Art & Social Justice- a re-cap of my talk at KALEID's Two Buck Tuesday

In case you missed it...
This was my second year traveling to Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere located in the Caribbean right off the coast of Florida. Hispaniola- or what is now Haiti & the Dominican Republic, was what Columbus "discovered" in 1492. He claimed the land for Spain but French pirates started buccaneering in Tortuga (part of Haiti) and it wasn't long before King Louis XIV colonized it for France. The French West India Company set up what is now Cap Haitian and brought over slaves. Haiti's most successful export has always been sugar and what comes from it- rum. Inspired by the revolution in France, the Haitian slaves revolted and, when Napoleon withdrew all his forces from the Western Hemisphere & signed the Louisiana Purchase, they became the only slave-liberated nation and the world's oldest black republic.

What I've observed from all their subsequent upheaval is that there has been no real healing and so even though they are "free", they still allow influences into their lives that tell them what to do- influences like dictators & bad government, voodoo and messages of fear stemming from poverty. We contribute to these messages by telling them things like "you can't do it on your own, you need our help". The UN gets $1 million dollars a day in aid from the rest of the world to stay in Haiti, earning money off the poverty of the Haitians and they do absolutely nothing. They hand out candy to kids and drink with the witchdoctors while having their "fortunes" read. The people of Haiti are bright thinkers and entrepreneurs who need more empowering opportunities for trade instead of unhelpful aid handouts.

I have visited Haiti for the last two years and stayed at a nutrition center called UCI. The center was started by a missionary couple (one native Haitian, one America) who came back to Bohoc to start a school. As they walked around their neighborhood, wondering where to start, they saw a group of kids- three sets of twins- eating ashes from the fire in hopes that they could find some fat drippings from their mother's cooking. The couple’s hearts broke and they realized before they could educate the town, they needed to first feed them. They started a nutrition center which feeds extremely malnourished kids. When I was there I was struck by the kindness, joy and love of these children as they shared their only bowl of food with their siblings and parents.

In addition to food distribution, I created a mural last year in a local church. While working I met a group from the local boys art club. They asked me to critique their work which turned into a discussion of how to market their art to tourists. I asked them to help me finish the mural and left spaces for them to insert their own unique voices. I kept in touch with many of these boys- some emailed me every week over the last year, forming friendships. When I returned this year, it was with the goal of pouring into these boys. I taught 1-3 art classes a day teaching them the fundamentals as well as organizing outdoor still life & landscape sessions. Before I left I met Ema Harris Sintanmarian's adopted father who has been going to Haiti for the last 40 years (it just gets under your skin!). I was very worried about what to teach and feeling inadequate & he gave me some very good advice- most of their art education is from copying other trade artists as there are no museums or galleries really outside of Port Au Prince. Many of the artists still are influenced by the French impressionism with large idyllic landscapes & very small people. He told me the very best thing I could contribute is to teach them my own voice, style & the fundamentals. I felt like this was a very fateful meeting and one of the many perks this summer of moving my studio to the Citadel.

Taking this advice, I also organized 5 murals this summer in the poorest of the poor schools. I painted one with a few boys who worked with me last year, two from the local, very corrupt & impoverished orphanage. When the translator left, we could not speak the same language well, but we discovered we knew many of the same American gospel & hip-hop songs. So we communicated through song and finished a 20 foot mural in only 8 hours! I'm telling you, I could not create something that fast with Americans who spoke the same language! These boys work hard and are committed to learning everything they can. The hard work they put into creating and selling their art as trade artists means food for their families, tuition money & medicine for sick family members. By helping them learn the basics of art, I am empowering them to dream, to become better entrepreneurs & to get themselves out of their circumstances. They in return have taught me so much about redemption, simplicity, thankfulness & re-birth.

One last story I'll share is about the first day I was there this summer. I was teaching an art class & a mid-wife came by with a brand new baby- right out of the womb! She heard there was a visiting artist in town & as a sign of honor brought the baby to me. As I held him, she told me his story- his mother is mentally ill (they obviously have no money for mental institutions, psychiatric drugs, etc) and some of the men of the village had been taking advantage of her. She became pregnant and the mid-wife was taking this little baby to the orphanage. I asked, "what is his name". & do you know what she said? "He doesn't have one, would you like to name him?" I totally floored! Name a baby? What on earth do you name someone that will have this name for the rest of their life? Very different than naming a fictional character or an art piece! I thought about it and finally decided to call him "Dieu Bon Andre". "Dieu Bon" means "God is good" and "Andre" translates to "Andrew" after my father. This baby had the worst possible beginning and I wanted him to have a name that would redeem him and set him up for good things. As it happens, there is a happy ending, or rather, beginning. A few days later, the mother's sister heard the story and adopted little Dieu Bon! I was so moved to hear this!

So yes, I think the art I'm creating and my trips to Haiti are intersecting with social justice. I think it’s unfair that I have access to clean water, a variety of food choices, and shoes that fit and other people in this world don't. I think artists have a great power to connect with other artists in ways that people who go to 3rd world countries to form hospitals or feeding centers cannot. We have the capacity to tell great stories, to see beauty & hope hidden in ugly situations, and to inspire the rest of the world to act. What I'm doing is valuable, not only because it brings hope & skills to others, but because its making me a better person. My art is becoming about something bigger- it is not just a self-centered activity but can bring about universal justice & truth. I think every artist needs to go get an existential education that allows them to get to know our neighbors in this globalized world. Not only does it help us become better at loving, but it also helps widens our view of the world, makes us very grateful for what we have (rather than stuck in the patterns of post-modernism that simply "opposes" well, everything or the misery & angst of suburban consumerism), and opens us up to explore new methods of expression.

There are a few hopeful next steps. I'd like to take a team of artists over to Haiti for 1-2 weeks. It also my hope to be able to return for somewhere between 1-6 months and create art there as a sort of residency to tell the stories for the people of Haiti who are virtually the "voiceless ones" because of poverty & injustice. It would be nice to continue teaching those boys & perhaps form a mural team with them and bring them to the States for commissions.

At Two Buck Tuesday many of the artists were moved to want to donate art supplies to the boys and learn more about how to purchase their very inexpensive art. I've started an email list for that &, well, we will see where it goes! There's so much innovation & creativity in this valley and I'd love to see that applied towards justice.