chapter 1

 

“If we are going to be effective as artistic activists, we need to operate on real terrain, not on the basis of the democratic fantasy of the European coffee house.”

-       I agree with this quote because if we understand the environment, politics, and what’s going on as far as issues. We can use it as the power to challenge the system. You can’t just jump into something without having a clear understanding of your surroundings because it may come back to bite you in the butt. Don’t just sit around and speak freely how they did in the coffee house. Do background work and use it as an advantage.

 

“The Problem with art, from an artistic activist perspective, is that this power is often wasted."

-       This is true for example in Childish Gambino's song “This is America” the majority of the listeners overlook the whole message of the song. His song and his music video were full of sarcasm, of art, activist art at that. He tried to get the message across about police brutality, gun violence, money being the root of all evil and so much more. People failed to wake up of his song and try to make a change in society.

 

According to the book Art Activism is a hybrid practice that marries the creative force of art to the concrete results of activism.

 

This image shows art activism because people tend to forget and push what Black people went through in the back of their heads. With this fountain, the water doesn’t come out until after the 45-second video of the civil rights protest of the 1960s is done playing. Also, the sign whites only is still up to keep people remembering what we had to go through. So of course, white people may get mad because they had to wait 45 seconds for a drink of water when Blacks had to wait years to even do the things white people were able to do with no problem.