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Creating Destiny: Youth, Arts, and Social Change

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Creating Destiny: Youth, Arts, and Social Change CREATING DESTINY: YOUTH, ARTS, AND SOCIAL CHANGE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND THE COMMITTEE ON GRADUATE STUDIES OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Lauren M. Stevenson August 2011 © 2011 by Lauren Margaret Stevenson. All Rights Reserved. Re-distributed by Stanford University under license with the author. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/ This dissertation is online at: http://purl.stanford.edu/bf113xh2911 ii I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Milbrey McLaughlin, Primary Adviser I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Monica McDermott, Co-Adviser I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Harry Elam, Jr Approved for the Stanford University Committee on Graduate Studies. Patricia J. Gumport, Vice Provost Graduate Education This signature page was generated electronically upon submission of this dissertation in electronic format. An original signed hard copy of the signature page is on file in University Archives. iii Abstract In this ethnographic study, I examine the work of a company of youth artists who create art to create social change. I explore how they define social change, and how they make it through a process of creating and performing an original work of hip hop, modern dance, and theater. The company is the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company in Oakland, CA, which brings together 15 to 20 young people each year to work with the company’s adult co-directors to create an original performance for social change. The company members are high-school-aged and diverse with regard to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and socio-economic background. Its work is part of a larger tradition of programs in which artists “apply” the tools and processes of the arts to social problems (McCammon, 2007). Through inductive analysis of field data that I collected documenting the company’s ten-month process, I surfaced a theory of social change embedded in the company’s work. The company posits social change as a process of changing relationships—that is, changing how we relate to ourselves, to one another, and to the world around us. This process requires understanding how our ways of relating are shaped by social structures and our positions within them; imagining new possibilities for these relationships that would exist in the world in which we want to live; and then transforming our relationships to embody these possibilities. Transforming our relationships in this way, the company suggests, is a means to create the world we have imagined. In this study, I elaborate this theory and it’s potential to complement more traditional notions of social change, which focus on changing social structures more directly. Such theories rely on the imposition of social structures to align human activity iv with principles of equality and social justice. By contrast, the company focuses on how social change created among small groups can radiate outward to effect change in communities and to shift social structures. Through fieldnote, interview, and photographic data that I gathered in the role of participant observer, I describe what dance and writing offer the company as media for social change during their creative process. I also explore the impact of the company performance through audience focus group and survey data. My analyses elaborate the concept of third space in the arts and the ways in which it functions to facilitate social change at an individual, interpersonal, group, and community level. They also illuminate the importance of cross-cultural collaborations among youth to creating social change. v Acknowledgements I have been blessed throughout the journey that culminates in this dissertation, by an extraordinary community of family, friends, teachers, and colleagues. They have inspired, guided, supported, and challenged me in ways that have shaped who I am and made it possible for me to reach this point in my path. I am especially grateful to my mother, father, and sister, who have been behind me at every step and have inspired me to ask the questions about art and social change that I explore in this dissertation. Their unconditional love has been one of my greatest resources. I have benefited greatly from the intellectual generosity and guidance of my colleagues. I am particularly indebted to Dick Deasy for initiating me into the field of arts education research and mentoring me along my path. Our conversations over the years have enriched my thinking and life. I am also thankful for the network of colleagues whom I met while working with Dick at the Arts Education Partnership. Their practice and research keeps the field of arts education pushing its boundaries. I owe a special thank you to Gail Burnaford for her thoughtful comments on a draft of this dissertation. Also to Elisa Callow for her mentorship and friendship. My advisor, Milbrey McLaughlin, has been instrumental to this dissertation and to my development as a researcher. She has been an extraordinary guide through the terrains of youth and community development and qualitative research. I am particularly thankful for her coaching through the research design and data analysis phases of my study and for her thoughtful reading of many drafts, which helped me to deepen my thinking and refine my writing. The other members of my committee have also shaped vi my dissertation and education in invaluable ways. Harry Elam helped me to develop my thinking about artistic practice and its potential as a medium for social change. His close reading of drafts and counsel throughout the final stages of my research were indispensable. Monica McDermott taught me ethnographic methods and guided me through the challenges of conducting fieldwork as a participant observer. Her unfailing support and wise advice were critical to the depth and quality of the data I gathered. Samy H. Alim’s careful reading of and response to my dissertation in its final stages pushed my thinking and helped me to refine my ideas. The process of completing a dissertation comes with many ups and downs, or as my fellow doctoral student Heather Hebard and I came to refer to it, an “embedded curriculum,” through which one has the opportunity to learn much about oneself and about life. I am grateful to her and to Riki and Bandy for their love and support during this process and for helping me to embrace it with a sense of adventure, humility, and camaraderie. Without them and our many hours spent working and talking over “lunch dessert,” this process would not have been the same. I would also like to extend a sincere thank you to the coffee shops that hosted these “jam sessions,” provided me sustenance and scenery, and allowed me to overstay my welcome during my years as a student and writer. Especially Café Trieste in Oakland, Café Tryst in Washington, DC, and the Bird’s Nest in Chiang Mai. I offer a humble and heartfelt thanks to the other support systems that I have been so lucky to have in this process and in my life, especially the Stevenson-Axtell-Woolsey- Taft extended family, my fellow teachers and students of kickboxing and TRX, energy vii class, and Belvie and Dedan whose floating house gave me a home and fount of inspiration as I wrote this dissertation. Finally, I will be eternally grateful to Sarah Crowell, Simón Hanukai, the eighteen members of the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company who created and performed Unconditional, their families, and the staff and artists of the Destiny Arts Center. I can never repay their profound generosity in teaching me about their process of creating art and social change and about their lives. I have, however, done my best to honor their gift by conveying, in this dissertation, what I learned from them with integrity so that others might build on their work. viii Table of Contents ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................................................................IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................................................VI CHAPTER 1: CREATING SOCIAL CHANGE....................................................................................... 1 TOMORROW IS TODAY..............................................................................................................................................1 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY...............................................................................................................................2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ...................................................................................................................................3 SITE SELECTION AND RESEARCH DESIGN.............................................................................................................7 DATA COLLECTION................................................................................................................................................
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