Our Journal

Our record and approach for reflection so that we can learn from our experiences and use them as lessons that we can apply towards future projects.

We invite you to use it as a source for inspiration.

You’ll find content covering our past and current projects to resources for artists and nonprofits.

LOOM:FIELD by BANDALOOP at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History
Cultural Event Documentation DARIS JASPER Cultural Event Documentation DARIS JASPER

LOOM:FIELD by BANDALOOP at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History

LOOM is a trilogy of large-scale, outdoor public vertical dance pieces directed by BANDALOOP Artistic Director Melecio Estrella that deepens and challenges our perspective on the art and industry of textiles. Bringing together a collective of performing artists, climate scientists, regenerative textile artists, a visual technologist, and creative riggers, the evening-length piece turns a building’s façade into a giant loom where stories and dances interlace. The result of this multi-layered collaboration is spoken word, vertical dance, fabric manipulation, film segments, and original music. As vertical dance is a form that relies on state-of-the-science woven nylon climbing ropes, LOOM locates BANDALOOP’s core technical framework in a textile lineage.

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STS9 at the Quarry Amplitheather
Cultural Event Documentation DARIS JASPER Cultural Event Documentation DARIS JASPER

STS9 at the Quarry Amplitheather

Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9) is an instrumental band whose sound is based heavily on instrumental rock and electronic music, funk, jazz, drum and bass, psychedelia, and hip hop, originating in Georgia, United States. Self-described as "post-rock dance music,"[3] the band mixes standard live rock instrumentation with electronics, favoring group rhythm over individual solos.

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ABOLITION. FEMINISM. NOW. W/ ANGELA DAVIS, GINA DENT, ERICA MEINERS, AND BETH RICHIE
Cultural Event Documentation DARIS JASPER Cultural Event Documentation DARIS JASPER

ABOLITION. FEMINISM. NOW. W/ ANGELA DAVIS, GINA DENT, ERICA MEINERS, AND BETH RICHIE

As a politic and a practice, abolition increasingly shapes our political moment—halting the construction of new jails and propelling movements to divest from policing. Yet erased from this landscape are not only the central histories of feminist—usually queer, anti-capitalist, grassroots, and women of color—organizing that continue to cultivate abolition but a recognition of the stark reality: abolition is our best response to endemic forms of state and interpersonal gender and sexual violence.

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Pamela Z at the Rio Theater
Cultural Event Documentation DARIS JASPER Cultural Event Documentation DARIS JASPER

Pamela Z at the Rio Theater

Pamela Z is a composer/performer and media artist working with voice, live electronic processing, sampled sound, and video. A pioneer of live digital looping techniques, she processes her voice in real-time to create dense, complex sonic layers. Her solo works combine experimental extended vocal techniques, operatic bel canto, found objects, text, and sampled concrete sounds.

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Nishat Khan and David Murray in concert at the Rio Theater
Cultural Event Documentation DARIS JASPER Cultural Event Documentation DARIS JASPER

Nishat Khan and David Murray in concert at the Rio Theater

This event was part of Surge: Explorations in Afrofuturism, a multidimensional and transcultural month-long festival on Afrofuturism spearheaded by composer/performer Karlton Hester, choreographer Gerald Casel, and artist Aaron Samuel Mulenga. Afrofuturism is a global artistic and social movement, intent on imagining a world where African-descended peoples and cultures can live and flourish. For Surge, an extended program of music and dance performances, film screenings, and discussions will bring together artists and thinkers to creatively engage Afrofuturist strategies for liberation and the restructuring of society free of racism

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NOT ABOUT RACE DANCE
Cultural Event Documentation DARIS JASPER Cultural Event Documentation DARIS JASPER

NOT ABOUT RACE DANCE

A special performance, in collaboration with GERALDCASELDANCE and featuring an all-BIPOC dance ensemble, titled: Not About Race Dance— a collaborative, choreographic response to the unacknowledged racial politics in U.S. postmodern dance. This event is part of Surge: Explorations in Afrofuturism, a multidimensional and transcultural month-long festival on Afrofuturism.

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Strange Weather at Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History
Cultural Event Documentation DARIS JASPER Cultural Event Documentation DARIS JASPER

Strange Weather at Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History

Strange Weather: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation features contemporary art works which illuminate and reframe the boundaries of bodies and the environment. The artworks included in the exhibition span five decades, from 1970-2020, and are drawn together for how they creatively call attention to the impact and history of forced migrations, industrialization, global capitalism, and trauma on humans and the contemporary landscape.

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Climate Futures
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Climate Futures

The project was entitled Climate Futures. ComEd invited a group of roughly 30 youth from Bronzeville to participate in a future-visioning program, inspired by techniques used by professional futurists. They dreamed up social and technological inventions that respond to climate change in ingenious and resourceful ways through the project.

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Nearly $200K In Grants Announced For “ENVISIONING JUSTICE” Projects Across State of Illinois

Nearly $200K In Grants Announced For “ENVISIONING JUSTICE” Projects Across State of Illinois

Illinois Humanities announced today it will award $190,000 in grants to 26 organizations and individuals to support projects across Illinois that respond to the impacts of mass incarceration and collectively envision a society that is restorative, healing, and just for all.

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Join our nest.

We are always interested in learning about organizations and artists that are doing the work, making a difference, and taking control over their own narratives. We are continuously seeking to work with those that are doing their part to make history and shape the future for the better.