Critical Social Justice (CSJ): Rise began outside the confines of a lecture hall last week, bringing the mission directly to the streets of UMBC. During the kickoff event, Chalking for Change, students answered the question “What do you rise for?” with familiar words – equality, inclusion, respect, tolerance, and other personal credos – that told a visual story of empowerment spanning Academic Row.

Now in its fifth year, CSJ is designed to encourage the public to think more closely about Critical Social Justice. Sponsored by the Women’s Center, The Mosaic Center for Culture and Diversity, and 18 additional co-sponsors, the week-long series offers a range of opportunities to explore individual and collaborative instances of resistance and resilience.

“Our attempt was to flip the script since these types of events are usually panels of speakers telling you what to think,” explains Jess Myers, director of The Women’s Center. “We wanted to use Chalking for Change as a way to allow for more dialogue and to break down the hierarchy of who gets to talk about what they care about and what they’re rising for.”

One of the most compelling events of the week was speaker Adrienne Keene’s keynote lecture, “Native Appropriations, Indigenous Social Media, and Responding to Racism.”  Keene opened her dynamic speech by displaying the results of a web image search for the term “Native American.” The search yielded repetitive images of historic photos or paintings that predominantly featured men bedecked in war regalia.

“There are 567 different federally recognized tribes and hundreds more state-recognized and non-federally recognized tribes, and each of those tribes has their own culture, their own regalia, their own language, their own history, their own government and that vast diversity and complexity is nowhere in this set of images,” Keene said in reference to the largely uniform results.

The Native scholar and activist addressed a standing-room-only audience about the ramifications of appropriating Native culture for entertainment purposes, in everything from runway fashion to athletic mascots. As a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Keene stressed, “If I’m standing up here saying these are the things that make me a Cherokee woman, and you can go and buy all of those things at Target and Urban Outfitters, it starts to erode that ability for me to say those cultural markers make me who I am.”

In closing, Keene left the audience with a charge, saying, “UMBC really prides itself on being one of the most diverse campuses in the country and that’s amazing, but I want you to really think about what that means if it doesn’t include the original inhabitants of this land.”

During CSJ, The Women’s Center also invited survivors and secondary survivors to a quilt making workshop to create pieces for addition to the Monument Quilt, a public demonstration of stories from sexual violence survivors and their loved ones and supporters. The ultimate goal of the Monument Quilt is to blanket the National Mall with 6,000 squares that will spell out “Not Alone.” Moderators also used this time to address the #MeToo movement on social media, and gave many individuals the opportunity to speak about it in person for the first time.

The week culminated in the annual Baltimore Walking Tour with Kate Drabinski, senior lecturer in gender and women’s studies. Participants started their walk at the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Pratt Street and continued to the Inner Harbor, stopping at various sites of resistance and resilience along the way. The tour focused heavily on transit and the effects it has on shaping communities.

“It’s really important for CSJ to not just be these ivory tower conversations. We have to be thinking about the ways that we do social justice as an institution and as a community within Baltimore,” Myers explained. “What’s important to remember about Critical Social Justice is that it’s not just supposed to be five days. What we really hope is that it can create springboards or open doors for people to think about Critical Social Justice all the time.”

To learn more about Critical Social Justice, visit the Critical Social Justice blog.

Banner image: Members of the UMBC community share their input during a workshop facilitated by Adrienne Keene. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC. Additional photos provided by UMBC Women’s Center.

Students, faculty and visitors alike were exposed to many types of music during the multi-day festival, Livewire 8: Asian Music in America festival, which featured guest composers P.Q  Phan and Washington Samulnori. This showcase highlighted different facets of Asian culture through the rhythmic, sporadic notes of their instruments. This is the eighth year the campus has held Livewire.

Livewire 8 is organized by the Department of Music, and was located in the Performing Arts and Humanities building. The Linehan Concert Hall and the Music Box are both ideal environments for festivals like Livewire 8. The music that was performed has cultural connections to Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and China.

Majority of the events were held in the newly named Linehan hall. Both faculty and students, along with the Rukus contemporary faculty music ensemble, got the chance to perform their pieces to an open audience. The sounds of trumpets, clarinets and violins echoed off the walls in the room.

Ten accomplished composers were the center of this festival, including Shih-Hui Chen, Kyong Mee Choi, Mandy Fang, Hitomi Kaneko, Liza Lim, Toshiro Mayuzumi, Tokuhide Niimi.

The energy on the stage was clear. All of the musicians were extremely passionate about the pieces they were performing.

Phan speaks on his inspiration for one of his pieces, Rock Blood. “At times I could hear my blood streams rocking through my veins, finding their ways inside my body.”

Music lovers from all backgrounds likely appreciate the hard work and skill it takes to learn music of a different style. For many, it was an eye-opening experience to hear the unique sounds of ancient folk and contemporary music.

Being on such a diverse campus, it should be important that all cultures are recognized. This festival did just that. The performers got the chance to use their musical instruments to voice the stories they wanted to tell.

Audience member, Chizitere Odidika, a junior communications and technology major, shared her opinion of the show. “I really felt like individually the notes were discordant, but together they meshed into a beautiful symphony of sound. I thoroughly enjoyed the performances.”

Odidika also touched on how the performances were different than what she first expected. “Once hearing the music, I realized how little I actually knew about music from Asian cultures. It was cool being able to learn something new.”

Many of the performers in attendance this weekend have traveled all over the world to share their talent. The guest composer, Phan, came to the States from Vietnam in 1982, and since then has traveled all over the country winning awards for his contemporary classical music.

The Livewire 8 festival is only one example of the many culturally diverse and inclusive events held on campus. In September, over a dozen cultural and ethnic student organizations came together to celebrate their culture with food, fashion and dance.