Sunday, November 11, 2012

Artivism.

"I started to write about how when I was in college, I had one group of friends who were ARTISTS and another group who were ACTIVISTS, and the two didn’t mix at all. If you loved art, then you were frivolous and wild and funny and irreverent and provocative but in a way that was solely about the making and creating and consuming of art; and if you were an activist, you were serious and angry and you liked reading boring, constipated, jargon-y academic books about ISSUES like RACISM and SEXISM and QUEERNESS and OPPRESSION, and there was no time for the frivolous, superficial world of art; even though in my heart, I knew that the two had to go together, that  it’s impossible to make meaningful art without being interested in the world beyond the one you know, and part of wanting more humanity in the world is deciding that art is meaningful and that all people should have the right to access and create it."

- from {http://rookiemag.com/2012/10/literally-the-best-thing-ever-m-i-a/}


I love this quotation. It's not too hard to see that that art and activism are not mutually exclusive. In fact, I was introduced to the latter through the former; specifically, anti-war/occupation activism through spoken word. As such, this resonates with me tremendously. 

It makes my anti-oppression heart go vroom-vroom.

No comments: