angela davis and andy
On Wednesday March 27, 2013 I listened to Angela Y. Davis’ talk at Luna Station. She spoke about feminism, racism and democracy. I’m using these very general terms because despite her energy and eloquence, it’s difficult for me to recount anything truly specific about what she said. I realized how little I know, how many problems there are in our world and how much I have to learn. I was mentally and emotionally exhausted, trying to follow everything she had to say while being incredibly touched by her grace, modesty and compassion. And I found myself waiting for the moment that she would tell me what to do and how to change.
I listened to her as she outlined a very problematic American history that we have not been able to shake off, even as Canadians. I listened to her thought-provoking and moving descriptions of contemporary issues followed by questions she had for those few individuals who had power and money. But the entire time I was hoping against all odds that she would offer some direction, some version of a solution that I could somehow contribute to in my own small way.
My troubled mind was finally at least a little bit relieved when her very last words pointed us all towards the importance of engaging in conversation. She said that this was a form of activism. She also said it was important to make connections and realize the need to form a global community where all our problems would become inseparable, because they were already so closely related.
And I thought about my own conversations. I thought about the most consistent and the most meaningful conversation I have had this year with ANDY, with ANDY’s writers, with ANDY’s readers and with the art that ANDY explores each week. I thought about how ANDY contributes to this larger, ongoing narrative of a conversation and about how this dialogical relationship constantly makes me a more perceptive, empathetic and inquiring individual.
I felt momentarily reaffirmed in my decision to pursue the arts. I will probably never be as esteemed and well-known as Angela Davis. And I will probably never have a job as respectable and well paying as a medical school graduate. But I won’t be able to avoid those conversations that Angela Davis insisted could make me a better person who might make a difference.
