Week 2 Blog Response - Paul Druta

In these assigned readings, we begin to get a glimpse of the role of art-making practices within social movements. Maylei Blackwell touches upon this in Chapter 2 of Chicana Power!:  Contested Histories of Feminism in the Chicano Movement, in which she describes the various rap groups associated with Chicana feminist groups. The influence and presence of young Chicana feminist groups often emerged on college campuses from the formation study groups and rap groups. Corinne Sanchez described the significance of these rap collectives: "She [NietoGomez] just started bringing rap groups together, and that was real popular then. It grew to a very powerful group in the sense that we were being heard more than the men outside Long Beach State. It's not that we started off as a rap group; it just evolved from our involvement" (83-84). Similarly, in Alice Bag's video for "White Justice", we can also see how art-making can be used as a powerful tool for social movements. Bag manages to take the frustration from her experiences at the Chicano Moratorium and channel her emotions into a song that criticizes the hypocrisy of "white justice" and its associated institutions. Art-making is so useful for social movements because it presents experiences in a digestible way that allows people to understand the motivation and the need for change. Bag’s emotional vocals and impassioned lyrics puts a face to the movement in a way that written documents or manifestos simply cannot; art-making is the spirit of a social movement.