C-Team

Agency: Creating Interactive Stories on Becoming a Brave Upstander

Agency is a foundational concept of interactivity and the currency of game design. Create an interactive story game of the 4 Bs with the possibility of becoming a brave upstander. Making choices in the story reveals how there is never a single story about any place or people. Create an interactive story game using Twine or Inklewriter, or other open-source apps for creating and sharing nonlinear stories. The stories should include possibilities for becoming a brave upstander.

ACTIVITY OVERVIEW:

      1. Critique the storyboards.
      2. Play the Upstander game, and the Twine and Inklewriter examples.
      3. Storyboard with collages, drawings, or paintings.
      4. Share stories of the 4Bs and brainstorm characters, plots, scenes, and narratives for interactive story games.
      5. Individually or collaboratively create an interactive story.

Definitions of the 4 Bs:
(4Bs coined by Linda Stein. Learn more about the 4Bs from Stein’s Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females Film, 2015)

    • Bully: A person who targets another, often supported by a group, to intimidate (such as with hurtful rumors using social media) or act aggressively toward another with threats or violent actions.
    • Bullied: A person who is the victim of bullying and may suffer depression, social withdrawal, physical injury, addiction, self-harm, and even suicide.
    • Bystander: A person who is knowledgeable about unjust acts, such as bullying, and does nothing to prevent the injustice.
    • Brave Upstander: A brave upstander joins with others, or stands alone, to protect others from violent circumstances in everyday experiences, such as bullying, or actively engages in promoting the wellbeing of others to balance inequalities or oppression.

RESOURCES: 

    • Bea the Upstander game by John Rapaccioli, 2016.

Justice Encounter: To Act OR Not To Act

Hannah Senesh 806 by Linda Stein (2014) 5 ft. sq. leather, metal, canvas, paint, fabric & mixed media
Hannah Senesh 806 by Linda Stein (2014)
5 ft. sq. leather, metal, canvas, paint, fabric & mixed media

GOALS and OBJECTIVES

  • explore issues of social justice and social justice activism as upstander
  • understand why and how people take action to address injustice
  • develop empathy for people whose experiences differ from our own
  • inspire participants (through art) to be upstanders for social justice
  • recognize how one’s life history shapes personal perspectives on upstander behavior and social justice

The Holocaust, slavery, lynchings, and other human rights abuses are not, as we would like to believe, accidents in history. They happened because individuals, groups, and nations made decisions and choices to act or not to act.

REFLECT upon the following questions.

  • How have I been complicit in perpetuating racism, sexism and stereotypes or creating a climate of animosity, xenophobia, or homophobia—(i.e., through jokes, comments, and casual remarks, etc.)?
  • How have I exhibited upstander behavior in either mundane or monumental ways?

MAKE a parallel list of upstander behaviors vs bystander behaviors.

VISUALIZE Social Justice

Envision how we might change our institutions and our psyches…to take seriously the nurturance of consciousness, conscience, compassion, and community.

RESOURCES

  • Curricular Encounters with Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females—Tapestries and Sculpture by Linda Stein @ http://h2f2encounters.cyberhouse.emitto.net/
  • Knight, W. B. (2010). Never again a (K)night with Ben. In A. Arnold, A. Kuo, E. Delacruz & M. Parsons (Eds.), G.L.O.B.A.L.I.Z.A.T.I.O.N, Art, and Education (pp. 126-134). Reston, VA: The National Art Education Association.
  • Stein, L. (Ed.). (2016). Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females—Tapestries and Sculpture by Linda Stein. Philadelphia, PA: Old City Publishing.
Download Justice Encounter lesson plan

From Nativist Hysteria to Upstanders

Ruth-Gruber
Ruth Gruber 805. Tapestry by Linda Stein. Leather, archival pigment on canvas, fabric, metal, zippers; 57 x 57¼ x 2 inches; 2015.

VIEW FILMS:

DISCUSS:

    • Kindertransport as upstander acts
    • Photographs, films, and art as upstander acts: “words and images to fight injustice” Ruth Gruber
    • Restitution as upstander acts

RESOURCES:

    • Knight, W. B. (2010). Never again a (K)night with Ben. In A. Arnold, A. Kuo, E. Delacruz & M. Parsons (Eds.), G.L.O.B.A.L.I.Z.A.T.I.O.N, Art, and Education (pp. 126-134). Reston, VA: The National Art Education Association.
    • Miller, D. (2003). Principles of social justice. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
    • Pérez de Miles, A., & Peck, S. (2017). Exhibition as curriculum: Creativity as a human right. Art Education, 70(4), 60-64.
    • Stein, L. (Ed.). (2016). Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females—Tapestries and Sculpture by Linda Stein. Philadelphia, PA: Old City Publishing.
    • Stein, L. (Ed.). (2016). Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females—Tapestries and Sculpture by Linda Stein. Philadelphia, PA: Old City Publishing.
Download From Nativist Hysteria to Upstanders

Identity

ENCOUNTERS WITH THE FLUIDITY OF GENDER: SCULPTURE BY LINDA STEIN

To begin, sit in a circle and ask the participants to write three words that define themselves or how they would like to be known. Follow this prompt with distributing Black Lives Matter ribbons or post-its that they might wear, and ask what matters to them that others should consider for the good of all. What should matter to the society at large?

Next, the facilitator invites participants in the circle to introduce themselves by stating their name, which can be a name that they wish to use for this session, and to let all in the group know their preferred pronoun. I share a story in which one of my sons said to his younger brother that everyone knows the name our parents gave us reflect our parents’ values. In this session, they can name themselves based on their values. Regarding pronouns, provide examples and clarify some terms that will be helpful in discussing the art in the exhibition. [Linked here is an article on the NYC Commission on Human Rights protecting an individual’s right to a preferred name and pronoun.]

Ask that they use a gender identity concept or experience to write a Find Card. Three resources for terminology are linked here: 1 & 2 & 3 global. A Find Card begins with a directive or prompt to find something in an exhibition. The find prompt is followed by a question. Participants visiting the exhibition create the Find Cards rather than the educator.

As facilitator, introduce the process and provide a handout with the process outlined and with examples of Find Cards (see pdf below for example). The facilitator can either join a team and participate, or circulate to hear some of the conversation among each team.

Importantly, during the second half of the Fluidity of Gender workshop, the facilitator leads the full group discussion by asking each team to take the full group to the work they selected, listen closely, affirm the value of their perspectives, contribute information about the art and artist, and raise questions to the full group from what the team brought to attention. Then ask the authors of the Find Card to discuss what work they had in mind in writing their Find Card and why they posed the question that they did.

Resources

Gender Bias Bingo Learning Project

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie “we need to deconstruct the way we have constructed masculinity” (April 5, 2017).

Keifer-Boyd, K. (2010). Visual culture and gender constructions. The International Journal of Arts Education, 8(1), 1-44 (In English 1-24, & Chinese 25-44] ISSN 1728-175X. Posted online with permission of the IJAE editors.

Kimmel, M. (2015). Why gender equality is good for everyone — men included. [TedTalk, 15:58 min.]

Killerman, S. (2014). Breaking through the Binary: Gender explained using continuums.

Regender.com

SafeZone Project [Activities focused on Intersectionality such as Identity Signs.] Privilege for Sale(+) (Gender ID Focused Ed).

Trans*Form Education is a website created by Kevin Jenkins (2017) that includes reading Lists, resources, videos, and information about Trans Topics & Trans*Affirming Environments.

Trans Ally Resources by Adetty Pérez de Miles and Kevin Jenkins (2017)

How You Can Help to Protect Trans Kids Right Now by Katie Dupere (Feb. 23, 2017)

Schools in Transition: A Guide for Supporting Transgender Students in K-12 Schools (2015)

Teaching Beyond the Gender Binary in the University Classroom by Brielle Harbin (2016)

Trans 101: Gender Diversity Crash Course by Ygender (2017)

Encounters with The Fluidity of Gender: Sculpture by Linda Stein

Find Card activity

fluidityofgender

2016 Summer Institute Directions

LINDA STEIN LOFT
100 READE STREET
TRIBECA, MANHATTAN

212. 964. 6007
Cell: 917. 902. 8500

Bet. West Broadway & Church St.
(Reade is one block north of Chambers St.)

THE STEIN BELL IS TO THE RIGHT OF THE RAMP
(NOT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BUILDING)

Subways: 1, 2, 3 to Chambers St
A, C to Chambers St
or 4, 5, 6 to Brooklyn Bridge
R to City Hall

Garage on Reade Street, just west of West Broadway

PARKING

Parking available on Reade Street and side streets starting at 6 PM.

View on Google Map

 

2016 Summer Institute Registration

Don’t miss the Summer Art Institute in New York City, July 11-14, 2016!

Make art at Linda Stein’s Tribeca studio in New York City.
Visit galleries and participate in teacher workshops on social justice art curricula.

Space is limited!! REGISTER ONLINE NOW: $485 per person

Scholarships available, call 212-964-6007

Options to register for 3 graduate credits from Penn State’s World Campus,
or receive 2 Professional Development Continuing Education Units.

Free tuition if enrolled in 3 graduate credits from Penn State’s World Campus. Check with your university graduate school policy and program or advisor to approve transfer credits.

Questions about the graduate course AED 813: Contemporary Art & Public Pedagogy taught by Dr. Karen Keifer-Boyd. Contact: kk-b@psu.edu

STEP 1. Please select one that best describes your registration from the following:

STEP 2. Provide Your Personal Information

This will also be your username on H2F2 Encounters website.
 
 

STEP 3. Register