Sariah's Q&A Blog (LAS 220)

Post 7: For the first part of this post, I will be discussing the importance of the mental health hospital "El Borda". This hospital, located in Buenos Aires, Argentina is doing incredible things for their patients. They allow their patients to paint murals, create art, music, performances, radio shows, and more. They created a safe space for all of their patients to express themselves in many ways. I think this is what is lacking in most mental health and rehab facilities today. People need an outlet for creativity, a distraction from their own brain.  To add a sense of creativity to the hospital, There are several murals outside that the patients painted and the one that stuck out to me, was the one that reads, "it was always a center for the socially disappeared. Today we want it to be a space for active memory of art, culture and mental health". This mural is amazing because it explains exactly what the mental health hospital fosters with their creative...

Day 6: The documentary "Bomb it" is an in-depth look at the cultural memory an heritage that comes along with street art, specifically graffiti. The documentary starts out with some artists talking about their experiences with street art and how they got into it. This is very interesting because many of the people sacrifice quite a bit to go into street art, it is a risk. So I think that adds to the importance of it all for them. The fact that it is considered a forbidden activity makes it more appealing to them, and they refuse to be oppressed by the more police and powerful "privileged" people. They feel that it is important to share their cultural message with the city in which they reside. There was one African-American artist that has been arrested several times because of his street art, he even tagged an elephant at a zoo once (which obviously got him into a lot of trouble). The artists are all in different situations though, and that shapes their art. One...

Day Five: The hip hop group,  Calle 13 is extremely influential in the hip-hop world in Puerto Rico. The artist, Residente, raps about the political issues that have taken place in the past, in Puerto Rico. He an activist for the community of Puerto Rico, very proud of his people and heritage. And the songs he wrote have been an integral part of the issues of memory and identity. Especially, the songs "Latinoamerica" and "Quierdo F.B.I", which are very different songs, but they both talk about similar issues of memory.  In the article that we read for class by Ivan Bomfim, the author talks about all the important elements of memory and identity that are communicated through Calle 13's music. They do this by "constituting knowledge" and cultural memory to their audience. They are also creating a sense of community so the people feel strong and powerful in the face of poverty and marginalization.  We talked in class today about hip-hop music a...

Day 4: My previous blog post was about the hip-hop duo "Rebel Diaz", and how they were going to be putting on a workshop and concert on Friday, for our class at Furman. Although we got a heads up and a little bit of information about this visit. I didn't know what to expect from these radical leftist rappers! I love what they are doing for our world, but the unknown of it all made me more nervous about the workshop, especially. But it was wonderful, they were such amazing guys. They described all the roots of hip-hop and how important it is them, and that was probably the best part of it all. They were so incredibly passionate and caring. The thing that surprised me the most was that they still live in the Bronx even as successful musicians. I got the vibe from them that no matter how much money they make, they will always make an effort to live humbly, with the people they love in the community.  Rebel Diaz made it a point to include in the concert and the workshop,...

Day 3: Rebel Diaz is a hip-hop group that is visiting Furman today! They are a radical leftist group that advocates for the marginalized people and poorer areas in America. This group also strives to tear down capitalism and the people in power with the messages in their music; They hope to lift people up who are being marginalized. The class is participating in a workshop with Rebel Diaz today, and we will be able to talk to them and ask questions about their journey with political activism through their music, and what it means to them. As I was looking up information about the group, looking at articles and videos, I came across a video interview from 2010, where the interviewer's first question was "what topics do you feel are most important right now? What is the main message that you want to send out with your music?". RodStarz immediately chimed in, saying the big topics that they like to talk about is land, and their peoples land being taken away and displace...

Day 2:   The first reading, "La Nueva Canción and Its Significance" by J. Patrice McSherry, starts by describing the political, social and economic hardships that the Chilean people experienced before La Nueva Canción or the New Song, emerged. In the midst of its uprising, there were many changes happen in Chile among the people. For example, music (by young musicians) began to speak about important issues that the people were facing. Women 30% less then males in the same jobs, lower class people had no job security or opportunities, there were harsh, tyrannical managers running businesses, and on top of all that economic hardship, the air quality was getting worse and worse due to cotton dust. Therefore, the music gave the people an outlet to feel connected to the change that was beginning to take place. The Chilean New Song music was a mixture of folk rhythms and Latin American instruments. It also involved modern and complex harmonization, and some dissonance to provide...

Day One:   Performing Memory in Latin American was a very enriching experience for me! We started by getting to know each other a little bit. Then we started talking about the logistics of the class, and what was expected of us throughout the time we have together. It was a very informal, laid back atmosphere, which I enjoyed very much because it helped me get settled in quicker.  After that, we started to discuss the reading that we were assigned for class. The first reading that we discussed was by Jorge Luis Borges. This reading was a short story about a man names Funes, a man whom Borges knew personally, and who influenced Borges to write this story. Funes' story was very engaging and interesting. Funes was a young man who was injured at a very young age and became paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life. Although, Funes had a very unique set of memories that were perfectly sound, and very detailed. But, he could never tell how those memories made hi...