August Gray Gall - Conversation Pieces - Week 1 Assignment

After reading Kester's Introduction, I found myself looking back over the text to visualize certain concepts that resonated with me. A lot of what he was saying feels very intriguing to someone who has little experiencing in connecting activism with your art form. A few key concepts that stood out to me include:

1.  A project being presented solely as political activism vs. being presented as art. Where the title or genre of your piece changes the urgency of the audience?
2. Having dialogues that cross communities culturally but also keeping the identities of the individual speakers in the space.
3. Context providers vs. Content providers and how the difference can stimulate a drastic response.
4. "Defining your art practice around the facilitation of dialogue among diverse communities."

Some question I have include:

1. Where does the line stand between your role as the activist and your role as the artist? Is there a line?
2. How to continue constructing safe ways to include not only willing participants, but close-minded people in these difficult discussions?
3. How do we provoke dialogue that keeps the participants from losing their indivdual identities, while trying to redefine a bigger community?