Prince’s Urban Stations

Steve Prince’s Urban Station is a contextualized narrative that tells a contemporary story of the Holy God and how he helps us to recognize when we need each other when someone may be down. In each station the story of a man who has been falsely accused is told, and in each image we see a symbol of the church in different ways, one way being the cross.  Each station tells a story that, Prince explicitly explains in context to the image. He sometimes only using one line that helps to invoke thought to how text and image connect. It is his hope that we understand how prayer is deeply embedded in our daily lives inspiring us to act. There are 14 station in total in this piece.   

 

Urban Stations by Steve Prince

Urban Station 1

Space

Spacial awareness is a skill I have not yet  mastered. Living in, Bronx, New York, in a neighborhood with people, who for the most part look like me, never led me to ask myself about how I took up space.

But what do I mean, when I talk about “taking up space?” Do I mean the fundamental physicalities of one’s body being in a particular environment? Do I mean the presence, impact and influence that someone leaves on their community, their society? Could I mean both?  When I think about how I take up space now, I am more aware of my mannerisms, my choice to speak in certain environments, how much room I create for others, and what influences I place on the world outside of me.

The dance lecture from Dr. Broomfield paired with Professor Amanda Roth’s Philosophy of Women’s course had helped me to ask myself how do I take up space as an African American young women. These experiences have made me reflect on how personal themes connect to the work and artwork of Steve Prince, a  printmaker, educator and evangelist from New Orleans, Louisiana, and the man of subject in the INTD 288 class marked The Art of Steve Prince.

When Steve Prince came on residency to Geneseo it was clear that he was a man who took up as much as he could, and to add, he felt comfortable in that space. Me however not so much. For instance I constantly contemplate my position in this secondary institution. Being in a class or social setting where I am constantly second guessing the words that I am using in order to explain myself is exhausting, but it’s what i’ve been doing my entire life to some degree . There is always that doubt of not being competent or not having a certain “level” of competence as my peers.

As an African American college student, in a school that is predominately white there is a lot of unfamiliarity that makes me uncomfortable at times. There are moments when I notice i’m the only African American person in a room, or  when in a meeting, or in a group. Race is the first difference that I notice but why is that? Why don’t I feel comfortable in certain spaces. Why do I create more space for others and allow myself to me shrunken down. When discussed in the context of both classes, we talk about the internalization and the teachings of subordination. In my philosophy class we had an introduction to the patriarchal world that has manifested itself into American society, it has also lead women to be at the feet of and to upmost practice the passive individual.

Growing up as a black young woman in a patriarchal society, where at the top white men rest, is something that I have well been aware of to an extent.

    Growing up as child I had not fantasized about being a white person for no reason, I had done so because they were the ones in the magazines, on tv, and in person were the ones seen as beautiful, intelligent, and desirable. But if women were at the bottom of patriarchy, then where does that leave other groups who are non-white and why would I want to be a cog in such a machine? Why would I want to take up that societal space?.

Young women are  trained to take up less space. African Americans were  told to be nonexistent, i.e. to not be seen when company comes but do the work anyways. So where does that leave the African American women and every intersectional group that has been excluded from this narrative of demand, command, and power?  

I enjoy the artworks of Steve Prince because he is able to address the lasting influences of such a system and the unjust, subordinating spaces in which African Americans are forced to fill . For instance Prince’s piece  “Nine Little Indians” tells a story of the Little Rock 9 a reference to to the 9 African American children in 1957 Arkansas, who integrated the public school system. Generally speaking, school systems now are a result of the effort to push integration and diversity by many before us. This lack exposure of one group of people to another, and because of historical context, specifically segregation, slavery, all of these important aspects have and still influence the modern world we see now. Those events are the reasons why i’m the only African American in room full of 30.  Of why sometimes I choose to give more room to others, and play to the nonexistent role.

Beyond all the horrible institutional and patriarchal systems, there is still a choice in which I am given, where I have to be forceful and willing to disrupt the cycle.  Attending SUNY Geneseo, a predominantly white institution (PWI), has given me the opportunity to actively exercise that ability to stir change . Being here I plan to start taking up as much space as I can. I want to work on breaking the stifling cycles of the past, and recognizing that it can only be accomplished by talking about the world, and working against those factors meant to suppress, To continue resisting, and fighting.

 

Striking A Pose

On April 1st, my class The Art of Steve Prince had a guest Professor, Mark Broomfield who teaches dancing. Although he did teach us all how to dance, his primary lesson focused on how we as a society apply gender roles to movements and poses. He separated us into groups and had us come up with two dance moves; a feminine one and a masculine one. We performed our collective moves and he then asked us what made our moves feminine and masculine. He talked about how we assign these gender roles to body movements, but ultimately they are just movement that anyone can make regardless of what gender they identify with. He then asked us to counteract our original gender assignments to the dance moves. Each group came up with different solutions-mine perform both moves at the same time to make them appear unisex.

During the exercise, I was reminded of my experience in the world of cosplay, as a comic book fan. It is probably already a bit obvious even to those who don’t read comics, but women are extremely sexualized and objectified in the comic book industry. Throughout comic book history, female superheroes are often either drawn in positions of vulnerability on cover art, or are meant to be striking a powerful pose, but the attention is drawn to their boobs and butts, negating their power. This isn’t an ancient practice either, as recent as this year a comic run “Heroes in Crisis,” from DC came out with a panel in which Batgirl is showing a scar on her lower back. Except, the scar isn’t the primary focus of the illustration, her butt is.

Many have argued that male characters are just as sexualized but the argument is simply ridiculous. Male characters are drawn to look attractive yes, but when Batman is captured by the Joker, we don’t get cover art of him in a cage crying, facing ass up. We get cover art of him looking angry, in chains. Male characters are never drawn in positions that make them look inherently weak, but women are generally either drawn to look  weak or drawn to look sexy, or both at the same time.

As bleak as the comic book industry is, there is a silver lining. The extreme exploitation of women within the industry does not often carry over to the world of cosplay. I was reminded in class of the poses I use when being photographed. Many are not necessarily unfeminine, but they are all meant to make my character look powerful. The picture above is my go-to pose for Zatanna, a magician hero, me casting a spell.

There is of course the famous Wonder Woman pose, which is a staple in any female cosplayer’s lineup. It is a stance that radiates power, shoulders back, fists on hips, legs apart. There is a considerable amount of push back on gender stereotypes within the cosplay community and I hope as time goes on, the world of comic books will improve as well.

In class that day, I really saw the both/and when looking at the gendered body movements in dancing, and cosplay. I really appreciated that we all tried to defy and push back against these made up roles, and I really appreciate Professor Broomfield for teaching us. Dancing is such a joyous act and it was great to find a way to address things like gender roles through something that still brought happiness to everyone.

Collaboration

Among the most powerful abilities humans have exists the teamwork, community, and collaboration. When people come to work together, they both produce a sufficient result and in the process of that result, experience the wonders of teamwork, developing their collaborative and individual skills and often building fantastic bonds.

While individuals are certainly able to function to their best ability through their own endeavor and hard work, there are limitations present in the ability of a single person. Teamwork is beneficial in terms of its efficiency and also in the subsequent removal of stress when one can rely on another. There are several complications that may arise in an individual’s attempt to complete daily work, especially in the attempt to manage all of their course load in an often-stressful environment like a college campus. Collaboration is an answer. Continue reading “Collaboration”

A Needed Self-Confidence Boost

As I start writing my last official blog post of the semester, I wanted to take this opportunity to share how this class impacted my confidence not only as a writer but an intellectual. Before this class, my confidence as a writer had dropped significantly. But because of this class, I was able to rediscover my writing confidence.

I had previously had a not-so-great semester in the fall, so I was hesitant to have to start blogging again. I was scared my writing wasn’t going to be as skilled as others. I shortly discovered, however, this class was not like my previous class with Doctor McCoy. Since the class was an interdisciplinary course, there were many non-english major students who were feeling the same way as I was intimidated.

After the first few classes, I engaged in many conversations with others about how they were nervous to blog as well. Because of that, I was able to gain some of my confidence back because I realized I wasn’t alone.

Throughout the class, I became confident in my writing again & I am truly thankful I decided to enroll in this course, even if it was scary at first.

Once Again We Must Address Consent…

What legitimizes a group of people who feel they have been done an injustice on the part of another person or group of people? This question has been circulating around in my mind all week considering the recent events that have taken place on campus and the way that they have been handled or addressed by some of the faculty here. Do people reserve the right to decide when someone else has hurt them? We talk a lot about consent in this class and what the standards of consent are, but I am beginning to realize that people struggle with understanding the nature of consent and how, in my opinion, it should be applied to society. Continue reading “Once Again We Must Address Consent…”

Folk Digest

I enjoy folk music, but my enjoyment wasn’t fully contextualized until I took Music and Ideas: Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger with Jim Kimball last fall. The class gave roots to Folk’s heritage in Sorrow/Freedom Songs as well as its place in labor and social movements. I’d been aware of the movement songs in the Civil Rights movement and in labor movements and this class really connected disciplines of organizing and music.  Continue reading “Folk Digest”

Sex Work is not a Crutch: How Big Machine Falls Short

The first time I thought about writing this blog post was after the reading of “The Resistance: An Adele Henry Adventure.”  I held myself back though, because I knew that my immediate response would likely be too passionate and uncontained. I also wanted to give Big Machine and LaValle a chance at redemption.  I was unfortunately disappointed. Continue reading “Sex Work is not a Crutch: How Big Machine Falls Short”

Institutions

While looking through my classmates’ blog posts, one that really stood out to me was Maria Papas’s blog post “How Do Institutions Fail You?”. I liked her post because in class, a topic of discussion I found very interesting was the topic of institutions and whether or not any institution can be trusted. In her post she provided examples of quotes from different peers about what it means when an institution has failed them and it was very interesting to see different peoples’ perspectives. Continue reading “Institutions”