24 Hours Block Party 2019 Participants

Interactive and Socially Engaged Art Projects

AMPED

Amped, an audio education non-profit that lives just blocks from RedLine, will be bringing their community podcast recording studio onto the street. We will be training attendees of the block party how to interview one another around the social issues facing our community, and conducting sound scavenger hunts to capture the layers of audio texture in our world. At the end of the day, we will piece together people's stories and found sounds to create an audio documentary about the physical neighborhood environment that unites us. https://www.weareamped.co/

Arts Street @ YEA

Come be a part of the Journey 2 Unity project: breaking the silence of the unheard. Make flags that tell the story of your personal journey and your hopes and wishes for immigration in the United States. Listen to podcasts highlighting the immigration stories of other Denver residents and get the opportunity to add your own story to the Journey 2 Unity archive through StoryCorps and the Library of Congress. Learn from others, make art and be heard. http://arts-street.org/

Gregg Deal

Mural Painting

“Rise” is an image of a young woman looking to the sky. The symbolism of it can be informed by the words “RISE” above her head, but the feeling of the portrait can invoke something greater. We live in tumultuous times, navigating spaces that are sometimes unsure and hostile, enduring new ways to be divided and ostracized. I believe images like this are important to planting an idea that can resonate through our communities and evoke change. To me, this is an image of power. An image of positivity. An image of a woman, and an image of resilience. As an Indigenous person, these are often themes used in modern design and art, but they are also ideas that are needed throughout the evolving and sometimes difficult American culture. This piece is meant to be general in it’s representation while still holding elements that are important to me as an Indigenous person. But instead of creating something that is specific to me, or to my people, I wanted to create something that was accessible visually to everyone. I believe “RISE” to be that piece. http://greggdeal.com/

Shannon Geis

Personal Geography is an interactive project that encourages participants to create maps of a place that has meaning to them and how they experience that place. Participants are encouraged to explore what ways their backgrounds and identities might affect their experience of that place. Participants are also asked to consider how they might envision the place they've depicted in their map in the future and what they would want it to look like. http://shannongeis.net/

Grapefruit Lab + Theatre Artibus

The RECIPE Box is a pop-up story collection table where we will conduct impromptu interviews and collect stories about food, memory, and the Five Points/Curtis Park neighborhood for a collaboration between local performance makers in the creation of RECIPE: A collaboration between Theatre Artibus, Grapefruit Lab, and Jeff Campbell of Emancipation Theatre. https://www.grapefruitlab.com/ https://www.theartibus.com/

Museo de las Americas & ARTMANDO

Join Museo de las Americas and artist Armando Silva to make a collaborative mosaic piece to show your vision for a better community/world. http://museo.org/ http://www.artmandosilva.com/

Gaby Oshiro

Origami has been around for over 1000 years. Let’s look at origami under a different light. The art of paper folding was once considered a child’s activity, but now it attracts mathematicians, designers, engineers and artists all over the world. It only requires paper, but the possibilities are endless.In this workshop participants will learn to fold oversized modular origami then use the pieces to build a large scale installation. http://goshiro.wixsite.com/goshiro

PlatteForum

The ArtLab interns will be bringing back their Coffee with Gen Z. for a second year at RedLIne. ArtLab interns will again interview local politicians, activists, government workers and more, to get down to the bottom of how youth can become more active and empowered by engaging in many of the important issues going on today. http://platteforum.org/

SAME Cafe

SAME Café will have their new food truck at the block party for pay what you can lunch and will be catering our free community dinner at 5pm! They are a donation-based, fair exchange restaurant that serves healthy food to everyone, regardless of ability to pay. Their mission is to create community through healthy food access. They believe in healthy food, community, and dignity for everyone. SAME Café is the first nonprofit restaurant in Denver! Guests order from the healthy menu of mostly local, organic food and then let us know how they would like to participate in the community in exchange for the meal: volunteering time, giving produce, or donating money. https://www.soallmayeat.org/

Emerald Smith

The Jar of Names is a children's book that approaches the subject of abortion from a Pro-Life standpoint. Though the story itself is not directly about abortion, it includes symbolism and moral lessons that teach about the value of human life.

RedLine’s Reach Studio

For the second year in a row, RedLine’s Reach Studio program will be hosting a community dinner. This dinner is free and open to everyone and it provides an opportunity for those that usually aren’t usually in a place to serve others to take on that role. The dinner will feature programming by Reach Artists, Gabe Gonzalez, Slam Nuba, In My Backyard, and will be catered by SAME Cafe.

Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank

Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank will present The Cornea Blindness Experience, which demonstrates what it is like to have corneal blindness. Cornea blindness can be cured through corneal transplants. While 70% of Coloradoans are signed up to be eye, organ and tissue donors, there is still a need. Think how many more Coloradoans we would reach and help if we had the other 30% sign up as eye tissue donors. Come down to the block party and put on a pair of simulated corneal blindness eyeglasses and then try to paint the image of a household item we show you to stress the importance of sight and the impact sight restoration through transplantation has on our society. And you can take the eyeglasses and your painting home. https://corneas.org/

Matthew Stearns

Apron Artist Project

Express your individuality and explore community with the Apron Artist. This makers project offers everyone the opportunity to learn about and help create a quilted tapestry. Join Matthew Stearns for a fun and creative experience, all ages and skill levels welcome! http://apronartist.com/index.html

Tilt West

Every/body: Art, Representation, & Accessibility

This roundtable will look broadly at accessibility in the arts. We will examine the importance of representation and of telling the stories of individuals with disabilities and the disabled community. We will also look at ways to make the arts more fully accessible to and inclusive consumers of art. Finally, we will scrutinize who we consider an artist and whether artists who consciously identify as individuals with disabilities become siloed or limited in their acceptance by the broader art world.

This roundtable will be co-moderated by Regan Linton and Andrea Moore.

Regan Linton Regan Linton, MSW, MFA, is an actor, writer, director, and Artistic Director of Denver’s disability-affirmative Phamaly Theatre Company. As a wheelchair user leading a major US theatre company, Regan has become a nationally-recognized advocate for equity and disability inclusion in the arts, serving on numerous initiatives including the national JUBILEE, Colorado’s Community ACTS Fund, Denver’s Art of Access, and Meow Wolf’s Community Advisory Committee.

Andrea Moore is a social artist using writing, performance, and photography to foster connection and dialogue across social and cultural lines. She is also the co-founder and Executive Director of a nonprofit organization called The Wayfaring Band, which creates opportunities to increase leadership and life skills through travel for adults with and without cognitive and developmental disabilities. https://www.tiltwest.org/

Mackenzie Urban

Inside this box is an image of someone you all know. When you open the box, say something nice about the person whose image is inside. Please refrain from using descriptions of physical characteristics and/or using pronouns so that you do not give away the secret of who is in the box. https://mackenzieurban.art/about

Performances

Art from Ashes

Art from Ashes’ Phoenix Rising program uses poetry and spoken word to allow youth to express themselves through metaphor, to connect with each other and the community, and to transform their perceptions and stories from victimization to health and hope. The youth poems shared here were written in 3 minutes and show the creative genius that’s present in every young person. https://www.artfromashes.org/

Mirror Image Arts, Grapefruit Lab, and DU Prison Initiative

Three artists perform their stories of working with youth and adults inside the prison system. Their why's are different, their journeys are unique, but their vision for creating connection inside the system are deeply entwined. Experience the beauty and complexity of arts in prison through the eyes of Maya Osterman (Mirror Image Arts), Julie Rada (Grapefruit Lab), and Ashley Hamilton (DU Prison Arts Initiative). https://www.mirrorimagearts.org/ https://www.du.edu/ahss/prisonarts/

Gabe Gonzalez - Zalez

Zalez is my stage name. Acoustic Indie Rock with good vocals, somewhat emotional.

The Groove Commission

The Groove Commission presents an original musical interpretation of D | Vision in three movements: Conflict - Allegretto, Flight - Adagio, and Celebration - Allegro. Reflect and dance to groovy tunes by local musicians.

Los Mocochetes

Los Mocochetes are a Xican@ Funk band from Denver, CO. This colorful cast of characters fuses thoughtfully brazen, socio/politically charged song lyrics, groovilicious melodies and high-energy stage antics to create an immersive experience unlike anything you've ever seen before. Much like a machete, which can be used either as a tool to build or a weapon to kill, they have chosen to use their music to inspire and encourage positive social change. Every show is different, but it’s always a dance party!Los Mocochetes received the Westword Music Showcase award for Best Latin Band of 2017 and Best Funk Band of 2018 and the Ultra 5280 award for Band of the Year. They were named Colorado Standout for NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest 2018 and opened for contest winner Naia Izumi on the Denver stop of his national tour. They have opened for a variety of national touring acts such as The Original Wailers, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, Los Lonely Boys, Lil’ Wayne, Ozomatli, Flor de Toloache, Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas, Dos Santos, The Chamanas and Lil’ Jon. http://losmocochetes.com/

Motus Theater

Motus Theater presents UndocuMonologues with Tania Chairez and Alejandro Fuentes Mena. Come together to listen to powerful stories from the heart written by undocumented community leaders on the frontline of U.S. immigration policy. Monologues will be followed with musical responses by jazz great Robert Johnson. https://www.motustheater.org/

The Salida Circus

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, friends of all poltical persuasions - Welcome to the greatest social circus show this side of Denver! The Salida Circus 30 minute showcase features Colorado's top trapeze artists, juggling jesters and interactive illusionsist for a performance of thrills, chills and hilarious spills. https://thesalidacircus.com/

Slam Nuba

SlamNUBA is an award-winning performance poetry event based in Denver, Colorado. Originating in 2006 as a program of the Pan African Arts Society and certified by Poetry Slam Inc, SlamNUBA has become a collective of many of the nation’s finest poets, including Amy Everhart, the 2010 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion & Dominique Ashaheed, the 2012 Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion. Since its inception, SlamNUBA has performed on every semifinals stage at the National Poetry Slam (The Largest Poetry Gathering in the World). The squad has made finals stage three times, 2007, 2011, 2014. SlamNUBA placed fourth in 2007 and 2014. In 2011, SlamNUBA won The National Poetry Slam Championship. Come see some of their current poets during the community dinner hosted by Reach Studio. http://slamnuba.com/

Katie Wiegman

This work is a dance-based performance using physical narratives to symbolize our current emotional narratives in this time of widespread hate: in which we each feel threatened, disempowered, oppressed and hated by those we oppose, and therefore hate in return. It seeks to interrupt the hate cycle by revealing that each side of a hate equation strives for the same human needs, operates from a perspective of protecting those needs, and sees the “other” as the enemy who causes their suffering. It is only when each side recognizes that the “other” is not inherently depraved but motivated by the same human story that we can connect, not by agreeing, but by recognizing each others’ humanity. http://www.katiewiegman.com/

Youth on Record

Youth on Record’s vision is for youth to discover how their voice and value can create a better world. Their programs empower 1,000 teens in some of Denver’s most vulnerable communities to make life choices that positively impact their future by teaching them to develop the coping tools, inspiration, and wherewithal to succeed in today’s world and to become leaders of tomorrow. Four of their youth participants will be performing throughout the day: Desmond Dukes, Andre Jackson, Edwima Maben, & Tiauignee Smith. https://www.youthonrecord.org/

Zine Contributors

Art from Ashes

Anthony Ballas

University of Colorado at Denver

This essay addresses how social division has become inscribed in well-known public spaces in Denver as a result of city policy and concomitant uses of public spaces by Denver's citizenry. I isolate key factors such as gentrification and the Urban Camping Ban which contributed to the way these spaces have become inaccessible to some while remaining accessible to others. Most importantly, this essay details the aesthetic and architectural elements which reflect the division of public space in Denver, and concludes by offering alternatives to how we might rethink or reconsider these problems. https://ucdenver.academia.edu/TBallas

Ann Cunningham

This project leads you through the creation of a picture book that is accessible to children with sight or children who are blind! Downloadable templates provide patterns for making a homemade book that you can read with your child. Pictures are colorful and touchable. The text is in print and Braille. A video tutorial makes it easy to understand. A QR link completes this project with an audio text enhanced with ambient sounds. http://acunningham.com/

Megan Gafford

"Taming Wicked Problems" is an illustrated essay by Megan Gafford that explores one reason why social issues seem so intractable. By dissecting contentious debates, Gafford shows why political arguments make us look upon the other side in horror. In better understanding the nature of such conflicts, we may never agree on solutions, but we may hate each other less when we argue. http://megangafford.com/

Liberty Rural Learning Cooperative

I, Maureen Hearty and co-founder of the LRLC, am a metal sculptress and community organizer. I have built a sculptural mini-library that stood in North Boulder for 5 years as a catalyst for space activation for community engagement. The sculpture was recently decommissioned due to entropy. Though delaying entropy is my specialty, in both my sculptural and community building practices. I have rebuilt the reclaimed steel mini-library and it is ready to engage again! I propose installing the Reading Tree Library, as it's called, and filling the cabinet with the voices of rural eastern Colorado with 3 editions of the Prairie Writers Zine (which includes youthful voices from 5 high schools) along with treasures that reflect life on the plains, creating an eastern Colorado mini-museum on the streets of Denver. https://www.grassrootscenter.org/copy-of-prairie-walk-park

Alexa Jared

My "fridge zines" incorporate my morning routines with exaggerated takes from my life as I get ready to "glow up." I use the heart/star shaped crowns/wands to help protect me against those who are bigoted against my identity. My zines display self-love and care, during my life as I transition into the woman I always wanted to be portrayed as.

Tara Rynders

The Clinic

Nurses and dancers will explore power dynamics found in nurse/patient relationships in hospital settings and dancer/audience member relationships in immersive theater and the role compassion fatigue plays in how we treat one another. These stories are their own compassion fatigue monologue based on their own personal stories and experiences with patients in the hospital setting. https://www.theclinicperformance.com/