Week 1: What is Resistance?

1. LECTURES/GROUP WORK

   1. Today will be an orientation and a chance for us to begin to get to know one another.

   2. Work in groups to consider what resistance means. Group work from today's activities can be found here.

2. PROJECTS

   1. Introduction to Project 1: People's History Posters

3. JOURNAL: Watch this video by Ebony Golden, until the 15:00 mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgsmYAHZSHg

   1. Now write about and reflect: Who are you? What identities do you hold? What ancestors do you bring with you to this work? These can be direct relations, and/or figures who inspire you in your purpose, work and study.

   2. Finally, create a short slideshow with visuals to share your responses, or add visual to your google doc, as a collage. It's your choice how you want to present yourself.

Week 2: Propaganda and Power

Due Today:

1. LISTEN: More Truth

2. WATCH: Climate Justice in Print AND The Urgency of Intersectionality

In Class:

1. LECTURES/GROUP WORK

   1. Movement Moment: Labor Day

   2. Individual Presentations: Introductory slideshows from Journal #1

   3. Group Presentations: What is Resistance? Slides to complement student presentations here.

   4. Introduction to Propaganda

2. PROJECTS: Introduction to Interview an Artistic Activist

3. JOURNAL: Power Flower. Create your own power flower, following the directions outlined here.

   1. Now reflect: Count how many of your petals are different from the dominant outer petals, which means you do not share those areas of power conferred by society. What light does this throw on the way you have been treated as a person of privilege or as a marginalized person? Which of these cannot be changed (for example, where you were born, your sex), and which ones could be changed (e.g. level of education)?

   2. Finally, consider how you are feeling after completing this activity. You can consider emotions (anger, sadness), feelings in your body (tightness of chest, heaviness in your stomach), intellectual reactions, or spiritual reactions. Make note of these feelings in your sketchbook using either words or visual means.

Week 3: Overt Resistance and Direct Action

Due Today:

• Project 1 - People's History Poster

• Read:

  1. Emergent Strategy, introduction

  2. Direct Action, Introduction

  3. Healing in Action

  4. Optional Reading: BUFU Pocket Guide

In Class

1. LECTURES/GROUP WORK

   1. Debrief about Power Flower journal. What came up for you while doing this activity? How does it relate to our study of art and resistance? Further recommended reading (not required):

      • Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad

      • 10 step guide to understanding Race and Racism

   2. Allyship Activity. What is Allyship? What feels complicated about allyship? Group discussion and brainstorm. Helpful resource about allyship here.

2. PROJECTS: Project 1 Presentations and Feedback, in small groups. We will use the Critical Response Process, outlined here

3. JOURNAL: Your Cultural Practice . What cultural practices sustain you and your community, in times of abundance and wellness, and/or in times of trauma and despair? (begin above linked video by Ebony Golden @ 15 min. Complete and post a written reflection based on this interactive lecture.)

Week 4: Installations and Occupations

Due Today

1. Draft of questions for Artist Interview project

2. Project 2 Sketches

3. Read:

   1. 2 items from Peace Camp Herstory Archive

   2. Making Space for Ourselves

   3. Choose one from the "further reading" section of Project 2

In Class

• 1. LECTURES/GROUP WORK

     1. Lecture on monuments - Google slides here, video here

     2. Reading discussion. In groups, discuss the main points of your article, whether you agree or disagree with their point of view on monuments, and the questions that your article about monuments raised.

     3. Based on Ada Pinkston's project, Landmarked, in small groups create a sketch for a Monument to All People.

  2. JOURNAL: Watch Mapping Roles Webinar. Based on the Mapping Our Roles tool, use the questions on pages 5-6 to reflect on which role, or roles, you think you could play in a social change eco-system (or, that you already see yourself as playing).

Week 5: Poetry, Music and Performance

Due Today

1. Artist Interview scheduled

2. Designs and progress for Project 2

3. Read:

   • Poetry is Not a Luxury by Audre Lorde

   • Read: The Beauty of Transformation

In Class

1. LECTURES/GROUP WORK

   1. Artist visit with Shodekeh, Towson University Innovator in Residence - video here, google doc with links here.

   2. Review project 2 sketches in small groups

2. JOURNAL: Igniting Feeling. What is your artform, and/or, what do you feel excited about and proficient in making? How can you imagine, or have you seen, your artform being employed to ignite the sense of feeling that Audre Lorde talks about in her essay? In your journal, respond to that question and take into account this quote: “For there are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt, of examining what our ideas really mean (feel like) on Sunday morning at 7 AM, after brunch, during wild love, making war, giving birth; while we suffer the old longings, battle the old warnings and fears of being silent and impotent and alone, while tasting our new possibilities and strengths." - Audre Lorde

Week 6: Internal Media and Publications

Due Today

1. Project 2: Monumental Intervention

2. Read

   1. How Sojourner Truth used Photography to Help End Slavery

   2. The Black Panther Party’s Publishing Strategy

   3. Zapatista Statement on Independent Media

In Class

1. LECTURES/GROUP WORK

   1. Discuss artist interviews

   2. Project 2 Presentations and Feedback.

   3. Introduction to Final Project: Design a Campaign

2. JOURNAL: What do "outsiders" often get wrong when they try to tell stories about you or your communities? If you were to tell a story about your community, what would you focus on and why? Think broadly about the idea of community and consider the groups you feel affinity towards, connections that you want to celebrate and nurture.

Week 7: Prefiguration and the Collective

Due Today

1. Initial brainstorm for final project.

   1. What are the issues that you are most interested in focusing on for this final? If you could create an artistic campaign for any cause, what would it be? Consider how your choice interacts with concepts we have discussed in class of dominant culture, and resistance to oppression

   2. What form of art would you like to make? What do you most enjoy creating and why? How might this form of art be supportive or useful to the issue area you want to focus on?

   3. What artistic strategies have you learned the most from, that you would like to try implementing yourself? Are there specific artists or projects that you were most inspired by?

2. Read:

   1. Direct Action, P 59-64

   2. Combahee River Collective Statement

   3. Manifesto on Tender Collaborative Work

In Class

1. LECTURES/GROUP WORK

   1. Honoring Indigenous People’s Day

   2. Reading discussion

   3. View: 19:40-29:50, Library of Congress interview with Betty Garman Robinson. Betty was a local leader and activist involved with social justice work since her involvement with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 60s.

   4. Learn more about the Zapatista movement by exploring this webpage and watching both videos.

2. JOURNAL: Read White Supremacy Culture. Bear in mind that many of the values talked about are ones that people of any race or background can reinforce. Reflect on your own experiences. How did it feel to read this article? Have you ever recognized any of these characteristics when working with groups of people? Have you ever consciously or unconsciously resisted any of these characteristics when working in groups? Any other reflections after taking in this information?

Week 8: Designing a Campaign

Due Today

1. 1. Round 2 Brainstorm on the final project.

   2. Artist Interviews posted

   3. Read/Listen

      1. Action Strategy

      2. Lessons from the AIDS fight

In Class

1. LECTURES/GROUP WORK

   1. Campaign design workshop. Handout from today is here.

   2. Go over plans for Artist Interview Presentations, beginning next week

2. JOURNAL: For today's journal, complete your brainstorming process from our campaign design activity, and post the results. Bear in mind you can post pages from your sketchbook, photos of big chart paper, a google jamboard, or a google doc - whatever style fits your way of thinking and working.

3. BONUS / EXTRA CREDIT: Review the BUFU Pocket Guide. Journal: Assessing risk. In planning a direct action or artistic intervention, it's important to be clear about the level of risk you feel comfortable engaging with. Based on this week's readings, the BUFU guide, and looking all the way back at your journal about Mapping Your Roles, think about the level of risk you feel comfortable with. How do you feel about marching? Do you prefer to be behind the scenes? If you want to march, what do you think about speaking? What about interfacing with police or other authorities? Depending on what role you feel comfortable taking, what safety precautions seem important to you? What will you do to check in and take care of yourself while protesting or serving in the role you outlined for yourself?

Week 9: Cultural Organizing

Due Today

1. Read:

   1. What is Cultural Organizing?

   2. What is an Arpillera? + About About the Women

   3. The Sewing Rebellion by Lisa Vinebaum

In Class

1. LECTURES/GROUP WORK

   1. Reading discussion and reflection to first day

   2. Artist Interview Presentations, Rd 2

2. JOURNAL: Ways to Sustain Yourself. Activism can be hard work. As you have likely learned through your interviews and other accounts from activists over this semester, burnout is common. What are some ways you can and will sustain yourself while doing activist work? How can you take care of yourself so that you can stay engaged in activism over a period of time?

Week 10: Imagining the Future

Due Today

1. Read/Listen:

   1. Emergent Strategy, P 151-165 (attached)

   2. We are the Future

   3. Ch 6, from Compañeras

In Class

1. LECTURES/GROUP WORK

   1. Discuss readings

   2. Dreaming of the future, a workshop

2. JOURNAL: What is the world you are fighting for? Imagine it. Bring it to your mind. Create a visual representation - a collage or draw a picture based on what immediately comes to your mind when asked this question. What is your vision of how the world can and should be? How will your artwork and organizing efforts contribute to creating that world?

Week 11: Final Presentations

Due Today

1. Final Projects

In Class

1. LECTURES/GROUP WORK:

   1. Final Presentations

2. FINAL JOURNAL, look back and read through all of your journals from this semester. What has this journey been for you? What have you learned about yourself and the role you want your art to play in organizing for social justice? What are you still curious to learn more about? How have you evolved?