block party

it seems like forever ago that i sat in a starbucks with donaghy and rapidly took these notes when discussing baltimore and ambitious and unformed plans for a block party.



on monday it happened. and it was amazing.




we kept it simple. and all the elements came together just right. we hung all of our houses (well over 200 now. we've stopped counting) on the clothesline installation we've always dreamed of. the way we meant it to be displayed when we formulated this vision last fall in finding baltimore. parkhurst set up a tent with hot dogs, hamburgers, garden burgers (you can't forget where we're at...). mount royal choir came and kicked it off. e the poet emcee and his entourage of rappers and beat boxers and poets infused the entire thing with energy and honesty. and the simplest concept of all, we set up a table covered with art supplies and cloth and cardboard houses, and asked mica students and community members to add their creation of community to the clothesline. make a house, get an ancb button. and a cookie.



what makes community arts really work is supporting an idea with the right combination of people and place. i can't think of a better place to have done a block party. now it seems like that space in front of the meyerhoff was made for it. nothing is ever really done there, but there was an ample amount of grassy space, lots of railings and lampposts for hanging clothesline, a consistent amount of traffic (mica students going to their dorm or to the dining hall, kids walking home from school, and community members passing by.) kids from the better waverly art club came. a kid that had made a house when we had a table set up at the walters last friday. (he was me & tara's favorite. he asked us if it was alright if he put an alias on the back of his house. he was like 6 years old.) and the group of kids and their teachers from our most recent workshop last wednesday in patterson park. paula walked over with some maca students. my elements teacher katherine came for a bit. chuck the madd-ox, e's beat boxer, brought his little boy. a lot of the kitchen workers came out and made houses. and so many of the little neighborhood kids got sucked into the chalk and couldn't be torn away. it was pretty cool to see them all come. it was really just such a good, fun day.



(it was not an easy task at all to edit 700 pictures down to the ones you see here. i'm working on uploading them all to the ancb website.)

things have to fall apart before they can get better

there was a point this year in elements where i realized that i needed to stop beating around the bush with my projects and really get to what matters to me. and i started making art about one thing that is always on my mind: baltimore.

this was my project for today. (zoom in for details...) we covered a lot of ground with critiques. the power of words. both on their own and in context. the meaning of yellow (aka optimism) the fleeting role of newspapers. their strange existence between past and future. respect for history. the apathy or action that can come with picking one up to read. the daily intelligence inherent in their structure. the definition of falling apart. progression, abandonment, and ignorance.

and from it came some serious thinking about bringing this concept into the community. if you went to get the newspaper in the morning, and there was a word on the bag, just one word, what is the potential power that one word could have? it reminded me of pepon osorio's work in the community. (which, at first, i was unsure of. just a lesson to never trust art 21. he was much better live and in person when he visited mica a week or so ago.)

and i just found out from a friend today about two very cool things that related: a place called braddock in pennsylvania and a design/planning organization in west baltimore called neighborhood design center. (i can't believe i didn't know about this earlier. i need to work there!)

i'm at a really exciting place with my art. the lines between art and assignment and life are blurred more than ever.

i don't believe in coincidences

photos taken in traverse city this past weekend.

inspire action

there was definitely a divine being at work with this one. there was a reason why it ended with emmanuel, donaghy, and me sitting and having lunch. and truly talking about huge things that can come of this all.

so what's next? there are already dots i know need to be connected. and they are pretty big dots. baltimore. boys of baraka. kenya. ghana. mica. bikes. velocipide. my mind is working trying to put it all together. but after the past few days, i am just emotionally, phsically, and mentally drained. (i'm sure along with the entire rest of the avondale crew, who has been busting their butts even more than me and sacrificing even more sleep and sanity.) that's ok with me. this one can take some time. i'm not worried that the urge to do something will escape me. not at all. and i've got a crazy five weeks ahead of me. but when i think about everything from the last five weeks, it's a really exciting place to be at.

overcome challenges

this was such an emotional, powerful, day for me.

it's hard, because i'm here. but i'm not here. my mind is 9 hours away in baltimore. and everything that is said brings me back to that.

the structured activity today was a simulation created to mimic class systems. everyone was separated into three groups (two of which got chairs, and the last was just told, "sorry, i guess you have to sit on the floor.") and everyone got five chips with varying point values. except the initial distribution was very calculated. the first group got really good chips, the third, not so much. and from there they were instructed to trade. there were lots of levels at play: political, social, economic. things went as they do in the real world. the top basked in their success. (and even worked to prevent anyone from rising to join them.) the middle stayed comfortable. the bottom completely drowned. when the opportunity for bonus points was offered to each group, i stayed with the lowest group to see how they would distribute amongst themselves. one girl was adamant. "we're trying to move people up. he has the most potential. you don't." another thought that they should "give it to the lowest so that everyone has a fair shot." no one wanted to take that risk. now these activities have some power when you are participating and caught in the middle of it all. but for me, it was much more fascinating to observe from the outside. to take note of what people were saying and see it all go down.

after that, i met emmanuel at the airport. he was so little. so soft spoken. and the weird thing was it didn't hit me until much later that he had a prosthetic leg. it hadn't even crossed my mind. we snuck him in the back door, because no one knew that he was coming. before he would suprise everyone later that night at the awards banquet, we took him to lunch. (pretty fancy.) and he shared with us what he is doing now. later this year he's planning a bike race with disabled citizens to promote a peaceful presidential election in ghana this december. and he's collecting bikes to give to students who walk hours to get to school everyday. i'm amazed at all that he is continuing to take on. or maybe i assumed he would feel like the stuff he had accomplished leading up to the movie was enough. not at all. he just keeps going. nothing is too unreasonable.

change perceptions

i'm going to attempt to do a day-by-day, play-by-play (i make no guarantees. as with everything, it is so much better in real life.) of this crazy thing called the masc/mahs state student leadership conference that i left mica for a weekend to be a part of. and that my old high school, avondale, is hosting. (it's weird looking back, because states was really the start of it all for me. as overdramatic as that sounds. i went to the state conference four years ago, not knowing anything at all. and i left after a whirlwind weekend with a position on the michigan association of honor society state board of delegates. and the rest is history...)

day one of the state conference was all about changing perceptions. (one of the themes that was pulled out of the movie "emmanuel's gift"- the motivation behind the conference. ) typically this conference consists of 3 semi-decent speakers. (which seems to be more like irrelevant filler time. or "if it ain't broke don't fix it.") but this year, it was all about doing things the avondale way. raising standards and pushing innovation. they decided that they didn't need speakers at all. (shock!) they would just show the movie, because it is that good.

it was a smart move. during structured activities, everyone was spot on. making connections between the start of the movie and this activity based on labels and stereotypes and power. and there was very little prodding on my part that needed to be done. they were getting it. which is exciting because i know what this is building up to...

here's the video donaghy made to show at the opening ceremony:

my advice on eating, sleeping, and breathing art

a few thoughts from where i'm at right now: (chock full of contradictions, things that will make my mom worry, and things i may totally disagree with in the ease of summer.)

drink diet coke. there's no shame. everyone has their addictions. mine could be much worse. i like that the newest cans all say "live positively" on the side.

getting more than four hours of sleep is unproductive. (or so a wise tv sitcom character once advised...)

there is just too much work to be done to be sleeping all the time. if you're bored, you're doing something wrong.

take on all that you can. and do what you want to do and need to do. figure out how to make it all work later. and if it means you don't sleep for a day, a week, or an entire semester, so be it.

when possible, catch up. weekends are prime time for sleeping in and stocking up.

multi-task. it's a beautiful thing.

my prioritizing means that i know there is more to college than assignments. (don't get me wrong, that part is important too... but if you stay in that comfort zone you only know so much.)

put everything in perspective. what seems like stress now won't even be remembered years from now. but you will look back and wonder how you did it all. and that is much better than wondering if you missed out on something.

you're always supposed to go too far, because that's what living is all about.