Philadelphia's Indigenous Pitch Dance Collective has received a grant from philanthropist Betty Londergan for its work with children. Londergan is giving away $100 daily for 365 days. Londergan is a writer who is blogging on wordpress.com about "365 days of putting my money where my mouth is." Using funds she inherited from her father, she "settled on a random shotgun approach of giving to anything that rings my chimes – which hopefully will inspire other people to pry open their wallets and give as well." Visit Londergan's "whatgives365" blog, click on the calendar at today's date (3/16/10) and read about Indigenous Pitch, a collective of ethnically diverse dance companies that responded to the Katrina disaster in New Orleans with an annual summer dance & arts camp for kids; they also have camps in Philadelphia and, they hope, this year in Haiti. See their video on CANtv.

Today CAN brings you "Creative City Fever: The 2010 City, Culture and Society Conference, Munich" by Tom Borrup, with questions and answers about the Creative Economy movement around the globe. Formerly executive director of Intermedia Arts, a community artspace in MInneapolis, Borrup now specializes in consulting and writing and teaching about creative community building -- leveraging culture, creativity and other community assets to advance economic, social, civic and physical development of place-based communities. He attended the Munich conference to hear experts from Singapore, Tokyo, Auckland, Toronto, Rotterdam and other world-class cities talk about unfolding creative-economy development and its consequences. Scholars were drawn from at least a dozen fields including the arts, explored some vexing questions. Among them: Is the Creative City idea an opportune rationale for repositioning investment, or a smokescreen obscuring issues of social justice, environmental sustainability and real inclusion for all people?

At juvenile detention centers across the country, young offenders have an above-ground zine of their own: The Beat Within, a collection of youth-produced writing and art. It's published with the support of New America Media, a San Francisco–based association of ethnic media outlets, says Danielle Maestretti in Utne Reader (March-April 2010). The zine’s facilitators, who are sometimes former offenders themselves, conduct weekly workshops at a dozen juvenile halls. They encourage kids to write about what makes them happy or what choices they wish they’d made. Maestretti quotes cofounder and director David Inocencio, “I tell the kids what they’re helping create, by telling these stories, is a history book of the week. It’s an awesome platform when kids take it seriously and you’re able to watch them evolve as writers or as thinkers.” The Beat Within is here: http://www.thebeatwithin.org/news/.

Creative-economy specialists Richard Florida, Charles Landry and Bill Strickland are among speakers at the Creative Cities Summit in Lexington, Ky., April 7-9, 2010. Areas of focus include talent attraction & retention, innovation, developing entrepreneurship, community design and civic engagement. Keynoter Florida is director of the Martin Prosperity Institute, professor of business and creativity the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, and author of "The Rise of the Creative Class." He will discuss his forthcoming book, "The Great Reset." Summit sessions include "The Black Creative Class," "Sparking Social Innovation Within Your City," "Growing Entrepreneurial Culture," "Using Art to Change Cities," and more, plus a panel featuring mayors of Lexington, Louisville and Bowling Green, Ohio, and a pecha kucha session on Midwest projects. There are also tours of various Lexington creative-economy projects and local highlights like bourbon distilleries and the Horse Park.

Oakland's New Village Press has a new book out by two CAN writers: "By Heart, Poetry Prison and Two Lives" by Judith Tannenbaum and Spoon Jackson. Tannenbaum, author of "Disguised as a Poem: My Years Teaching Poetry at San Quentin," met Jackson at San Quentin State Prison in 1985, where he is serving life without parole. They have been collaborating ever since. Of "By Heart," part memoir, part essay, Gloria Steinem writes, "A boy with no one to listen becomes a man in prison for life and discovers his mind can be free. A woman enters prison to teach and becomes his first listener. And so begins a twenty-five year friendship between two gifted writers and poets. The result is 'By Heart' — a book that will anger you, give you hope, and break your heart."

The 12th annual Allied Media Conference will examine participatory media as a strategy for social-justice organizing, June 18-20, 2010, in Detroit. Conference tracks include "The Art and Practice of Disability Justice," "Communication Strategies for Ending the Prison Industrial Complex," "Indigenous Media and Technology," "Creating Safe Communities," "Medios Caminantes: Medios creando, fronteras derrumbando," "Do-It-Yourself Technology," "Radio Active: From the streets to the airwaves," "Rad Art: 2-D images for 3-D movements," "Trans & Queer Youth Media," "Eco-Justice Media Making for Sustainable Communities," "Media Policy for Social Justice," "INCITE! / To Tell You the Truth," "Pop Ed Intifada: teaching and learning for collective liberation" and "Kids." Participants include Thousand Kites, 7th Generation Indigenous Visionaries, Creative Interventions, Palabra Radio, The Beehive Collective, Justseeds Artists Cooperative, Media Action Grassroots Network, INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, The Palestine Education Project and more.

Appalshop's Thousand Kites initiative is working with the Virgin Islands Prison Project on a campaign to "Stop Prisoner Renting." Across the U.S., states are renting out their prisoners to other states as income sources for their department of corrections, says 1000K. The Virgin Islands and Virginia have such a contract, separating families across an ocean and keeping people in segregation for years. The VIPP works to end the practice and uses 1000K's film "Up the Ridge" and its radio program "Holler to the Hood" to inform the V.I. public about these Appalachian prisons and to keep families in touch. As a result of the campaign, 150 V.I. men were returned home after five years of solitary confinement in Virginia and V.I. activists launched a weekly radio program. Hear a "Holler" interview with VIPP's Kim Lyons here.

This spring, Auburn University continues its annual interdisciplinary series, Art in Agriculture, which brings together artists, designers and scientists to examine a topic related to agriculture, food, the environment or natural resources. This semester’s series is titled, “Reclaiming Ground,” and includes two exhibitions, several workshops for kids and seven lectures. One exhibition combines agriculture and architecture, called “Agritecture,” and another features sustainable designs by students in the Landscape Architecture Program, Design Program and Art Department. The lectures investigate questions such as: What is the role of the artist and designer in society at large? Can ordinary citizens make a difference in their local ecologies? How can a university encourage its students to become involved in their community? Art in Agriculture is jointly hosted by AU’s College of Agriculture, College of Liberal Arts and Department of Art.