Blackout Arts Collective Archive
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Abstract
The Blackout Arts Collective, started in New York City in 1997, is a group of artists, community organizers, students, teachers, professionals, entrepreneurs, and formerly incarcerated individuals working to empower communities of color through the arts, activism and education. This collection consists of their administrative records.
Historical Note
Started in New York City in 1997, The Blackout Arts Collective's mission is to empower communities of color through the arts, activism and education. BAC is an ensemble group of artists and community organizers, students and teachers, professionals and entrepreneurs, and formerly incarcerated individuals. "A blackout happens when the power system fails us"*, and BAC seeks to shine light on positive community building efforts, and call out oppressive and discriminatory practices that work in opposition to such efforts. BAC uses arts and education to raise awareness and spark action related to the most important political, social and cultural issues facing communities of color, including: incarceration and police brutality, equity in education, domestic violence, militarism and counter-terrorism, voter registration and local economic development.
From the late 1990s through the mid 2000s, BAC worked locally, and on a national scale, hosting monthly arts showcases at some of New York City's notable performance venues and facilitating political and arts education workshops for youth. Blackout's signature program was a touring performance and organizing project entitled "Lyrics on Lockdown: Slamming the Prison Industrial Complex", which visited adult prisons, youth detention facilities, community centers and summer camps around the United States.** The success of the four Lyrics on Lockdown tour summers (2001 - 2004) spawned Blackout chapters in cities from coast-to-coast, with a strong presence in Boston, Philadelphia, New Haven, Houston, New Orleans and Washington, DC, where local organizers developed their own unique programming.
The organization still exists, but has since evolved into a national network of artists, scholars and advocates who collaborate on select projects, still utilizing art to push for progressive social change.***
*http://socialjustice.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/index.php/BlackOut_Arts_Collective **http://www.idealist.org/view/nonprofit/wC3Sj4nWMH8d/ ***Conversation with Nigel Greaves, July 17, 2014.
Arrangement
The archivist attempted to respect the original order of the Blackout Arts Collective material and arranged the files into seven series.
Series I: Administrative Files
Series II: Projects
Series III: Financial Files
Series IV: Subject Files
Series V: Media
Oversize Series VI: Posters
Series VII: Data Storage
The contents of each series are described in the scope and content notes at the series level. Within each series, the materials are arranged alphabetically by folder title. Folder titles in brackets indicate that the archivist chose a logical folder title for materials that were not labeled. Dates in brackets indicate that the date shown was an educated guess. Oversize materials were removed from original folders due to size.
Scope and Content
This collection consists of materials related to and produced by the administration of an independent arts organization including ephemera, tour schedules and contracts, grants administration material, financial records, resumes, photographs and negatives, membership forms, material generated in the planning stages of projects, organizational publications, and a small collection of social justice publications by other organizations, among other material.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions. Please contact the Fales Library and Special Collections, fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder. Please contact the Fales Library and Special Collections, fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date (if known); Blackout Arts Collective Archive; MSS 379; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries.
Provenance
The Blackout Arts Collective Archive was donated to NYU's Fales Library & Special Collections in 2013 by members of the Collective.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Audiovisual and born-digital materials have not been preserved and may not be available to researchers.
