Art Party

WEnt to the Yellow Springs Arts Council art party and it was fun. Really enjoyed seeing everyone's work and all the talent that exists in yellow springs. This is the painting I took.  My submission is called
“Sticks & Stones: a prelude”
“Sticks and stones may break your bones but names will never hurt you.” This phrase is often thrown in our faces when we speak of words that are hateful, hurtful or derogatory. To me it a way of invalidating other people’s feelings and either suggests indifference, or an ignorance of the power of language, or an unwillingness to address it, or they agree with it. In the space of just 100 days in 1994, around 800,000 people were murdered in a systematic and vicious genocide. For months prior to the genocide the government owned radio had a campaign in which they fueled the most effective level of hate speech with the specific purpose of preparing the people of Rwanda for genocide. They urged the listeners to kill the inyenzi (cockroach). A seemingly benign word yet this word led to the intentional dehumanization of one group of people, the tutsi. Names alone may not break bones but they can and do lead the way for bones to be broken.

ugh, I dread to see the interview I gave for channel 13 though, eeeeek. I get all flustered in front of a camera or in front of large groups.

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