Position statement

Creative Music Works is a 501C3 arts organization committed to equality and justice. Central to our mission is our dedication to support and present new works by Black, Indigenous, POC, LGBTQIA2+, and other marginalized people.

Creative Music Works recognizes a deep debt of gratitude to the legendary musicians and performers who came before us, whose music translated and expressed the beauty and struggle of Life. This debt is owed especially to our Black and POC forebears because the discrimination and suffering they endured was and remains today an unbearably unjust product of white supremacy which privileged those who consumed and profited in myriad ways from their artistry while denying safety, security, dignity, and recognition to the artists themselves.

Creative Music Works is in full support of the ongoing protests sparked by the horrific deaths of Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the impossibly long list of names that stretch back through the past 400 years of Black, POC, and marginalized people persecuted in the United States. We side with the efforts of Black Lives Matter and agree to uphold the demands they are establishing by working to provide educational programs for inner city youth, community outreach, continuing to create and support more opportunities for performances by a diversity of artists, and maintaining a diverse board of directors.

We call on all of us to shout out with every breath the anger, fear, and exhaustion of this moment in time. We will do our part to demand justice and create change, to harness the potential these days of pandemic and protest can deliver, and create spaces that welcome and support the wealth of creativity that has too often been overlooked due to systemic racism in the arts. We believe our collective power and compassion will hold and carry us through the horror, the sadness, and the fear that so often precede radical transformation to a future of equality, justice, awareness, and lasting change.

In the past tumultuous weeks we have been especially moved and motivated by the following list of organizations, videos, films, essays, and books:

Organizations

Black Lives Matter

ACLU

Colorado Freedom Fund

Videos

“How Can We Win” – Kimberly Jones

”8:46” – Dave Chappell

Films

“13th” (YouTube) by Ava DuVernay

“I Am Not Your Negro: James Baldwin and Race in America” (Kanopy / Denver Public Library / free)

“Do The Right Thing” by Spike Lee

“When They See Us” (Netflix) by Ava DuVernay

Essays

“The Case For Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates

“The US is still segregated – but is our democracy up to the challenge?” by Wynton Marsalis

“The Corona Virus Was an Emergency Until Trump Found Out Who Was Dying” by Adam Serwer

Books

“The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander

“Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson

“White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo

“How To Be An Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi

“So You Want To Talk About Race” by Ijeoma Oluo