What role do artists play in creating the world of our dreams?

1. Collective liberation and intersectionality

• Cooperation and collaboration are inherent and natural. Cooperation is a Black and Indigenous practice that has been embedded into every aspect of human relationship and society for generations. Capitalism has eroded cooperation and community care, replacing it with exploitation and alienation. We resist this through organizing ourselves and building Transverse Cooperative.
• Intersectionality acknowledges that each person has their own social and political identities that creates a unique configuration of discrimination and privilege. Collective liberation requires us to center the experiences and needs of those most marginalized by current systems of oppression, and we understand that doing so leads us to the path where we are all truly free, safe and thriving. We work to undo oppression in ourselves, communities, institutions, and relationships. Collective liberation is found in solidarity with other movements and in our communities building shared power and accountability.

2. Arts labor organizing

• Artists have a myriad of roles within society and the fight for collective liberation, which include: archiving, documenting, analyzing, storytelling, educating, mobilizing, inspiring, visioning and imagining, beautifying, joymaking, providing comfort and care, visualizing the culture shift needed to usher in a new world, directing people in thought and vision, and more. In order to not get commodified by capitalism, we abandon the myth that artists are starving lone-wolves who thrive in unstructured and competitive chaos, who only become successful after getting recognized by wealthy, powerful, and white institutions. We instead cooperatively organize around our living needs to co-create a world where artists are valued and cared for. This cooperation simultaneously honors our roots, grounds us in the present, and propels us into the future. We use our art to further and serve the movement for collective liberation and this future envisioned for all.

3. Mutual aid

• The current system of extraction is killing us. Instead, we organize to meet each other’s needs through radical care and resource sharing. We already have everything we need and become more abundant and powerful in our sharing.

4. Democratic governance, workplace and ownership

• Through economic democracy–which includes shared ownership and management of resources–we build economic power as a community that is woven into the city of Baltimore, the broader ecosystem of worker cooperatives, and solidarity economy movement builders.
• We want to have a meta-cognitive working environment, in other words one where our thinking is made public and decision-making processes are democratic. Roles, as well as expectations of each worker, are clear and collaborative. Every worker-owner has a stake in the cooperative and responsibility to themselves and each other. We honor and respect each other’s humanity, expertise, time and energy. 

5. Accessibility

• We aim to lower or eliminate any bars of entry and participation into the solidarity economy. We acknowledge that co-owning a business together has its challenges and is not taught in the usual institutions of learning, but that will not stop us from unlearning capitalist values and relearning how to sustainably share.  We are all students and teachers of one another and have wisdom and perspectives to share.

6. Collaborative Learning and Anti-oppressive Education

• We continually learn to unlearn oppression within and around us. We value moving slowly with intention and the practice of calling one another in. We reject hustle culture and instead take our time to listen, learn and build to endure.

7. Creativity, Experimentation, Play and Grace

• There are no bad ideas, and we are willing to make mistakes. Our best learnings and adaptations come from this space of experimentation and play. We co-create a safe space we can sit in zones of discomfort and change.