Alternate Roots: 50 Years of Artist Activism & Cultural Organizing,

Bill Cleveland: 00:00:01

From the center for the Study of Art and Community. This is Change the Story, Change the World. My name is Bill Cleveland.

Now the average lifespan of a nonprofit organization in America is 30 to 40 years.

The average for profit business lasts about 10 years and the average nonprofit arts organization lasts between 5, 5 and 15 years, depending on who you're asking. Given this, it's worth noting when an organization on the shortest end of the shortest of these three sticks hangs in there for a whole half century.

ots describes their work in a: 2017

Bill Cleveland: 00:00:56

Alternate Roots is an organization based in the southern USA whose mission is to support the creation and presentation of original art in all its forms, which is rooted in a particular community of place, tradition or spirit. As a coalition of cultural workers, we strive to be allies in the elimination of all forms of oppression.

Roots is committed to social and economic justice and the protection of the natural world and addresses these concerns through its programs and services.

Bill Cleveland: 00:01:43

I should say that Root's placement on the short end of the diminutive art stick is due to the fact that they're a cultural service organization in service to community artists, cultural organizers and arts organization who occupied the least well endowed neighborhood of the perpetually needy American arts sector. So good on you Roots.

Congratulations and happy birthday, particularly since after 50 years in the saddle, Roots is truly thriving with a rapidly growing membership and an expanded array of programs and services.

th birthday, the time for the: 2024

Do you remember when you sat on.

ROOTS Spokesperson: 00:02:43

A porch in a rocking chair?

ROOTS Spokesperson: 00:02:45

Warm North Carolina summer air filled your lungs, the sound of Jim bae, drums.

Bill Cleveland: 00:02:50

And laughter filled your ears, and you learned what it meant to get free.

ROOTS Spokesperson: 00:02:55

Do you remember the name of the.

ROOTS Spokesperson: 00:02:56

One whose invitation you accepted that would begin your journey?

Bill Cleveland: 00:03:00

The Roots week theme for: 2024

Sankofa is an Akan word from the tree language of Ghana that means get back and get it, which reminds us of the inescapable truth that our future and our past are intrinsically connected.

Our guests for this bonus episode are roots staffers Amy McCoy and Clarissa Crawford, who will share some of the organization's History and describe what happens when over 100 creative community change agents from across the south spend a week together making art, sharing stories, and celebrating the power of their work. We begin, in typical Roots fashion, with Clarissa's calming invitation to presence after a frustrating but inevitable tussle with our technology.

All right, fantastic. So let's start over.

Clarissa Crawford: 00:03:54

I'm going to encourage us to just take a breath.

Bill Cleveland: 00:03:56

Yeah, good.

Clarissa Crawford: 00:03:57

Technology is doing what technology does. Thank you for this moment, Bill. To be in this virtual space.

Bill Cleveland: 00:04:04

Yeah.

Clarissa Crawford: 00:04:05

Just going to take a deep breath in. Hold and release.

Bill Cleveland: 00:04:15

Now that is the way to begin. That's wonderful. Thank you.

Clarissa Crawford: 00:04:20

I am present.

Bill Cleveland: 00:04:22

Welcome to the show.

So what's going to happen is we're going to record this, and then I'm going to turn it around as an episode really fast so you can send it out to Roots week participants. Yeah, Amy, so let's start with you. Where are you hailing from and what are you up to at Roots?

Amy McCoy: 00:04:44

Yes. Thank you so much, Bill, for having us here. My name is Amy McCoy. My pronouns are C, O, Y, or she or her.

And I'm calling in from the Muscogee Creek and Cherokee land, also known as Decatur, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. And I'm primarily a film and theater artist, but also an arts administrator.

And I currently hold the position of director of membership at Alternate Route.

Bill Cleveland: 00:05:10

Great. So what does a director of membership at Alternate Roots do?

Bill Cleveland: 00:05:14

Well, our mission is about cultivating the network, this coalition of artists and organizers, which means traveling across the region, meeting and connecting with members, being able to see work, connect members with other members, helping with the administrative aspect of membership, assisting members with their benefits, the responsibilities, operating in orientation for new members, and that's baseline. Also some recruiting, which I like to call cultivating. I run the team that handles all of those aspects of the work.

Bill Cleveland: 00:05:50

So one thing that is, I'm sure, self evident to you and to Clarissa, but not all organizations have members. So Roots is, at its core, a membership organization. What does that mean?

Amy McCoy: 00:06:07

So it began as Folks Are Coming Together before it was even incorporated as a membership organization.

At its core, what it means is artists, organizers coming together for mutual benefit, support in a mission and passion to have a passion, positive impact on their communities and their environment and this country as a whole.

Bill Cleveland: 00:06:33

Great. Clarissa, where are you and what are you up to?

Clarissa Crawford: 00:06:40

Hi. Well, I'm Clarissa Crawford. I use she her pronouns. I am based in the land of the Muscogee Creek people, also known as Atlanta, Georgia.

I am a film, theater, and media producing artist, and I currently Serve as the director of Strategic Partnerships at Alternate Roots. So my team oversees all of the grant making initiatives for the members of Alternate Roots.

And we are stewarding resources to support members, field friends and our peers and partners within the field as well.

In alignment with the mission of Alternate Roots, we are focused on providing resources, capacity building, support, learning exchanges, opportunities to also just retreat and be well together. For the members of Alternate Roots, who are Southern artists and cultural organizers across 14 Southern states in Washington, DC.

Bill Cleveland: 00:07:50

So I'm going to ask you a hard question, both of you. I'll start with you, Clarissa, and then Amy, you can think about it while Clarissa's struggling with it. Okay, so here's Roots 50 years.

And not just any 50 years. 50 years of extraordinary history, externally in the world and internally in the organization. Been through a lot of changes.

So the question is, if Roots fulfills its mission, its potential with and for its membership, which are at its core, what does that look like? How do you define success for Roots?

Clarissa Crawford: 00:08:33

I love that question.

One, because part of it is what I've been sitting with for the last year and a half or so and thinking about what is the end goal, particularly with the work that I hold in building partnerships with our member.

And the end goal looks like a thriving ecosystem, a network of strategic and holistically supported artists and organizers working on racial justice, working on economic justice, environmental justice, social justice, and systems of oppression, who have the faith and the resources to creatively solve any challenge that comes up in our communities across the world.

Bill Cleveland: 00:09:26

So when you say solve community problems, could you give me an example of some of the kinds of things that ROOTS members end up working on out there in their communities?

Clarissa Crawford: 00:09:37

Yeah.

So housing prices, food, desert, mortality rates in mothers who give birth, the environment, thinking about the sustainability and coming up creatively with ways to combat forces that are harming our environment and our ability to be able to just live and exist in our communities, rural, city, wherever our folks are.

Bill Cleveland: 00:10:04

So, Amy, you mentioned that one of the fun parts of your job is to visit members in the 14 states that are your territory and connect.

So for people who are not used to the idea of artists possibly being change agents for things like affordable housing or health care or public safety. Could you describe some of your members and some of the things that they're involved in?

Amy McCoy: 00:10:34

Absolutely, yes. That is one of the fun things. We have almost 50 years in this organization, so the membership spans the gamut.

We've got members who were at the very first meetings of Alternate Roots, mostly theater makers in the beginning. Today we have a membership that focuses on art as a solution for the ills that face us in our communities.

Our membership base, our artists, organizers, artists, activists, artists, administrators, storytellers, filmmakers, musicians, professors. We have jugglers who go to city council meetings and do art presentations to be impactful in local politics, have a young urban environments.

We have organizations focused on particular communities to give them a voice.

We have artists who wanted to find out if they could make fast food out of French food as an art project, who opened a restaurant, and they made fast food, French food for many years. We have artists in every aspect of life, in business, in social engagement, in family, in community, in government.

HARP is everywhere, and it is a change agent. So that's a small snapshot.

Bill Cleveland: 00:12:07

So, Clarissa, one of the things that's often overlooked by folks who are not that familiar with the cultural community is that many artists, where they live are what you might call sole proprietors, small businesses whose work is sprouting social capital and economic development and community connectivity and helping tell their communities many stories. And as you said, ROOTS members are tackling challenging community issues as well. This kind of work calls for a very diverse skill set.

So I know one of Root's key functions is to provide opportunities for your members to share ideas and collaborate and learn from each other. You have regional gatherings and workshops and exchanges.

And one of your big learning and community building activities is an annual gathering which is happening very soon. Could you describe that?

Clarissa Crawford: 00:13:02

Yes.

In just a few weeks, we will journey as a community to Asheville, North Carolina for our annual board meeting and week of retreat, lovingly known as Root Sweep.

So this is where we come together to re energize and give folks the spark of inspiration or knowledge sharing that they need to be able to go back to their respective communities and do what they do, hopefully with some new tools, some new information, some new collaborators. So we are holding workshops around art making.

We are holding space for wellness, for performances, for conversations, to really dig into some of the things that are coming up for folks to make space to talk about. As a community, we are often known as the place where the hard conversations can be had.

And so Roots Week is one of those places where those hard conversations come up also, because as much as we are a community is very much an organization that has business that has to be tended to as well. So there is a component of it that is considered like the business meeting.

And so our members, our board members come together to learn about, receive updates about the work, programming, budget, getting updated on that information and making decisions as needed. So it is a beautiful exchange. Some of us have not been in person with each other since the last annual gathering.

So it is really a time for deep connection, for deep learning, for deep building knowledge and awareness around the business of Roots.

And so we make space for that to happen, eating together, sitting on porches and rocking in chairs and reconnecting because we haven't seen each other. And we're looking forward to it.

Bill Cleveland: 00:15:12

So for people who are not familiar with an Alternate routes week, I'm just going to say, and this is my own description, is that it's a lot more like Woodstock than a typical business conference.

It's a place where you can learn, you can connect, you can heal, you can debate, and you can find common ground with folks who are on your same path and folks who are not.

In many ways, the Roots week walks the talk of the kind of work that many Roots members are engaging in their own communities, which is connecting dots, helping people find common ground, building coalitions, advocating for things, identifying needs in their own communities. And we have fun and people have a ball.

So, Amy, over the past few years, there's been a lot of disruption in people's lives, in communities, and particularly in the lives of people that are members of Roots. So this coming together is really important. And at this particular moment, there's some critical questions on the table.

Roots has a very long tradition of helping to support and help a field of community artists, cultural organizers, and change agents to talk about and document what works. How do we do this in the best way possible? Because it's hard and demanding work.

So what are the kinds of things that, that people are going to be sharing with each other that they can learn from?

Amy McCoy: 00:17:01

Every year asked for proposals for folks to come and share in a number of ways, Performances Talk backs keynote workshops. They were expecting about 20 to 30. We received 70 puzzles. Now we only have wow.

And there are only so many hours in the week and it's going to be a packed week. We've got everything from environmental justice to artists incubator conversations to multiple types of performances workshop.

The list just goes on, on. So there is ample opportunity for folks to learn. The wonderful thing about us being in 14 southern states in D.C.

is that folks are in their communities doing the work and they bring that to Roots. And there's connection made, there's lessons learned. Folks come together to figure how to address issues that they might have in common.

So as an artist myself, I always find it fascinating of about how people use their art to answer challenges in their Communities.

I just recently attended a rhizome we call Rhizome In Person event that members can host in their local area where other Roots members or non Roots members can come and share and learn.

And I just attended one on Sunday, and the artist, I was working with the community about ways to use art and playmaking to bridge the gap between the right and the left in this country.

Bill Cleveland: 00:18:53

Yeah.

So, Larissa, there's one particular session that's going to happen that you two have initiated and relates to who gets to say, who gets to do where does power live in the Roots ecosystem you were describing? So could you talk about that a little?

Clarissa Crawford: 00:19:15

Sure. So we are fortunate enough to be participating in a conversation around power that is titled let's Talk About It Demystifying Power at Root.

Let's Talk about it actually was a series that Amy came up with that was a concept that she thought of to create a container for crucial conversations that we want to have at Roots with an eye and a lens towards being able to come up with solutions.

So we're not just creating a container to gripe, but as we are artists, as we are change agents and change makers, we are putting conversations topic in the center, and we are investigating them and thinking about possibilities for how we can create community and collaboration for solutions around varying topics.

And so one of the things that have consistently been coming up for us as we are approaching 50 years as a community and thinking about where we want to go for the next 50 years with reexamining our relationship with power and what does it mean? Who holds power? What does it mean when they hold power? Who gets to make decisions? Who has the right to not agree with those decisions?

Who has the right to make the space to have the conversation about these types of things? So we are.

We're having a conversation conversation because it's been coming up in different pockets and corners within the community around, well, how can I do this as a member, as a voting member? How do I get access to have a say in this? How can I have my voice heard?

How can I ensure that when I'm speaking or I'm offering up solutions, that it is not just going into some echo chamber, but there is something that if there's an access connected to it or there is a next step that is identified?

And so when we talk about power and we talk about being able to make decisions and we talk about the ways in which that is available, because it is very much available to us all.

And so part of what we're wanting to do is help folks identify for themselves what that power is, and then also have some clarity around what it means to be responsible for that power, should you decide to own it or should you not? And that's a decision, too. So we're creating a space for some exploration that I'm really excited about. And it's just the start of a conversation.

Right.

We can go a multitude of ways, especially right now, given we are months away from the transition of power and we don't know how that's going to land.

We should always be in conversation about where we stand from year to year to reflect and assess where we are, especially as it relates to who we claim we are and what our values are. Are we still in alignment with that? And do we need to shift anything? Do we want to change things? So very excited for this to start.

Bill Cleveland: 00:22:40

So I'm hearing you saying is that we're beginning an intentional conversation about a subject, that people are going to have different opinions and takes on definitions, and it's a beginning. And I also hear you saying we want to make sure that there's a feedback loop.

The people who are invested in the conversation understand their opportunity to continue the deliberation with the goal of coming to some kind of common ground so that everybody can learn from it.

Clarissa Crawford: 00:23:18

We want them to understand the opportunity and the invitation to show up for yourself and to speak those things, your thoughts, your experiences, your questions into the space so that they are heard. Right. And they're accounted for as the conversation and the dialogue moves forward. Forward. That's a responsibility.

Bill Cleveland: 00:23:39

Yeah, I hear that.

Clarissa Crawford: 00:23:40

Did you choose to take that on? So, yeah.

Bill Cleveland: 00:23:43

So, Amy, one of the situations that is connected to this conversation is the fact that your constituency, your members of obviously over 50 years, it's not the same. It's changing and it's growing. Could you talk about the challenge of a growing and diversifying membership for an organization like Roots?

Amy McCoy: 00:24:13

Absolutely. So when I mentioned before about how Roots began, it wasn't 500 people at that first meeting.

It was a much smaller group of people who decided to come together and make that commitment, take that responsibility that was just talking about to take action, make life better for themselves, their community. And that has gotten us to this point. At one point, there was only one type of membership, and it was an all in type of membership. Right.

And those who joined, they were the deciders. They chose what to do.

But I would say about 10 years ago, there was a shift in the membership structure that actually is also one of the reasons why I say alternate Roots always leans toward inclusion. The desire for this found unity that had impacted so many lives on such a deep level.

The members wanted to have a wider impact to expand that membership. So they introduced different levels of membership.

So now there's a general level of membership, there's still this voting or board membership level, and then there's an organizational member. So what ended up happening 10 years ago is that general membership, it lowered the bar for membership and it widened the net for membership.

So when we used to be 150 membership body, now we're 500. 500 people seems still very small. But when you think about the intimate and intense nature of this community, that's amazing.

And what we end up happening is a very unique situation from the beginning is that we have a board of anywhere between 125 to 150 members. Like a board of a nonprofit organization that large, that is, that's a unicorn. So as time has gone, some people are no longer with us.

Some in the permanent sense, they have passed on. Some people have moved out of the region, some people have taken different paths. And then we are.

We literally get new members, bona fide new members every single week. So just think almost 50 years of new people almost every year coming into this organization.

It is a constant ebb and flow and shift and changing of membership body. So it's diverse.

Bill Cleveland: 00:27:03

And I would imagine this question of who gets to say, who gets to decide, how do I plug in, if I have an idea or a project, what are the ways in which I interact with Roots that make the best sense for me, and how do I understand the wiring and the dynamics of the ecosystem you're talking about? And so some people have been around forever and some are coming to their first Roots week.

And so likely your conversation about power will have a lot of different people, some of whom know the old story, some of them know the current story, and some of them are so new that they're just not clear on how things work. Right. So it sounds like one of the goals is to begin sort of, number one, clearing the air.

What are the big questions that are out there, Some of which are easy to answer, some of which are long term, structural, dynamic questions about participation and agency and that are not going to be like, answered. They're going to be engaged.

Clarissa Crawford: 00:28:29

Yeah. And in addition to like a growing membership size, the size of the staff has also grown, the resources have also grown.

Some folks would also say programming has also expanded. So there has been growth, expansion that's been happening at multiple levels within this community.

And to the point that Amy was making about even changing the membership structure.

We have to look at the structures that we've had in place and how and if we want to adjust those to accommodate where we are right now, because some of them are still long held practices that did not anticipate having a community, a staff, resources of this size. And so I think that on many levels that's really beautiful. Right. There's growth beyond what some folks may have imagined or expected.

Bill Cleveland: 00:29:29

But.

Clarissa Crawford: 00:29:29

But there are also challenges that come with that as well.

So we have to have these types of conversation spaces to really dig in and see what does this mean and how we want to adjust and how we want to accommodate and how we want to re acclimate what it means to be a member of this community and how we orient and introduce others and bring them on board. It's exciting that there are folks who will be there who've never experienced a root suite before.

They'll have fresh eyes and some perspective that I think will be just as meaningful and helpful as that of the feedback and contribution of folks who've been here since the beginning. We need all of the perspectives and voices in the room.

So I think it's an exciting time to be having these types of dialogues, but it's also a critical time.

Bill Cleveland: 00:30:34

Yeah.

So one of the things that comes to mind, if you look at the last five years, this is one of the most tumultuous periods of time in the history of our country, of our communities, of families, of individuals. This question of how do we organize ourselves, how do we make decisions, how do we communicate in ways that everybody feels heard, listened to.

And included are questions that everybody has been asking. And a lot of people's assumptions about the way the world works are upside down, which is both a little scary. Okay.

But also if you are a change agent, a place to adapt and shift and experiment.

Clarissa Crawford: 00:31:22

And by the way, the five years that you're talking about was the critical time period of my time at roots. We were entering into a new chapter as a community that we had not been before the pandemic was happening. We had civil uprisings.

We had artists who were losing gigs left and right and not being able to support themselves. So we also overnight became an emergency relief organization. My work was holding a lot of that.

And so I was on the front lines of holding the pain and the tragedy in real time that folks were experiencing the deep hardship that they were experiencing, while also working to get resources out the door quickly to help stop some of the playing because it wasn't a whole lot we could do, but we did some things. And so that was for me, I look at it as like a master's, maybe a doctoral program of sorts.

And so these last five years have been the formative years of me and my journey at Bruce.

Bill Cleveland: 00:32:29

So I'll finish with a question for each of you and Amy, I'll start with you. So at the end of the day, you're going to be spending a week in a beautiful place with a wonderful collection of creative folks.

What do you hope for this week in terms of your work and Roots going forward?

Amy McCoy: 00:32:48

I have some pretty high hope. In addition to this particular conversation, we're also exploring power in a different way through the membership engagement.

So we are really focusing in on the responsibility side of things. Somewhere there's it's already written that the voting members have a certain level of authority and power within the organization.

They get to vote on what things happen. But we as the membership, community and work group, we're focusing in on what do the members need.

So looking at that reciprocal relationship between the organization, one of my hope is that every member, the newest member to the almost 50 year in the gang member walking away from weeks week with an understanding that they have agency, they have the ability to affect change and that their responsibility responsible. We cannot think that it is someone else's job. It's our job, it's our responsibility.

And so funny, a lot of our benefit and our responsibilities are in the benefit pile, but they're also in the responsibility pile. So your responsibility is actually a beautiful benefit of being a part of this organization.

That's what I want people to really carry away with them and move that into action.

Bill Cleveland: 00:34:22

Great. Sounds like a dream of a healthy family. Okay, Clarissa, what do you want to see happen?

Clarissa Crawford: 00:34:30

Well, first I want to, I do want to make sure that I acknowledge that our cultural organizing team has been leading the curation and organizing of Roots week. So want to just make sure I shout them out.

And I'm looking forward to being able to witness how folks come to their work and how they share their practice because I don't always get a chance to do that. And I'm also looking forward to getting down to business.

I have a business background, so I like looking at and evaluating our guidelines, our processes, thinking about our budgets. I like having the conversations around that to talk transparently about policies and about strategic plan and think about those things collectively.

I think that those are really great learning moments for folks. So I look forward to being able to do that as a community.

And then of course, I just look forward to the different one on ones that you just get randomly, like you're walking across the campsite and you see someone and it's will you walk with me? Sure. We get into a random conversation and you find a commonality that you would not have otherwise expected to have with someone.

Bill Cleveland: 00:35:50

So just for our listeners, please know that I will be at Roots this year and one of my goals is to harvest stories of artists working and service to creative solutions to difficult problems in communities that will stimulate and inspire. Thank you both very much for pulling back the curtain on Roots and Roots Week and giving folks a sense of what's coming.

Bill Cleveland: 00:36:22

Thank you so much.

Clarissa Crawford: 00:36:23

Thank you. Thank you, Bill.

Bill Cleveland: 00:36:24

You're welcome. Absolutely.

Clarissa Crawford: 00:36:26

Bye bye.

Bill Cleveland: 00:36:27

Adios, you guys. All right, and bye bye.

To those of you who have tuned in, please know that if you're interested in learning more about Alternate Routes, its programs and services, and the many resources they have available, links to their website will be in our show notes.

will be attending Roots Week: 2024

Our theme and soundscape are the product of my musical genius partner in crime, Judy Munson. Our text editing is by Andre Nebe, our effects come from freesound.org and our inspiration comes from the ever present spirit of ook235.

So until next time, stay well, do good and spread the good word. And once again, please know that this episode has been 100% human.