Welcome to the blog for the new student group at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Your friendly neighborhood faculty adviser is Tom Tresser, who is teaching "The Art of Crossing the Street - The Artist as Citizen" for the Fall 2007 semester.
Our first meeting was on September 26. The main points of discussion are summarized below.
But first...
(1) Introduce yourself. Tell us where you're from, what you're area of focus is at the school and something about your civic engagement/volunteer experience.
(2) Weigh in on the main questions:
- What to call this new group
- What should be the first project of the group? See the summary below...
OUR NEXT MEETING IS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, at 4:445pm, ROOM 112, 112 S. MICHIGAN AVENUE.
Issues raised as possible focus of projects:
- The war
- Alternative energy
- Making SAIC green
- Media activism
- Reproductive rights
- Sexual assault
- Racism/privilege
- Sweat shops
- Public education
- Gender equality
- Voter registration & issue awareness
But there was also discussion of an overarching question. How can we help members of the SAIC care enough to get involved in these issues or any issues? How can we, as creative people, use our skills to help inspire and educate other students?
OK, we're up and running. Let's get creative!
Posts
4 comments:
I plan on participating, contact me if you wanna get together and stand.
-kaitlynn @ kradlo@saic.edu
Monday, October 1st, 2007 at Noon, Central Time.
Artist/ Activist Mos Def along with M1, Talib Kweli, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Sankofa Community Empowerment, Change the Game, National Hip Hop Political Convention, Hip Hop Association, and student leaders from 50 campuses call for a National Student Walk-Out to rally and show support for the Jena 6, who are being denied their human rights by the Louisiana criminal justice system.
The Case of the Jena 6
Last fall, when two Black high school students sat under the "white" tree on their campus, white students responded by hanging nooses from the tree. When Black students protested the light punishment for the students who hung the nooses, District Attorney Reed Walters came to the school and told the students he could "take [their] lives away with a stroke of [his] pen." Racial tension continued to mount in Jena , and the District Attorney did nothing in response to several egregious cases of violence and threats against black students. But when a white student--who had been a vocal supporter of the student's who hung the nooses, taunted a black student, called several black students "nigger"--sustained minor injuries from a school fight, six black students were charged with second-degree attempted murder. Last month, the first young man to be tried, Mychal Bell, was convicted. He faced up to 22 years in prison for a school fight until the Black people began to organize and his conviction was thrown out because he was tried as an adult. However the DA and the Judge still refuse to set a reasonable bail or to drop the charges in this case and Mychal is still in jail!!
Mos Def is asking students worldwide to assist in the fight against racial injustice and show solidarity for these young people, who have been treated unequally by the law. The prosecution of these young men symbolizes a terrible miscarriage of justice, by punishing students who opposed segregation in their schools and disregarding the threatening acts of others who advocate it.
As students and activists we say enough is enough! What is happening in Jena is happening all over this country. From Sean Bell to Mychal Bell, the criminal justice system is killing and incarcerating us. We will not be silent!
Demands
Judge J.P. Mauffray and District Attorney Reed Walters have engaged in a string of egregious actions, the most recent of which was the denial of bail for Bell on Friday. We call for:
1. All charges against the Jena 6 be dropped
2. The immediate release of Mychal Bell
3. The United States Department of Justice to convene an immediate inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the arrests and prosecutions of the Jena 6;
4. Judge Mauffray to be recused from presiding over Bell 's juvenile court hearings or other proceedings;
5. The Louisiana Office of Disciplinary Counsel to investigate Reed Walters for unethical and possibly illegal conduct;
6. The Louisiana Judiciary Commission investigate Judge Mauffray for unethical conduct; and
7. The Jena School District superintendent to be removed from office.
Other endorsers include: Common, Immortal Technique, NyOil, Cynthia McKinney
For more info contact info@mxgm.org
To add your school to the list assata@pitt.edu or spjlewis@hotmail.com
Hey Everyone!
So, since I've been here at SAIC, I've noticed that there doesn't seem to be a very strong 'campus community'. My friend and I talked today about some ideas for this group. I think that maybe working to do things on our campus such as working for fair trade coffee or getting rid of styrofoam would be good things to work on to begin with.
Starting with small campaigns that would help improve our campus community overall would, in my opinion, be a positive thing that people would be able to get behind and work towards.
I really feel that once the campus community strengthens and people can see change being created around them, the group would grow from just us in the room to everyone at school.
Once we have a solid group formed along with a backing from the campus, I feel that then we could work with groups that specify in the issues we brought up at our meeting.
I realize that I seem to contradict myself there. At the meeting i had said that this group should try and not do 'other people's work'. I meant that I wouldn't want a group to completely take this one over and have us do the 'grunt work' because that can most definitly happen.
I think that because the issues of interest among us are so diverse, it would be a positive thing to work with other groups that are solidly involved in certain issues. Maybe work with one specific group every month while working continuously to make SAIC more positive and aware.
Let me know what you think.
Hello everyone,
For those of you interested in the '08 candidates, here are two websites to check out:
http://www.dehp.net/candidate/
is a rapidly growing survey website of the candidates. Fill it out and see who you match up with (this is completely unbiased as far as coding).
http://www.2decide.com/table.htm
is a visual way to compare every candidate's basic stances.
Enjoy :)
Matea
hey everyone, it's emma. my SAIC t-shirt was made in haiti...just thought i'd share the news. the brand name is "gildan" if anyone has any information about that.
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