A Few Windows into our Course 3/31 as we welcome Guest Teacher Qui Alexander

Empowering Learners

People who -- in the learning, teaching, listening, and healing they do as part of their work with others -- generate conditions for others’ self-empowerment and their own. 

Holistic Approaches to Education and Health

Individual: mind, body, spirit (includes a range of learning and expressive modes)

Cultures/Communities: Individuals as constituting and constituted in these, their complex interactions

Earth: Individuals (non-human beings too) part of/coming from it (meaning there is quite a broad range of sources of information)

Hey guys, I thought it would make your job and my job easier if you post your short (or long) reflections and your sentence as a comment to this post. It'll make it easier to have your voices all in one place! Again, feel free to say whatever you want about the class, your experiences with CCW artists, how the readings (or one reading) helped shape your worldview or perspective, how your opinions or ideas about disability have changed over the course of the class or maybe if they haven't, your favorite part of this project, a memory that sticks out in your mind, a part that made you feel uncomfortable (like what we talked about today)....

Hey guys, I'm co-hosting an open forum this Friday through HaverMinds to provide a space to talk about media representations of mental illness and health in movies, tv shows, the news, etc. We'll have some example clips that we can interpret and critique together, too. All around, I think we'll have a really interesting and engaging discussion!

The forum is open to all minds and bodies and will be this Friday from 1-2pm in the MCC (Stokes 106) at Haverford. Hope to see you there!

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/474831269372098/ 

“Domination cannot exist in any social situation where a love ethic prevails. Jung’s insight, that if the will to power is paramount love will be lacking, is important to remember. When love is present the desire to dominate and exercise power cannot rule the day…concern for a collective good of our nation, city, or neighbor rooted in the values of love makes us all seek to nurture and protect that good…when small communities organize their lives around a love ethic, every aspect of daily life can be affirming for everyone” (All About Love, “Values: Living by a Love Ethic”)

I was most intrigued and engaged by the Siebers piece from Disability Aesthetics. He talks about the reinterpretation of the history of art and aesthetics through the lens of disability. He recognizes that disability has been present in art history all along, though idyllic bodily form and perfect materiality has been prized for most of history. Art practices, especially modern and contemporary art practices, often engage with materiality and embodiment in different ways though. The materials used become more visible and the body more tangible. Traditionally, though--and paradoxically--the body of the viewer has been absented from high art. Defecation, hunger, sexual desire, fatigue, sore feet...just to name a few...are not given room.

" Can something be art if it’s made by someone who doesn’t called herself an artist and who doesn’t even know what art is? " This line appears at the beginning of the BBC video, and similar statements reoccur in different readings. I couldn't help but recall the story about fish an happiness, where one person saw fish swimming and claimed that fish were happy. The second person asked, "You are not fish, so how do you know if they are truly happy?" The first person responded, "You are not me, so how do you know that I don't know? " And that is my question. It is perhaps a trivial one, but the assumed ignorance bothers me. Even if no communication is assessible, can the appreciation and recognition of art be innate?