Artivism and Human Rights: Building Solidarity Through Creative Resistance

Join the Human Rights Program for live music with Brass Solidarity and a panel discussion with other activists on artivism and creative resistance to state violence. In the context of rising authoritarianism and anti-rights activism, what can the human rights community learn from community members in the creative and fine arts, technology, and communications fields? Together we’ll explore creative tactics that build community solidarity while advancing justice and rights.

Brass Solidarity is a collective of musicians, activists, and community members using their sound as a voice for justice. They perform as a sonic occupation to heal, spread joy, inspire hope, and share love while dismantling white supremacy and oppressive constructs. They were birthed from the movement for Black Liberation in George Floyd square, meeting there weekly as a continuous offering to the community. The music is by the people and for the people as a passionate campaign to celebrate community, educate, and uplift marginalized groups.

Panel Speakers

Meena Natarajan is a playwright and director and the Artistic and Executive Director of Pangea World Theater, an international ensemble space that creates at the intersection of art, equity and social justice. Meena has co-curated and designed many of Pangea World Theater’s professional and community-based programs.

Dipankar Mukherjee is a professional director originally from Calcutta, India with a 25-year history of directing. He is the Artistic Director of Pangea World Theater and received the 2023 McKnight Distinguished Artist Award.

Jazz Hampton is CEO & General Counsel of TurnSignl,  a Minnesota based technology company that provides real time legal guidance to drivers and individuals during traffic stops, accidents, and immigration related encounters, while securely recording those interactions. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business, where he teaches the next generation of founders how to build and finance mission driven companies. A passionate advocate for justice, equity, and mentorship, Jazz serves on the Boards of the Minneapolis Foundation, Catholic Charities Twin Cities, and the Great North Innocence Project. He has represented wrongfully incarcerated individuals fighting to prove their innocence and continues to mentor aspiring professionals through multiple mentorship programs across Minnesota. In 2022, he was named one of Minneapolis St. Paul’s 40 Under 40 for his leadership and community impact.

Butchy Austin is one of the founders and leaders of the activist brand Brass Solidarity. In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, Butchy began gathering with fellow musicians and fostering healing through sound. Brass Solidarity was formed in April 2021. Ever since, the group has been playing consistently on Mondays in George Floyd Square at Chicago Ave. and 38th St., Minneapolis, as well as showing up in community to serve and inspire positive change.

Nadirah McGill is a musician and organizer based in Minneapolis, MN. With a passion for deep and intentional community care in the face of individualism and scarcity, they have dedicated their career to centering joy at the core of all their work, both as an organizer and a musician. Nadirah began organizing in 2014 while in college almost by happy accident. As the lead organizer with Twin Cities United Performers, Nadirah organizes, leads, and supports a team of leaders, musicians, and performers in the Minneapolis music community and beyond. Their work focuses on empowering artists to feel informed and mobilized toward a more equitable and just industry—one where the labor of performers is valued, recognized, and protected.

Liz is one of the song leaders of the Singing Resistance. They are a queer, mixed-race artist, musician, activist, & parent using community singing as an organizing vehicle for liberation. Locally, they lead ongoing song work for protests, sit-ins, grief and healing work, BIPOC, mixed-race, and queer somatic spaces, and also direct StreetSong, a choir for folx with experience of homelessness and for folx who care about them to sing together. They are currently writing new music to sing together that supports systemic change, ending white supremacy, and movements for abolition.