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| | | -- By OliviaMartinez - 16 Apr 2021 | |
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< | This line, repeated throughout the semester, has stuck with me as I consider my theory of social action. This is key to making things happen in society using words. | >
> | To make things happen in society using words I will need an effective approach using words that spark the imagination and visuals that can not be denied of their truthfulness. | | | | |
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< | Story Telling
My favorite book is Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurtson. In this “autoethnographical collection of folklore”, one of the first recognized collections of Black American folktales, Hurston documents and preserves the oral histories, the traditions, the dialect, the songs, and the lifestyle of Black communities in Eatonville, Florida and New Orleans, Louisiana, in writing. In my first year of college, this collection led me to an interest in how and why stories are told. From this, I learned (1) Oral story telling is an important tradition, and it keeps more than just the story alive (2) Writing stories down is a way to prevent their erasure, but this changes something about the stories permanently. (3) Stories are a method of survival, used to communicate things that can not be written or spoken without illustration. | >
> | Words Making People Talk | | | | |
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< | Using the power of oral production and auditory consumption, change can be made. Humans can close their eyes to something they don’t want to see, but they cannot close their ears to what they don’t want to hear. Oral storytelling not only recreates the plot, but allows the listener to make it their own. I’ve seen many movies inspired by books, by which I’m deeply disappointed in the casting for a certain character’s role. After seeing the actor, I can’t disassociate their image from that character, who could have stayed in my imagination as whatever I wanted them to be. Hearing brings freedom, where seeing brings constraints. | >
> | I have always known that words can make things happen. As a child, when I wasn’t in school, I was in the library. I was constantly transporting to new places with new characters and, once I was old enough to start volunteering there, I was able to share this magic with others. I watched as adults, stopping by after work or dropping off their children for a puppet show, sat down on the wooden benches between the shelves. In a matter of seconds, they forgot all of their ailments and responsibilities they came in with for a chapter or two. The library taught me a lot of important things about community and responsibility, but most importantly I learned about the power that words have over people: something in the words the adults were reading made them want to tell me about their time serving our country, their political activism, or their childhood memories. Without prompting done by the words they read, I would never have heard their stories. Thus, I know that words and storytelling make things happen in society, as they made things happen within the people around me. | | | | |
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< | Words Defeat Monsters and Words Grow Heroes
Growing up in South Jersey, I was terrified of the Jersey Devil, a creature I had only heard of from other people. One day, I decided to look up the monster for myself. Somehow, in my searching through pictures and different reiterations of this story, it became less scary. I believed what I saw, and the Jersey Devil became merely an evil, winged horse-like creature, instead of the many things it was in my imagination. To my ears the Jersey Devil was limitless, to my eyes he was merely another creature. | >
> | Words Defeating Monsters and Words Creating Heros | | | | |
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< | Words have the ability to grow a thing, and images have the ability to shrink it. Harriet Tubman was a small woman, born into slavery, with a debilitating illness. “Moses”, alternatively, was a force of power -- a hero. By word of mouth, enslaved persons heard of Tubman and, by her songs, they knew she had arrived. Oral messages were crucial forms of communication for constantly surveilled enslaved populations. These words, passed between people and sung by Tubman, made her larger than life. | >
> | Growing up in South Jersey, I was terrified of the Jersey Devil, a creature I had only heard of from neighbors and classmates. One day, I decided to look up the monster for myself. Somehow, in searching through different pictures and reiterations of this story, the creature became less scary. I believed what I saw, and the Jersey Devil was merely a winged, horse-like creature, instead of the endless, limitless being I imagined. To my ears the Jersey Devil was a million things all in one, but to my eyes he was merely a single, defined creature. | | | | |
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< | When people hear of a person or a thing, their imagination allows it to grow. When people see something, it is limited, now existing within the boundaries of what is before them. The sharing of information via auditory channels can be used to create ideas, to invoke fear or to inspire, while sharing via visual channels may be used to prove, to limit, or to rationalize. Seeing is believing, and hearing is imagining. | >
> | Although words made the Jersey Devil smaller, they can make things bigger, too. Harriet Tubman was a small woman with a debilitating illness. She was also a powerful hero, known by many to make things happen. Those who were enslaved heard of Tubman by word of mouth and, by her songs, they knew she had arrived. Oral messages were crucial forms of communication for constantly surveilled enslaved populations. These words, passed between people and sung by Tubman, made her larger than life. | | | | |
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> | When people hear of a person or a thing, it can grow in their imagination. When people see something, it is limited to the boundaries of what is before them. Seeing is believing, and hearing is imagining. | | | | |
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< | Using This To Make Things Happen Using Words
An important part of making things happen with words is to make others understand why the thing matters, and why it should happen. For example, police body cameras made it possible for America to see that George Floyd’s death was a murder. While the words, “I can’t breathe” were powerful, we’ve heard this before without the same effect. However, a full eight minutes of video footage can not be denied. The judge and jury didn’t need to imagine what happened -- they saw. This makes certain movements and changes, where there is visible evidence of the wrong being done, placed directly in front of the eyes of millions of people, easier to catalyze and keep alive than others. | >
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Using Imagination and Belief To Make Things Happen
An important part of making things happen with words is to make others understand why the thing matters, and why it should happen. For example, police body cameras made it possible for America to see that George Floyd’s death was a murder. While the words, “I can’t breathe” were powerful, we have heard them before without the same effect. However, this time, a full eight minutes of video footage could not be denied. The judge and jury did not need to imagine what happened -- they saw. This visual element that was present in George Floyd’s case, showcasing visible evidence of the wrong being done, placed directly in front of the eyes of millions of people, can help to make movements and changes in society effective. | | | Issues Hidden in the Shadows | |
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< | With issues of little visibility, such as conditions of confinement in prisons or domestic violence or inhabitable apartments, those who do not experience it can close their eyes to these ills, and might not ever see it. These issues are not caught on camera, and often impact people who are already pushed into the dark corners of our society, where we don’t look if we don’t have to. When stories of such issues do emerge as headlines a few days, it almost makes them seem irregular: this is the one story of this happening and that’s why it is broadcasted. Although the image might be horrific, it makes the issue smaller, like seeing the Jersey Devil’s image did for me. Awareness is not enough. The ugly truths need to be there even after a person closes their eyes to the horrors. The marches, the chants, and the constant news coverage still have not let people forget George Floyd. People may close their eyes and look away, but they can not close their ears to the sounds of pain and the sounds of change. They can not close off their imagination to what can come from this. | >
> | With issues of little visibility, such as conditions of confinement in prisons or domestic violence or inhabitable apartments, those who do not live it can close their eyes to these ills, and might not ever see it. These issues are not caught on camera, and often impact people who are already pushed into the corners of our society, hidden from the sight of many. When stories of such issues do emerge, often as headlines in the news, it makes them seem irregular: this is the one story of this happening and that’s why it is broadcasted. Although the image might be horrific, it confines the issue to what a viewer can believe, rather than what they can imagine, like seeing the Jersey Devil’s image did for me. Thus, awareness of such issues is not enough. The ugly truths need to be there even after a person closes their eyes to the horrors, and even after the news story is done. The marches, the chants, and the use of social media have forced Americans, even those who look away, to know George Floyd. People may close their eyes, but they can not close their ears to the sounds of pain and the sounds of change. They can not close off their imagination to what can come from this. | | |
Re-Imagining Justice | |
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< | The Role of Storytelling | >
> | A Story of Big Ideas | | | | |
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< | With issues of little visibility, such as conditions of confinement in prisons or domestic violence or inhabitable apartments, those who do not experience it can close their eyes to these ills, and might not ever see it. These issues are not caught on camera, and often impact people who are already pushed into the dark corners of our society, where we don’t look if we don’t have to. When stories of such issues do emerge as headlines a few days, it almost makes them seem irregular: this is the one story of this happening and that’s why it is broadcasted. Although the image might be horrific, it makes the issue smaller, like seeing the Jersey Devil’s image did for me. Awareness is not enough. The ugly truths need to be there even after a person closes their eyes to the horrors. The marches, the chants, and the constant news coverage still have not let people forget George Floyd. People may close their eyes and look away, but they can not close their ears to the sounds of pain and the sounds of change. They can not close off their imagination to what can come from this. | >
> | My theory of social action involves storytelling. From what I have learned this year, ranging from the theories of Afrofuturism to the art of attending Zoom school, I know that creating a more just society will require imagination. Belief is a powerful thing, but if the systems around us will truly change, we need a future that is beyond what we can believe, and that exists in the imagination. It is not enough to reform the bail system or to change sentencing, because we already know the boundaries of these things. Instead, we should imagine a world without bail, without sentencing, and without prisons. I want to offer the world an idea that exists beyond the boundaries of what we already know, calling on the imagination of others to make that idea bigger and better. I don’t know my big idea yet, but I know the things that I want to make happen in society and I have an idea of how to use words to do that. | | |
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