Self Evaluation and Reflection

This semester, like the past many semesters, has been one of racial turmoil on this campus. Incidents of racial profiling combined with the outward racism of some of our peers on the anonymous forum Yik Yak resulted in an emotional explosion from minority, and specifically black students, on campus. The week of this turmoil, following which the group BMC Coalition was formed to create racial change on campus, there was an SGA meeting in which certain students bravely spoke up about their experiences. They identified instances of surveillance and over-policing of people of color and the relative indifference of many of the white and nonblack people of color on campus in response.

I began this project believing that I would do a concrete, and very explicit representation of the connections between Native American boarding schools and prison. There were many similarities between the two that I could find, especially after conducting deeper research. I planned on showing these connections through an easily understood guide, a complex visual that would trace these connections through time. At one point I thought I would expand it into a timeline. But then I ended up changing everything in the last two weeks of working on the project, doing a complete 180, deciding to focus on the “art” part of the Arts of Resistance.

For the opening event, the extent of my involvement was assisting set-up and engaging in conversation with guests as they walked through our gallery. I was pleasantly surprised at the turn out of the event, there were so many more people (and interested people!) than I had anticipated attending. I was able to have some very meaningful conversation about the prison industrial complex that included both theory and personal opinion that I would not have likely had the opportunity to do without this event. Looking around at our collective efforts made me so proud of each person in our 360 and impressed me at how much we learned with and from each other. For the final event, the socratic dialogue, I co-facilitated and planned with resistance5, rb.richx, and meerajay.

I felt very satisfied with the presentation of our work from Wednesday to Friday, beginning with what I considered to be a productive and enlightening opening reception. As a member of the curating team, I arrived early and helped set up easels and foam board, handing out the placards that I formatted and typed up for each piece. We had gone in hoping to have some sort of cohesive “flow” to the exhibit, but found that we had many restrictions in this sense because of the crowded nature of the campus center; we had to put easels wherever they could fit, and 3D pieces on whichever table was empty at the time.

Freedom Forgotten, Works of Silence and Resistance

( I'm sorry for being that ahead of time, but I really want to document my feelings and thoughts as they are still fresh )

In Jody’s class Thursday after the opening of our exhibition, I critiqued on my own work in the group project that I didn’t feel it is accessible enough to the viewers although I kind of intentionally created some ambiguity. However, my views started to change after hearing people’s opinions on “Freedom” in Friday’s Socrates Café.

Feeling free is very subjective and it can mean anything to different people. And Abby said that, citing her friend, freedom is people having equal limitations.

I currently have a three-pronged approach toward my research project. My interest lies in the education and incarceration of the indigenous peoples of America, more specifically those entrenched in the systems of the US government. For the purposes of this reflection, I will be referring to them as Indians. The three-pronged approach begins chronologically, with the founding of the Carlisle boarding schools for the forced assimilation of Indians. I would like to paint an accurate picture of what happened within these boarding schools, comparing and contrasting them with the current prison system, and reflecting on whether these schools were meant to be for reform or rehabilitation, or perhaps even punishment.