The Imagining America National Gathering is an annual convening of public scholars, artists, designers, students, and cultural organizers who are addressing the most pressing issues of our time. The gathering offers participants a three-day immersive experience in which to connect, dialogue, learn, and strategize around the ways to build new knowledge and inspire collective imagination towards transformative education and action.

Organized in partnership with College Unbound, AS220 community arts, the City of Providence, and a local steering committee, the 2023 National Gathering will be held in-person in Providence, Rhode Island on October 20-22, 2023.

Efforts are currently underway to reckon with legacies of racial injustice in Rhode Island and enact a new cultural plan for the City of Providence. Through this unique collaboration with College Unbound, AS220, and the City of Providence, the IA National Gathering invites participants to reckon with past harms and draw upon the power of intergenerational arts and education for collective change. AS220 teaches us that art making is community building; the City of Providence models how to collectively imagine a process and practice of reparations and cultural transformation; and College Unbound, a school for adults who have been harmed by traditional educational systems, reimagines the radical potential of higher education.

Join over 500 participants from the Imagining America network and Rhode Island artists and cultural organizers to engage in three days of deep learning, collaboration, and transformative creativity on the theme of Radical Reckoning. We will activate spaces throughout the city of Providence, including the Providence Public Library, AS220 Main Stage & Gallery, the Casino at Roger Williams Park, the MET High School, the Sims Avenue Steelyard, and 15 community-hosted site visits. Come prepared for a “conference” unlike any you’ve experienced before.

Imagining America’s 2023 National Gathering, “Radical Reckoning: Invoking the Elements for Collective Change,” was made possible through the generous and creative contributions of many people. We would like to extend special thanks to:

Working Group

  • Charlotte Abotsi, City of Providence Department of Art, Culture and Tourism
  • Adam Bush, College Unbound
  • Karen Casper, College Unbound 
  • Anjel Newmann, AS220 
  • Rebecca Noon, City of Providence Department of Art, Culture and Tourism
  • Silas Pinto, City of Providence Department of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
  • Moneé Reis, City of Providence Department of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
  • Sylvia Spears, College Unbound

Steering Committee 

Including all members of the Working Group and IA Staff 

  • Jennifer Davis Allison, Partners Training & Consulting
  • Marissa Brown, Rhode Island School of Design
  • Roshni Darnal, United Way of Rhode Island
  • Chris Dickson, College Unbound
  • Jori Ketten, Interlace Grant Fund
  • Georgina Manok, Brown University 
  • Destiny Manston, Mentor RI
  • Sage Morgan-Hubbard, College Unbound
  • Cassandra O’Rourke, College Unbound 
  • Janay Pina, AS220 
  • Julie Plaut, Brown University 
  • Omar Reyes, Rhode Island Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner
  • Julia Travers Rickert, College Unbound
  • Micah Salkind, City of Providence Department of Art, Culture and Tourism
  • Jordan Seaberry, US Department of Arts and Culture 
  • Nathaniel Svogun, College Unbound
  • Joe Wilson Jr., City of Providence Department of Art, Culture and Tourism

Special Thanks 

  • Kal Alston, Syracuse University 
  • Christina Bevilacqua, Sophia Ellis, and Paris Fernandez, Providence Public Library 
  • Shauna Duffy, Jonesy Mann, Neal Walsh, and all AS220 staff 
  • Lynne McCormick, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts 
  • Taino Palermo, Center for Indigenous Peoples Rights

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