Over the past hundred days, KQED Arts has been tracking artistic responses to the Trump Administration.
Toward the end of that time period, I gathered a small group of creative people working at the front lines of the Bay Area’s artistic resistance — interdisciplinary artist and activist Favianna Rodriguez, spoken-word poet and playwright Marc Bamuthi Joseph, stand up comedian Dhaya Lakshminarayanan, and music impresario Jordan Kurland — for a conversation.
I wanted to know how their jobs had changed, and what strategies they had to keep placing culture at the heart of the ongoing struggle for things like civil rights and environmental justice.
“The role of artists is so critical, because we need to shift culture. And culture moves so much more quickly than politics. In fact, politics is the manifestation of an idea whose time has already come.” – Favianna Rodriguez
What follows is an edited version of our discussion which took place before a live audience at The Battery in San Francisco on Thursday, Apr. 20.
