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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Martha Bowers, Founder of Hook Arts Media
5:52:24
ยท
129 sec
Martha Bowers, founder of Hook Arts Media, testified about the importance of investing in arts education for young people from marginalized communities. She emphasized the role of arts in fostering civic engagement and activism among youth.
- Hook Arts Media served 18,000-20,000 young people over 30 years in neighborhoods like Red Hook, Brownsville, and the South Bronx.
- Bowers stressed the concept of critical pedagogy, viewing artists as citizens whose talents can be a force for change.
- She urged support for the next generation of change-makers through arts funding, warning that disinvestment in arts hits low-income communities particularly hard.
Martha Bowers
5:52:24
Good afternoon, chair Rivera and staff members.
5:52:28
Thank you for your work on behalf of our cultural sector and for your patience for hanging in here for this long day.
5:52:36
My name is Martha Bowers, and I am the founder of Hook Arts Media, which is a community based cultural organization in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
5:52:46
And after thirty years in January, I retired and passed the organization on to our first leader of color.
5:52:53
And I'm she's gonna be a terrific leader.
5:52:57
And over the years that I was there, we served probably over 18 to 20,000 young people, most of them almost all of them from historically marginalized neighborhoods such as Red Hook, Brownsville, East New York, the South Bronx, and parts of Queens.
5:53:14
I've been madly rewriting my testimony because you've heard so much today, but I think what I wanna say most about my job that I will miss deeply is is about the young people.
5:53:26
And the thread that ran through all of our programs and I hope will continue to is this idea of critical pedagogy that artists are citizens and their talents as filmmakers, poets, dancers, theater makers that are engaged with their civic communities are a potent force for change.
5:53:47
And I see the disinvestment in arts hitting our low income communities particularly hard and our young people are always hit the hardest.
5:53:58
And if we do not invest in this next generation of change makers, what we see we have now in Washington may be unfortunately the future.
5:54:10
So I think most of all I wanna say support this generation of young people who are going to be such an important force that change makers have always come from the margins and often come from youth movements.
5:54:24
And the arts is central to building that activism.
5:54:29
And 75 go, more the better.
5:54:32
Thank you very much.