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This presentation focuses on the power of a rich arts education for urban youth. Examines the role of art education in the life of Tupac Shakur
Citation preview
Teach Me how to Tupac
By Lisa “Love” WhittingtonDoctoral Candidate, University of Georgia
Tupac Amaru Shakur Collection ConferenceAtlanta University Center/Robert Woodruff LibrarySeptember 29, 2012
Empowering Urban Youth With an Arts Rich Education:
Involvement in the Humanities Arts and a Right Brained curriculum nurtured Tupac’s intellect and disciplined his skills.
“I'm not saying I'm gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world.”
― Tupac Shakur
Tupac knew what he was doing when he made this statement…he’s talking about YOU. Knowledge is power..so let us learn…
The Humanities Arts are academic disciplines that nurture intellect, exercise the right brain and engage holistic thinking
Branches of the Humanities : visual arts, performing arts, music, philosophy, religion, literature
The humanities teaches us about the world, about other cultures, and about ourselves.
The Humanities
Human Nature – (I was born this way)
Human Behavior –(Culture conditioned me this way)
Human Condition –(Why am I this way?)
Human Struggle –(This is my conflict)
Human Psyche –(This is in my head)
The 5 Canons of Humanities Arts
HUMANities inform us what it is like to be human.
Art is a product of human experience.
Many of Tupac’s works are cathartic. Cathartic means relief through the expression of strong emotions.
Entertainment and art are not the same thing. Entertainment is recreational while true artistry sticks to the human soul.
An artist will authentically deliver a canon of the humanities.
What is Art?
Tupac’s favorite artist was most likely Vincent Van Gogh.
Van Gogh created this painting of sunflowers that Tupac refers to in his poem “Starry Night.”
Vincent Van Gogh was an artist that struggled with strong emotions. He was made fun of and did not sell many paintings while he was alive. He created this painting while in a mental institution. Van Gogh shot himself and died one year later. He died thinking he was a failure.
Tupac was engaged in an arts based curriculum. At the age of 19 Tupac wrote a poem honoring Van Gogh’s life and his painting of “Starry Night.”
Starry Night
A creative heart, obsessed with satisfying this dormant and uncaring society you have given them the stars at night and you have given them Bountiful Bouquets of Sunflowers but 4 u there is only contempt and though you pour yourself into that fame and present it so proudly this world could not accept your masterpieces from the heart.So on that starry night you gave to us and you took away from us the one thing we never acknowledged your life.
Poem by Tupac ShakurPainting by Vincent Van Gogh
Left Brain people and left brain learning
Right Brain people and right brain learning
Holistic people and holistic learning creates a bridge between the two
Left Brain peopleLeft Brain education:
AnalyticalLogicalConcerned with being right and wrongLanguageScience and mathWalks a straight lineStays inside the lines, afraid to go outValues testingKeeps track of timeData drivenNeeds numbers to prove success and achievementQuantitative
Right Brain peopleRight Brain education
HolisticColors outside the linesCreativeEmotionalIntuitiveArt and musicThinks outside of the boxCan agree to disagree but can still value the perspective of others.Products are evidence of success and achievementQualitativeLoses track of time
Baltimore School of the Arts
Offered more right brain education: Humanities arts was integrated with regular academics and kept Tupac engaged in his education. Educators understood how to work with Tupac and students like him.
Circumstances forced Tupac to have to move away from Baltimore School of the Arts. He moved to California.
Tamalpais High School
Offered more formal education: Tupac became unengaged, got involved with the wrong crowd, and dropped out of high school in the twelfth grade.
Educators did not understand how to work with Tupac or students like him.
“Between the east coast, the Bay area, LA, and Baltimore, those places made me. Made me who I am, and what I am, and made me stand out.” - Tupac Shakur
Tupac Shakur, born in Harlem, NY.Age of 12, enrolled in Harlem’s 127th Street Repertory Ensemble. Was cast as the young Travis in “A Raisin in the Sun” at the Apollo Theater.
Shakur family moved from NY to Baltimore.
Tupac enrolled in Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Baltimore.
Transfers to Baltimore School of the Arts and is engaged in his education through an arts based curriculum.
Shakur family moves to California.Tupac is enrolled in Tamalpais High School where he drifts and drops out of school.
Meets Leila Steinberg in San Francisco at the age of 17 and enrolls in her workshops. Leila held arts workshops dedicated to helping at-risk youth find their voice.
Tupac synthesizes his life and his artistic training…sets goals…disciplines himself… and his artistic career begins…
Intelligence and intellect are not the same thing
Intelligence is measured right or wrong. Intellect is nurtured.
Intellectual property are the authentic products of human beings and are copyrighted because of authenticity.
Intellect employs human senses.
Intellect is nurtured through engagement in the arts as an artist or participant.
Intellect
Wrote poetryCritiqued paintingsCanons of the humanities arts are found throughout his work.Engaged in performing arts as a participant and observerWas an avid reader of literatureWas visually literate. Knew how to read images.Visual images in his videos are rich, intellectual, authentic, and humanIncorporated metaphorsWas descriptive Could find the words to describe the world or his emotionsCould organize his thoughtsLoved authentic handwriting.
Tupac’s art is a product of his living. It is a merging of his human experience and academic training which synthesized into philosophical works of art. His training helped him to organize his world into a quality finished artistic product.
Tupac was highly intellectual
Religion is an discipline of the Humanities. Spiritual flows naturally when intellect is engaged.
God is an artist and is referred to as “The Creator”
The Bible says “In the beginning God created”Like an artist God used Chiaroscuro. Chiaroscuro is a term in the arts used for how an artist uses light and dark for create form. The Holy Bible states “In the beginning God created…. Then goes on to discuss how God used light and dark to form the world. (Holy Bible, Genesis 1) The arts are sacred, and like God-- the arts are often pushed aside, neglected, taken for granted, and forsaken.
Unknowingly, arts teachers have a sacred calling, especially in oppressed communities with oppressed people.
Many participants of Tupac’s art connect with his spirituality. God was incorporated extensively into Tupac’s work.
The Spiritual, God, and the Arts
Jesus cried out “God why have you forsaken me?” (book of Matthew 27:46)
Tupac’s cried out—“Does the Lord care?”
A staple of Tupac’s artistry was his genuine and continual calling out to God. He often referenced his own spirit, and when and where his spirit would rest. He also would give hope to people like himself.
*Makaveli CD cover image
“My music is spiritual if you listen to it, it’s all about emotion, it’s all about life.”
“If I upset you don't stress never forgetThat God isn't finished with me yet”
“I feel His hand on my brain when I write rhymes I go blind and let the Lord do His thing”
“There's a Heaven for a G.”
“Oh my Lord, tell me what I'm livin’ for”
“'Cause even thugs cry, but do the Lord care?”
“Lord, I suffered through the years and shed so many tears..”
“I shall not fear no man but God”
Please God walk with me (grab a nigga and take me to Heaven)
Tupac and Arts EducationTupac Amaru Shakur felt that through art we could incite a new revolution that incorporated the heart, mind, body, spirit, and soul…Tupac began to share his ideas on how the arts could be included in school curriculums to help youth address some of the issues they were experiencing in their lives. By combining art with education, Tupac felt we could begin to heal society’s pain and confusion.
(Words of Leila Steinberg, educator, writer, poet, and first manager of Tupac Amaru Shakur) (Shakur, 1999, p. xix)
Tupac understood the power of arts education in the lives of Black and Latino students in urban and oppressed environments. He understood it because he experienced it. Arts education saved his life.
A rich thick arts education when you are young sticks to your bones and when you are grown, you don’t forget it.
•Knew how to observe the world because he was an observer of the arts•Knew how to put words together and express what he wanted to say•Understood the world•Got along with all races of people. Had diverse friendships but knew who he was and never forgot where he came from.•Understood politics•Understood people•Continued to research for himself beyond his schooling. Curiosity stayed alive.•He had a critical mindset for social justice.•Reached back for his people•Street smart and book smart and could integrate the two.•Developed into a theoretical and philosophical human being.•Gave the world a gift. A product of his living---his art.
Tupac’s arts education impacted his life
Is arts education properly funded in urban schools? No. Educational resources and funding are directed toward areas that are tested. Focus is on left brain learning.
Art teachers are struggling in urban areas. They are poorly trained. They quit. They give up. Education statistics show high rates of arts teachers leaving for “better conditions” in suburban schools.
Even kids are being told, the arts are not important. They regurgitate this lie from various uniformed, non-intellectual humans, or from a culture that wants to hold them back.
Formula for failure: Remove or water down the arts in urban and inner city schools and place focus on testing.
The Condition of Arts Education for Urban and Inner City Youth
“Within our public school systems: Minimal financial resources, inadequate facilities and materials, under qualified staff, as well as the influences of urban systems. Bureaucracies in classroom life should have a direct connection in the preparation of teachers.”
(Kozol, 1991)
Tupac cared about Education
One of the books Tupac read was “Savage Inequalities” by Jonathan Kozol
Scholar Lisa Delpit collected statements from teachers of color on their pre-service teacher experience
“My teacher education was a joke…“They just went by what they learned from books..”“I only learned how to teach white kids…”Pre-service teachers of color felt that they just regurgitated information back to their teachers to get out and felt their courses presented a one sided view of the world.(From “Other People’s Children, by Lisa Delpit)
My pilot study of art teacher preparation revealed a phenomena. When I asked urban arts teachers how their pre service training prepared them for their working environment they laughed and mocked at my question.
Teacher training is regurgitating the formula for failure of minority children.
Urban Education needs a Critical Lens
Critical pedagogy is an educational movement guided by passion and principle to help students develop consciousness of freedom, recognize authoritarian tendencies, and connect knowledge and power to the ability to take constructive action. Giroux, H. (October 27, 2010) "Lessons From Paulo Freire", Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 10/20/10.
Critical approaches examine social conditions in order to uncover hidden structures. Critical theory teaches that knowledge is power. This means that understanding the ways one is oppressed enables one to take action to change oppressive forces.
Reference: http://people.ucalgary.ca/~rseiler/critical.htm
Critical PedagogyPaulo Freire’s Banking Theory of Education: Students are empty vessels to be filled by teacher. Students are the depositories and teachers are the depositors. This type of education keeps people oppressed. (Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire)
Tupac ShakurPaulo Freire
“ In my music, and in a lot of the music, its only talking about the oppressed rising up against the oppressor, that’s what my music is about. The oppressed rising up against the oppressor. The only people that’s scared are the oppressors. The only people that have any harm coming to them are those that oppress.”(Tupac interview, Makavell interview, 1995 ).
To no longer be a victim of oppression, one must turn from it and turn on it by practicing reflection and then take action to change their oppressed world.
(Paulo Freire “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”)
Leaders concerned with education and oppression
They would have been friends and colleagues in the struggle. Tupac would have read “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.”
Tupac Center for the Arts:a support to urban arts education
The Shakur family understands the need for urban youth to have access to quality arts experiences. They carry on Tupac’s legacy in arts education.
Mission of Tupac Center for the Arts: to provide training and support for students who aspire to enhance their creative talents. Each and every child desires freedom to creatively express themselves. They provide an environment that encourages freedom of expression, serves as a resource for families, and empowers via education.
Founded in 1997 by Afeni Shakur who understood the powerful role of arts education in the life of her son. She understands that arts education improves school grades, as well as offers invaluable life lessons while building self-esteem and confidence. The Tupac Arts Center continues Tupac’s legacy in arts education to give countless young people the courage to get off the streets, and learn vital skills to positively impact their communities.
“We wouldn't ask why a rose that grew from the concrete for having damaged petals, in turn, we would all celebrate its tenacity, we would all love its will to reach the sun, well, we are the roses, this is the concrete and these are my damaged petals, don’t ask me why, thank god, and ask me how”
-- Tupac Shakur, The Rose That Grew from Concrete
Advocates for a quality Urban Arts Education
Lisa WhittingtonTupac Shakur
About the author Lisa ‘Love’ Whittington
Artist, poet, activist, teacher, and arts education advocate, Lisa Whittington was born in Harlem, NY. Home life for Lisa was dysfunctional and abusive. She lived in the projects with her mother and 5 brothers and sisters. Her mother was single, on welfare, and engaged regularly in alcoholism and drugs. Her father was never seen and unknown. Lisa’s high school teachers placed her in the Humanities arts program at Far Rockaway High School exposing Lisa to an array of artistic experiences including performing arts, literature, music, visual art, and took her on many field trips to museums, operas, symphonies and the like. The arts were highly integrated into her academics and kept Lisa academically engaged. By the age of 17, Lisa was homeless, and occasionally lived with friends. In spite of her circumstances, she graduated with honors from FRHS. Long Island University/CW Post College HEOP program recognized potential--took Lisa by the hand, paid her way, and allowed her to continue her education and interest in the arts.
After graduating with a BFA from CW Post, Lisa moved to Atlanta, became a teacher in Atlanta Public schools teaching visual arts to inner city youth where she has been for over 20 years. Lisa has travelled extensively around the world studying art and is a regular volunteer and friend of the Tupac Center for the Arts. She is a Humanities and Arts adjunct professor and has taught Humanities courses at UWG, NCCU and St. Leo University for several years. She is a scholar and doctoral candidate at the University of Georgia. Her dissertation focus is the preparation of teachers for urban environments. She is founder of urbanarteducation.com
Contact information: [email protected]
Did you hear about the rose that grewfrom a crack in the concrete?Proving nature's law is wrong itlearned to walk with out having feet.Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams,it learned to breathe fresh air.Long live the rose that grew from concretewhen no one else ever cared.
--By Tupac Shakur
Please help grow more “Roses in the Concrete” by supporting and advocating for more rich and vibrant arts education in urban and inner city schools and supporting the Tupac Center for the Arts and the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation. Please don’t sit back and watch our children suffer and get cheated from a quality arts education. Expression in the Humanities and Arts is the key to keeping children in oppressed communities engaged in their education and a positive life. Thank you so much.
Lisa “Love” Whittington
http://www.shawnblog.com/post/32414168/tupac-framed-van-gogh
http://www.billboard.com/column/the-juice/tupac-quad-studios-robber-comes-forward-1005237412.story#/column/the-juice/tupac-quad-studios-robber-comes-forward-1005237412.story
Image ReferencesArt commissioned for use on the inside cover of "R U Still Down?",the commemorative Tupac Shakur CD.
http://www.worth1000.com/entries/581645/the-rose-that-grew-from-concrete
http://gseis.ucla.edu/news-events/news-items
http://ingoodcompany.com/events/the-right-brain-business-plan®-intro/