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.