Activist Artist Update

The first class that was offered as part of the Activist Artist: Art as an Engine of Social Justice series, INTS 375 Songs of Dissident Dissonance, just wrapped up for the spring semester. As part of the class, students produced final projects and examples of their art include:

· An Ivesian arrangement of two spirituals; Will the Circle be Unbroken and Come, Let us go Down

· A research project that uncovered the writings of Muslim slaves in Northeast Brazil, with the resulting project being a work of Islamic calligraphy celebrating the connections between Brazil and the Islamic world

· An in-depth design of a folk festival—hybrid online and in-person—that will celebrate music, food, beauty & fashion, poetry, scholarship, and social justice in Fairfax

Dr Matthew Dievendorf, who instructed the class, will be developing a space/website to display works of art done in and out of class as part of the series. We will publish access to that space as soon as it is complete so one and all can enjoy the work of the students.

In addition, the Activist-Artist Cohort is currently developing a performance that will remix and reclaim the George Mason University Alma Mater. We look forward to sharing this work when it is ready!