Episode 68: Art in a Democracy

This episode is Art in a Democracy: Selected Plays of Roadside Theater. Our conversation with editor Ben Fink and contributor Arnaldo J. Lopez. explores Roadside's 50-year history of creative collaboration percolating at the crossroads of art, community, and America's struggle to craft an authentic living democracy.

Ben Fink: Ben Fink worked with the Roadside ensemble from 2015 through 2020, as a member of the Betsy! Scholars’ Circle, as the founding organizer of the Letcher County Culture Hub and the Performing Our Future coalition, and as the cofounder of the cross-partisan dialogue project Hands Across the Hills. He has also served as dramaturg on the German premieres of  two Broadway musicals, made theater with Turkish and Arab high school students, and chaired a Lutheran faith community in Minnesota. His work in theater, organizing, pedagogy, and economic development has been featured by Salon.com, the Brookings Institution, TDR/The Drama Review, Harvard Law School, Americans for the Arts, PolicyLink, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2020, Ben was recognized by Time magazine as one of “27 People Bridging Divides Across America.” He is the general editor of Art in a Democracy. 

Arnaldo J Lopez: is a cultural worker with a Ph.D. in Latin/o American Literatures and Cultures from New York University. He first joined Pregones Theater when the company set out to transform a South Bronx warehouse into a vibrant performing arts center, and later helped engineer a merger with the historic Puerto Rican Traveling Theater in Manhattan. Versed in a broad set of creative, community, and nonprofit topics, he works with artists in mapping paths toward joyful and sustainable practice. His background also includes ten years in letterpress and graphic design.

Art in a Democracy, the selected plays of Roadside Theater, volumes 1 and 2: This two-volume anthology tells the story of Roadside Theater’s first 45 years and includes nine award-winning original play scripts; ten essays by authors from different disciplines and generations, which explore the plays’ social, economic, and political circumstances; and a critical recounting of the theater’s history from 1975 through 2020. 

ArtinAdemocracy.org: The official Art in a Democracy website.

New Village Press is Art in a Democracy's publisher. The mission of New Village Press is to promote and enrich public discussion and understanding of issues vital to the development of healthy, creative, and socially just communities. To that end, New Village publishes transdisciplinary books that animate emerging movements in societal transformation. In conjunction, the Press also sponsors lectures, forums, and exhibitions for the public, especially for those communities that are underserved.

Junebug Productions emerged from the Free Southern Theater in 1980 with a mission to create and support artistic works that question and confront inequitable conditions that have historically impacted the Black community. "Through interrogation, we challenge ourselves and those aligned with the organization to make greater and deeper contributions towards a just society."

John...

This episode is Art in a Democracy: Selected Plays of Roadside Theater. Our conversation with editor Ben Fink and contributor Arnaldo J. Lopez. explores Roadside's 50-year history of creative collaboration percolating at the crossroads of art, community, and America's struggle to craft an authentic living democracy.

Ben Fink: Ben Fink worked with the Roadside ensemble from 2015 through 2020, as a member of the Betsy! Scholars’ Circle, as the founding organizer of the Letcher County Culture Hub and the Performing Our Future coalition, and as the cofounder of the cross-partisan dialogue project Hands Across the Hills. He has also served as dramaturg on the German premieres of  two Broadway musicals, made theater with Turkish and Arab high school students, and chaired a Lutheran faith community in Minnesota. His work in theater, organizing, pedagogy, and economic development has been featured by Salon.com, the Brookings Institution, TDR/The Drama Review, Harvard Law School, Americans for the Arts, PolicyLink, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2020, Ben was recognized by Time magazine as one of “27 People Bridging Divides Across America.” He is the general editor of Art in a Democracy. 

Arnaldo J Lopez: is a cultural worker with a Ph.D. in Latin/o American Literatures and Cultures from New York University. He first joined Pregones Theater when the company set out to transform a South Bronx warehouse into a vibrant performing arts center, and later helped engineer a merger with the historic Puerto Rican Traveling Theater in Manhattan. Versed in a broad set of creative, community, and nonprofit topics, he works with artists in mapping paths toward joyful and sustainable practice. His background also includes ten years in letterpress and graphic design.

Art in a Democracy, the selected plays of Roadside Theater, volumes 1 and 2: This two-volume anthology tells the story of Roadside Theater’s first 45 years and includes nine award-winning original play scripts; ten essays by authors from different disciplines and generations, which explore the plays’ social, economic, and political circumstances; and a critical recounting of the theater’s history from 1975 through 2020. 

ArtinAdemocracy.org: The official Art in a Democracy website.

New Village Press is Art in a Democracy's publisher. The mission of New Village Press is to promote and enrich public discussion and understanding of issues vital to the development of healthy, creative, and socially just communities. To that end, New Village publishes transdisciplinary books that animate emerging movements in societal transformation. In conjunction, the Press also sponsors lectures, forums, and exhibitions for the public, especially for those communities that are underserved.

Junebug Productions emerged from the Free Southern Theater in 1980 with a mission to create and support artistic works that question and confront inequitable conditions that have historically impacted the Black community. "Through interrogation, we challenge ourselves and those aligned with the organization to make greater and deeper contributions towards a just society."

John O’Neal was a co-founder of the Free Southern Theater, Field Secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and Founder of Junebug Productions. This list contains content that pays tribute to his incredible work for our field, and for freedom and justice in America. This HowlAround resource contains essays, video’s and a podcast featuring John O’Neal and his work.

Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater: Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (aka Pregones/PRTT) is a multigenerational performing ensemble, multidiscipline arts presenter, and owner/steward of bilingual arts facilities in The Bronx and Manhattan. Our mission is to champion a Puerto Rican/Latinx cultural legacy of universal value through creation and performance of original plays and musicals, exchange and partnership with other artists of merit, and engagement of diverse audiences.

Appalshop was founded in 1969 as a project of the US government's “war on poverty.” Over its five decades of lively existence, it's grown to become an important amplifier of the voices of the Appalachian region. Its mission is pretty simple, namely, “to develop effective ways of using media and cultural expression to address the complex issues facing the region.”

“We've been making art and media in the mountains since 1969. Now we're powered by the largest net-metered renewable energy system in Eastern Kentucky, and home to the largest single body of creative work on Appalachia in the world.” 

Promise of a Love Song: Promise of a Love Song interweaves three love stories, each from the particular culture of the play’s creators: Pregones Theater, a Puerto Rican company based in the Bronx; Junebug Productions, an African American theater based in New Orleans; and Roadside Theater 

Thousand Kites: Thousand Kites is the title of both a play script by Roadside Theater and an interdisciplinary project by Appalshop, Inc. addressing prison justice. 

Puerto Rican, Appalachian Musical, Betsy: Created and produced by Pregones Theater and Roadside Theater, BETSY! tells the story of a Bronx jazz singer forced to confront her twin Spanish Caribbean and Scotch-Irish roots. Her dilemma stirs up the ghosts of six generations of American women, and musical currents spanning four continents. 

The music for the audiogram trailer for this episode came from the score for the production of Betsy. Here are the liner notes:

The first phase of script and music development for Betsy (www.roadside.org/program/betsy-co…pregones-theater) took place at the Nashville Jazz Workshop. The following songs were recorded live during a workshop rehearsal at the Nashville Jazz Workshop. Musicians and vocalists include: Beegie Adair, piano & vocals; Ron Short, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, flute & vocals; Connye Florance, vocals; Caroline Peyton, vocals; Roger Spencer, string bass; Jim White, percussion; and Andre Reiss, guitar. All music is copyright Beegie Adair or Ron Short.