Seek the Truth
by Yugen
Fardan Rashad |
 |
Let’s talk about art as an expression in the metropolis. Art communicates the values of a community, and the pursuit of a common voice. Perhaps most importantly, the desire everyone is represented, and has access to and participates in community life and its resources, without resistance or barrier.
One very popular branding of art is the slogan “Keep Portland Weird.” You find the car bumper sticker everywhere. This niche message rides the wave of popularity and is a regional icon. A great example the role art can play to identify community values.
Art of the kind represented by the slogan is meant to convey light-hearted fun, and that people here are open-minded and free-wheeling.
At eye level the slogan touches a funny bone, and promotes acceptability. But when narrowly interpreted, not all segments of the population experiences the term the same way. The question is whether the term promotes a participatory artistic expression that’s inclusionary, and cuts across place, health, race, and economic inequities and difference.
For some of us the slogan intones an apathy and selectivity about shared experience and world view. Consequently, the niche audience for this type of artistic expression ironically mirrors mores similar to the gentrification crowd. In other words, Keep Portland Weird as a brand emerges from a sensibility and life style in Portland that moves away from social justice issues impactful to minority populations. A crowd beholding to a laissez-faire attitude, more interested in sky, bikes, scaling mountains, and walking dogs (nothing wrong pet ownership), then in activism and equitable access.
One day I was walking in the AM, and just ahead were two white women trotting with their dog. No, they didn’t make eye contact, nor speak. Yes – maybe no big deal. However, I thought, how irresponsible. This is the apathy, and innocence people defend. Why with the problems we have about perceptions of each other perhaps we need to speak to each other, out of our comfort zones. I expect to, and do it.
Secondly, we have the arrival of the new Farmers Market in Northeast Portland (Northeast 7th at Wygant between NE Alberta and Prescott). This is an area of town with a heavy concentration of black people that can benefit from healthier choices such as fresh fruits and veggies. Access to a farmers market is ideal.
Now, imagine arriving to the market to the sound of hillbilly, or C&W music. I like it but not every black person listens to it. So, you don’t come into an historic black community, adjacent to Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School, and not represent some diversity in your music offering. Lesson learned?
Additionally, some education and sensitivity is needed around the issue of immigrant workers that plant, grow, and harvest the crops; workers rights, and affordable pricing for fresh fruits and veggies.
Given the aesthetic tone inherent whenever white-owned business arrives in this part of town given the history, an effort must be made to be culturally-relevant. Keeping Portland Weird is metaphor, but Keeping Portland Real, comes closer to where we are as a society.
Art for the sake of art – we don’t have that luxury. Breaking away from a laissez-faire attitude is critical to obtaining diversity goals. Yes, doing nothing is an option and, yes - art doesn’t necessarily have to address social inequities.
My argument is that Keeping Portland Weird contradicts the idea we should be able to laugh at our selves because not everybody is laughing, or understands the joke.
You might say “that’s getting a lot of bang” for a simple slogan. But people need to Keep Portland Real and move to create a special place, a shared value for everyone. ‘Portland Weird’ is too vague yet its popularity reveals a nuance and subtlety that says ‘leave us alone’. The storyline here is Keeping Portland Weird as art is a utility that celebrates a branding unaffected by the throes of social inequities experienced by some, and prioritizes the normalization of bike lanes, walk dogs, or crawling mountain sides this weekend, which isn’t the point.
Bike and hiking trails are fine. But the habit of walling out other concerns, or to remain in an apathetic state of mind says the hell with the rest of the community, keep us alienated from people and place.
These same concerns were consigned to earlier times and generations that concluded mainstream ideas were more prescriptive, and anecdotal. The crowd must become more actively involved and equally concerned about people as about pets - Support a community-based organization that does address food security, health disparities, and access to fresh fruits, veggies, prevention and education.
And the process must remain intentional. When time is taken to assess scale, standards, and functionality to determine if art and music create community, we’re all better for it.
Secondly, only an analytic approach will reveal the need to nurture beyond our immediate environs. This is art at its highest expression - heart to art, as one community:
There is another bumper sticker out there – Art Saves Lives. Now, what the heck does this mean?
Yugen Fardan Rashad’s writings deal with culture, aesthetics and spirituality. His topics, opinions and insights pay homage to the scholarly search for truth, which leads to personal responsibility and preservation of community life.
