Art & Culture
Activists have utilized art as a powerful and transformative form of expression throughout history. Art has the ability to transcend language barriers and evoke emotions making it a powerful medium for conveying messages related to social justice, equality, and human rights.
Art as a form of expression
Dr. Darder's own artistic expression began in the 1980's when she was inspired by a visit to the Frida Kahlo museum, La Casa Azul, in Mexico. Since
then her artwork has displayed a variety of themes including political
struggle, family, nature, spirituality, and love.
Cinema
Breaking the Silence: A Study into the Pervasiveness of Oppression
As a distinguished professor of Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership at the University of Illinois, Dr. Darder wrote, produced, and narrated this student-community collaborative award- winning documentary which explored the persistence of inequities within higher education.
Poetry
For many artists and activists poetry is a means of articulating the experiences of marginalized communities, addressing social issues, and challenging oppressive systems.
A bicultural riddle
I live on the border
because it is the only place
where they speak my name,
it is the only place where
two worlds meet,
yet never meet,
where i am not asked
to pledge allegiance
to any world,
where i can see
all that i am without shame
but let no one be fooled
for this place is haunted
by the ancient ghosts who creep
in the dark and are fed fat on
fears, self-doubts, and uncertainties,
political correctness seldom visits here,
it becomes too confused and twisted
i walk at different times
upon each delineated rim,
my legs cannot always stretch across
to make the bridge,
they are too short to span the distance,
but in the strain of it all,
i come to learn what is mine.
but my life cuts across
many danger zones
for i never know
when i might be told
that i do not belong here
or that i do not belong there,
at moments well-meaning people
insist that i renounce those parts
that are much too light
or much too dark
but i have come to learn that
to live among difference and conflict
always brings great contradiction,
it is a dance of incongruence,
my body responds to a multitude
of environmental stimuli as if
i could claim ownership to one
and easily disclaim the other
the salsa queen sings in my world
as loudly as does marvin gaye,
madonna, and the temptations
i savor buñel's films as easily
as those of woody allen or truffaut
i eat with equal gusto arroz con pollo
as i do quiche and croissants,
i sit in meetings with harvardites
as i sit with the barrio folks
on lazy afternoons in the park
the sounds of spanish beckon my soul
as the sounds of english move my mind
i am fed by multicolored mothers,
i am caressed by multicolored fathers,
and all of these
i contain within
the complex borders
of my double-vision,
of my two worldness,
of my twin beings,
of this place where
i am never who
i appear to be.
