Visual ethnographer Michael P. Smith often described New Orleans as a “cultural wetland."1 It is from this framework that I similarly consider Waterfront South, the Camden neighborhood where my organization Camden FireWorks is situated. Often non-residents describe Camden using deficit-based descriptors like “underserved,” “disenfranchised,” or “poor.” Although Waterfront South people implicitly...

Words are important. Words are all around us and with you right now as you read this. Words, to me, are among the most beautiful gifts that I have ever gotten from or given to anyone. I believe this so strongly that I’ve dedicated myself to ensuring that words play an important part in the lives of others. I currently serve as my hometown’s Poet Laureate. As the first ever poet laureate of...

Anyone who knows me, knows that I breathe art. Not just through the paintings and drawings I love to make. It is in the frequencies I listen to; the words I write in 100 journals; random dancing in the kitchen with my siblings; the movies I get lost in with friends; the books that transport me to other worlds; the pictures that capture a fleeting moment or the light inside of a person. It is the...

Until around March 13 – as close to the Ides of March as one can get – the nonprofit arts sector in New Jersey had major bragging rights. And it still does. I know you miss arts experiences as we knew them before the quarantine shutdown. The music that lit up the night and made you dance. The anticipation you sensed when you entered a theatre, excited about what you were about to experience on...

Each year, the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services offers the public an opportunity to bring budget concerns to the Assembly Appropriations Committee and the Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee. ArtPride trustee Jeremy Johnson testified before the Assembly Committee, and ArtPride staff member Ann Marie Miller testified before both committees. This was an opportunity to remind elected...

What happens when you get five business leaders in a room filled with hungry learners who want to know the secrets to making their downtowns come alive? This was the scene at the recent New Jersey League of Municipalities Conference where ArtPride and the Housing & Community Development Network of New Jersey collaborated to showcase success stories in progress in Hackensack, Atlantic City, Trenton...

It’s back to school time and that means this week is National Arts in Education Week. It is such a critical time to show your support for arts education in New Jersey. Arts education creates not only artists but well-rounded humans that thrive in creative workplace environments. Now, if you aren’t familiar with this national celebration, here is a little background provided by our friends at...

Five years ago, I put a personal and institutional moratorium on making theatre. coLAB Arts had a massive question that had been hanging in the air for the five years since the organization first started: Why do we exist? Why does there need to be another loosely held together group of emerging interdisciplinary artists in New Jersey making work for themselves? And why New Brunswick? We had...

Nearly 300 arts professionals from across New Jersey gathered at Princeton University’s Lewis Arts complex and McCarter Theatre Center on June 7 for the Thrive Arts Conference to explore that very question. Thrive is presented every other year through a partnership among ArtPride New Jersey, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and the Lewis Center or the Arts at Princeton. The fourth edition...

What is “48 Blocks Atlantic City? Atlantic City is fairly small as cities go. It stretches only 48 blocks from the inlet to neighboring Ventnor City. Tucked within those 48 blocks, in the shadows of towering casino-hotels, is a community of wonderfully diverse and creative residents. “48 Blocks Atlantic City” is a weekend-long celebration of Atlantic City’s arts, history, culture, and community...