Wildlife and nature

Animal shelters and rescues

Theater and dance

Rivers, parks and trails

Hunger and food

Schools and learning

Housing and homelessness

Community health

Mental health

Mentoring and foster care

Legal help and rights

Jobs and money help

Atlanta

The Triangle

Everywhere

The Collective Workshop

Royal Animal Refuge

Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta

Georgia Advancing Communities Together

Atlanta Writers Club

Jewish Fertility Foundation

Elly MAB

Nicole Gurgel

Deisha Oliver

Mel Cardona

Long reads

About

Alternate ROOTS Essentials

✍🏽 TODAY is a great day to start your application for Artistic Assistance Project Development! 👨🏿‍💻 Starting your grant application EARLY is a great way to identify any questions or sticking points and get full clarity before you submit. ☎️ Proposal Support Office Hours TODAY! Every Monday during the application period, Program Manager Elly MAB will hold office hours from 5 – 6pm ET. This is a great way to get your questions about the Artistic Assistance application and selection process answered while connecting with other ROOTS members! Register for Office Hours at 🔗 linkinbio “Office Hours Registration” Artistic Assistance Project Development provides direct funding to ROOTS members to support community-focused projects and collaborations. Project Development awards range from $500 to $6,000. These grants can be used to support live performance, exhibitions of visual art, workshop presentations, and much more. Program details at our 🔗 linkinbio under “Artistic Assistance Project Development” 🗓️ Monday, October 5, 11:59 pm ET: 🔚 Application & Membership Deadline 🗓️ End of November: 📧 Award Notifications 📸 Ariston Jacks

🎨 ROOTers! You have just under ONE WEEK to complete your application for for Artistic Assistance Project Development! Now is the time to write your proposal, craft your budget, and gather your work samples! Here are SOME of the things Artistic Assistance Project Development Supports: ✦ Live Performances ✦ Filming of Performances ✦ Motion Picture Production ✦ Photography ✦ Audio Recording Projects ✦ Podcasts – Video or Audio ✦ Publishing / Book Projects ✦ Workshop Presentations ✦ Gallery or Visual Art Exhibitions ✦ Conference or Festival Production ✦ Artists’ Retreats ✦ Archiving Projects Artistic Assistance Project Development provides direct funding to ROOTS members to support community-focused projects and collaborations. Project Development awards range from $500 to $6,000. These grants can be used to support live performance, exhibitions of visual art, workshop presentations, and much more. Program details at our 🔗 linkinbio under “Artistic Assistance Project Development” 🗓️ Monday, October 5, 11:59 pm ET: Application & Membership Deadline 📧 End of November: Award Notifications 🆘 Proposal Support! Every Monday during the application period, Program Manager Elly MAB will hold office hours from 5 – 6pm ET. This is a great way to get your questions about the Artistic Assistance application and selection process answered while connecting with other ROOTS members! Register for Office Hours at 🔗 linkinbio “Office Hours Registration” 📸 slides 1, 3: mel cardona. Slide 2 courtesy of elisewitt.com

We gather for ROOTS Week in order to struggle together, but also inspire each other with our stories and our art. These are just some of the words that uplifted us at ROOTS Week 2026. Incredible video of ROOTS Week by @chattam. A friend of mine once told me that the only thing that we ever really have to teach with, or talk about, is our lives… -Yvette Hyater For me, art has always been the most revolutionary thing that you can do because there is nothing more revolutionary than being yourself and then putting your view, your view of the world, out there for everyone to see. One thing I firmly believe: you can not free other people, you can only free yourself… -Alice Lovelace A person must open themself to the possibility of bein whole: that’s what healin’ is… -Jo Carson, as performed by Cece Daratany Using culture, art, history, organizing, all of the tools that they can find to save their communities, to heal the wound… -Bob Leonard It is the individual, once they are free, who can join in community with others, who then begin to build a communal path for others to be free—and that’s Alternate ROOTS. That is ROOTS. -Alice Lovelace

50 years worth of stories, over 50 contributors, almost 150 interviewees, more than 400 pages – “the ROOTS book” (as it has been called through its decade of development) is finally here. And just in time for our 50th anniversary! Stories from Alternate ROOTS: It’ll Take Some Tellin’ can be ordered directly from our publisher at our 🔗LinkinBio, or wherever books are sold! *AND* if you are in Atlanta, you can get a book directly in your hands on Sunday, November 15, 3-5pm at the ArtsXChange! We’ll have an amazing crew of Atlanta ROOTers in the house! Co-editors Yvette Angelique Hyater-Adams and Kathie deNobriga will be reading their work. You’ll sing with Elise Witt and enjoy readings by Alice Lovelace, Normando Ismay, and Ashley Walden. Your Emcee for the afternoon will be Ashlee Haze, and Executive Director Wendy Shenefelt will share some words. The November 15 party is FREE, but we ask you to register ahead of time. When you register, you have the opportunity to purchase your book ahead of time and have it waiting for you! You can also buy books at the event from our partner, Charis Books. Register for the November 15 Book Release Party at our 🔗LinkinBio. (Hit the bottom arrow next to “The ROOTS Book is here!”) This fall the book tour starts, and it will continue alongside our 50th Anniversary celebrations. @yvette_angelique_writer @abovebeyondbully @ashleyminnerjones @newvillagepress

ROOTS stays guided by is founders and elders—because they keep showing us the way! ⁠ ⁠ As we celebrate our 50th Anniversary as an organization, we count ourselves lucky to have so many former executive directors present at ROOTS Week. They are witnesses to our journey—the highs and the lows. We know we can call on them when we need perspective. We are so proud of the ways they continue the legacy of Alternate ROOTS in their artistry, their organizing, and their lives. ⁠ ⁠ ROOTS Week 2026 had its very first Artist in Residence: Alice Lovelace, former executive director of Alternate ROOTS and current poet, performer, author, teacher, presenter, publisher, and executive director of the ArtsXChange in Atlanta. During ROOTS Week, Alice delivered a keynote on her history as a revolutionary artist, taught a writing workshop, and brought the house down with a fiery performance of her poetry. That is what we mean by LEGACY! ⁠ ⁠ @artsxchangeatl⁠ @sippculture⁠ @whenshen7⁠ @solsta999⁠ @carolynreneeheals⁠ @lovelacealice⁠

One thing that makes ROOTS Week different from other conferences is that we incorporate body movement of many kinds into the flow of the days. ⁠ ⁠ We celebrate “making a decision” with a dance break. (Yes, we ask the sound folks to have some dance music queued up). ⁠ ⁠ In between performances, someone teaches a line dance. ⁠ ⁠ Early risers get their stretch on lakeside. ⁠ ⁠ Afro-Caribbean dance class with Marquetta DuPree is a perennial favorite, and accessible to many kinds of bodies. ⁠ ⁠ We love to see anyone and everyone moving! ⁠ ⁠ We remind ourselves to breathe, roll our shoulders, and let go of our tight glutes. We remember that we have bodies that need care, in order to do the good, hard work with each other. ⁠ ⁠ @md_wellness⁠ devonknightner

Children and young people are not only welcome at ROOTS Week—they co-create the culture of ROOTS Week. At ROOTS Week 2026, folks under 30 were organized into three formations: YOUTH VILLAGE: children 0-10 had full day child care and creative programming led by The Bee Collective, who design their work with children around nature, literacy, arts and culturally rooted learning. ROOTeens: (founded by Mah Kouyate and Zaire DuPree) BROUGHT DOWN THE HOUSE on Saturday night when they showcased their art, music, and dance. ROOTeens was born out of a need for space and programming for young people who have aged out of child care, but are still under 18. ROOTeens were led by poet and teaching artist Jonathan Samuel Eddie. YOOTS: a strong cohort of young people 19+ have been organizing for several years. They taught a workshop on the Appalachian practice of broom-making, and led an intergenerational dialogue about arts activism that was so rich it had to be continued the next day! @beecollectivesc @jonsamedd @affrilachiancowboy @hannahburt

🪘 ONE MORE WEEKEND to write your proposal, craft your budget, and gather your work samples for your Artistic Assistance Project Development application. 🗓️ Monday, October 5, 11:59 pm ET: Application & Membership Deadline 📧 End of November: Award Notifications Artistic Assistance Project Development provides direct funding to ROOTS members to support community-focused projects and collaborations. Project Development awards range from $500 to $6,000. These grants can be used to support live performance, exhibitions of visual art, workshop presentations, and much more. Program details at our 🔗 linkinbio under “Artistic Assistance Project Development” 📲 Final proposal support office hours with Program Manager Elly MAB are from 5 – 6pm ET Monday, October 5th. This is your last opportunity to receive application support from the program manager. After 6pm ET on Monday, October 5th, staff will not be available to provide support. Register for Office Hours at 🔗 linkinbio “Office Hours Registration” 📸 slides 1, 2: mel cardona. slide 3: Eric Michael Ward

Relationships are the center of everything we do at ROOTS Week.⁠ ⁠ Old friends fall into each other’s arms at the registration desk. New folks wander around looking lost until someone hands them a lemonade and urgently introduces them to someone they just HAVE TO KNOW. Colleagues from different worlds meet in the cafeteria line and piece together the journeys that brought them together at ROOTS Week.⁠ ⁠ Sometimes folks come to ROOTS Week with a hurt on their heart because of a difficult ROOTS relationship, and maybe they find some comfort in being held by community. We are all given the opportunity to meet conflict with grace at ROOTS Week. We help each other remember the centrality of our relationships, and we work to help each other move through sticky stuff.⁠ ⁠ At ROOTS Week, our relationships are tools of the revolutionary solidarity we need in order to dream and build a just and humane world. 📸mel cardona @melisacardona @dirt_femme @priscillagaysmith @macpeach2510 @lovelacealice @clear_creek_creative @lindaparrisbailey @whenshen7 @christine_gautreaux_msw @abuelitaladona @mdwellness @nikki.b1997 @lisaqmount @carolburchbrown

“HARD WORK: that’s what we do! Though it may not look like work to you…” —the first original Alternate ROOTS song, written by John Hadley ROOTS Week is the Annual Meeting of the 150-person board of directors of Alternate ROOTS. Every year we gather for many hours of business meetings to deliberate and make decisions on behalf of the organization. Business meetings are HARD WORK! They require time, attention, patience, listening, hydration, grounding, and emotional fortitude. We are tackling issues directly related to Alternate ROOTS’ future existence, financial health, values alignment, and staff well-being. Members bring proposals forward. Staff and Executive Committee people make presentations. We try to remember to take song and dance breaks. Producing ROOTS Week itself is HARD WORK! Full-time, part-time, and contract staff are all helping folks register, getting them into housing, tracking dietary needs, driving golf carts, and distributing bubble machines. Our amazing colleagues at @multibandstudios make sure that everyone can be heard as well as facilitating live video calls. We are lucky to have both artists who have documented ROOTS Week for many years, and new folks who bring a fresh eye to the documentation task, turning it into an art form. Big thanks to everyone whose HARD WORK made ROOTS Week 2026 a success! 📸mel cardona @melisacardona @redsbodyart @ashleehaze

Alternate ROOTS is our members, and our members are artists. ROOTS members make everything and anything: plays, paintings, songs, sculptures, beats, body art, percussion, performance, drawings, dances, and so much more. ROOTS Week is filled with art folks can experience as audience members, participants, students, and casual observers. The art at ROOTS Week included performances, installations, workshops, and ROOTS After Dark. And there are always a few rogue art experiences that never make it to a program book, but contribute to the wild creativity of ROOTS Week nonetheless. devonknightner @lovelacealice @aimeedenova @abuelitaladona @redsbodyart @multibandstudios @lisaqmount @carolburchbrown @stillon_thehill @ashleehaze @hannahburt

ROOTS After Dark is the special sauce of ROOTS Week. It’s our late night open mic cabaret / dance party drenched in chaotic creativity. We take a few photos of ROOTS After Dark, but mostly what happens at ROOTS After Dark stays at ROOTS After Dark. Regardless of whether you are programmed into ROOTS Week with an entry in the Program Book, you have an open stage and an audience of generous souls at ROOTS After Dark. You can bring the song you are afraid to sing anywhere else. You can write a brand new poem based on that thing that happened in the afternoon, and read it at ROOTS After Dark. You can listen and try to understand all these other people at ROOTS Week by paying attention to their art. Attention to each other’s art is a form of revolutionary love, and we work it during ROOTS After Dark. @redsbodyart @multibandstudios @lovelacealice @shmoo_dance @carolynreneeheals @abovebeyondbully @lisaqmount @abuelitaladona

🎇 TODAY is the DEADLINE for Artistic Assistance Project Development applications. All applications must be submitted by Monday, October 5, 11:59 pm ET. 📞 Final proposal support office hours with Program Manager Elly MAB are from 5 – 6pm ET TODAY: Monday, October 5th. This is your last opportunity to receive application support from the program manager. After 6pm ET on Monday, October 5th, staff will not be available to provide support. Register for Office Hours at 🔗 linkinbio “Office Hours Registration”

🔒 Applications for Artistic Assistance Project Development are now closed. ⁠ ⁠ 🫶🏽 THANK YOU to everyone who applied. We know it is not easy writing proposals, calculating budgets, and agonizing over work samples. Every grant cycle gives us the opportunity to understand the amazing justice-infused art projects our members are involved in, and we don’t take that for granted. ⁠ ⁠ 💎 We continue to raise funds in order to distribute even more support to activist cultural workers all over the US South. ⁠ ⁠ 💌 Applicants should expect to hear about the results of the selection process by the end of November. ⁠

At ROOTS Week 2026, we cracked open the first shipment of Stories from Alternate ROOTS: It’ll Take Some Tellin’ and celebrated with cake! Not gonna lie, tears were shed. This is such a monumental effort, and we are so proud! Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributed to this monumental undertaking, especially the book’s editors and architects: Yvette Angelique, Kathie deNobriga, Ashley Minner Jones, Ron Ragin, MK Wegmann, and Nicole Gurgel-Seefeldt. ATTENTION ATLANTA FOLKS: Atlanta ROOTers: get a copy of the book on Sunday, November 15, 3-5pm at our party at The ArtsXChange! Enjoy refreshments, socializing, and live readings from co-editors Yvette Angelique Hyater-Adams and Kathie deNobriga; Elise Witt; Alice Lovelace; Normando Ismay; Ashley Walden; Ashlee Haze, and our Executive Director Wendy Shenefelt. The event is free, but please REGISTER in advance at our 🔗LinkinBio. (Hit the bottom arrow next to “The ROOTS Book is here!”) When you register, you have the opportunity to purchase your book ahead of time and have it waiting for you! You can also buy books at the event from our partner, Charis Books. @yvette_angelique_writer @lovelacealice @hasandavis @poetdjkingshakur @solsta999 @mizvickisue

📣 📣 PLEASE VOTE 🗳️ 🗳️ and then enjoy the calming effects of the natural beauty that surrounded us at ROOTS Week. 🛶🍃🪺 A prominent feature of ROOTS Week 2026 was the lake. The lake was visible from many different meeting points during ROOTS Week. We could gaze on this water during business meetings if our eyes needed a break. We could walk around it or canoe on it. We could congregate under a huge shelter right on the lake. During ROOTS Week, we are nourished by nature. Give thanks for the waters.

🔋Today we open the Project Development round of our longest-running funding program, Artistic Assistance. 💸 One of the BIG ways we champion the work of Southern, justice-loving artists and culture bearers is by getting money in the hands of our members. Artistic Assistance Project Development provides direct funding to ROOTS members to support community-focused projects and collaborations. Project Development awards range from $500 to $6,000. Program Timeline: 🗓️ Thursday, September 10: ✍️ Applications Open 🗓️ Mondays in September + Monday, October 5th, from 5 – 6pm ET: ☎️ Office Hours with Program Manager Elly MAB. Register at 🔗linkinbio “Office Hours” 🗓️ Monday, October 5, 11:59 pm ET: 🔚 Application & Membership Deadline 🗓️ Early December: 📧 Award Notifications Interested? Read all about the program details at our 🔗linkinbio under “Artistic Assistance”

Alternate ROOTS honors the artists and cultural workers whose labor shapes our world! Alternate ROOTS is closed Friday, September 4 - Monday, September 7, reopening on Tuesday, September 8.

Thank you, ROOTers for this meaningful time of connection, collaboration, and creation. Thank you for helping us kick off our 50th celebration of art, community, and justice. And we’re just getting started – cheers to many more anniversary festivities through 2027! We purposefully stayed offline this week – photos and stories from ROOTS Week will be coming soon. Our deep gratitude for everyone who made ROOTS Week possible. And now: we rest. The ROOTS Office will be closed from August 10th-16th. We’ll reopen on Monday, August 17th. Get home safe, everyone!

🏋🏿 Crafting a grant proposal might feel like a lot – but don’t worry, we’re here for you. 💸 Artistic Assistance Project Development provides direct funding to ROOTS members to support community-focused projects and collaborations. Project Development awards range from $500 to $6,000. ☎️ Every Monday during the application period, Program Manager Elly MAB will hold office hours from 5 – 6pm ET. This is a great way to get your questions about the Artistic Assistance application and selection process answered while connecting with other ROOTS members! Register for Office Hours at 🔗linkinbio “Office Hours” Other Important Dates: 🗓️Monday, October 5, 11:59 pm ET: 🔚Application & Membership Deadline 🗓️Late November: 📧Award Notifications Questions about Artistic Assistance? Reach out via our contact form at our link in bio. 🔗 Through our funding programs, we live into our mission of supporting artists and culture bearers while striving for social and economic justice.

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🏋🏿 Crafting a grant proposal might feel like a lot – but don’t worry, we’re here for you.