Episode 16: Building the Impossible City: Non-Profit Arts Collective Sawhorse Revolution
For this month's podcast, TPR Editor Tessa Hulls sat down with Sarah Smith and Micah Stanovsky of Sawhorse Revolution, a Seattle nonprofit that teaches carpentry skills to high school youth. With an emphasis on projects that serve their local communities, Sawhorse has constructed everything from tree houses to garden beds. Recently, they've been garnering national attention for their project The Impossible City, a partnership with the Nickelsville homeless community in Seattle, in which students are building micro-homes for homeless residents.
Sawhorse's mission tackles the idea of our current topic, Monument, in its most literal sense, but it also explores the ways in which students create their own legacy of empowerment and engagement by learning the value of concrete skills. In addition to their educational programs, Sawhorse Revolution produces a literary journal, FRAME. In conjunction with the release of this podcast, we published This Is Your Arm, an essay about intention, focus, and drywall screws that was first featured in FRAME. Be sure to head over to Off Paper to give it a read, and thanks for tuning in.
Displacement: Visual Artist Veit Stratmann
Paris-based artist Veit Stratmann, who presented the work title L'Aquila at The Project Room in 2012, has made a practice of researching and writing about places of massive upheaval and its impact on the people who have lived there. After the recent terrorist attacks in Paris which took place near his home, we had a conversation about the connections between this event and his work, and what motivates him to be an artist, especially during difficult times.