CultureWorks is partnering with Hope College’s Trio Upward Bound program to encourage introspection and inspire “Agents of Change.”
Serving high school students from families that are low-income or families in which neither parent holds a bachelor’s degree, UB provides opportunities for participants to succeed in their undergraduate and post-secondary education. Our Program Coordinator, Erin Drews, has been teaching a 5-week intensive multimedia elective entitled “Creative Introspection,” in which students discuss current national and global events and dialogue about how to meaningfully engage in a messy world. Historical and contemporary artists serve as a springboard for creative projects that help initiate self-examination and agency. During our first week, students created accordion books with haikus that reflect how they have processed 2020 so far. Here are a few of their poetic reflections:
They like coffee brown
But then when our skin is rich
They lose appetite
I have more free time,
That is all I have to say,
Should I be happy?
I think about life
Stay wondering about it
Is it successful?
Thought it was a joke
Decided they had a choice
And now they are sick
In the second week of the program, students explored photojournalism and how Knolling Photography has changed the game in contemporary storytelling and marketing, before using this technique to reflect on their own experiences of Shelter-in-Place during the pandemic. They documented items of significance for them during this time, with written reflections about the significant meanings behind these seemingly quotidian objects.
Students are now in the process of looking at how color and pattern convey mood as they approach their own self-portraits in the style of Kehinde Wiley, the man who painted the presidential portrait of Barack Obama. All the students in this class are POC’s, and a few of them shared that seeing Wiley’s work made them feel empowered and exhilarated. Each of these exercises has allowed students to check in, process, and approach a variety of mediums and subjects with curiosity, openness, and creativity. Through the act of looking inward, students are gaining critical skills that will allow them to show up academically and professionally by being confident in who they are and what they have to offer.
