Kyle “Guante” Tran Myhre
I’ve been thinking a lot about the intersections of art and activism in the Twin Cities. I know: both of those ideas are very broad. “Activism,” in particular, is a label that can be applied to just about any action, and we could sit here and argue about what’s “real” activism and what’s not forever. For the sake of this discussion, though, I just have a few questions:
What kind of power does art—and more importantly, the artistic community—have to impact the larger discussion? How can our work as artists be more relevant and powerful? How can our work have a physical, concrete impact on our neighborhoods? What opportunities are there just over the horizon?
Here are a few of my thoughts. If you have more, please leave a comment.
More All-Ages Shows
I’m at a point in my career where I’m just about done with bars and clubs, and I know I’m not alone on that. All-ages shows are more fun, sometimes more profitable, and definitely better for the community as a whole. Because of the relative lack of all-ages venues (although there are definitely some good ones), we need to be creative, too: I’d love to see more music/poetry/dance shows in alternative spaces—parks, theaters, community centers, libraries, reclaimed spaces, etc. As musicians, let’s not get stuck in the mindset of assuming that every concert has to be at a concert venue.
Related to this, we also shouldn’t assume that every event has to cater to the same couple hundred scenesters in a club downtown. Let’s have more neighborhood-focused shows. The recent Grounds & Sounds Festival at Groundswell Coffee in St. Paul, and the Phillips Music Festival in Minneapolis, were both beautiful examples of this.
Sharing Resources and Opportunities
It’s no secret that there is a lot of grant money available to artists in Minnesota. Actually, it is a secret, depending on who you are and whom you know. For those of us who understand the system, let’s do more work to share that knowledge. This money shouldn’t just be flowing to established institutions and individuals.
And it’s not just about grants. Last week, Rafael Gonzalez (better known as Mavin MC from local hip hop trio Illuminous 3) organized the aforementioned Phillips Music Fest. It was an inspiring event, and part of the event was a workshop the day before for young hip hop artists focused on sharing knowledge, tips and resources: how to send out a press release, how to effectively use social media, how to reach out to venues and promoters, etc.
All of the knowledge we need exists within our communities; I’m excited to hold this workshop, and others like it, again and again.
More Attention Paid to the Youth Spoken-Word Scene
Some of the most revolutionary youth/arts/activist work happening in this country right now is happening through youth spoken-word organizations—from YouthSpeaks to Young Chicago Authors to our own TruArtSpeaks. They are doing work at the intersection of radical pedagogy, youth development/leadership and performance art, and it’s inspiring to see. In five years, I’d love to see teaching artists in every school, all-ages slams and open mics every week, and the young people themselves leading the charge at every level.
Part of this is on spoken-word artists to break out of our bubble and be more visible in the larger community, but part of this is also on the larger community—don’t buy into the stereotypes associated with slam poetry. We have one of the best scenes, and some of the most talented youth, in the world—come to a show sometime.
A Series of Twin Cities Teach-Ins
It’s not always about the art; often, it’s about the communities and networks that artists have access to. Minnesota hip hop pioneer Truthmaze had this idea: rather than just responding to injustice, let’s be proactive and organize a series of consciousness-raising teach-ins: could be a panel discussion on the school-to-prison pipeline, or a “know your rights” workshop for dealing with police, or an all-purpose community organizing workshop, or a debate on what it means to be an ally, etc. I’m not saying that these things aren’t already happening—they are. But let’s do even more of them.
A More Organic Partnership Between Artists and Organizers
I’ve written about this before. We both have so much to offer one another, in terms of skills, support, networks, and knowledge. I would love to see more activist events that organically integrate arts programming, rather than tacking them on. I would love to see more arts events that organically integrate activist causes in a way that goes beyond just “raising awareness.” I would love to see someone take over the MN Activist Project and continue pushing it. I would love to see some rebirth or re-conceptualization of Yo! The Movement. I would love to see all the stuff I wrote about in the linked piece happen more and more often.
When we started throwing the Hip Hop Against Homophobia shows a few years back, the idea wasn’t so much about fighting homophobia in hip hop (though that was certainly part of it) as it was smashing two big, diverse, beautiful communities together. Let’s keep doing that. Let’s keep finding ways to create creative intersections, to highlight overlaps and potential synergies.
This is all stuff that I’m working on, and part of why I wanted to post this was so that my community could hold me accountable. But I also want people to borrow, re-imagine or remix these ideas. Let’s build. If you have other ideas, disagreements, or questions, please leave a comment.
Opine Season 
One of my “maybe someday” fantasies involve opening an 826 Valencia type of writing/arts youth center, but I would also love it to have workshops on the missing curriculum – much like “know your rights” or even missing history that gets glossed over in traditional education. It would also have recording and performance space. Youth, especially youth who are not especially privileged, have such a strong sense of injustice and empathy that I think activism would be a natural outcropping of such a place.
6. I would love it if young artists created their own PAC. You want your voice heard by politicians? Speak their language. And their language sounds like dollar bills. I think about this when I hear the phrase “speaking truth to power”. I usually think: power’s not listening. But the truth is that you gotta speak truth in the right language, otherwise power doesn’t hear you. You don’t have to raise a bagillion dollars, especially if you want to affect local politics. But you have to raise.
I love this topic. Love it.
In no particular order…..
1. I think it would be cool if there were awesome polling signs for election sites. I think it would be cool if local artists did local signs for their own polling locations, for example. And it’s not like each polling location can only have one. You can always have multiple polling location signs, if more than one artist lives in the same precinct.
2. I think it would be awesome if local artists created logos and swag designs for candidates who supported the issues that were important to local artists.
3. I went to a rally not too long ago for public education and the best speakers at the rally were students performing their own pieces about the importance of the arts, teaching, education, and strong public schools. It was very powerful. I loved seeing young, concerned citizens having the space to speak out at rallies. They filled the space.
4. I think it would be cool if artists offered voter registration at their performances. Instead of integrating artists into organizing, we can also integrate organizers into art.
5. Some polling locations on election day have very long lines. And sometimes those lines last until 9pm at night. In the cold. I think it would be awesome if artists performed outside for voters standing in those lines. Local bakers can deliver food to voters. Local artists can perform. Standing in a long line doesn’t have to be awful.