ARTIVISM

The weekend before last I attended Artivism, an artists' talk and roundtable at La Pena Cultural Center. My friend told me that it would be a lecture about community art and activism. It turned out to be a 3 hours of doing acting exercises, which was more than a little embarassing for me (even though I like to think that I am a celebrity, I am definitely NOT an actor), but fun nonetheless. The crowd was a bunch of local actors, artists, and non-profit workers, and we all worked together to uncover the issues facing art in the community. The main issue that was brought up was lack of funding and opportunity. We did role played and did improv skits which dealt with this issue: we became the kids that drop out of school, the policemen which put them in jail, the teachers which try so hard to help them succeed. And while it was a little uncomfortable for me to act, I learned a lot and met a lot of interesting people from the community. I'd like to go back to La Pena sometime soon and see what else they have to offer, because I think that institutions like it are important. If we don't have people working toward social change, we'll never see it.