When, as a nonprofit, local government, or arts institution, we try to build relationships and trust in community, we are often operating from within systems that have done harm. Can we build a healthy “we” on a foundation of harm? What have we changed? What have we repaired? What have we made right? Who is being centered, every day, by what we do now and how we do it?

Your vision of a nation that works for everyone is dependent on all Americans committing to build a story together- a narrative that includes all, cares for all and is based in a shared vision for what the Public in Public Health should mean.

We find that one of the key barriers to successful collaboration between artists and community residents and partners is frequently a lack of clarity and communication about the why and the how- why is each partner working on the project? How do they want to work on the project? How will decisions be made? Who is being served?

I think, as artists and organizers involved in a collaborative form that demands, arguably, one skill above all others, we are at a moment where we can put that skill to new use. That skill is listening, and we can radically alter our role in our communities if we employ it with greater intentionality and generosity.