Making the Flynn more Welcoming and Representative

The Flynn is committed to equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA)—including race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and physical ability—and we are cognizant of the fact that the organization needs to do more to address these topics. Our team does not yet reflect the full range of the people who live in our community and we must do better.

Transparency and accountability are essential to this work. This space is dedicated to communicating our EDIA goals and our progress. We will post a running log of our efforts, communicating clearly and honestly how we are doing, what work is ongoing, the concrete steps we are taking, and what we are trying to achieve. We welcome feedback from the community as we strive to make the Flynn more welcoming and representative.

At the very beginning of 2024, the Flynn initiated a large-scale project to define the vision and goals for the next five years of the organization. The Flynn’s strategic planning process is anticipated to continue throughout the year and go through a number of phases that include participation from the community, partner organizations, and Flynn staff and board. This process began with an Open Space meeting held January 27-29. At this event, the whole community was invited to participate in freeform sessions where we began to answer the question: What actions can the Flynn take now to have the greatest impact?

Also in January, the Flynn hosted it’s first-ever storytelling festival. *snap* First Person Arts Festival was launched to celebrate the power of first-person narratives across disciplines. The *snap* festival was born of the belief that everyone has stories to tell and that sharing these stories teaches empathy by allowing us to recognize commonalities and learn about each other’s unique experiences. *snap* First Person Arts Festival was held in Flynn Space from January 19-21. This weekend-long mini-festival included solo performances by professional and emerging artists as well as a storytelling workshop. The idea behind *snap* is to create a dialogue between performers and the audience and provide opportunities for the community to join, support, and contribute to the conversation.

Adi Oasis is an electric performer and a sought-after collaborator in modern jazz and R&B spheres. She has toured globally and shared the stage with notable artists like Anderson .Paak, Lee Fields, Chromeo, Big Freeda, and Lenny Kravitz. Oasis has performed at a wide variety of festivals including Newport Jazz Fest, Love Supreme, Central Park SummerStage, Afropunk, and Montreux Jazz Festival. She recently released her latest solo album, Lotus Glow, featuring her trademark soaring vocals, funky bass, and retro-futurist production, plus special guests KIRBY, Leven Kali, Jamila Woods, and Aaron Taylor. As curator for this year’s Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, Oasis helps guide the vision and themes that tie the five-day event together, selecting artists that represent and celebrate the present and future of jazz as an evolving art form. 

As we usher in the Flynn’s 2023-24 season, we continue to offer and create programming that welcomes many audiences to the theater and beyond, and provides a platform for many voices and perspectives. Two years after reopening following COVID, we are proud to now have regular annual programs and partnerships that reach out to many different audiences. We are consistently working to build on these community arts programs year over year to make them successful, inclusive, impactful, and joyful.

On August 10, the Flynn worked with the Central Asia Institute and representatives of the Vermont Afghan Alliance to present a free event in Flynn Space called Afghanistan: What's Next for Women and Girls. This discussion looked back on two years of Taliban rule after the US withdrawal and featured producer, journalist, and filmmaker Marcela Gaviria; excerpts from the new PBS Frontline docuseries America and the Taliban; Fulbright scholar and activist Sediqa Fahimi; and Judge Anisa Rasooli, the first woman appointed to Afghanistan’s Supreme Court. This intimate conversation focused on the challenges that Afghan girls and women continue to face, the increasing hardships they are experiencing under Taliban rule, the possibilities that still exist for a better future, and why Americans must stay engaged.

Over the course of the 2023-24 Flynn season, we look forward to welcoming many voices, perspectives, and art forms on our stages, including world-class entertainers and generational voices like Mavis Staples, as well as thoughtful conversations, such as our continued partnership with the Diversity Speaker Series. We will also start work on our organization’s strategic plan, which will be steered by community engagement. We encourage as many voices and partners in this ongoing collaboration as we can possibly get. Everyone’s voice matters and is welcomed throughout this process. The first community meeting is on January 27, 2024 at the Flynn and everyone is invited to attend and participate.

Over the course of the summer of 2022 and the first-half of the 2022-2023 season, the Flynn has produced, presented, and hosted a wide variety of events, shows, and initiatives that represent the organization’s commitment to raising up, and providing a platform for, a multitude of voices.

Many highlights stand out in the first half of the 2022-2023 season. One of the marquee events for the year was an incredible performance from iconic singer Gladys Knight, who continues to stun crowds and retain her status as the “Empress of Soul.” Our kick-off show for the season was Step Afrika!, one of the best African-American dance companies in the country, that blends percussive dance styles practiced by historically African-American fraternities and sororities, traditional West and Southern African dances, and an array of contemporary dance forms. Soon after, we welcomed Native and African American Appalachian folk singer-songwriter Martha Redbone, who performed her new work Bone Hill, an interdisciplinary musical theater project inspired by the lives of Redbone’s family in the hills of coal-mining Appalachia. This show also coincided with Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Both Step Afrika! and Martha Redbone also performed as part of the Flynn’s Student Matinee Series. It was incredible to see a theater full of students in a frenzy over the energetic dance moves of Step Afrika!, and to experience Martha Redbone teaching students original and traditional folk songs in the Choctaw language. This fall, the Flynn also partnered with Vermont Humanities to present a special event with bestselling author and activist Jason Reynolds, who spoke with a panel of ninth-graders on stage, discussing his book Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You as well as efforts to inspire social change. At the start of 2023, we also helped welcome and celebrate Kim Carson, the newly appointed director of racial equity, inclusion, and belonging for the City of Burlington, with a gathering in her honor at the theater that brought together many community leaders.

The Flynn’s education team works to expand access to the arts by bringing Flynn programs out of the theater and into communities and schools. One way that we are doing this is through a partnership with Brian Boyes and his project SoundCheck to reach students in Central Vermont. SoundCheck is a band of select high school musicians and singers creating and performing music to fight for social justice. The students work with music educators, prominent singer-songwriters and anti-racist educators to develop original material that tackles racism, injustice, and hate. The band regularly performs and facilitates workshops at Vermont schools using art and music to spark dialogue, action, and awareness.

Since reemerging in 2021, we have had 118 performances on the Main Stage, provided 280 hours of free music, and served over 6,500 students. We have also shared inspiring classes and performances with towns across the state, including Middlebury, Hinesburg, Duxbury, Winooski, and Montpelier. And we have given away over $100,000 worth of tickets to people and organizations, including King Street Center, Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity, Special Olympics Vermont, and Burlington High School.

The work continues and we are trying to identify areas where we are falling short as an organization with respect to our EDIA goals. This includes our efforts to ensure that the staff, board, and teaching artists at the Flynn are representative of the many communities here in Vermont. The Flynn is currently hiring and we encourage anyone who is interested to apply. All the current open positions can be found here. As always, we welcome any and all feedback about our EDIA efforts at the Flynn. Please take our EDIA survey to provide thoughts and ideas for how we can improve our representation and outreach within the organization.

Take our EDIA Survey

The Flynn endeavors to celebrate all voices in all our programming. Over the course of our 2021-2022 season, we showcased a range of art forms and artist perspectives in shows such as the theatrical production Cartography; the New Voices Series featuring musicians KeruBo, Mikahely, and Goblavi Doga; Diana Burco; the Indian classical/experimental collective Brooklyn Raga Massive and Go: Organic Orchestra; Amadou & Mariam and The Blind Boys of Alabama; John Cameron Mitchell; and comedian Hasan Minhaj. We are excited to continue this work in the upcoming Burlington Discover Jazz Festival and throughout next season, including efforts to produce artistic experiences out in the community that connect with new audiences.

In February, the Flynn was thrilled to announce Michael Mwenso and Jono Gasparro as curators of the 2022 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. Michael is the leader of the incredible band Mwenso & The Shakes, who played at the jazz festival in 2016 and 2017. He and his creative partner Jono co-founded Electric Root, a company that centers Black roots music and Black artists by producing and curating music, festivals, residencies, and tours, in addition to hosting artist-led anti-racism workshops.

With Michael and Jono’s stewardship, this year’s Burlington Discover Jazz festival is a celebration of Black music. The 2022 jazz festival has a strong thematic throughline where the shape of events, and the artists invited to perform, represent a clear, overarching vision: to explore the rich history of jazz, blues, gospel, funk, and many other intersecting genres, and illuminate how artists today are adding to these narratives. Each day of the festival starts with Reflection/Meditation sessions and Ancestral Communal Listening gatherings where Michael and guests guide audiences through different musical styles, paying tribute to artists who helped shape the history of Black roots music. Then, at night, the Vermont Comedy Club transforms into an after-hours jazz lounge called Big Joe’s, in honor of renowned Vermont saxophonist “Big Joe” Burrell. These evening gigs bring each day full-circle, creating a gathering space for the local artist community to convene, socialize, collaborate, and jam.

As curators, Michael and Jono have crafted a lineup that cuts across generations. The week is anchored by performances by three octogenarian musical legends: Grammy-winning Blues Hall of Famer Bobby Rush, master jazz-fusion saxophonist Gary Bartz, and George Clinton. Clinton leads his iconic band Parliament Funkadelic in a free show on the waterfront stage, an event that is a gift to the community and an opportunity for people from all over to see this massively influential musical collective live. And the 10-day festival features many exciting artists at the vanguard who are carrying the story of this music forward, such as Lakecia Benjamin, Pedrito Martinez, Vuyo Sotashe, and Brianna Thomas. The 2022 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival takes place June 3-12.

On April 11, the dancers in the Flynn's Movement for Parkinson's class put on a special public performance on Church Street Marketplace in Burlington. This is the second time the group has organized a flash mob event (the first was in 2019) in front of City Hall. This year's event featured live music and the presentation of a new dance piece that the class has collaborated on over the past few months. This performance also marked World Parkinson’s Day, a worldwide annual event dedicated to raising awareness around the Parkinson’s community. The Flynn’s year-round Movement for Parkinson’s and Wellness class is led by certified Dance for PD teacher Sara McMahon, who has been recognized by the Mark Morris Dance Group and Brooklyn Parkinson Group. This class is specifically designed for people who wish to continue moving dynamically despite movement challenges.

In May, the Flynn participated in the Vermont Business Roundtable’s Executive Leadership Series, providing volunteers to help with the event in a variety of ways. This series is designed to be valuable professional development and networking opportunities for CEOs and their team members, as well as influential leaders in the private, non-profit, and public sectors. This year, the fifth annual convention, featured a keynote address from Heather McGhee, author of the book The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together.

On June 18, the Flynn is partnering with The Black Experience Vermont for their first annual event in Battery Park. The Black Experience 2022 (BX22) is a free holistic celebration of Vermont’s Black lived experience, and a new addition to Burlington’s Juneteenth celebration. The day includes performances by musicians and poets as well as speeches by community partners. The event is headlined by iconic Black activist, educator, and author Angela Davis, who is taking part in a panel discussion. The Flynn is offering support with logistics planning, stage management, financial backing, and marketing amplification.

Earlier this summer, we circulated an EDIA survey within the Flynn community. The survey was sent to all staff, board, volunteers, and teaching artists. The purpose of this survey was to understand the demographic breakdown of the organization now, gauge how people see the Flynn with respect to EDIA issues, and source ideas for moving forward with our efforts to address equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. Below are some key highlights from the survey. If you haven't yet taken it, we encourage you to please do so. Follow this link to take our EDIA survey. All voices in this process are important.

We are hearing from many people that the Flynn has a reputation within the community as an organization that takes EDIA issues to heart. The Flynn has a long history of welcoming local and international BIPOC artists, and in just the last few years, has enacted initiatives to improve access to the theater. Additionally, we have reached out to new audiences by bringing art to the community; organized free events, such as our Hurly Burly series and the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival; produced student matinee shows attended by hundreds of thousands of students; worked with dozens of social services agencies through our community ticket program; and offered free and pay-what-you-wish classes and camps to support arts education access for students of all ages and backgrounds. These efforts have been made possible by grants from the Ford Foundation, Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, Vermont Community Foundation – Spark Connecting Community Grant, Ben and Jerry’s Foundation, Vermont Afterschool, the Bay and Paul Foundations, and Courtney & Victoria Buffum Family Foundation.

In looking at the pool of respondents, the overwhelming lack of diversity stands out. For example, over 98% of people who responded identify as white. Over the next few months, we will work to get this survey in the hands of more people and partners in our area, so that we can get statistics, ideas, and opinions from a more diverse, representative cross-section of our community. We would appreciate your help in distributing this to anyone who lives in the region.

The Flynn also recently announced the creation of a new creative chair position, which will be held by composer/violinist/educator/activist Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR). In his role as creative chair, DBR is spearheading the Flynn Fellowship program, curating and directing a series of focused collaborations between local and nationally-recognized BIPOC artists or ensembles, leading to new commissioned projects with members of the Vermont community. The first Flynn Fellowship will be with popular, soulful blues-rock group Dwight & Nicole. Working closely with DBR, Dwight & Nicole will assist the Flynn in reimagining the organization’s relationship to the community; forge connections and foster dialogue with key local partners; engage with issues around diversity, equity, and inclusion; connect with local students from many different age groups; and produce two original performances during their residency. Learn more about this program and Dwight & Nicole on our Flynn Fellowship page.

EDIA progress is an iterative process that requires us to constantly and unconditionally ask ourselves and our community how we are doing and what we need to do better. We will continue the conversation started by this survey with the greater Flynn community, to better understand how audiences, Flynn members, educators, students, partners, and other local stakeholders feel about the Flynn. Below are some key statistics from the first phase of this survey. Please note that this data is evolving and we will update as more people respond.

We want to be transparent about the information that we receive, and we will publish the full results once more members of our community have had a chance to weigh in and provide their ideas, opinions, and suggestions. Our immediate next step is to reach out to a wider audience to get them to complete the survey.

Here's a snapshot of people who have responded so far 

Goals

An essential component of this initiative is self-assessment. We need to first get a baseline of where the Flynn is now—understanding who is a part of our entire extended organization including our staff, board, members, volunteers, performers, and teaching artists—so we can identify a full accounting of the areas that need to be addressed, and initial actions that can be taken.

As we work towards re-opening our venue, hiring new staff, and inviting audiences back into the theater, it is crucial that we do everything possible to ensure the Flynn is welcoming to all the many communities and people that are a part of this region. We have an opportunity right now to take a hard look at the current makeup of the Flynn and to set short-term and long-term EDIA goals.

Actions

To start, we have created and distributed a survey that will give a better picture of the demographics of the Flynn. The survey also asks for respondents to provide their opinion about what diversity means for the organization, areas that need to be addressed, as well as initial, actionable ideas for making improvements. This survey has been sent to all staff, board, members, volunteers, and teaching artists. This brief survey is the first step in a larger process that includes acknowledging shortfalls, taking actions to address representation, and defining a plan for accountability. EDIA issues impact all areas of the Flynn, and everyone’s perspective and voice is important in this ongoing discussion of how we strengthen the Flynn at all levels.

Next steps

Everyone from the community is welcome to take our EDIA survey. We will report the results of the survey here.

The Flynn's EDIA progress is now a standing item for all board meetings. Decisions that result from these meetings will be communicated here. 

The Flynn is hiring. Anyone who is interested is encouraged to apply. We are looking at how we can make the Flynn more welcoming and attractive to a wide range of applicants. All the current open positions can be found here.

Take our EDIA Survey

Key figures

34.5% of the artists on our stages have been BIPOC in the last 10 years.

We’ve provided 1,098 hours of free music in the last 10 years at the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival.

Our year-round Movement for Parkinson's class promotes dynamic movement for students with movement challenges.

We distribute free tickets via 87 social services agencies through our community ticket program.

Camp scholarships and pay-what-you-can classes and camps make our education programs more accessible.

We’ve subsidized 340,707 tickets to student matinees over the last 10 years.