Let us Express Ourselves: The Arts.
I want to thank everyone today for engaging in the activities and the discussion in class.
I want to continue on the line of discussion raised by professor Reitz. How do we interpret concepts of divide and conquer. We discussed how art can allow for a connection of people who are different, but another important discussion is how art is meant to be interpreted within a particular group of people. What is the message being sent from one rapper to the other? What are the internal discussions going on among individuals within a particular group and why is that internal discussion important?
Professor Reitz expressed some disagreement and discontent with the Northland Poster Collective and it’s, as she phrases it, “white liberalism.” We did not have enough time to go into an in depth discussion about the Northland Poster Collective, but I would like to know what are the views everyone might have on that reading.
And last but not least I wanted to talk about decolonization. Why is decolonization important? Why is decolonization important to juvenile justice and justice in general? What role does artistic expression play in the processes of decolonization? What can we learn from the messages of the three songs and the two videos we watched for H.W. in relation to the process of decolonization?
Chad Out!
12 comments:
Great class, Chad!
My favorite exercise was the one where we had to draw a symbol, etc. about the person to our left. It was interesting to see that the three people who had to draw the professors used a book or another symbol that implies "a looking up too" meaning. This is significant to me because I always understood the influence that professors have on shaping students. The impression that any professor leaves on a student is very powerful!
Regarding art as a form of connecting people, I think that this form of connection is so important for people from different backgrounds precisely because it is a means through which people can find common ground. Also, there is something about creativity that gets people in a better mood, whether though artwork, drama, dance, or pottery. Whatever have you, creativity has a powerful effect on the mind and the emotions, and I think that that is why the arts provides such an effective means for reaching troubled youth or creating a positive influence on people.
Dear Chad,
Great class!!! Amazing more like it.
I really enjoyed having to draw a symbol of the person left of us, I strongly believe it gave us some feedback on how others perceive one another. This is great because not only do we get to understand what others feel or see, but we learn that symbols have such larger meanings that it being a nice drawing.
As for the arts, I strongly believe art is a form of expression we should be blessed to have. For some, art has saved them from doing bad things in the world and for some it is a form of expression. My sister is an art major and always has been since she was young. She attended the specialized school for art here in the city and was always lucky to have her animations and other drawings displayed in various locations. However, she always tells me that she loves art because art helped her get over a lot of emotions and hardships she has faced. And while some may say that is silly, it really isn't because sometimes you can see what she feels or is trying to express all in her art.
As for your topic decolonization, I feel this world has become too individualistic. No is looking out for each other. We have music where rappers or hip hop artists talk badly about others just to stir controversy and next thing you know someone is going to jail. But like Christina said, people listen to it and make their life styles of what they hear, whether its dressing up in nice expensive clothing or just driving around in a car they can't afford. I believe the only way this can stop is if record companies can just find people who can sing about realities and stop putting so much pressure onto these people who just like everyone else, is trying to make a living.
While that may be unrealistic, its the only solution I can think of that may solve this issue. However,I could be wrong, but I'd like to know what you think should be done.
Once again, thanks for the class it was great.
I cannot but agree that it was an amazing class! Art is definitely one thing that unifies us. It helps people to find common themes and become closer.
But, when I read the article about the Northland Poster Collective, I thought about politics (maybe it was under the influence of my research the main focus of which is how the Ukrainian politicians use symbols and important historical events in order to influence people’s decisions and win presidential elections). I thought how the posters described in the article were or might be used in order to manipulate the crowds – what is another way of unification.
Songs were great! I love dancing and very often I listen only to the rhythm (as well as Katie). I knew that most of the songs carry some type of a message (at least, they supposed to), but I never paid too much attention to it, especially when the song was in English or non-native for me language. Now, I’ve realized that lyrics are powerful. They might influence one’s life (as Christina said that teenagers follow common trends that are described in the songs) what is terrifying because this influence is not always positive.
THIS IS FROM KATIE:
I do agree that art is one great way for youth to express themselves and stay out of trouble. However, I feel as though the boys who were in the video always had a love of art. The one boy, who was suspended (which I will not get in to but troubles me), loved art as early as the 2nd grade. This being said, for those youth who have not found this love for art at an early age, it might be more difficult for them to feel that it is a good way for them to communicate and/or express themselves.
I want to share with you guys an experience I had over the weekend. I went to a conference on juvenile justice over the weekend. The event was sponsored by a group called, Artistic Noise (if I remember correctly). The group creates cards and t-shirts; the art is created by formerly incarcerated youth. I just so happened to bump into a young man that I briefly worked with last semester (through LINC). He was ecstatic to show me what he worked on. He was so proud of himself, it melted my heart.
I do see that art can be a great way for youth to channel expression and communication through, yet I still feel that there are some youth that would have a hard time relating to art.
This is from me as myself! A bunch of different questions/comments:
Ditto on the great class, Chad. So important to vary the format and surprise people (the Kermit song). So one question is: why does surprise/variety work so well in the class room? What does it tell us about learning?
I'm struck by the first three responses: they were all by people who have a strong personal connection to the arts. Jamie and Nadiya are serious dancers, Jessica's sister is an artist. You suggested that art is powerful - can you say what you mean when you say that? Jamie hints that it might be because it is non-verbal (can unite across different backgrounds). What else are you three saying when you say that Art is so important?
One way I might answer that question is to reflect on the lack of art in everyday life. I'm not a big music person, though when I remember to listen to it, it affects me powerfully. (And Chad's class made me dig out my Marley CDs, so THANKS for that!) This got me thinking that maybe the way (many of us) are in everyday life closes off those parts of us that are opened by listening to music/looking at paintings, being artists ourselves. My husband and I went to hear a concert of Syrian/Moroccan Jewish jazz last week after work. It was cold, rainy and our kids would give us a hard time for leaving them at home with a sitter longer than usual. We almost bailed because in the hustle and bustle of our daily lives we had completely forgotten how wonderful it is to sit and listen to music -- strange music -- for a couple hours. We both felt refreshed and happy. I think it was not only that the music was good but that because something got opened that usually remains closed.
If art has the effect of opening that which can be closed, it gets to Katie's point that for some folks, art seems closed, intimidating, outside their experience. I know that some people don't feel like "art people" and that can seem as exclusive a group as athletes, mathletes, etc. Maybe certain art forms are more democratic than others?
I looked up the word decolonize and I think I found the definition that pertains to its use in class. “A process where a colonized people, by developing a consciousness based on the remnants of the traditional culture, redefine themselves as peoples and reassert the distinct qualities that historically guided their existence.” (www.socialpolicy.ca/d.htm). I am going to use this definition in responding to Chad’s questions about decolonization. I think decolonization is important because it means freeing ourselves of someone else’s reality and being able to create our own reality. I think decolonization is important to juvenile justice and justice in general because it means creating a fairer system of justice by releasing the current system of justice of its colonial thought process and replacing it with the people’s thought processes. I think artistic expression plays a role in decolonization by creating an avenue of free speech that is free of colonial thoughts.
Well in a way, the rap song itself both unifies those who listen to rap and at the same time divides them. On the one hand it may unify them, in hoping that rap will once again have a message and will empower those listening to it, rather than continuing to succumb to commercialization. On the other hand it may further separate them into two groups those who listen to rap: one which argues that much of rap has become commercialized and meaningless, and the other arguing that rap, as a type of music which is contrary to the "powers that be", is always inherently unifying through its opposition, regardless of whether it is commercial and meaningless.
As to decolonization, I feel that it is a task that a person must undergo individually, and that songs or any other avenues, may only help push people forward who are already on the path to deconolization. I feel that the initial step onto the path of deconolization, much like the first step toward enlightenment, must come from within the person, rather than from the external world.
What a superior class! I re-enacted Christina’s rant about Lil Wayne for my daughter and emailed her Zawcain’s “Disposable Music”. I have thought a lot about art in my own life and its connection to colonization.
The point of entry for me with this stuff is a little different than you might imagine. Many years ago, working with children who were sexually abused at Bellevue Hospital, we relied on children’s drawings to tell us what had happened because the severity of their traumas often rendered them speechless (in the sense of being able to fully articulate experiences.) Drawings often showed the depth of their despair and the intensity of their rage when mere interviews revealed next to nothing about their feelings.
We also used to play a game called “squiggles” on the ward, where doctors’ drawn shapes would be sketched into characters by the children. The characters would ultimately talk to one another on paper; this was the beginning of converting art into language.
When I think about colonization, I think about the way these children’s abusers got inside them-not just their bodies but their heads-and made them believe they were worthless. It is a very personal level of the same thing we are talking about more broadly: the internalization of voices (whether individual or more broadly social) that occlude one’s own identity. Art, in the case of these children, helped them to begin to reassert their own voices.
I apologize for my late posting. I’ve been struggling with this week’s post because I don’t want to post just to post, but want to do so if I have something to say. I loved the class, and want to applaud Chad for a great lesson plan and an engaging, enlightening session, so it has been strange that I have been struggling with a response to the blog discussion.
Maybe I would have preferred to draw something rather than write, but I don’t think I can post a drawing?!
But I have been thinking about our “perspectives” papers and my concern with how difficult it seems for students to separate out their own positions and arguments from what scholars or other experts or other “stakeholders” have to say about a particular subject.
It strikes me that art as creative expression gives the possibility of legitimacy to any individual’s perspective. Although there are art canons (and thus “standards” etc), generally speaking it seems in “art” there’s allowance for “free,” unfettered expression. You don’t need to be an expert to express yourself artistically. In that sense, using “art” in critical pedagogy towards a liberation project (decolonization) is a useful tool.
But expression (of feelings, of thoughts) can’t stop there. That’s just the beginning. The art is the entryway that allows the “colonized” (we’re all colonized by hegemonic forces) to imagine alternatives. The next step towards liberation, I think, is to gain knowledge. And knowledge isn’t just “known” in the self but must be gathered by interaction with others who may know more because they’ve done the work—they’ve pulled together the empirical facts where those are needed, and have done the hard work of understanding the dynamics of psychology, history, and political economy over time, space, place. In other words, it is essential to go beyond one’s own feelings and thoughts and engage in a rigorous process of learning. The academy may privilege writing over other forms of expression—we have lost something as a result. Even as we open the door to those alternative forms of expression, we can’t allow a free-for-all. We still need to know how to write, how to develop an argument with weight, and that there is a difference between “opinion” and an informed position.
Jamie: I think that you hit the nail on the head Jamie. It’s about inspiring youth. To have them think about the world in new and creative ways. The arts can foster such growth, introducing new perspectives and allowing students to develop their own. The arts can produce a deep human connection. It can represent and symbolize what we see and like about others.
Jessica: It is definitely not silly to say that the arts can represent emotions or that one can release emotional stress through the art. Art represents raw human creativity: humanities essence at its highest and purest. I think you bring up a good point and that is individualism: “It’s every man for himself.” You are right, in that, this kind of mentality only seeks to separate and prevent growth. I think that whatever route one takes to elevate oneself, whether that is working within the system or attacking it from the outside, one should never forget the goals and reasons one embarked on the journey in the first place, and that is, self empowerment and the upliftment of one’s community from the horrors of colonization
Nadiya: Great point Nadiya! Images, art and symbols are great tools of propaganda. They are messages and symbols that can be remember easily and disseminated easily to a crowd to get their attention. But, what is very important about avoiding such an issue is the discussion of de-colonization. We have to resist dominant modes of thought that would seek to use the art as a means to manipulate the masses rather than forcing them to engage with each other. Christian’s discussion of how rap has become negative is another way in which we can identify bad messages that are being delivered to the public. But I think the emphasis here is on the message. THERE IS ALWAYS A MESSAGE. The question is, what message are you sending? Individuals who put out artistic work must have a comprehensive message that in some way is meant to assist in the upliftment of those who are seeing or hearing it. Art for art’s sake is not enough, nor is art for the sake of self, art must be art for the production of social change.
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