More than 400 scholars, students, and community members will converge and New Mexico State University October 3rd-5th for the 25th anniversary of the Imagining America National Gathering. This year’s theme is “Providing Passage: Practicing the Worlds We Want.” Scott Brocato recently spoke with Stephanie Maroney, Managing Director of Imagining America, about what to expect this weekend.
Scott Brocato:
Talk about the organization Imagining America. It's celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, I believe?
Stephanie Maroney:
Yes, that's right. For 25 years, Imagining America has been an organization that represents a consortium or larger network of higher education institutions, community-based organizations, and of individual artists, educators, and leaders who are committed to doing publicly-engaged work and really meeting some of our seven and core values that we believe will help to bring a more just and equitable world through our research, our convenings, and the way that we connect with one another.
The goals of Imagining America and the intentions that have been a part of its work changed--and certainly every institution that has hosted Imagining America, which includes the University of Michigan, as well as Syracuse University and now the University of California-Davis--that mission and intention has shifted slightly, but our goals are really on supporting community-engaged scholarship, art-making, and creative practices.
Scott Brocato:
You mentioned the seven core values. What are they?
Stephanie Maroney:
Yeah, absolutely. We have a few We Believe statements that help to guide our national work, which can be explored in more detail on our website at imaginingamerica.org. But in brief, they are: that we believe it's important to struggle with the idea of America, including both the vision and legacies of social movements that have fought for a broad-based popular democracy, as well as the more troubling legacies that are a part of that idea of America.
We believe that creative culture is an important site of liberation and that the bold power of the art and design really holds the key to bringing people together.
We believe that organized ideas matter in this project of personal, institutional, and societal transformation. So even what's imaginable and possible is also defined by how the world works and how we organize those ideas.
We also believe that nothing is completely new. So we really try to build upon the work and the strength and the legacies of elders and ancestors and really promote intergenerational work when we can.
We try to be radically inclusive in the sense that we bring in diverse ways of knowing the world, knowledges that are often left out of mainstream practice.
We believe strongly that how we learn and work with one another matters.
We believe that every being has a capacity to learn and grow and create knowledge and lead.
And then, finally, we know that living up to these values requires institutional and social change. So it concludes, but also goes beyond supporting higher education institutions to really achieve their public purpose.
Scott Brocato:
This year, the Imagining America National Gathering is taking place here in Las Cruces, October 3rd through the 5th. The theme is “Providing Passage, Practicing the Worlds We Want.” Elaborate on that theme.
Stephanie Maroney:
Yeah, absolutely. This is a really generous theme that we hope will invite people in to really reflect on the ways that we provide passage for one another. And we were kind of inspired by the worlds ofanimal and ecological infrastructure where sometimes when creatures are trying to traverse dangerous crossings or find ways to safety, maybe there's a freeway in the middle of their flight path or their river, we can provide passage by really just helping creatures be able to travel upstream and to ensure long-term resilience.
And so we were inspired by that and certainly inspired by the beautiful Rio Grande watershed and the way that that riverine passage connects these very different but completely shared experiences of the Paso del Norte region, which includes Las Cruces, but also El Paso, and Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. And the way that this vast network, there's so many passages that happen in that space, and so we wanted to think directly, but also materially, about how do we provide passage for one another, how can we create havens for safety for one another, and how do we practice new ways of being together that help provide us strength and fortify us for journeys ahead? And that has taken the form of art making, creative cultural practices, storytelling, performance, and different ways that people within and beyond higher education can provide passage for one another, but also for our ideas and our hopes for the future.
Scott Brocato:
The opening session will take place Friday, October 3rd here at NMSU at Atkinson Recital Hall. Can you talk about what will take place then?
Stephanie Maroney:
Yeah, certainly. We have an opening and a closing plenary, but the opening for the IA National Gathering has typically tried to uplift and really support the voices and perspectives of people from the region. So we're excited to start with the wonderful New Mexico State University Ballet Folklorico and Mariachi, who will be performing on stage at the Atkinson Recital Hall and welcoming our 500 gathering participants into that space.
We will be treated to a blessing from the Tortuga Pueblo, which will be led by Patrick Nevarez, and really kind of grounding us, welcoming us to this beautiful region that we'll be a part of.
Then we'll hear from leadership at IA, as well as leadership at NMSU, Valerio Ferme, who will zoom in some of our incredible collaborators at the University in Ciudad Juarez, and also engage in an intergenerational art-making conversation between recent NMSU graduate, Citlali Delgado, and her father, Francisco Delgado, who are both artists and muralists and painters, and have been really influential to one another, but also to this larger region.
And we'll finally end with some creative activities that have been organized by the Imagining American National Advisory Board. And we'll exit Atkinson Hall and have a really beautiful procession up the international walkway there to the Corbett Center that will also feature some beautiful horses from the NMSU equestrian team.
So it'll feel a little bit like a parade, a little bit like a celebration, but we hope that for people who are gathering nationally in Las Cruces, they'll really feel at home and welcomed in the beautiful Paso del Norte region.
Scott Brocato:
Well, that sounds like a whole weekend in one night. (Laughs) Can you talk about some of the highlights for the rest of the weekend?
Stephanie Maroney:
Absolutely. So we will have activities happening in the Corbett Center mostly on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And a lot of what we do is invite people in to share some of their work, some of their research, but also their creative making practices. And so we'll be hearing research and storytelling presentations, that really reflect on our gathering theme and help to answer the question of how higher education and community scholarship can help to practice and create the worlds that we want right now. There's a lot of attention to storytelling, to creative placemaking, to supporting, thriving democracies, and kind of learning and listening from one another about what are some of the best practices and case studies that we can be inspired by.
The three days will also feature some really lovely community hosted site visits. And so these are opportunities for people that are visiting the region to have a chance to learn a little bit more about what's happening locally within those spaces themselves. So I'm really thrilled that people have kind of stepped up to offer six different opportunities, including one with the Las Cruces Museum System, a visit to Tortugas Pueblo hosted by folks there, a really beautiful conversation and tour of the Fabian Garcia Research Center and the Chili Peppers Institute that will feature some of the voices of students in the CAMP program at NMSU who have either first or secondhand experiences working in agriculture.
And there'll be a tour of historic Mesilla Plaza, as well as the beautiful theatre there. There will be a kind of community-led walking tour of Main Street and the different homes and built environments and architectures that happen there, as well as the NMSU Art Museum in Devasthali Hall. It’s hosting kind of an open house for us. And there will be curator-led tours of their beautiful exhibits. a really fun, creative zine-making station, as well as an opportunity to see some incredible work by the MFA students there, art students at NMSU.
Scott Brocato:
Well, at the end of it, what do you want people to take away from the weekend?
Stephanie Maroney:
I think I would love for people who attend the gathering, which now is over 400 registered participants, many of whom are from the region, including NMSU, to understand that the work of imagination is just as critical and just as important as maybe the work we do with our hands or with our minds or with our bodies; that giving ourselves the space to be together, to take care of one another, to listen deeply about other people's experiences and hear one another's stories can provide the much needed space for us to actually imagine the way we want the world to be different than the world that we have.
And when we are definitely in moments where it feels like there's a lot happening in the world--maybe we're personally overwhelmed, maybe we don't understand exactly how we can make change at such big levels--it's really important that we make that space to just take care of each other, to listen to one another's stories, and to provide much-needed space to imagine what we want this world to be together. And I hope that people will participate fully, have a joyful time, and really leave inspired and ready to make change in their communities when they return.
Scott Brocato:
And where can folks find out more about the activities that's going to be happening that weekend?
Stephanie Maroney:
The best source of information would be the website that is for the gathering in particular, and that is iagathering.org. And from that website, we have links to our program if you wanted to read more about the sessions that are being offered. We also have the full call for participation if you wanted to learn a little bit more about the theme. And very importantly, we also shout out the incredible folks locally who have helped us to organize this. And I personally wanted to just thank Cynthia Bejerano, who's faculty at NMSU, as well as Linda Scholz, also at NMSU, and some incredible faculty, staff, and students from across campus, including in President Salerio-Ferme's office, who have really made this possible.
