Twenty-four K students attended the Midwest Outdoor Leadership Conference recently, hosted by Central Michigan University and Mystic Lake YMCA Camp. Six K seniors presented four different workshops at the conference. Workshops and presenters included: Wilderness Solitude as a Rite of Passage for Emerging Adults (William Bartz, adapted from his Senior Individualized Project work), Meaningful Program Elements of Kalamazoo College’s LandSea Outdoor Orientation Program (Sharayu Salvi, adapted from Sharayu’s SIP work), Title IX and Outdoor Education (Emily Kowey and Danielle Gin, adapted from Emily’s SIP work), and Building Top Rope Climbing Anchors (Josh Cho and Siwook Hwang).
students
Performances Explore Local Reproductive Health Issues
Kalamazoo College students are collaborating with Planned Parenthood of Southwest Michigan on a theatre performance that will raise awareness about reproductive health in Kalamazoo County. “Pro-Voice: Reproductive Justice Monologues,” will stage on Sunday, February 26, at 5 p.m., and on Monday, February 27, at 7 p.m. Both performances will occur in the Connable Recital Hall of the Light Fine Arts Building on K’s campus. The events are open to the public. For tickets, contact in person Brenda Westra (in the Department of Psychology office suite in Olds-Upton). Tickets are $10; all proceeds will go to Planned Parenthood.
Project collaborators include Planned Parenthood, Kalamazoo College’s Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement, Professor Karyn Boatwright’s “Feminist Psychology of Women” class and Professor Alison Geist’s “Contemporary Issues in Public Health” course.
The “Pro-Voice” monologues will be performed by K students, based on interviews students in the aforementioned classes conducted with local people whose stories illuminate the importance of Planned Parenthood’s services to the community. The performances, which were devised and directed by K senior Lindsay Worthington, also incorporate interviews of policymakers and service providers regarding maternal and child health in Kalamazoo County.
“The events will do more than raise awareness of reproductive health issues,” said senior psychology major Ashley Schmidt. “It also will be an act of empowerment. We hope this performance highlights how important it is to raise the voices of those often ignored. We can make a difference when we work together.”
Senior Leaders
Thirty-five Kalamazoo College seniors (class of 2017) were honored with the institution’s prestigious Senior Leadership Award. These remarkable individuals include teaching assistants, peer instruction leaders, resident assistants, team captains, all-conference and academic all-American selections, Dean’s List honorees, student ambassadors for the president of Kalamazoo College, departmental student advisors, Center for Career and Professional Development career associates, and interfaith student leaders. One has even served as the mascot, Buzz the Hornet.
They lead or participate in groups that include, among others, Sisters in Science, Frelon Dance Troupe, College Singers, Young Men of Color, Black Student Organization, Coalition for Reproductive Justice, Hillel, Swim for Success, the Cauldron, Health Professions Society, and the Athletic Leadership Council. Some have distinguished themselves as Hornet athletes in golf, soccer, softball, baseball, tennis, basketball and swimming; as performers in theatre and music; and as persons committed to thinking, listening and acting in collaboration on behalf of civic engagement and social justice.
Above all, these 35 individuals are, as one nominator wrote, “exemplary human beings.” Congratulations, seniors. Pictured are (l-r): front row–Moises Hernandez (holding his son Gael), Emily Levy, Marlon Gonzalez, Lauren Perlaki, Elizabeth Clevenger, Jacob Scott, Dana DeVito, Colleen Orwin; second row–Thaddeus Buttrey, Grace Smith, Kathleen Sorensen, Allie Brodsky, Suma Alzouhayli; third row–Allia Howard, Sarah Bragg, Kayla Dziadzio, Suzanne Miller, Sabrina Dass, Gabrielle Holme-Miller, Emily Kowey; fourth row–Melissa Erikson, Anh-Tu Vu, Riley Boyd, Ellie Goldman, Erin DuRoss; back row–Nate Donovan, Eric DeWitt, Douglas Robinett, David Smith, and Sidney Wall. Not pictured are Sarah Glass, Chenxi Lu, Leland Merrill, Branden Metzler, and Lindsay Worthington.
Photo by Anthony Dugal
A Distinguished Dozen
The class of 2017 has its agents, a dozen as distinguished as they are diverse. Alivia DuQuet, Amanda Johnson, Bianca Delgado, Brooke Travis, Chris Francis, Emerson Brown, Emily Finch, Emily Levy, Emma Franzel, Eric DeWitt, Kamal Kamalaldin and Kriti Singh come from four states and three countries and represent eight different majors, five different study abroad programs on four continents, one study away program and a K-Trek (K to the Big Apple). Seven will enter the work force after graduation (several with jobs already lined up), two will go to graduate school, two will take a gap year then proceed with their graduate educations, and one will do Teach for America before beginning grad school. Senior Individualized Projects ranged widely, and topics included, among others, state sexual education policies, climate adaption strategies, cultural institutions in Palestine, corporate venture capital investments, the Dodd-Frank Act, parental attitudes regarding corporal punishment, feminism performance theory and the U.S. primary care industry.
All of the class agents were asked why they wanted to take on this lifetime role. Their answers, understandably, varied and yet shared some common themes: an appreciation of the K learning experience, a desire to remain connected to classmates and the College and to pay forward the benefits of a K education. “Throughout my time at K,” said Singh, “I have realized the importance of financial support and support from alumni. I would love to be actively involved because a lot of students (unknowingly) benefit from the support from the people who have been giving back.” Kamalaldin agrees: “I want to be able to improve Kalamazoo College and stay connected to its mission. I want to give back the tremendous support and educational opportunity that Kalamazoo College gave me.”
Photo courtesy of Tony Dugal
MLK and “Our Moment”
What does the annual celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.–his achievements and his ideas–mean for the present moment, what K students’ might term “our moment?” How should his spirit apply–in imagination, in word, in action–to their now and their future?
These are questions posed by and to students by and to the College’s Intercultural Center. The answers to those questions (both continually developing) will inform Kalamazoo College’s 2017 Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation on January 16, 2017.
As in the past, K’s activities will be part of various city events on that day. The 2017 MLK celebration Kalamazoo-wide theme is “The Transformative Power of a Unified Dream.”
Director of Intercultural Student Life (ISL) Natalia Carvalho-Pinto and students worked together to shape a celebration that creates opportunities to “consider what transformative power and resistance mean for new generations,” says Carvalho-Pinto. The ISL theme for this year’s K events is “Transformative Power and Resistance in the New Century: What Does ‘The Dream’ Look like Today?”
The day will feature four events, beginning with a convocation address by poet Danez Smith (10:50 a.m. in Stetson Chapel). The title of his talk is the same as the theme for K’s events, and it is free and open to the public.
Smith is the award-winning author of [insert] Boy (YesYes Books, 2014) and hands on ya knees (Penmanship Books, 2013), and he is a founding member of the multi-genre, multicultural Dark Noise Collective. His writing has appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Kinfolks, among others.
His poems focus on intersecting matters of race, class, sexuality, faith and social justice, and it is characterized by a power, rhythm and imagery that invites and demands a reimagining of the world.
Smith then will lead a poetry workshop (12:30 p.m. Hicks Banquet Room, lunch provided) that is open to K students only. The workshop–titled “Future Tense: Poetry as Blueprint”–will explore the use of poetry to imagine realistic utopias in the not so distant future, and how those futures can allow us to reverse engineer the steps we would need to take to make them. “By looking at speculative worlds of some of today’s young poets of color,” says Carvalho-Pinto, “the workshop will inspire us toward change, possibility, action, dreaming and building the worlds we deserve.”
At 4 p.m. (gathering at Red Square) K students, faculty and staff will join their counterparts from Western Michigan University to walk to Martin Luther King Jr. Park in downtown Kalamazoo. Transportation back to K’s campus will be provided.
The afternoon’s poetry workshop will culminate at 6:30 p.m. with a reading in the Intercultural Center (Hicks). Students will share relevant writings and reflections–their own and that of others, some perhaps written that day during the workshop–about the day’s theme and celebrations. “The potential power of this event is extraordinary,” says Carvalho-Pinto. “We did this at Ferris [State University], and it was one of my favorite events.” The reading is open to the entire Kalamazoo College community, as is the film that will follow at 7:30 p.m. ISL has tentatively scheduled a screening of The Rosa Parks Story (starring Angela Bassett).
“We’re very excited about this year’s events,” says Carvalho-Pinto, “especially their potential to get us thinking about how what we celebrate on this day should infuse our present and future. And I’m particularly thrilled that Danez Smith will be a part.”
***
if you press your ear to the dirt
you can hear it hum, not like it’s filled
with beetles & other low gods
but like a mouth rot with gospel
& other glories. listen to the dirt
crescendo a boy back.
come. celebrate. this
is everyday. every day
holy. everyday high
holiday. everyday new
year. every year, days get longer.
time clogged with boys. the boys
O the boys. they still come
in droves. the old world
keeps choking them. our new one
can’t stop spitting them out.
-from “summer, somewhere,” by Danez Smith, Poetry, January 2016
Social Justice Fellows Named
The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL) has announced the 2016-17 Regional Fellows. The program helps leaders in Kalamazoo County clarify the core values they want their work to exemplify, increase their effectiveness, and bring a stronger social justice focus to their work. Fellows will engage often with the ACSJL for eight months, attending training and coaching sessions while laying the groundwork for their projects.
Names of the fellows and a brief description of their projects follow.
Jesselyn Leach is the creator of #Gang4Change, an initiative explores how art and social justice can work together. The project will work with Kalamazoo teens and young people, providing them the opportunity to connect with their artistic selves in music, spoken word poetry, slam poetry, cyphering, and other creative genres.
BlackOut, a project of Maxwell T. Isaac and Lexington Everson Fate, is designed to lay the foundations of greater visibility and sovereignty for the Black community of Kalamazoo. BlackOut is comprised of parts: the Living Narrative and the Living Action. The former will increase the visibility of Black stories as told by their authors, sharing their experiences with injustice in Kalamazoo. The latter will fortify leadership and community ties through community awareness events and trainings.
Movement for the Movement is a collaboration created by Kama Tai Mitchell and Lillie Wolff ’04. It will examine and address the systemic barriers that impede people with marginalized identities from accessing and benefitting from healing arts spaces and resources. When shared equitably and accountably, healing arts practices, such as yoga, can aid in transforming the harmful and dehumanizing effects of oppression and privilege.
Remi Harrington‘s project is called City Schools and BMFA (balancing motherhood for the future of America). Her work will promote parental engagement and community integrated education for the purpose of dismantling the cradle to the prison pipeline. The work will create intercultural spaces in neighborhoods to support academic mastery through industry centered, project based learning. These spaces will also develop employable skill sets and will build an infrastructure for a sustainable community.
Chris Wahmhoff is a creator of the Edison Ducks in a Row, a project that began in April of 2015 after two ducks were adopted and Edison neighborhood kids began to take interest. The program helps educated kids and young adults about farm animals and basic urban farming techniques. The eventual goal is to transition public school food sources to local farming in the Edison neighborhood.
Dean’s List Fall 2016
Congratulations to the following Kalamazoo College students, who achieved a grade point average of 3.5 or better for a full-time course load of at least three units, without failing or withdrawing from any course, during the Fall 2016 academic term. Students who elect to take a letter-graded course on a credit/no credit basis (CR/NC) are not eligible for Dean’s List consideration during that term. Nor are students who receive an F, NC or W grade for that particular term. Students with incomplete (I) or in-progress (IP) grades will be considered for Dean’s List upon receipt of the final grades. Dean’s List recognition is posted on students’ transcripts. Kudos to the entire group of more than 300 students, and good luck in Winter Term, 2017.
Fall 2016
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
Azra Ahmad
Bekhzod Akilov
Michelle Alba
Georgie Andrews
Ryan Andrusz
Grant Anger
Hunter Angileri
Jill Antonishen
Mary Beth Arendash
Jacqueline Arroyo
Taylor Ashby
Meredith Ashton
Max Aulbach
Juan Avila
B
Jo Babcock
Sonal Bahl
Benjamin Baldwin
Garrett Barkume
Cameron Bays
Ethan Beattie
Logan Beck
Dylan Beight
Matt Benedettini
Chris Benedict
Kate Bennett
Erin Bensinger
Brigette Berke
Madelyn Betts
Kevin Bhimani
Riya Bhuyan
Daniel Bidwell
Maribel Blas-Rangel
Vanessa Boddy
Sean Bogue
Jake Bonifacio
Georgie Booker
Kennedy Boulton
Emily Boyle
Amelia Brave
Maxine Brown
Molly Brueger
Matthew Burczyk
Mary Burnett
Thaddeus Buttrey
Shanice Buys
C
Kefu Cao
Shannon Carley
Owen Carroll
Charlie Carson
Kebra Cassells
Marissa Castellana
James Castleberry
Sharmeen Chauhdry
Chido Chigwedere
Tapiwa Chikungwa
Emiline Chipman
Youngjoon Cho
Lakshya Choudhary
Iffat Chowdhury
Yoensuk Chung
Chris Coburn
Paige Coffing
Stefan Coleman
Cody Colvin
Carmen Compton
Anthony Convertino
Valentina Cordero
Gaby Cordova
Amanda Crouch
Conall Curran
Peter Czajkowski
D
Mansi Dahal
Addie Dancer
Christina Dandar
Elan Dantus
Nesma Daoud
Mason Darling
Bonnie Darrah
Amelia Davis
Robert Davis
Steven Davis
Ximena Davis
Zoe Davis
Fabien Debies
Joshua DeGraff
Anthony Diep
Cecilia DiFranco
Amelia Donohoe
Nathan Donovan
Anna Dorniak
Tuan Do
Libby Dulski
Trisha Dunham
E
Cameron Earls
Daniel Eberhart
Emma Eisenbeis
Tiffany Ellis
Melissa Erikson
McKinzie Ervin
Amanda Esler
Ihechi Ezuruonye
F
Alex Fairhall
Mario Ferrini
Anders Finholt
Matthew Flotemersch
Steven Fotieo
Rachel Frank
Valentin Frank
Ian Freshwater
Maria Fujii
Lydia Fyie
G
Amanda Gardner
Brett Garwood
Cory Gensterblum
Bill Georgopoulos
Audrey Gerard
Sarah Gerendasy
Camille Giacobone
Joshua Gibson
Jake Gilhaus
Anthony Giovanni
Rachel Girard
Sam Gleason
Beau Godkin
Dominic Gonzalez
Rj Goodloe
Monica Gorgas
Adam Gothard
Janelle Grant
Keenan Grant
Natalie Gratsch
Andre Grayson
Claire Greening
Alyse Guenther
Sapana Gupta
Rebecca Guralnick
David Gurrola
Gus Guthrie
H
Kyle Hahn
Kalli Hale
Emmy Hall
Isabella Haney
Caryn Hannapel
Martin Hansknecht
Maverick Hanson-Meier
Mara Hazen
Kaiya Herman-Hilker
Richard Hernandez
Natalie Hershenson
Sophie Higdon
Addie Hilarides
Sophia Hill
Kento Hirakawa
Megan Hoinville
Mathew Holmes-Hackerd
Aly Homminga
Daniel Horwitz
Nicole Huff
Ayla Hull
I
J
Sadie Jackson
Eric Janowiak
Jelena Jenkins
Emilio Jerez Garcia
Hanna Jeung
Ziyu Jiang
Finneas Johnson
Janay Johnson
Monica Johnson
Emily Johnston
Brittany Jones
K
Kyle Kane
Kendall Kaptur
Maria Katrantzi
Alex Kaufman
Greg Kearns
Christian Kelley
Sam Kenney
Christina Keramidas
Jasmine Khin
Benjamin Kileen
Dahwi Kim
David Kim
Eunji Kim
Gyeongho Kim
Judy Kim
Min Soo Kim
Izzy Kirck
Beryl Kohnen
Kate Kreiss
Matthew Krinock
Lily Krone
L
Megan Lacombe
Lauren Landman
Mackenzie Landman
Zoe Larson
Gabby Latta
Madeline Lauver
Sebastian Lawler
Sabrina Leddy
Phuong Le
Joo Young Lee
Kelsi Levine
Joy Lim
Jiazhen Liu
Rosella LoChirco
Shelby Long
Sara Lonsberry
Brandon Lopez
Henry Lovgren
Nick Ludka
M
Elaine MacInnis
Sam Maddox
Madisyn Mahoney
Kayla Marciniak
Cydney Martell
Kathryn Martin
Barthelemy Martinon
Eliza McCall
Kevin McCarty
Katherine McKibbon
Sara McKinney
Ian McKnight
Clayton Meldrum
Ana Mesenbring
John Meyer
Sam Meyers
Danny Michelin
Chelsea Miller
Sangtawun Miller
Zach Miller
Michael Mitchell
Zach Morales
Aidan Morley
Tamara Morrison
Ryan Mulder
Emma Mullenax
Libby Munoz
N
Ravi Nair
Ellen Neveux
Viet Nguyen
Anne Nielsen
Sara Nixon
Jonathan Nord
Emily Norwood
Brooke Nosanchuk
Drew Novetsky
O
Maddie Odom
Eli Orenstein
Michael Orwin
P
Dylan Padget
Daniel Palmer
Karina Pantoja
Yansong Pan
Jimmy Paprocki
Alan Park
Kayla Park
Sung Soo Park
Andrew Parsons
Cayla Patterson
Caleb Patton
Gabriel Pedelty Ovsiew
Songyun Peng
Jessica Penny
Allie Periman
Kaitlyn Rose Perkins
Matthew Peters
Caroline Peterson
Uyen Pham
Brad Popiel
Maylis Pourtau
Sarada Prasad
Tulani Pryor
Zach Prystash
Q
R
Erin Radermacher
Ari Raemont
Hannah Rainaldi
Malavika Rao
Zack Ray
Tori Regan
Erin Reilly
Mili Renuart
Dulce Reyes Martinez
Megan Rigney
Meg Riley
Philip Ritchie
Annika Roberts
Scott Roberts
Danna Robles-Garcia
Ramisa Rob
Justin Roop
Orly Rubinfeld
Tim Rutledge
S
Shiva Sah
Sharayu Salvi
Paige Sambor
Danielle Sarafian
Anselm Scheck
Austen Scheer
Faruq Schieber
Natalie Schmitt
Billy Schneider
Hannah Scholten
Jd Seablom
Nori Seita
Rachel Selina
Yeji Seo
Sivhaun Sera
Sharif Shaker
Yu Shang
Will Sheehan
Chase Shelbourne
Riley Shepherd
Gabrielle Shimko
Kriti Singh
Simran Singh
Austin Smith
Ben Smith
Erin Smith
Maggie Smith
Matt Smolinski
Sundas Sohail
Shannon South
Sophie Spencer
Simona Stalev
Gabriel Stanley
Evan Stark-Dykema
Katelyn Steele
Grant Stille
Andrea Strasser-Nicol
Mimi Strauss
Claudia Stroupe
Michelle Sugimoto
Sarah Sui
Caroline Sulich
Vikram Surendran
Shelby Suseland
Matt Suter
Jake Sypniewski
T
William Tait
Maia Taylor
Hanna Teasley
Derek Thomas
Paige Tobin
Alayna Tomlinson
Carolyn Topper
Maddie Tracey
Trevor Trierweiler
Van Truong
Ethan Tucker
Lydia Turke
Matt Turton
U
Lexi Ugelow
V
Adriana Vance
David Vanderkloot
Zach VanFaussien
Natalie Vazquez
Travis Veenhuis
Chris Vennard
Ashley Ver Beek
Allen Vinson
Aiden Voss
Evan Voyles
Anh-Tu Vu
W
Evie Wagner
Sidney Wall
Tim Walsh
Anthony Wang
Hedy Wang
Maya Wanner
Madeline Ward
Jake Wasko
Ailih Weeldreyer
Jack Wehr
Alex White
Sarah Whitfield
Annarosa Whitman
Hans Wieland
Brian Will
Meg Wilson
Madeline Woods
X
Anja Xheka
Cindy Xiao
Sasha Xu
Terence Xu
Y
Z
Julie Zabik
Jingcan Zhu
Providing Professional Experience and Networks
Kalamazoo College’s Center for Career and Professional Development seeks alumni and friends interested in helping students to gain the experience and networks that will advance their career aspirations.
There are three ways to get involved, according to Joan Hawxhurst, director of the CCPD.
1. Hosting a student through the Discovery Externship Program enables alumni to share their professional and home lives with current K students interested in exploring a career. Externships allow first-year and sophomore students to live and work with a sponsor for one to four weeks in the summer. Students and hosts build relationships that have the potential to be meaningful and long lasting. Now through December, the CCPD is lining up extern hosts for summer 2017. Persons interested in learning more and perhaps hosting a student next summer, should take a moment to complete a brief survey.
2. Volunteers can source and share summer internship opportunities. In a competitive job market, said Hawxhurst, candidates need workplace experience, and summer internships are a great way for current K students to distinguish themselves. Does your workplace have a strong internship program? Do you have information about an internship that would be a great fit for a K student? The CCPD can help you share internship information with students.
3. You can join the Kalamazoo College Professional Networking Group (KPNG) on LinkedIn. This group of more than 2,700 members of the extended K community are networking and sharing career-related advice and connections. Some offer to review a student’s résumé; others accept an invitation for an informational interview; still others host short job-shadow visits to their workplaces. The KPNG allows you to engage from anywhere on the globe and to give the amount of time that works for you.
After viewing your LinkedIn profile, students might seek your contact information through the College’s online alumni directory.
Please be sure your contact information is up to date there. It’s easy with the steps below.
1. Go to the alumni directory page.
2. Log in with your username and password. If you don’t have one yet, click on register now.
3. Go to Update Profile. You will have the option to sync with your LinkedIn profile.
4. Check the boxes under Visibility to Students to select how a student can contact you.
5. Update your employment information under the heading Professional.
6. Click on Update to save your preferences.
A strong professional network is one of the distinctive and lifelong benefits of a Kalamazoo College education.
Conference Honors K Student’s Research
Sarah Bragg ’17 won an award for her poster detailing research on barriers to HIV testing. She presented the poster at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students in Tampa, Florida, this month. Her work was awarded in the conference’s Behavioral Science and Public Health category.
Sarah conducted her research during 12-week summer internship at Morehouse College and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention. She plans to expand the project she completed (titled “Barriers and Solutions to HIV Testing Among College and University Students”) and make it the basis of her Senior Individualized Project. That project will compare the prevalence and contexts of HIV testing at public and private institutions of higher education. During all four years of her undergraduate experience at K, Sarah has served as a Civic Engagement Scholar in the College’s Center for Civic Engagement. She has worked in a weekly mentoring program with young women. She also has worked with Assistant Professor of Psychology Kyla Fletcher on her three-year NIH study on daily HIV risk reduction behavior in African-American partner relationships.
Sarah is earning her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a concentration in community and global health. She plans to pursue a career in public health and, after graduating this June, to apply for a one- or two-year fellowship with the CDC. About the work she did during her summer internship, Sarah wrote: “I was able to use the skills that were cultivated at Kalamazoo College, especially through my work at the Center for Civic Engagement.” The CCE stresses the connection between effective social change and work that applies a social justice perspective. “We do not strive to save the world,” explained Sarah. “We collaborate with communities in an effort to find solutions that are suitable and that ensure the dignity and respect for the community.”
Problematic Art and Agonistic Space
Associate Professor of Art History Christine Hahn published an article, “Maintaining Problematic Art: A Case Study of Philip Evergood’s The Bridge of Life (1942) at Kalamazoo College.” The article was published in Public Art Dialogue (6:1, 116-130) on May 27, 2016.
The piece is particularly interesting for any alumni familiar with the mural (see above) in Old Welles Hall. It covers the history of controversy inspired by the work since it’s unveiling (1942), including specific calls (in 1966 and in 2010) for some redress for iconography deemed offensive to and by some individuals and groups. Detailing the call-and-response to the criticism voiced in 2010, Christina ultimately suggests “that problematic public art has the unique potential to produce positive social change by staying in place.”
The article reveals much about K’s history, including Evergood’s time on campus as an artist and a teacher as well as his bona fides as an ardent social radical. Christina also introduces (from Lewis Hyde, author of Common as Air) a concept of “freedom of listening.” In his book Hyde cites Benjamin Franklin’s creation of a lecture hall where “people were free to give lectures on whatever they wanted.” In that space (Christina quotes Hyde): “Individual speakers present singular views; individual listeners entertain plurality….The hall was thus built to serve the eighteenth-century idea of replacing the partial self with a plural or public self, one who is host to many voices, even those otherwise at odds with the singular being you thought you were when you first walked in the door….If we take free listening to be the true end of free speech, then freedom itself takes on a different aspect…intelligence arises in the common world, where many voices can be heard; it belongs to collectivity, not privacy, and is available especially to those who can master the difficult art of plural listening.”
Christina invokes Hyde’s notion of “agonistic listening amongst equals in conflict” (a notion that is at the heart of the academy and a direct contrast to “antagonism, where opponents try to silence or destroy the other”) to describe College and student responses to the controversy implicit and explicit in the work, particularly the responses that took place or were considered between 2010 and 2015. She writes: “The building Benjamin Franklin built that embraced such agonistic pluralism eventually became the Philadelphia Academy, which in turn became the University of Pennsylvania. This transformation of space, built to house agonistic conflict among equals, is a particularly fitting symbol of how physical space can potentially create a space for inquiry, conflict and debate. This type of site is necessary and important. Indeed, as Lewis Hyde argues, it is agonistic spaces such as these that are the foundations of democracy.”
The presence of the mural, Christina continues, has provided the intellectual and emotive space for agonistic listening, “has allowed these twenty-first-century conversations on race, class dynamics and elite educations to take place….[M]aintaining problematic public art in an agonistic space helps keep our understanding of the past and our vision of the future firmly in view.” A fascinating article, well worth the time to read it.