All workshops are FREE and open to the public.
Download a PDF version of the Workshop Descriptions.

Workshops | Thursday, March 19
The Studio At Colton 2300 St Claude Ave

Resources for Social Change Part I by Alternate ROOTS | Atlanta, GA
Case Study: Haunted by Dancenow
Art and Activism
Thursday, March 19
2-4pm


Festival participants are invited to create a community-wide dialogue surrounding the festival theme of “Tipping Point.” Workshop participants will engage in creative process, strategic dialogue and have an opportunity to collectively examine how new and existing community partnerships can more deeply affect the New Orleans community in positive, meaningful and sustainable ways. This workshop is created in partnership with Alternate ROOTS, Mondo Bizarro, and ArtSpot Productions.

Resources for Social Change (RSC) is a training program developed by Alternate ROOTS that facilitates ideas and techniques that foster positive, sustainable social change through art. This program began in recognition of a need to codify knowledge in the field. RSC facilitators are artists and educators experienced in creative methodology and principles of working with community.

UPRISING #15: Tipping Point of Courage by Nicole Garneau | Chicago, IL
Outdoor, Public Performance
Thursday, March 19
4-6pm


This workshop is a hands-on exploration of strategies for public performance. The workshop will form the foundation of the performance "UPRISING #15," to be presented Sunday, March 23 at the SONV festival. One possible way of "tipping over" into a global culture of justice and compassion is to actually practice doing the kinds of things we will need to do to get to a more just and humane world. We will develop a list of those skills and create a performance that engages the audience. This workshop is appropriate for ages 14 and up. No prior performance experience necessary.

NOTE: Participants will create a performance that is developed throughout the weekend and shared on Sunday, March 22 at the Colton School.

Nicole Garneau is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist making site-specific solo and collaborative performance art that often addresses a political issue. She works closely with Insight Arts and is interested in creating art that is directly political, critically conscious, and community building. Chicago’s Links Hall is presenting her current projects: UPRISING—monthly outdoor performances exploring revolution, and EVIDENCE—color postcards documenting the performances for subscribers (www.nicolegarneau.com)


Workshops | Friday, March 20
The Studio At Colton 2300 St Claude Ave

Brilliant Tomorrow (s) by Ebony Golden | NewYork, NY
Poetry, Performance and Movement
Friday, March 20
10-12pm


How can we honor the space and practice of sister(ing) through creative performance and beyond? This session is informed by the methodology, praxis, and theories devised by such luminaries as Ntozake Shange, Boal, Anna Deavere Smith, Rhodessa Jones, and a host of other community collaborators from North Carolina to New York. In the session, participants will engage in poetry, performance, music, and movement activities that help us create a vocabulary for active, present, and radical sister(ing). The session is generative in that each participant will perform and leave with an assignment to continue the everyday performance of active and engaging sister(ing)

Ebony Noelle Golden is the daughter of Pearl Glover, Bertha Sims and Betty Sims. She is a native of Houston, TX. Ebony holds a BA in English Literature and Poetry from Texas A & M University an MFA in Poetry from American University and a MA in Performance Studies from New York University. Ebony is an artist and cultural worker who has been awarded grants from the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Fund for Southern Communities, North Carolina A & T University and New York University.

Handstands! by Rebecca Stronger | Brooklyn, NY
Public/Site Specific Art
Friday, March 20
1-3pm


Rebecca Stronger has been standing on her hands almost as long as she has been on her feet. Her original training was in competitive gymnastics. Her handstands took on a new life as part of a long-time study of Iyengar Yoga, and for the past 7 years she has been practicing and performing handstands as taught to her by Master Trainer Lu Yi, Xia Kemen and Xiao Hong Weng at The Circus Center in San Francisco. She has been teaching private, small and large group lessons since 2004.

Rebecca Stronger has been tirelessly pursuing the art of physical training and performance for decades. Yes, it’s true, decades. She started out as a competitive gymnast as a kid, then moved on to modern dance (7 years at The Merce Cunningham Dance Studio in NYC and with Jim Self and Jumay Chu at Cornell University) and then, thankfully arrived in the world of handstands, trapeze and acrobatics (where she belongs!). Along with her current physical training she has recently embarked on studying physical theater and voice techniques and is incorporating it all into her current creative work.

Performing Adulthood by Creative Forces | New Orleans, LA
Youth Performance/Activism
Friday, March 20
3-5pm


The goals of the workshop are to (a) provide experienced performing artist-educators with a new and effective framework for stimulating the development of young people ages 13-19 through theater; and (b) provide a learning environment for teen members of Creative Forces to develop their skills as adult educators and leaders. The workshop will be divided into 3 themes: “It’s All Theater,” (b) “Have a Ripple Effect,” and “Now What?” The overall objective will be to get participants to reflect upon their current practices and begin to think about their work more deeply in terms of human development. The intended audience for the workshop are performing artist-educators with at least 1 year’s experience working with teenagers in schools, afterschool and summer programs, juvenile justice programs, etc. Also appropriate for secondary subject matter teachers with substantial theater skills.

Mat Schwarzman is Founder of Creative Forces and co-author of “Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Arts,” which is used as a textbook for training youth-serving artists in universities, community organizations and schools across the US and beyond. Schwarzman is frequent workshop leader, panelist, consultant and guest lecturer; his client list includes Barr Foundation (Boston), National Endowment for the Arts and Urban Institute (Wash, DC); Alternate ROOTS (Atlanta); California Arts Council; Columbia College (Chicago); and National Organizers Alliance.


Workshops | Saturday, March 21
Upper 9th Ward Farmers' Market Holy Angels Convent at 3500 St. Claude Ave

Creating The Link by Voice Touré | New Orleans, LA
Hip Hop/Poetry New Media
Saturday, March 21
10-12pm


Creating The Link is a continuation of the performance piece "Collective" in creating a dialog addressing African-American youth's outlook on themselves, fears, and aspirations and whether they feel their community plays an integral role in supporting and protecting them? The end result will be an audio piece recorded throughout the workshop that accurately reflects their hopes in an effort to counter the abundance of negative self images they are inundated with. The goal is to see whether or not honest reflection through art can create enough momentum amongst their peers to create and effect change.

Voice Touré is an international emcee/spoken word poetess and recording artist with a background in both the visual and performance arts. She is currently the Hip Hop Artist in Residence of Kid Smart's AXIS Program (Arts Experience In Schools) at McDonough 15 KIPP. She uses the art form and culture of hip hop to promote literacy, self expression, knowledge of self and empowerment to New Orleans youth. She has completed residencies at Bethune Elementary and the Eisenhower Academy of Global Studies.

Panel Discussion: Public Education by Jim Randels | New Orleans, LA
Public Education
Saturday, March 21
12-1:30pm


Public school teachers in New Orleans will discuss the current status of public education in New Orleans, exploring tipping points that affect student learning, equitable high quality education for all students, and community development in context of racial and social justice.

Jim Randels, a 22-year teacher in New Orleans Public Schools, co-directs the Students at the Center (SAC) program, which writes a blog for Education Week (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/nola_voices). He was named teacher of the year for New Orleans schools in 1998-9 and, along with SAC co-director Kalamu ya Salaam was named People of the Year for 2007 by The New Orleans Tribune. He serves as Executive Vice President of United Teachers of New Orleans (AFT Local 527) and has co-directed two award-winning short movies and edited 12 books of student writing.

Gender…It’s a Mind Bender! by iRoc/ArtSpot Productions | New Orleans, LA
Youth Performance (Ages 14-19)
Saturday, March 21
2:30-4:30pm


Gender, it’s a Mind Bender addresses issues of gender stereotypes and how they affect relationships. What about gender stereotypes pushes you to your tipping point? Our various activities will include: theatre games, sociometrics, story circles, group dialogue, and performances. This workshop will be based on a series of workshops that we have been conducting at our high school, McMain, this spring. Our program for State of the Nation is geared towards 14-19 year olds so that we can get different perspectives from different ages, while keeping a youth focus.

iROC provides support and guidance to build positive individuals and construct healthy relationships in the McMain High School community specifically and reaching out to other New Orleans schools in general. iROC is a collaboration between ArtSpot Productions, Students at the Center, and several students and teachers at McMain highschool. The workshop will be led by iROC student leaders: Jennifer Harden, Aaron Moses and Iesha Simms, along with an ArtSpot artist/teacher.

ArtSpot Productions, founded in 1995, is an ensemble of artists dedicated to creating meticulously LIVE theater in New Orleans. We strive to incite positive change in our community with visually stunning performances and empowering educational programs. ArtSpot was a founding organizational partner of the State of the Nation Festival.

Stories on the Edge by Anne Liese Juge-Fox | New Orleans, LA
Storytelling/Theater
Saturday, March 21
2:30-4:30pm


NOLA Playback Theatre is part of an international network of Playback theatres (www.playbacknet.org) where audience experiences, issues, and stories are spontaneously transformed into theatre. This form of improvisation, created by Jonathan Fox in the 1970s, engages many improvisational forms that bring out teller’s affective experience in powerful ways. Short forms may be used to capture emotional expressions, or pieces of a story, whereas long forms are used to play back a more complex personal story. The conductor elicits sharings from the audience and helps to focus the teller in their telling and to shape the playing back of the story for the players. Once the players begin to play back a story, it is not interrupted until it is ended. After playing back an emotion, experience, or story; the conductor “checks back” with the teller to allow the teller to respond to what they have just seen and reflect on it and/or the experience itself. Playback Theatre is performed today in over fifty countries and is used in a wide range of community settings.


Workshops | Sunday, March 22
The Studio at Colton 2300 St. Claude Ave

Resources for Social Change Part 2 by Alternate ROOTS | Atlanta, GA
Art and Activism
Sunday, March 22
1-3pm


Festival participants are invited to create a community-wide dialogue surrounding the festival theme of “Tipping Point.” Workshop participants will engage in creative process, strategic dialogue and have an opportunity to collectively examine how new and existing community partnerships can more deeply affect the New Orleans community in positive, meaningful and sustainable ways. This workshop is created in partnership with Alternate ROOTS, Mondo Bizarro, and ArtSpot Productions.

Resources for Social Change (RSC) is a training program developed by Alternate ROOTS that facilitates ideas and techniques that foster positive, sustainable social change through art. This program began in recognition of a need to codify knowledge in the field. RSC facilitators are artists and educators experienced in creative methodology and principles of working with community.