ACTIVISM

trans·dis·ci·pli·nar·y

 Kore Press seeks to enrich and challenge the global community by exploring contemporary issues through publishing and amplifying women’s literature. We hope to be an inspiration for transdisciplinary dialogue and programming; we push to expand audiences for underrepresented women writers; and we seek to make connections for those with intersecting concerns.

Kore’s literary activism is made up of transformative justice programs that provoke and inspire empathy.  Our work is expressed through a wide range of efforts, including public readings, performances, screenings, interactive dialogues, exhibits, story-telling, cross cultural/cross generational interviews and articles, youth education, radio stories, artistic collaborations with musicians and dancers, international writing contests, innovative literacy projects, panels, artists in the classrooms, and forums for public discussion among non-traditional audiences.

to provoke and inspire change. . .

To encourage an exchange of ideas we reach out into every community; we offer curriculum notes, post-performance interaction, online documentation and mapping, and we invite diverse communities of writers, artists, and thinkers to join us in our community conversations, offering partial scholarships and student pricing for our events. The Press also promotes local talent by employing students, poets, readers, artists and writers.

 

Kore Press Institute and Justice Programming

Tracie Morris—Talks Back    2017

Kore Press brings black artist, actor, experimental vocalist and scholar, Tracie Morris, to Tucson after an 8-year political hiatus to perform work exploring diversity, sound, power, and class at a time when audiences are clammering for new ways to consider the tumult in current national life. In An Evening with Tracie Morris, the artist performs her sonically rich variation of a well-know Stanley Kubrick film, Eyes Wide Shut, injecting a black female perspective into a story where it does not exist.The engagement offers opportunities for diverse communities to connect with one another across gender, race, and class differences and promote critical thinking about power inequities. At a time when the need for open forums and safe spaces for public dialog is high, Morris’ work on sound, politics & contemporary issues comes not a moment too soon. UA Professor Dr Stephanie Troutman will lead the pre-performance talk with Morris on the 7th.

UnSilencing Anatomies   2016

A city-wide engagement project designed by Kore Press (inspired by Monica Ong’s Silent Anatomies), and developed with her collaborators, including the University of Arizona, Tucson Chinese Cultural Center, La Pilita and 23 other cultural, health and justice centers, designed to promote critical thinking about the medical humanities and related questions of access/justice and racial/gender inequity. The series asked how art and story-telling can disrupt cultural invisibility and impact health disparities and public safety, and featured medical art exhibits, a medical humanities panel, an art talk, story-gathering, interactive online story map, self-guided tour of 26 Nerve Centers, poster project and readings.

The Listening Project 2014

Female Veterans & Teen Grrls

Keeping history real by lifting up the voices of women & girls, a cross-generational, cross-cultural, civil discourse project by Kore Press. Teen grrls created radio stories for public broadcast based on interviews with female veterans, after studying interviewing techniques and audio capture work with project mentors Sarah Bromer and Kimi Eisele. Interviews will become part of on an on-line audio archive for civil discourse.

Hear the Listening Project radio stories on AZ Public Media

Big Read Tucson 2011

Kore developed and implemented a 40-partner, 10-week community engagement project called Big Read Tucson (Big Read is a literacy initiative of the NEA) to contemporize and celebrate the life and work of Emily Dickinson. Public libraries hosted reading/discussions and writing workshops led by MFA students and community poets. Poems appeared on Sun Tran Buses and on restaurant menus and in specialty cocktails. 21st c. Emily portraits were created by area artists and high school students. Stories were written by middle and high schoolers and dramatized for performance. Students “Texted Emily” to engage in hypothetical dialog with the poet after studying her work. Dances and original music were created and performed. Dickinson-based talks and panels were presented by artists, art critics, scholars, and poets. Tucson’s pastry chefs presented their signature version of a Dickinson recipe. Tucson readers recorded poems live on the Club congress stage for “Emily Sound.” An invitational exhibit of 29 artists’ responses to Dickinson’s first lines in an 8×10″ format, and a final performance party featuring project highlights.

http://bigreadtucson.com/ED/?page_id=178

http://bigreadtucson.com/ED/?page_id=7

http://www.bigreadtucson.com/BR2011.html

 

How to get involved.

Volunteer: Be a part of our committed team. Email Lisa Bowden with inquiries, with “Volunteer” in the subject heading. lisa@korepress.org

Intern:Course credit available. Email Lisa Bowden with inquiries, with “Intern” in the subject heading. lisa@korepress.org

Support:Kore Press is a community-funded,grant-supported non-profit. We rely on your love and support!

To stand between the text and its articulation. Pin through a semblance of consistency. The button eye punches down a veil.  – tc tolbert