A composer sits at his desk next to a piano writing musical notation by hand on staff paper. The text reads, “Composers: What if the people who understand structure, tension, and resolution were in the room when we talk about how to hold a society together? Creativity is its own republic. Something is being built for the minds that make. More soon at randallwhite.substack.com.”

Composers: What if the people who understand structure, tension, and resolution were in the room when we talk about how to hold a society together?

Creativity is its own republic.

Something is being built for the minds that make. More soon at randallwhite.substack.com

#music #composer #musician

To Refuse Disappearance: Art as a Path Toward Rehumanisation If PATH carries hope, it is not naïve hope. It is rooted in movement and in the belief that art can shift perception.

"A work of art cannot stop violence or resolve injustice on its own. But it can open emotional ground that makes change possible."

raindance.org/to-refuse-di...

These iconic American images aim to protest and persuade From Franklin's "Join or Die" woodcuts to editorial cartoons, the AIDS crisis to Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, art has captured America's struggles.

"Protest art has evolved, much like the nation itself: The 19th century saw the rise of political cartoons by artists like Thomas Nast, who lampooned political bosses and robber barons, in addition to creating images of icons like Uncle Sam and Santa Claus that endure to this day."

A graphic designer works at desk developing a new design on his sketchpad. The text reads, “Designers: What if the people who decide what's legible, beautiful, and usable had a voice in what democracy looks like? Creativity is its own republic. Something is being built for the minds that make. More soon at randallwhite.substack.com.”

Designers: What if the people who decide what's legible, beautiful, and usable had a voice in what democracy looks like?

Creativity is its own republic.

Something is being built for the minds that make. More soon at randallwhite.substack.com.

#designer #design #graphic #artist

Artists (of all disciplines) have more than opinions about the future. We have the talent to imagine and build it.

CONSIDER THIS:
randallwhite.substack.com/p/artists-do...

📷: Ray and Charles Eames examining prototypes during the development of aluminum chairs, circa 1958. Library of Congress.

Vicente Telles: Heaven and Earth Making contemporary political paintings alongside his work as a santeros—a painter of devotional art, one of the oldest living folk art traditions in the US—Nuevo Mexicano artist Vicente Telles sees t...

"These political paintings might seem a world away from his religious icons but, to Telles, they’re two sides of the same coin.

"He uses the same traditional pigments in both, and both are products of the unique confluence of cultures in New Mexico."

artguide.com.au/vicente-tell...

‘Break your silence’: Jane Fonda leads rally against Trump crackdown on arts and media Actor outside Kennedy Center urges Americans to ‘stand tall against authoritarianism’ and resist free-speech threats

"Before the camps, before the purges, before the marches, there is a theatre going dark. The gallery closed, the comedian silenced, the musician banned. This is not coincidence. The assault on artistic expression in America is central to the authoritarian project."

- Sam Waterston

"Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s latest book, identifies 'the great replacement theory' as the singular ideology that, nation to nation, is used by leaders to create anxiety. Once anxious, the population is then manipulated by misinformation and propaganda."

baystatebanner.com/2026/03/26/q...

A playwright sits in the back of a darkened theater, looking toward the stage. The text reads, “Playwrights: What if the people who put conflict on a stage and ask audiences to sit with it were shaping how conflict gets resolved off one? Creativity is its own republic. Something is being built for the minds that make. More soon at randallwhite.substack.com.”

Playwrights: What if the people who put conflict on a stage and ask audiences to sit with it were shaping how conflict gets resolved off one?

Creativity is its own republic.

Something is being built for the minds that make. More soon at randallwhite.substack.com.

#plays #playwright #theatre

Artists Don't Belong on Your Spectrum Why creative minds are positioned to do what politicians and civic leaders simply can't.

There has to be more that creative minds can do than shake their heads or their fists.

HERE'S MORE:
randallwhite.substack.com/p/artists-do...

"This year's Africana Arts and Humanities Festival, taking place this weekend [in Fort Lauderdale], will have the theme, 'We, Too, Sing America: 250 years of Black Life and Culture,' which draws inspiration from Langston Hughes' poem, 'I, Too.'"

www.wlrn.org/light/arts-c...

Pride of place: the rise of LGBTQ+ art in Hong Kong Several landmark shows have changed the landscape of how queer art is viewed in the region

"For the past few years [in Hong Kong] LGBTQ+ topics have become increasingly common in exhibitions at the city’s museums and galleries, providing a current of optimism at a time when other political subjects are being increasingly avoided."

www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/03/25/p...

Bruce Springsteen on Upcoming Tour: "The E Street Is Built for Hard Times" Bruce Springsteen says The E Street Band "is built for hard times," which is why he felt so compelled to tour the US this spring.

Bruce Springsteen says "I don't worry about" blowback for taking a political stand.

"I've always had a feeling about the position we play culturally, and I’m still deeply committed to that idea of the band. The blowback is just part of it. I'm ready for all that."

The Cuttlefish, or the Hyrcanian Worldview - Trap Door Theatre Opening March 19th [...]Read More

"Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz wrote 'The Cuttlefish, or the Hyrcanian Worldview in 1922,' but there may be no more relevant look at social and intellectual decay onstage in Chicago right now."

Trap Door Theatre through April 25, 2026.

trapdoortheatre.com/the-cuttlefi...

A woman sits with a pen making notes in a journal. The text reads, “Poets: What if precision of language wasn't just a literary virtue but a civic one … and poets were recognized as its keepers? Creativity is its own republic. Something is being built for the minds that make. More soon at randallwhite.substack.com.”

Poets: What if precision of language wasn't just a literary virtue but a civic one … and poets were recognized as its keepers?

Creativity is its own republic.

Something is being built for the minds that make. More soon at randallwhite.substack.com.

#poetry #poem #poets #slampoetry #writer

If You Create, Read This The most intellectually serious conversations you've had in the last five years probably happened on a screen.

In case you missed this.

open.substack.com/pub/randallw...

Southbank Centre chair urges artists to take a political stand ‘Not all of us have world leaders on speed dial but we have the ability to do what we can with the tools we have access to,’ says Oscar-nominated artist Misan Harriman

"Photographer and Southbank Centre chair Misan Harriman has urged creatives to 'reflect the times' in which we’re living through with their work, saying that you can 'either be an artist or an entertainer.'"

www.the-independent.com/arts-enterta...

This exhibition is sublime.

"What happens when the government gets into the business of controlling the artwork allowed to be shown in a nation? A traveling exhibition on view at the Minneapolis Institute of Art offers an historical test case."

Through Jul 19.

new.artsmia.org/exhibition/m...

Community Art Three Spring Exhibitions and Events Focused on Marginalized Communities

You show 'em, #Nashville!

"In Nashville this spring, galleries and gatherings, artists and organizations are using spaces to explore issues of housing insecurity, racial and gender identity, and the enduring impact of marginalization on communities."

thecontributor.org/community-art/

Poem about ‘relentlessness of the news cycle’ wins National Poetry Competition Judges praised the ‘emotional stakes’ of Partridge Boswell’s poem The Gathering, which took the £5,000 top prize

"The poem came from Boswell’s attempt to make sense of global suffering, state violence and war.

"He describes how he 'followed the media for a long while, writing elegies, parodies and rants' to make sense of his 'discomfort and disbelief.'"

www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...

A cameraperson filming an unseen activity from atop a mountain. The text reads, “Filmmakers: What if the people who hold up the mirror to society had a seat at the table when society makes its decisions? Creativity is its own republic. Something is being built for the minds that make. More soon at randallwhite.substack.com.”

Filmmakers: What if the people who hold up the mirror to society had a seat at the table when society makes its decisions?

Creativity is its own republic.

Something is being built for the minds that make. More soon at randallwhite.substack.com.

#film #filmmakers #cinematography #documentary

Randall White | Substack I write about what creativity actually is, what it demands, and why the people who practice it belong at the center of public life. Free. Subscribe if you're curious. Click to read Randall White, a Su...

“After his election, Windrip takes complete control of the government via self-coup and imposes totalitarian rule with the help of a ruthless paramilitary force."

Artists of all disciplines have a shared ground for work like this. We ought to stand on it together.

randallwhite.substack.com

"The novel describes the rise of Berzelius 'Buzz' Windrip, a demagogue who is elected President of the United States, after fomenting fear and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and 'traditional' values.

In 1936, the WPA Federal Theatre presented "It Can't Happen Here," based on dystopian political novel by author Sinclair Lewis and then dramatized by Lewis and John C. Moffitt.

Barbara Kruger: ‘Never be shocked. Shock is a failure of imagination’ Savage and satirical, Kruger’s conceptual art predicted the meme culture of today – now, she says, it’s the right that’s harnessing the power of polemics

Never be shocked.

"'I don’t make feminist art,' Barbara Kruger says. 'I don’t make political art. I’m a woman who’s an artist, who’s a feminist. I really resist those categories.'"

www.dazeddigital.com/art-photogra...

'Nobody is guaranteed to have democracy for ever': Raoul Peck on his new George Orwell film The rise of technology and current world turmoil have ensured that George Orwell feels as relevant as ever. Orwell: 2+2=5 has Damian Lewis providing the voice of the great writer

"Inevitably, US president Donald Trump — a master purveyor of fake news — looms large in 'Orwell: 2+2=5.'

"At one stage, the documentary scrolls down through an infamous New York Times page from December 2017, which catalogued a list of Trump’s lies from that year."

Artists, writers, and performers: the algorithm was never built for how you actually work.

If you're craving real communion with other makers, and want to matter civically without living in a state of rage, you'll like where I'm headed.

randallwhite.substack.com/p/if-you-cre...

Can we use that for Congress and this administration?

If You Create, Read This The most intellectually serious conversations you've had in the last five years probably happened on a screen.

Artists, makers, and others who create from their own imagination:

Your online voice is being throttled. Your reach is being rationed. The data you generated by thinking out loud is being harvested by people who have no interest in what you were actually saying.

I have another idea for us.

A woman considering the architectural design of a building model. The text reads, “Architects: What if the people who build the physical world were also building the civic one? Creativity is its own republic. Something is being built for the minds that make. More soon at randallwhite.substack.com."

Architects: What if the people who build the physical world were also building the civic one?

Creativity is its own republic.

Something is being built for the minds that make. More soon at randallwhite.substack.com.