User:Mpott

Theater artist and activist Marty Pottenger was born in Chicago in 1952. A pioneer in the documentary theater and community arts field in the U.S., she currently lives in Portland Maine where she directs Art At Work, a national initiative to improve municipal government through strategic arts projects with city employees, elected officials and community members.

One project that has received international attention is Thin Blue Lines which has published two calendars (2009 and 2010) of Portland police officers' original poetry about their work and lives. Articles about the calendar were carried in the LA Times, Turkish Weekly, The Guardian, Forbes magazine as well as MSNBC, CNN and Fox News.

After becoming one of the first women in a U.S. construction trades union (International Latherers, Plasterers and Masons, Local ???, Tampa Florida) in 1972, Pottenger moved to New York City in 1975 where she became a founding member of United Tradeswomen, a part of the nascent organizing efforts to force New York construction labor unions to admit people of color and women as members. She also became a founding member of HERESIES: A Feminist Magazine on Art & Politics, editing Issue 3: Lesbian Art & Artists and Issue 6: Women & Violence.

In 1987, after a ten year break, Pottenger performed her "O The Wonder of It All" at Dixon Place, an underground performance venue on the Lower Eastside, run by Ellie Covan. She continued to work as writer, director and performer until 2007 when she moved to Portland to launch Art At Work. Her plays have been performed throughout the United States and Europe. Her solo performance City Water Tunnel #3 which won an OBIE in 1996, was described in the New York Times as “Lyrical...speaking with intimate knowledge, and yes, even love...a Blending of Studs Terkel, Anna Deavere Smith and Pete Seeger.” and the Village Voice described "Construction Stories" as “rejoice that you have another chance to catch Marty Pottenger... a triumph of this genre... the erotics of work...stuctured as tightly as a sonata, juxtaposing video with live action, motion with stillness, music with storytelling; it’s truly a labor of love.”

for more info: www.artatworkproject.us, www.abundanceproject.net