Improvising for Social Change: A Generative Art and Action Workshop [Durham, NC]

from $10.00

**This course is in-person only. There is no virtual component. Participants must be age 21+

Full Tuition: $200 — Scholarship options are available in the drop-down enrollment menu for you to self-select.

Instructor: Jay Hammond | 2 Weeks | Saturdays | August 17 & 24 | 2:00 - 5:00 PM ET | IN PERSON, 719 N Mangum St., Durham, NC

Improvisation can be a laboratory for social change. Improvisation is a complex human activity that changes social dynamics, and musical improvisation in particular has been central to movements for social justice. Musicians, activists and writers such as Alice Coltrane, Sun Ra, Nicolle Mitchell Ghant and Octavia Butler have often been at the center of such activities. Spiritual musical genres and philosophies from Gospel to Afrofuturism have played a central role, while contemporary multi-racial movements for economic justice continue to employ strategies gleaned from musical improvisation. Over the course of two weeks, we will learn about this history of art, activism and scholarship that consciously seeks to harness the power of improvisation to change harmful social norms, and we'll work on our own improvisation exercises to compose text scores. We'll ask questions such as: How can learning more about improvisation help us to co-create what adrienne maree brown has called "Emergent Strategies" for social and political change? You will walk away from the course with the tools to research and make your own improvisatory work, along with the seeds of a new collective or individual project that integrates critical inquiry, activism, and artistic practice. 

This class will take place in person at Night School Bar in Durham. Night School requires that students refrain from attending in-person classes when sick. For more on our class policies, see our FAQ. Instructors will also follow this policy. If your instructor is sick, class may be moved to online for a session or rescheduled to the week following the final scheduled session at the instructor’s discretion.

Sliding Scale: Night School Bar pays instructors and staff a living wage. We ask that people who make above the living wage threshold for their area strongly consider choosing 50% or higher tuition tiers in order to support our own living wage program. For Durham, NC, where we are located, the living wage threshold is $49,000 for an individual. All scholarship needs are self-assessed, and we will never request or require proof of need.


Scholarships: We are currently able to offer three full scholarships per class. Our full scholarship tier is a nonrefundable offering, limited to one per student per month.Because our scholarship funding is limited, selecting multiple full scholarships in a single month will result in disenrollment from all classes. If the scholarship tier you need is sold out please email us directly, and we will add you to a waitlist and notify you if additional scholarships become available. Please see our FAQ for more information, including installment plans and refund policy.

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**This course is in-person only. There is no virtual component. Participants must be age 21+

Full Tuition: $200 — Scholarship options are available in the drop-down enrollment menu for you to self-select.

Instructor: Jay Hammond | 2 Weeks | Saturdays | August 17 & 24 | 2:00 - 5:00 PM ET | IN PERSON, 719 N Mangum St., Durham, NC

Improvisation can be a laboratory for social change. Improvisation is a complex human activity that changes social dynamics, and musical improvisation in particular has been central to movements for social justice. Musicians, activists and writers such as Alice Coltrane, Sun Ra, Nicolle Mitchell Ghant and Octavia Butler have often been at the center of such activities. Spiritual musical genres and philosophies from Gospel to Afrofuturism have played a central role, while contemporary multi-racial movements for economic justice continue to employ strategies gleaned from musical improvisation. Over the course of two weeks, we will learn about this history of art, activism and scholarship that consciously seeks to harness the power of improvisation to change harmful social norms, and we'll work on our own improvisation exercises to compose text scores. We'll ask questions such as: How can learning more about improvisation help us to co-create what adrienne maree brown has called "Emergent Strategies" for social and political change? You will walk away from the course with the tools to research and make your own improvisatory work, along with the seeds of a new collective or individual project that integrates critical inquiry, activism, and artistic practice. 

This class will take place in person at Night School Bar in Durham. Night School requires that students refrain from attending in-person classes when sick. For more on our class policies, see our FAQ. Instructors will also follow this policy. If your instructor is sick, class may be moved to online for a session or rescheduled to the week following the final scheduled session at the instructor’s discretion.

Sliding Scale: Night School Bar pays instructors and staff a living wage. We ask that people who make above the living wage threshold for their area strongly consider choosing 50% or higher tuition tiers in order to support our own living wage program. For Durham, NC, where we are located, the living wage threshold is $49,000 for an individual. All scholarship needs are self-assessed, and we will never request or require proof of need.


Scholarships: We are currently able to offer three full scholarships per class. Our full scholarship tier is a nonrefundable offering, limited to one per student per month.Because our scholarship funding is limited, selecting multiple full scholarships in a single month will result in disenrollment from all classes. If the scholarship tier you need is sold out please email us directly, and we will add you to a waitlist and notify you if additional scholarships become available. Please see our FAQ for more information, including installment plans and refund policy.

**This course is in-person only. There is no virtual component. Participants must be age 21+

Full Tuition: $200 — Scholarship options are available in the drop-down enrollment menu for you to self-select.

Instructor: Jay Hammond | 2 Weeks | Saturdays | August 17 & 24 | 2:00 - 5:00 PM ET | IN PERSON, 719 N Mangum St., Durham, NC

Improvisation can be a laboratory for social change. Improvisation is a complex human activity that changes social dynamics, and musical improvisation in particular has been central to movements for social justice. Musicians, activists and writers such as Alice Coltrane, Sun Ra, Nicolle Mitchell Ghant and Octavia Butler have often been at the center of such activities. Spiritual musical genres and philosophies from Gospel to Afrofuturism have played a central role, while contemporary multi-racial movements for economic justice continue to employ strategies gleaned from musical improvisation. Over the course of two weeks, we will learn about this history of art, activism and scholarship that consciously seeks to harness the power of improvisation to change harmful social norms, and we'll work on our own improvisation exercises to compose text scores. We'll ask questions such as: How can learning more about improvisation help us to co-create what adrienne maree brown has called "Emergent Strategies" for social and political change? You will walk away from the course with the tools to research and make your own improvisatory work, along with the seeds of a new collective or individual project that integrates critical inquiry, activism, and artistic practice. 

This class will take place in person at Night School Bar in Durham. Night School requires that students refrain from attending in-person classes when sick. For more on our class policies, see our FAQ. Instructors will also follow this policy. If your instructor is sick, class may be moved to online for a session or rescheduled to the week following the final scheduled session at the instructor’s discretion.

Sliding Scale: Night School Bar pays instructors and staff a living wage. We ask that people who make above the living wage threshold for their area strongly consider choosing 50% or higher tuition tiers in order to support our own living wage program. For Durham, NC, where we are located, the living wage threshold is $49,000 for an individual. All scholarship needs are self-assessed, and we will never request or require proof of need.


Scholarships: We are currently able to offer three full scholarships per class. Our full scholarship tier is a nonrefundable offering, limited to one per student per month.Because our scholarship funding is limited, selecting multiple full scholarships in a single month will result in disenrollment from all classes. If the scholarship tier you need is sold out please email us directly, and we will add you to a waitlist and notify you if additional scholarships become available. Please see our FAQ for more information, including installment plans and refund policy.