I am including here an email I was cc'ed on from big thinker Karl Cronin to big heart-er Kahlil Almustafa. (Karl and Kahlil met as part of The Field's ERPA Planning grants!) THANK YOU so much Karl and Kahlil for inspiring me and The Field.....xoxo Jennifer Wright Cook, Executive Director
*************
Hi Kahlil,
I just wanted you to know that after months of brewing
I'm putting pen to paper and planning a series of house concerts
inspired by the model you developed with your ERPA project.
While the theme is still wavering between informal conversations about civic agency - http://newamericatour.tumblr.com/
and more focused conversations about social empowerment in rural queer youth - http://queerusa.wordpress.com/
the format is solid - offer art as a catalyst for folks to get folks together in informal settings and start talking.
I believe the intimacy, directness, and informality of house concerts
can create some of the most powerful moments of social transformation.
I have witnessed this first hand,
and am so pleased you chose to unearth and polish off this time tested social practice
and offer it to your fellow creatives.
Did you produce a "House Recital 101" article? If so, I'd love to read it.
Cheers,
Karl
Karl Cronin
karlcronin.com
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And Kahlil's reply!
*************************
Karl,
Thanks so much for this message.
A poet named Sekou Sundiata did a project: "finding the 51st (dream) state: Sekou Sundiata's America Project," that included "citizenship dinners." Take a look. There is a whole curriculum. http://mappinternational.org/blocks/view/295
A friend of mine has a project she just began to empower Queer youth in the south. Check it out: "http://shoutinoutfromthesouth.blogspot.com/"
I do not know about Tumblr. How does it work? What is it? I will check it out.
Oh my god, the New America Tour website is amazing, super-inspiring. Yea, yea, yea!!! Keep me updated. So, when you say "House Concerts" you mean via Ustream. I have been thinking about something similar. How did that work out.
So many thoughts, keep me posted,
kahlil
***********************
I am so glad to know both of these me. They make the world a better place.
Showing posts with label kahlil almustafa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kahlil almustafa. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
kahlil almustafa: Using the Tupperware Party Model to Sell Art
In 2009, I started using the Tupperware Party Model to hold Living Room Readings. Don’t laugh! Tupperware parties have sold billions of dollars of merchandise over the decades. To hold a Living Room Reading, I ask a person in my network to host their friends and family in their home or community space for an intimate gathering. During the event, we have discussions, play games, have a poetry reading, and sell books. This model can be easily replicated by writers, musicians, visual artists, dancers, and artists of all disciplines.
When inventor Earl Tupper developed those small plastic bowls in 1946, later known as Tupperware, those who witnessed it considered it a miracle. This new product was much lighter and less likely to break than traditional food containers made of glass. The problem was, Tupperware was not selling in retail stores. No one knew how they worked. It was out of this need to find a non-traditional method of reaching customers that the first Tupperware Home Party was born.
Artists are faced with a similar problem today. Our potential customers do not understand how “art works.” The same way Tupperware was not able to sell in retail stores, the traditional method of selling art through large institutions isn’t working. Both individual artists and arts organizations can learn from the Tupperware Party Economic Model to engage communities with their art while creating an additional revenue stream.
Here are two principles from the Tupperware Party Economic Model which artists can learn from:
People Need Demonstrations to Understand How the Product Works – Even though artistic expression is as ancient as human breath, for many people it is as revolutionary technology as those small plastic containers were in the 1950’s. In my career as a performance poet I have found that people need to see a demonstration of the product. Often times, after attending one of my workshops or performances, people will email me to tell me they used a poem in the book to start a conversation or they wrote a poem of their own. People realized they considered poetry irrelevant to their everyday lives. My demonstration reminded them of the usefulness of poetry in the world.
My guess is that this need for people to see “art work,” exists across artistic disciplines. How can a dancer remind someone to connect to their body? How many shower-singers are waiting to be reminded of the power of sharing their voice? When you transform someone’s relationship to the way art can be expressed in their lives, they are likely to become loyal supporters.
People are Empowered Through Participation – Everyone knows, if you go to a Tupperware Party, be ready to play games. Participation, from the host to the guests, are a key principle in the Tupperware Party Model. Games are an opportunity to engage the guests with the product. During these games, guests compete for play money which can be used to buy giveaways. This takes advantage of a universal human phenomenon: reciprocity. When people receive something free, they are inclined to give back. For you, this can mean ticket sales, donor support, or product purchases.
Let other People Promote - The Tupperware Party Economic Model takes advantage of one universal human characteristic: “people buy things from people they trust.” By using social networking, partnering with one host can lead to twenty to thirty new supporters, which in turn can lead to two or three more events. For artists, this is an excellent way to get around large cultural institutions, with their bloated budgets, and bring their art directly to people. This is an excellent way to develop your audience as an artist.
For my Living Room Readings, I arm hosts with promotional materials: a description of the event, a description of my book, a short bio, a photo, and a YouTube clip. Everyone wants to throw a good party, so the hosts are sure to promote. As they promote the event, they also promote me.
Using the Tupperware Party Economic Model gives artists access to performance space and the highly-coveted new audience. It also forces artists to get close up and personal with people, sharing their artistic process and breaking that fourth wall between performer and audience. Over the course of nine months, I held ten Living Room Readings, leading up to the publication of my book. At the release party, more than fifty percent of the audience had participated in a Living Room Reading. They came because they knew that poetry worked.
When inventor Earl Tupper developed those small plastic bowls in 1946, later known as Tupperware, those who witnessed it considered it a miracle. This new product was much lighter and less likely to break than traditional food containers made of glass. The problem was, Tupperware was not selling in retail stores. No one knew how they worked. It was out of this need to find a non-traditional method of reaching customers that the first Tupperware Home Party was born.
Artists are faced with a similar problem today. Our potential customers do not understand how “art works.” The same way Tupperware was not able to sell in retail stores, the traditional method of selling art through large institutions isn’t working. Both individual artists and arts organizations can learn from the Tupperware Party Economic Model to engage communities with their art while creating an additional revenue stream.
Here are two principles from the Tupperware Party Economic Model which artists can learn from:
People Need Demonstrations to Understand How the Product Works – Even though artistic expression is as ancient as human breath, for many people it is as revolutionary technology as those small plastic containers were in the 1950’s. In my career as a performance poet I have found that people need to see a demonstration of the product. Often times, after attending one of my workshops or performances, people will email me to tell me they used a poem in the book to start a conversation or they wrote a poem of their own. People realized they considered poetry irrelevant to their everyday lives. My demonstration reminded them of the usefulness of poetry in the world.
My guess is that this need for people to see “art work,” exists across artistic disciplines. How can a dancer remind someone to connect to their body? How many shower-singers are waiting to be reminded of the power of sharing their voice? When you transform someone’s relationship to the way art can be expressed in their lives, they are likely to become loyal supporters.
People are Empowered Through Participation – Everyone knows, if you go to a Tupperware Party, be ready to play games. Participation, from the host to the guests, are a key principle in the Tupperware Party Model. Games are an opportunity to engage the guests with the product. During these games, guests compete for play money which can be used to buy giveaways. This takes advantage of a universal human phenomenon: reciprocity. When people receive something free, they are inclined to give back. For you, this can mean ticket sales, donor support, or product purchases.
Let other People Promote - The Tupperware Party Economic Model takes advantage of one universal human characteristic: “people buy things from people they trust.” By using social networking, partnering with one host can lead to twenty to thirty new supporters, which in turn can lead to two or three more events. For artists, this is an excellent way to get around large cultural institutions, with their bloated budgets, and bring their art directly to people. This is an excellent way to develop your audience as an artist.
For my Living Room Readings, I arm hosts with promotional materials: a description of the event, a description of my book, a short bio, a photo, and a YouTube clip. Everyone wants to throw a good party, so the hosts are sure to promote. As they promote the event, they also promote me.
Using the Tupperware Party Economic Model gives artists access to performance space and the highly-coveted new audience. It also forces artists to get close up and personal with people, sharing their artistic process and breaking that fourth wall between performer and audience. Over the course of nine months, I held ten Living Room Readings, leading up to the publication of my book. At the release party, more than fifty percent of the audience had participated in a Living Room Reading. They came because they knew that poetry worked.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
kahlil almustafa: The Generative Artist Model: Placing Art & Artists in the Center of Community
As an artist living and working in New York City, I often suffer from the all-to-well-known phenomenon known as “artist burnout.” My art takes place in performance spaces, in community spaces, and in schools. I often run around from space to space chasing whoever has the best contract at the time. I call this the Artist Mercenary Model.
Like many artists, living contract-to-contract has a tendency to distort my art practice. For example, my work as a Teaching Artist includes hour-long commutes to schools in New York City’s outer boroughs where I am often given as little as 45 minutes to teach as many as 35 young people how to write poetry. As a Performance Poet, I am often asked to perform for fifteen to as little as three minutes. While these are opportunities to engage people with poetry, they do not go to the depths I believe needs to be explored.
For years, I have experienced my art and me as an artist relegated to the margins of conversations. It is always the mission and the mandate of the organizations, institutions or schools that take precedence over my artistic vision. At the end of many weeks, I often find myself asking what am I doing this for.
During the last three years, I have taken a stand for my artistic vision. To develop this vision, I enrolled in the MFA Program in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College. This provided a rigorous academic structure and community to develop my ideas. My participation in The Field's ERPA (Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists) grant program boosted my capacity to mobilize my vision. During the last three years, I have transitioned from the “Artist Mercenary Model” to what my artistic collaborator, Director Megan Sandberg-Zakian, calls the “Generative Artist Model.” As a Generative Artist, I am the initiator of the project, the holder of the vision, the expert in the room. As a Generative Artist, I am in the heart of community, the hub to keep the wheels turning.
In June, I held an event that is an excellent example of my growth as a visionary artist, “Growing Up Queens.” The event was part of Queens Council on the Arts’ Queens Arts Express four-day festival celebrating art along the 7 train line in Queens. Growing Up Queens combined my work as a performer and as an educator. Young people from five different schools I worked with during the year came together to share the stage with each other and with me. I also performed excerpts from my multimedia show, “Growing Up Hip-Hop: Plugged-In.” The event was an opportunity to celebrate expression.
"Growing Up Queens" was an example of being a Generative Artist. To produce this event, I engaged classroom teachers and schools, a performing arts center, and an arts organization with my vision. My years of experience producing student culminating performances within schools made me the expert at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center. I had a more in-depth experience with select students. The aesthetic and flow of the event followed my vision as opposed to the mandate of the schools.
Another example of my transitioning to the Generative Artist Model is my Poetry & Dialogue series “The People’s Inauguration.” On January 20, 2010, the one-year anniversary of Barack Obama’s Inauguration, I held a panel discussion at the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WNYC to celebrate the release of my collection of poems and discuss the first year since this historic moment. The panel format, “Poetry & Dialogue,” began with poetry readings from each chapter of my book, followed by responses by each of the four panelists. The event concluded with a personal letter I wrote to President Obama.
In contrast to the dozens of panel discussions that I participated in previously, I designed this one with poetry in the center of the conversation. As anyone who has ever attended a panel discussion knows, panelists tend to spew pre-formulated sound bites. During "The People’s Inauguration Event" the poetry engaged the panelists and the audience in dynamic ways, infusing sentiment and insight into the dialogue.
During the event, we created several opportunities for audience members to participate through the “Dear Barack” campaign. Before the event, they wrote letters to the President. After people wrote their letters, they had the opportunity to read them on camera. Audience member in attendance as well as those watching online could also participate by Twittering their comments and questions with the HashTag #dearbarack which was aggregated on a live feed on our website (www.dearbarack.mvmt.com). This was also in contrast to traditional panel discussions which only give audience members the limited Q&A session to contribute their voices to the conversation.
The People’s Inauguration event is a second example of the Generative Artist model. During the first year of Obama’s presidency, as U.S. citizens engaged in coarse debates at Town Hall Meetings, I offered an artist's approach to dialogue. By engaging the panelists and audience members through poetry and letters, I offered a method of expression where people felt comfortable expressing anger, disappointment, hope and joy and asking long-standing questions. Poetry and personal letters gave people permission to speak from the heart, to leave questions unanswered, and to embrace the contradictions.
These two events were examples of my transition from the Artist Mercenary Model to the Generative Artist Model. Producing these events did not earn me a lot of money. I probably made $800 from both events while putting in more than 80 hours for each event. That’s not even minimum wage. Still, I took a stand for myself as an artist, and made sure my mission and my vision was at the center of the conversation.
Like many artists, living contract-to-contract has a tendency to distort my art practice. For example, my work as a Teaching Artist includes hour-long commutes to schools in New York City’s outer boroughs where I am often given as little as 45 minutes to teach as many as 35 young people how to write poetry. As a Performance Poet, I am often asked to perform for fifteen to as little as three minutes. While these are opportunities to engage people with poetry, they do not go to the depths I believe needs to be explored.
For years, I have experienced my art and me as an artist relegated to the margins of conversations. It is always the mission and the mandate of the organizations, institutions or schools that take precedence over my artistic vision. At the end of many weeks, I often find myself asking what am I doing this for.
During the last three years, I have taken a stand for my artistic vision. To develop this vision, I enrolled in the MFA Program in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College. This provided a rigorous academic structure and community to develop my ideas. My participation in The Field's ERPA (Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists) grant program boosted my capacity to mobilize my vision. During the last three years, I have transitioned from the “Artist Mercenary Model” to what my artistic collaborator, Director Megan Sandberg-Zakian, calls the “Generative Artist Model.” As a Generative Artist, I am the initiator of the project, the holder of the vision, the expert in the room. As a Generative Artist, I am in the heart of community, the hub to keep the wheels turning.
In June, I held an event that is an excellent example of my growth as a visionary artist, “Growing Up Queens.” The event was part of Queens Council on the Arts’ Queens Arts Express four-day festival celebrating art along the 7 train line in Queens. Growing Up Queens combined my work as a performer and as an educator. Young people from five different schools I worked with during the year came together to share the stage with each other and with me. I also performed excerpts from my multimedia show, “Growing Up Hip-Hop: Plugged-In.” The event was an opportunity to celebrate expression.
"Growing Up Queens" was an example of being a Generative Artist. To produce this event, I engaged classroom teachers and schools, a performing arts center, and an arts organization with my vision. My years of experience producing student culminating performances within schools made me the expert at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center. I had a more in-depth experience with select students. The aesthetic and flow of the event followed my vision as opposed to the mandate of the schools.
Another example of my transitioning to the Generative Artist Model is my Poetry & Dialogue series “The People’s Inauguration.” On January 20, 2010, the one-year anniversary of Barack Obama’s Inauguration, I held a panel discussion at the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WNYC to celebrate the release of my collection of poems and discuss the first year since this historic moment. The panel format, “Poetry & Dialogue,” began with poetry readings from each chapter of my book, followed by responses by each of the four panelists. The event concluded with a personal letter I wrote to President Obama.
In contrast to the dozens of panel discussions that I participated in previously, I designed this one with poetry in the center of the conversation. As anyone who has ever attended a panel discussion knows, panelists tend to spew pre-formulated sound bites. During "The People’s Inauguration Event" the poetry engaged the panelists and the audience in dynamic ways, infusing sentiment and insight into the dialogue.
During the event, we created several opportunities for audience members to participate through the “Dear Barack” campaign. Before the event, they wrote letters to the President. After people wrote their letters, they had the opportunity to read them on camera. Audience member in attendance as well as those watching online could also participate by Twittering their comments and questions with the HashTag #dearbarack which was aggregated on a live feed on our website (www.dearbarack.mvmt.com). This was also in contrast to traditional panel discussions which only give audience members the limited Q&A session to contribute their voices to the conversation.
The People’s Inauguration event is a second example of the Generative Artist model. During the first year of Obama’s presidency, as U.S. citizens engaged in coarse debates at Town Hall Meetings, I offered an artist's approach to dialogue. By engaging the panelists and audience members through poetry and letters, I offered a method of expression where people felt comfortable expressing anger, disappointment, hope and joy and asking long-standing questions. Poetry and personal letters gave people permission to speak from the heart, to leave questions unanswered, and to embrace the contradictions.
These two events were examples of my transition from the Artist Mercenary Model to the Generative Artist Model. Producing these events did not earn me a lot of money. I probably made $800 from both events while putting in more than 80 hours for each event. That’s not even minimum wage. Still, I took a stand for myself as an artist, and made sure my mission and my vision was at the center of the conversation.
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