This video includes a Guild interview with Antoine Hunter in conversation with Warren WAWA Snipe. In this interview, Antoine shares his story as a deaf dancer, teaching artist, company director, and movement builder.
ASL and audio interpretation were provided for the recorded interview by D. Hartman and Gregorio Nieto from Pro Bono ASL. Pro Bono ASL also provided closed captioning.
Antoine Hunter (Purple Fire Crow) is a Bay area native and an award-winning African, Indigenous, Deaf, Disable, Two Spirit producer, choreographer, film/theater actor, dancer, dance instructor, model, poet, speaker, mentor and Deaf advocate. He teaches dance and ASL in both Hearing and Deaf communities and is the founder and artistic director of Urban Jazz Dance Company and has been producing the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival since 2013. Learn more.
Warren WAWA Snipe hails from the landscapes of DC/MD/VA area and is an acclaimed Hip Hop Recording Artist. In 2016, WAWA released his sophomore album “Deaf: So What?!, an album that “further explores the pursuit of proving that a disadvantage can be its polar opposite; an album of inspiration for those to understand and pursue music without the sense of hearing.” Learn more.
The following is a condensed transcription of a recent Guild interview with Antoine Hunter in conversation with Warren WAWA Snipe. In this interview, Antoine shares his story as a deaf dancer, teaching artist, company director, and movement builder. If you are using a screen reader, please note that there is punctuation to indicate areas where text has been extracted from the original transcript.
ASL and audio interpretation were provided for the recorded interview by D. Hartman and Gregorio Nieto from Pro Bono ASL. Pro Bono ASL also provided closed captioning.
Antoine Hunter (Purple Fire Crow) is a Bay area native and an award-winning African, Indigenous, Deaf, Disable, Two Spirit producer, choreographer, film/theater actor, dancer, dance instructor, model, poet, speaker, mentor and Deaf advocate. He teaches dance and ASL in both Hearing and Deaf communities and is the founder and artistic director of Urban Jazz Dance Company and has been producing the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival since 2013. Learn more.
Warren WAWA Snipe hails from the landscapes of DC/MD/VA area and is an acclaimed Hip Hop Recording Artist. In 2016, WAWA released his sophomore album “Deaf: So What?!, an album that “further explores the pursuit of proving that a disadvantage can be its polar opposite; an album of inspiration for those to understand and pursue music without the sense of hearing.” Learn more.
The following is a condensed, text-only, transcription of a recent Guild interview with Antoine Hunter in conversation with Warren WAWA Snipe. In this interview, Antoine shares his story as a deaf dancer, teaching artist, company director, and movement builder.
ASL and audio interpretation were provided for the recorded interview by D. Hartman and Gregorio Nieto from Pro Bono ASL. Pro Bono ASL also provided closed captioning.
Antoine Hunter (Purple Fire Crow) is a Bay area native and an award-winning African, Indigenous, Deaf, Disable, Two Spirit producer, choreographer, film/theater actor, dancer, dance instructor, model, poet, speaker, mentor and Deaf advocate. He teaches dance and ASL in both Hearing and Deaf communities and is the founder and artistic director of Urban Jazz Dance Company and has been producing the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival since 2013. Learn more.
Warren WAWA Snipe hails from the landscapes of DC/MD/VA area and is an acclaimed Hip Hop Recording Artist. In 2016, WAWA released his sophomore album “Deaf: So What?!, an album that “further explores the pursuit of proving that a disadvantage can be its polar opposite; an album of inspiration for those to understand and pursue music without the sense of hearing.” Learn more.
This article introduces a new tool that emerged from Inclusive Arts Vermont’s participation in the National Guild’s 2020-2021 Rootwork Learning Cohort. The Cohort supported community arts educators in studying, developing, and documenting practices that are grounded in, and supportive of, the many varied lived experiences of our communities and responsive to the movements of our time. The tool provides concrete ways for community arts educators to make their practice more accessible for disabled people in ways that align with antidotes to white supremacy culture.
Thriving Better Together: Creative Aging & Resilience | This is a three-part series about creative aging programs, how social isolation impacts elders, and the advocacy needed to address ageism and other forms of oppression within the arts and culture sector. Investing in strong, creative, resilient communities of care for our elders is, likewise, an act of care for all current and future generations.
This introductory session provides fundamental context for the creative aging movement and its proven impact on counteracting social isolation among older adults. This session will provide a better understanding of current practices in creative aging that specifically address social isolation and the research that underscores the beneficial outcomes of social engagement for older adults.
SPEAKER: Shireen McSpadden; Executive Director of Disability and Aging Services at the San Francisco Human Services Agency.
Break-out Group Facilitators: Eepi Chaad, Russ Grazier, and Eliza Kiser
Moderators: Tiffany Jackson & Sylvia Sherman
ASL English Interpretation provided by ProBono ASL
Additional Recourses:
April 15, 2021
Thriving Better Together: Creative Aging & Resilience | This is a three-part series about creative aging programs, how social isolation impacts elders, and the advocacy needed to address ageism and other forms of oppression within the arts and culture sector. Investing in strong, creative, resilient communities of care for our elders is, likewise, an act of care for all current and future generations.
Collective advocacy for creative aging work must come from our deep connection with each other and understanding of our shared experience. We are all aging. Join an intimate discussion between Tiffany Jackson, Director of Education at Bishop Arts Theatre Center in Dallas, and Aljosie Aldrich Harding, an elder of the Civil Rights Movement, social justice advocate, and spiritual guide who currently serves on the National Council of Elders. Together, they will provide insights into the importance of advocacy work in cultivating creative aging and community wellness throughout one’s life.
SPEAKERS: Aljosie Aldrich Harding & Tiffany Jackson
Break-out Group Facilitators: Gavin Farrell, Vita Litvak, and Maura O’Malley
Moderators: Tiffany Jackson & Sylvia Sherman
ASL English Interpretation provided by Pro Bono ASL
April 29, 2021
Thriving Better Together: Creative Aging & Resilience | This is a three-part series about creative aging programs, how social isolation impacts elders, and the advocacy needed to address ageism and other forms of oppression within the arts and culture sector. Investing in strong, creative, resilient communities of care for our elders is, likewise, an act of care for all current and future generations.
Learn about the common barriers to participation for older adults and how to build creative aging programs in collaboration with local partners that address your community’s needs. Gain inspiration and practical advice from leaders at two, distinct programs: Community Music Center’s San Francisco based Older Adult Choir Program in partnership with the Department of Disability and Aging Services and 12 senior centers and Creative Action’s multi-year partnership with the City of Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department.
SPEAKERS: Sylvia Sherman, Martha Rodríguez-Salazar, Melissa Bravo, Christie Jean-Jacques, and Benjamin Rustenhaven
Moderators: Tiffany Jackson & Sylvia Sherman
ASL English Interpretation provided by Pro Bono ASL
Additional Recourses
April 22, 2021
We as community arts educators and administrators have a responsibility to prioritize addressing racial injustice as a crucial part of our work. Structural and institutional racism and violence directly impact the people who make up our communities and our organizations. The Guild is beginning to build a foundation for anti-racism within our organization.
This article shares personal reflections from current and former staff on the Guild’s journey towards becoming anti-racist.
With the “Rootwork: Grounding Community Arts Education Beyond the Pandemic” program, the National Guild for Community Arts Education has intentionally brought together individuals from the field for an inquiry into how community arts education artists and administrators can better address longstanding racial and economic disparities and marginalization at cultural institutions and grassroots collectives.
In this article, we draw on a conversation with the three Advisors of the Guild's Rootwork program to explore how they envision the work of arts education in a post-COVID world.
Articles on supporting teaching artists, adultism, racial equity, and grounding community arts education beyond the pandemic.
