Maya Brattkus
Evelyn sent me two
resources dealing with arts in prisons and radical communities; the first one I
watched was a TedX talk by Guillermo Gomez-Pena that he delivered at CalArts.
He began his talk with a powerful statement that I think we can carry with us throughout
this class; “I am in love with you and you are a bit scared of me…of the
possibility of me asking you to do something outrageous in the name of art”
He addressed one of my
main questions that I’ve been pondering while thinking about this idea/project;
is it really worth it? Is it worth it to spend energy on trying to make a
difference through art when there are more effective ways, such as donating
money, volunteering, advocating for policy change? As he said in his talk, “The
fact is that, first and foremost, we make art because we love it and doing good
with it is an effect we welcome. But, we don’t like to talk about this because
we badly want to believe that art is necessary. Is it?
I think it is. I think…I think democracy
cannot thrive without art. I think democracy cannot thrive without the critical
voice of the artist constantly testing its limits and possibilities. And what
about art? Is art our salvation? In the past, art has saved me from
deportation, jail, and mental hospitals. Naming my anti-social behavior “art”
has saved me from the jaws of the police, the border patrol, and the IRS.”
He also addressed my
question of what art can create in prions, and moreover whats the point of it.
It goes back to our conversation about radical hope and the importance of it;
“I wonder if community is a source of hope. Community is one of our obsessions.
We long to belong to a larger “we” because we are obsessed, precisely, with
what we lack.”
Perhaps creating a
community of artists in prisons, a community of people who are not seen as
merely a mass of criminals but as individuals through their work, can create
hope.
The next resource she sent me was the website for Arts in
Prison, a program that provides
artistic opportunities for inmates to “prove that they are more than the sum of
their crimes.” They provide education and experiences for inmates in Kansas
state prisons and detention centers, and give people who are often forgotten
about a chance for self reflection and a way to make an imprint. As they state
on their website, “Arts in Prison uses
the arts to inspire positive change in the incarcerated, to reduce recidivism,
and to reconnect ex-offenders with their communities.” This goes back to the
idea of radical hope and the importance of communities. For a group of people
who have been locked up, forgotten about, and told they are innately bad and
worthless to have a chance to create a community and something larger than
themselves, this hope within community can be a life saver.
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