PRESS RELEASE
Cynthia Croot, a theater director and humanitarian activist, and Joy Katz, a poet and member of What’s Up, a local anti-racist group, have collaborated to create ONE LARGE, an immersive, interactive installation
about black-owned businesses.
The project launches on April 17, 2015 and is ongoing at OneLarge.org.
On the 17th of April, 100 artists will receive 1/100th of a Sprout Fund grant Croot and Katz received—$10—and commit to spending it at a black-owned business, either in Pittsburgh or in their home community, anywhere on earth. The artists will distribute the $10 bills at Open Engagement, an international conference for socially engaged artists (held this year at Carnegie Mellon University). They will track where the bills are spent and post photos and notes from participants at OneLarge.org.
Croot and Katz became interested in black-owned businesses through lawyer Maggie Anderson’s book Our Black Year: One Family’s Quest to Buy Black in America’s Racially Divided Economy. “Reading the book, we became aware of a system of economic inequality affecting the whole country—and that we could see happening around us Pittsburgh,” says Katz, who also teaches in the graduate creative writing program at Chatham University. Croot teaches in the Theatre Arts Dept. at the University of Pittsburgh.
Black consumers in the U.S. spend a trillion dollars a year.[1] Yet almost all money spent by black Americans leaves black communities within hours, flowing mainly to white business owners who do not live in or reinvest in those communities. Black entrepreneurs have not only less money of their own to launch a business but also access to less capital from banks: black-owned businesses are more than twice as likely to have a loan application rejected than those owned by whites.[2]
“Young people of color see few people who look like themselves running businesses. So it’s hard for them to picture themselves becoming entrepreneurs, shaping the cities they live in,” says Katz, who lives and works in East Liberty. “That’s how the system stays in place, around the country and in our neighborhoods,” says Croot, who lives in Brighton Heights.
The collaborators note that their project is not an economic incentive but a piece of art that creates a small interruption in the routine of economic injustice. “ONE LARGE sends people into businesses they might not have known about,” Croot says. “It makes all of Pittsburgh the stage.” Katz adds: “We propose that the health of black-owned businesses is one measure of the health of our cities.”
Contact Joy Katz: [email protected] / 917-886-6489
or Cynthia Croot: [email protected] / 646-331-0315
OneLarge.org
[1] Nielson.com newswire, 9/9/2013: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2013/african-american-consumers-are-more-relevant-than-ever.html
[2] Economic data based on reports in Maggie Anderson’s Our Black Year: One Family’s Quest to Buy Black in America’s Racially Divided Economy (New York: Perseus, 2012)
Cynthia Croot, a theater director and humanitarian activist, and Joy Katz, a poet and member of What’s Up, a local anti-racist group, have collaborated to create ONE LARGE, an immersive, interactive installation
about black-owned businesses.
The project launches on April 17, 2015 and is ongoing at OneLarge.org.
On the 17th of April, 100 artists will receive 1/100th of a Sprout Fund grant Croot and Katz received—$10—and commit to spending it at a black-owned business, either in Pittsburgh or in their home community, anywhere on earth. The artists will distribute the $10 bills at Open Engagement, an international conference for socially engaged artists (held this year at Carnegie Mellon University). They will track where the bills are spent and post photos and notes from participants at OneLarge.org.
Croot and Katz became interested in black-owned businesses through lawyer Maggie Anderson’s book Our Black Year: One Family’s Quest to Buy Black in America’s Racially Divided Economy. “Reading the book, we became aware of a system of economic inequality affecting the whole country—and that we could see happening around us Pittsburgh,” says Katz, who also teaches in the graduate creative writing program at Chatham University. Croot teaches in the Theatre Arts Dept. at the University of Pittsburgh.
Black consumers in the U.S. spend a trillion dollars a year.[1] Yet almost all money spent by black Americans leaves black communities within hours, flowing mainly to white business owners who do not live in or reinvest in those communities. Black entrepreneurs have not only less money of their own to launch a business but also access to less capital from banks: black-owned businesses are more than twice as likely to have a loan application rejected than those owned by whites.[2]
“Young people of color see few people who look like themselves running businesses. So it’s hard for them to picture themselves becoming entrepreneurs, shaping the cities they live in,” says Katz, who lives and works in East Liberty. “That’s how the system stays in place, around the country and in our neighborhoods,” says Croot, who lives in Brighton Heights.
The collaborators note that their project is not an economic incentive but a piece of art that creates a small interruption in the routine of economic injustice. “ONE LARGE sends people into businesses they might not have known about,” Croot says. “It makes all of Pittsburgh the stage.” Katz adds: “We propose that the health of black-owned businesses is one measure of the health of our cities.”
Contact Joy Katz: [email protected] / 917-886-6489
or Cynthia Croot: [email protected] / 646-331-0315
OneLarge.org
[1] Nielson.com newswire, 9/9/2013: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2013/african-american-consumers-are-more-relevant-than-ever.html
[2] Economic data based on reports in Maggie Anderson’s Our Black Year: One Family’s Quest to Buy Black in America’s Racially Divided Economy (New York: Perseus, 2012)
