Season 2 of Processing… continues to give us insight into how creative makers work through periods of intense political and personal uncertainty. Today, we recount the events of the past summer surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement, and the way such intense actions influenced how our makers view their own art. This season features the stories of Hannah Eko (MFA in writing graduate), Craig Hayes (undergraduate student), Oronde Sharif (Department of Africana Studies faculty), Ivette Spradlin (Studio Arts faculty), and Tahirah Walker (former staff, Center for Teaching and Learning). Hosted by Shannon Fink (Center for Creativity Operations Manager).
In this episode, we hear about the purpose of art during times of great social anger and protest, not only for the world at large, but personally. Ivette explains conflicted feelings of navigating social pressures around creating art during protest. Hannah describes her "sarcastic optimism" concerning some institutional changes around Black creativity and how that measures real progress on the subject. Tahirah talks of her frustration with a Groundhog Day loop of systemic racism. Craig speaks on how he used his anger around news of the cases of police brutality to connect to others. Oronde communicates how the perfect storm of COVID and months of social isolation created a platform for this summer of political actions, and how he believes a perspective shift for activists and creatives will help forge real and lasting change in the years to come.
“...it wasn't really until, like, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery... it is when those things happened that it all hit me. And I really started struggling, and that's when I really started getting into writing, saying like, ‘I can't be the only one that feels like everything's going wrong’.” Craig Hayes
Processing... is a production of the Center for Creativity at the University of Pittsburgh. The team includes Jasmine Green, Mike Campbell, Nancy Kirkwood, Kit Ayars, Erik Schuckers, Chad Brown and Shannon Fink. For more information, visit us online at creative.pitt.edu. Music in this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions.
Links to topics we discussed