Zoe Grigsby is fundraising
Join Us: Amplify Voices After Prison - ACW Music Workshop
Minneapolis-based nonprofit Art to Change the World, needs YOUR help in bringing a program to life that has the potential to create lasting prison reform. Think Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane” Carter… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpZvg_FjL3Q&list=RDbpZvg_FjL3Q&start_radio=1
“Songs of Resistance” is a music workshop in which songwriters are paired with formerly incarcerated individuals to create songs about their experience in prison/jail, with the goal to uplift unheard voices and share stories with the public about the injustices within our system. Songs will be performed in a final showcase at Art to Change the World headquarters. This project aims to create a model for a trauma-informed, culturally sensitive songwriting collaboration project between professional songwriters and formerly incarcerated individuals, that results in catharsis as well as a product that can invoke social reform. The long-term goal is to eventually adapt this workshop model into a program that can be implemented in actual prisons.
This project is being run by Art to Change the World intern Zoe Grigsby, who has a deep connection to this topic. In the fall of 2023, Zoe experienced a traumatizing event in which she was abused by the Minneapolis police department and wrongfully jailed. In the aftermath of the incident, she turned to songwriting as her main coping mechanism, and has since written multiple songs about freedom, resistance, and her experience in jail. As a songwriter, she strongly believes in the power of music as not only a vehicle for social reform, but as a therapeutic tool to help cope with personal and societal pain. When conceptualizing this project, Zoe knew she wanted to create something powerful, that could heal people, and shed light on stories from people that often go unheard. But she can’t do it without your help!
What your contribution is used for:
Art to Change the World believes in fairly compensating artists for their work. Your contribution goes towards the following:
- Paying intern Zoe Grigsby for designing, managing, and implementing this project.
- Paying all 5 songwriters and all 5 formerly incarcerated individuals for their participation, talents, and vulnerability.
- Paying a co-manager, to assist Zoe and offer input. This person will be someone with a history of long-term incarceration as well as an interest in arts/activism. We believe it is important to hire someone to pull from lived experience in the creation of trauma-sensitive programming.
- Paying a trauma-informed therapist who will provide training to all songwriters so that we can navigate this project with the utmost care and sensitivity.
- Paying a sound person for the final showcase and renting a PA system so we can physically amplify the voices of our participants.
As an arts nonprofit, we count on community, crowdfunding, and mutual aid. At the end of the day, all we have is each other. Especially in the year 2025, when arts funding is being universally slashed, we must lean on each other for contributions and support. Every donation, no matter how small, is extremely significant in creating arts programming to make a lasting impact on the world around us. One small act of kindness creates a ripple that can turn into a wave of lasting change.
For more information, or to get involved, email Zoe at [email redacted]
- L
- K
- B
8 supporters
guidestar.org/profile/82-2389520