172: Jordan Seaberry - What Use is Art Making When Freedom is Under Fire?

What use is art makingwhen freedom is under fire?From the Center for the Study of Art and Community? This is Art is Change, a chronicle of art and social change where activist artists and cultural organizers share the strategies and skills they need to thrive as creative community leaders. My name is Bill ClevelandThis episode is part of a special Art In Action series we're producing in partnership with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation Democracy and the Arts program. In these episodes, we'll be speaking with artists, cultural organizers and arts leaders who are navigating and challenging current efforts to to limit free creative expression and free speech.Together, we'll explore what freedom of expression means in practice, not as an abstract right, but as a lived responsibility at the heart of democratic life.This show features my conversation with painter, organizer, educator and “root waterer” Jordan Seaberry,about what happens when art moves beyond decoration and entertainment and becomes a powerful civic practice for listening, organizing and building people power. Jordan's work, which spans painting, policy, comics, teaching and movement building, is all grounded in the conviction that human creativity is not extra.Along the way, we follow Jordan's journey from the south side of Chicago to the Rhode Island School of Design, otherwise known as RISD, to Oregon organizing around prisoners rights, studying at Roger Williams University School of Law, and helping lead the US Department of Art and Culture.In it we will learn about:* How Jordan's life as a painter and organizer came together from RISD disillusionment to grassroots organizing, law school teaching and cultural strategy.* Why listening is central to both art art and organizing. Whether the canvas becomes an ear or an organizer helps someone rehear their own life with dignity* How artists can generate real civic power by joining movements, helping build alternative systems, and challenging dominant institutions from both inside and the street.Notable MentionsPeopleJordan Seaberry — Painter, organizer, educator, and co-director at the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, whose practice bridges painting, policy, comics, and movement work.Adam Horowitz — Founding leader in the creation of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture’s people-powered national framework.Arlene Goldbard — Writer, speaker, and longtime cultural activist who helped shape USDAC’s founding vision.Gabriel Baez — Cultural organizer and early USDAC leader involved in its national development.Jonathan Highfield — RISD faculty member and an important mentor in Jordan’s political and intellectual formation.Carlton Turner — Artist, organizer, and co-founder of Sipp Culture, building rural cultural infrastructure in Mississippi.Brandi Turner — Co-director of Sipp Culture and key partner in its community-rooted cultural work.Dan Denvir — Host of The Dig, the podcast Jordan names as a useful guide in making sense of the current political moment.Nadine Bloch — Activist, trainer, and creative strategist with Beautiful Trouble, mentioned in connection with artists against authoritarianism work.Michelle Alexander — Civil rights advocate and author of The New Jim Crow, one of the books Jordan cites as deeply influential.Richard Powers — Novelist and author of Bewilderment and The Overstory, both named in Jordan’s recommendations.Jon Fogel — Author of Punishment-Free Parenting, which Jordan connects to broader questions of punishment and power.Kathryn Bigelow — Director of A House of Dynamite, the film Jordan references in thinking about the state and the individual.OrganizationsU.S. Department of Arts and Culture — A people-powered, non-governmental “performance piece” that prefigures what a real federal department of arts and culture could do in support of cultural democracy.Charles F. Kettering Foundation — Partner on the Art in Action series through its work connecting democracy, public life, and the arts.Democracy and the Arts at the Kettering Foundation — Kettering’s focus area for integrating the power of the arts into democratic life locally, nationally, and internationally.Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) — Jordan’s alma mater and now one of the places where he teaches.Jordan Seaberry at RISD — RISD faculty profile outlining his work as a painter, organizer, and educator.Roger Williams University School of Law — The law school where Jordan studied while deepening the connection between art, policy, and public life.“Radical Imagination, Radical Listening” at RWU Law — Profile of Jordan’s path through Roger Williams and the role legal study played in his work.Sipp Culture — Mississippi-based cultural organization founded by Carlton and Brandi Turner, named here as a powerful example of alternative system building through art, food, land, and community.Beautiful Trouble — Creative strategy hub for activists and organizers, referenced in connection with USDAC collaborations.The Nonviolence Institute — Providence-based organization where Jordan served as director of public policy.Publications, media, and resourcesThe Dig — Socialist podcast Jordan cites as part of his effort to understand the current political landscape.Bewilderment — Richard Powers novel exploring empathy, climate grief, and the human relationship to the living world.The Overstory — Powers’s earlier novel, invoked here as part of the same moral and ecological terrain.A House of Dynamite — Kathryn Bigelow’s Netflix political thriller, which Jordan reads as a study in how governments can reduce ordinary people to pieces on a strategic board.The New Jim Crow — Michelle Alexander’s landmark book on mass incarceration and racialized punishment in the United States.Punishment-Free Parenting — Jon Fogel’s book, which Jordan links to deeper questions about discipline, punishment, and retribution.Related episodeArt Is Change, Episode 78 featuring Carlton Turner — Bill notes this earlier conversation in connection with Sipp Culture and Mississippi-rooted cultural organizing