Episode 65: Lorrie Chang - Finding an Art & Community TRUE NORTH

Lorrie Chang

[: 00:00:00

But what was this, anyways --- a dance, a celebration, some kind of town musical? Yes, yes, and most definitely, yes! But these are only the most obvious manifestations of what was, in fact, an audacious arts-based change producing community development initiative sponsored by the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership through a new program called, Partnership Art.

Art emerged in the spring of: 2015

That job was undertaken by PolicyLink, a well-regarded national research and action organization headquartered in Oakland, California. The researcher they sent to the flat and fertile fields of soybeans, corn and wheat in Southwest Minnesota was Lorrie Chang. Lorrie is a researcher, writer, planner, and seeker whose work has addressed questions like: What does it take for a black community in America to thrive? How can a community find an empower its truth? And how can community developers integrate arts-based tools and strategies as an enduring core of their practice?

I met Lorrie when I was invited to work at the housing partnership as an advisor. For me, being a part of that project was a privilege. So, his meeting, Lorrie, and the opportunity we had to reflect on the CDI’s impact on what was being learned from this audacious cross sector, creative experiment.

Given the time that's passed since the close of the initiative, I thought it would be interesting to check in with Lorrie to revisit her take on the CDI project and find out what's next for her.

This is Change the Story / Change the World. My name is Bill Cleveland.

Part One: Claiming My Place.

Lori Chang, welcome to the show. Where are you hailing from today?

[: 00:03:33

BC: And I'm speaking to you from the unceded lands of then Lisjan Ohlone, in the land of the Huchiun people. Which means, you're right across the bay from me.

[: 00:03:53

[00:03:56] BC: Yes, So, I know the last two years has been a time of strange change, so how do you describe what you do in the world these days?

[: 00:04:07

There's one thing I wanna add, uh, because my best friend drew me a tarot card yesterday of who I am. It's the star goddess

[: 00:04:52

[00:04:55] LC: It says: “She is the guiding light of hope and serendipity. Bringing clarity and spiritual vision. The star of life radiates from her heart illuminating her core starry essence. The star at her third eye and throat brings celestial vision, encourages unique expression. Her celestial compassion is here to awaken your heart, to ascend into your highest stellar path on earth.”

[: 00:05:06

[00:06:20] LC: I would say that my story always starts with my ancestors, and my mom particularly. I would say that for most of my life, I've felt a weight, on me that feels like my inner voice couldn't be heard.

And, it felt suppressed, that nobody was really interested, even though that wasn't always true, of course. But it just felt like that wasn't, people weren't interested in what my inner life was and what I had to say. So, you know, that comes from being a Chinese American daughter of immigrants, all the things that come through the United States and its history of, patriarchy, racism,

And then also the part that I'm coming to now is all of the oppression that comes through China, through my parents as well. So, I think all of my work stems from trying to break free, for me to be able to say my truth and be my truth, and for others to be able to do the same.

And this led me to first the environment. not having a voice. and then that led me to understanding that people aren't bad, it's the systems that are messed up. So that's what led me to my career in urban planning But, when I got to urban planning in adopting a systems like way of thinking in how to change systems, I found that, one, the history of injustices in this country that has come through urban planning, and. through policy. And, the solutions that were present at the time when I was in school were so technical, it was so removed from the heart of people in my opinion.

BC: And so, when you came out of school, what was there that, that didn't feed you, in the, in academia?

LC: It got to the, it got to the gushy stuff. Like it got to…I was the one in planning school writing love letters to future people who would use certain sites. Like that was my friends called my friends called me, like the whimsical person.

As planners, we build place, and we try to have intention with making a place that serves people. But if you're not operating in that place of heart and story and people's actual lives, then it's really hard to get to. And arts have always held that for me, and games and play ,

BC: So, when you were growing up, was there, an important and powerful cultural presence.

[: 00:08:34

And fortunately, she landed in Chinatown. this place where you have everything you need, groceries, school, doctor, library, hospital is here in Chinatown, in the Chinese language using the culture and the, and traditions. So, she landed in the place where she could navigate and find both the formal and informal people that could help her, help us, have upward mobility. So, without that cultural, translation of being in a foreign country, I don't know if it would've been possible for me to be where I am.

BC: Wow, it’s so interesting, it reminds me, there's so much of the dominant American story that's all about leaving one place and going to another, moving onto new territory, moving people out of the way in the process of finding, the promised land. And it's so interesting that, that immigrant story of coming to the safe place where there is an intact relationship and connection to a culture that, that keeps you safe and supports you. Which is the exact opposite of, getting outta town, right?

I think there's a part of everybody that has that yearning for that safe place where you don't have to worry about whether people are questioning whether you belong there or not. That's a gift, especially for someone new to this crazy country.

LC: Yeah. Yeah. I think it was a huge gift to my parents. and probably a huge, thing for me in terms of still navigating myself as an American as well. That's… that does not solve those issues.

BC: No, it doesn’t. And so, here's a question, you have one foot in one world and another foot in another world, particularly as a young person, where you're trying to form your identity. Who am I? Where am I, what am I doing? How did culture manifest in all of that?

[: 00:11:01

And lately, the reckoning that's happening with anti-Asian stuff, it's all just coming to a head and helping me understand the invisibility of Chinese people in this country, and Asians as foreigners. And this thing that has influenced my life almost invisibly, has really been coming to a head lately.

And at the same time, the last year of my life has been really dedicated in claiming my place as the next in line of being Chinese American and born in this country. So, how do I honor everything that has been given to me while taking on all the crap that comes with being Chinese American and answering that call

Part Two: The Big Oasis

BC: I'm gonna get into some history here. So, you were at PolicyLink, and you ended up in a cultural research project that was pretty significant. oh, yeah. You want to talk about how that manifested?

[: 00:12:57

And to me it's really different from other approaches to social justice or community development because, I believe, to me, it always puts true north at the front, versus, how many houses do we need to build? all important things. But I think those are milestones versus true north.

[: 00:14:07

LC: I think true north is a place where people can be their truth selves, be able to heal the hard things and take their gifts and transform it into creation, into their purpose into the world, their spirit is in the world.

BC: Okay, that PolicyLink project you had the privilege of being in on, something that actually went beyond the scope of what I think the original funders thought they were doing. And I'm just wondering if you could describe that and… What are some of the things that you felt you learned about, human beings and creativity and community?

[: 00:14:49

So, we worked from both sides as well as the in-between. We were the first to help design, and implement a technical assistance program for Creative Placemaking, for the National Endowments, for the Arts. So, we also worked, as wel,l with LISC.

[: 00:15:38

[00:15:56] LC: So the Community Development Investment program, it’s one of the largest, arts and culture experiment in the country in which there was $18 million So, 3 million each to six community development organizations.

So, these are organizations that do, park development, economic development, anti-gentrification, youth development, all of that, and not a super deep background in arts and culture. So, they were given $3 million a piece, and told to integrate arts and culture to try to achieve their bigger goals, over the course of three years --- and let's see what happens.

And it's very different from most projects, you don't have that type of freedom and exploration. And I worked most intimately with two of them. I was the designated researcher, to be able to watch the Zuni Youth Enrichment program that works in youth development in Zuni, and Southwest Minnesota Housing, partnership, which is how I met you, Bill in rural Minnesota.

BC: Yep. Very interesting juxtaposition, those two projects, because everybody involved in these kinds of things end up learning a lot. And I'm wondering in your journey with this, what are some of your takeaways from this nexus of the cultural do-good or impulse, and housing development, youth development, coming together to try and, and make sense of, and use of culture as a resource for, changing communities for the better. What are your takeaways?

[: 00:17:28

[00:18:14] LC: It was a better way of putting organizations, in a relationship with communities. It was focused on people's lives and their roots. And it also found a way to connect across groups. and it flipped a lot of the business-as-usual ways of how community development works. Like, instead of a housing workshop, you had an art project in a dilapidated house, listening house in southwest Minnesota where you had people come in that had Scandinavian and Micronesian origins. You know, there's two different cultures and people coming in and talking about what makes a home.

Listening House Narrator: In the 100 years since this house was built, it's meant many things to many people. All who lived here brought with them their own complex histories, values, and ideas about how to make this house a home and all left. This place somehow changed. We now invite you to do the same. What does home mean to you?

Whatever it is, we hope you'll consider sharing it with us and just as important, we hope you'll take some time to consider the thoughts and values voiced by those who came here before you. Together we'll discover new ways to create home for each other right here in Milan

BC: That’s not business as usual in a place like Milan, it it?

LC: Like, that's not, that's really different from “Here come learn about how to do some house fixing up.” You're having a different level of conversation.

BC: So, if I could just interject here by saying that this project, the community development initiative. was very unique in the world of arts-based community development. There are very few perfect storm investments in this work, in terms of the resources, and the people, and the willingness to learn, and the external conditions for obvious reasons. I mean, we live in a culture where anybody that's trying to combine culture with what people think of as hardcore community development work, you know, housing development, youth development, healthcare, the science side of community building is going to be. at the short end of the stick in terms of resources, and people's patience, and willingness to learn. Yeah. And so, this one, as you said expanded the opportunity window.

And I mean, Three years, 3 million. That's a pretty big oasis. So, where you able to really say. Here's what it takes for these kinds of initiatives to have a life beyond the funding. And were there any projects among the six that you felt. “Okay, the seed that we planted with the community has a good chance of being nurtured and surviving and thriving. And. If, so why.

LC: Okay. I love the work that happened in Zuni.

[: 00:20:23

[00:20:45] LC: Ah, yes, and I got to dive in, in a way that I think was so intimate. I talk to them every week and I ask them every week what's different about using this technique that wouldn't have been the same. And you take this group of people who have a lot of the same, stories of other native groups of like colonization, disempowerment, cultural genocide, and all of this.

But at the same time, what sets Zuni apart as they've been able to retain their culture. Like 90% of Zuni people still speak the language still go by the Zuni calendar. So, you had this disempowerment, but at the same time a holding on of the culture. And so, what this project did was take that culture and use it as the base and the foundation for Zuni moving forward. So, you had this youth development organization, and I remember asking the executive director Tom Faber at the time, if you didn't have this arts and culture grant, what would you have done for park development for youth health?

He said, “Oh, it would've been so easy.” He would've put a couple of squares in the ground. For basketball, maybe a soccer field, just like lines. And he would've called it successful. and don't get me wrong, they are super respectful, super, check in with the tribal council all the time.So that would've been enough and how projects would develop in Zuni. the ideas would originate from the doctors about, what to do and then try to involve Zuni. That's how it was done before.

But now, when they built this park, , they got behind the artist committee. The artist committee were basically the leaders. And for the first time you had Zuni culture front and center. You had these people that were really also youth development professionals. These artists who look out for Zuni youth in Zuni culture at the center of it --- talking about Zuni origin story, talking about where they draw their power. And they involved the students in creating these art projects that went on the walls it was a process in which Zuni culture was not put to the side.

BC: Front and center.

LC: Front and center foundation.

[: 00:23:08

[00:23:30] LC: By working in deep partnership with the Committee of Seasoned Artists, Zuni Youth Enrichment Program learned how to plan, design, and program themselves into the social fabric of Zuni. Many of the artists set out to create community ownership over the park, motivating their networks to contribute to the park.

For example, they had 700 elementary school students design pottery pieces depicting The Zuni migration story. As trusted religious leaders and artists grounded in the nation's traditions, they curated and created culturally affirming designs and art installations, which permeate the park with murals, traditional coyote fencing and traditional wooden beams known as Vegas. Daryl Shax, a member of the artist committee, proudly described children gazing up at the murals of Zuni s origin story and sharing what they know with each other. He explained children now have a place to find mentors, and develop a commitment to themselves and their culture

And so, what happened is that after they had the experience of working in this way, now things have changed where instead of ZYEP coming up with ideas, you actually have the Zuni artist going, “Oh, we really wanna, put some of the Zuni oral stories that we have into turn it into theater. Can you figure out how to make it happen? I know there's a space, can we find funding?”

So, they're the ones coming with the ideas based in Zuni culture and now ZYEP supporting them. So, it's like flipping that way of working.

BC: What I hear you saying is that through CDI, the relationship between Zuni and the doctors at ZYEP moved really quickly from a well-intentioned and earnest doctor-centered mode to Zuni-centered. And the catalyst was the powerful, and indelible force that had been there all along, namely Zuni culture.

[: 00:25:27

And then there's also a restart, within Zuni people. I feel like there's a button that's been pushed of like restarting, like culture as front and center for Zuni people themselves too, because they see it, right? They've made it happen. They have it on the walls in this art center. They've experienced what it's like to put it at the center. Now they expect it, and now it, it powers them.

[: 00:26:05

So, are there any stories within the Zuni initiative that really personifies what inspired you?

[: 00:26:15

Like they were on it with ZYEP. They've already built that muscle and how to respond to something that's, disastrous and suffering that happens because that's life. So, I was super just impressed and going, “See, I told you!”:

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One of the things that I always ask, people involved in research and evaluation is, what did you find out did not, advance, this kind of work?

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And I'm talking about the organizations themselves. there's a reason why when we wrote the papers, which is, the culmination of this work, there's a huge bucket on organizational development, organizational change to allow this work to happen.

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[00:28:13] LC: The organizations needed at least two changes from their normal order of business to become effective in this process of enhancing social fabric through arts and culture. First, they needed to genuinely, and with open minds, learn through their collaborations with artists, rather than think of the artists as contractors or instruments for a predetermined task.

Second, they needed space, permission, and humility to rethink their relationships to residents. That modesty, openness to change, and willingness to take risks were necessary to successfully deploy innovative arts and cultural strategies.

The groups were all experienced and well-established in their respective technical or specialized domains, making this venture into uncharted territory even more unusual. They ventured into areas where their expertise and standing could not guarantee success, and put processes into motion that would empower residents, but not necessarily their own organizations. They chose to be vulnerable and to listen and, through those actions, did more to strengthen the social fabric and enhance residents’ power and efficacy than if they had been directive.

And you can bring together a couple of staff, one or two staff completely dedicated to this work, and learning, and seeing, and feeling completely, that it works, and actually gets to the heart of communities. But if you don't have the organization itself, the staff experiencing it themselves, then it's really hard to change the way that they can take up this work.

You, I think you had a front row seat of that. I think Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership had probably, to me, the one of the best, tries to try to do that. And I feel like it's, one of the better stories around that.

[: 00:30:04

It's a big ask. Particularly when the role you're going to play is in question. Which more often than not is a role of authority and having not only to take one step back, but many steps back and then to go into learning mode. That's why the three years of CDI was so important.

[: 00:30:51

And, if I were to figure out the next step, if there were another experiment, that's what I would put my money behind.

[: 00:31:25

Ashley Hansen: Monday through Friday, your alarm goes off. You get out of bed, get yourself ready and headed to work. You walk down the corridor to your office passing the smiling faces of your colleagues. Some you think you know quite well, others barely at all, and you wonder if they really know you. Because the person that we are at work is slightly different than the person we are when we're off the clock.

That is what we'll be exploring in this podcast series. Who are the staff of the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership when they are not at work? I'm your host, Ashley Hansen, and today we are off the clock with Chelsea Alger.

BC: For sure. You know, they ended up singing a dancing, down the Isles. And doing radio shows together, but in the end, the most important thing has how these community planners and facilitators, and affordable housing developers began to see themselves as real creative change agents.

It was a wonderful thing to be able to do, to watch, it's not like every artist on earth has the ability to go inside a hierarchal organization, then start to mess with it in a respectful way. Yeah. so that people come out on the other side are going, “That was cool, yeah, I like this.”

LC: I learned so much from Ashley Hansen. Talking to her sitting on the floor, because that's just how we do. Um, and the way that she talked about that the staff were essentially her community that she was working with and applying her creative process to the staff itself about discovery and finding out who they are and like, introducing play.

I remember understanding something pretty deeply around the wound that everybody carries that somewhere along the way, someone said, “Don't draw that.”, or “Don't paint that. That's not good enough,” or “That's not pretty,” and we get shut down.

[: 00:33:13

[00:33:30] BC: One of the most important things in work with communities is obviously listening. But you can't listen to other people if you don't listen to yourself. And so many people stop listening to themselves when they're a kid and somebody says, “That's not very good.” And that's the beginning of doubting whether what you think is fun and good is, actually as good as it's supposed to be. Right?

And you see that in organizational life. Yes. Where people are going,” Okay, where are the guardrails? Where can I go? Where can't I go?” And it's just such a thrill to see so many people in that staff who had really good ideas, who were quiet, and then not quiet

And that was really cool. And Ashley was so good at, just her sparkly eye going, “Yeah, come on, tell me. Yes. What do you think? just go for it.” Yeah, it's a special thing.

Part Four. The Road to Shambala.

So where are you off to? What do you see as next steps for Lori?

[: 00:34:49

So, that gap became too much, and I had to reconcile. So, I figured out that I can't talk about this work out there without knowing what it means for me, which is what does liberation look like for me. To have the audacity to ask that was big for me.

And I took a lot of those lessons that I learned from the field. like when you were talking about. the guardrail. It made me think of one thing that I took in from this work into my own life is moving away from black and white thinking of there's only one right way, and the other way is not right.

[: 00:36:01

I also took play a lot more seriously. really, seriously. And I ask myself, , when do I feel most free? It's when I'm dancing and I took dancing really seriously and I combined it with things that, I love, which is being outside. So now I'm like the silly person who like is dancing crazily outside.

[: 00:36:43

[00:37:09] BC: This is intriguing. You know, the work you did at PolicyLink with the Artplace CDI project was really asking similar questions, and supporting communities that were challenging the same dichotomous worldview right there at the crossroads of history and culture, tradition and modernity, wisdom and knowledge, modern medicine, and ancient healing practice.

You could say, this is one of the great struggles of the world today. The moment we appear to be in. So, Where does all this lead? Where are you casting your net?

[: 00:37:50

So, there's a prophecy that was made 1200 years ago by some Tibetan monks. It's called the Shambala Prophecy. And it speaks of a moment in which the world comes to a place where mother Earth is hurting really badly, and technology is at a height that is very dangerous. And what will happen is that there will be Shambala warriors that emerge and they're not gonna have any. Insignia, any branding, you can't recognize them from what they look like.

And they're gonna have two things that can help fight and save this world. And that's compassion and insight. And so that prophecy, I feel like is now, absolutely. And this is also informed by a BBC article that talks about this moment as the hinge moment, of Mother Earth and technology reaching a height.

And we're in a moment that isn't just gonna affect the next hundreds of years, but the next thousands or millions of years.

And the third thing that informs all of this is that there's an astrological alignment that happened during the pandemic called The Great Conjunction that hasn't happened since before the Renaissance. So, the last time, historically pandemics have been these moments of deep reflection and, a questioning of everything, of what's possible ,and what's normal, and no more normal.

e been saying since December,: 2020

[00:40:09] LC: I'm hearing it being called the Great Realignment. So mm-hmm. we have this moment. And learning from my liberation journey in the last year, we already have everything that we need. Working in this field has proven to me that there's already people who, already have the tools. We have this moment where we need to rise in our wholeness, in our shared, humanity. So, I'm trying to figure out for myself now, how do I figure this out of how, of learning everything I've learned about collective liberation, personal liberation, back into collective liberation, how do I rise to this moment?

[: 00:40:43

Another thing humans are really good at is talking a good game. Uh, accepting cheers from the fans in the stands and leaving the playing field, never to be seen again,. But, over the past few years, you have been privileged to have seen and experienced a real game being played with beginnings, and middles, and ends, and a next season and the next with both good intentions and good outcomes for the people playing. And I must say playing in some very unorthodox ways.

I think this is an amazing gift, because you've seen it happen in the real world. You know, so much optimism, understandably is wishful thinking, but, your optimism has a real foundation. You're not just blowing smoke. My work, I think, has a similar tint. I've seen it firsthand. Done right, I think we both know. This stuff works.

[: 00:42:36

And, because I'm a very big optimist I've been thinking about humanity as one person across time and space. We are a child of Mother Earth. Like, how are we doing? We're like a teenager. How we're doing?

[: 00:43:03

LC: Unpredictable. We've used the greatest weapon we have against each other that animals don't have, which is story. And we've used it for both rising, and for separating, Now we're trying to grow up . Like how do we do that?

[: 00:43:25

And actually, now or never is probably a good place to close this conversation. Cause I know you have one more thing you want to add to the story you've shared, which is something you've written about your journey. So Lorrie. please take us out with a poem.

[: 00:44:18

Hi you’ve reached Lorrie Chang i’m

not here right now i’m

out looking for…

my mom?

Her Love?

myself?

My Love?

i’m sorry, not

sorry, i’m not in right now or

i’m too in right now, inside

myself trying

to find little lorrie

to love her

excuse me for it taking awhile

it’s something that was never taught

to me, because it was never taught

to Her or

Her or

Her

i’m not sure you know

how long, how

long, how long

We’ve been waiting

so

give us a little space

to be still

to feel

to ex

hale

to speak Her

to sing Her

to Shimmer

…

and oh if my mom asks

ney hoi jaw bean ah?

where have you been?

why aren’t you where i told you to be.

tell her

i wish i could tell you mom, the

little eight-year-old who enrolled herself in school by

following your friend one day

Go Yin Hung

hum dak la. Ok-la.

i’m somewhere where it’s ok now

it’s ok now to cry when it hurts

it’s ok now to hurt

it’s ok now to ache to be held

it’s ok now to be held

it’s ok now not to earn love

it’s ok now just to be loved

it’s ok now

now

you can be here

Now.

where you can close your eyes

rest your mind

and let the flow flow through

you, move you

where you know day because

you know night

where you know spring because

you know winter

where you know there are

no more parts of yourself

you need to hide because

…

You.

Are.

Whole.

i wish i could tell you mom.

i wish you would believe me.

i’m where

Love is a BirthRight.

so anyways i’ll

get right back to you

as soon as i…

want to. holla!

By Lorriechange

[: 00:47:00