The Sanctuary for Independent Media’s 6th annual outdoor fall event, cultivating community through arts activities, free food, stories and music. This year the event, held in Freedom Square, will feature Breathing These Words, with poets Danielle Colin, Nancy Klepsch and others, Chill Smith DJ Collective, and community arts projects as a continuation for the Weekend for Creative Resistance.

Co-sponsored by Workforce Development Institute, Unity House, Troy Zero Waste, and Breathing Lights.

MORE ABOUT FEATURED ARTISTS

Chill Smith

Chill Smith is a collective of DJs & Producers in the Capital Region sharing a depth of music knowledge & raw soul allowing the group to connect with all!

North Troy Peoples’ History Museum and Story Candles

Brenda Kenneally’s North Troy Peoples’ History Museum explores the changes and evolution of families in this neighborhood. It is sited in the former home of the family she chronicled for her project “Upstate Girls.” After the family was forced to leave, the building was left vacant and fell into disrepair. It was acquired by The Sanctuary for Independent Media and repurposed into a community bio art space.

Story Candles, created by Brenda Kenneally, co-produced by Kathryn Draper with additional support from Stacey Draper and others at the Rensselaer County Historical Society, is a 16-foot cargo trailer transformed into a participatory travelling installation to honor the children from Breathing Lights’ communities whose lives have ended too soon. The “memory bank” is a collection of words, pictures and audio reflections culled from these communities to form an open-ended collage to keep the stories of these young people alive. Many thanks to the dedicated artists and research librarians who made this installation possible.

Vacant Buildings, Vanished Dreams

In collaboration with the Workforce Development Institute, this experimental media arts mapping project includes walking tours led by Neighborhood Ambassadors in the community immediately surrounding The Sanctuary and expresses working people’s economic, social and personal experiences as they struggle to survive amidst urban blight. Featured videos include works by Youth Media Sanctuary, media artist Julie Caspar Roth and artist Melissa Sarris.

Breathing These Words

Troy-based poets and performers, Nancy Klepsch and Danielle Colin Charlestin, along with other poets and writers, will perform Breathing These Words, a pop-up poetry project that will involve scattered poetry readings at vacant buildings connected to Breathing Lights, as well as community-based instruction for students and seniors.

We are committed to lowering the barriers to access for events at The Sanctuary for Independent Media. For people who are hard of hearing or deaf, blind or low-vision, or whose physical limitations can interfere with a satisfying experience, let us know two weeks in advance so we can make appropriate arrangements.