Stories from Ten Years of Civic Change: Barrier Free

(Noah Lumbantobing, IOBY, 2019)

“…Thousands more messages have been festooned to the fence since that first installation, as it’s travelled across the country to public parks, conferences, museums, and even to Memphis’ City Hall, carrying with it a message of empathy and a call for community. It’s a powerful message, and one that’s reverberated through the thousands who have viewed the installation.” (Read More)

Teens installing Orange Mound mural with focus on history and future

(A.J. Dugger, High Ground News, Oct. 23, 2019)

“Villa-Calvo founded the Go Engage Memphis Soul or GEMS initiative while working with the Memphis 3.0 Comprehensive Growth Plan. Through GEMS, she used art as an engagement tool to help residents participate in the planning and development process…” (Read More)

Leadership Memphis Announces 40 Change Makers Who Have Made Memphis Better in the Past 40 Years

(Leadership Memphis, Apr. 25, 2019)

In celebration of its 40th Anniversary, Leadership Memphis is proud to announce 40 Change Makers who have positively impacted Memphis over the past 40 years. (Read More)

The intersection of art and urban planning 

(Aisling Maki, High Ground News, February 28, 2018)

“Engaging people through art can help inform city planners about what issues are most relevant to residents and what changes and areas of growth they want to see in their communities. This will impact the short and long-term strategies to improve the quality of life for residents that will be laid out in the final comprehensive plan…” (Read More)

‘La Posada’ features Opera Memphis singers, immigrant detention center replica

(Elle Perry, Daily Memphian, December 08, 2018)

“… there has been a replica of a U.S. immigrant detention center cage at the Art Museum of the University of Memphis. And on Saturday, Opera Memphis singers and a pianist will perform in that custom-built structure…any kind of art tells the great human stories. Stories about family and loss are some of the most timeless.” (Read More)

Influential Latin Women that Stand Out in Memphis

(Vivian Fernández-de-Adamson, March 2, 2018)

“Each one of these women has been fighting for equality between genders and ethnicities, while demonstrating that a woman is more than a mother, daughter and sister; women are a fundamental part of the society.” (Read More -scroll down in the link)

Memphis 3.0: The City Makes Plans for Its Third Century

(Alex Greene, Memphis Flyer, January 11, 2018)

“.…Bringing artists into the equation helps keep Memphis 3.0 planners thinking outside the box: Yancy Villa-Calvo, the artist behind GEMS (short for Go Explore Memphis Soul), works with Memphis youth to design a stylized map of the city…” (Read More)

Barrier Free Exhibit uses art to unite community

(WMC Action News 5, Oct 16, 2017)

Using the power of art to celebrate diversity, create empathy, and unite communities. This art installation engages the audience to express themselves by questioning physical and intangible barriers that divide families and communities through deportation, travel bans, mass incarceration, intolerance, and discrimination. Barrier Free uses symbols centering around nationality, race, religion, sexual orientation and identity, gender and socioeconomic status. The goals of Barrier Free Art are to engage diverse groups in self-expression and reflection, to provoke empathy and to encourage active civic engagement (Watch)

Discussing PBS documentary “American Creed”

(WKNO PBS,  February 23, 2018)

Madeline Faber, managing editor of High Ground news; Reverend Earle Fisher, pastor for Abyssinian Baptist Church; and local artist Yancy Villa-Calvo join host Eric Barnes for a special edition of Behind the Headlines to discuss the PBS documentary "American Creed" and what it means to be an American. (Watch)

Yancy Villa-Calvo, Artist & Activist: FACES of Memphis

(Andria K. Brown, StyleBlueprint)

“… Let’s talk about positive things; let’s talk about unity.” But at this time, I think we have to say exactly what we feel, exactly how it is and how it’s affecting us. We can show our power and our strength by speaking out and not be waiting for something even worse to happen…” (Read More)

Art Intersects Urban Planning

Go Explore Memphis Soul (GEMS) art-based community engaging strategy for City of Memphis Comprehensive Plan.

Art and design met urban planning evolving into an art-based community engagement strategy which allowed us to uncover a rich data field that was used by the urban planners to inform the comprehensive city plan. Through combined efforts involving whimsical maps, communication tools in multiple modes and languages, immersive community surveys, an art mobile, and other creatively branded tools, we facilitated meaningful and fruitful community collaboration with thousands of Memphis residents. (Watch video)

This art speaks to immigrant rights

(Tonyaa Weathersbee, USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee, January 15, 2017)

“…The subject of the exhibit, in today’s climate, is very relevant. … Immigrants are resilient, and when we bounce back, we can bounce back stronger.”

Yet the real power of the exhibit, like most art, is the power to make people see…cultural contributions that add to the beauty and complexity of how the U.S. came to be, how it continues to be and how each part of it is relevant to its uniqueness.

A uniqueness that shouldn’t be lost in the fog of racism, xenophobia and ignorance.” (Read More)

Arte, fervor y movimiento

(Nancy Aguila, Ella Magazine, November 2016)

“…También se ha vuelto un poco mas político por el tema de la injusticia, y tomo la frase de Martin Luther King Jr. que dice ‘La injusticia en cualquier parte es una amenaza a la justicia de cualquiera’ y es cierto, tu das una vuelta y va a regresar otra vez a ti, no importa como. La justicia, o a injusticia, siempre regresan. Mi misión con mis pinturas es representar lo mejor de la migración y mi país, de las personas, de esta vida…”(Leer Más, p. 20-23)

One-act play about The Heights casts residents, confronts neighborhood stereotypes

(Scarlet Ponder, HighGround News, February 13 ,2019)

“The play followed the conversations of strangers and neighbors waiting for their snow-cone orders, celebrating some of the unique qualities of the multicultural Memphis neighborhood, as well as touching more difficult themes of blight, flight, and what makes a good neighbor.

…the performance as a community engagement strategy and artistic response to the Memphis 3.0 planning process. City artists are artists selected through a collaboration between the UrbanArt Commission and the City of Memphis’ Office of Comprehensive Planning to design and implement meaningful approaches to involve residents in the planning process and amplify community dialogues that will shape the future of our city…”(Read More)

Mexicanísimo

(Vivian Fernandez, November 7, 2015)

“…I’ve always had the idea of having an art exhibit where I could speak directly about immigration in a positive way and show the richness (in culture, etc.) that immigrants bring to this country. If we exalt the greatness of our culture and the beauty of our roots, then we can achieve harmony in our community, contributing to it in every aspect…” (Read More in English p. 4; En español p. 2)