Defining Arts and Activism

Recently, I was asked to define arts and activism for an upcoming book project. I have maintained that arts activism and arts and activism are different. To those in the field, here are my working definitions:

Art: In a global sense, there are many definitions for "art" and they range from using the word as a concept - as part of a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics - to using the word as a process of creating. Historically, art has also come to be defined as a vehicle for the expression of human thoughts and emotions, or as an indirect means of communication. For the purposes of this book/project, we will use the word "art" to mean the process, the outward expression, and the end result (be it an object, an environment, a performance, or an experience) of one's skillful and creative imagination. In other words, art is the skillful mastery and the communication of one's imaginative self, and it is created to evoke thoughts, emotions, and/or action. Art's practical and everlasting value lies in the fact that it is shared with others.

Culture: Culture, simply defined, is the expressions that generally characterize a group of people, their shared experiences, ideals, aspirations, and traditions. The most popular expressions of a people are often thought of as performance or visual-based expressions (i.e., music, dance, sculpture, etc.), yet cultural expressions may also manifest in other forms such as dialect, clothing, cuisine, hairstyles, literature, social games, group tendencies, and much more.

Activism: Activism is a purposeful act or series of actions designed to affect social, political, economic, spiritual, personal, or environmental change. For the purposes of this book/project, the change that activism seeks to affect is a positive change, a change that is enlightening and beneficial for both the individual and the community. Activism may be in support of, or in opposition to, an idea, law, value, policy, behavior, or practice. These supportive or dissenting actions may take on a vast range of expressions such as boycotts, rallies, marches, sit-ins, teach-ins, vigils, petitions, grassroots organizing, letter-writing campaigns, and many other intellectual, creative, and practical forms.

Arts Activism: For the purposes of this book/project (and perhaps in general), arts activism describes a unique kind of activism that uses the arts (visual, performance, theater, and/or literary arts) as a vehicle for affecting social, political, economic, spiritual, personal and/or environmental positive change.

Arts and activism: For the purposes of this book/project (and perhaps in general), arts and activism is the concept, study, and practice of relating and/or intertwining the various fields of art with various methods of activism. It is an interdisciplinary approach to understanding, experiencing, and sharing one's life and it supports the idea that art has holistic, practical, and transformative meaning to individuals and communities, and that activism is necessary for individual and collective development.

The Kidding of Children

"God has lessons for us, but sometimes God has The Devil to deliver them."

That's the soul of the message that I got from wise woman NANA CAMILLE YARBROUGH a few years ago. Don't know what we were talking about, but it applies to this next entry.

I dated said deliverer once, but I learned a few things from him. For example, he used to always correct people when they referred to children as kids. "A kid is a baby goat! Our children are human beings."

Good grief! That was the epitome of over-analyzing a thing. So over the top, I thought. As much as I adored him at the time, he could be overbearing.

Today, I share the same disdain for the word "kid." It didn't take much for me to look more deeply into this. I, as an English Major, surely couldn't shy away from the fact that language has deep meaning and those meanings are attached to the essence, the spirit, the energy of a word.

I used to teach 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students in Brooklyn. It sensitized me to how young people think...and how they hear us. It often reminded me of how I viewed the world as an adolescent. There is a world of language that adults use when referring to young people. "Kid" is not normally heard as a loving term. It carries the weight of dismissive-ness and detachment, very subtly.

My disclaimer: I am not a parent. I have not raised children. My most direct daily relationship to children was years ago when I was in the classroom. My closest connection to a child is my eight year old sister and she lives in Florida. To the extent that I can help guide her through life via my frequent phone calls is the extent of my regular engagement with children. So I don't profess to know more than any parent or teacher whose lives are immersed in raising children.

I do remember that as a child, that I wished that adults would show more respect to children and would listen more. That whole "do as I say, not as I do" irked me then and irks me now. But who was I to say anything, just some kid who didn't know any better.

The Meaning of: Muse

muse (the verb, not one of the daughters of Zeus) - to consider or meditate at at length

muse (the noun; again, not one of Zeus' daughters) - a state of deep reflection

muse (still...not yet the offspring) - a guiding spirit; a source of inspiration; a poet

and

Muse (OK, now) - one of the nine daughters of Mnemosyne and Zeus, each of whom presided over a different art or science