LIVES LIKE DOLLARS: THE ART OF PROTEST
Ages 16-29
Spring 2022, Online
To live with other others, we must agree on some important things: which side of the road to use when driving or the value of the money in our pockets. And many of us go through life in agreement, doing what we are told. But saying ‘yes’ all the time, simply going with the flow of society, can cause harm, as history shows. How can we learn to say ‘no’ when we are taught to say ‘yes,’ even when refusal is justified? In this workshop, student fellows will create art in opposition. They'll look at a variety of work, including the activist art of Ai Weiwei, the documentary photography of Ruddy Roye, and different styles of protest poetry. They’ll then choose both individually and collectively what they want to say ‘no’ to, and write (slam poetry and rap are welcome), make images (photographic or otherwise), and create audio and/or video recordings voicing their opinions. Subjects may be political, spiritual, economic, artistic, environmental, or otherwise. Final projects will be shown in a public exhibition and on the program website, and fellows will be encouraged to share their protests through their own social media platforms. Limited to 8 student fellows.
Somer Greer is a writer and photographer who lived in Baltimore for close to a decade, working as a writing instructor at Johns Hopkins University and other schools in the Mid-Atlantic. He now lives on Bayou Vermilion in Lafayette, Louisiana. Currently, he is working on a series of candid photos of Cajun musicians.
Tong Wu studies psychology and piano performance at Johns Hopkins University. Beyond his studies, he loves to travel, explore, and capture beautiful moments on the journey as a street photographer.
