joy as a tool
I love to transform rage into action.
I love to transform joy into action.
Today, let’s focus on joy, eh?!
Shannon Brags on William:
William and I spent a full 24-hours making art and trouble at Google Chicago with some seriously rad humans last winter. Everyone in Chicago knows William and his work. His art cart is mad famous and I can attest to the sheer joy his work and personality bring to everyone he comes in contact with.
About William (formal edition):
William Estrada is an arts educator and multidisciplinary artist. His art and teaching is a collaborative discourse that critically re-examines public and private spaces with people to engage in radical imagination. He has presented in various panels regarding community programming, arts integration, and social justice curricula. He is currently a Visual Arts Teacher at Telpochcalli Elementary and faculty at the School of Art and Art History at UIC. William is engaging in collaborative work with the Mobilize Creative Collaborative, Chicago ACT Collective, and Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative. His current research is focused on developing community based and culturally relevant projects that center power structures of race, economy, and cultural access in contested spaces that provide a space to collectively imagine just futures.
Today’s Inspiration:
What brings you joy?
How does that joy manifest in your body?
How is your joy converted into actions?
How do you share the joy you experience with other people close to you?
How can you share the joy you experience with people you may not know?
How do you create space for people to experience joy?
How can you gift joy to people you have cause harm to?
How can you gift joy anonymously to a group of people who may be experiencing violence?
How can you talk about sharing joy with people to heal harm?
How can we center joy as a resistance to historical violence toward groups of people?
How can you share acts of joy with people near and far every day?
Want to explore more?
ARTE WITH MAESTRO WILLIAM - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU0pM4M6pEd3HeEdxeBG0ig
IMAGINATION: CREATION, RESISTANCE, AND TOGETHERNESS - https://teachingartistsguild.org/quarterly_magazine/a-dangerous-imagination-creation-resistance-and-togetherness/
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE VULNERABLE - https://artsforillinois.org/posts/william-estrada
Connect with William:
www.werdmvmntstudios.com
www.facebook.com/mobilestreetartcart
www.animatestudio.org/mobilizecreative
www.chicagoactcollective.weebly.com
So lovely. Williams' essay on how to be vulnerable is exactly what I needed today. :)