Ben Fink
Ben Fink is the lead organizer of the Performing Our Future coalition and former/founding organizer of the Letcher County Culture Hub. He works at Roadside Theater, a part of Appalshop, a grassroots cultural and media organization in the east Kentucky coalfields. Ben has organized with faith, labor, and community networks in Minneapolis-St. Paul, taught English at the Diesterweg Gymnasium (high school) in Berlin, and directed youth theater and creative writing programs at Appel Farm Arts and Music Center in rural southern New Jersey. He has held positions on the board of directors of Appalshop and Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed, Inc., trained and directed the homeless-housed zAmya Theater Project of Minneapolis, and dramaturged the German-language premieres of several Broadway musicals. Ben holds a Ph.D. in cultural studies from the University of Minnesota, where he taught and trained instructors for many years. In 2020 Ben was recognized by Time Magazine as one of "27 People Bridging Divides Across America." His writings on cultural work, organizing, pedagogy, and grassroots economic development have been published by Salon.com, the Brookings Institution, Bill Moyers, HowlRound, ArtPlace America, and the National Endowment for the Arts.