TruArtSpeaks

Stepping back and reflecting on my student tours of “Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys,” one group stands above the rest and that was my last tour of the exhibition.  It was with an extremely talented group of high school age students from the youth focused organization, TruArtSpeaks.  

TruArtSpeaks is based in St. Paul and focuses on youth and young adults.  Its primary audience is “people with marginalized identities and artists.”  According to its website, truartspeaks.org, its mission is “to cultivate literacy, leadership, and social justice through the study & application of Spoken Word and Hip Hop culture.”  I could not imagine a more perfect group to tour the incredible, vibrant, and inspiring collection of the Deans.  These students and their mentors and leaders did not disappoint.

It was a privilege and a pleasure to step back as a guide and let them lead the way.  My job was to be merely a sign post, pointing out works to discuss and basic elements like artist names.  From there, the students took over and wow, did they go deep. Throughout the show, students made connections with their own lived experiences, Western art historical representations of black people, Hip Hop and contemporary culture.  You can hear one of these enlightened scholars on TruArtSpeaks’ Instagram page, the June 21st post from their trip to Mia.  While standing in front of Ebony Patterson’s work, the student discussed how she thinks Patterson’s dense installation, Amy Sherald’s sparse portraits and Kehinde Wiley’s “seemingly endless pattern[s]” on his portraits represent the “endless amount of opportunity for black people,” and “the endless ways of portrayal for black people.” 

they were just hanging out ... you know ... talking about ... when they grow up ... Closeup Photo: M Marne Zafar

I learned from the group’s leader and Executive Director of TruArtSpeaks, Tish Jones, that after the tour each scholar had to select a work to write a poem about.  I recently checked in with Tish and she said the students are still editing their poems and they will be complete later this fall.  She hopes to share the poems with us and there is a possibility these poems will be used at future poetry slams.  I truly hope so, for isn’t that the point of art - the artist creates, shares, and inspires new creativity, a “seemingly endless pattern” of creation and inspiration that according to TruArtSpeaks creates a space  “to engage in critical dialogue, and build community with one another?”  What a gift it was to be a small part of this beautiful passing of the torch from one artist to the next, to see and hear from the next generation of Giants.