"A Conversation about Antiracist Storytelling." Victor LaValle & Kian Kelley-Chung скачать в хорошем качестве

"A Conversation about Antiracist Storytelling." Victor LaValle & Kian Kelley-Chung

October 8, 2020 During their conversation, author Victor LaValle and UMD English alum Kian Kelley-Chung (UMD BA '19) discussed several topics related to the roles of art and literature, especially as they pertain to the Black Lives Matter movement. Noting that they were speaking close to Halloween, LaValle shared his experience of being inspired to write Destroyer after a rereading of Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN. The two also discussed costume appropriation during Halloween as well as the role of fear, both from Black communities who fear harm from the police and in motivating cops to become part of a system that has racist roots and disproportionately hurts communities of color. LaValle and Kelley-Chung not only discussed the criminal justice system, but also universities and English departments as systems. Although Kelley-Chung praised his experience as an English major in expanding his idea of what "literature" was and exploring many authors besides traditional canonized white authors, he questioned the term "English" and its relation to "white language" as the way to encompass the work that English departments do. LaValle noted that "universities are just another system...and all systems take a lot longer to evolve than individuals do." They shared the importance of the work that Black Lives Matter is doing to raise awareness for racial justice and offered ideas about how the movement can continue during the pandemic. During the Q&A with Rion Scott, the panelists emphasized the role of artists in advancing racial justice. Kelley-Chung stated that "art forms culture and culture forms society," so artists have enormous opportunity and responsibility to advance equity. LaValle added that racism tries to erase the complexity of oppressed people in order to make it easier to oppress them, yet art can challenge those systems by humanizing those people. They also shared practices of self-care and artists that were inspiring them to continue their own work. More questions and discussions can be found using the hashtags #AntiracismUMD and #CLCS_UMD. Citations: Zita C. Nunes, “Why I Won’t Be Talking About Inclusion,” The Black Card Collective (14 July 2020). https://theblackcardcollective.org/wh... The 2nd Lt. Richard W. Collins III Foundation https://2ndltrwc3.org/ “Meanwhile: He is loved…Lt. Richard Collins, III.” https://theblackcardcollective.org/me... Julius B. Fleming, Jr., “Shattering Black Flesh: Black Intellectual Writing in the Age of Ferguson,” _American Literary History_, 28.4 (Winter 2016): 828–834. https://academic.oup.com/alh/article-...