Supporting artists with 
unrestricted grants and
connections to opportunities for
growth;
Over the past 21 years, we have 
presented
awards to artists in six cities 
across the United States.
Our point is to to contribute to
the arts committees.
We also very proud and honored 
to say we are a founding member 
of the artist coalition.
This series of conversations
is meant to speak to you 
directly.
Applicant, fellow artists, 
supporters and friends, in the 
hopes of shedding some life
light on how this ongoing crisis
is affecting the art world and 
how they are grappling with it.
Before we launch into the 
conversation today, I want to 
share in a bit more about artist
relief.
Artist relief is a coalition of 
Argus grantmakers who have come 
to
support artists across the 
United States during the 
COVID-19 prep prices.  With both
financial and informational 
resources.
To date we have provided $5000 
grants to 2400 individual 
artists. That's $12 million 
directly to artists in need.
If you're an artist and want to 
apply, you can find our 
application online at 
artistrelief.
org It's meant to be 
straightforward and should only 
take about ten minutes.
If you've Applied in the past 
and not received a grant, you 
can continue to apply each 
month, so Do please apply again.
This monthly live conversation 
series, and our weekly series of
wellness videos, which
You can find here on our YouTube
page as well, are presented with
the support of
Compound, a new contemporary art
and wellness complex in Long 
Beach, California.
So Be sure to follow us on 
Instagram, Facebook, and here on
YouTube for updates about 
Programming, application cycles,
and more. A reminder that the 
recording of this conversation 
will stay available on the 
Artist Relief YouTube channel.
Thank you for joining us today 
for our conversation 2020 
Awakening: Reimagining Art For 
the New Normal .
This conversation will be live 
and we'll be taking questions 
from
Viewers via the YouTube chat, so
please type your questions and 
comments here.
It's an honor to introduce 
today's speakers - joining us
is Eric Gottesman , Artist, 
teacher
Co-Founder of For Freedoms and 
2009 Artadia Awardee; Caran 
Hartsfield, Award winning
Screenwriter, director, 
Associate Arts Professor at NYU 
and Wide Awakes participant; and
Tony Patrick ,
WorldBuilder, Immersive 
Director, founder of the Tenfold
Gaming Initiative and Wide 
Awakes participant.
Artists have such an incredible 
ability to move us forward and 
be leaders in social and 
cultural
Change.
Since its founding in 2016, For 
Freedoms has served as a 
platform for creative civic 
Engagement, using art as a 
vehicle to encourage
participation, deepen public 
discussion on Civic issues and 
inspire direct action.
In light of the tremendous 
events 2020 has brought
Creators like Eric, Caran and 
Tony can help us navigate a "new
normal," begin to view art
Politics, commerce and education
from new perspectives, and learn
how to enact change Ourselves.
With that, I'll start us off 
today with some questions to 
provide a little background on 
For
Freedoms and the Wide Awakes 
before turning it over to Eric 
who will lead a discussion with 
Caran and Tony.
high, Eric.
≫ Hi.
≫ Thank you again.
≫ How is it going?
≫ Good.
Let's start off with learning a 
little more about For Freedoms.
But it is, who your cofounder is
and what your group six to 
achieve.
≫ Thanks, April.
And thank you to Artadia for 
having us here and artist 
relief, which is doing such 
incredible work.
And also Creative Capital and 
all the
member folks of artists relief.
Thank you especially to Artadia 
because For Freedoms would not 
really exist without Artadia.
Artadia has been very supportive
as a fiscal sponsor and also as 
just a supporter
and partner along the way and 
all this work.  So thank you 
guys so much for that.
For Freedoms is an artist led 
initiative
to create greater set of -- 
civic and political engagement.
And we started yet not really as
a joke, but kind of as a joke 
between my friend
and one of the cofounders,
when we started as artists
, creating a super pack in 2016,
around the 2016 election.
And we wanted to make the point 
that artists are doing essential
civic work.
We are always doing politics.
Even as the structures of art 
and culture
try to draw these distinctions 
between what is art and what is 
politics
.  And we can get into why those
lines get drawn.
But we started then and with our
other cofounder,
Michelle Wu, and many other 
people
along the way, we have been 
running programs for the last
four years,
engaging civic institutions
and arts institutions, blurring 
the lines between what are arts 
institutions and what are civic 
institutions because frankly, I 
believe art institutions are 
civic institutions.
And we have worked with over 300
partners in all 50 states and 
Puerto Rico, DC.
We have held
-- with done billboards, town 
hall meetings, existence, and 
other artistic interventions.  
Now, we are gearing up for our 
biggest campaign yet.
≫ That's amazing.
I wanted to talk to you edit a 
bit about the For Freedoms 
Congress, that was your 
inaugural Congress in LA earlier
this year.
Can you talk a little bit about 
what the Congress was in the 
programming that was involved in
that?
≫ For sure.
So February 27 through March 1,
we held our first Congress, 
which -- let me go back to 2018.
We held our previously largest 
campaign called the 50 state 
initiative.
Where we partnered with 
organizations and artists all 
across the country.  Over 1000 
artists.
And we did activations and 
billboards and town halls and 
stuff like that.
But the network was very 
dispersed, intentionally so.
It was intended to be a 
decentralized network of artists
and institutions doing what 
makes sense within their given 
context.
But we realized this year, as we
kind of geared up for the 2020 
campaign, in advance of the 2020
election, was that we wanted to 
bring everybody together in 
person.  So we did that.
We had 500 delegates represent 
in all 50 states and Puerto 
Rico.
We didn't realize -- we had a 
lot of partners.
We had the Guild of future 
architects, doing programming,
we had the Crenshaw daily Mark,
doing programming.
Our partner institutions out 
there were the Museum of 
contemporary Art, the Hammer 
Museum, the Japanese American 
National Museum,
and so we held over three days, 
we held a number of artistic 
interventions that really
were the best that our network
.  That's what we built over 
time is this network of artists 
and institutions.
And this was a kind of showcase 
of the best of our network, 
talking to each other, creating 
community, and really just 
figuring out, how do we do this 
together.
Now, that was March 1.  That 
ended March 1.
While we were there,
LAX shut down completely, 
because some of the first known 
cases of community spread were 
happening in LA.
So that became the last real 
major convening of artists this 
year.
And for the foreseeable future.
≫ It was an incredible event.  
It was really amazing.  The 
timing was crazy.
The Wide Awakes community was at
the Congress as well, right?
≫ Yeah.
We sort of envisioned ourselves 
as entering into the Congress as
members of the For Freedoms 
network and kind of exiting as 
the Wide Awakes, which we will 
get into what the Wide Awakes 
are in a bit.
It was a way for us to start to 
pivot
-- I think the way For Freedoms 
had always imagined
what we are doing is using
the kind of disguise and mask of
politics
and patriotism.
Our logo is a flag in red, 
white, and blue.  Our name, For 
Freedoms, sounds a lot about 
like one of these super pack 
names.
So we were using a lot of that 
kind of disguise
to do creative civic work
.  And we realized that artists 
are much more broad
, broad thinking than just 
thinking within a nationalistic 
or patriotic contexts.
So we really wanted to think 
about how we could expand
the ways people could imagine 
arts having impact.
And so the Wide Awakes, which is
based on a historical movement 
from the 1860s, became in a 
Porton tool and framework for 
us.
So we launched it.  We made a 
bunch of tapes that people war. 
We had a second line band.
We had a dip -- a lot of 
different wacky things that 
happened at the Congress.  It is
been going ever since.
≫ Anything.
With that, I will turn it over 
to you and Caran, Tony.
≫ Thank you so much, April.
All right.  Caran and Tony.
Caran Hartsfield and Tony 
Patrick,
two of the artists, founding 
members of the Wide Awakes.
I wonder if first,
you guys want to say a little 
bit about your own individual 
practice by way of introduction,
and then we can get into some 
questions
about what your experiences have
been like over the last several 
months and where we see 
ourselves going from here.  So 
Caran, do you want to kick off?
You are on mute, Caran.
≫ I did that very carefully so I
wouldn't make a scene.
So my background is in mostly in
narrative work
.
Both in books and film, and I am
currently working on a 
television show right now.
But
I'm very think of to the Wide 
Awakes and to the new part of my
practice
that I have expanded into
nonconventional -- 
nonconventional, unorthodox 
work.
In my previous work was always 
sort of dabbling or dancing with
that.
But it was really refreshing to 
enter a new space and stretch 
creatively in any way.
So it's one of my selling points
for the Wide Awakes.
It inspires you to try new 
things and explore your craft in
a new way.
≫ And Tony, you started in film 
as well, right?
≫ Yeah.  I started in film and 
TV as a writer.
I spent a little time in 
Hollywood.  I don't talk about 
that  much.
Working on TV
, selling a screenplay, found 
myself returning to New York,
working with youth after school,
licking my wounds.
And then going overseas for a 
few years to do what
every artist facing a breakdown 
will decide to do, which is make
an album.
Getting into music.
Then I returned and since then 
it's been a journey
of building continuums, world 
building, comics, and now the 
Wide Awakes.
Did I do that in a minute?
In, like, 50 seconds?
≫ That was pretty good.
≫ I'm getting better at this.  
I'm improving.  I am my own 
linked in.
≫ I mean, there are so many 
twists and turns.
But I wonder, let's start with 
the recent.
Because I think the last several
months have been unimaginable in
a certain way.
And I wonder if you guys can 
describe
some of your experiences during 
lockdown.
Both in terms of your
experience of this crazy thing 
that is happening all around the
world, and also creatively
period how has this affected 
your creative practice?
Has it changed your creative 
practice?
≫ Absolutely.
I have been hearing a lot of 
people talk about
their reactions to the pandemic 
and pretty much everything that 
has gone on.
And I'm realizing that
in my own life there are so many
silver linings that may be the
metaphor should be pushed back 
on, that it's more
-- it's and it -- equal part a 
disaster and heartbreaking
and crisis
and also a lot of incredible 
things are happening as well.
Nationally, collectively, 
creatively, and personally, that
I'm finding opportunities for 
reflection
, and I think most people are 
finding the lockdown is forcing 
us
to think about our lives and our
practices in different ways.
It's also forcing us or 
encouraging us, I think, to 
think about connections in 
different ways.
So I'm connecting with friends 
and a lot of artists
in ways that I haven't in years 
and creating new work because of
those connections.
And that's been really 
incredible.
Probably most importantly, I'm 
excited
and inspired about put how we 
can do things for people
, watching the athletes, the 
basketball players, sort of take
ownership of their power and 
cleaning their agency.
I think it's something that I 
see happening in the art 
community.
I think we are still in the 
beginning stages of it and I 
feel it percolating.
And I'm looking forward to see 
us
fully activate each other and 
take a leap forward and claim 
our power.
≫ Yeah.
It is interesting to watch how 
if a part of culture
are kind of --
I don't think of the fine art 
world as being connected to 
athletics, but there is a lot
lot, like I was seen as a jock 
in art school.
(Laughter)
It is interesting to see how 
cultural boundaries are kind of 
being crossed at this moment.
And Tony, you have talked about 
the twin pandemics.
≫ Oh, boy.
And really, I'm just absorbing 
that from
I believe there was a preacher 
in Chicago who said we are all 
suffering from the
original pandemic,
COVID 1619, systemic racism.  I 
heard that, and I said we are at
a moment of dueling pandemics.
COVID 1619 and the novel 
coronavirus, COVID-19.
And to speak
to, Caran, what you just said 
and what you spoke of 
previously, Eric,
I feel
that there are a lot of 
different terms being used for 
this time period.  There is the 
great pause, I've heard.
For some people, it's the great 
awakening, which we will get to 
also.
But I am also looking at the 
grand opportunity is one that I 
have heard.
It does seem
like that we have since March, 
we have stepped into an 
accelerated timeframe.
We have watched the 
proliferation
of digital platforms.  We have 
started working remotely.  I 
believe that some of us have 
started to reprioritize.  We are
spending more time with family.
There is also a lot more time to
go inward.
And so the lockdown and 
isolation
and capitalization
to pay attention to one's 
well-being is going to give us 
an opportunity to look at our 
collective well-being.
But if I shift that lends a 
little bit more, it's also a 
chance for us
, and I believe this is 
happening, hone in on our own 
personal expressions.
So as artists, I am watching
, and it's funny because I 
wanted to bring up some 
questions myself.
Like the question of
what is essential seems to have 
surfaced during this time 
period.
Concerning this conversation, I 
think we have all had this 
conversation
, this discussion with the two 
of you,
artists as essential workers has
come up as a subject.
And I think that
we have, as we walked through 
the portal, we are starting to 
see that art is not just simply 
an expression.
It is a process for self 
reflection.
It is a trajectory towards 
Epiphany and healing.
And so I think this is a grand 
opportunity
that I feel we should be 
highlighting a bit more.  As a 
society.
And I'm just going to wrap this 
part, I think that came
-- I think Caran, you and I 
might have discussed this.
There was an article in 
Singapore, and I'm bringing up 
Singapore,
there is an article in Singapore
where they did a poll of which 
jobs are considered essential.
And artists were at the bottom 
of the list.
(laughing) so there was a 
retraction and an apology after 
the outreach, but it really 
brings up a question.
Who are we and what are we 
during this crisis?
And so that's why I'm also
appreciative and honored to be 
part of the Wide Awakes appeared
which I believe is a COVID 
response as far as I'm 
concerned.
≫ I want to get into the Wide 
Awakes, but I love this question
of artists as essential workers.
If we think back, back,
art and mythology
and spiritual practice, these 
are all kind of like -- and 
healers.
There were blurred lines between
all these disciplines.
So that makes the case, I think,
for yes, of course
artists are essential workers.
But I think more  recently, in 
this country, I'm thinking the 
WPA in the 1930s
artists were seen as essential 
workers, and the money from the 
federal government poured into 
the production of art
, of literature, of photography,
public sculpture, architecture 
and summer resurrecting that 
idea today.
As a response to what is 
happening.
Like we need another WPA.
And there are even senators that
are considering this.
But I wonder what you think that
means, exactly.
What does artist as essential 
worker meet?'S N economic 
lengths?
-- lens?
Does it come on the fact that we
are ignoring an essential part 
of ourselves?
≫ Absolutely.  Here's the thing,
right?
Even a discussion about
-- I'm going to back up.
This happens to me.
My mind goes in 1800 different 
directions at  once.
'S to distill it down, if we 
talk about entering a portal, 
put
some people will try to deny, 
but the world is shifting.  We 
are experiencing a plethora of 
paradigm shifts.
And no matter how much we go 
backwards, some things are 
finished.
So we are looking at, we are 
standing in and experiencing the
byproducts of an extracted 
system.
And we have an opportunity to 
move into more regenerative 
spaces.
So if that's the case, and we 
realize
, I will bring it back to 
hip-hop.
In some of the darkest moments 
of the pandemic
, a classic DJ
by the name of the Knights, got 
on Instagram one night and threw
a party for hours.
And if you could see the feed 
and the response
,
it was transcendental because 
for a moment, you weren't 
trapped in your bedroom anymore.
You are partying on Instagram
hearing shout outs to Michelle 
Obama and Oprah, who stopped by.
(Laughter)
But the shift from
celebrity to and interactivity
with the public
, with everyday folks, with 
society,
we are redefining systems and we
are redefining kind of our 
antiquated notions of things.
If that's the case,
there is the opportunity for the
artist to be redefined or just 
reconnected
and not stigmatized anymore.  
And I think that's what we are 
watching.
There was a mean that said 
welcome you think artists aren't
important during this time?
Please turn off your radio
or turn off Spotify.  Turn off 
your television.  Put down that 
book and take all the paintings 
off your walls.
Here's the other part of that, 
is that inherently, I do believe
that we have this thing about 
the labels of artist.
Why don't we look at it as the 
creative forces that dwell 
inside of us
, and each person during this 
pandemic has been forced to be 
creative.
Whether they wanted to or not.
A trip to the grocery store 
requires creativity.
Gathering a family Zoom requires
creativity.
We are forming rituals as we 
speak.
So again, I think it's
more than an economic lens which
as
lead us to this model period 
what is the regenerative model
.  Not that artists don't need 
support,
but what is there iterate of 
model
-- iterated model of artistic 
expression and practice?
≫ I think part of what we are 
seeing we keep hearing this
word awakening, part of what is 
bubbling up our conversations 
that we have skipped over in the
past.
And there are so many 
conversations that we have 
skipped over in the past.
So I think to Tony's
point about being essential 
workers, I think that speaks 
direct with you what artists do
.  We provoke conversations, and
we can provoke action.
And we do it in a seductive way,
where some people
may be resistant to information
in a certain way or resistant to
-- not thinking about certain 
conversations
.
But we have an opportunity and 
the ability
to
bring people together, to be in 
conversation with each other.
And the other thing I really 
appreciate about For Freedoms 
and the Wide Awakes is the 
reimagining of the public square
and the way we think about our 
public 
spaces and how we can use them.
And that is an important part of
why artists are essential 
workers.
Because we can talk to people 
not only in movie theaters or 
through television
and radios are what have you, 
but also we have a way to bring 
people into conversations in our
everyday lives.
≫ Yeah.  That's such a good 
point.
And you have really been kind of
watching
what's been happening in terms 
of how the white of -- Wide 
Awakes have been manifesting 
public space.
So I want to ask you about that,
but I realized we haven't really
given people a context or a 
background of what the Wide 
Awakes are.
So I will try to do my
2-minute version as opposed to 
Tony's 10 minute version.
≫ 11 minutes.
≫ Basically, in 1860, there was 
a small group of abolitionists
that were kind of artisans and 
tailors and merchants
that wanted to
protect abolitionist candidates 
from being beaten.
From being silenced by people 
that
were afraid of these radical 
views.
So as
part of the formation of the 
newly formed Republican party 
which would bring Abraham 
Lincoln into the White House, 
the Wide Awakes
became a youth led movement
across the country.
Some people said there were up 
to 500,000 members of the Wide 
Awakes all across the country.
These were people that were at 
their height,
were
pro women's suffrage, 
abolitionists, pro- immigration,
and really pushing
for radical systemic
though political change.  They 
used a lot of amazing graphic 
design and songs and public 
rallies.
So that's kind of the historical
context.
We have been talking for months 
and years now
about reawakening these Wide 
Awakes and using that story as a
framework
for as only was talking about, 
reimagine some of these major, 
major system
for that are surrounding us.
So Caran, do you want to say a 
little bit about what has been 
actually happening on the ground
among the artists that are 
working on this?
In the kinds of collaborations 
and things that have been going 
on?
≫ Sure.
The first event of this year was
events in Harlem for Juneteenth.
And it was an incredibly joyful 
event,
which was at this point a very 
much needed 
release, I would say, for 
everyone
.  And not only was it musicians
and dancers and actors and 
artists of every possible
imaginable sort,
but it was an opportunity
to not only exhale, but also to 
be in conversation about Black 
Lives Matter.
To be in
conversation about trans lives 
matter.  And to have 
conversations around this joy.
Later, we had a July 4 event
.
And this was born out of a 
really small idea that event and
I were thinking about
putting up a little excerpt of a
piece that we have, video 
installation.
And we said why don't we project
it in Washington Square park on 
the fourth?
And I said do you mind if I 
share this with the Wide Awakes
?  This kind of thing is right 
up their alley.  So mind you, we
were only going to show a 
five-minute excerpt.
That little acorn burst a six 
hour event.
And this is what is so 
incredible about this 
organization to me,
that the conversations
birth other conversations and 
collaborations.
And I don't know, Tony, how many
would you say, there were
100 artists, and that's maybe 
underestimating, how many people
had their craft and their art 
and their energy and heart in 
the pot.
To really show something.  It 
was a brittle day.
It was another joyful event, but
again, having conversations, the
name of the event was 
interdependence day.
I don't know, Tony, am I 
forgetting anything?
≫ No.
I think you're speaking to the 
press play a moment.  Of the 
Wide Awakes.
Which is, you went from you and 
Eric were also part of the 
studio sessions.
Where we went from
conceptualizing what the Wide 
Awakes could be as a potential 
art
project collaboration
in Hank Willis Thomas
' studio to having a few 
imagining sessions, and all of a
sudden,
Eric spoke to the Wide Awakes 
are announced at Congress.  
Which is a pivotal moment.  And 
then COVID-19 hits.
So the opportunity, realizing 
that the Wide Awakes -- brings 
us back to becoming a COVID 
response.
So I feel that into --
interdependence day is the kind 
of quintessential
, for me it's become the 
quintessential Wide Awakes event
on the ground in this time 
period.
Because it was a real reaction 
-- the other part of that is 
Caran, you brought it to the 
Wide Awakes, to the meeting, and
we went from this could be 
really 
cool to showcase
this at Washington Square park, 
but it doesn't feel like a Wide 
Awakes conversation.
How would the Wide Awakes 
approach this?
And inter-pit -- independence 
became an excavation.  What's 
underneath?
What the Wide Awakes are about 
as far as I'm concerned, this 
continual excavation
of what is beneath the layers of
our current
stigmas or data points
.  And so
independence became 
interdependence realizing that 
we do need one another in order 
to be a nation and in order to 
be able to navigate this time.
But Caran, I'm going to 
challenge you.
But we haven't done yet is share
our screens.  So perhaps we 
should see a little bit more of 
your work.
≫ I opted not to share my screen
for technical reasons.
≫ You did not.
I feel like I should share your 
screen because I have those 
photos.
I guess I wanted you to talk 
about, because there are two 
things happening.  This cultural
remix.
The amazing look amazing thing 
about the Wide Awakes, this is 
not salesmanship, is that it 
seemed to organically
form into not just a collective 
or not just a movement,
but what I am always kind of 
cleaning as a continuum.
So here we have the framework 
for more iteration and more 
collaboration.
And that can speak to kind of 
the most important elements
of our lives
, and information that we need 
in order to be awake, in 
particular.
And so I wanted to just bring up
-- Caran, there's something you 
said you were working on in 
relation
to how we can even screen these 
things.  Because at some point, 
right, the theaters were shut 
down.
And so you had to figure out a 
solution, a temporary solution
, for a mass gathering, how to 
showcase your work and how to 
showcase film.  So I just want 
to just throw that out there.
≫ That's actually a good story 
about collaboration, because I 
didn't solve the problem
.  There was an architect
in one of our meetings, he said 
you know what you should do, and
he created
this really beautiful
, how do I describe it, you 
picture a gigantic
whether balloon, 10 gigantic 
whether balloons and a screen 
floating above
.  And is anchored by ropes so 
the audience would stand under 
the screen and look up at the 
film.
And it was pure serendipity that
that style of projection was 
incomplete alignment
with what my film is about and 
the approach of my film.
And again, it's one of the great
things
about having these conversations
outside of your silos.  Because 
I would never think of such a 
thing.
And I'm seeing my own work in 
new ways.
But I would say more 
importantly, that it's about 
reenergizing the conversation.
It's worth noting that the 
George Floyd, the death of 
George Floyd
and all of these protests were 
going on, and we are all trying 
to figure out how can we keep 
this energy going?  How can we 
keep this conversation going?
Back to this essential worker 
idea, that this is very much 
what artists can do.
We can constantly reinvigorate 
the conversation in
a new way.  We will think about 
it from this way and come at it 
from that we, up and down.
And we can keep protests or any 
kind of conversations going.
≫ Caran, do you mind if I share 
my screen because I have those 
two photos?  I'm sorry.  That is
who I am.
I'm going to see if I can share 
my screen.  Give me a second.
≫ While Tony setting that up, 
what we are talking about
indicates in a way as 
institutions are falling apart, 
and as we all need to find new 
ways of doing things,
that art
art, creativity, the Wide Awakes
as we have kind of collectively
in a disorganized manner, 
conceived of that response to 
COVID 19.
I think this time of breakdown 
opens up
like you said at the beginning, 
all kinds of possibilities for 
what new things we can make.
Caran, can you talk -- this is 
the sketch you are talking about
in terms of how to project this 
film.  Could you talk a little 
bit about the film itself?
≫ Sure appeared so it's actually
a film that I shot many moons 
ago.
This was back when Sean Bell was
killed in New York.
Not long after Oscar Grant was 
killed in California.
And I knew that this was going 
to keep happening and it was 
something that I needed to speak
to in my own work.
So I collaborated with
Bradley Young, who has done -- 
this
predates the arrival and all the
things that he has done now.
And he brought on
--'s name just ran out of my 
head.
I'm going to lay down and pass 
out in a little  bit.  It will 
come back to me in a second.
So we shot this film in 2009, 
and this was the year that I 
moved to Singapore which is what
Tony was referencing.
And because of this big 
transition in my life, I put the
film on the back burner.
There were also technical 
difficulties, so I had to put 
this film on the back burner.
And so many people said there's 
a pitiful work there.  You have 
to finish it.
And last year, in 2019,
a dear friend of mine, James 
Richards, said I really think 
you should finish this film.
And by then I had renamed it
, wait for it, and he said the 
name alone implies that you need
to bring this back around.
And he said, why don't we --
you have always been playing 
with free-form, why don't we go 
full forward with that
.  And that
helped me set aside the 
narrative for a larger 
experimental piece.
So we cut it and it very much 
became a collaborator, very much
Mets became a collaborator, not 
an editor, and it's an entirely 
new piece.
It has been reborn and is 
finding new life through efforts
of For Freedoms.
An excerpt of it is going to be 
in Times Square.
It was just shown at Washington 
Square park.
So it's heartbreaking that we 
are still having these 
conversations so many years 
later.
But it is -- I'm hoping that
it is a fire under me and other 
people
to really just jump in with both
feet and figure out how we can 
use our craft
to push conversations further 
and beyond for the are right 
now.
Because I think we have to not 
only think about this moment, 
but also think ahead.  Because 
it takes time to make work.
Not just
, November 3 keeps coming up.  
But what about after November 3?
I know lots of us have had shows
after seeing -- chills about 
what's happening in Belarus.  
Maybe I need to be thinking 
about what might happen here, 
think about what does that art 
look like right now?
And again, not only about 
November and December,
but also thinking about a 
long-term strategy.
I really appreciated I think it 
was Tony, who came up with the 
name of the new normal,
because how can we think about
this, not just as a monetary 
thing,
but as a new way of life that we
have been activated
in a way that is not temporary.
Because I, for one, have a habit
of being
very excited around election 
time, and that 2-3 months span, 
and then I take my foot off the 
gas.
I have seen the ramifications of
that kind of behavior.
And we have to be careful not to
allow that to happen again.
≫ That is so much I think of 
what is a part of what is 
happening, I would say among 
artists generally right now.
So artists need to live in the 
future, like you are talking 
about.  We are thinking about a 
different timeframe.
Like somebody pointed out in the
chat, that Tony, you are talking
about
the importance of not just going
back, but moving forward,
and Caran, you're saying we were
going back to conversations that
have needed to take place.
As we are reimagining, 
revisiting
even like July 4th, Independence
Day, interdependent state.
It's a process that has opened 
up
by the possibility of time 
travel or of moving back and 
forth.
Tony, I know you think a lot 
about this in your work broadly,
and especially around
-- could you talk about that?
≫ I think the two things you 
just landed on,
I think that we focus on
in the future writers room, and 
the Guild of future architects,
which is creating a continuum of
amazing forward thinkers
and practitioners who are
creating projects that start in 
the comments for the greater 
good instead
of for-profit let's say, of a 
startup.
There is a group inside the 
group, the future writers, that 
we focus on as part of one of 
our exercises is finding the 
inflection point.
Where is the point in history 
where we could have made a 
different choice
?  And record we have created a 
new artifact that brings us
to NL alternative present that 
we want to live in, and 
ultimately future.
So I think we are in
an actual inflection point.  
That's what 2020 is.
But I would like to share my 
screen very quickly.  We will 
work this out.
And just deal with my work for 
just a second.  And I can do 
this quickly.
Part of my work from TV and film
has led me into
comics.
I have done work with DC comics 
pick for some people, the most
important thing I have done is 
right Batman  dialogue.  I big 
to differ, although it is 
important.
But that led me into a Verizon 
five G residency, or speaking of
reimagining, where I have been 
reimagining
, experience of spiritual comics
that could incorporate augmented
reality, virtual reality, and in
this case volumetric capture
and motion capture for a new 
form of comic book is something 
that I have embarked on.
But that also
leads me to my role building 
process which I was part of a 
2017
residency, and the reason that 
is important is that it is the 
first time that I felt the 
convergence of all my skills.
And
what I realize is that you can 
create fictional worlds, but you
can
create fictional worlds 
especially for the people
future, that reimagine 
geographical locations, or 
cities in the future.
And distill that down into 
actual items for a real-world 
modern-day impact.
I think there is Creative 
Capital grant recipient
, Lauren McCarthy, who is also 
part of my initial world 
building cohort in Sundance.
But this photo is from the 
studio when we started talking 
about the Wide Awakes.
And figuring out if there could 
be -- honing in on the values 
that we would like to see.
Honing in on an aspirational 
society we like to live in if 
the Wide Awakes still existed.
And that brought us to the very 
real moment of the Wide Awakes
, and this is a shot of our 
website at Wide Awakes .
com, where a group of us who 
decided to keep it going,
to go from the moment of the 
launch at Congress to
pressing play in real life,
post George -- George Floyd's 
death.
And initiating these underground
vents.
But that also brings me to we do
have a sci-fi expression
called side  I, which is
taking the premise and playing 
with that hypothetical of an 
inflection point where the Wide 
Awakes decide not to disband
after
Abraham the can is elected, but 
to instead go underground as a 
knowledge gathering organization
.  The side I
is an organization that allows 
us to kind of
take a different lens
and put our capes on, which is 
another one of our Wide Awakes 
slogans.
It is all about finding out who 
those 2020 Wide Awakes R.
And in all of that has brought 
me too, this is my last slide,
recipes for sanity, which is a 
hub now, another one of Mike's 
COVID-19 responses and other
collectives from Gilda future 
architects, Wide Awakes, we have
people who are
giving their personal strategies
to navigating the next normal.
And so that being said, again, 
being
in that inflection point, we 
have reached
this time, I feel like in 
particular, or Eric, you're 
talking about
-- here's the name of the
panel, reimagining art.  But 
reimagining institutions and 
reimagining systems.
After so what is the role of an 
artist?
What is the role of an 
institution?
What is the role of essential 
outputs
that can shift culture
, that can shift human 
consciousness.  And I think that
is what the work of the Wide 
Awakes is.
I'm going to breathe.
≫ That was very elegantly -- 
eloquently said.
I think you could insert a quote
about the artists role from Jim 
Baldwin.
But I think ultimately it's to 
listen to oneself.  That's my 
opinion.
(Laughter)
I think that's something that
you know it's nothing I wanted 
to point out about the Wide 
Awakes we are talking about it 
as though it's a group
or an organization.
It's really intended, like the 
original movement intended, to 
kind of decentralize
a movement of creative
people and artists.  If you are 
Wide Awakes, then you know 
you're Wide Awake.
So to anybody that is watching, 
anybody that wants to 
participate,
there is a very -- it's a low 
bar for entry into high bar for 
entry.
There is a commitment on your 
own behalf to participate.
And I think there is a lot of 
really amazing examples of 
leader
movements for Quicken look at 
happen -- what happened over the
weekend with the national black 
convention and the movement of 
black lives.  150 liters.
150 organization, coming 
together to build a political 
movement where creativity is a 
major part of it.
≫ I was just point to say, if we
are
talking about
being a decentralize a 
collective or continuum, I 
definitely have to mention
that we've gone from
interdependency and Juneteenth 
to celebrating women's suffrage 
at Prospect Park.
Ebony Brown, black thought,
the blacksmiths is another 
collaborative organization.
And I think we have also started
chapters.  There is Wide Awakes 
Berlin.
There is I believe a Wide Awakes
Japan starting.
And I can't forget Wide Awakes 
Chicago.
Which Mario Smith
and countless others
, I think joined forces this 
past weekend
around the March on Washington 
to commemorate that with writing
on the wall
.  What started to highlight
writings from
the incarcerated population.
But Wide Awakes Chicago is a 
prime example of what happens 
when a community
decides it's awake and wants to 
express itself
.  I just had to throw in other 
members of the family here.
≫ Havana, and there is 
Minneapolis.  There are 
different kind of groups coming 
up.
And now what we on the For 
Freedoms side are doing
and also among the crew of Wide 
Awakes folks, we are creating 
toolkits and playbooks for how 
people can play with us.
We are really seeing this
as an infinite gain, not a 
finite gamer there are winners 
and losers, but again where we 
all get to continue to play 
together.
I think it's next Tuesday,
For Freedoms is going to be 
rolling out our playbook for 
ways people
can get involved in the 2020 
awakening, which is what we are 
building this year as a campaign
on top of our 50 state network.
I know the Wide Awakes
are producing a toolkit that 
will be released soon.
It's going to be a lot of 
exciting things that are 
happening in the next little 
bit.
There is also, I wanted to 
mention next Wednesday
on the ninth, we are launching a
kick starter with all of the 
different organizations.
We are really trying to move 
from a vision of arts 
philanthropy and arts funding
as a scarcity to a vision of it 
as abundance.
So we are really trying to 
imagine
all of us walking together, 
which we all are already in our 
own work, and our own created 
work.
So there haven't 12 or
team different organizations 
that are launching a kick 
starter together to really raise
awareness and funding for 
creative civic engagement in the
next two months.
Somebody asked about the web 
link.  There is a Wide Awakes .
com.
There is For Freedoms.org.  
There is Wide Awakes 2020 on 
Instagram.
And there are now a bunch of 
different Wide Awakes happening 
all over.
I know we are up against time.  
But nobody is kicking us out 
yet.
Oh yes, somebody might be 
kicking us out.
Caran, I didn't know if there 
was anything you wanted to add
expect
I will just say going back to 
your first question about
the summer, I know a lot of 
people including myself had a 
mini X essential crisis in the 
midst of this lockdown.
And if you are feeling that now 
or feel that at any point, I 
would advocate for being active.
And aligning yourself with the 
purpose
of what an artist can do
.  There is nothing more healing
than that for us,
to claim our power and be active
and to activate your 
collectives.  Activate the 
people around you.
And make moves.
≫ That's great.
≫ I would say
very quickly, a friend of mine
whose mother said she had a 
dream
that she was collaborating with 
an artist and she woke up in a 
sweat
because she realized she didn't 
want to work with her friend who
is an artist.  She said I am 
embracing my inner accountant.  
I love the numbers.
I'm going to challenge people to
do the opposite.
I'm going to say embrace your 
inner  artist.  Embrace your 
inner creative at this time.
And again, I think there are a 
lot of wonderful well -- ways 
you can align yourself.  And the
Wide Awakes and For Freedoms are
all about collaboration.
And I think this is a great way,
especially with the 2020 
awakening, which is centralized 
around the next two months, for 
that special event in November
,
so we can centralize that around
that and collaborate and find 
ways to navigate and help one 
another.
≫ Well, I think April is when to
come back on, but I just wanted 
to say thank you again for 
having us all on
and for letting us
talk a little bit about all this
stuff.
≫ It's been amazing.  It's been 
such a pleasure and honor to 
hear all of you.
So Caran, Tony, Eric, thank you 
so much.  We really appreciate 
it.  I also want to take a 
second to think our 
interpreters, Tricia.
Patricia and Keli, and
Chris and Isaac at -- it's been
