The Art and Activism Chapters 2 & 3 - Teana Maitland

 Chapter 2

    Quote: "If someone handed you a guitar and some sheet music and demanded you to play a composition perfectly the first time, could you do it? Of course not. It’s too much pressure.We need to practice, mess around, and make mistakes."

    Reaction: Sometimes with creativity there is immense pressure to get things right or perfect. I often times feel like pressure can make us for hesitant or reluctant to dive fully into our creativity. I know that sometimes when people do not get things right the first time or fail at it in can cause us to be unmotivated or discouraged but I believe making mistakes should be used as lessons in order to keep growth. I often times don't get things right and used to beat myself up over it but in due time I took those failures and used them as motivation to go harder. 

    Quote: "Our creativity won’t thrive if the only time we make for it is an occasional weekend, or between phone calls, emails, and “important”meetings. We need to set aside blocks of time. Put it in your calendar if you need to, but give yourself a period of time for creative work"

    Reaction: I can agree with this statement. I do think that giving yourself uninterrupted time to focus strictly on being creative allows you to dive deeper into your creativity. Also just giving yourself that time work solely on being creative and not focusing on anything else just gives you time to flourish in your creativity. 

Chapter 3

    Quote: "The Black church provided the creative material, the images and narratives, with which to imagine a successful struggle against great odds."

    Reaction: I liked this quote especially being someone that grew up in a black church. I do believe that the church is a place of comfort for black people where they feel safe and closer to one another especially in the time of the civil rights movement. Its also a form of protest because the stories and art shared in this space can make people aware of the struggles black people have been through.

    Quote: "By dramatizing those aspects of reality that are hard to see, or that we are reluctant to look at, we can make the invisible visible."

    Reaction: After seeing the rosa parks picture and the picture of the cops abusing black people, I feel like it shines a light on the severity of racism on black people things that may have not been seen in that light during those times. Bringing light to those current situations can impact people and potentially open their eyes up to the events taking place especially in a time where white people were superior.