Introduction:
Collective Activism Through Individual Experience is an exploration of how people are able to come together through their shared but distinctive identities. Our website displays our essays with arguments based on close-readings of specific texts but ultimately, with this public facing project, we aim to apply our arguments to a currently relevant issue. We conducted interviews at a “Peace and Love Rally” at Washington Square Park, asking individuals what the impact of being with other people was after the election, as well as what they hope to achieve out of attending this rally, or other similar gatherings. Our purpose for this project in both the essays and the interviews was to display the power of individual voices in forging history and unifying the community. The three papers work together to explore the way that individuality creates community.
Rebeca Jativa’s essay “Does Individuality Have the Power to Create Change?” discusses how social movements throughout history have been known to use a variety of methods to produce change. However, a method usually overlooked is the use of individuality as a means to be political. By analyzing W.E.B Du Bois’s role in the New Negro Movement and Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa’s roles in the feminist movement, one can see the power individuality has in social movements. By simply taking a stand to embrace who they are and express it in their publications, these individuals are choosing to be political and make a difference. While some may decide to adapt to their surroundings, writers such as Du Bois, Moraga, and Anzaldúa take a stand by revealing to the world their true identities. This refusal to conform gives writers a way to accurately portray themselves in their work, emphasizing the significance in creating change but more importantly leading to self- acceptance.
Lynn Fu’s essay “The Voice(s) of a Movement” investigates the importance of getting individual voices and experiences heard for collective power. Fu looks at the chapter “Entering the Lives of Others: Theories in the Flesh” in the book This Bridge Called My Back at different levels. First, through a close reading of individual authors to see how one is able to fight against oppression through writing about her unique experience and is able to find power for herself and create power for others. Fu also looks at how the anthology knits the parts together to create a larger message, a conversation among the individual texts in the chapter. Fu examines the stakes and circumstances of oppression and the separation of identity and fear that drives this fragmentation and loss of power. Fu explores how one becomes awakened to her oppression and how she awakens others by voicing her deeply personal experiences. Fu talks about how many diverse voices are able to come together to form one collective voice to push for change.
Mia Hamermesh’s essay “All For One” proves the importance of finding the support of one or more communities, whether in seeking to create art or stimulate activism. By bringing in a discussion of Bloomsbury through the writings of Desmond MacCarthy, Hamermesh outlines the positive attributes of collaboration in stimulating an artist’s best work. She then develops her point to encompass not only art, but activism as it can be improved through collaboration. Through discussion of such 1980s feminists as Cherríe Moraga, Genny Lim, and Toni Cade Bambara, Hamermesh analyzes how these women utilized the communities they were a part of to strengthen their own rhetoric while using said community to build connections with other likeminded people. The collaboration and activism which Hamermesh describes in her essay urges all people, particularly women, to band together and seek community, for it will undoubtedly be in their best interest.
Something we were surprised to find in the interviewing process for our project was the number of people who claimed they did not find support in a community of people following the election. Stacy and Dan both said they preferred time alone following the news, however as they were explaining their reasonings for those claims, they seemed to disprove that statement and inadvertently make an argument in support of what our papers are claiming. After the election, Dan says he “was doing some traveling in some pretty conservative areas, and that felt pretty isolating… [he] felt like the election results made people distrust each other.” But after attending rallies like the one at which we interviewed him, he found comfort. Seemingly contrary to his initial argument, he said, “People who are members of groups who might be targeted, the looks on their faces made me feel like it makes a difference, just having a visible sign that there’s a big group of people that aren’t about what the incoming administration is.” The individuals we interviewed embodied the arguments made by Du Bois, Moraga and Anzaldúa by showing the power they felt in coming together as a community. This feeling of community all the individuals we interviewed felt by simply coming to a rally has been a concrete example of how the arguments we concluded in our papers are still prevalent in our current society. It is clear to see there is a tremendous importance in finding a community with the same values, interests, and goals which has transcended history.
Rebeca Jativa’s essay “Does Individuality Have the Power to Create Change?” discusses how social movements throughout history have been known to use a variety of methods to produce change. However, a method usually overlooked is the use of individuality as a means to be political. By analyzing W.E.B Du Bois’s role in the New Negro Movement and Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa’s roles in the feminist movement, one can see the power individuality has in social movements. By simply taking a stand to embrace who they are and express it in their publications, these individuals are choosing to be political and make a difference. While some may decide to adapt to their surroundings, writers such as Du Bois, Moraga, and Anzaldúa take a stand by revealing to the world their true identities. This refusal to conform gives writers a way to accurately portray themselves in their work, emphasizing the significance in creating change but more importantly leading to self- acceptance.
Lynn Fu’s essay “The Voice(s) of a Movement” investigates the importance of getting individual voices and experiences heard for collective power. Fu looks at the chapter “Entering the Lives of Others: Theories in the Flesh” in the book This Bridge Called My Back at different levels. First, through a close reading of individual authors to see how one is able to fight against oppression through writing about her unique experience and is able to find power for herself and create power for others. Fu also looks at how the anthology knits the parts together to create a larger message, a conversation among the individual texts in the chapter. Fu examines the stakes and circumstances of oppression and the separation of identity and fear that drives this fragmentation and loss of power. Fu explores how one becomes awakened to her oppression and how she awakens others by voicing her deeply personal experiences. Fu talks about how many diverse voices are able to come together to form one collective voice to push for change.
Mia Hamermesh’s essay “All For One” proves the importance of finding the support of one or more communities, whether in seeking to create art or stimulate activism. By bringing in a discussion of Bloomsbury through the writings of Desmond MacCarthy, Hamermesh outlines the positive attributes of collaboration in stimulating an artist’s best work. She then develops her point to encompass not only art, but activism as it can be improved through collaboration. Through discussion of such 1980s feminists as Cherríe Moraga, Genny Lim, and Toni Cade Bambara, Hamermesh analyzes how these women utilized the communities they were a part of to strengthen their own rhetoric while using said community to build connections with other likeminded people. The collaboration and activism which Hamermesh describes in her essay urges all people, particularly women, to band together and seek community, for it will undoubtedly be in their best interest.
Something we were surprised to find in the interviewing process for our project was the number of people who claimed they did not find support in a community of people following the election. Stacy and Dan both said they preferred time alone following the news, however as they were explaining their reasonings for those claims, they seemed to disprove that statement and inadvertently make an argument in support of what our papers are claiming. After the election, Dan says he “was doing some traveling in some pretty conservative areas, and that felt pretty isolating… [he] felt like the election results made people distrust each other.” But after attending rallies like the one at which we interviewed him, he found comfort. Seemingly contrary to his initial argument, he said, “People who are members of groups who might be targeted, the looks on their faces made me feel like it makes a difference, just having a visible sign that there’s a big group of people that aren’t about what the incoming administration is.” The individuals we interviewed embodied the arguments made by Du Bois, Moraga and Anzaldúa by showing the power they felt in coming together as a community. This feeling of community all the individuals we interviewed felt by simply coming to a rally has been a concrete example of how the arguments we concluded in our papers are still prevalent in our current society. It is clear to see there is a tremendous importance in finding a community with the same values, interests, and goals which has transcended history.