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These gardens ask visitors to reconsider solitary confinement

Anna Deen

December 23, 2020 |

Grist |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New Orleans, Louisiana

Solitary Gardens is an art project that protests prisons' solitary confinement conditions. Incarcerated people connect with volunteers on the outside who plant flowers, vegetables, or herbs in beds matching the tiny dimensions of the prison cell that confined Herman Wallace for a record 41 years in Louisiana. The people inside prison imagine their garden, often with memory triggers of what they have lost, and their gardener carries out their plan. The idea is to make a place for grief, healing, public service, and public education, as the gardens in four cities teach about solitary confinement.

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How A 24-Year-Old CEO Makes Sustainable Tees from Milk

Frank Sesno Dan Reed Eugenia Harvey

December 15, 2020 |

Planet Forward |

Broadcast TV Talk Show |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States

After witnessing milk going to waste on his uncle dairy’s farm in China, Robert Lou came up with the idea to turn the leftover milk into clothing. It takes five glasses of milk to produce one t-shirt and he’s sold over 3,000 of them since launching his company Mi Terro. He hopes to use 15 percent of the world’s food waste in 20 years to lower greenhouse gas emissions and supply income to farmers. He’s also piloting a new flexible packaging material out of grain products.

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Coat as shelter: Designer Bas Timmer creates for people who have no home

Anne Pinto-Rodrigues

December 08, 2020 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Netherlands, Amsterdam

Since 2014, the Sheltersuit Foundation has distributed more than 12,000 combination jackets and sleeping bags in multiple nations to protect unhoused people from cold weather. Dutch clothing designer Bas Timmer designed the Sheltersuit, and a warmer-weather version, using donated leftover fabrics with liners from sleeping bags donated or discarded at festivals. Since the pandemic increased homelessness, the foundation has distributed the clothing to nearly 2,000 people in the Netherlands and South Africa. The foundation's workforce is made up mostly of refugees and the formerly homeless.

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Year of racial awakening may topple Richmond's last Confederate statue

Noah Robertson

December 02, 2020 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Richmond, Virginia

Richmond’s Robert E. Lee statue has become an example of American protest art as protesters have covered it in graffiti demanding racial justice and surrounded it with basketball hoops, gardens, tents, lawn chairs, and a grill for community gatherings. The site has become a symbol, a place of local pilgrimage, to collectively create a public space of belonging and protest racial injustices and systemic racism. The Lee statue is likely to be taken down soon, as all other confederate statues on "monument row" have been, because a judge recently struck down the legal challenges to the state’s plan to remove it.

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Female climate activists using Instagram to fight for Earth's future

Alexis Lanza

November 25, 2020 |

The 19th |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

A growing number of climate activists — mostly young women — are using social media to post about sustainability and encourage others to live a greener lifestyle. While climate activism can be a slow process, people are using Instagram to help make climate change feel more personal and energize followers to advocate for action at the local and national level.

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Richmond art studio helps people with disabilities stay connected

Isabella Bloom

November 20, 2020 |

Richmond Confidential |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, California

Nurturing Independence through Artistic Development provides classes and studio space for artists with disabilities. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the organization now offers six hours of daily virtual services to the 67 artists it serves, including sculpting, drawing, ceramics, and fashion making classes. Social activities, like bingo, cooking, meditation, and movement classes, are also offered online. The programming keeps the artists connected during the isolation of the pandemic and staff regularly text and call the artists who opt out of the virtual programming to maintain that connection.

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Streaming Needs to Pay Artists More—but There's an Idea From China That Could Help

William Ralston Niko Seizov

November 20, 2020 |

Slate |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: China

A music-streaming service in China has successfully created a revenue stream for artists who can monetize direct exchanges with their loyal fanbase. Platforms like Apple Music, Pandora, and Spotify are responsible for almost 80 percent of global music revenue but royalties to artists are generally low. Some applications and services in the United States have allowed artists to receive micropayments from fans but making the process easy and convenient would require the larger streaming services to cultivate direct exchanges and incentivize "a digital tip jar."

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An African American quilter confronts racism amid COVID-19

Jingnan Peng

November 17, 2020 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Video |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States

The killing of George Floyd inspired a series of exhibits in Minneapolis featuring quilts made by over 100 artists depicting stories of racial injustices and also empowerment in the United States. These protest quilts join a long tradition of sharing stories of fear and perseverance experienced by Black people, especially Black women, in society. Today, these same quilters responded to Covid-19 by making masks. The over 500 members of The Women of Color Quilters Network have made close to 20,000 masks, many of which they have given for free to health care and other front line workers.

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Bosnian Seniors Fight Loneliness Through Arts and Crafts

Lidija Pisker

November 09, 2020 |

Inforadar |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zenica

Nas Most uses artistic and cultural initiatives to combat loneliness among seniors. Over seven years, informal weekly meet-ups turned into formal painting and handicraft courses and membership grew from 30 to over 100 seniors. The association also organizes events to exhibit members’ works and partners with other groups to create and share podcasts, organize concerts, and offer other artistic events for seniors. Cultural exchanges with organizations in Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, and Serbia also help build social connections, which provide physical and mental health benefits for seniors.

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Music Against Covid-19 in Brasilândia

Priscila Pacheco Alexander de Maio Cecilia Marins Alessandra de Maio

October 28, 2020 |

Outriders |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Brazil, Brasilandia, Sao Paulo

Once regarded as the region in Sao Paulo with the highest number of COVID-19 deaths, Brasilandia residents mobilized their community to create a volunteer solidarity network that encouraged people to stay at home. The effort started with just a handful of participants but grew to over 200 volunteers with each new addition joining an action plan team that utilized a different form of campaigning, such as music or art. Since the implementation of the network Brasilandia "went from 1st to 2nd highest number of COVID-19 related deaths in the city."

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