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We continue to share the voices of our Black and Brown students as they process the current events. Please reflect upon and share their voices.
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While some schools are no longer in session for the summer, others are still finishing up their last days of remote learning this spring. Elizabeth Osborne and Matt Milkowski, both art teachers at Kenwood Academy, a Chicago Public Schools neighborhood school on the South Side of Chicago, have provided their 7-12 grade students opportunities to reflect and respond through artwork and written art forms. Students had the option to process and share their personal responses to the murder of George Floyd, the protesting and looting that is occurring nationally, globally, and in their neighborhood, and the overarching issues that these students are faced with daily. This week we will continue to share, with permission, the voices of our youth. Please take a moment to hear their messages, reflect from their perspective, and help spread their voices far and wide.
One year ago, Deanea Boykins submitted her AP Studio Art Portfolio to the College Board. She did not create this in response to the current events today; it was created in response to the events she was witnessing and experienced throughout her 18 years of life living in the western suburbs of Chicago. With her permission, we share with you her portfolio in its entirety. While Deanea's Concentration specifically engages with our ongoing dialogue of systemic racism, we have included her breath work as well; her entire portfolio is entitled to be seen. Our friends of color experience constant injustice, but it is not their whole being. Deanea's photography illustrates how she sees the world, through beauty and injustice alike. Deanea attends Xavier University of Louisiana and is currently pursuing a degree in photography. You may follow her on Instagram @jean.marie_photography. Please note: The following images may be triggering to some.
The Art Ed Collective would like to provide you with an ongoing list of resources (compiled by Janell Matas and Elizabeth Osborne) for your classroom. This list is certainly not exhaustive, so please comment below and email us any resource suggestions you have. Some of the information was pulled from our own resources, from internet searching, and from all of you who have also worked to collaboratively share resources and continuing the dialogue. We all need to do better to include POC in our list of examples. We all need to work harder to educate ourselves, our students, and our own children and communities.
As teachers, it is our responsibility to address the needs of our students. Not tomorrow, but today. Elizabeth Osborne, photography teacher (and Art Ed Collective Contributor) at Kenwood Academy in Chicago, responds to the needs of her students by adjusting her Remote Learning lesson plans to engage in a conversation and to share her grief with her students. Through the power of images, Osborne asks her students to visually share their feelings and responses to these events that impact these students each and every day of their lives. Below is Osborne's teacher example; student artwork due soon, that we hope to share. Create a photo journal in response to recent events.
You can title it however you like and you can use images of your own or ones you find. You should have 5 slides (that include some type of images and writing). There is just so much to say about this topic, but I did attach a sample with just some of what I'd like to say. I am writing it to all of you. I love you all. Historically, art has never been anything short of political. As artists, we have an innate desire to create and express. As art educators, it is our responsibility to teach our students how to use the medium of art to use their voice. We teach art literacy and visual art aesthetics. We teach technical skills. We teach history and the impact it has on what we create today. We teach how to combine it all to express ourselves with nuance and intention. We teach the power of one image. As educators, it is our responsibility to be educated, continuously, so that we may teach. We teach love. We teach compassion and empathy. We teach responsibility. We teach respect. As art educators, it is our responsibility to provide safe spaces for our students to express, process, and share their stories through visual means. As human beings, it is our responsibility to use our voices for those who cannot, our bodies to protect those who need protection. Over the next few weeks, our collective will be sharing our own responses to the horrific events that have taken place to our friends of color for far too long. We will be providing resources to share with students, share with educators, share with others to educate and provide support. We stand with our friends of color. Edited 6/8/2020 to add the following: While we are working hard to provide resources and amplify voices, we want our audience to know that we are all sitting in this struggle together with you. We believe it is our responsibility to aggressively educate ourselves. We are listening and researching. We are educators who teach students of all colors from all origins. We often don't have words, don't know what to say, worry how we might be perceived. We know we will make mistakes. We know we have a lot of work to do both in our classrooms and within ourselves. We know we need to listen and ask difficult questions. Ultimately, we know we can do better and we are committed to sitting in this complex, challenging, and emotional work together. As always, but now especially, we welcome your responses, research, questions, and comments to how and what we are sharing. |