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Movers & Makers Addressing Performance Systems (MMAPS)

MMAPS Statement:

Movers & Makers Addressing Performance Systems (MMAPS) is a new collective who have come together to uplift and center the voices of independent artists. Our collective condemns anti-Black racism, white supremacist culture, worker/creator exploitation, ableism, transphobia, and authoritarian power-wielding. Our intention is to be a container and platform from which to advocate on behalf of creators and performers, defend the needs of independent artists, plainly name the problematic actions and dynamics of the powers that be within our communities, and support those powers and institutions to do better by calling for better and explaining what better looks like.

We call for the leaders in our field to take transparent action and accountability with concrete timelines, to both reckon with inequitable policies and enact structural change. We know that stating organizational values is not the same as living those values, and that curating allyship is not the same as undoing institutional practices.

Those of us who make up MMAPS came together organically after See Chicago Dance published an article by Lauren Warnecke entitled, “Chicago dance has had a long love affair with process. Doubling down, are their audiences on board?” We found the article to be purposeless, disrespectful, and ignorant, but it ignited a much needed organizing spirit in us to address consistent inequities in Chicago’s performance communities. While we hold a righteous rage, we’ve chosen to respond by calling attention to the direct lived experiences of an array of movers and makers who have a stake in how these systems work. These experiences not only call attention to prejudice perpetuated by publications & writers, but also funders, organizations, institutions, performance companies, and beyond.

From our position within arts and performance communities, we see our work as interconnected with movements for reparations, abolition, and other structural change to dismantle capitalism.

If you say you’re for us, then be for us. If you don’t know what that looks like, then as a starting point, please read the materials here, in which dozens of working artists share in concrete detail what they need and what needs to change.

Aaliyah Christina, Alyssa Gregory, Amanda Maraist, Anjal Chande, Courtney Mackedanz, Erin Kilmurray, Felicia Holman, Gina Hoch-Stall,

Jenn “Po’ Chop” Freeman, Joanna Furnans, Josh Anderson, Kara Brody, Maria Blanco, Nora Sharp, & Lizzie Leopold