'Art Activated' Social Justice Summit at Nō Studios

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Photo credit: Rocco Ceselin

Milwaukee native and Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridley

Nō Studios says yes to social justice. This week, the common good is happening. “Art Activated,” the inaugural Social Justice Summit, comes to our city. Milwaukee native and Oscar-winning screenwriter for the film 12 Years A Slave, John Ridley is the architect behind the event which takes place Nov. 15 and 16 at Nō Studios and Marquette University.

“With Nō Studios, we wanted to create a space and develop a philosophy of using art to build bridges,” Ridley said in a phone interview from his Los Angeles residence. “Then coalesce that philosophy into an event conjoining artists with activists, organizers and social engineers practiced in implementing real world solutions. We want to build empathy and send people out into the world to improve their communities and understand the issues that are sometimes very local but, at the same time, issues that people all around the world face.”

The penultimate event will be held Saturday at Marquette University’s third floor AMU Monaghan Ballroom (at 1442 W. Wisconsin Ave.), where topics of criminal justice reform, human trafficking, fair housing and arts as a form of protest and repair will be platformed.

“Being a Jesuit university, part of their mandate is not just education but education with a moral underpinning,” Ridley explained.

The opening and closing receptions will be hosted by Nō Studios (1037 W. McKinley Ave.), along with film screenings, talk backs, an actor workshop, inspired press awards and local artists exhibition throughout the week. Following the opening reception, presenter Jane Ekayu of Children of Peace Uganda will share real life experiences during the presentation, “Using Art as a Change Agent: Healing from Trauma.”

“Jane, whom we’re bringing in from Uganda, is doing an amazing job with children who have been extracted from warlords. These kids had automatic rifles put into their hands and were told to kill other kids for no reason other than they are different. Jane uses art to heal and move them towards a place of normalcy,” Ridley explained.

“How do we let people know that these are things that are happening internationally? Also, if a woman alone like Jane Ekayu can do this in Uganda, why can’t we, the richest country in the world, do more to address similar issues in our city, in our state and across the country?”

Founded by Ridley and joined by siblings Lisa Caesar and Beth Ridley, Nō Studios celebrated its first-year anniversary last month and has become a mecca for artist showcases and industry creatives. The invitingly posh, Cream City brick collaborative space, which is located in the historic Pabst Brewery complex, exists on the dividing line of the haves and the have-nots.

“Even where Nō Studios sits, if you look east, you see revitalization, growth and pride. If you look west, you see folks who are struggling for just the basics day in and day out,” Ridley told attendees of his pre-event press conference.

Margaret Rozga, a poet and English professor with a long history of fair housing and human rights activism in Milwaukee during the 1960s civil rights movement, is one of the speakers to illuminate the conversation. Ko-Thi Dance Company and the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra are among the performers woven between the presentations and panels to enliven the proceedings.

Other featured participants include actress Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire), who also works with communities victimized by human trafficking; Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Frank Almond, the subject of the documentary Plucked; author, producer and television host Chrishaunda Lee Perez, founder of Uganda-based Children of Peace; and actor Richard Cabral (American Crime). The sponsors are Participant Films, the American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Justice and the Milwaukee Bucks.

“I wouldn’t say it was hard to get people together for the summit,” said Ridley. “I find that people who are like-minded are always ready to get together, roll up their sleeves and do what they can for communities.”

In Ridley’s view, there’s a tendency not to think about social justice until one is visited with injustice and inequality. Getting “as many individuals as possible” involved in the crusade for human equity is what a social justice summit does, but what happens in its aftermath may be the difference Milwaukee’s capstone event can make.

“We were fortunate in our early stages to find partners willing to work with us to put together this event. More importantly, to put together an advisory committee so that the things that we learn, people that we meet, networks that we build—so that infrastructure can continue all through the year,” Ridley said. “We’ve reached out to individuals who… no better way to say it, know what they are doing! They’ve signed up to be part of the council with the expectation that whatever issues, ideas or individuals brought forward are connected with problem solvers.”

According to Ridley, art is uniquely situated to be the catalyst for change, because it has the power to invite us to spend time in other people’s worlds. Making Milwaukee a destination for art and social change is essentially his vision. “For me, art has always been a way to lower barriers. It’s often an apparatus for delivering empathy and moves you in ways that facts and figures do not. Art hits you above the gut and below logic. Just right in the heart.”