Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EST January 12th 2024

5 Comments

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we took a close look at the painting “Resurgence of the People” by Kent Monkman, posted below.

Our prompt was: “Start with ‘A community is..’”

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Please join us for our next session Friday January 19th at 12pm EST, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

“Resurgence of the People” by Kent Monkman

Kent Monkman (Cree, b. 1965). Resurgence of the People, 2019. Acrylic on canvas, 132 x 264 in. (335.28 x 670.6 cm).

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Donald R. Sobey Foundation CAF Canada Project Gift, 2020. Image courtesy of the artist

5 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EST January 12th 2024”

  1. michele348's avatar michele348

    A Community is …

    A community is a group of humanity where the driving force is a commonality of some sort.

    All members strive for similar goals such as a stable living environment, finances to support family life, safety for its members, and freedom to be you.

    A community is like-minded individuals where each member is unique, each is capable of making a contribution to the group as a whole, and each is accepted unconditionally by those around him.

    Through a sense of community, there is a sense of self-empowerment and self-worth, a feeling of being a member of something larger than oneself.

    In this world, each of us is a member of the community of the world, taking our space on this huge lifeboat called Earth.

    Sad that many of us forget that simple fact.

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  2. michele348's avatar michele348

    A Community is…

    A community is a group of humanity where the driving force is a commonality of some sort.

    All members strive for similar goals such as a stable living environment, finances to support family life, safety for its members, and freedom to be you.

    A community is like-minded individuals where each member is unique, each is capable of making a contribution to the group as a whole, and each is accepted unconditionally by those around him.

    Through a sense of community, there is a sense of self-empowerment and self-worth, a feeling of being a member of something larger than oneself.

    In this world, each of us is a single member of the community of the world, taking our space on this huge lifeboat called Earth.

    Sad that many of us forget that simple fact.

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    • al3793's avatar al3793

      Michele, the narrator points out that a community shares common features, the most important, I believe, is a common humanity. Along with that is the common capacity to contribute to something larger than the self which takes me right back into Monkman’s painting. Each member, being a piece of the puzzle of this painting playing out on the “lifeboat called Earth.” Thank you. Andre

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  3. al3793's avatar al3793

    A Community

    The water’s surface, coarse as a rasp, nearly breached the boat,
    an entire community contained within
    seeking to be present, free.
    Somehow the boat withstands nature’s assault.
    Those who have endured the times of great distress
    hold the craft on course and reach out to help.
    A new baby delights the community that surrounds it,
    not the center of the piece
    yet a central sign of the resurgence of life.
    Guiding the ship, two spirit, eyes fixed, like a billet head,
    on a vision for this community that inspires
    others to follow.

    [An Ekphrasis – Kent Monkman, Resurgence of the People]
    afl 01.12.24

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    • michele348's avatar michele348

      Even if we are strangers, we are kin in the general sense of the term. We walk the face of this earth or sail the seas facing similar fears and hardships. Are we so much different from each other once we pull off our facades, our prejudices, our pre-judgements? We all are in the same lifeboat, struggling to maintain course.

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