Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

Reflecting on totalitarianism in the twentieth century, Timothy Snyder asserts that it is “a primary American tradition to consider history when our political order seems imperiled.” The arts education learning environment is a potent site for investigating the development of socio-political movements, leading to the enactment of students’ own creative/activist agency. This paper presentation discusses a group study in popular music and social justice at a public college for adult learners in New York City following the inauguration of the 45th president of the United States. Particularly at that moment, this diverse group was ready to explore the history of protest music and, in response to current issues, dig into art practices and processes. Analysis of this transdisciplinary study is informed by Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism, bell hooks’ definition of education as “the practice of freedom,” and Gaston Bachelard’s poetics of interior spaces. How did participants’ discursive engagement with twentieth century social movements, cultural traditions, and the music of activism empower them to “enact new and more just ways to live in the world together”? How does a radically open, embodied approach to arts pedagogy foster students in becoming critically informed about crucial local and global issues? If as Bachalard says, “dream values communicate poetically from soul to soul,” can the quotidian classroom be transformed into a meeting place in which students freely access and share their personal imagery of everyday life, identity, and cultures? This presentation concludes with a video documenting the group’s collaboratively created song of resistance.