National Performance Network

Chasah West and Charliese West, working together as The West Sisters, are Louisiana-based composers and filmmakers whose stories center characters of color. In their Take Notice Fund interview, they talk about their approach to storytelling, and how their childhood in Africa influenced how they view popular entertainment. “Why don’t we see a Black girl who’s Lara Croft?" Chasah asks. "We always wanted to see what was around us, which was not just American culture.”

Read the full interview on our Voices from the Network blog: https://npnweb.org/an-interview-with-the-west-sisters/

Pictured: Chasah West (left) and Charliese West (right), aka The West Sisters

Each month, NPN’s staff and board engage with a reading that deepens our understanding of how to embed liberatory practices throughout our work. This month, we are reading “Be Resolute: Art Is Water” by former NPN board member Harold Steward. In the face of funding cuts and political threats to artistic freedom, Harold argues that the urgent task is not to prove art’s value but to secure the conditions that allow art and artists to thrive equitably across communities.

Join us in this reading: https://emilkang.substack.com/p/no-country-has-this-right

The Collective Learning Series is organized by NPN’s Department of Racial Justice and Movement Building (DRJaM).

Pictured: Harold Steward