Fireside Chat

The fireside chat was the first time I allowed myself to create a piece of art that was not just trying to communicate a message, but was actually therapeutic for me. When I found out about the loss of Jason's Dad this winter, together with the horrible news about his parents being convicted, I honestly did not know how to deal with it. I talked a lot with family and friends, but I wasn't able to make sense of it. When I finally decided to focus my fireside chat around it, it forced me to make meaning of it, and examine what I am learning from the experience, and it was one of the most meaningful things that has happened to me this semester.
My initial idea was to write a poem about it, and perform the poem in SLAM style, but as I tried to write the words down, it felt way too mechanical. Instead I decided to pull from The Moth podcast, one of the broadcasts I admire most on the web right now, and tell the story without notes or memorization, just from my heart. I had the idea of using masks a while back, but decided to use paint as the theme of repentance became a more concrete idea in my head. What I found was interesting was that even though I did not write down what I was going to say, the more I practiced it aloud I formulated what would be most meaningful and true to myself. I developed a new form of writing as I did so, where instead of writing down actual words, I repeat a theme to myself so many times that I slowly flesh out what is most meaningful and in what order the words should be presented. Max provided the perfect backdrop to the entire piece on his guitar, and I felt that it was overall very successful.
I was amazed with how transformative this experience was for our class. It was the culmination of all of the themes that we had talked about throughout the semester. I saw the strengths of medium specificity and game for change, together with the Power of a Single story, the elegant corpse, and exercises in empathy. By the end of the night, I felt I had not only seen great art, but that my level of understanding and love for my classmates had increased immensely. No art piece has ever done that so distinctly for me, and I cannot wait to reproduce this experience with an even wider array of people who I will then come to better understand.
As I said before, the transformation was also in me. I finally feel content about this event in my life, and I know now at least a few things that I have learned from it. In the future, I am sure that I will continue to learn from it. But at least for now it is healing, and I am satisfied. The power of art has become a real force in my life, allowing me to access the atonement. This project helped open my eyes to a whole other realm of spiritually that I have barely explored.