This year’s summit, Art for Social Change, is an assortment of hands-on activities designed to guide participants in discovering and developing their own artistic outlets for initiating social change.
This year’s workshops range from graffiti writing to poetry to dance.
“We want people to use their art as a form of activism. Sometimes art can be a lot more meaningful and the message you get can be a lot more powerful,” said Ranjan Hatch, co-coordinator of the Summit.
The events begin Friday night with a presentation of Traces of the Trade, a documentary about the origins of slave trading in the United States, followed by a student facilitated discussion.
Saturday’s workshops kick off at 9 a.m. (for a full list of workshops, see below). Student Rogelio Molina will be hosting a workshop in which you can make your own “BaRock,” which he says represents, “hope you can hold on to.” Creating a BaRock (a play on President Barack Obama’s name) is simple: paint one of the rock’s sides with a face, on the other side write whatever changes you envision for the country. “This nation is ready for change,” says Molina who hopes to send the BaRocks to the White House and have a mini BaRock wall built.
Other activities include art workshops like wheat pasting, silk screening, stenciling, music jam sessions, theater and more.
“We want to encompass a lot of different art mediums that can be taken from the Summit and used for various causes,” said Hatch.
Saturday evening’s Cultural Cacophony, which takes place in the Kate Buchanan Room, marks the highlight of the summit. The concert features Boots Riley, front man of the political hip hop group The Coup; DJ Rekha, who rose to prominence in New York’s music scene for her experiments with international hip hop; and writer/activist Tim’m T. West, who currently teaches with HSU’s World Languages and Cultures department. Hip hop artists Brwn Buffalo round out the evening with a performance about the Chicano experience.
Headliner Riley coined the phrase “raptivism” to illustrate his style of weaving activism into his music. Riley’s work frequently exposes the relationship between the commercialization of the hip-hop music culture, U.S. economic imperialism and racism. Riley is slated to perform a special acoustic set of songs from The Coup to get the night rolling.
Rekha is a pioneer of New York’s Bhangra scene, where she became known for mixing Bhangra, a traditional Punjabi folk music, with hip hop from across the globe. The result is a hypnotic mixture of musical textures.
West will be presenting Rags to Riches: Black Power vs. Black ‘Bling’. He has written volumes of poetry books and a poetic memoir and produced three solo albums. “He is one of the most inspiring people I know,” says Shyra Merilla, a Women’s Studies student at HSU.
Finally, Brwn Bflo explores the struggles of indigenous people worldwide through a fusion of traditional story-telling and Bay Area-style hyphy beats.
A major goal for the summit, say this year’s coordinators, is to involve as many community members possible. To achieve this the Summit is offered through extended education for a minimal registration fee and anyone can register at the door.
The Summit is free to all students, including those from College of the Redwoods and high schools. “It is not just important to educate college students, we want to open it up to high school students because they make changes too,” said Hatch.
For more information or to register for the conference visit the MultiCultural Center
Complete Schedule (All events in the Kate Buchanan Room)
Friday, March 6th
5:30 p.m.Welcome
6:00 p.m.Keynote Presentation: Traces of the Trade, Followed by facilitated discussion
Saturday, March 7
8:00–8:30 a.m.
Registration & Continental Breakfast @ Karshner Lounge
8:45–9:00 a.m.
Welcome & Blessing
9:00–10:30 a.m.
Workshop Session I (1.5-hour workshops)
Lydia Hicks—Naked Faces: Exploring a Photo Series
Vincent Feliz—American Indian Resilience: Past, Present, and Future
Creative Unity for Nonviolent Transformation (CUNT)—Transforming Rape Culture: Safety, Consent, and Accountability
Paris Adkins—Black Song: An Interactive His/Herstory of Blacks In America
DJ Rekha—South Asian Pop Culture
Rebecca Robertson—The Activist Educator’s Guide to Global Citizenship:
From Human Rights to Human Duties
Susan McGee—Towards Equal Rights: A Study of Marriage Equality
10:45–12:15 p.m.
Workshop Session II (1.5-hour workshops)
Ines Ixierda—Art as Rebellion
Winnie Lanier & Students—Community Empowering Community: Using Art to Address the Unawareness of the Need to Change
Stacy Becker—The Political Art Poster & Community Service Connections
Paris Adkins—Dance Therapy: An Approach to Healing in Progress
Lorraine Miller-Wolf—The Camera: A Tool for Change
DJ Rekha—South Asian Pop Culture
12:15–1:15 p.m.
Lunch (lunch on your own)/Spare Change Performance in KBR
1:30–4:30 p.m.
Workshop Session III (3-hour workshops)
Josephine Johnson—Yes We Can! Making Music to Strengthen Our Community One Note at a Time
Ashley Gregory—Reclaim the Airwaves!
Humboldt Pride—Straight But Not Narrow: What It Means to Be a Straight Ally
Rogelio Molina—BaRock – Hope You Can Hold On To
Jessica Afable—Present Your Revolution
Tim’m West & Joseph Dieme—Rags to Riches: Black Power vs. Black “Bling”
Redwood Curtain Cop Watch—Fighting Against the Police State and Prison Industrial Complex
Jason Robo—The Revolution Will Be Amplified: Music as a Catalyst for Change
Josh Meisel—A Hard Straight Film Screening and Discussion
5:00–6:00 p.m.
Keynote Presentation: Boots Riley (of the Coup)
8:00-Midnight
The Cultural Cacophony