Alternate ROOTS selects Charleston projects for new Partners in Action cohort
Two Charleston projects, “conNECKted” JEMAGWGA and Girls Rock Charleston After School Program, have been selected for Alternate ROOTS’ 2015 Partners in Action cohort, which works to illuminate cultural organizing as a tool for grassroots organization in communities. From September 2015 to April 2017, ROOTS is providing a combination of funding and technical and staff support based on the needs of each project. “conNECKted” JEMAGWGA will receive $5,000, and Girls Rock Charleston After School Program will receive $14,000.
“conNECKted” (pictured above) is an art-in-community project centered on the human consequences of gentrification and New Urbanism. Propelled by a network of artists, activists, and community members, “conNECKted” aims to challenge Charleston political institutions and developers to become aware of the populations they have been neglecting – from youth in public schools to seniors who carry local history – by amplifying the voices of these residents through various creative community-engaged arts.
The Girls Rock Charleston After School Program is a year-long after-school program for at-risk girls and transgender youth that combines music education, DIY media making, and popular and political education to build a youth-led movement for social change in Charleston, S.C. The program encourages participants to explore their burgeoning identities and to address the impact of police violence and the prison system in their communities. Each semester, the Rockers work together to produce a multimedia body of work that documents and impacts these social issues and presents the participants’ own visions for liberation in their communities.
This year, ROOTS reviewed 30 applications and selected eight partners, up from four partners in 2013 and six in 2014.
Now in its third cycle, and preceded for nearly two decades by the Community/Artist Partnership Program, Partners in Action builds equitable and reciprocal relationships between artists, cultural organizers, and communities. Through local actions, projects and activities, these partnerships connect social justice issues and policies to social and economic justice and practice.
About Alternate ROOTS
Alternate ROOTS, headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., supports the creation and presentation of original art that is rooted in community, place, tradition or spirit. We are a group of artists and cultural organizers based in the South creating a better world together. As Alternate ROOTS, we call for social and economic justice and are working to dismantle all forms of oppression – everywhere.
Via: Alternate ROOTS