Cartography of a Community
Catherine Kineavy
2020/2021 Poet in Residence
Cartography of a Community is a collaboration between poet-in-residence, Catherine Kineavy, Art Produce, and community participants, including other visual, performing, and literary artists. Using poetry, we will map out individual lives and the lives of the community members who gather for this project. In other words, together we will all become cartographers (map makers) of our lives and give meaning to our experiences through poetry. We will use poetry as an opening to creatively dig into our pasts, magnify our presents, and imagine our futures. This project will be anchored in poetry that will include, reading it, writing it, reflecting on it, conversing about it, and if so inclined, performing it! It is the hope that through this project, poetry will be a sanctuary for enduring transformation both personally and within our body politic. Given its medicinal powers, poetry will be a path towards healing at this unprecedented time of suffering. Poetry will be an invitation to an embodied mindfulness, and poetry will connect us and give us a sense of belonging to ourselves and the world in which we live. It is the hope and vision that through a series of community workshops, performances, and conversations, that each community member will begin to identify as a citizen artist and be activated (if not already) to participate in and transform our community using their unique abilities. We are all creative and social beings and our democracy needs us now, this residency will create pathways for our voices to be heard. All are welcome to participate in the community programming of Cartography of a Community – no prior experience with poetry needed.
2020/2021 Poet in Residence
Cartography of a Community is a collaboration between poet-in-residence, Catherine Kineavy, Art Produce, and community participants, including other visual, performing, and literary artists. Using poetry, we will map out individual lives and the lives of the community members who gather for this project. In other words, together we will all become cartographers (map makers) of our lives and give meaning to our experiences through poetry. We will use poetry as an opening to creatively dig into our pasts, magnify our presents, and imagine our futures. This project will be anchored in poetry that will include, reading it, writing it, reflecting on it, conversing about it, and if so inclined, performing it! It is the hope that through this project, poetry will be a sanctuary for enduring transformation both personally and within our body politic. Given its medicinal powers, poetry will be a path towards healing at this unprecedented time of suffering. Poetry will be an invitation to an embodied mindfulness, and poetry will connect us and give us a sense of belonging to ourselves and the world in which we live. It is the hope and vision that through a series of community workshops, performances, and conversations, that each community member will begin to identify as a citizen artist and be activated (if not already) to participate in and transform our community using their unique abilities. We are all creative and social beings and our democracy needs us now, this residency will create pathways for our voices to be heard. All are welcome to participate in the community programming of Cartography of a Community – no prior experience with poetry needed.
Community Programming:
All community programming with be open and free to the general public, there will be many points of entry for you to participate in one aspect of or all of the programming.
All community programming with be open and free to the general public, there will be many points of entry for you to participate in one aspect of or all of the programming.
Poet-in-Residence:
Catherine will be in-residence in the cooler room at Art Produce during the months of March and April to devote dedicated time to her artistic practice of poetry. She is hoping during those months to finish a collection of poems about her beloved family. Catherine has felt her ancestors whispering to her over the last decade, and she has been jotting down fragments. But feels now is the time to put pen to paper and to capture their stories through the art of her ancestors, poetry. Catherine hopes to connect with a dance artist or two to ask them to put a poem or two into a dance that they would perform. She also hopes to work with a photographic artist to assist her in editing 4-6 of her photographs, to be paired with 4-6 of her poems.
Poet-in-Residence Artist Statement:
The vision for this residency is personal on so many levels. For over two decades I have been working in community arts, however, I have not had the opportunity to deeply engage in a community setting with my own artistic practice of writing. Art Produce values supporting artist practices and at this point in my life, I desire that deep support. Art Produce also supports community programming, which is vital to me as an artist, as I see my art-making as integral to the community, and the community as integral to art-making. My unique approach to art-making is to contextualize art within the humanities. Humanities are the ways in which we give meaning to our experiences and document that meaning, and arts are about unique expression and imagination, and it also fosters an understanding of the world around us and within us. The two, art and the humanities, are vital to sustain a vibrant public life and livelihood. This residency was purposefully structured to allow many opportunities for the community to participate. The community workshops and performances will use art as a catalyst for deep connection and community building across any real or perceived differences. I believe that it is through being creative that individuals and communities can discover their common humanity. ~Catherine
Catherine Kineavy is a cultural historian, and considers herself first and foremost a cultural worker. She has over twenty five years’ experience in working with community organizations building partnerships and collaborations to make the artistic and educational experience transformative. She weaves together her academic and professional background in history, law, publishing, and philanthropy (grant writing) with her personal practice in dance, dramaturgy, and literary arts. Catherine’s first love is poetry, she has been reading and writing it since she was 6 years old. At the turn of the century, she wrote and published A Winter in the Sun - a poetry chapbook written as a memoir. Catherine consciously works at the intersection of the arts and the humanities; she identifies as a public humanities practitioner. She has been a research advisor and dramaturg to theatre companies and dance theatre companies in San Diego. She was instrumental in obtaining funding from the Department of State for 20 Eveoke Dance Theatre artists and production staff to travel as cultural ambassadors to the Dominican Republic for a 3-city dance theatre tour of Las Mariposas. Catherine was also the inaugural Producer for Resilience of the Spirit Human Rights Playwright Festival. She has been a teaching artist/educator in many community-based organizations. Whether in an academic classroom or a community gathering space, Catherine is inspired by the collective inquiry into the arts, languages, literatures, histories, laws, ethics, and ideas that shape our communities and create opportunities for collaborative cultural expression; she is also inspired by the development of civic character through sustained community dialogue. Catherine believes that poetry has the unique power to awaken one’s imagination into what is possible both individually and collectively, and in that way, at this particular moment in history, she believes poetry has the power to heal our nation.
Catherine will be in-residence in the cooler room at Art Produce during the months of March and April to devote dedicated time to her artistic practice of poetry. She is hoping during those months to finish a collection of poems about her beloved family. Catherine has felt her ancestors whispering to her over the last decade, and she has been jotting down fragments. But feels now is the time to put pen to paper and to capture their stories through the art of her ancestors, poetry. Catherine hopes to connect with a dance artist or two to ask them to put a poem or two into a dance that they would perform. She also hopes to work with a photographic artist to assist her in editing 4-6 of her photographs, to be paired with 4-6 of her poems.
Poet-in-Residence Artist Statement:
The vision for this residency is personal on so many levels. For over two decades I have been working in community arts, however, I have not had the opportunity to deeply engage in a community setting with my own artistic practice of writing. Art Produce values supporting artist practices and at this point in my life, I desire that deep support. Art Produce also supports community programming, which is vital to me as an artist, as I see my art-making as integral to the community, and the community as integral to art-making. My unique approach to art-making is to contextualize art within the humanities. Humanities are the ways in which we give meaning to our experiences and document that meaning, and arts are about unique expression and imagination, and it also fosters an understanding of the world around us and within us. The two, art and the humanities, are vital to sustain a vibrant public life and livelihood. This residency was purposefully structured to allow many opportunities for the community to participate. The community workshops and performances will use art as a catalyst for deep connection and community building across any real or perceived differences. I believe that it is through being creative that individuals and communities can discover their common humanity. ~Catherine
Catherine Kineavy is a cultural historian, and considers herself first and foremost a cultural worker. She has over twenty five years’ experience in working with community organizations building partnerships and collaborations to make the artistic and educational experience transformative. She weaves together her academic and professional background in history, law, publishing, and philanthropy (grant writing) with her personal practice in dance, dramaturgy, and literary arts. Catherine’s first love is poetry, she has been reading and writing it since she was 6 years old. At the turn of the century, she wrote and published A Winter in the Sun - a poetry chapbook written as a memoir. Catherine consciously works at the intersection of the arts and the humanities; she identifies as a public humanities practitioner. She has been a research advisor and dramaturg to theatre companies and dance theatre companies in San Diego. She was instrumental in obtaining funding from the Department of State for 20 Eveoke Dance Theatre artists and production staff to travel as cultural ambassadors to the Dominican Republic for a 3-city dance theatre tour of Las Mariposas. Catherine was also the inaugural Producer for Resilience of the Spirit Human Rights Playwright Festival. She has been a teaching artist/educator in many community-based organizations. Whether in an academic classroom or a community gathering space, Catherine is inspired by the collective inquiry into the arts, languages, literatures, histories, laws, ethics, and ideas that shape our communities and create opportunities for collaborative cultural expression; she is also inspired by the development of civic character through sustained community dialogue. Catherine believes that poetry has the unique power to awaken one’s imagination into what is possible both individually and collectively, and in that way, at this particular moment in history, she believes poetry has the power to heal our nation.
This project is partially funded by the California Arts Council's Artists in Communities program.
