PLENARIES
Ideas and Inspiration
Organized around pressing topics and leading voices, you’ll hear from leaders across the country who are addressing key community issues and moving the field of creative placemaking forward.
MONDAY, MAY 20
WELCOME KICKOFF AND DINNER
Time: 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM CDT
Presenters: Jamie Bennett, Primus Wheeler
Performers: Four Washington
Join us in opening the ArtPlace 2019 Annual Summit! Members of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians will kick things off honoring and acquainting us with the land we’re on. ArtPlace Executive Director Jamie Bennett and Primus Wheeler, Executive Director of the Jackson Medical Mall Foundation, will introduce the Summit over a dinner plenary session that will ground all that’s to come in the context of Jackson’s culture, its land, and its community.
OPTIMISTIC: JACKSON YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND TOMORROW
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM CDT
Presenters: Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Rip Rapson, Diane Williams and Mahalia Wright
Performers: SING! Jackson, DJ Java, and Deep Seedz
Performances, conversations, and storytelling dive into the past, present, and future of Jackson, Mississippi. Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Mayor of Jackson, and Rip Rapson, President and CEO of The Kresge Foundation, explore the roles of philanthropy and municipal leadership in centering arts and culture as part of a sustainable dignity economy. Storyteller Diane Williams explores the local life and legacies. Representatives from the Jackson Medical Mall demonstrate how they are integrating arts and culture into community health. Jackson artists DJ Java, Deep Seedz hip-hop collective, and acclaimed choir SING! Jackson energize and uplift the gathering. Mahalia Wright emcees. Stay for the reception catered by Chef Nick Wallace and a local artist fair!
TUESDAY, MAY 21
OUR STORIES, OUR PLACES
Time: 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM CDT
Presenters: Derrick Ford, Ashley Hanson, Dan Kwong, Aaron Leggett, and Daryl Shack Sr.
Our stories are tools—they help us process the world around us, shape decision-making, share information, hand down values, and enshrine legacies. Our stories define us, and they also change us and our communities. Experience how we as individuals and communities shape our own stories, and how these stories can help make meaning as we make critical decisions about the future of our communities.
LAND, RACE, AND COMMUNITY FUTURES
Time: 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM CDT
Presenters: Sarah Calderon, Marcus Briggs-Cloud, Laura Genes, Emmanuel Pratt, and Nia Umoja
The means by which land is acquired, apportioned, controlled, owned, and preserved in this country have embedded within them our national legacies of racism. Land and race are historically intertwined in this country. Meet artists whose practices seek to reconfigure these disparities that have existed historically and hear the ways in which they are radically reimagining land control in their communities. Learn how to challenge the historical relationship between land and race through such examples as cooperatives, land trusts, banks, vacant lot possession, and other tactics.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 22
FOOD SYSTEMS TRANSFORMATION THROUGH ARTS AND CULTURE
Time: 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM CDT
Presenters: Christa Drew, Sadia Nawab, Nick Wallace, and Willi White
Join us to consider how we can envision, design, and actualize more equitable food systems and greater food sovereignty within rural, urban, and tribal communities. What are the possibilities for agricultural food and culinary enterprises to drive economic opportunity and support creative communities of belonging? Activists and artists whose work is inspiring place-based and equitable transformations will share the secrets of their work.
HISTORY, TRUTH, AND THE SEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND
Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CDT
Presenters: Jen Hughes, Lori Pourier and Carlton Turner
How can the complicated history of a place be preserved in all its aspects, positive and negative? Mississippi’s complex history is adorned with stories both tragic and beautiful, horrifying and inspiring. What are the tools and tactics we can employ to honor the whole truth, without letting one side distort the other? As we search in the United States for common ground, how will rural America and Indian country lead the way? Remarks by Jen Hughes. Introduction by Lori Pourier and keynote address by Carlton Turner.
Our hashtag throughout the summit is #ArtPlaceSummit. For more details and live updates go to the ArtPlace Summit Guidebook App.