Pass It On: Telling and Hearing Stories for Survival

Stories are a form of human technology and have been essential to keeping alive cultures under siege. From the pulpit to the picnic to the Nobel Prize podium, folks have shared both wisdom and warnings, while also naturally archiving our stories for the next generation. This event invites a storytelling call and response, in the spirit of community. Rooted in ancestor authors Toni Morrison’s and Toni Cade Bambara’s commitments to crafting and heeding stories, we will share and hear our own stories, trusting in their inherent wisdom.

About Dr. Courtney Baker:

Dr. Courtney R. Baker is a scholar of Black activism and expressive cultures, including film, literature, art, and photography. She is an associate professor of English at University of California, Riverside. www.courtneyrbaker.com

About abolitionist toolbox series:

The Crenshaw Dairy Mart is pleased to present abolitionist toolbox, a new series of program workshops, roundtables, and oral histories examining the local contemporary and historical legacies of Black artists and artists of color-founded arts spaces in Los Angeles. The series examines an intergenerational stewardship of community through built micro-economies as sanctuary spaces for safety, placemaking, skill-sharing, communal learning, archiving, storytelling, and coalition-building. These intergenerational conversations between contemporary and historic community arts spaces empower community members through historical isolation, divestment, and erasure. Through the lens of the Crenshaw Dairy Mart artist collective’s vocabulary of collaboration with a myriad of multi-hyphenate artists (for example, artist-organizer; artist-gallerist; artist-curator; artist-writer; artist-educator; artist-administrator), abolitionist toolbox explores survival tools for Black artists and artists of color in the contemporary landscapes of abolition and the creative economy. As part of abolitionist toolbox, the Crenshaw Dairy Mart will record and archive a contemporary history of the rapidly gentrifying community of Inglewood in the tradition of oral histories, concurrently mapping a coalition of Black-led-and-founded artists spaces in Los Angeles.

Collaborating artists and organizations include Dr. Avriel Epps, Black Girls Code, Patrisse Cullors, Kelsey Reynolds, Avery Collinsbyrd, Waunette Cullors, gene aguilar magaña, Terrick Gutierrez, and Jacqueline Alexander-Sykes of St. Elmo Village.

This workshop series is made possible by Teiger Foundation.