23: Riding in on a wave
A wave of history
I was recently talking to someone for an article and she mentioned this idea, paraphrased from Oakland-based artist and activist Favianna Rodriguez, that “culture moves faster than policy.” I looked up the original quote, and I believe it’s in this interview where Rodriguez says, “The entire cultural space is moving much faster than politics.”
Both the original and the paraphrase have been making me think this week about how even though in some ways it feels like we’re moving backwards, in others it feels like both US and global culture are zipping along, blowing past elected officials and public policy. I didn’t have room to get into this idea in the article so I thought I would here, but first here’s a little chunk from the post I wrote that ran this week here you go:
Forward-Thinking Funders Pitch Practical Changes for a Sector Under Fire
There’s a reckoning underway in the philanthropic sector, from hard-hitting books and journalism challenging the power of the wealthy, to concerns over how philanthropy is serving threatened communities in a regressive political moment.
While there have been some encouraging responses, so far, this reckoning has largely been a matter of discourse. In other words, a lot of talk, not a lot of action.
One progressive funder, the San Francisco-based Whitman Institute, has been operating since around 2004 in a way that seeks to curb some of the power imbalances currently under fire. Now Whitman and peer funders who subscribe to similar grantmaking practices are taking their approach to philanthropy on the road.
…
“What would our roles be if we weren’t the experts, the gatekeepers?” she says. “I don't think it means we are all out of a job, but I do think there could be thoughtful reorientations to what our roles are and how we can augment and support the social, economic and political movements of our time.”
The she in that quote is Pia Infante, the co-executive director of The Whitman Institute, a small foundation that does really impressive social justice grantmaking, and works within the sector to get funders to yield some of their power to their grantees. I’ve written a bunch about how the transfer of power (not effectiveness or impact), is the way philanthropy ought to be judged as an institution. As opposed to a common attitude—held explicitly or otherwise by donors like oh I don’t know presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg—that philanthropy is yet another avenue through which they get to bend the world to their liking, which is not such a good attitude. I would call that a badditude.
But anyway, I was asking Infante about where their work fits into growing demands for equity and she mentioned Favianna Rodriguez has this idea that culture moves faster than policy, so they see the work as part of a reckoning where we have to turn our values into practice.
That got me reading about Rodriguez, who for years has been developing a concept of cultural organizing and you may know her from this image she is famous for of a butterfly with the phrase Migration is Beautiful which you can see and buy as a poster here and all sorts of other gear here. She came up with it back in 2012 in response to the Obama administration’s horrible accelerated deportation of immigrants. Rodriguez also designed this poster commissioned by the 2014 People’s Climate March:
So you get it she’s an amazing artist and pretty much the best and she has this great essay she wrote based on a talk she gave in 2013, called Change the Culture, Change the World. In it, she makes the argument that we mistakenly think of arts and culture often as a communications strategy for a political campaign. When really, we should be thinking of (and funding) their role within the “idea space,” where culture has far greater power. One example of this power is how the cultural acceptance of LGBTQ equality, while hard fought for years, hit a point where it surged forward, causing policy change to sort of whiplash in its path at incredible speed.
Rodriguez talks about social change as this breaking wave that is the product of all kinds of other unseen changes, many of them cultural and not related to any campaign or policy goal.
In the political world, we experience the wave’s peak moments through events like elections or policy wins, but we don’t always recognize the undercurrents and conditions that lead us there. In the world of art and culture, many of us help construct the conditions that lead to this climax. Culture is a space where we can introduce ideas, attach emotions to concrete change and win enthusiasm for our values. Art is where we can change the narrative, because it’s where people can imagine what change looks and feels like.
Abraham Lincoln famously said, “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.”
She has another great line about how, as opposed to an explicit political message, “You’re more open to how culture is going to transform you, so you walk into it with an open heart.”
I love this essay (read the whole thing here), because it opens up the way we might view change, from this narrow scope we usually see it through that’s maybe like a dumb old bill that passes or fails, to instead viewing these strong, sometimes rapidly moving tides that we’re all a part of and that can shape with our own contributions. It’s a power that I think we underestimate at our own cost.
Linkadoo
Trump is blowing up protected desert lands in Southern Arizona, including land that is sacred to multiple Native American tribes and even burial sites. All for a stupid fucking wall that does nothing but serve as a monument to bigotry.
Land defenders in British Columbia are blocking a pipeline that would bring fracked natural gas through the territory of the Wet'suwet'en First Nations people. Militarized Canadian police made a pre-dawn raid this week trying to force out the camp but they appear to be in a standoff.
Harvard faculty voted 179 to 20 in favor of calling on the university to its frankly obscene $41 billion endowment from fossil fuel stocks.
The GOP is way farther to the right than most conservative parties in other countries, closer to Europe’s fringe white nationalist parties. Democrats are pretty much standard center-left.
The story behind John Singleton’s prescient 1995 film Higher Learning. Here’s a wild fact, John Singleton was 20 when he wrote Boyz n the Hood and 22 when he directed it! Legend.
Watching
Last week I watched The Lighthouse, starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson by the guy who directed The Witch, which is one of my favorite movies from recent years. The Lighthouse is not for everyone, in fact, Jamie hated it and stopped watching like halfway through but I really enjoyed it, just be warned. I also read this review of the movie by a guy who worked on 32 lighthouses over 18 years. “In the ’60s there was a keeper there who was gathering some old wire, and a bit of it took off over the cliff – it had wrapped around his leg, so away he went. They never did find him.” He has his complaints about the film but ultimately gives The Lighthouse 5 out of 5 stars so pretty good. Here are some pictures of Willem Dafoe:
Podcasts
Check out this interview with N.K. Jemisin about the legacy of H.P. Lovecraft, and her new book which involves a giant tentacled monster destroying the Williamsburg Bridge.
Listening
I have this memory of a birthday a few years back when I took the day off and walked around Boston and did random stuff and at one point I was listening to Albert Ayler Trio’s Spiritual Unity on my headphones while walking through the Common and the Public Garden. It was May so kind of sweaty and bright out and there were tons of people walking and laying around and it all made perfect sense together. Later on I found it on vinyl and now I own it it is mine. I thought about that because I just read this article about Ayler’s music and I only really know Spiritual Unity and sounds like I’m really missing out on the Don Cherry recordings. Anyways, even if you hate free jazz, I would recommend listening to Spiritual Unity while going for a walk because short of maybe seeing it live which we sadly can’t do that seems like the way to do it.
OK before I send this puppy I wanted to mention via my good friend Eric Swedlund that today is International Clash Day, which started out as a day to celebrate The Clash but has also become about the political causes the band stood for. So this year, KEXP in Seattle made the theme Clash for Climate, playing relevant music but also highlighting climate activists, nonprofits, learning about climate change, and voting. It’s pretty cool! And also fitting the theme of this week’s newsletter so I will close with this song recorded as part of the event, a spooky cover of Should I Stay or Should I Go by Joy Formidable.
Hang in there everyone. Even though it might feel like you are being tossed about by a giant wave sometimes, remember that you are the wave.
Tate
PS: Email title this week comes from Downtown Boys, Wave of History.