Students in freshman inquiry courses at Portland State have the opportunity to design a variety of service-learning projects.
This week, students in professor Alma Trinidad’s Race and Social Justice Freshman Inquiry course host “Talent for Change,” a performance art event that provides a space for students to continue exploring how to respond to the social issues they’ve studied.
Students in freshman inquiry courses at Portland State have the opportunity to design a variety of service-learning projects.
This week, students in professor Alma Trinidad’s Race and Social Justice Freshman Inquiry course host “Talent for Change,” a performance art event that provides a space for students to continue exploring how to respond to the social issues they’ve studied.
“Professor Trinidad is really into service learning,” said Jessica Rubinstein, the course’s peer mentor.
Rubinstein took the course last year as her freshman inquiry and returned to work with Trinidad this year as a peer mentor. She facilitates regular mentor sessions for the students and has worked with the class closely to plan the “Talent for Change” event, which serves as the course’s final project.
Freshman inquiry courses are a year-long “alternative to general education classes,” Rubinstein explained. Trinidad’s course focuses on race and social justice and covers heady topics including “theories of race, issues of racism and theories of social justice.”
“We’re learning about what social justice looks like and about social issues from racism, sexism, LGBTQ issues…really just issues of power in all systems,” Rubenstein said.
“Talent for Change” showcases artists from PSU and the larger Portland area in a variety of modes, including spoken word, music and dance.
A spoken word artist talks about societal issues, including homelessness and the importance of addressing the problem. Another artist will perform a traditional Indian dance. These diverse performances give students an opportunity “to see, through art, personal narratives of those things and a way of doing something about them,” Rubinstein said.
The idea that art can give a voice to the powerless and disenfranchised seems to be particularly attractive to freshman inquiry students. “Talent for Change” does double-duty as a fundraiser: Food donations go to the Oregon Food Bank, and monetary donations will be funneled to Kiva, a well-known micro-lending site.
Other freshman inquiry classes have held art-related fundraisers for Kiva. A course called The Work of Art held an arts-and-crafts sale in the South Park Blocks to raise money for the nonprofit, which makes micro-loans to entrepreneurs in the developing world.
The “Art in the Park” sale “tied the idea of micro-lending back to the community and supporting local artists,” said Oran Stainbrook, a peer mentor for the class who helped initiate the art sale project as a freshman inquiry student last year.
Inventory left over from that sale will be available at “Talent for Change.” While the event focuses more specifically on art as a medium to explore social justice issues, connecting with the art sale speaks to the event’s multiple goals and reflects the interconnections of the issues studied in Trinidad’s class.
“The idea is that these art sale fundraisers are a way that PSU students can make a difference, particularly in the lives of people who live far away. I think at times we can feel powerless to make any change when we’re so far removed from the problems we want to help solve,” Stainbrook explained. “We’re trying to show people that they can use their talent to try and make change.”
“Talent for Change” continues the conversation about empowerment through art. Building on past efforts with Kiva reminds students that they can use their talents to create local marketplaces and that their purchasing decisions can affect the global community.
“Talent for Change” also celebrates the PSU community. In addition to an art exhibit featuring work by Stainbrook and others, there will be multicultural food available and tables featuring community organizations. Many student groups, including the Muslim Student Association; .E.Ch.A, a Chicano student group; and Kaibigan, the Filipino-American student association, will have tables at the event.
Trinidad’s students hope that “Talent for Change” will help students learn about resources in the community, hear stories that are like theirs and connect with one another.
“It’s a fundraiser that’s also fun,” Rubinstein said. “It’s our way of talking about what we’re going to do about these issues.”
