The American Festival Project

About: The American Festival Project

Crossing cultural boundaries is not like attending a big cocktail party. It is more like being brought into a family circle. It is an intimate experience that requires patience and respect. It takes time.   Festival co-founder, Dudley Cocke

The American Festival Project (AFP) developed from race, place, and class conversations between John O’Neal, then director of Junebug Productions, and Dudley Cocke, director of Roadside Theater. In 1980, the two theater companies began visiting each other’s community – one predominantly black and the other white. 

In 1983, Bob Martin invited Roadside and Junebug Productions to the Peoples Theater Festival in San Francisco. Appearing with them were two important California grassroots theaters, A Traveling Jewish Theatre and El Teatro Campesino. It proved a potent mix of aesthetics and politics, and the companies decided to look for opportunities to continue working together. Their performances at other festivals became the model for the American Festival Project.

Managed from Roadside’s home at Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky, AFP hired, in 1988, a director, Caron Atlas, who helped the Festival grow into a national alliance of performing arts companies working on community-defined social change initiatives. 

In addition to Junebug Productions, Roadside Theater, and A Traveling Jewish Theater, core AFP coalition members included Artist & Community Connection, Carpetbag Theater, El Teatro de la Esperanza, Francisco Gonzalez y su Conjunto, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Pregones Theater, Robbie McCauley & Company, Seattle Group Theater, and Urban Bush Women.

When the Festival was invited into a community, its artists collaborated with local artists, activists, educators, and arts presenters to confront locally identified issues such as race, poverty, and intolerance. Acknowledging the deeply rooted nature of such issues, AFP didn’t pretend to offer a quick fix, but functioned as a catalyst and support structure for long term community transformation.

Festivals were built around performing arts residencies that included workshops, performances, forums and discussions, visual arts exhibits, and film and video screenings. The format changed each time as the home community defined and shaped the project to reflect its character and needs. Projects ranged from week-long festivals on university campuses to exchanges between community-based centers, to multi-year projects that included a series of residencies.

Successful completion of project activities was just one aspect of the impact of the American Festival Project; equally important was the expanding group of community partners nationally that became involved, the ongoing relationships developed between these partners, the new opportunities partners discovered for collaboration, and the increased willingness to take risk.

The American Festival Project emphatically illustrated the inherent value of cultural identity, cultural diversity, and cultural exchange, and was dedicated to facilitating artistic collaborations among its artists and with the communities in which it worked. AFP used a careful process that encouraged communities to untangle the complex webs that oppressed and divided them, to imagine change, and to promote creative expression as a means of fighting injustice in all forms.

Booklet: Cornell University American Festival

American Festival Project in Brief

The American Festival Project was a national coalition of artists working with presenters and local cosponsors in communities throughout the United States.

AFP was rooted in the belief that cultural exchange can provide a context in which diverse peoples can begin to understand and respect one another.

AFP developed creative community collaborations which aimed to break down the barriers that separate people from one another and from their cultures.

Booklet: The Montana American Festival Project (1992-1995)

Booklet: Louisville Kentucky American Festival

How a Community and AFP Produced a Festival Project

American Festival Projects were developed through a multi-phase process that took at least a year.

• The prospective American Festival Project site initiated dialogue with AFP through a letter of interest.
• This exploratory phase also included several discussions with AFP staff and artists, and with potential local partners, about ideas for collaboration.
• The site then submitted a proposal to the American Festival Project Board of Directors, detailing project purpose, goals, and potential partners in the home community. They met face to face with
• AFP representatives during the process of deciding to work together.
• The producing coalition of arts organizations, community-based organizations, local agencies, civic leaders, educators, students, media makers, and artists worked together with AFP to develop programs, budgets, and fundraising plans to meet their goals.
• The American Festival Project was involved as a co-producer, through its national staff, site liaisons, and artists. AFP contributed financial as well as technical assistance through fee and site subsidies, personnel, joint fundraising, and collaborative documentation and evaluation.
• AFP artists and other touring artists participating in each project visited the site at least once to plan their residencies with the prisenter and the community partners.
• Planned performances, workshops, dialogues, and exhibitions then took place.
• Project documentation and evaluation took place throughout.
• Post-festival, the work was sustained by the local partners and with the AFP through follow-up.
  

AFP Core Coalition Members

• Artist and Community Connection, Austin, TX;
• A Traveling Jewish Theater, San Francisco, CA;
• Carpetbag Theater, Knoxville, TN;
• El Teatro de la Esperanza, San Francisco, CA;
• Francisco Gonzalez y su Conjunto, Santa Barbara, CA;
• Junebug Productions, New Orleans, LA;
• Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Tacoma Park, MD;
• Pregones Theater, Bronx, NY;
• Roadside Theater, Whitesburg, KY;
• Robbie McCauley and Company, New York City, NY;
• Seattle Group Theater, Seattle, WA;
• Urban Bush Women, New York City, NY;
  

Booklet: Encuentro--Coming Together

A 1991 Appalachian and Chicano cultural exchange between Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, Texas

Encuentro/Coming Together Performance Schedule

Untold Stories, ASU American Festival Booklet

Mississippi American Festival Booklet

Brief Descriptions of Eleven Festivals

Three-Way Tour, the beginning of the American Festival Project, was performed by A Traveling Jewish Theater, Junebug Productions, and Roadside Theater in San Francisco, California; Anniston, Alabama; and Whitesburg, Kentucky. The three companies conducted residency activities together and performed from their repertoires. (1983-1987)

Cornell American Festival Project was a partnership among ten AFP companies, Cornell’s Department of Theatre Arts and College of Arts and Sciences, and 52 cosponsoring organizations, including other Cornell departments and programs, Ithaca artists, schools and community organizations, and regional cosponsors in Binghamton, Syracuse, Rochester, Canton, and the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation. (1989) 

Encuentro/Coming Together was a collaboration between Roadside/Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, Texas. The two organizations coproduced festivals in central Appalachia and San Antonio as an exchange of Appalachian and Chicano cultures and concerns. (1991)

Urban Cultures Festival in Philadelphia joined a city-wide network of community-based cultural and activist organizations with local artists and AFP artists. It was sponsored by Painted Bride Art Center in cooperation with Frankfordstyle Group Ministry, the Jaasu Ballet at Village of Arts and Humanities, Meredith School, and the Taller Puertorriqueno. (1991)

Mississippi American Festival Project was a statewide network of community-based organizations, rural arts centers, and colleges working with artists to create artworks based on stories of local history, culture and lore, and, in particular, stories of the struggles for social, economic, and political justice and empowerment. (1991-1992)

Dartmouth American Festival Project joined students, faculty, and staff with AFP to drive their institution of higher learning forward in its search for tolerance and respect for diversity. (1992)

Cross Poly Nation/Trans Poli Nación of San Diego took place on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border with a cultural dialogue about strengthening the community through coalition building. Led by the Centro Cultural de la Raza, the festival involved over 40 partners. (1993)

Montana American Festival Project Through its honoring of Montana’s diverse cultures, this three-year statewide storytelling project encouraged cultural self-determination and dialogue among communities. Farmers and ranchers, environmentalists, students, gay men and lesbians, among others were involved in story circles and performances that focused on pride of place and pride of identity. (1993-1995)

Miami X Change was a three-year Miami festival that sought to promote understanding and mutual respect between Miami’s African-American and Haitian-American communities. Artists, educators, and civic organizations from both of these communities joined with the Wolfson Campus of Miami Dade Community College, the AFP, and international artists to explore their cultural differences and similarities. (1994-1997)

Environmental Justice Festival was a multi-year community development project, led by Junebug Productions that teamed up resident and touring artists with New Orleans-area activist groups to explore environmental racism and environmental justice issues. Community partners included the Gulf Coast Tenants Association, the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, New Orleans Youth Action Corp., Christian Unity Baptist Church, and Chakula Cha Jua Theater Company. (1993-1998)

Untold Stories Festival/Celebrating Campus and Community was a collaboration between Arizona State University’s Public Events, five AFP companies, ASU classified staff (secretaries, grounds keepers, cleaning crews, maintenance engineers), ASU Campus Police, Metropolitan Boys & Girls Club, Phoenix Theater’s Cookie Company, Idiwanan An Chawe, Zarco Guerrero, and the Gila River Reservation. Multiple community performances were created and performed by community collaborators in their communities and at ASU. (1997-1999) 

Campus Diversity Cultural Resource Initiative was an AFP, Ford Foundation, Western States Commission on Higher Education, and Association of American Colleges and Universities initiative to identify ways that campuses could use cultural resources to address diversity issues. The CDCRI functioned as a laboratory involving eight campuses in a variety of approaches aimed at mobilizing cultural resources.

Booklet: Cornell American Festival Final Report & Evaluation
By John Suter

Article: Reaching for the Valley of the Sun
By Linda Frye Burnham

Reaching for the Valley of the Sun: The American Festival Project's Untold Stories

Video: Robert Gard's Last Speech (1992)

This speech was presented at the "Grassroots Theater in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives" symposium at Cornell University's Center for Theater Arts. Roadside Theater was co-convener of the symposium.

Video: Open Windows - an American Festival of Music, Theater, and Dance

Open Windows documents the celebrations of cultural diversity and community which took place in eastern Kentucky and southwest Virginia in 1988. The program includes excerpts of performances by the New Orleans-based Junebug Productions; the modern/traditional African dance company Urban Bush Women, including performances by Jawowe Willa Jo Zollar, Tiye Giraud, and Edwine Lee Tyler; Roadside Theater, a theater company rooted in Appalachian folk culture and history; Appalachian African-American gospel singer Earl Gilmore; Liz Lerman and the Dance Exchange, a company whose members range in age from 23 to 70; A Traveling Jewish Theatre of San Francisco; and Francisco Gonzalez, a Chicano traditional harp player, guitarist, and singer. Included are scenes from the school and community workshops that are part of the festival's philosophy of participation and celebration of local cultures. Directed by Anne Lewis.

Reviews:

• "An antidote to the contemporary right wing fear of creeping multiculturalism....A fine job of showing what happens when we open the windows separating the different worlds of America." - Video Rating Guide for Libraries
• "Those libraries seeking cross-cultural music, dance, and theatrical performance will find Open Windows useful." - School Library Journal

Video: Grassroots Theater in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

Grassroots Theater in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives was a symposium at Cornell University's Center for Theater Arts. It took place on October 9-11, 1992. Roadside Theater was a co-convener of the symposium. 

Published in 1993, "From The Ground Up, Grassroots Theater in Historical & Contemporary Perspective" is a report which documents the symposium and communicates its significance to a wider audience. The report contains a full transcript of Gard's speech. 

Poster/Brochure: Encuentro/Coming Together

Roadside Theater/Appalshop and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, Texas conduct an Appalachian and Chicano cultural exchange in Whitesburg, Kentucky and San Antonio.

Video: Tell Me a Story, Sing Me a Song

Tell Me a Story, Sing Me a Song showcases the work of three theater companies that performed together in the mid-1980s as a way to celebrate cultural pluralism and bring theater from diverse cultural traditions to underserved audiences. Members of Junebug Productions, A Traveling Jewish Theater, and Appalshop's Roadside Theater are seen in this program in performance excerpts, interviews, and playing to a group of Calhoun County, Alabama fifth and sixth graders. The program explores how different cultural groups within the United States can use the performing arts to maintain and promote their own cultural identity while also addressing the mainstream. A film by Dudley Cocke, Anne Johnson, and Susan Wehling.

Quotes & Reviews:                                                                                                                                                              

• "The melting pot was a concept that never accomplished. It was violated by racism and ethnic chauvinism...You don't just say 'Now you're going to be one people, everyone jump in, the past doesn't count anymore." - actor John O'Neal
• "The warmth of the audience response jumps off the screen...It's infectious!...Tell Me a Story, Sing Me a Song fulfills the highest expectations for art: it instructs and delights at the same time." - Christopher Hudgins, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• "Shows wonderfully well what a true 'people's' culture might look like." - Doug Paterson, Department of Dramatic Arts, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Poster: Montana American Festival Project

Photos: American Festival Project