Doing Your pART

Around 2:30am my time, I received a message from a fellow artist on his way to Kiev (Kyiv), capital of Ukraine. His urgent request for my assistance brought to mind the role of the artist rooted in the charge of the incomparable Paul Robeson…

“Every artist, every scientist, must decide now where he stands. He has no alternative. There is no standing above the conflict on Olympian heights. There are no impartial observers. Through the destruction, in certain countries, of the greatest of man’s literary heritage, through the propagation of false ideas of racial and national superiority, the artist, the scientist, the writer is challenged. The struggle invades the formerly cloistered halls of our universities and other seats of learning. The battlefront is everywhere. There is no sheltered rear.“

To make a living is not enough. There is a dire need to make spaces fit for life itself, at home and abroad. Now, perhaps more than ever before, the work of the artist, the maker, the creative, is needed. Art has the power to move the cosmic needle. With that power comes a responsibility – a responsibility we can shoulder or shove away. The right to choose remains … for now. Let us move as we are moved. Each creative get to make a conscious effort on that decision for her or himself. Art is an action word.