The Beauty of Transformation: Becoming a Cultural Organizer

Authors

  • Paul J. Kuttner Harvard Graduate School of Education

Abstract

Artistic and cultural practices have long been central to movements for social change. In this article, Paul Kuttner explores this intersection of arts and organizing through a biographical portrait of Mariama White-Hammond, Executive Director of the Boston-based youth organizing group Project HIP-HOP. Tracing Mariama’s development in the realms of artistic practice and social justice, the article focuses on both synergy and tension between the two trajectories. The resulting portrait highlights the important role of cultural context in shaping the relationship between organizing and the arts, and uncovers the multiple influences that lead an individual to engage in this kind of work.

Author Biography

Paul J. Kuttner, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Paul Kuttner is an educator, cultural worker, and researcher, currently finishing his doctoral studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His research focuses on cultural organizing, a field of practice that combines community and movement organizing with arts and cultural work. He is a co-editor of the volume Disrupting the School to Prison Pipeline (Harvard Educational Review, 2012), and a co-author of A Match on Dry Grass: Community Organizing as a Catalyst for School Reform (Oxford, 2011). Paul is a former editor of the Harvard Educational Review, and blogs at CulturalOrganizing.org. Prior to his doctoral studies, Paul worked as a teaching artist and co-founded the community-based arts education non-profit Communities Creating Change in Riverdale, IL.

 

Downloads

Published

2013-12-06

Issue

Vol. 29 No. 2 (2013): Special Issue: Justice Work In and Outside of Schools

Section

Renderings

License

In every case, copyright of work appearing in JCT is retained by the author. In accordance with its mandate to promote discussion on matters of curriculum, the Foundation for Curriculum Theory permits limited reproduction of parts of JCT. Individual articles may be reprinted for educational purposes, provided that no fees (other than copying costs) are charged.

For information regarding more extensive copying or reproduction for other purposes, contact:

editors@jctonline.org