art/vision/voice - Maryland Institute College of Art

xavier students lydia araya and
nyisha davis work with pieces of
power students.
case study: xavier university of louisiana 57
I think that philosophy is actually out of the extended family, which
has basically been destroyed by integration. You know, there was a time
in this community when, regardless to where you were, you could
depend on black people in the community to survive, because we had
to depend on each other.
So I think that the extended family thing had a great deal to do
with survivability and community. If one of those teachers called
home, it wasn’t going to be “well, that woman lied,” because if I’d
said that, I’d end up in the hospital. So, that whole thing, we’ve lost,
and somehow or another, we have to replace that because there has
been a major disconnect between education, responsibility. It’s like,
education is that thing over there—well, no, it’s not.
I think that’s what we’re trying to rebuild collectively, and that’s
what community arts is about, somehow trying to reestablish the
extended family culture. It was only when “integration” happened
that that system was gone and a lot of students got lost in the mix.
I think [the idea of building character through the arts] was
Lurana’s whole point, and in fact, she did that with a lot of us.
Knowing that, first of all, as a black male, your pride—so she would
use your pride to teach you, to challenge you. She has actually said
to me, the only thing that we can teach you is, nothing about art,
but about being an emissary, and that was the bottom line. . . .
I can remember my sophomore year, I think, Lurana walked in and
said, look, there’s twenty five Christmas cards that need to be
done in calligraphy, your job is — not, “Do you want this job?” but,
“This has to be delivered by Saturday. It’s Wednesday, you know,
and, by the way, you cannot cut your classes. Get it done by Saturday.”
First of all, there’s no way in hell that I would disappoint this
person; therefore, you have to get it done. I couldn’t cut the classes,
but I had to deliver the job. And I think that was a difference too.
We respected those teachers so much that to disappoint them was
the same as disrespecting your family. Extended family was . . .
if I disrespected my neighborhood, man, I brought shame. I’d
have to move!
richard You have to direct [students] toward it, you know; I think I
teach them about social responsibility. I do that on purpose. I have
no choice but to do it. I believe that the hats I wear are because I
have to wear ’em. I have no choice. It’s kind of like being anointed
for a certain purpose. And when I’ve been talking about all these
things, all this past and all this history, you realize that we are all
prepared for a certain journey in life and you’re getting those kids
ready for that journey.