Final Reflective Essay for Humanities 501: Gateway to the Humanities
CSU-Northridge Humanities Master’s Program
“Art is the Way Through”
October 18, 2020
Linda Benskin
When this class first began, Professor Christina von Mayrhauser, Ph.D. asked everyone what they thought “Humanities” meant. “What is ‘Humanities’”? I wagered a guess: “Arts and Culture?” It turns out that I was right…partially. Or, that “Arts and Culture” runs much deeper than I had previously suspected. Yes, Humanities is Arts and Culture, but does everyone in the world have the equal ability to practice these things freely? How does their environment shape these factors? How does their place in the world affect these things? How does their political system affect them? Their gender? Their race? Their economic status? I realized more fully that Arts and Humanities does not simply mean creating art for the benefit of humanity. It is a loaded concept, but also a simple one. Humanities means to be humane, and you would think that as human beings this would be very easy to accomplish. Not really. It’s “complicated”. In the paragraphs below are just a few of the ideas that greatly impacted my pondering of “What is Humanities?”
The article that had the most impact for me was our last article, “Guest Column: Roundtable on the Future of the Humanities in a Fragmented World” (PMLA 2005), specifically Toni Morrison’s contribution. She speaks about hiding behind the term “Humanitarian Crisis”, wasting valuable time wondering what exactly that entails, instead of taking real action in the real world. This is something that hit home for me, and makes me want to do more research into ways I can convert my Humanitarian leanings into making an actual change, instead of just pondering about it.
In this same article, Morrison talks about the power of art, and its ability to bring people together. She emphasizes the power of art, in that it can change people’s minds and lead them to action, the way it can influence them to inspire good things and bad things, the way it can celebrate the artist for their individual expression, while simultaneously bringing the community together to participate in this, and the idea I find most fascinating of all, the power of art to heal trauma. I had heard of this concept before, but I always thought of it more as healing an individual’s trauma, as in “Art Therapy”, something white suburban women might do, or traumatized children. But on a grander scale, it can be used to heal collective trauma, the trauma of an entire culture, or even the trauma of the entire world. I think of all the protest songs I’ve heard on the radio lately (thanks to KCRW), all the artwork I’ve seen as “memes” on Facebook expressing anger about our current political situation, the photography of behind-the-scenes views of overcrowded hospitals brimming with too many Covid-19 patients and the exhausted healthcare workers attempting to take care of them, of the paintings (some sarcastic, some not) of Donald Trump posing nailed to a cross like Jesus Christ, of all the political essays being written, the blogs, the short films and feature-length films being released dealing with the various emotions we are all experiencing right now. All of this art is powerful, and it strikes a nerve on an instinctual, primal level; it stirs emotions, it incites people to violence, but it also gets them to make positive changes in our world. I definitely want to explore the concept of art healing trauma in a more in-depth manner…it has the wheels of my brain spinning.
Another particular article I liked was Robert Garland’s article, “The Humanities: Plain and Simple” (Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 2012), in which he discusses valuable knowledge versus “information”. We are living in a time when we are constantly bombarded with information, and not all of it is valuable. Some of it is extremely distracting, some of it is false information promoted by people we thought we could trust, used in a way to gas-light or brainwash people. Garland writes about turning students into civic-minded human beings, who not only know what good is, but they follow through with doing good in their community, which is similar to what Toni Morrison was saying: less worrying, more action, less over-thinking, more taking steps forward. Garland also talks about the political merged with humanistic values…oh, what a better world we would be living in now if only that was the case! And the concept of his I find most intriguing is that sometimes it’s difficult to differentiate between good and evil in our world, between success and failure, because it can be masked as something other than what it actually is, or can be both at the same time. This is where the critical thinking skills the Humanities provides can come in handy; analyzing things and breaking them down. What may appear as “good” may also harm countless people in a “bad” way. Not everyone has other people’s best interests in mind, especially when money and power are involved.
Another article that I found enlightening was Ian Angus’ “Introduction to a Symposium of World Humanities: Introduction” (Journal of Chinese Philosophy 2012), in which he poses the question: is it even possible to have a “World Humanities”? There are so many imbalances in our world, and it seems that the powerful (mostly) want to overrun the less powerful to suit their own needs. He wonders if it’s possible to include everyone without diminishing their original cultures, ideals, and beliefs. This is a big question! How do we make things more equal, without losing our differences? How do we integrate people more without losing their identity? How do we globalize our world without having giant corporations decide what should be our unifying factors? And the concept that leapt out at me the most: that love must emanate beyond the self to make positive change in the world, which ties into what Toni Morrison and Robert Garland were saying: action is what is needed most right now. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but taking action may lead us out of it.
I honestly feel like I could go on and on. I have learned so much since August, 2020 and the beginning of this class. I have become much more aware on several levels, specifically noticing more and more powerful works of art all around me. I am going to leave you with a few images, which I think speak volumes (images following bibliographic citations).
Post Essay Self-Commentary, October 30, 2020
As it turns out, I re-routed my images to the front of my essay, after speaking with Professor von Mayrhauser and absorbing a few of her subtle suggestions. On our Zoom call this afternoon, she asked me a few questions about the questions I raised in this essay. She discreetly and deftly got me thinking further. What can be done? Basically, in a professional manner (and with all due respect), she asked me to put my money where my mouth is. What can be done?
This question feels similar to balancing on a tightrope: so many ideas vibrate along the tightrope with each step forward, but which ideas would be best served where and with whom? Who would carry them out? Would there need to be teams of people? “Professionals” guiding and shaping these ideas into form, into physical matter? Or could enthusiastic participants guide themselves and each other? Would people be willing to participate? To expose themselves as their authentic creative selves to the world? What are we even talking about anyway?
Now is the time to take action.
Some ideas we tossed around on our Zoom call: art brings people together and art can be used to heal trauma. We are experiencing a collective trauma at the moment, due to a global pandemic, political division, economic inequality, racial injustice, the “Me Too” movement, and tangible climate change; to deny this is burying one’s head deeply in the sand. Art can help dig that out!
There is a palpable feeling of upheaval and unrest right now. Artists and musicians and writers are expressing themselves, almost in a fever-trance, at a fever pitch. We can all feel it, because we are part of it. We are human beings, and expressing ourselves creatively (or even witnessing someone else’s creativity) can feel like popping the cork on a shaken bottle of champagne; it relieves the pressure. It calms the savage beast inside us all, the one we don’t always (or don’t know how to) face. Art helps with that…it’s like a doorway to the other side where peace is waiting for us. I’ve always loved the phrase, “The only way out is through.” Art takes us through.
Our communities, our nation, and our world are divided…how do we bring them together? How can we be more inclusive of everyone without offending someone? We need a middle-man or middle-woman or middle-they…art could be the bridge, the equalizer, the connector.
Art doesn’t have to be perfect. It can be messy, just like us. We can do it really badly…it’s okay, everything in life is subjective; life and art can’t help themselves – they are subjective by nature. Every perception is different, and every expressed perception should be valid. Who is to judge? We need less critics and more artists, less passive observers and more participants.
Some people are terrified of expressing themselves, for various reasons…how do we include them? How do we create a safe space, without judgment? An online forum for the introverts, who have just as much to express as the extroverts (sometimes more)? An interactive web site specifically for creating art in a communal and mutually respectful way? Who would set it up, moderate it, run it?
If people don’t know how to participate in a group art project, how are they going to do it? I recently heard a story on NPR about a theater group in South Central Los Angeles, where they recruited teenagers from the area to participate in random plays. At first the teens were hesitant because they didn’t know what to expect, but once they started, they loved it and looked forward to it. It changed them, opening new dimensions of themselves; in some cases everyday experiences of violence were replaced with creativity and self-expression. If they hadn’t heard about this theater group, how could they have participated? Art events need to be promoted, and not just in certain areas, but in all areas.
I see in my imagination a beautiful coffee house, but an altered version of one, almost like a gingerbread house (a magical space!), where people are free to write on the walls, or sometimes eat the edible walls an artist might concoct, to paint, to sculpt, to write on paper, to play music; but it’s all collective and it’s all free (coffee, tea, and pastries are included to sustain the creative energy, or maybe cheese and crackers). Everyone who comes here must leave all judgment at the door: that is the cost of entry. Everyone must respect everyone else’s creative expression: that is the price of participating, and everyone must participate in some way, even if that only involves gluing one piece of broken glass onto a random object. Those who know a certain craft help those who wish to learn it. Sometimes the oboe player attempts to draw caricatures; he’s no expert, but he gives it a shot. Sometimes people come who feel “clogged-up”, and leave feeling lighter, almost like they are floating on a cloud, because they made something they didn’t realize they had inside them and released it into the world and feel an exhilarating sense of freedom, and might like to try it again. Sometimes people cry…that’s okay, too – in fact, it’s encouraged! There might be a workshop called “Watercolor with Your Tears”.
There could be different rooms based on the Chakra system – a red room for releasing anger, an orange room for creative focus, a yellow room for taking action, a green room for heart-expansion, a blue room for vocal expression, a purple room for spiritual connection, a silver or white room to meditate in quietly and come up with new creative ideas, because an important part of the creative process is having the space and time to let the ideas flow in. Maybe there could be a beautiful garden attached, where people could do tasks to spark their creativity, grow vegetables and fruit and flowers, and make art projects outdoors. They could work on pottery, murals, wood-working, ceramics, and larger art installations.
This place sounds great! I’m in!
All we need now is the funding, the resources, the planning, the supplies, the supervision, the promotion, the will-to-make-it-happen, the action.
It’s far easier to complain about it not happening, than to actually make it happen. Let’s just continue to call it a crisis, and leave it at that.
The actual crisis might be as simple as inertia.
Yet billions (trillions?) of dollars are spent on our “Space Force”. And those dollars seem to get the ball rolling, or the rockets launching.
We’re here right now on planet Earth, being human beings with creative sparks. And I think we could launch our creativity for far less expense, with a much greater reward, right here, right now, with reverberations into the future, opening up new galaxies inside of ourselves and those around us.
Professor von Mayrhauser mentioned habit: the act (action) of making art a habit, something we do every day, something to build upon, something we integrate, that becomes part of us. Something that would start to feel more and more natural…not like space aliens from galaxies far away and far apart, but being here right now, being human beings together and acting out our human-ness daily, collectively, each day leading into more days, weeks, months, and years of creative expression and expansion.
Why else are we here? It seems as though all the previous questions lead to this larger one.
Alphabetical Listing of Bibliographic Citations
- Angus, Ian. 2012. “Introduction to a Symposium of World Humanities: Introduction.” Journal of Chinese Philosophy. 39, no. 4: 472-475.
- Garland, Robert. 2012. “The Humanities: Plain and Simple.” Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, July 2012, vol. 11 (3):300-312.
3. Morrison, Toni; Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak; and Ngahuia Te Awekotuku. 2005. “Guest Column: Roundtable on the Future of the Humanities in a Fragmented World.” PMLA. 120, no. 3: 715-723.
Image Credits:
1. George Floyd image: https://www.tmz.com/2020/10/12/george-floyd-vote-mural-unveiled-houston-before-birthday/
3. The Handmaid’s Tale image: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/10/12/if-senate-confirms-barrett-americans-could-lose-faith-supreme-court/
