History
Voices from the Cultural Battlefront: Organizing for Equity is an ongoingtwenty-two year international conversation about the role of art and culture in the struggle for human rights, including social justice, cultural equity, and a healthy natural environment. Hundreds of activists grounded in the cultural life of their local communities, who represent a variety of fields (including education, art, health, and youth services) and who are from all seven continents, have participated in these conversations.
The forums have been convened by a core group of U.S. artists and community organizers, including Dr. Marta Moreno Vega, Dudley Cocke, Olga Garay, Kalamu ya Salaam, Dr. Sonia BasSheva Mañjon, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, Dr. Amalia Mesa-Bains, Tonya Gonnella Frichner, Caron Atlas, Dr. Jack (John Kuo Wei) Tchen, Carlton Turner, Jamie Haft, Dr. Randy Martin, Art Menius, Maria Lopez De Leon, and others. For a complete list of Voices leaders, click here. The older of these leaders began their activist work during the civil rights movement and subsequently founded cultural organizations that joined art to the struggle for social justice.
The book, Voices from the Battlefront: Achieving Cultural Equity (Africa World Press, 1993), documents the spirit and thinking of the early convenings, especially the two international conferences, “Cultural Diversity Based on Cultural Grounding,” conceived and organized in collaboration with national leadership by the Franklin H. Williams Caribbean Cultural Center/Africa Diaspora Institute in New York City in 1981 and 1991.
In 2007 and 2008, five Voices from the Cultural Battlefront forums were convened. These national conversations focused on understanding hyper-capitalism and the impact of unrestricted, global mobility of capital on the intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and material features and traditions of people and their societies and, ultimately, on the goal of achieving cultural equity.
The first conference on June 8-9, 2007 was convened by the Caribbean Cultural Center, in collaboration with Dudley Cocke, as part of the Center’s thirtieth anniversary celebration. The conference was organized by Olga Garay, and hosted by Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. Dr. Jack Tchen (pictured left) provided theoretical analysis for the conference with his commissioned paper, “30 Years and Counting: A Context for Building a Shared Cross-Cultural Commons”, which examines the culture wars from 1980 to the present through the lens of “hypercapitalism”, or what also has been called “neoliberalism”. At the end of the two days, there was consensus that the Reagan administration's policies of trickle-down economics and mass privatization inaugurated an era of economic and cultural hardship in our communities, which are increasingly fragmented and isolated from one another. The group said, "We need to mobilize." And Kalamu ya Salaam said, "Then we need to find an issue we can all agree to organize around." The group asked, "What?" And Kalamu, "The economy."
The New York conversation continued in New Orleans, LA, on December 6-7, 2007 as part of the National Performance Network’s national conference. Voices leaders postulated that there currently exists a form of hyper-capitalism that puts the demands of the free market before a people’s spiritual, intellectual, and emotional well-being. As part of this discussion, the role of personal accountability and privilege within the social justice community itself surfaced. The experience of many of participants suggested there was a significant lack of ethics and personal accountability among many of the organizers and organizations intending to work for social justice. One participant implicated herself in hyper-capitalism, to which another participant asked, “If you were working in the kitchen in the big house, how would you define slavery?”
The third forum, April 4-5, 2008, in Amherst, MA, was coordinated with New WORLD Theater’s Intersection conference, and co-facilitated by Carlton Turner and Graciela Sanchez. Thanks to the conference’s international focus, participants were able to discuss the effects of the global economy on local life and the international movement for cultural equity.
The fourth Voices forum, August 5-10, 2008 in Arden, NC, was part of the Alternate ROOTS 32nd Annual Meeting. Alternate ROOTS is a membership organization based in the Southeast (U.S.) working to support the creation and presentation of original art which is rooted in a particular community of place, tradition, or spirit. ROOTS' 300 members are artists and cultural workers creating original art work and striving to be allies in the elimination of oppression and advancement of justice. Attendees at the Annual Meeting were intensely involved in setting priorities and new directions for the organization, and the Voices conversation was able to bring cultural equity to the forefront of that strategic planning.
The final 2008 forum was held in Los Angeles, CA, October 1-2. The first day was hosted by a local community-based organization,
Farmlab, (pictured left) and co-sponsored by the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles. The second day was co-sponsored by the Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life national conference. More than 150 Los Angeles artists, activists, and conference participants from higher education came together with national leaders from Voices to share knowledge, build relationships, and develop a national framework to advance cultural equity in participants’ home communities and in higher education. (Participants felt the lens of hyper-capitalism was especially relevant given the previous Monday’s historic 777 point stock market crash.) After Jack Tchen presented his economic analysis of the culture wars, Dr. Randy Martin (pictured bottom right) stepped into the large circle to facilitate an open discussion, encouraging participants to develop a role for colleges and universities to play in achieving cultural equity. 
The concept of a Community Arts University Without Walls was suggested by Dr. Marta Moreno Vega and is presently being worked out in collaboration with universities and community scholars to assure that the pioneers of the community arts movement and their institutions are equal partners in the development of academic programs – and that such programs focused on community arts emphasize the movement's founding principles of social justice and cultural and environment rights. When asked about the outcomes of the Forum, Randy Martin replied:
“After a spirited conversation that displayed the richness of experience among the myriad community activists and engaged academics assembled, we proposed to pick up next year with the concept of a nationally networked university without walls. The idea would be to craft a consortium of knowledges grounded in the gemstones of community activism, one that could incorporate the variety of approaches to how the world is understood from the perspectives of cultural justice.”
In 2009, a sixth Voices forum was held in Memphis, TN on February 21, 2009 at the Folk Alliance International Conference. Organized by Appalshop Director Art Menius, the session drew a rich mix of musicians, producers, leaders of nonprofit organizations, DJs, and others. Participants discussed how hyper-capitalism has affected the music industry, and developed strategies to help the Folk Alliance pursue cultural equity.
On April 3-5, 2009, twenty-six Voices leaders met at the Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in Tarrytown, NY. Priorities for the coalition were discussed, including deepening existing partnerships, enhancing communication, and more effectively advocating for cultural equity.
A seventh Voices forum was held on April 19-21, 2009 in Monterey Bay, CA, sponsored by the Community Arts Convening and Research Project. A diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students, university faculty, and leaders of community-based organizations and national networks – all of whom were artists – came together to engage in analysis and the sharing of personal experience to better understand more about the present historical era and its opportunities to advance cultural equity.
In collaboration with the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, on May 7, 2009, Voices leaders traveled to the White House to meet with Obama administration officials including Kareem Dale, Special Advisor to the President and White House Arts and Culture Liaison; Stephanie Valencia, White House Office of Public Engagement; Yosi Sargent, National Endowment for the Arts’ Communications Director; and Jodi A. Gillette, Deputy Associate Director of the Office of Intergovermental Affairs. Voices’ participants discussed existing cultural policy as well as promising opportunities for artists and cultural activist to help revitalize communities. The White House staff members were attentive during the discussions and affirmed that this meeting would be the first of more meetings to come.