(Thanks to Marilyn, who sent me this post, suggesting similarities to WMV). From “The Center Will Hold”, Joey Lico on Substack:

“Artists working in places like Baltimore are not waiting for systems to correct themselves. They are building something parallel — small, temporary structures where different ways of living and thinking can take hold. [Derrick] Adams mentioned something a professor once told him: Artists are magicians. It sounded casual in the moment. But it stayed with me. Because what artists actually do — at their best — is not just make objects. They make conditions. They create temporary worlds where different rules apply. Where conversation shifts. Where people encounter each other differently. Most of these worlds are small. Many disappear. But some don’t.”

I ran across another quotation, from Alan Elrod, along similar lines:

“I think organizing and winning the elections are great. I think doing things in your community is more important. This is a generational fight. And beating Trump and beating MAGA at the polls is great. But if you don’t get out there and know your neighbors, if you don’t get out there and try to fix the social capital problem we have—a book club, start a movie night club, do something like that—if you don’t do those things and engage in those kinds of face-to-face interactions that really revive civic life around you, where you are, then I don’t think that this is a problem that we’re going to get out of anytime soon. That’s my hopeful message, actually, because I am hopeful about it. But winning an election is actually the short-term fix. Doing this stuff is the long-term.”