#DaretoImagine Week of Pop-Up Cultural Actions

During the week of Dare to Imagine in October 10-18th 2015, a week of creative actions and events organized by the U.S. Department of Arts & Culture - USDAC (a non-government people-powered arts and culture social justice network), Betty and others in NYC helped organize (4) NYC based large scale events. They collaborated with neighborhood residents and activists to design and structure the content. Collaborations included partnering with artists in East and West Harlem and groups like Picture the Homeless and Brotherhood/SisterSol. USDAC in NYC also collaborated with community-based art groups like The Laundromat Project, Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts (NOCD-NY), and JACK Art Center to hold Dare to Imagine activities.

"Staying in Harlem" Dare to Imagine in West Harlem with Brotherhood SisterSol

Check out more photos from the the "Staying in Harlem" Dare to Imagine event with Brotherhood SisterSol.

Dare To Imagine with Picture the Homeless

Dare to Imagine with Picture the Homeless #HandsOffTheHomeless Letters to Mayor DeBlasio

Artists Letter Writing for our Dare to Imagine with NOCD-NY

Check out more photos from the Dare to Imagine event with Picture the Homeless

Check out these links to learn more about these events:

Picture the Homeless: Evening of Cultural Resistance

Emissary Spotlight: #DaretoImagine in New York City

USDAC NYC-based Art-Infused "Imaginings" Bring Together Hundreds to Envision Housing Justice

This past Summer, as a 2015 NYC U.S. Department of Arts & Culture (a non-government people-powered arts and culture social justice network) Cultural Agent, Betty organized two successful community-based art-infused events, “Imagining: Creative Strategies to Fight Gentrification” in June and July 2015 bringing together over 300 artists, cultural workers, mediamakers, housing rights activists, organizers, community residents and other stakeholders to imagine a future where everyone has adequate housing and it is seen as a human right.

It was unique in that it brought together a cross section of movement and cultural leaders and social justice artists to tackle the omni-present issue of gentrification in our neighborhoods throughout NYC. Participants expressed the desire to have a regular space for organizers, activists, artists, creative folks and other stakeholders to meet and share creative and cultural strategies. From the discussions at smaller scale, place-based Imaginings to other more informal conversations- an overwhelming amount of New Yorkers agree that gentrification and housing displacement is a to key issue facing all New Yorkers and connects and cuts across many other issues like police violence, education reform, labor rights. 

Check out photos from the June 2nd

Also, check out this article about the event.

Participants Break Out into Groups by Borough

A "People's Anti-Displacement Art Hub" displaying housing justice and anti-displacement themed art

Cultural workers, artists, filmmakers and organizers share their cultural work and needs

Each breakout group created visual maps - illustrating their vision for housing justice in hte year 2035

Join us on June 2nd for a " NYC Imagining: Creative Strategies to Fight Gentrification"

Join us on Tuesday, June 2nd for an “Imagining” in New York City that will bring together community members, organizers, artists, cultural workers, and other stakeholders to imagine the creative approaches, organizing strategy and bold vision we need to win anti-gentrification and anti-displacement fights in NYC now and into the future. 

We are in a critical juncture in New York City’s fight against gentrification to preserve affordable housing for working class and low income New Yorkers. During Mayor Bloomberg’s 12-year reign, he passed over 120 rezoning plans that has and will ostensibly displaced thousands of low-income, immigrant, and residents of color from their neighborhoods. Everyday New Yorkers are already struggling and getting systematically pushed out of their city; with declining wages, increase in costs of living and rent prices skyrocketing. Yet, hard-hit communities are organizing to resist this massive displacement across the city.

The event is part celebration and part envisioning and strategizing. Participants will take part in a collective-imagining process where we will ask ourselves: “What the year 2034 might look like when art’s transformative power has been fully integrated into all aspects of public and community organizing life, such as housing as a human right?”

Organized by U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC), a non-government people-powered department, inciting creativity in the service of empathy, equity, and social imagination. www.usdac.us

This NYC Imagining is being coordinated by an diverse group of artists, cultural workers, activists and organizers.

For more on the event email Betty Yu (2015 NYC Cultural Agent with the USDAC) bettyyu21@gmail.com or ImaginingNYC@gmail.com.

*Special thanks to New Sanctuary Coalition of NYC for the space.

Betty presents at World Press Photo in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico in April

Promedios Presents

The Pedagogy of Photography & Digital Storytelling for Social Change

Presenter: Betty Yu, filmmaker, artist and educator, Chinese American

Translator: Mario Roberto Najera, Promedios de Comunicacion Comunitaria

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Date: April 7, 2015, 19:00

 Location: Kinoki, Belisario Dominguez #5A (Corner of Real de Guadalupe), San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas

 Description of Presentation:

The presentation focuses on Betty Yu's experiences with marginalized communities such as immigrant workers, youth of color, homeless and U.S. war veterans utilizing the tools of photography, video and digital storytelling to advocate for social change in the United States. Through the process of photo documentation and digital editing, community members are able to tell their own stories and transform their lives.

Betty Yu's "Discovering My Grandfather Through Mao" featured in On-lIne Festival

Betty Yu's 2012 short film, "Discovering My Grandfather Through Mao" is now streaming online as part of Culture Unplugged's Humanity Explored FIlm Festival.

From Betty Yu's "Discovering My Grandfather Through Mao"

"Discovering My Grandfather Through Mao" (18mins) 

Synopsis: “Discovering My Grandfather through Mao” is a short documentary about my personal journey as I uncover my grandfather’s radical history as a labor organizer and co-founder of the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance of New York (CHLA), one of the oldest Chinese-American labor organizations in this country. 

My grandfather, Sui Woo, was a hand laundry worker. He got together with other workers and recognized the need for an organization that could challenge the racist and anti-Chinese policies in the 1930's America.

Betty Yu selected as 2015 Cultural Agent of the U.S. Department of Arts & Education

The US Department of Arts & Culture (USDAC)'s Cultural Agents are selected from a nation-wide open call. Their first mission? Enacting the USDAC at a local level by hosting Imaginings—vibrant, arts-infused gatherings which bring together a diverse cross-section of neighbors to 1) envision their towns and cities in the year 2034 when the full transformative power of art and culture has been integrated into the fabric of society, and 2) to identify ways to get there, harnessing latent artistic talent and local cultural resources.

While each Cultural Agent organizes in his/her own community, each cohort also works together to help spark a larger national conversation around cultivating the empathy and imagination we need to create a future we wish to inhabit.

Full List of the 2015 Cohort of Cultural Agents

More about US Department of Arts & Culture (USDAC):

The U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC) is the nation's newest people-powered department, founded on the truth that art and culture are our most powerful and under-tapped resources for social change. Radically inclusive, useful and sustainable, and vibrantly playful, the USDAC aims to spark a grassroots, creative change movement, engaging millions in performing and creating a world rooted in empathy, equity, and social imagination. 

The U.S. Department of Arts and Culture is an action network of artists and cultural workers mobilizing creativity in the service of social justice. Locally, we support creative individuals in leading arts-infused civic dialogues and changemaking initiatives by connecting them to a broader network of people, training, and resources. Nationally, we amplify impact through large-scale actions and calls for creative response, building momentum for positive social change and democratic cultural policy. We harness artists’ skills to address the issues of our day, while also nourishing the artist in all of us.