Black folx5/7/2023 ![]() Exposure to the arts promotes emotional expression, builds empathy, and expands perspectives. ![]() Funding arts programming in schools and as a part of mental health treatment is one of the best investments political leaders, philanthropists and society can make in this moment. As a creative-arts therapist, I’ve seen firsthand the impact of the arts across contexts and its power to facilitate change. During this current moment of swelled social unrest and societal fracture, Black art practices past and present offer us a roadmap in fugitive healing, freedom, and creative resistance.Īn intentional turn to the arts is needed to challenge the social-societal, political, individual, and collective rupture that has long been present and is currently acutely evident. Laws targeting and stigmatizing LGBTQIA+ folx are blatant practices of subjugation meant to uphold the status quo. Johnson are currently under attack and being removed from school libraries precisely because of their power to disrupt oppressive narratives and unsettle dominant expectations. Artists such as Toni Morrison, Angie Thomas, and George M. Today, leaders across every level of government are installing policies that encourage violence and oppression based on race, gender, and sexuality. The moment presents a prime opportunity for examining and heeding the ways Black folx persistently use creative practices to advance freedom, healing, and justice. It brings Juneteenth events that commemorate the end of slavery Pride parades and festivals that venerate the 1969 Stonewall Uprising and LGBTQIA+ activism and festivals that lift the history and trajectory of Black music and recognize the richness of the Black artistic canon. June now presents a tri-fold occasion for celebration within and across Black communities. Investment in Black art as an educational tool, for example, has been largely lacking despite - and perhaps because of - its proven ability to be an agent of social change and healing. Across time, it has encouraged and sustained freedom movements such as Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter challenged racist stereotypes birthed impactful genres like spirituals, the blues, jazz, and hip hop and connected diverse, often marginalized, Black communities through mechanisms like ballroom culture and the Black church.īlack art has been a multi-contextual power source to Black communities and the larger American society, but America’s dominant culture has a long track record of simultaneously appropriating Black art while ignoring the contributions of Black artists. During enslavement, music served as a vehicle for Black people to plan and facilitate escapes. Along the middle passage, enslaved Africans out of necessity stitched together new ways of knowing, communicating, and being. From the Black perspective folx create space to seek out answers to the question : “how can I make a better space for myself and the youth I serve?” In this series we've found answers in the heart of our own healing and grounding.Janelle Monae and Jidenna Photo Credit: Bennett Raglin/Getty Imagesīlack people have used subversive creativity to claim freedom in unfreedom from the moment we were extracted from our homelands. ![]() Together folx allow ‘real talk' about how we shape shift and evolve in the work we do. This Collective has been experienced as a shared space much like the stoop, your barbershop and beauty salon, your kitchen table or even that moment with an elder that loved on you as a youth. We couldn't have anticipated the challenges and grieving, we couldn't imagine the accomplishments and moments of healing. In this ongoing virtual series presented by RE-Center Race & Equity in Education, we desired to reach beyond our grasp. THIS SPACE IS FOR BLACK EDUCATORS, ORGANIZERS & ACTIVISTS:Ĭurated by Racial Justice Strategists and Coaches, ANYANWU and CATHLEEN ANTOINE-ABIALA RE-Center Race & Equity in Education, Beyond Black History Month Collective Part II is here September 29th!
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