"It comes back to not letting the Trump Administration frame the problem, but remembering the world and the environment and the circumstances under which we want to work."
– Yanira Castro
We talk about: the arts funding landscape, inviting audiences to create systems of cooperation, "thinking in an emergency," performance as civic orientation, resilience practices, "scoring freedom" and much more…
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Yanira Castro's work is rooted in communal construction as a rehearsal for radical democracy. She is an interdisciplinary artist born in Borikén (Puerto Rico) and living in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn). Castro forms iterative, multimodal projects that center the complexity of land, citizenship, and governance in works activated and performed by the public. Co-creating with a team of collaborators under the name, a canary torsi, she investigates choreography as a practice of collective embodiment, grappling with agency and communal action as a body politic. She has developed over fifteen projects that have been recognized with national awards, commissions and residency support, including Creative Capital, Herb Alpert Award in the Arts for Dance, NYSCA/NYFA Interdisciplinary Artist and Choreography Fellowships, and two Bessie Awards for Outstanding Production. She has recently been in residence at LMCC, MacDowell, Yaddo, and The Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography.
RESOURCES & REFERENCES
To receive emails for IRL and virtual gatherings for Circle Up, an effort to build and strengthen the performance artist community through knowledge shares and collective action, contact Yanira at hello@acanarytorsi.org.
ArtPlace America, Local Control, Local Fields
Creating New Futures: Notes for Equitable Funding
In Thinking in an Emergency, Elaine Scarry lays bare the realities of “emergency” politics and emphasizes what she sees as the ultimate ethical concern: “equality of survival.” She reveals how regular citizens can reclaim the power to protect one another and our democratic principles.
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The War on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, The New Yorker, February 8, 2025
Council of Nonprofits, Executive Orders Impacting Nonprofits
PR News Wire, American Alliance for Equal Rights Files Request to IRS
President Trump’s executive order “Restoring Public Service Loan Forgiveness,” issued March 7, 2025
Sustainable Economies Law Center
For more information and resources about legal support and capacity-building for your art practice and/or arts organization, visit https://www.movementlaw.net/.