My fellow late departures,
How are all of you?? I am excited to hopefully hear from some of you in the comments section about reactions to this post/more ideas about community building.
I thought about community building, in relation to the JVC covenant, in two different ways: within our JV community and with the community we serve.
Watch these videos first: (If you just watch the first one, that would be fine, but watching them all gives you the full context of the artist's story)
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWE2T8Bx5d8
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_VstiM5NOI
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAvNHSmk9vI
I chose this video, even though it has very little to do with Nicaragua or any other country we are headed to with the JVC. Faviana Rodriguez is an artist/activist/teacher/public speaker (aka an extraordinary woman) who speaks out against hate rhetoric and unfair legislation against migration and immigration.
She uses the Monarch butterfly as a symbol for the inherent dignity and beauty found in every person, but especially in poorly treated migrants in the USA. She represents her community and builds up their self-esteem and rights. We might not necessarily be doing amazing things like Faviana, but we should seek out and support women and men like her in our communities where we will be serving. Whatever their medium is (i.e. art, music, drama, education, etc.), I think we should stand in solidarity with the helpers and advocates in the communities we serve.
The videos are incredibly interesting. Watch them!
Con cariño,
Maddie
Yay! Thanks for sharing that awesome story, Maddie. Here are my thoughts:
ReplyDeleteI just finished watching the first video and can’t help but to think back to orientation and more specifically of the activity that asked us to define ourselves (student, sister, writer, activist…etc). I found a connection between that activity and the video when Faviana explained that over the past couple of years, undocumented young people are starting to identify with and label themselves with the term “undocumented”. In the context of community, I think this is a really bold move. In order to be a cohesive part of the community, they (this group of young people/activists) have purposefully accepted the label as the “other” to eliminate the mere existence of the “other.” How we decide to define ourselves has a lot of implications, but it also has a lot of potential to build a unified and diverse community. Our identities, our roles as, dare I say the word, “missionaries” separates us from the larger community, but perhaps that initial separation is what comes before unification, before mutual understanding, before friendship, before the budding of authentic community. We must rethink and perhaps reconsider the way we identify ourselves because in some respect, language is what defines us before action and before character. I think we must carefully choose the words that define us because they have the capacity to make all the difference.
Maddie- Thanks for posting such thought-provoking videos!
ReplyDeleteErin- Great insight! I like how you tied it back to JVC orientation. Good stuff :)
Hope you all are doing well!
Mad - Thanks for sharing these vids! I had not seen them before and I love all the artwork! So cool. I also appreciated that you chose a topic and had us look at it through the lens of community. Obviously there are so many ways to view/analyze/learn about/criticize/etc topics that have many facets to them, and it's easy to get stuck in one sort of viewpoint, so I think giving people a positive lens to view multifaceted topics through is helpful for all sides, especially topics as controversial (unfortunately) as immigration.
ReplyDeleteErin - I really liked your reflection: "In order to be a cohesive part of the community, they (this group of young people/activists) have purposefully accepted the label as the “other” to eliminate the mere existence of the “other.”" I was thinking this same thing after watching, but didn't know how to articulate it and then I read your comment and it was perfect!