Sons of Toledo: Art/Community Collaboration Raising Awareness About Gun Violence
Matt Foss, PhD & Heather M Sloane, PhD, LISW | September 23 | 10:15-11:15 am
Topic: Art, Programming | Knowledge Level: Beginner
Two faculty members from different academic disciplines (theatre and social work) engage in social justice work in the Toledo community both seeing the value of storytelling and art forms to building confidence in voice and raising awareness about hidden community injustice (Schneider, 2003). The short film, Sons of Toledo, and poetry created by high school students from Toledo Public Schools will be presented and discussed. The process of creating film and poetry is a form of inquiry. Community involved art requires listening to lived experience and learning from and with community members. Gun violence is a problem in Toledo. According to local news coverage of gun violence in Toledo, there were 70 homicides in 2021, up from 62 in 2020, 15 of those victims were teenagers. The presenters will share their experience elevating community members as artists and story tellers and the challenges and value of this kind of work to better understanding a community and the emotional impact of gun violence on parents and children. The presenters will share their artistic process, research method, and experiences with art provoking advocacy and action by collaborating with programs like Cure Violence (Save Our Community) and Guns to Garden Tools (Rawtools) in the Toledo community (Hanzalik, 2021; Chang, Ngunjiri, & Hernandez, 2013). Participants will have an opportunity to consider the unique possibility of community engagement through artistic expression and the potential of collective art creation to social change.
Presentation Objectives:
· Consider the importance of creative community social justice projects
· Discuss the unique advantages of arts-based inquiry into social injustices like gun violence
· Describe the process of community action art interventions