that's survival to me: questions about our right to creative expression

ThaT’s survival To Me:QuesTions abouT our righT

To creaTive expressionWhat do you need to survive?

Where is art on that list?Is creative expression a human right?

Who is responsible for upholding this and other human rights?

a projecT bysTudenTs froM wriTing for social change 2013

works progress sTudio

higher educaTion consorTiuM for urban affairs

ForwardShanai Matteson & Colin Kloecker

Community Faculty: Writing for Social Change, 2013Co-directors: Works Progress Studio

When Bill Reichard invited Works Progress to collaborate with students

from HECUA’s Writing for Social Change class on a semester-long project, we immediately thought about creating a publication. Even in our digital age, few things compare to seeing your own words in print, or sharing such a well-considered object with others. As we’ve experienced through past projects, creating an entire publication together on a shared topic or theme can be a great way to practice collaboration, inquiry and reflection - all parts of the creative process that we encourage others to tap in their everyday lives as well as in their work.

With that in mind, we began the semester with only a loose framework. Together with students we would create a publication that invited the individual writers in the class to share their experiences and ideas, while also providing an opportunity for collaborative exploration of a single topic.

After brainstorming together, it came time to narrow our focus. We were thrilled that so many wonderful ideas were shared early in the process. Clearly this group of students is passionate about art and social justice and could see many different forms the project could take. In the end, we settled on a framework that would be both a provocation and a survey, a chance to pose questions, and to creatively answer them.

Drawing on their own curiosity, students in the class developed a series of questions. Not surprisingly, given income inequities that

continue to grow in our nation and around the world, these questions cut to the core of art’s potential to sustain and transform:

What do you need to survive? Where is art on that list? Is creative expression a human right? Who is responsible for upholding this and other human rights?

Each student used these questions as a departure point for a new piece of writing, demonstrating just how multifaceted a conversation can be across different communities, and how writers can convey an exchange of ideas in multiple forms.

In this tiny booklet you’ll find simple truths and profound poetic statements, a diverse range of people sharing the importance of art and creative expression to survival, and thoughts on upholding this right. Included in are stories of bead artists, henna tattoo artists, creative writing students, non-profit theater directors, schoolchildren, senior citizens, self-identified stoners, playwrights, musicians and visual artists. Through the creativity of the contributing students, their experiences manifest on the page in a variety of forms: personal essays, comic-book style conversation, theatrical production, prose poem, documentary poem, and journalistic prose.

This is not intended to be an exhaustive survey or representative sampling. It is the start of a conversation that students in the class hope will continue through your participation. How would you answer those questions? Who would you ask?

ThaT’s survival To Me:QuesTions abouT our righT To

CreaTive expression

11 The French Inhale and Smoke RingsEllen Cocchiarella

ForwardShanai Matteson and Colin Kloecker

AfterwardWilliam Reichard

1 Doing Flips with ExcellenceCassandra Labriola

Two Worlds, One AnswerHelen Duritsa3

5 Modern Chorus: A Discussion About Artistic RightsPaige Patet

9 The American Worker and CreativityRonnie Schwenn

13 Equivalent to my VoiceDevona Brown

19 Coexist: Creative Expression and ChristianityJanice Bitters

21 ‘Capitalism and Art Don’t Always Agree’Rita Kovtun

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ThaT’s survival To Me: QuesTions abouT our righT To CreaTive expression

Doing Flips wiTh exCellenCeCassandra Labriola

University of MinnesotaEnglish

For this project, I had the opportunity to speak with children attending an after-school program and their teachers about creativity and what it means to them. The section titles below are the questions we came up with as a class, slightly altered to make the concepts accessible to younger people.

I. WhaT do you need To survIve?

Pictures line the walls of the stuffy classroom—sheets of white paper smeared with finger paints and starred with glitter. Some bear messages in childish scrawl, “Believe in yourself,”

or “Respect each other.” Piles of puzzles and games spill out of a closet, while a chest, bearing a pink sheet of paper with the words “Art Supplies” printed across its center is thrown open, plastic boxes of crayons and markers tucked inside.

Groups of children cluster around tables, using their free time before splitting up for academics as they please. A few paint with watercolors on a table covered in newspapers, others build structures from shiny, plastic blocks—creating a narrative about a space zoo as they connect blues, yellows, reds, and greens into abstract shapes.

***This evening, I had the opportunity to speak to both students and teachers participating in the Luxton Learners Afterschool Program. Asking the questions created in our HECUA class, I didn’t know what to expect and received a larger variety of answers and perspectives than I ever dreamed I would.

Speaking to both children and adults, I noticed the similarities and differences in their answers. While both agreed that food, water, and sleep—the essentials of caring for our physical bodies—are necessary for survival, the adults tended to include creative expression in their lists while children kept to more concrete things and ideas.

I think this difference—the lack of importance placed on spiritual and mental health by children—is a product of their naiveté. They have not yet had to concern themselves with how they are going to get their food, their water, their place to sleep.

II. Where does creaTIve expressIon FIT InTo ThIs lIsT?Is beIng creaTIve ImporTanT To you?

We have to start our discussion with different ways that people can be creative. The kids don’t understand the word yet. Artistic, imaginative, original: these are the words I use to

describe creative expression to them.

Compared to what I already heard from the adults, the children have a much more fluid definition of what “creative expression” is, latching on to the word “originality.” Now, creative expression is whatever they dream it to be. Painting, drawing, playing basketball, doing flips, zombie tag on the

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heCua WriTing for soCial Change 2013 & Works progress sTudio

playground, eating: these words fly around the room, bouncing off walls and jumbling together as their excitement mounts. One begins singing their answers, until everyone collapses into fits of laughter.

***Having access to interview people from multiple generations, I was able to hear a wide range of perspectives on the importance of creativity. The values of different generations appeared in how they answered the questions.

Adults, in general, tended to place more importance on creative expression and the access to practice different art forms, often listing creative release as something essential to survival—saying that its practice is spiritual and that it keeps them sane. They spoke about creative expression as a way to process information—to come to terms with the sometimes, unpleasant surprises of life—and also as a mode of reflection. However, compared to the kids, the older people seemed to be more stuck in a traditional definition of creativity. While I found that adults considered creative expression to be more important to them, I also found that they had a much narrower definition of what creativity is.

The kids had a more encompassing and fluid notion of creative expression, however they generally didn’t think that creativity was something that was important to them. Most answered “no” or said that they didn’t know if it was important or not. I found this surprising, considering how innately creative they were in the ways that they spoke and interacted with each other and their teachers.

III. Is creaTIve expressIon a human rIghT?Who Is responsIble For IT? should you be alloWed To be creaTIve?

Human rights are hard to explain to children. They don’t yet possess the same notions of separateness and equity that adults do. For them, equality is the issue—things should be the

same. For example, I am always amazed at how they can tell, to the ounce, who has gotten the larger treat, and how unfair it is for someone to have more than them.

I ask them whether or not people should be allowed to be creative. They pause, really considering the question.

***The responses I got to this question were both humorous and disheartening. The kids seemed to decide that people should be allowed or not allowed to be creative based on their talent at making visual art. Forgotten were all the alternative ways to express oneself creatively that they’d told me earlier. If you’re good at it, then you should go ahead, but if you aren’t good at it, you shouldn’t.

I think the kids are taking their cues from us. As a society, we tend to raise artists up above the “normal” person, creating a mythological aura around them. We praise kids for drawing a good picture, then teach them evaluate their work in terms of how it compares to their peers.’ Instead, we should foster the creativity that is innate in every person and encourage creative expression in more than just visual or performing arts. We should return to how we all were as children, seeing the potential in a jungle gym surrounded by sand.

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Two worlDs, one answer

Helen DuritsaUniversity of Minnesota

Multidisciplinary Studies; Urban Studies

I first met hibaq and patty while on an assignment for Twin cities daily planet. They are part of a circle of women who periodically gather together to foster understanding and build community between native peoples and somali immigrants. This is a combined effort, organized through The Family partnership and The new native Theatre.

Questions about the creative process are not simple to answer, I soon discovered in

talking with Native American bead artist Patty Florer and Somali American henna artist Hibaq Nimale. ‘Is creative expression needed for survival?’ and ‘Is creative expression a human right?’ were the most difficult.

Patty Florer has been beading since she was a teenager, having learned how to bead from her brother, mother and grandparents. Her grandkids say, “Grandma, all you do it bead.” When a barrette can take over 10 hours to bead, it may seem like Patty is always beading. After a career in teaching traditional native arts in the schools, she finally has time to make her art and wishes she’d had more time when she was younger.

Designs come to her at night in her dreams, although there are certain set patterns she beads, like the rose. “ Patience and good eyes are needed.” She wants to show her kids and grandkids not to hurry. Like in life, “ You don’t just jump up and do something. You take your time.”

Is creative expression a human right? Patty thought deeply about this. “Everybody has their own right. As long as it isn’t going to hurt someone, or is against the law, they have the right to express their feelings.”

Hibaq Nimale has been practicing henna art since she was a young girl. Her cousin had

patty’s relatives tan deer hide by smoke. beadwork, variations on a rose.

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a salon and she just began applying henna there, just playing around. Later her family opened a salon in Kenya and she continued applying henna on customers.

“I enjoy doing it. When I make people happy I feel happy. It helps me a lot. When I make them happy, even if I am going through problems, it makes me forget.”

She is meeting people from lots of cultures through her henna art, and has begun adding new designs that appeal to white people. She tries to do something different like butterfly and the snake.

“We must express ourselves. It doesn’t have to be in one way, it could be going to work, it can be staying home. Everything is creative and needed to survive.”

Regarding the question about creative expression as a human right, Hibaq adds, “This is what makes us human. This is what makes us alive in this world. If you can be creative you can’t survive without it. It is a must. If you are sick or not okay, you can’t do it. Otherwise everyone is creative and must

have a motive and set a goal, even if they don’t get it. It’s like in your dreams: making dreams, even if they didn’t come true, is creative. It is thinking and trying to do it.”

A faithful woman, Hibaq believes that God provides and is responsible for creativity. Everyone is different and it is God who provides these gifts to us. God gives us this.

Expression and creativity are not separated activities for Patty and Hibaq, but a part of everyday life. Given their cultural differences, their answers and attitude to creating art are remarkably similar. Both women attribute their creativity as a gift from their creator. Both women get joy from the sharing of their creative art. They are artists, mothers and community members. They give, and in giving they receive personal satisfaction while passing on the beauty on of their culture.

hibaq applying the design. a simple finished design in black.

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MoDern Chorus:a DisCussion abouT

arTisTiC righTsPaige Patet

University of Saint ThomasEnglish; Communications and Journalism; Catholic Studies

I used our questions to lead a discussion with local artists—two playwrights, a director, a musician, two poets, and a visual artist. Within that discussion, listening to their voices, I found myself drawn to the idea of creating a production of sorts outlining the ideas, questions, and experiences that were being shared. so I was led to theater.

In the early theatrical tradition, plays utilized a group of actors called a chorus that would speak to the audience in unison providing context for the play’s events, adding drama to the plot, or serving as a means for more poetic expression. The chorus was distinct from the typical cast and served as an omniscient voice for the audience to follow. In this piece, I present an updated version of a chorus made up of six artists who speak to their audience about artistic rights and expression.

(The lights come up on a blank stage. All together from the back stage-left corner, a group of six artists emerge. They are in a triangular formation. They stop and ARTIST 1 continues forward to the top corner, stage-right.)

(Beat.)

ARTIST 1

What do you need to survive?

(Beat.)

(As each of the artists answer, they separate from the group and find a space on the stage.)

ARTIST 2

Mind.

ARTIST 3

Money.

ARTIST 4

Learning.

ARTIST 5

Space.

ARTIST 6

Community.

(Beat.)

(ARTIST 3 steps forward and takes a natural stance.)

ARTIST 3

I’m really blunt and say I need to have entities that are willing

ACT 1, SCENE 1

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to pay artists. Just having been a freelancer for so long, really. And you know you get to know and understand that there are a lot of people and entities and communities that look on artists as unimportant and, and also as people that don’t need to be paid.

(ARTIST 2 says last line with ARTIST 3 and steps forward. ARTIST 3 steps back.)

ARTIST 2

…don’t need to be paid. It’s very important to have thoughts and minds and spirits that are… enriched by ideas which manifest themselves in whatever way, like through art, through…

(ARTIST 2 steps back. ARTIST 4 steps forward, beginning his/her thought as if finishing ARTIST 2’s.)

ARTIST 4

…learning stuff so I need to constantly learn to survive. I feel like I’m alive, and I’m at my most vibrant. That’s creativity really. I’m being truly creative when I’m really embedded in the process of learning something. It’s engaging my mind on such a deep level that I feel like I’m alive. That’s survival for me.

(ARTIST 6 joins with ARTIST 4 for the last sentence and steps forward. ARTIST 4 steps back.)

ARTIST 6

That’s survival for me. I think the first thing that comes to mind is community, really. Living in different places and figuring out what

you know, what you find, and what you need. Having lived in places like Nogales, AZ where there’s not a lot going on, or Frt. Wayne, IN, there’s a piece of you that dies when you don’t have that sense of community of people. Kin. And I don’t mean kin like blood family, but just, you know, kindred, spirits, connect.

(ARTIST 5 joins ARTIST 6 on the last three words and steps forward. ARTIST 6 steps back.)

ARTIST 5

…kindred, spirits, connect, a home, a safe place, a place where you’re respected. When you walk into a place where you’re respected and you know your opinions matter and you’re validated. A healthy space.

(ARTIST 5 steps back.)

ARTIST 2

Learning.

ARTIST 3

Community.

ARTIST 4

Money.

ARTIST 5

Mind.

ARTIST 6

Space.

(Beat.)

(ARTIST 6 leaves the stage.)

ARTIST 1

Is creative expression a human right?

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(Beat.)

ALL

No.

(Beat.)

ALL

Yes.

(Beat.)

ARTIST 3

I think human expression is not just a right it’s an inevitability.

ARTIST 4

Survival is creativity.

ARTIST 2

It’s putting the aesthetic in your day to day that is important.

(Beat.)

(As ARTIST 3 begins talking he/she steps forward and slowly paces the front of the stage in a natural manner.)

ARTIST 3

People will express themselves under the most stringent restrictions of speech and expression. We constantly express ourselves. Walking across the room to fill a bottle of water in an environment that makes us tense, we will express that. And if not, if we’re comfortable or happy, we will express that. Expression is just the way we move through the world. So, I mean, it should be a right, but it’s also, I think, an inevitability.

(ARTIST 4 says the last line with ARTIST 3 and steps forward. He/

she, too, is pacing the stage in a natural manner. ARTIST 3 steps back.)

ARTIST 4

…an inevitability. I think people are the most creative they’ve been when they have to survive. Like, just figuring out some of what seems to be the most mundane things when you’re stuck in a position where you have to survive. That’s when a lot of creativity comes out. Everybody has it to a degree… As an engineer you’re being an artist… Just like any other single human being that uses their brain, you know, to open a faucet for their water to come out, you are creative. That’s just inevitable to human existence.

(ARTIST 4 steps back and joins the others.)

ALL

It’s just a part of us.

(Beat.)


ARTIST 1

Who is responsible for ensuring that creative expression is possible?

(Beat.)

ARTIST 2

Every single human being.

ARTIST 3

Everyone.

ARTIST 4

Ourselves, believing in our own creativity.

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(Beat.)

ARTIST 3

I think that’s kind of like asking who is responsible for making sure everyone is kind to one another. I mean, everyone. Really, you know. We go back to that community. What do we really mean when we say community? We mean a place that’s safe for us, somebody that understands us, somebody that we can understand, somebody that supports us, somebody that we can support. All of those things are parts of where art comes from and what makes art possible.

(ARTIST 4 joins in with ARTIST 3’s last line and steps forward. ARTIST 3 steps back.)

ARTIST 4

…what makes art possible. Let’s say that we don’t find that community or we don’t necessarily feel welcomed at all by our surroundings or our settings. I think it’s important to respect that, that thing inside us and honor it and try to find a place that we can make it happen. Even if it’s, I don’t know, I’m thinking of all the different people in prison that have proven themselves who really honor and respect and want something to come out of themselves.

(ARTIST 2 says ARTIST 4’s last line with him/her and uses it as a means to begin his/her thoughts. He/she steps forward. ARTIST 4 steps back.)

ARTIST 2

…to come out of themselves, I think we as artists have a really huge responsibility to build value for

our processes and our arts. I think given how hostile our environment is sometimes, just how do we build value for social justice in the arts? How do we build value?

(ARTIST 2 steps back. ARTIST 5 steps forward and answers ARTIST 2’s questions.)

ARTIST 4

We do it ourselves. Healthy mind, body, soul, spirit… But it depends completely on me. My creativity does not depend on anybody else.

(ARTIST 4 steps back. ARTIST 2 leaves the stage.)

ARTIST 3

I need someone who is willing to listen.


ARTIST 3

And I also need to be a listener.

(Beat.)

(ARTIST 1 leaves the stage and ARTIST 3 is left alone on stage. The lights slowly fade out.)

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The working aMeriCananD CreaTiviTy

Ronnie SchwennUniversity of Minnesota

English; Sustainability Studies; Sociology

There are some people who could not express themselves creatively even if

they wanted to, because it’s hard to find time for anything else when you have to spend most of your time at work. The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not have laws requiring paid vacation days, or even paid sick days. In addition, the average US worker works more hours than any other industrialized nation (including the Japanese, German, and French) in exchange for no annual leave. In an article in The Fiscal Times, Steve Yoder writes, “According to the left leaning Center For American Progress, 86% of men and 67% of women work more than 40 hours a week, and American families worked an average of 11 hours more per week in 2006 than they did in 1979.” The European Union and many other countries around the world have laws mandating that the work week be no more than 48 hours (though the United Kingdom and Malta have an opt-out program for workers who wish to work more).

The United States has no such regulation, and this has not been without consequence. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that antidepressant

prescriptions have risen 400% since 1988, and in a 2010 study of stress, the American Psychological Association concluded that, “Job stability is on the rise as a source of stress; nearly half (49 percent) of adults reported that job stability was a source of stress in 2010 (compared to 44 percent in 2009). At the same time, fewer Americans are satisfied with the ways their employer helps them balance work and non-work demands (36 percent compared to 42 percent in 2009).” Decreasing buying power of wages has also led to stress on many American families. Economist and Professor Richard Wolff notes that, “In the 1970s the rising real wage of the United States came to an end, and it has never resumed. The real wage of the American worker today, the average amount of goods and services you can buy with an hour of your labor, is no greater today than it was in 1978.”

These statistics create the image of an economy that is doing very poorly, but actually, “From 1973 to 2011, worker productivity grew 80 percent, while median hourly compensation, after inflation, grew by just one-eighth that amount, according to the Economic Policy Institute… And since 2000, productivity has risen 23 percent while real hourly pay has essentially stagnated,” Steven Greenhouse wrote in The New York Times. In the same article, MIT economics Professor Erik Brynjolfsson is quoted, saying, “Some people think it’s a law that when productivity goes up, everybody benefits…There is

The united states is the only industrialized nation that does not have laws requiring paid vacation days, or even paid sick days.

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no economic law that says technological progress has to benefit everybody or even most people. It’s possible that productivity can go up and the economic pie gets bigger, but the majority of people don’t share in that gain.”

It is becoming increasingly difficult to live on current wages. A study from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that, “…According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 10.4 million individuals were among the ‘working poor’ in 2011…The working poor are persons who spent at least 27 weeks in the labor force (that is, working or looking for work) but whose incomes still fell below the official poverty level.” A study done by the Labor Center at the University of California-Berkeley reported, “Even full-time hours are not enough to compensate for low wages. The families of more than half of the fast-food workers employed 40 or more hours per week are enrolled in public assistance programs.” Earlier this year, McDonald’s attempted to do its employees a favor by releasing a sample budget to help employees manage their money, but all it did was show how impossible it is to live on a McDonald’s salary. The budget, which assumes full time work at McDonald’s, also assumes the employee is already working a second job for a total of 75 hours per week to even begin to use the budget.

There are many benefits to creative expression. Studies have found that creativity

in a variety of forms, from listening to music, to journaling, to painting, have been able to reduce stress and increase positive thinking in recovering hospital patients. Many people in the United States suffer from high stress and depression, which creative expression could help to alleviate, but there is an idea that creativity is only for professional artists, not just everybody. People work more in the US than anywhere else, but aren’t willing to work less because American people tend to equate not working as much as possible with laziness. Schools across the country are cutting arts and music programs as budgets become tighter, because those programs are viewed as the most expendable when money is tight.

Many people in the united states suffer from high stress and depression, which creative expression could help to alleviate, but there is an idea that creativity is only for professional artists, not just everybody.

I think people of all ages would benefit from placing a higher value on creative expression, and making time for things other than work, but this is often not up to them. It will be hard for many Americans to make time for creative expression until they can work a reasonable number of hours per week, which would require legislation changing the minimum wage and other labor laws.

american people tend to equate not working as much as possible with laziness.

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The FrenCh inhaleanD sMoke rings

Ellen CocchiarellaUniversity of Minnesota

English; Retail Merchandising

I watch a line of smoke exit slowly from the mouth of a boy sitting on a couch opposite

of me. It spirals around and around in a swirl that loses its density as it gains height. The boy next to him takes the piece that is offered and quickly inhales on one end, hoping to keep it rolling and not get out the lighter currently residing in his back pocket. He exhales a huge puff of smoke and immediately sucks the cloud back in. They keep doing tricks like this, I’m not sure if it’s just to show off because I’m someone new. Not just new to them as a person, but new to the entire concept of the weed culture. They’re so immersed in the wake and bake lifestyle that it must be strange to have someone around in this setting who doesn’t plan on participating with them.

When we were all introduced to the concept of this project about creative expression, I had been planning a trip to visit my friend on a Wisconsin-based campus for a long weekend. I visited my friend for a few days early in the semester and had been given the opportunity to meet the guys who live on the floor beneath him. Just walking into the building my nose was assailed with a

distinctly pungent scent, there were pretty obviously some potheads living in this place. I was briefly introduced and able to comment on how much I liked their massive tapestry depicting Bob Marley before I was swept off to continue meeting everyone else of interest in the building. I couldn’t stop thinking about the hazy room with the red, yellow and green cloth on their wall when it came down to deciding whom to interview for this project. Luckily enough, the timing worked out flawlessly and I was able to plan ahead with my friend to ensure some time to hang out with them during my visit.

The connection between marijuana and art has been practically set in stone since the days of William Shakespeare and I was fascinated to hear about what those who are always high think about creativity. When you look at some of the famous names of those who admit to having smoked weed, either in the past or present (Justin Timberlake, Morgan Freeman, Michael Bloomberg, Stephen King, Louis Armstrong, Bob Marley, Paul McCartney…and the rest of The Beatles for that matter, even Barack Obama) there’s just no question that marijuana has a certain appeal to artistic types. I had thought I needed to be delicate about explaining why I was randomly popping up in their apartment to discuss creative rights and freedom. I really didn’t want to step on any toes by immediately labeling them as potheads. Turns out, they didn’t care either way. They actually guessed right away why I wanted to

...everyone in that room resolutely believed smoking weed was the way in which they were able to experience creative expression in its most raw form.

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talk with them.

I had a total of four questions that I planned on addressing. 1- What do you need to survive? 2- Does creative expression fit into that? If so, how? 3- Is creative expression a human right? 4- Who is responsible for providing creative expression?

programs while to others it may mean being able to draw and paint freely. As far as who is responsible for providing creative expression? They said as long as country or government provided freedom for it’s people then the responsibility for providing creative expression fell upon each person on an individual basis. All of these answers were arrived upon after a plethora of discussion and taking the time to come to a consensus among every roommate. I personally found their method of decision making vastly more intriguing than the actual content of the decisions.

I would like to note that everyone in that room resolutely believed smoking weed was the way in which they were able to experience creative expression in its most raw form. They said it had the effect of saturating the art, making it a million times more potent and far more intense to enjoy. They cited extremely commonplace things through which they expressed themselves creatively: listening to music, watching films, playing video games, even doodling on their magnetic whiteboard stuck to the fridge door. Needless to say, none of them were the next Basquiat, but they all had passion in their hearts and an open mind in conversation. So while they attempted to perform a French inhale and blow smoke rings, the conversation drawing near to an end, I couldn’t help but wonder what a conversation with anyone on the list of those most famous for using marijuana would’ve been like while they were high.

only one of the guys living in that apartment considered art to be a necessity for survival. i believe his exact wording went something along the lines of “if i didn’t have music to listen to, i would be dead right now, so it’s on that list.”

Now who would’ve thought that with only four questions it would turn into a full two-hour discussion? Given, we didn’t stay on topic the entire the time, but nearly everything discussed was relevant in one way or another. I can’t even begin to tell you how much time was spent arguing about what specific items made the cut on the “necessary for survival” list. One guy was petitioning for access to the new video game Grand Theft Auto V like it was his dying wish. Others were more prudent, critically thinking in terms of strict basic human needs, such as water, food and sunlight. Only one of the guys living in that apartment considered art to be a necessity for survival. I believe his exact wording went something along the lines of “if I didn’t have music to listen to, I would be dead right now, so it’s on that list.”

Every single one of those guys held a firm stance that everyone has a right to creatively express themselves, although they made sure to note that to someone that might mean writing out code for computer

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CoexisT: ChrisTianiTy anDCreaTive expression

Janice BittersUniversity of MinnesotaProfessional Journalism

Whether you’re an avid reader of the Bible, don’t believe in a God at all, or

fall somewhere in-between on the spectrum of Christian faith, everyone knows this phrase. It’s been burnt into our brains, our vernacular, and our culture.

The very first line of the Bible is meant to explain how we arrived here on Earth – where life started, and who is responsible for it. It also tells us something about the God of the Bible: he’s creative.

But, as the various books of the Bible outline, creative expression is not only for the divine. According to the ancient text, every person is gifted with the ability to imagine, design, and create. So, how does that play out among Christians today?

Below, two 20-something Christian women, Maddie Graves and Claire McFall, explore their view of creative expression and how it informs their participation in church, their faith, and a relationship with their God.

Claire McFall is a graphic designer living in Minneapolis with her husband, an avid drinker of boxed wine, a knitting enthusiast, and owner of cardigan sweaters.

Maddie Graves, a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota, is currently working for AmeriCorps in a Wisconsin elementary school and loves Gopher hockey.

Both women have been Christians and attended church their whole lives.

Where Is creaTIve expressIon on your lIsT oF ThIngs ThaT you need To survIve?

CM: I guess maybe I would almost put it more with a purpose. Every invention – everything that moves society forward – requires some creative component. Whomever invented the wheel, for instance, surely that involved some creative ingenuity.

MG: My way of expressing myself is that I am always writing things down, and I feel like that is very important to me. So, I would say it is on the short list.

WhaT Is a human rIghT, and does creaTIve expressIon Fall InTo ThaT caTegory?

CM: I don’t know [creative expression] if it’s so much of a right, isn’t it sort of inherent? Every society has some kind of art or song, if you want to use the narrow definition of what being creative is. But then, what things do you need to survive? I would say all of those are human rights.

I think food and shelter are things that are physical that you can take away. I feel like taking away creativity is like taking away love. In the same way you can crush a

“In the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth.”

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person’s sense of love, you can crush their sense of creativity.

MG: I would say that a human right is something that every person should be able to make [his or her] own choices about. In a sense, it’s their opportunity for freewill.

Who Is responsIble For ensurIng your rIghT To creaTIve expressIon?

CM: This reminds me of [an exhibit] at that Russian Art Museum and the first time [my husband] and I went there, it was all artwork that was created under communist regime - the stuff that they were okay with - and a lot of it wasn’t bad. It was a very certain style, but people still painted, and they could capture everyday life. … The most recent time we went it showed the people who were underground and doing the non-approved artwork, which was very different and it was good, too. Clearly limits were put on it in the first case. So, there was a case where people could still be creative, but with a lot of rules on it. I think in that first case, the government was too restricted. It’s not people’s responsibility to control [creativity].

MG: I don’t think anyone should be the one to ensure those rights besides that one individual person. If you want to be creative or expressive, that is great.

I don’t think there really could be one person or just one set of people who could ensure the rights of every other person.

hoW does your FaITh InForm your creaTIvITy, or vIce-versa?

CM: When people look at God as the great creator, that is the big picture. Anything that moves that society forward takes creative energy. … The main example is the first chapter of Genesis, yes it is inspirational, but if you are trying to write a song or make a painting, I don’t know if that inspires me as much as other chapters. Take Job – the way

Job is told in the Bible – it doesn’t have to be told like that. You could tell it in just three chapters if you just tell the facts. We are left to assume this is like poetry.

MG: Well, when I do devotions. And when I have random thoughts throughout the day, or when I’m listening to sermons, I like to write things down. By writing them down it ingrains them into my memory.

At first it starts out as a record-keeping tool: I hear something that really sparks an interest in me, so I write it down. Then from there, I will go off and write about my own experiences or things I’m thinking about.

do you ever Feel lImITed In Terms oF The Type oF creaTIve expressIon ThaT Is accepTed In church?

CM: I don’t know- creative expression is kind of risky. With Sunday school, you get a bunch of boys and box of crayons and a picture of the 12 disciples, at one point [the disciples] will all be holding guns or puking on each other. You want them to be creative, but sometimes you feel like, well that is not really appropriate – why are they holding guns?

… Once in Sunday school, this kid came up to me and wanted to know how to draw the Nazi symbol. I tried to say I didn’t know, but he kept coming back to me. … The more I talked to him, I realized he had been watching historical movies with his parents and was trying to create a really accurate drawing of the bad guys. I was relieved [that was the context] in which he wanted to use it, but I can’t be letting a kid draw swastikas in Sunday school.

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‘CapiTalisM anD arTDon’T always agree’

Rita KovtunUniversity of Saint Thomas

Communications and Journalism; Justice and Peace Studies; French

a documentary poem compiled from conversations with loren niemi and sandy spieler of In the heart of the beast puppet and mask Theatre in minneapolis and claribel gross of penumbra Theatre in st. paul, both independent nonprofit theaters with a focus on social justice.

The first thing you need is love, the most basic thing.And then you need all of the nourishing things:Good water, healthy air, food, shelter.A right to name and a right to your personal freedom. The things that have been named in the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights, that the United Stateshas never signed, by the way. A sense of self and a sense of community,to recognize what story we’re living. Support and ensemble.Nobody lives on an island—no one’s alone. Art is a mechanism to bring people together.Theater is a mechanism to bring people togetherfor the common good. When you take the inanimate,when you take paper mache and paint,give it shape and form and movement,play with the scale of it,it becomes a very large metaphor,a very large carrier of meaning.It allows a rock, or bacteria, or birds to speak.It allows the whole of creation to speak.

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When you make excellent art,by African Americans, for African Americans,the community can come in and hear storiesand listen to voices and facesthat look like themselves. The mythical Sankofa bird of West Africaon our wall is moving forward, but looking back.It represents knowing where you came fromin order to move forward.You take your history with you. Art is not separate from life.It’s part of everything.As human beings, we are constantly in the processof altering the vast chaos of input, to make sense of it.The very act of ordering one’s humanityis a creative expression. Art cannot be made,there’s no reason for art,unless there’s a common goal and somebody to view it.Somebody’s voice needs to be heard—and everybody has something to say.Then there’s got to be somebody to view it,understand it, empathize with itor even walk away from it, but art wouldn’t existif it wasn’t necessary.

“When you take paper mache and paint, give it shape and form and movement, it becomes a very large metaphor.” – in the heart of the beast puppet and Mask Theatre

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The Avalon Theatre was a movie theatre,then a porn theater. When we took it over,the marquee said, ‘Goodbye Porn, Hello Puppets.’It was a dump, but the fact that we were here,that we opened the door, meant kids could come in.Then came the Mercado across the street,the Plaza Verde next door. The mural on the other endof the block. That mural wouldn’t have been thereif we hadn’t been here. It’s always been in this locationnext to the Martin Luther King Community Center,but last year Penumbra almost had to shut its doors.We would’ve lost the funding to survive, to pay people,but we would’ve still made art.Capitalism and art don’t always agree with each other,but that doesn’t mean people would stop telling storiesor would stop creating. There’s always a way.When a group of people comes togetherwith a common goal or an idea,they automatically create a space.It’s a sacred space, and you push forward.

“The mythical sankofa bird of West africa on our wall is moving forward, but looking back. it represents knowing where you came from in order to move forward.”– penumbra Theatre

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Art is a human right.A human right is somethingwe would all wish for ourselvesand therefore should extend to others.A human right is something that people needor they will not be healthy.A human right is a basic giventhat humans need to exist in the world with each other.We are all responsible.We are.We ourselves, as humans.I am not of the mind that I can give you a rightor that I can take it away.You have the right; you hold the right.It’s yours, it’s mine, it’s everybody’s.But the concept has been so commodified.Governments can’t give or take a right.But they do.But that’s not what it should be. We give ourselves our rights.We manage to secure themby the dint of our willingness.

≠

aFterwardWilliam Reichard

Program Director: Writing for Social Change and Art for Social ChangeHigher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs

What does social change look like, and how, specifically, can creative writing,

literature, art, and cultural expression be used to work for social justice? These are questions that my students and I have been grappling with since I came to HECUA in January 2001. I’m a poet, and I’ve always had a strong interest in all forms of art and self-expression. I took my position at HECUA, and continue my work here, because I believe that the right of each individual within any given culture, and each culture as a whole, to find voice and the means to openly express ideologies and identities, is part of the glue that holds every culture together. Take away a culture’s language, its ability to continue to tell the stories it has always told itself, stories about itself, and that culture will die. Humans, as a species, relate to one another on multiple levels, but one common bond we share is our desire, our outright need, to tell stories. Whether through written or oral tradition, visual representation, faith-based practices, dance, drama, or digital media, we must tell our stories. This is how our past is preserved, how our present can be made sense of, how our future may be predicted. We tell stories, and thus, we create ourselves, and with each retelling, we are recreated, re-contextualized.

I wanted my Fall 2013 Writing for Social Change students to work with Shanai Matteson and Colin Kloecker, the duo who are Works Progress, because I believe in and strongly support the work that they do. Call it social practice, community-based art, temporal work, or any number of other

names, but it comes down to this: Works Progress uses art and cultural expression to build community, to create bridges between communities, to find commonalities that thrive across all of the social boundaries that we, as humans, seem determined to construct. They use dialogue, public events, print material, and even food to create safe spaces in which individuals and groups can come together to tackle difficult issues and search, collaboratively, for solutions.

Shanai and Colin spent the semester with the Writing for Social Change students. Together, they explored individual and group passions, fears, fascinations, and hopes. They formulated a set of basic questions about the place and necessity of art within any given group or culture. Each student selected her own group or community to approach with these questions, often modified to fit a particular group, and then collected and analyzed the responses they received. Lastly, each student decided what to do with the data she collected, and the result is the booklet you now hold in your hands. The work of each student reflects, in a creative or critical form, the answers each received. Is art important to you on an individual or collective level? Is art a necessity? Is art a basic human right? Each of us must answer these questions for ourselves, and accept the fact that our answers may agree with, or directly contradict, the responses of others. This is the joy of making art, living with art, writing and reading literature: there is no one answer, but many, and each is, in its own way, correct. What a beautiful paradox.

HECUA (Higher Education Consortium for Urban Issues)is an organization of 17 liberal arts colleges, universities and associations dedicated to education for social justice. HECUA runs academically rigorous off-campus study programs in the United States and around the world. HECUA programs address the most vital issues in neighborhoods, nations, and the world. HECUA programs involve students in understanding and acting on those real-world issues, in real time. HECUA programs are open to any enrolled undergraduate student from any college or university in the United States.

hecua.org

Works Progress Studiois an artist-led public design studio that creates collaborative public art and design projects that inspire, inform, and connect; catalyzing relationships across creative and cultural boundaries, and enabling new possibilities for artistic expression, civic engagement and participation in public life. Co-director Shanai Matteson is a 2004 HECUA alumni.

worksprogress.org

that's survival to me: questions about our right to creative expression

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