at ROOTS Week. Led by Carlton Turner and Dr. Jan Cohen-Cruz, we envision creating a general interest book that illus-trates how profoundly art contributes to our shared lives. Working alongside a group of founders and elders, we are enacting an iterative method of research that draws on member knowledge, perception, desire, and needs; reflections from community partners; and the critical distance of additional historians, cultural thinkers, and writers.

At this year’s ROOTS Week and ROOTS Reunion, we launch The History Project, an interactive web-based platform that allows us to identify key milestones in the organization’s history and populate them with archival materials – photos, video, audio stories, and more – that flesh out and animate particular moments in time. The History Project enables a robust, multi-faceted telling of our collective story.

Alongside these projects we are also dedicating ourselves to gathering new and sorting through old video footage with which we’ll create a feature-length documentary about ROOTS. To this end, we are working with Lily Keber to film all of our gatherings – both ROOTS Week and ROOTS Weekends – over the next year and a half. The research and archival work of the previ-ous two projects mentioned above will no doubt inform this documentary, and the footage gath-ered will be of service to the book and timeline projects.

Finally, after 40 years of accruing quite a large amount of archival materials – 101 boxes at our last count – we are looking for a permanent home for the ROOTS archive. We are in talks with universities in the Atlanta area, and are seeking an institution that will not only be able to pre-serve our archive, but make it accessible to the public for generations to come.

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