From the Executive Director

Poetry Lives Everywhere

“in the end, all that really matters is whether you’ve kept your word and left things better than when you began.”

                                      GHOST NOTE AGENCY

It’s the last day of April – aka National Poetry Month (among other designations for soft pretzels, cannabis, autism and welding). I have found poetry in so many places over the past few weeks: in the narrative of Marc Bamuthi Joseph during a personal hardhat tour of The Reach at the Kennedy Center, in a first meeting with Steven Jumper and Reggie Snowden, two of the men who lead Ghost Note (a DC-based creative agency full of poetry and vision), listening to Roxane Gay (Bad Feminist, World of Wakanda, and so much more) tell stories and read from her work at the Get Lit Festival in Spokane Washington, and in the images and stories emerging from Fully Focused Productions in London, a youth-run media organization that uses the power of film to challenge perceptions, change mindsets and transform lives. These young people go deep, and poetry lives everywhere.

At the Alliance, this Spring will be all about going live with the web portal for Arts2Work (with thanks to our creative partners-in-crime at Treatment) and expanding the network of regional Employers, certified Training Center Partners and visionary funders as we prepare to launch Arts2Work nationally.  We are thrilled to be in conversation with a wide variety of production companies, studios, corporate partners, government agencies, broadcasters, nonprofit organizations, foundations and institutions as we create infrastructure that can scaffold a radical paradigm shift for the future of creative work. We are grateful to our early partners and mentors who have helped us envision and think through a new system supporting access to sustainable, equitable creative employment for all. Gratitude to a growing posse, including Adobe, BBC, MacArthur Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, Microsoft, Mozilla, The Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship, Women in Film, The National Fund for Workforce Solutions, The Smithsonian, Ghetto Film School, Brava Films, Level Forward, Department of Motion Pictures, Ghost Note, The Academy Gold Program, Sundance Collab, Arbo Radiko, New Orleans Video Access Center, Free Spirit Media, Wide Angle Media, Diva Apprenticeships, PhillyCAM, WHYY, Center for an Urban Future, the film students at Howard University, the US Department of Labor, and State Apprenticeship Agencies and Workforce Boards in Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Maryland, California, New York, Washington, DC and so many more.

When we talk about The Alliance for Media Arts + Culture as a network of networks – we mean it.

As always, get with me anytime, wendy@thealliance.media