Making Worlds: how to see and experience realities

Tuesday, 3 April – Whose Worlds? Intersectionality and multiple identities

• Read Reed Ch 5-6: American Indian Movement & Film; Global Rock Activisms 

• Look at artists in Perez, Ch 4: Tierra, Land. Pick the artwork that speaks to you most. Learn about it and tell us. 

Art can speak powerfully about the worlds we live in, the differences among worlds created by uneven power and social structures, the forms of oppression and privilege that identities entail, and the histories in which some groups thrive at the expense of others.

How does intersectionality help us understand these complexities? How do we live as individuals and as groups at the intersections?

 How can we literally know more about realities and worlds?  

How does the experience we have embarked upon, culminating in Assignment Three, help us to figure this out, experiment and experience, reflect on how we work on all this, how we create processes of inclusion, solidarity, using intersectionality?  

• First twenty minutes today to make sure everyone has a partner or team. IF YOU HAVE NOT YET BECOME A MEMBER OF A PARTNERSHIP OR TEAM, CONTACT YOUR TA IMMEDIATELY! Your ability to get any credit for assignment three depends on your taking responsibility for this. If you have a class buddy who hasn't done this yet, please make sure they hear about this. An email reminder about this has been sent out on course mail too!

• Identity cards, and art activisms and curations lists handed out today too, along with copy of assignment three. [all but cards are available for download with links too.]

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Celia Herrera Rodríguez of NEW FIRE from emiloid encina on Vimeo.

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Vimeo: "Celia Herrera Rodríguez is the Costume and Set Designer of NEW FIRE - the latest production by playwright Cherríe Moraga. Please support Xican@ Indigenous Art and our cast of Master Indigenous Artists by donating or spreading the word on our Kickstarter campaign: kickstarter.com/projects/419411661/new-fire-to-put-things-right-again "

Kickstarter: "A World Premiere Play
NEW FIRE – To Put Things Right Again
Written and Directed by Cherríe Moraga
Designed by Celia Herrera Rodríguez

"After a fifteen-year hiatus, Cherríe Moraga returns to Brava Theater Center to help celebrate its 25th anniversary with her fourth Brava World Premiere production, NEW FIRE – To Put Things Right Again. Co-produced by the new-to-the Bay Area, cihuatl productions, NEW FIRE follows the sacred geography of Indigenous American ancestors to tell a post-modern story of rupture and homecoming. Of her return to Brava, Playwright, Cherríe Moraga, states: “It’s about coming home, returning to the same place, but as a different person, a different artist. The world has changed so dramatically in fifteen years, and I, along with it. I am older, yes… and the work, more mature as well. I have, with my collaborators, discovered the poetry of movement, of visuals, the music of silence, even as I continue to write with words. It’s a beautiful thing to return to Brava -- this woman’s theater -- changed in this way, to celebrate a homecoming with a play that requires return for each of us – man, woman, elder and the young.”

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Alma Lopez. 1997. California Fashion Slaves

Perez 2007: 146: "The ideas of knowing your place and having a place are tied together and suggest that the personal sense of being at home, whether in society or in your body, whether it is a female, a queer, an immigrant, or a negatively racialized minority body, or a combination of these, is shaped by our sense of belonging socially. This sense of belonging is not untied from our historical relationship to the places in which we dwell."




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Hooks 1984. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. South End Press.

Mexican segregation in Texas

Her story here about the small Kentucky town is a now classic statement of what feminists sometimes call "standpoint theory." Here she makes it clear that segregation meant that black people moved across the railroad tracks, and -- correctly -- saw the town on both sides. The town was literally larger to them than it was to the white people who stayed on their side of the railroad tracks, whose reality was thus more narrow and circumscribed. This violates any assumptions that "privilege" or having more or being advantaged means that you "know more" -- usually understood as having been better educated or schooled. But this work on standpoint claims that such education doesn't account for the knowledges about living in the world that are greater among oppressed people: what is sometimes called "subjugated knowledge."

This does not mean, however, that having privilege means having no way to know what subjugated people know. Or that oppressed people are even always aware of what it is that they know in these ways. Standpoint theory says that all of us need to raise our consciousness, to learn more about how to know what we know as oppressed people, and how to acquire knowledge about what we don't know as privileged ones.

This happens in many ways that require our struggles together: in the work of political solidarity, such as in coalition politics, in the kinds of consciousness-raising done in CR groups, in the kinds of multi-issue broad base mass movement work hooks calls feminist movement, in multicultural education where we learn about the histories of social movements and struggles for social justice, in work on intersectionalities: personal, collective, policy and research oriented, legal, activist, even philosophical or psychological. Different feminisms tend to consider some of these more important than others, often with an eye to the identities, movements, social justice issues they find most urgent.

Reed 2005, 152: "One of the most profound aspects of collective, social movement action, at least from my experience, is the feeling political theorist Hannah Arendt referred to as 'public happiness,' the sense of exhilaration that comes when one throws one's whole being into a principled cause. This feeling is seldom captured in film, with its bias toward individualized storytelling. But a sense of community, so much a part of native nations as well as social movement cultures, is conveyed well in the film [Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee]. It is summed up by Mary's remark that she never felt more 'free' thatn when inside the Wounded Knee camp. That one can indeed feel most 'free' when in jail for civil disobedience or when surrounded by the trigger-happy federal marshals and the FBI agents is a paradox of social activism rarely portrayed in the mass media.... the film's narrative moves toward collective power and communal responsibility." [American Indian / Native American Activism]

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He/Man language: generic masculine: unmarked & marked categories: 

Martyna 1980, 489: "Empirical explorations of how we comprehend the generic masculine also indicate its sex exclusiveness. My studies of pronoun usage show striking sex differences in both the use and understanding of the generic masculine. Females use 'he' less often than do males, and turn more frequently to alternatives such as 'he or she' and 'they.' Males have an easier time imagining themselves as members of the category referenced by generic 'he.' Seven times as many males as females say they see themselves in response to sex-neutral sentences referring to a 'person', or 'human being.' In general, males appear to be using and understanding 'he' in its specific more often than in its generic sense. Females both avoid the use of 'he' and respond to its use with a more generic than specific interpretation."

(488): "Cognitive confusion is another consequence of the generic masculine, one particularly relevant for the academic disciplines. Joan Huber, for example, has characterized the use of 'he' and 'man' as 'an exercise in doublethink that muddles sociological discourse.' She cites the recent sociology text which proclaims: 'The more education an individual attains, the better his occupation is likely to be, and the more money he is likely to earn.' The statement is accurate only if the individual is male."

"Man can do several things which the animal cannot do....Eventually, his vital interests are not only life, food, access to females, etc., but also values, symbols, institutions." [Miller, Swift 1980: 12] 

[See also Wikipedia: Gender Neutrality in English ; and Markedness ]

unmarked categories: am I included? 
gender: man/(wo)man -- (cis)gendered/(trans)gendered
race: white/people of color
sex: sexuality/(homo)sexuality
ability: able/(dis)abled
class: middle class/working class 
age: young adult/children and the old
religion: Xtian/("heathen") range of religions and non-religions, from Jews and Muslims to atheists and nontheists and more
language in US: English (monolingual)/range of languages in multiple knowledges, from Spanish to Spanglish to bilingual to multi-lingual -- often coded for immigration status and race
nationality: citizen/non-citizens of many sorts, especially immigrants of various kinds

WHAT OTHER UNMARKED/MARKED CATEGORIES CAN YOU THINK OF? 
Notice how many people fall through the gaps between these? Mixed race people, bisexual people. Intersectionality tries especially to deal with that. Or how many change from one place to another? one time to another? who counts as "white" is very changeable in this way.


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Dare to Come Closer to Feminism....

INTERSECTIONAL ART ACTIVISMS & IDENTITIES 

SPRING BREAK – NO CLASS but there is reading!

• During the break read Moore and Prain’s yarn bombing book

• Check out the book website: http://yarnbombing.com/

• Look at Moore’s blog at: http://www.yarnageddon.com/

• Check out Prain’s tweets as: LeannePrain  

• You’ll also be reading hook’s very small book, Intro & Ch 1-8

Tuesday, 27 March – Working Out Visions

• Note hooks' description on the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_hooks 

• Check her teaching site: http://www.berea.edu/appalachiancenter/people/bellhooks.asp 

• You can see her on video with this search: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=vid&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1052&bih=533&q=bell+hooks&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=  

What do you notice when we read about yarn bombing and hooks’ book together? How do each of these work out visions of social justice? How do they think about how to include “everybody”? Which social groups are interconnected through these projects? How do they help us understand identities and power and action?

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"That's silly!" some people might say. "silly [from Online Etymology Dictionary: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=silly] O.E. gesælig "happy" (related to sæl "happiness"), from W.Gmc. *sæligas (cf. O.N. sæll "happy," Goth. sels "good, kindhearted," O.S. salig, M.Du. salich, O.H.G. salig, Ger. selig "blessed, happy, blissful"), from PIE root *sel- "happy" (cf. L. solari "to comfort"). • The word's considerable sense development moved from "blessed" to "pious," to "innocent" (c.1200), to "harmless," to "pitiable" (late 13c.), to "weak" (c.1300), to "feeble in mind, lacking in reason, foolish" (1570s). Further tendency toward "stunned, dazed as by a blow" (1886) in knocked silly, etc. Silly season in journalism slang is from 1861 (August and September, when newspapers compensate for a lack of hard news by filling up with trivial stories). Silly Putty trademark claims use from July 1949." 

click pic to go to Santos' website

• Male lawmakers to receive knit uteruses in the mail:
http://thehill.com/capital-living/in-the-know/217445-male-lawmakers-to-receive-knit-uteruses-in-the-mail 

"Susan Santos is a 55-year-old Colorado blogger and housewife, but these days, she’s doubling as a uterus-knitting machine. Yes, you read that right. The mom and knitting fanatic is an organizer of a campaign called the “Government Free VJJ Project.” The goal of the initiative: to knit or crochet a vagina or uterus and send it to every male lawmaker in Congress." [pattern here] 

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YouTube: Uploaded by jbadalament on Mar 6, 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5ThEoA0ESA
"This is a clip taken from my film Gender Traps. I filmed bell hooks in conversation with Terry Real, in front of a studio audience at PS 122 performance space in NY."

complexities of identity: the part that makes us cringe and say "I don't want to be labeled!" is what Patricia Hill Collins calls a • "controlling image." But the part that names our communities of nurture, those groups of people that truly care for us and make our lives possible, those are pieces of what in feminism we sometimes call • identity politics. hooks makes us think carefully and caringly about how just talking a lot can be perceived as a stereotype, can be a strategy of empowerment or a half-understood thing one does that is not actually empowering. What is its liberatory version? How do we get from a controlling LABEL to an IDENTITY of power and meaning? Where are we coming from and how does that involve recognizing others?

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hooks 2000, viii: "...if they dare to come closer to feminism they will see it is not how they have imagined it."

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Remember all that stuff on "process" at the heart of Ass. #2? And how difficult it was somehow to take it seriously, to actually talk about it and analyze it in your groups, how in fact you needed to return to it, to redo it and think more about it all? It seems more important to put the product at the center of your attention, that thing you connect to your grade most, even when the directions say something quite different. Wonder why? Wonder what that is all about? When does it seem smart to make a very important END point justify a means to get there? Who has got the time to do all that process stuff anyway?  (and isn't it smarter to get the biggest grade you can for the least amount of work? or does that sort of being smart just outsmart the whole process of learning itself?)

What's the big deal? Well, let's use thinking and rethinking about process to wonder about this: how we work together in groups matters, how power figures in all that matters too. How can we tell what effects political process has on our visions and understandings of feminism, or, maybe better, feminisms in the plural? 

It's all about THE ACTUAL WORK IT TAKES to make feminism. And to make what hooks calls "political solidarity." To make that vision of including everyone REAL. Can it be done? What does it take? What do we have to know to even begin the processes involved? If justice is urgent, do we have the time and resources to take care of the process too?

hooks 2000: 17: "When contemporary feminist movement first began we had a vision of sisterhood with no concrete understanding of the actual work we would need to do to make political solidarity a reality. Through experience and hard work, and yes, by learning from our failures and mistakes, we now have in place a body of theory and shared practice that can teach new converts to feminist politics what must be done to create, sustain, and protect our solidarity." 

Theories and Practices to create, sustain, and protect our solidarity. Some of these are standpoint theory, intersectionality, differential consciousness. Each has important insights and tools to offer; each can be used a bit differently by feminists, sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. Sometimes the term "intersectionality" is used to include ALL the possibilities of understanding how to practice solidarity and coalition politics and understand simultaneous oppressions.

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Your values and perhaps goals and visions. They might be, "inner peace," "independence," "connection with family," "academic achievement," "connection with others," "work life stability." What are yours? Write down six that matter to you most at this moment. 

==================> if each of these were a path, where are you now on that path? mark where you are now, where you would like to be. 

Name some controlling images that affect your life, those "labels" you are always trying to get out from under. And/or name some kinds of groups or communities that support you. Or maybe it is a mixture, sometimes they support you, sometimes you are not sure, but you know you are included in these. Sometimes you like that, perhaps others times you are not sure. 

INTERSECTIONALITY names "the complex mix of identities that influence the way an individual participates at all, or any, level of society. They include [at least] the following: age, ability, economic status, culture, race, family, social status, religion" -- gender, sexuality, language, nationality. Can you name others that matter to you, or that somehow don't seem quite included in this list from your perspective and life experiences? Why might it be hard to name every such identity? How do we feel out which ones are salient, that is to say, matter most at any time, for a particular person, in a certain situation, for a particular historical moment?

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What is feminism? Event, flyer and process

section presentations -- these take place in the lecture part of the course -- Be sure you are there -- it's part of the assignment!   NO POWERPOINTS OR SLIDE SHOWS! bring your flyer to share around. YOUR GRP HAS ONLY 7 MINS!

Everyone must say something, so as soon as you get to class, get together with your group and plan what each person will say. Each person has about one minute, so be detailed but brief! Try to say something new, and not just repeat what others have said: something special!  

HOORAY! WE GET TO SEE THE FRUITS OF YOUR HARD WORK AND THOUGHTFUL CONSIDERATION OF PROCESS! feminism in its collective aspects and processes is the heart of this assignment.

• First everyone in turn will introduce themselves to the whole class. Tell us both your first and last name, slowly and clearly. 
• Someone will read the group's definition of feminism.
• Someone will describe the event the group came up with. 
• Someone will describe the flyer and its design.
• Someone will characterize who the flyer and event is directed to, their audiences and distribution.
• One or more people will describe some relationships between the definition and the event. 
• One or more people will talk about the group process, esp. how work was divided and how disputes were resolved.
• One or more people will discuss how the process of the assignment helps us consider what is feminism.

one group's presentation link: sexist images
one group's presentation flyer website style : stop the violence

What sort of art is protest?

Tuesday, 6 March – The Art of Protest

• Read Reed Intro, Ch 1-4

• Examine Reed’s book website: http://art-of-protest.net/tvreedhome.html 

• Check out his teaching site: http://libarts.wsu.edu/english/TV%20Reed.html 

• Look at his cultural politics resources: http://culturalpolitics.net/about  

• Look at artists in Perez, Ch 6: Face, Heart. Pick the artwork that speaks to you most. Learn about it and tell us. Bring in something about it from the web.

What sort of “art” is protest? How do social movements create culture? Which social movements do you know the most about? Which ones would you like to learn more about? Which arts have engaged the feminist issues you care about most? How do you know? How is women’s studies involved? 

From Reed 2005: xiii (display shape is mine): "This book hopes to prove useful to three main types of readers. 
 

= For students and general readers new to the subject, it presents an introduction to social movements through the rich, kaleidoscopic lens of artistic and cultural expression.

= For scholars of social movements, it offers intriguing observations on particular movements and useful insights into various ways to think about the relations between culture and social change.

= For activists, it seeks to offer inspiration and a tool kit of ideas about how art and culture can further social movement goals.

These three sets of readers overlap, of course, in the form of scholar activists or activist students, but to the extent that they sometimes speak different languages, or have different interests, I hope that each type of reader will be patient when encountering portions of chapters that may speak more clearly to another of these audiences. Finding a style equally appropriate to all has been my goal, but no doubt I have not always succeeded." 

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SNCC Freedom Singers and the Civil Rights ...

youtube.comMay 14, 2011 - 3 min - Uploaded by ProtestMusic228
SNCC Freedom Singers and the Civil Rights Movement ... Freedom Songs The Music of the Civil Rights ...
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The Black Panther Party - YouTube

youtube.comSep 2, 2008 - 6 min - Uploaded by KeithCarsonDistrict5
A tribute to the Black Panthers. In Oakland Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton founded the Black Panthers in ...

"'Panther Baby,' From Prisoner To Professor," on TELL ME MORE from NPR News, 4 March 2012: "Jamal Joseph was a 15-year-old honor student when joining the Black Panther Party. He later faced a 12-year sentence in Leavenworth Penitentiary for helping fugitive Panther members. Behind bars, he taught a theater group, and now he teaches the arts at Columbia University. His new book is part of Tell Me More's Black History Month memoir series."  Read the transcript, hear the interview here. 

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Poetry Everywhere: "What Kind of Times Are These ...

youtube.comMar 30, 2009 - 2 min - Uploaded by PoetryEverywherePTV
Adrienne Rich reads her poem "What Kind of Times Are These. ... 5 poems by Audre Lordeby ...

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SPARC: Great Wall of LA: Donna Deitch ...

youtube.comAug 8, 2011 - 4 min - Uploaded by sparcmurals
1976-Present: The Great Wall of Los Angeles 1/2 mile long Mural/Education Project is one of Los Angeles ...

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Social Movements & Culture Site   
Movement Sites Links: 

    NEW: Occupy Wall Street 
    Abolition of Slavery 
    American Indian / Native American Activism 
    Anarchist Movements 
    Anti-AIDs Activism 
    Anti-Nuclear Movements 
    Art Activism 
    Asian American / Pacific Islander Movements 
    Black Nationalism & Black Arts 
    Chicano/a Latino/a Movimientos 
    Civil Rights Movements 
    Disability Rights Movements 
    Environmental Movements 
    Gay / Lesbian / Bi / Trans / Queer Movements 
    Global Justice Networks 
    Labor Movements 
    Media Activism 
    Socialist Movements 
    Women's Movements & Feminist Sites 
    Multi-Issue Movement Sites 

What ARE these "social movements? Reed calls them (xiii) "the unauthorized, unofficial, anti-institutional, collective action of ordinary citizens trying to change their world...." (xiv): "...'progressive' social movements like the ones at the heart of this book have been crucial in taking the important but vague and unfulfilled promises of 'freedom' and 'democracy' announced in the [American] revolution's best known manifesto, the Declaration of Independence, and given them more reality, more substance, and wider applicability to the majority of people -- women, people of color, the poor -- who were initially excluded from those promises.... Movements, in contrast to their tamer, more institutionalized cousins, political parties and lobbyists, seek to bring about social change primarily through the medium of 'repeated public displays,' or, as I would put it, through dramatic action." (xvi-xv): "...as centrally important as dramatic, public action has been to social movements, it is by no means the totality of their activity, or the sole source of their impact...dramatic actions are themselves the products of usually rather undramatic, mundane daily acts of preparation...the impact of dramatic moments is only as great as the follow-up forms of daily organizing that accompany them...dramatic movement events happen in other, less celebrated spaces, including apartment living rooms, academic offices, and classrooms."

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Perez 2007: 306: "The Chicana artists whose 'spirit work' I have studied here display the courage to attempt to inspire or provoke greater balance between who we appear to be ('face') and who we long to be ('heart'). They teach us to perceive and imagine differently, and that seeing is a learned, revealed, ever-changing, and transformative process, whether we do so through the mind, the eyes, the heart, or the spirit. If we are receptive, their work contributes toward leading us to beliefs and practices of greater personal and social integrity and therefore harmony.... we are inescapably, in visible and invisible ways, each other's other selves...."

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From the Washington Post, 2 March 2012: C1, C5 [italics mine]: "An orchestra as an agent of feminist change? ....'On the surface of it, it seems quite off-mission,' says Marin Alsop, the BSO’s music director (and known to far too many simply as 'the woman conductor'). ...'What's going on is a role change,' Rosen says. 'Orchestras are looking at themselves as being responsible citizens in their communities.... WoW is not setting out to reform orchestras -- only, modestly, all of society.... And it's not a bad idea to turn discussions of change into a celebration. 'Having fun,' Kelly says, 'is a good way to convince people that changing the world is quite a nice thing to do.'"

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From Sweet Honey's website: "Founded by Bernice Johnson Reagon in 1973 (with Mie, Carol Maillard and Louise Robinson) at the D.C. Black Repertory Theater Company, Sweet Honey In The Rock, internationally renowned a cappella ensemble, has been a vital and innovative presence in the music culture of Washington, D.C., and in communities of conscience around the world."

TODAY AT 5:30 PM at Gildenhorn Recital Hall!!!!

"Take Five -- DR. YSAYE BARNWELL

What the Lyrics of Spirituals Have Told Us, Then and Now

Dr. Barnwell explores what the lyrics of spirituals have to tell us about the African experience in American history. What is the African world view? What was the relationship between African religions and Christianity? What were the activities of daily life? Was it better to remain enslaved or to risk escaping from slavery? And when and how could you escape? What does it mean to be bought and sold? How do you remember "home?" What were the strategies for survival? What gives you empowerment and hope? And what is the meaning of death?" 


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‘Frida Kahlo: Her Photos’ at Artisphere; Exhibit of 240 of the artist Frida Kahlo’s personal photos, first unsealed in 2007, runs through March 25. Slideshow on Washington Post online.

Yreina D. Cervántez, Homenaje a Frida Kahlo. [Plate 75, p. 283: Chicana Art: Pérez, 2007]
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