Mary Haddad is an artist and student who took an idea she had about how to respond to the repeated destruction of a Black Lives Matter sign and turned that idea into a transformational, collaborative, creative experience for students of both the Oakwood Friends School, where the sign had been destroyed, and Spackenkill community which she’s a part of. The result of her efforts is a beautiful mural commemorating the lives of just a few who have been killed by police in the past several years.
Also joining in our conversation is student clerk of the Oakwood Friends School, Ann Pierre-Louis, who helped to get the Oakwood Friends School students involved and who joined in painting portions of the mural.
The mural is currently part of the I.D.E.A. Inclusion, Diversity and Equity in America Gallery show at Cornell Creative Arts Center in Kingston.
The I.D.E.A. art exhibition is a collaboration with New Horizons Resources (NHR), The Arc Mid-Hudson, and the Cornell Creative Arts Center. It was conceived to enable the diverse population of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities supported by NHR, and their staff to express their feelings about social injustice in our world and our community. This show highlights artwork that expresses thoughts, feelings and experiences in regard to racism, social injustices and oppression faced by people supported and employed through both NHR and The Arc Mid-Hudson. Their hope is that the work in this exhibit promotes a mutual understanding of how racism impacts our entire society and community, and provides opportunity for constructive dialogue and positive change. They aim to create an environment where people can feel safe and supported in their need to discuss these very important topics and their impact. The Exhibition is on display from May 1-July 31, 2021.
You can view the virtual gallery online here.
Mary’s mural will travel throughout the Hudson Valley, temporarily leaving the I.D.E.A. exhibit to be a part of a Juneteenth event at Mansion Square Park in Poughkeepsie, and then moving to the WomensWork.Art Gallery in August and the Art Effect Gallery in September.
Additional students who participated in the mural are from Oakwoods Friends School: Kaylie Agresta, Brandon Christansen, Shakiba Daqiq, Molly Doherty, Brooklyn Dottin, Celeste Farangi, Bella Gedeon, Ryan Kraehar, lla Kumar (ee-luh), Ra Kumar, Aubrey Mahoney, Kishi Oyagi, Ally Ramos, Fio Sachs, Lulu Schloss, Ruby Schloss, Jareth Stokum, Jenine Tobias, Ibrahim Waheed (ee-bra-heem) and from Spackenkill Community: Mariam Baloch, Ria Bhutani, Amelia Chapin, Maya Chinkan, Emily Cohen, Andrew Chun, Kathryn Gagliardi, Ava Geer, Grace Haddad, Najib Haddad (nuh-jeeb), Yousef Haddad, Mya Hansen, Anikha Justin, Kathryn Kaylor, Isaac Kolisch, Emily Ma, Sophia Maslyn, Elizabeth Mastrantuono, Ofeibea Micah (oh-fey-bee-uh), Olivia Michail, Liam Moren, Udaya Rattan, Deshaun Smith, Abigail Straus, Anoushka Swain, Hannah Ullinger
After our conversation, I share a bit about open-mindedness, which perhaps is an important element to real change as it relates to both law enforcement and other elements of our world that could use an upgrade. Open-Mindedness on NPR. Here’s the Implicit Association Test mentioned in the NPR program.
Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda from Radio Kingston, AND produced, hosted, and edited by ME, Theresa, so please forgive any hiccups.
Our show music is from Shana Falana !!!
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