Crossing Bridges to Create Change
BRIDGE CONVERSATIONS People Who Live and Work in Multiple Worlds
Arts & Democracy Project, 2011 http://artsanddemocracy.org/what-we-do/bridge-conversations/
This book presents 24 conversations with community-engaged scholars, artists, urban planners, rural activists, philanthropists, public officials, and others who bridge professional and social sectors to create change. The resulting respectful dialogues with these bridge people cover such important topics as community development, transformative spaces, the power of art, and crossing the borders of culture and politics. The essays foreground the importance of dialogue and provide examples of change-agents who make meaning in action.
The book's dialogic methodology—it is a set of conversations—engages bridge people who share social change values in asking questions and exchanging ideas in person, by phone, or via electronic media. The framework of respectful curiosity encourages authenticity and new insights. One of the conversations, "Breaking Out of a Bifurcated World," in which I took part, explores the power and pain of bridge people working in arts philanthropy. The participants, some of whom are from historically disenfranchised communities, describe themselves as "shape shifters" and "squatters" but also as "connected" and grateful for their "infinite capacity to learn" (33–42). Why do these hybrid people want to break through, cross over, or connect the various siloes they inhabit? Like other bridge crossers included in this volume, they believe in its central premise that "some of the most powerful change happens in the intersections of generations, cultures, sectors and geographies" (9).
To demonstrate how intersectional change happens, highlights of three bridge conversations follow, all focusing on the power of art, culture, and creativity to advance equity at the local level. Engaging experienced bridge people in dialogue invites reflection by all participants, opening spaces for shared meaning-making. The conversations themselves become bridges, as well as being about bridge-crossing.
Culture and Community as Bridges
"Anthropology as Social Activism" brings together Alaka Wali and R. Lena Richardson. Wali is curator of North American anthropology and applied cultural research director in the Environment, Culture and Conservation Division at the Field Museum (http://fieldmuseum.org/users/alaka-wali). Richardson participated in the Berkeley Fellowship Oral History Project (http://www.storiesbetweenus.com/).
Richardson asks if Wali's social activism is a form of bridging within the field of anthropology. Wali, drawing on her experience as an immigrant as well as a scholar, explains how culture is not only a core content area of her discipline but a medium that can build relationships across differences and solve problems. Affirming her point, Richardson sees parallels with programs at the Arab American Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, designed to promote cross-cultural understanding.
Wali sees the need for a large vision of culture, looking beyond Western art forms. Expanding art and culture to include folkways, traditions, and other forms of expression is, for Wali, a key to social activism focusing on cultural self-determination in human rights. Wali tells Richardson about her work at the Center for Cultural Understanding and Change, now part of the Field Museum. They discuss the Center's basic belief in the power of cultural difference to promote social change and agree on the importance of accountability in working across cultures (http://archive.fieldmuseum.org/ccuc/).
For the complete conversation, see http://artsanddemocracy.org/detail-page/?program=bridge&capID=49.
In "Organic and Traditional Bridging," Francisco Guajardo and Edyael Casaperalta reflect and learn together. Guajardo teaches at University of Texas-Pan American and directs the Llano Grande Center for Research and Development (http://llanogrande.org/). Casaperalta joined the Center as a student, returned to work there after college, and is now a program and research associate at the Center for Rural Strategies (http://www.ruralstrategies.org/staff).
Casaperalta describes Guajardo as "a bridge person who connects low income youth with higher education opportunities" (124). Guajardo explains that he does not see college as the end goal for rural Mexican American youth. Instead, he is "more focused on transforming students into community-minded leaders" (123) and encouraging them to return home after college to help others.
Guajardo sees bridge people as "facilitators of making things happen" (124). Yet, recognizing power dynamics, he knows that "not everyone can be a bridge person" (124). Adapting Antonio Gramsci's ideas, he and Casaperalta differentiate between bridge crossers who are traditional, or "tailored," for their role, and those who are organic, learning from experience how to navigate crossings. Guajardo points out that institutions can be bridges and stresses that his Center is rooted in the local. "The bridges we construct begin with ourselves, with our community," he says, "[and] always [come] back to our community" (127).
For the complete conversation, see (http://artsanddemocracy.org/detail-page/?program=bridge&capID=64).
"Interweave of Culture and Ecology" brings together Ken Wilson and Caron Atlas. Wilson studied at Oxford and University College London and now directs the Christensen Fund, which focuses on bio-cultural diversity (http://www.christensenfund.org/about/executive-director/). Atlas, editor and project director of Bridge Conversations, directs Arts & Democracy Project (http://artsanddemocracy.org/).
Atlas credits Wilson's integrative thinking with sparking the idea for the bridge conversations. He challenges her to think of bridges not just as crosswalks, but also as destinations. He wants to "move to a world where we recognize that the richest things happen in the connections" (94). He argues that seeing the arts as "creativity professionalized and separated from daily life" (97) is a major challenge to creating equitable social connections.
Although Wilson works globally, he believes, like Wali and Guadjaro, that locally based cultural participation is essential to positive social change. "You don't get transformational results without engaging at the community level," he says succinctly (97). For Wilson, interweaving philanthropic resources means cocreating positive solutions to local challenges with historically disenfranchised community members.
For the complete conversation, see http://artsanddemocracy.org/detail-page/?program=bridge&capID=60.
Bridging and Changing through Dialogue
Bridge Conversations brings to the fore questions that need discussing. Interviewing Wilson, for example, Atlas asks, "Is it possible to authentically engage another sector or culture without questioning your own assumptions and being willing to change and develop something new?" (98–99) Thinking about self-knowledge, understanding power differentials, and accountability in working for change are themes throughout the conversations. As Carlton Turner, executive director of Alternate ROOTS (https://alternateroots.org/) says in a group discussion about the future of social change work, "I am talking about . . . a dynamic and a change in the way that you think about your community to where power is based on value and it's something that everybody holds" (180).
Purposeful dialogue as a powerful way to learn is as old as Socrates. What makes these conversations such a valuable model is that they create safe spaces for bridge people to share their insights. The conversations are rich in critical analysis, but they are also expansive, providing opportunities for exchanging beliefs, values, and visions for change. Atlas reports that participants say they seldom have time to reflect and that they enjoyed exchanging reflections with someone who knows and cares about their work. She adds that Bridge Conversations' content and format are already being adapted for use in university classrooms and community-change work. Because of its focus on bridge people, the quality of the resulting dialogues, the range of perspectives covered, and questions raised, Bridge Conversations is a valuable resource for those seeking hybrid approaches to work, life, and positive social change.
