Working with Dark Light: Puerto Rican artists are healing the spirits that Hurricane Maria broke

"Songs in the Key of Free" is a program in a Pennsylvania prison brings together inmates to play music and write songs that they perform inside, while professional musicians also play the songs in venues outside prison. The program is just a year old and is based on a successful theater program in California that cut recidivism rates and helped decrease prison infractions. The founders of "Songs in the Key of Free" are creating an album of the work, but after that, future funding is unclear.

For women working in theatre, child care remains one of the biggest barriers to advancement, but groups of mothers are working to change that and make a more welcoming work place. These solutions include work breaks long enough to accommodate breast-feeding, rooms designated for that purpose, options for babysitting during auditions, and long work hours.

Theater bridges cultural divides and helps migrants cope with trauma. The Liquid Company, founded in 2013 in Catania, Italy, offers migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers who have crossed the Mediterranean a therapeutic outlet to heal and manage their emotions. The multicultural group uses the stage and creative forms of expression to share their stories of struggle, ranging from human trafficking and shipwreck to feelings of displacement and isolation. By giving young migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers a voice, the Liquid Company empowers them to create their own narrative.

Layette is replatforming itself to embrace local culture over a dangerous oil dependency. CREATE, a voter-approved initiative in the city, funds cultural events and festivals to create new economic drivers and to promote the cultural legacy of the region. The fund draws upon money designated from a larger pool of surplus property tax revenue, as well as from philanthropic donations.

Creative expression builds community and helps promote mental wellbeing. In Johannesburg, South Africa, 94 Colours, part of the Maker’s Valley Partnership, focuses on community wellbeing by empowering youth through its World of Words poetry sessions. With the support of a British Council DICE Collaboration Grant, the arts collective leverages partnerships and encourages resilience among its members.

A more diverse theater scene requires arts and culture organizations that embrace and reflect communities of color. In Detroit, Michigan, the nonprofit Black and Brown Theatre works to eliminate barriers for actors of color. The organization fosters a supportive network, casting actors, directors, and staff from communities of color in the Detroit area. Still, disparities in access to funding for arts organizations focused on racial minorities remain a challenge.

Two innovative solutions in Great Britain in education are proving to be highly successful in improving students' performances in math and reading. A school in Edinburgh uses the Daily Mile (spending 15 minutes a day running 6 laps around the school at each student's own pace) as a tool to get students physically fit and intellectually engaged. In Bradford, England, a failing school centered musical education (with a minimum of 3 hours a week in music class) as part of an overhaul of their curriculum, which has been successful in fulfilling students spiritually and strengthening key skills to use elsewhere.

Building community around storytelling preserves cultural heritage. Across Lebanon, individuals and institutions like the Lebanese Ministry of Culture and the Theatre Monnot in Beirut are working to preserve oral culture as a medium for storytelling. Initiatives, including the long-running International Storytelling Festival and Beirut’s Hakaya, bring together storytellers, known as hakawati and hakawatiye.

Dalit hip-hop musicians are using their art and social media to propel the Dalit rights and anti-caste movements to the forefront of mainstream conversation.

The Spanish-Language Community Advisory Network works with a performing arts center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, to bring in Latino audiences by showing culturally-relevant films, reducing language barriers, and even inviting the films’ cast and crew to the screenings.