The Art of Ubuntu

Song: ONE VILLAGE by Maggie Wheeler
 

I am because we are. Ubuntu. This Zulu concept of community stands stark against the backdrop of bombings abroad and fear and hatred of “other” at home. Talk of alternative facts and fake news dizzy our days. Disconnection drives the discourse. Why consider the art of ubuntu? To what purpose a painting? What is the point of a poem?

This page features a sampling of a community arts reflection on interrelationship. “The Art of Ubuntu” event was one weekend. The art of interbeing is every day. Painters and poets, dancers and dreamers, singers and stargazers help utter the ineffable, sound the silence, portray the paradox.

Maybe this moves us nowhere. Maybe this moves us everywhere. Maybe being moved is the point. Maybe the point is the beginning of a line, and the line is a long thread through space and time. That tugs at me. And tethers “we”. And steadily sings, I am because we are.

UNTITLED by Susan Krochalk (Acrylic)


SONG & DANCE ARTISTS: ECHOES OF PEACE CHOIR, RYAN FRANE, LYZ JAAKOLA AND HUNTER JAAKOLA, KAKO'S CHOIR, REGINA M. LAROCHE, PEACE CHURCH CHOIR, ONE COMMUNITY/ONE SONG PARTICIPANTS, SARA THOMSEN

ART OF UBUNTU POETRY & SPOKEN WORD ARTISTS: ARE POETRY CREW, GARY BOELHOWER, DEB COOPER, TIM DAVIS, REBECCA DOMAGALA, ANGIE FRANK, PAMELA MITTLEFEHLDT, PENNY PERRY, PAULA LEKATZ ROBINSON, YVONNE RUTFORD, ELLIE SCHOENFELD, GLENN SIMMONS, KYM YOUNG

CHORUS OF TREES by Joel Cooper Silkscreen Print

Chorus of Trees


The stark bodies
of the trees

as if they were separate beings

are reaching up
into the light

after a spell of darkness

so that the leaves,
at the persuasion
of the wind

take flight,
rising like prayers

or like the notes
of some lost song

a hymn, an anthem
or a lullaby

after a spell of silence.

All the while,
deep within the earth

as if they were one being

ten thousand roots,
entwined

hold fast
to one another.

—Deborah Cooper

Booklet
  • Booklet
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This commemorative booklet features a sampling of the artwork and poetry from "The Art of Ubuntu" festival held in Duluth, MN. Design by Blackbird Revolt.

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