Art as a Weapon @ Gage Gallery

Students in the Poetic Justice course visited Gage Gallery to view the Nowhere People: The Children exhibit. The students drew inspiration from the photographs in the exhibit to write an ekphrastic poem and a persona poem. In this Humanities Elective course, students have been pursuing the guiding question, How may poetry be a tool for political reform?. In their pursuit of an answer, they have been studying, analyzing, and critiquing political poetry from a range of poets discussing local and global issues.  As a part of their investigation, they examined the photographs of Greg Constantine and investigated how photography as an art-form can tell the stories of those unspoken for.

The Nowhere People exhibit at Gage Gallery at Roosevelt University documents and tells the stories of stateless people from around the world. Michael Ensdorf, the founder and director of Gage Gallery gave us insight into the importance of this exhibit in promoting social and political change. Armed with some background on statelessness and the photographer, the students examined the photographs in the gallery and wrote poems based on the stories of the people presented in the photographs.

Why?

The purpose of this Field Experience is to investigate the guiding question, What is the relationship between political movements and art?. The students examined the photographs in the Nowhere People exhibit and talked to the gallery director to better understand the role of the artist in politics.

How?

The students will examine the photographs and write poetry inspired by the stories of the people depicted.