Louie Praseuth, Hip hop Dance, Rainier Beach neighborhood (Seattle, WA)
I conducted the interview with Louie at Emerald City Bible Fellowship (ECBF), where he is the youth pastor. ECBF is host to para-church organization Urban Impact Seattle where I originally met Louie two years ago when we worked on a youth team together. ECBF youth night is focused on youth having a voice and platform for music, dance and poetry/spoken word. Louie always knew he loved drawing and imagining other worlds and described high school as a place where he was connected academically but found music and dance to be a space where he could actually express himself. He was drawn to the story that hip hop music and culture portrayed. Louie praises God for the experiences he has had with dance and knows that giving God the glory early on gave him the opportunity to perform on the world stage. He has been dancing for 20 years and has toured many parts of the world as what he called “ a starving artist mentality “ where he would either receive a contract for free housing, clothes or be receiving a payment. He and his wife, May, have developed and run a non-profit called Good Foot that trains youth artists in the disciplines of photography, design and dance. Recently, he took 9 community members (youth and leaders) to South Korea where they did hip hop performances and presented the gospel in schools and community centers. As a young person he described himself Additionally, they revamped a forgotten house behind the church parking lot and turned it into an art house, where there is a dance studio and a few other arts-based studios. Louie describes this community as a development of learning and growing with the community and allowing yourself to be known by people. He found himself touring and appearing on MTV and telling people about his faith and decided he could do that as a youth pastor at ECBF. His experience of navigating cultures gave him the lens he has for the Rainier Valley as a multi-cultural atmosphere and environment. There’s a lot of hardness too for Louie, he explained that they have lost 5 youth in his time of being youth pastor, which allows him to further cultivate a platform for healing through art at church and in the community.
My analysis of this interview is that Louie is an agape artist as well as a visionary activist. He is someone who implements arts programming and encourages young artists to develop their skills as well as gives them a platform to do so. Additionally, Louie has the skill and tenacity to make large scale arts activities happen such as his trip to Korea with 9 artists and through his non profit, Good Foot. This directly relates to the idea of Agape artists seeking to “bring about holistic personal transformation that includes behavioral change, spiritual development, physical well-being, and personal, family, and social responsibility through healthy relationships ub the community at large.” (Corbitt, Nix-Early p. 105)
My analysis of this interview is that Louie is an agape artist as well as a visionary activist. He is someone who implements arts programming and encourages young artists to develop their skills as well as gives them a platform to do so. Additionally, Louie has the skill and tenacity to make large scale arts activities happen such as his trip to Korea with 9 artists and through his non profit, Good Foot. This directly relates to the idea of Agape artists seeking to “bring about holistic personal transformation that includes behavioral change, spiritual development, physical well-being, and personal, family, and social responsibility through healthy relationships ub the community at large.” (Corbitt, Nix-Early p. 105)
Melanie Ukosakul , Painter/Visual Artist, Othello neighborhood ( Seattle, WA)
I conducted the interview with Melanie in our home which is adjacent from a beautiful park, Othello Light Rail station and new apartment buildings. Melanie is a neighbor, resident and therapist and artist and is learning role and wrestling with the idea of “owning that she is from south Seattle”.Around our home, are colorful oil-based paintings created by Melanie. Melanie participated in a lot of art classes in middle school and high school and studied art history in college. She describes her learning process as simply approaching the canvas and not overthinking it. Her style has evolved from inspiration at the SAM called “Ancestral, Modern, Aboriginal Art” which was based on ancient and contemporary art. She loved that the images incorporated symbols that were part of a bigger story. She describes her work as symbols and story. She says that people have had spiritual revelations around seeing her artwork. She wants her artwork to be interpreted as they feel led so chooses to not name them in order to not influence how people are effected by her images. She also says that her art-making reflects her process of her own cultural identity and love for who she is. Melanie describes this community as a reflection of the world unlike the rest of Seattle. She thinks that cultural identity is a big influence of this neighborhood. She calls it ever-changing and evolving, it has younger vibe but generations who have grown up here as well as gentrification that is changing the neighborhood. She tries to defend the Rainier Valley and south Seattle and wants to add to the complexity of the conversation of this neighborhood. She says you can feel the disparity of walking to a Safeway in this neighborhood verses walking to a Safeway in Queen Anne ( north Seattle). She imagines using art as a way reconcile the violence and cultural misplacement and disparities of our neighborhood.
My analysis of this interview would be that Melanie is a celebrate artist and is very much about renewal. “Celebrative art and celebrate artists…provide an opportunity to celebrate renewal for people, community, church and society. In the A.R.T. model,celebration comes at a significant point of goa completion, where the working out if a significant problem or goal gives pause for rest,reflection, and praise for the accomplishment…Traditionally these include music, icons and other visual arts…” ( Corbitt, Nix-Early, p.103) I feel that this description directly correlates with Melanie’s work as a therapist and interest in symbolism in art-making as it relates to one’s story. She is in the community as a therapist but also desires to help people develop a positive identity and story through art making.
My analysis of this interview would be that Melanie is a celebrate artist and is very much about renewal. “Celebrative art and celebrate artists…provide an opportunity to celebrate renewal for people, community, church and society. In the A.R.T. model,celebration comes at a significant point of goa completion, where the working out if a significant problem or goal gives pause for rest,reflection, and praise for the accomplishment…Traditionally these include music, icons and other visual arts…” ( Corbitt, Nix-Early, p.103) I feel that this description directly correlates with Melanie’s work as a therapist and interest in symbolism in art-making as it relates to one’s story. She is in the community as a therapist but also desires to help people develop a positive identity and story through art making.
George Lee, Visual Artist/ Sculpture/ Social Practice Artist, Othello neighborhood ( Seattle, WA)
I conducted the interview with George outside of a local bakery that is known throughout Seattle as one of it’s best. We talked about his interest and development of his community and art-placing work and how he fits in as someone who identifies as a white man. He describes his process of coming into his identity as an artist as complex due to not feeling confident calling himself an artist. As a younger artist he preferred to do art in group contexts like theatre and began doing contemporary dance as an undergrad student and eventually did sculpture and studied landscape architecture as a graduate student. He describes his training of becoming the artist he is today as one where he questioned issues in the world and desired to do so through art making. He learned about public art through his master’s degree and how it is evolving but wants to be someone who pushes the norm of that pursuit and not simply be an artist who does public art for the experience of it. He doesn’t claim that he can fully describe his community well. It was originally Irish and Italian but now is Vietnamese, Filipino and African-American. It has tons of families and people are on the street, there is a lot of separation within ethnicities but within those groups there are strong traditions. There is a lot of gang violence in the community and George has experienced shootings first hand within 4 weeks of first living in Othello and literally had to flee his bike for safety. This experience has influenced his more recent project called “ City of Faces” which was a project funded by Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, and partnered with Somali Family Safety Task Force, Rainier Beach Community Center, Aki Kurose Middle School and Rainier Avenue Church. Over 100 youth took part in workshops and learned about birds, habitat and face cast mold-making. Thirty-two brave youth had their faces cast, amidst their peer’s gasps of glee and disgust, and were compensated with $15 gift cards. The 30 seed-like ceramic birdhouses are hung from organically curving posts of red cedar, a wood associated with life and ancestry in local tribes. Each birdhouse matches specific bird habitat needs. The piece explores themes of refuge/home, fertility/life/youth, and interconnection between human and non-human life. He wants his art to be something that both challenges people to see this community and youth of color in a confrontational way but also in a positive identity building and positive re-imaging. At first, as a white man, he wanted to hide from whiteness but now he wants to use his access to engage white people in this work and allowing them to experience uncomfortable images that hopefully spur them into action. The transformational work he is currently doing with his art is his upcoming installation called “The Clothesline”. It is a celebration, style of the textile of East African woman living in New Holly. He will be working the typography of the Chief Sealth Trail. Clotheslines are a symbol of seeing into someone’s private life but they are okay with that, it is also a symbol of lower class and as such is illegal in many US cities. This project will be celebrating and showcasing the working class and east African woman, who are also largely from the Muslim faith. George will be conducting a workshop with women in creating this project from textile and sewing projects.. It will hopefully transform in a way that allows people to come past prejudice and into relationship with people who are different then them.
My analysis of George is that he is also a visionary activist and additionally is a citizen artist. Lee is not afraid to lead the charge in developing a public art piece that aims towards confrontation. “The common usage of the term “citizen artist” describes artists or artists in training who bring artistic offerings into economically stressed areas, or to groups who don’t attend arts offerings for one reason or another. The impulse behind this view of citizen-artistry proposes that experiences of art (as defined by the Art Club) are good for people, and artists who provide such experiences are better American citizens for doing so is someone who has gone after multiple public art grants and received them.” (Booth)
My analysis of George is that he is also a visionary activist and additionally is a citizen artist. Lee is not afraid to lead the charge in developing a public art piece that aims towards confrontation. “The common usage of the term “citizen artist” describes artists or artists in training who bring artistic offerings into economically stressed areas, or to groups who don’t attend arts offerings for one reason or another. The impulse behind this view of citizen-artistry proposes that experiences of art (as defined by the Art Club) are good for people, and artists who provide such experiences are better American citizens for doing so is someone who has gone after multiple public art grants and received them.” (Booth)
Katelyn Durst, Poet/Creative Activist, Othello/Rainier Beach ( Seattle, WA)
I first started writing as a response to my personal struggle depression. I did not see it as a career or anything close to that but as a way to communicate from my innermost parts. In seventh grade, I wrote what I thought was simply an essay based on the topic “If the Capitol Walls Could Talk” unbeknownst to me, this essay along with my classmates essays, was entered into a national competition put on by the Daughters of American Revolution. My essay went on to win at a county, statewide and 5-state region level. I was “forced” to read it aloud in Lansing, MI and as a very shy person this was not ideal. However, I am now grateful for that experience. This essay later ended up being one of 10 national runners up in the competition. It focused on race trials that had gone inside the capital. I had no idea that this perspective would influence my work today. Since then, I have morphed into a poet. My first poem was published at 19 and it was probably around that time that I decided to pursue creative writing as undergrad degree. However, I was in and out of school. Still struggling with depression, I never considered myself a scholar. After being kicked out of school at 18 for low grades, I began my life of what my parents call, “voluntary service” they continue to beg me to get a “real job”. I began this work as an Americorps volunteer for the American Red Cross as a disaster preparedness volunteer, where I was deployed to work with victims of the San Diego wildfires. Immediately following, I took a second Americorps stint as a Residential Manager of a transitional home for women in Washington D.C. These early experiences were amazing and eye-opening but heart breaking because I was fired , for what later was proved to be unjust reasons, and forced to come back home and start over. As a 20 year old, I had been fired from two jobs and kicked out of one school. I was super depressed about this identity but refused to let it define me. My parents convinced me to enroll in local community college and there I met a mentor who allowed me to start reading my poems with the visiting readers lecture. I additionally refused to be reduced to someone who was shy and held back so I ran for student president and won. This forced me to be a public figure who gave speeches in front of 1,000 people! I went on to work with youth in Denver, Chicago, LA county and now Seattle. All along I have been given (by God) mentors who encouraged me to use writing as a catalyst for change in the lives of youth. Two years ago I finally completed my undergrad degree and am now pursuing a Master’s degree! The transformation I have experienced personally as someone who experiences mental illness as well as being a biracial woman, has greatly impacted my work for the better. God has used and continues to use my personal experience with pain to help others interact with their pain. My current poetry reflects my life as a black woman and the cities I have lived in and the issues of racism, housing and misplacement. I am also interested in historical and cultural trauma and wish to move those around me towards healing using the power of story. I currently teach poetry therapy in a youth psychiatric hospital and am developing a similar program to help youth in my neighborhood process through the normalized traumas of racism, poverty and violence. I am also involved in positive identity place making as well being around youth of color who are quite literally transforming their neighborhood. Last summer we marched for the issue of transportation justice and saw a bill passed unanimously this February that will allow all youth on free and reduced lunch the access to free public transportation. I am additionally interested in craftivism and creating works that respond to environmental injustices.
My analysis of myself is that of visionary activist, creative community organizer and urban profit. I have become someone who goes after dreams and sees them through. I also am someone who desires to cultivate the creative talents of those around me and call people into art making who would never call themselves artists. Additionally I aim to seek transformation within systemic racism through art making. “Prophetic artists, or urban prophets, and the prophetic arts are those that confront the injustices of racism, bigotry, and economic and social inequities
My analysis of myself is that of visionary activist, creative community organizer and urban profit. I have become someone who goes after dreams and sees them through. I also am someone who desires to cultivate the creative talents of those around me and call people into art making who would never call themselves artists. Additionally I aim to seek transformation within systemic racism through art making. “Prophetic artists, or urban prophets, and the prophetic arts are those that confront the injustices of racism, bigotry, and economic and social inequities
Reflection
It was relatively easy to find these artists as I had personal relationships with all three however scheduling something with them was incredibly difficult. It was incredibly inspiring hearing the work that they are involved in. I love their heart for this community and that they are loving on this community through the transformative power of their art. The only thing I would do differently is set up these interviews sooner so that I could have had them completed on time! I also want to remind myself of the beauty of process both in my personal journey, that of the artists I interviewed and the life of our community. I feel an awe-encompassing joy and gratitude for what God is at work here in Rainier Valley and am excited and humbled by what He is doing in me as well and the art that will be made because of that.
Booth, E. (2013). The Citizen Artist: A Revolution of the Heart within the Arts. Retrieved from
http://ericbooth.net/the-citizen-artist-a-revolution-of-the-heart-within-the-arts/.
Corbitt, J.N. & Nix-Early, V. (2003). Taking it to the Streets: Using the Arts to Transform Your Community. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books.