Twelve years – give or take a year – was the last time I went to see live theatre. We went as a family to see Wicked and I finally got to see the other side of the story that we watched annually at my house. I’ve been thinking back to why we saw that specific play and why I have not been back to watch live theatre since. I’m still trying to unpack that, so bear with me as I try. There was something immediately relatable. A family tale being unpacked and further explored on the big stage hence the perfect opportunity for a family outing. While family fun time was all I saw as beneficial some twelve years ago, Democracy & The Arts this interim has deepened my understanding of the Arts and after countless site visits, I find myself with a newfound personal investment in the arts.
Before this course, I would have considered myself a civically engaged student. However, I feel like that idea was personally challenged when we visited the Atlas Theatre and had the privilege of speaking to their Associate Literary Director. Among other topics, she spoke to the privilege of doing the work she does in a city like D.C. which is on par with Chicago as it pertains to the number of local theatres. I had no idea that Chicago had a theatre scene outside of Second City or Steppenwolf. At that moment, my personal investment in my community and my city as a whole was challenged. Yes, I attend community meetings, I read the local news often, and I’ll pick up a piece of trash if I see it lying on one of my neighborhood blocks but how do I invest in my community? Realistically speaking, I can’t afford to see big productions on Michigan Ave. every time one comes into town. However, I can invest in one of the most powerful forms of art: local theatre. Earlier on in our time in DC. we visited the local Jewish Cultural Center (JCC). There, I heard about how actors and staff members who were not culturally Jewish had to do things like taking Yiddish classes or partake in larger cultural Jewish engagements to be better equipped to serve the community. Would this alone make them experts in Jewish culture or unable to be informally discriminatory in their practices? Of course not. But in this moment, there was this cultural engagement from multiple ethnic groups going on and a larger preservation of a culture was, not too long ago, almost erased. The power of local theatre was only echoed when I attended Studio Theatre and saw Pipeline with an almost all white audience. In this play, they talked about the lingering effects of slavery on black life today, and the injustice that occurs everyday in our public schools. After this play, I thought about whether or not the audience members around me would engage in a book club about racial injustice. I took a chance and assumed not. Therefore, I began to see the play as a method of meeting people where there at, and then having a conversation. I cannot guarantee that every person left interpreting the art in the same way that I did but I can guarantee you that a lot of these plays were an excellent start, one made possible because of art. I could go on and on about our time at Atlas, or Arena Stage, and the Kennedy Center. Each visit exemplified presentations of art that didn’t just tell a story. They explored nuanced themes of identity, oppression, immigration, etc. to audiences that might not have normally engaged with these topics and individuals who could finally see bits of their personal story on the big stage.
After seeing the impact of these sites on their community from giving free or discounted tickets to underrepresented groups within the arts, to acts as large as the Washington Performing Arts group operating the Adopt an Embassy Program where they increase the global engagement in local public schools, that in an increasingly gentrified city like D.C. might not happen otherwise. I now understand art to not just be a method of civic engagement but to be the heart of civic engagement. Art is not just storytelling. When done well, it is an accurate representation. It serves as a potential bridge to people who interpret it differently because of varied experiences. Finally, this course has taught me that art teaches. Art teaches everyone from participants to observers and I personally believe that we cannot solve the injustices of this world without art playing a meaningful role within the process. The new value I have found in art has motivated me to become a better member of every community that I am apart of by engaging in the arts particularly at a local level. In doing so, I consider myself to investing in the community economically and investing in my neighbors, their stories, and the work they’re dedicating such a large portion of their life too.
As a senior Sociology major, I’ve spent a large amount of my time studying society as a whole and the way individuals, groups, etc interact with societal structures like government. Therefore, this course felt like it fit right in to my major. A popular tool of documentation within the realm of Sociology & Anthropology is Ethnography: a descriptive work stemming from the study and systematic recording of human cultures and experiences. Ethnographies are almost always books that social scientists spend years on. In fact, one of my dreams is to write my own ethnography one day. One of the many reasons I have fallen in love with my major and the academic field itself is because through theory, ethnography, or countless other methods, it creatively explains why in a complex, detail oriented way. The field aims to tackle larger societal problems by examining the way in which they are reinforced, who benefits, who suffers, and finally theorizes as to how the problem can be fixed through specific changes.
After the events of this course, I now see art as a form of ethnography in a way that I didn’t before. I know the impact of long term research that social scientists do surrounding the cultures and communities they’re trying to represent and give voice too. I could only imagine the impact on theatre, paintings and digital productions if artists did so with the same depth.
Democracy as a concept is for the people by the people. Therefore, as I’ve said in previous blog posts, art must be representative of that. Art is supposed to engage critically with the world around it and a true democracy should always allow it to do so regardless of who funds an organization. From here on forward, I propose to challenge government at every level to think about art as not separate from providing tools to uplift those who are marginalized. I propose that instead they utilize art so that individuals can tell their own stories so that we can truly understand how we can better engage with each other and how interconnected we are with each other and our history. For the people, by the people. If we truly value our democracy, let us showcase that in every aspect of the arts. Let’s do so for the artists themselves, the young adults like me who hadn’t engaged in theatre for years, and those who have never had the privilege.
As I finish this post, I sit here in a coffee shop reflecting on the course itself. I miss D.C. and the course incredibly so, even though it’s only been a day since we wrapped up. I can’t yet fully sum up my feelings because now all I feel is nostalgia for the unforgettable experiences I’ve had. However, I can tell you everything that this course has inspired me to do and I hope you readers hold me to accomplishing every bit of it.