In a world where every moment is captured and broadcasted,
we must confront our histories in ever-smaller intervals.
Consequences for actions that once took generations to erupt now occur in nanoseconds.
As history unfolds faster, we must find new ways to learn from it.
Imagination is the key.
iLL-Literacy is thrilled to collaborate with Ariana Brown, an artist and UT student, in an effort to bring CampusBuiLLD to the University of Texas, Austin.
CampusBuiLLd is an initiative that rethinks student leadership and organizing using creativity as our frame. Through 7-10 days of performances, screenings, exhibits, and leadership labs, CampusBuiLLd is an innovative approach to connecting students’ lives with the social issues that often exist abstractly around them.
About iLL-Literacy
We are an ensemble of three artists and educators who have engaged over 200 universities in the past decade through spoken word and music performances, leadership workshops, and on-ground organizing.
Over the years, we’ve had the opportunity to distill some of the common frustrations for student organizers hoping to affect change on their campus, while collaborating with leadership communities to develop a unique response curriculum.
Some of the more common frustrations we’ve come across include:
- Lack of infrastructure to maintain leadership within a 4-year student cycle
- Inability to reach solidarity among groups of different race, gender, and sexuality demographics
- Difficulty implementing fresh ideas for student activism
- Student campaigns starting from scratch despite a history of similar instances on that campus or others
By introducing a rich palette of platforms to the student organizing conversation – from critical race theory to liberatory education to social media techniques to funk philosophy – we unravel preconceptions of what it means to be a socially-engaged student, opening the doors for individuals to approach organizing and leadership in ways that are personal, relevant, and fun.
Download a full description of CampusBuiLLd Watch a mini-doc about CampusBuiLLd @ Cornell University
Why UT Austin?
Today, the University of Texas in Austin is at the center of the affirmative action debate with Fisher v. UT. Although the outcome of this historic case is in the hands of supreme court justices, our interest in engaging the UT student body is not so much about how the campus will react to the decision, but rather how students can actively participate in this period’s historic narrative.
Certainly, the recent race-related hate crimes on campus do not exist in a cultural vacuum separate from the decisions in Washington DC. Recent events don’t just tell a story about race relations on this campus, they also point to the recurrence of hate crimes that are sadly familiar on campuses throughout the United States. Unfortunately, peer discrimination is often treated as an isolated incident and never afforded the breadth of a national landscape, let alone remotely considered as part of the larger context in which decisions like Fisher v. UT ultimately sit.
Through CampusBuiLLd, we will engage UT students across organizing, academic, social, cultural, and artistic fields to assertively play a role in the cultural impact that this historic occasion will present, regardless of the actual court decision.
Examples of themes that contextualized past CampusBuiLLds:
- Cornell University: Threats of closing down the Africana Studies & Research Center
- Ithaca College: Engaging students in a commuter campus
- Susquehanna University: Social engagement in a small and predominantly-athletic student of color community
- University of Virginia: Forming coalitions across race, gender & sexuality
The theme that binds all campuses is developing innovative and effective approaches to foster student leadership.
What will CampusBuiLLd @ UT look like?
Proposed date: April 14-20, 2013
We curate a custom curriculum for every campus we visit. Although some program themes may be contextualized around affirmative action and the surrounding case’s impacts, CampusBuiLLd will not be about the case or even specifically race relations. We provide imaginative platforms for student leaders of all backgrounds to address organizing obstacles.
Programs we’ve curated in the past include:
- Performance events that demonstrate how artistic messaging can transcend top-down political rhetoric
- Leadership labs that target specific on-campus issues and spark dialogue about imaginative ways to address age-old campus issues
- Open mics & exhibits where students can creatively process subjects that hit home
- Screenings & listening sessions that entertain students while fostering media literacy across broadcast and social platforms
- Artistic mentorship that encourages students to present their creative ideas with quality and technique
By developing innovative and interesting programming, we can coalesce communities on campus that often congregate exclusively within their own fields and organizations.
We’re particularly interested in engaging students and staff from:
- LGBT, women, and minority resource centers/organizations
- Ethnic, global, and foreign language studies departments
- International student communities
- High school recruitment programs
- Multicultural centers
- Humanities departments (i.e. design, theater, architecture)
Get Involved
Proposed date: April 14-20, 2013
We are currently in the process of rallying support from organizations, departments, and individuals so that we can present a vast and diverse campus community who would like to see CampusBuiLLd happen at UT. Please provide some details below and we’ll get back to you quickly. Thanks for your interest in CampusBuiLLd!
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