Suzanne Lacy: My Hero

Suzanne Lacy, Activist and Artist.

Suzanne Lacy is my new hero. She embodies the essence of art-making and activism. She is a change agent. She has done things I have dreamed about doing. I first learned of her while reading The Voice of the Artist as Reseacher, Homelessness in Toronto (Davis Halifax, 2010). The author attributed the following quote to Lacy in which Lacy suggests that art be redefined as, “a process of value finding, a set of philosophies, an ethical action, and an aspect of a larger sociocultural agenda” (Lacy, 1995 p. 46). These words spoke to me. Art was being presented as something other than a product; a process. This was an exciting revelation for me. I believe I already knew this, because I have long valued the art-making process. However, these simple words carried the conviction of the author and their simplicity struck me as solidly as a bass note at the end of a song.

Lacy not only suggests a redefinition of art, she advocates for a redefinition of the roles of artists because of the activities engaged in by artists such as designing programs, leading public discussions and public demonstrations which she considers “integral to the artwork.” Casting artists in the role of educator is another interesting construction which speaks to the pedagogical nature of the artist particularly as artists become more involved in their communities. Lacy attributes the following quote to Yolanda Lopez, who characterizes artists as citizens “exercising the social contract between the citizen and the state, the artist works as a citizen within the intimate spaces of community life” (Lacy, 1995 pg 40) Lacy clearly values public art-making and has made a name for herself and her art by seeking out public places for her exhibitions and performances which she reasons provides even more opportunities for a redefined role of the artist, “these expansive venues allow not only a broader reach but ultimately a more integrated role for the artist in society” (Lacy, 1995 p. 40).

It is difficult to pick one example of art-making by Lacy since most of her projects have left an indelible mark on many people however there is one project that is a great example of her art-making ingenuity. In May, 1986 Lacy created the Dark Madonna to focus attention on racism and gender. The Dark Madonna was a public performance and exhibition involving approximately 40 women of various ages and nationalities, who dressed in white and posed as statues in a public park that was filled with statues, three quarters of them white male historical figures. At the appointed time, the lights were extinguished the women posing as statutes removed their white clothes while at the same time 200 women dressed in black with flashlights proceeded to move in pre-arranged places on the lawn by flashlight where they proceeded to congregate in small groups and discuss racism and gender issues in their own lives. The former statues also dressed in black, joined these groups and contributed their reflections of their experience to the groups. According the Irish (2010) the Dark Madonna “represented one way in which white society collected its negative characteristics, transferred those onto non-white people and then rejected those enshadowed people, denying whites own unclaimed characteristics and unjustly oppressing other groups.”

The pedagogy of art-making and community engagement is a concept I intend to explore further because I believe it is fertile ground for deconstructing the traditional view of the artist and I believe it can be springboard for launching a discourse on the implications of viewing the artist as social educator. Guillermo Gomez-Pena tells us that ‘artists are media pirates, border crossers, cultural negotiators and community healers” (Lacy, 1995).

References

Hallifax, N. (2010) The voice of the artist as researcher: Homelessness in toronto. Alberta, CN: Detselig Enterprises Ltd.

Irish, S. (2010). Suzanne Lacy: Spaces between. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press.

Lacy, S. (1995). Mapping the terrain: New genre public art. Seattle: Bay Press

Making Meaning Through Interpretive Explanation

This week, I am challenged to make meaning and coherent sense out of the assignments we have read, viewed and listened to. The textual images from the passage in Geertz’s Chapter 2 attributed to L. V. Helms concerning the self-immolation of three Balinese women in the late 1800’s (Geertz, 1983) and the film documentary based on the mass suicide of the 909 victims of Jonestown, Guyana in 1978 (Nelson, 2007) have frankly, overwhelmed my senses and challenged my thought process. I hardly know where to begin with this reflection. Perhaps returning Geertz’s writings can assist.

In three chapters of Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology (Geertz, 1983) Geertz has given us much to think about interpretation and anthropological inquiry. But his definition of interpretive explanation on page 22 of Chapter 1 Blurred Genres: The Refiguration of Social thought helps me make sense of the words, sounds and images I mentioned in the first paragraph of this reflection.

Interpretive explanation – and it is a form of explanation, not just exalted glossography – trains its attention on what institutions, actions, images utterances, events, customs, all the usual objects of social-scientific interest mean to those whose institutions, actions, customs, and so on they are.

Geertz goes on to suggest that interpretive inquiry, “attempts to formulate how this people or that, this period or that, this person or that makes sense to itself, and understanding that, what we understand about social order, historical change, or psychic functioning in general.”

Geertz has made two points here which I will relate to the Peoples Temple. First, any attempt to conduct an interpretive explanation of the Peoples Temple needs to focus on what the Peoples Temple meant to the members of the Peoples Temple. According to Geertz, an interpretive explanation would attempt to understand what the customs of the Peoples Temple meant to the membership and what the actions, like the mass suicide, meant to the membership. The second point Geertz makes in the above quote is that generalization, can only occur once the meaning of the events, actions, customs to the members of the People’s Temple themselves, is understood.

The film gives insight into the meaning of the action of life-taking by presenting interviews, recorded statements and written communication of several members of the Peoples Temple. I will quote five members here, each one offering a different meaning. Eugene Smith a survivor said, “we wanted to make a change, it never happened but one thing I can say is at least we tried, and we didn’t sit back and wait on the laurels of somebody else, we tried, and yes it was a failure, and yes it was very tragic, but at least we tried.” Another survivor, Stanley Clayton, said, “I ain’t used the term suicide and I ain’t never goin to use the term suicide, that man killed them.”

Jim Jones provided his own meaning when he said, ‘there’s nothing to death, it’s just stepping into another plane…we didn’t commit suicide, we committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world.” Another survivor said, “There was nothing dignified about it, it was nothing to do with revolutionary suicide, it was nothing about making a (profanity omitted) statement, it was just senseless waste, a senseless waste and death.” Finally, in a note left at the scene, one victim said, “let all the story of this Peoples Temple be told… if nobody understands, it matters not. I am ready to die now darkness settles over Jonestown on its last day on earth.”

Despite these individual meanings, all different, expressed by survivors and victims, it is still quite difficult for me to compose any statement that would attempt to generalize their interpretation. Perhaps that is why the film focused on making meaning by interviewing the various people involved as well as the recorded public as a way of telling the story from the viewpoint of the participants.

References

Geertz, C. (1983). Local knowledge: Further essays in interpretive anthropology. New York: Basic Books, Inc.

Nelson, S. (Producer/Director). (2007). Jonestown: The life and death of peoples temple [Motion Picture]. WGBH Educational Foundation and Firelight Media.

Doctoral Study

Doctoral Study

My area of doctoral study in the Educational Interdisciplinary studies program at Lesley University involves making meaning of the extensive community service capacity demonstrated by performance art-makers. As a founder of two community-based performing arts organizations, I have witnessed performance art-makers volunteering significant amounts of time and energy in the service of bringing art to marginalized communities as well as volunteering at non art-related social service agencies. I am intrigued by the social-awareness and other-oriented behavior demonstrated by these artists and their students and I would like understand the motivation and meaning of this phenomenon because it may add to the existing knowledge and provide another example of how the arts may positively impact our communities.

My assumption is that the practices of performance art-making and teaching performance art in community settings, together with the continuous action and reflection implicit in those practices, creates an acute awareness of the ‘other’ within the artist and results in a proclivity for sustained other-oriented behavior. I believe that critical pedagogy (among other theoretical constructs may inform my understanding of this phenomenon, in particular the concept of praxis, which involves a continuous process of reflection and action (Paulo Freire,1968). Other theorists whose work may inform this inquiry are John Dewey (1913) with his emphasis on participatory democracy, civic discourse and the arts and Augusto Boal (1999) with his recognition of the crucial importance of participatory, dialogic forms of education and art. I suspect that the pedagogy being utilized by certain performing artist teachers creates frequent opportunities for community-based events for themselves and their students which facilitates an awareness of social issues and disenfranchisement within their communities.

References

Boal, A. (1979). Theatre of the oppressed. New York: Theatre Communications Group.

Dewey, J. (1913). Experience and education. New York: Collier.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.

Reflection of Artist and Activism Conference Lesley University, Oct 14-15, 2010

The minister of human services and social security for Guyana, South America, Priya Manickchand, is a powerful woman. Powerful in her aspirations and in her success of developing programs for her country’s victims of domestic violence. In the last several years, she has convinced the administration to fund and expand legal aid programs from 1 under funded program to 10 funded programs in populated areas. She created and implemented child safety programs which now feature a hotline to report incidents of domestic abuse. This hotline has received more than 4,000 calls in only two years of existence. A lawyer by profession, she has mobilized an entire movement and given hope to women and children throughout her country. She is an activist and she has come to Lesley to learn how to integrate art into her country’s healing process.

Similarly, Sister Juvenal Mukamurama, former superior general of the Benebikira Sisters in Rwanda has a similar mission to develop arts programs. She and the sisters under her leadership refused to leave Rwanda despite threats from the oppressive regime during the 1994 genocide in that country which killed more than 1,100,000 100 days. This congregation has taken a leading role in the healing and reconciliation of the living victims and perpetrators of this oppression. She hopes to use drumming and storytelling as ways to bring people together in a healing and reconciliation process.

Locally, the Geese Theatre and True Theater groups have developed programs and brought them to prisons in Massachusetts to begin the healing process of the incarcerated. Both involve live improvisation and sometimes playback theatre. One group invites the inmates to participate and act out their personal stories as well as fantasy or fictionalized accounts. The other group recruits cast members from outside the prison and puts on shows inside prisons to help the healing. One example involved an actress acting out her own personal story about her lost childhood and how her mother did not protect her. The woman is a recovering substance abuser and former prostitute. In another example, a prison came into possession of over 100 suitcases and satchels. The artists from Geese Theatre worked with the inmates to paint and decorate the cases, painting their external feelings on the outside of the box and their secrets in the inside of the box. In one example, an inmate painted a story inside of a suitcase which told the tale of a violent home life where the mother had tried to leave the house on numerous occasions with the children only to return again and again.

The war in Iraq and Afghanistan was the subject of another art making project which involved school children constructing simple objects to commemorate the lives of loved ones who had perished in the war. They constructed miniature figures out of natural objects such as tea bags, sticks and fabric. These artifacts were then used to make and exhibit to present them to the public. More than 3,000 such figures make up the exhibit which has toured the country. The point of the art was to facilitate healing.

The ArtsBridge project involves bringing both Israeli and Palestinian high school students together for 3 weeks to create a piece of art (visual art or film project). Students are paired together to conceive, design and create this project, which is then presented in a public exhibit. Students work closely together and through this process learn about each other’s their values, beliefs and cultural backgrounds. The goal of this program is to create a group of young people who can move beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This conference experience showed me several things. First, never underestimate the power of an idea. All these projects started out with a passionate person trying to affect change based on an idea for using the arts to engage. Second, almost all of the activists at the conference did not think of themselves as artists. They were humble, self-deprecating and shunned the attention and accolades heaped upon them.

One memorable story came out of this conference by Hugh Masekela, from South Africa, world famous musician and apartheid activist for his homeland about his grandmother. Masekela worked tirelessly to create global awareness of the horrors of apartheid through his music and was banned from entering the country for many years because of his activism. He held concerts in neighboring countries to promote peace and used his public position to call attention to the oppression.

He told of how his grandmother would carry three -10 lb. buckets of water, 3 times a day from the common well to her house. She would carry 1 bucket in each hand, 1 bucket on her head while carrying an infant (Hugh’s sibling) on her back with Hugh holding on to her skirt. She would then stop at every gate to talk with her neighbors. One speaker, Nathan Field, of IAB re-told this story as a powerful metaphor for an activist artist. First, the artist brings nourishment and life to people who need sustenance, which is represented by the water. Second, the artists carry’s the needy on his or her back, represented by the infant. Third, the artist takes his or her time to meet with and really communicate with people in the community. Last, the artist brings others along with he or she, like the small child Hugh holding on to his grandmother’s skirt.

Performance Pedagogy: Toward an Art of Politics

I began reading Performance Pedagogy: Toward an Art of Politics by Charles Garoian with great anticipation. Here was a pedagogy founded on art-making, I thought. Here was a pedagogy that dealt with civic engagement and social justice. I quickly skimmed the text and then started reading and re-reading it. I found ample definitions. For example, “Performance Art Pedagogy represents a liminal space, an aesthetic dimension wherein social and historically constructed ideas, images, myths and utopia’s can be contested and new ones constructed as they pertain to students’ experiences of reality and the desires to transform that reality” (Garoian, 1999 p 10). I looked up luminal. Merriam-Webster defines liminal as, “of or relating to a sensory threshold” (Merriam-Webster, 2010). It is not clear to me at this early stage of my reading what threshold Garoian is referring to, however it is possible it is the threshold between artist and spectator.

I returned to Garoian, “performance art pedagogy …considers the aesthetic dimension of performance subjectivity as an educational imperative, a practice of teaching that necessitates the critique of hegemonic cultural performances and the creation of new performance myths” (Garoian, pg 10). Merriam-Webster defines hegemonic as, “the social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant group (Merriam-Webster, 2010). This sentence conveys the message that performance art pedagogy provides for the critical review of the dominant culture that has been imposed on the student.

Garoian, continues, “performance art pedagogy resists cultural conformity and domination by creating discourses and practices that are multicentric, participatory, indeterminate, interdisciplinary, reflexive and intercultural. This is a mouthful, but provides deeper insight into the pedagogy. In this passage, Garoian begins to explain how one practices performance art pedagogy – one creates discourses and practices, that are based upon and require participation by students, teachers and mentors.

Performing art pedagogy does not function like conventional theatre wherein art is presented to spectators with little or no opportunity for participation. Performing arts pedagogy encourages communication by directly involving spectators. Performing arts pedagogy is a tool that can be used to facilitate and promote social awareness, community consciousness and democratic ideas. Garoian presents the concept of critical citizenship in the following passage, “performing arts pedagogy recognizes the cultural difference as a vital resource to the development of a broader understanding of reality and where participants work toward the goals of critical citizenship and democracy” (Garoian, 1999 p 67).

I can see some interesting parallels with the volunteerism exhibited by performing arts trainers and the critical citizenship identified by Garoian as one of the goals of performing arts pedagogy. By its very nature, the performing arts encourage students and teachers to enter into a body and mind discourse based on equality and reflexivity, where cultural boundaries are examined but do not function as shackles holding back free thought and expression. The performing arts create an opportunity for thoughtful discourse by stimulating critical dialogue. Teachers who train students in the performing arts are uniquely positioned to influence creative and reflexive thought in their students.

It occurs to me that the pedagogy demonstrated by performing arts trainers shares some of the characteristics of performing arts pedagogy: they are both participatory, reflexive, intercultural and multicentric. Therefore it is not surprising to see high levels of volunteerism and civic engagement being practiced by performing arts trainers consistent with the goals outlined by Garoian of performing arts pedagogy.

References:

Garoian, C. (1999) Performing pedagogy: Toward an art of politics. New York: State University of New York Press.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hegemonic