Storytelling leader hosts celebration of Atlantic City's stories and artists

If you ever find yourself feeling unappreciated or unheard, find Jacob Wolos immediately! You’ll feel better. I promise.

This artist and maverick of academia — currently working at Stockton University — has many passions. But one is being a conduit between people’s stories and those stories being heard by the community.

In furtherance of this passion, Wolos is putting on a Stories of Atlantic City event starting at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Noyes Arts Garage to highlight the artists that have been “meeting up” with him and other Stockton staff members for an entire year to discuss art, community and the city.

BreakingAC recently asked the well-educated Jacob a few questions about the challenges of his career in arts, education and community organizing. There were definitely some “mic drop” moments for me. And with 30 years in the arts myself, that was no small feat.

BreakingAC: The Stories of Atlantic City project has morphed over the years. Can you tell us about the current incantation of the program?

Jacob Wolos: I started working as a community organizer with Stories of Atlantic City in October 2022. At that point, the team was working on food insecurity coverage. I came in mid-season and was tossed into spaces gathering data, doing interviews with community leaders addressing food distribution in the city. It was a beautiful and challenging start to the job.

I was brought on because of my background building spaces of community. Interviewing was new to me at the time. But I was grateful to be able to bring tools from my own lived experience to invite community members to share personal, difficult stories with an interviewer who might make them feel safe, heard, known.

In a short time, I was able to collect many testimonials from community members to share the audio and transcripts of our conversations publicly on our website as the beginning of what we’ve come to call our community archive, Voices of the City.

Following food insecurity, we began reporting on the arts and culture scene in Atlantic City. This was an unexpected joy for me. I am an interdisciplinary artist myself. Many years prior to starting with SOAC, I had a very deep relationship with the art community in the city. It felt like coming home.

After another series of interviews with artists from the area, our team began to notice something complicated. While there were many thriving art communities in and around the city, it seemed that there was not nearly as much communication among those communities as we might hope.

That hatched an idea. Stories of Atlantic City is distinctly not an arts institution with baggage, cliques, or in-crowds that might appear among other groups. We could act as neutral ground.

Stories of Atlantic City has always centered on information sharing. Artists are voices of progress. We decided it was our responsibility to hold space for these voices of progress.

Currently, the artist meetups are a central component to our organization. In the last year, I focused on providing tools for learning community making.

In this next year, I look forward to expanding outward from there instilling our community members with the resources necessary to critique the world around them, to join in deciding their ethical boundaries as artists or activists, and to practice holistic community leadership among peers.

BAC: What got you interested in the job you have now?

JW: I like to say that I am both a storyteller and a story holder. I am an artist, writer and performer. I am also a community organizer. In my art, my activism and my organizing, I am always looking for ways to create spaces of safety to share stories.

Story courses through our veins. I believe it’s what makes us human. We dream, we gossip and we make up the inner lives of the creatures and inanimate objects around us. The sharing of story is how we understand our world.

Stories of Atlantic City’s mission is to elevate and uplift the stories of the people of Atlantic City. So many have generationally and institutionally had their voices silenced by many grotesque forms of oppression.

Atlantic City is a place with such a vibrant history of solidarity and communal resistance. To take on a job that would allow me to help reveal those stories, to amplify lived experiences, and to bring people together was a no-brainer. I fell in love with the work instantly.

BAC: Can you give our readers a glimpse into the type of art you personally work on?

JW: I have been a lot of different artists in my life. I wrote music, both as an independent act releasing albums under my own name, and for theater, dance and experimental collaboration. I got my undergraduate degree in sculpture.

Currently, I have been prioritizing poetry writing, reciting and zine making. (Note: A zine, short for magazine, is a small, self-published, original work.) There is something so tender about speaking hard truths with a soft voice. That is what my art has always been about.

Whether music, sculpture, or words, my art has always been an invitation to share in something that is at once extremely personal and widely familiar. Something like a déjà vu.

Recently, my writing is about my relationship to nature, communities, self and ancestry. It’s a space where I try to remember and forget what it is to be a person.

BAC: What artists are your current inspiration?

JW: John Cage is the first to come to mind. I have always been inspired by how playful and joyous he was in his practice. How willing he was to experiment across media and collaborate with other greats. Maybe it’s just that I yearn to travel with an experimental dance company. Who knows?

I think I carry a bit of inherited weight on my shoulders that might not ever let me get to his degree of transcendence. But one can hope.

Additional greats in no particular order: Ross Gay, Patrick Rosal, Ilya Kaminsky, Agha Shahid Ali, Khaled Juma, Fatima Ijaz, Ivy Raff, bell hooks, Dionne Brand, Donna Haraway and Samora Pinderhughes.

On my mind a lot lately are two favorites. Käthe Kollwitz is a 20th century German artist whose work depicts the effects of poverty, hunger, and war on the working class. Maisara Baroud, a contemporary Palestinian artist whose daily drawings from Gaza — all of them titled "I’m Still Alive" — reflect the atrocities currently being committed upon his people. I believe art should crack us open and then provide the necessary tools to help mend the crack beautifully.

BAC: How do you maintain your identity as an artist while being in an administrative position with SOAC?

JW: This is a question I receive a lot from community members during our artist meetups! If it isn’t yet clear, I’m a staunch advocate for art as activism. I also understand that the different hats we wear require us to act differently in different situations.

As an artist navigating any bureaucratic/administrative quagmire, communication is key. Learn how you are allowed to act within, and push up against the boundaries of, your position.

Find the people who will learn and honor the multiple versions of you!

In my position — and this is something I have grappled with a lot — I find that there are moments when sharing my own opinion is less important than ensuring others have the space to express themselves.

I can and will always be an artist on my own time. When I publish a piece or step onto a stage, I am representing myself, and that artistic expression is sacred. But in the job, there are times when it is much more valuable to continue to pour my resources into those around me so that they may speak up and speak out.

BAC: How do you navigate doing events that are often multi-generational?

JW: I began this job being asked to listen. It’s remained central to how I operate no matter who I am around. I listen. I receive.

I hold and share the joy and grief of the person. That’s universal. Everyone wants to be heard. Everyone wants to feel that you are giving them a moment of undivided attention. I get to do that as my job. It’s an incredible honor.

BAC: What is the state of the arts in Atlantic City?

JW: The first time I started interacting with the art scene in Atlantic City was about a decade ago. The arts in Atlantic City has grown immensely in the last decade. There are so many more opportunities.

In the last year of our artist meetups, I have seen multiple meetup-style gatherings pop up all around us. There is an energy here! People want community. People want solidarity.

We have a long way to go. So many of the loudest voices around the arts right now still come from those who want to cater solely to tourists, retail, and gentrification. This small city is teeming with creativity. I believe that these gathering spaces popping up all over the landscape will help to embolden and connect the many art scenes.

BAC: Can you tell us what to expect at SOAC Celebration of Expression?

JW: Our event is a showcase of our first year of meetups! Months ago, our members started asking, “What’s next?” They began fantasizing about an event that might showcase everyone’s expression.

I sat down with the team at the Noyes Arts Garage of Stockton University. They graciously offered their space to us. From there, I invited my community members to help me design the whole thing!

We will have vending artists, showcasing artists displaying work on pop-up exhibition walls, a lineup of performing artists, a DJ, a mocktail bartender, a decompression room with board games and comfy seats, and lots of food!

BAC: What inspired you to put on an event like this?

JW: My community spoke and I listened. They needed the space and the support to make something like this happen. That’s all the inspiration I need.

BAC: Who are some of the notable artists involved in the show?

JW: Janet Bodoff and Leesa Toscano who wrote and edited the anthology "Speaking of Atlantic City: Recollections and Memories" will be tabling and performing. Gina Roche, most prominently known as local master singer-songwriter, will be performing tap dance! Bob Ortiz, Jorge Azcona, and Kenny Lazan Faulk Jr. are all local artists whose works are part and parcel of the landscape here in Atlantic City.

The Redonkulous Entertainment team will be in attendance. One of their members, Tanya Fields, will be performing some solo music! Dylan Caccamesi, Sunday Double of Weekday Underground, will be our DJ.

Katie Weightman, local bartender, poet and skate dancer, will be serving expertly crafted mocktails. Raymond Tyler will be collecting stories and interviews from attendees and artists. And more!

BAC: What has been your favorite moment so far with SOAC?

JW: There have been so many unique moments of joy in our meetups. Building community lights me up. I think paramount for me is bringing exercises to our space and being met with unexpected responses.

For instance, I might pitch an exercise and someone will ask for me to clarify a particular aspect, and I won’t have the answer. Part of the game is coming up with the game together! Collaboration requires openness and vulnerability. If I am providing all the answers, I’m not building community. I’m lecturing.

That can be hard for people to understand. But once they do, they never let it go. Collaboration is scary and wonderful all at once.

BAC: How can the community get involved in SOAC?

JW: You can find information about our artist meetups on our website StoriesofAtlanticCity.com and on our Instagram handle @stories_of_ac .

You can (and should!) also email me directly at jacob.wolos@stockton.edu . I’d love to hear from you.

To join Wolos and his crew of talented locals for the event, please visit: Stories of Atlantic City Artist Meetup Celebration | Facebook. This is not a ticketed event. Just come as you are. The art, performances, and refreshments are free!