What To Do When We Don’t Know What To Do is a regular, in-person, outdoor, socially distanced creative convening that provides tools for handling uncertainty in this moment of intense change, so that we can create the future we want. This event is free but registration is required and attendance will be capped at 20 participants.
Please register by emailing info@abladeofgrass.org, wear a mask, and dress for the weather!
How I Stopped Worrying About The Election: A Conversation With Stephen Duncombe, Patricia Jerido, and Terry Marshall
How are political scientists and activists considering this moment, and what can we learn from their perspective? This conversation with members of Center for Artistic Activism will provide helpful political and historical context, focus on how to be effectively engaged, and imagine how we might take care of ourselves, so that we can hold the uncertainty that is sure to follow election night.
Meet The Speakers
Stephen Duncombe is a co-founder and the Research Director of Center for Artistic Activism. He has more than three decades of experience as both an educator and activist. With a PhD in Sociology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, he has taught in the City and State University’s of New York and is currently a Professor of Media and Culture at New York University. He received the Chancellor’s Award for Teaching while at SUNY and the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching at NYU.
An activist his entire adult life, he co-founded a multi-issue community activist group in the mid 1990s, the Lower East Side Collective, which won an award for “Creative Activism” from the Abbie Hoffman foundation. He was also a lead organizer in the international direct action group Reclaim the Streets.
Stephen is the author and editor of six books, including Dream: Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy and the Cultural Resistance Reader, writes on culture and politics for a wide range of scholarly and popular publications, and is the creator of an open-access, open-source, web-based edition of Thomas More’s Utopia. His scholarly and activist work has been supported by, among others, the Open Society and Fulbright foundations and the National Endowment for the Humanities and National Endowment for the Arts, and he is currently working on a book on effective affect, or, perhaps it’s affective effect.
Patricia Jerido chairs the board of Center for Artistic Activism and has worked since 2003 as an independent consultant, assisting nonprofit organizations in fundraising, communications, board and program development, evaluation, executive coaching, and organizing. Her clients included the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Association of Black Foundation Executives, the Ford Foundation, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center, the Racial Justice Collaborative, the Women’s Funding Network, and many others. Until 2015 , Jerido was a program officer with the Special Initiatives and Partnerships Unit of U.S. Programs. Her prior experience includes eight years as a social worker and community organizer on human rights issues in the Manhattan Borough President’s Office, and as co-director for Client Services at the Minority Taskforce on AIDS, where she worked with women incarcerated at Rikers Island.
Since 1999, Jerido has worked as a program officer and consultant to foundations and nonprofits working on economic, health, and leadership development issues. As a program officer for health and safety at the Ms. Foundation for Women, she managed three funds covering reproductive rights, women and AIDS, and sexuality education. Jerido has also explored the intersections between popular culture and progressive politics through GoLeft.org, a web-based nonprofit that she founded.
Terry Marshall is the founder of Intelligent Mischief, as well as a board member and alumnus of Center for Artistic Activism. He has been involved in youth and social justice struggles for over 15 years. In 2008 Terry became the Lead Youth Organizer of the Healthcare Education Project, an initiative of 1199 SEIU in New York City. While there he led the innovative “Young Voices For Healthcare” campaign to involve young people in the healthcare reform struggle. He also is a culture channel editor of the blog www.organizingupgrade.com. Terry is also the Co-Founder and Coeditor of Occupy Comix, a bimonthly comic book that depicts the stories of the 99%, and is working on a book presented by his young voices nation project depicting creative activists of color.
A Blade of Grass’ public programs are made available for free thanks to the generous funding of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; David Rockefeller Fund; SPArt; New York State Council on the Arts; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the National Endowment for the Arts; and our beloved community of individual supporters.
