Amy Smith is a dance and theater artist, educator, and facilitator. She works to dismantle oppressive structures in non-profit organizations and other groups so that artists and low income folks can achieve collective liberation. She does this through financial well-being workshops, one-on-one work with clients giving financial advice and doing tax preparation, consulting with arts organizations, co-facilitating anti-racism sessions with co-facilitators of color, and as a dance and theater educator. Amy co-founded, co-directed, and performed with Headlong, a dance theater non-profit that transformed into a community arts organization over 25 years. She left Headlong in 2019 to pursue her freelance work. She leads financial well-being workshops through Creative Capital, Assets for Artists, and in many other settings. She holds a BA from Wesleyan University and has been greatly affected by her learning as part of artEquity’s National Facilitator Training and other anti-oppression trainings.
My Vision for the World
DEEP EQUITY
Resource Sharing – I envision a world where there are structures in place and opportunities abound for folks with more resources (earned or unearned) to share those with folks who have fewer.
Dismantling Oppressive Structures – Nicole Brewer wrote a great piece for American Theatre magazine about how the concept of EDI is letting arts organizations off the hook by doing outward facing work (“performative wokeness”), without doing the harder work of dismantling oppressive structures inside their daily work. My vision is that people and organizations with power find it irresistible to dismantle those structures within themselves and their organizations. Inevitably, power will flow to more women, trans* folks, folks of color.
Conditions Are Ripe for Self-Empowerment – I envision a world where no one is made to feel stupid if they can’t figure out how to thrive financially. I want people to know where to look for reliable information, feel empowered to seek it out, and be equipped with the necessary tools to thrive in their personal and artistic lives.
SELF EDUCATION
I’m self-taught in matters of business and finance. I majored in Dance and Religion in college. I became interested in business and finance because I needed to learn how to run a non-profit dance company and how to manage my own personal finances. I had people around me and relatives and day jobs who taught me. I felt empowered to ask questions. I am highly skilled but not credentialed, and I would argue that the over-emphasis on credentialing is perpetuating oppressive systems.
I want others to feel empowered to self-educate in this way. I want to share my own resources and knowledge, I want to point people to sources of reliable information, and I want to teach people ‘how to fish’. I want people to run their own businesses and do their own bookkeeping and do their own taxes and set up their own IRAs, etc. If my tax prep business goes out of business because all of our clients decide to do their own taxes, I will celebrate. And then find another place in the ecosystem.
FINANCIAL WELL BEING
To me, financial well being means you are situated where you want to be on the spectrum that runs from insolvency through solvency and stability to security. You have identified clear, measurable goals for the future and are taking steps toward reaching those goals. You are living without financial worry or panic.
This spectrum is often understood as a ladder, but I posit it as a spectrum — some people decide to move from security to stability when they quit a toxic job, for example, and do that out of choice.
INSOLVENCY
You can’t pay your monthly bills and are surviving with debt or other support.
SOLVENCY
Paycheck to paycheck.” You have just enough each month and no excess.
STABILITY
You have an emergency fund, savings or other cushion.
SECURITY
You have a cushion and are growing wealth (property, investments, retirement, etc.).
Capitalism tells us that we are climbing a ladder toward financial success, and neo-liberal capitalism tells us that our success and failures are indicative of individual strength or weakness. I believe that we can share resources and form coalitions to achieve personal/family/community well being, and that success at the expense of others is no success at all. I realize it may seem antithetical for a business/finance person to be so anti-capitalist, but I believe my mission is to share what I’ve learned from within the systems we are stuck in (for now) with others who have less knowledge of those systems.
BUDGETING FOR CHANGE
As individuals and families we can think of our budgets as reflecting our values and priorities. With organizations, your budget already reflects your values and priorities. What messages are your budgets sending to the world? Are you creating your budget transparently, with input from your community? Are you utilizing black owned and woman-owned businesses in your community? Are you paying artists and administrative staff a living wage? What is your sick/vacation/parental leave policy? Are you paying everyone the same salary? If not, why not? Are you budgeting time and money for responding to issues as they arise around racial and social justice? At Headlong I established a “2% for Equity” line, putting 2% of our annual budget into such a fund. I’m trying [unsuccessfully so far] to get other organizations to adopt this idea.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I am a visitor on the ancestral lands of the Lenni-Lenape people. I purchased land from someone who, like me, is settler-descended, and built my house in a township that is now known as Alloway NJ, named for Chief Alloway. I pay respect to Lenni-Lenape elders past and present. For more information about the Lenni-Lenape people, please visit their learning center website or their tribal government website.