By Jonathan Borca for EASTSIDE Magazine
Engaging with your local government can be tricky. Often, public meetings, commissions, and candidate forums seem uninviting, contentious, or out of touch. It is as though these civic offerings were made for an exclusive club with specific rules of engagement, eurocentric undertones, tense environments, and no clear entry point of learning how to navigate these spaces. At worst, we don’t exercise our right to engage with local government. The void is most obvious when considering space for issues affecting artists, creatives, culture bearers, and the arts and culture sector as a whole.
On August 31, San José’s creative sector broke from tradition and stepped into the political arena by hosting San José’s first-ever Creative Sector Mayoral Forum. Even more impressive, the forum was led by a diverse group of multicultural organizations often relegated to entertainment and “doing the fun things”. Located in East San José at the Mexican Heritage Plaza, the co-hosts were the School of Arts and Culture at MHP, Silicon Valley African Film Festival, MACLA, San Jose Jazz, and San Jose Taiko.
“...the forum was led by a diverse group of multicultural organizations often relegated to entertainment and “doing the fun things.”
The event was a unique offering. We did not just delve into the political questions at hand; our audience members experienced the forum through art.
There was a “Mini Art Gallery” by 7 local artists, a land acknowledgment by Corina Herrera-Loera and Gerardo Loera, an opening performance by San Jose Taiko, a closing poem by Yosimar Reyes, and a Latin Jazz trio led by Ryan Trujillo at the closing reception. In true Eastside form, we uplifted local vendors, El Viejon and Frutas Regionales, who catered our reception before and after the forum.
“...our audience members experienced the forum through art.”