While volunteering is one avenue by which to explore social problems and move forward in the fight against inequality, art (in all of its various forms) has proved to be another.

And to show just how much art matters in the dialogue about social change, the Emory University Center for Ethics hosted an evening of art, food and conversation with the second annual Ethics Arts Café last Tuesday.

Carlton Mackey, the Ethics Center’s assistant director of the D. Abbott Turner Program in Ethics and Servant Leadership, planned the event and focused on showcasing both art and the ethics of community service.

Those who attended the event were able to view this emphasis on change through Ansley West’s photographs, Elizabeth Maynard’s stenciled profiles and Li Rudy Migliozzi’s graffiti.

The café, with all of its student art attractions, drew in many different people, including professionals, undergraduates, graduate students and alumni. To kick off the evening of art, the event began with spoken-word artists who addressed a variety of subjects, including religion and the evening’s hottest topic: social change.

A newly-formed and up-and-coming band, featuring senior Faheem Khemani on the drums, first-year Laney Graduate School student Jonathan Drucker on keyboard and vocals and Mike Pensky on electric guitar and vocals, provided the perfect backdrop for other performances during the night, as well as several popular musical fusions, with classical music melting away into rock and various techno rhythms into pop.

The artists’ pieces were exhibited on the walls and tables throughout the event for students to see as they moved about the event. Then the three artists personally presented their work to the audience.

West shared several portions of her project titled Mothers of a Nation. Café goers viewed photographs of West while on a trip to Uganda for the non-profit Ugandan American Partnership Organization (UAPO).

She documented a group of empowered HIV-positive women that practice sustainable farming methods. Her photos showed the women at work, bending in their gardens, conversing, laughing and caring for their families.

West was intrigued by her subjects on her first trip to Uganda, so she traveled there a second time to do further work on the photography project. The end result was a documentary of the same name as her photo collection. West emphasized the element of social change in her photographs.

“I try not to only make art for myself, but for others as well,” West said in an interview with the Wheel.

Mackey said during West’s presentation that because the women were infected with HIV, he expected them to look very sickly, frail and weak. He said West successfully portrayed the women in a positive light, which she said was her goal as a photographer.

“I didn’t want to show them lying in bed looking hopeless,” West said.

Maynard, another artist at the Café, also focused her work on the positive aspects of individuals facing challenges. Maynard shared pieces she made out of stencil in which she airbrushed a picture onto the paper using a cutout of the picture.

These stenciled pieces featured profiles of transgendered individuals she knew. Along with each visual representation was a written piece that dealt with certain aspects of transgender and what it means in our society.

While speaking to the audience, Maynard said the purpose of her work is to educate people on what transgender is and to take away the stigmas and prejudices that are often associated with it.

The next artist, Migliozzi, used an unconventional approach to art — graffiti. He exhibited his street art with a slideshow presentation while talking to the audience. One of Migliozzi’s most interesting works featured a hand-drawn man with the color red running down from his eyes, looking as if he had been shot. The man held a sign that read, “I DON’T WANT YOUR COINS I WANT CHANGE.” This piece, more than all the others, clearly summarized the night’s emphasis on social change.

Migliozzi said to the audience that he knew for a long time that he wanted to be committed to this cause. He didn’t choose art as that channel until after attending a protest and realizing that political action was not his preference.
Emory College senior A-reum Kim said she especially liked hearing the artists speak.

“Listening to the artists talk about their work helped me connect more to it,” she said.

The event was co-sponsored by the WonderRoot Community Arts Center, a non-profit organization committed to supporting artists to inspire social change. Black Star Magazine, Dark Tower Project and Feminists in Action were also co-sponsors and organizations that promote art and social change on Emory’s campus.

And with social activists, artists, poets and musicians all uniting with the Center for Ethics behind the fight against inequality and injustice, social change has become a goal that is as inspiring as it is worthy.

— Contact Malcolm Tariq