Aja Monet: Our story begins like all great, young love stories.
阿贾 · 莫奈:我们故事的开始,如同 所有美好以及年轻的爱情故事一般。
Phillip Agnew: She slid in my DMs ...
菲利普 · 阿格纽: 她私发了我消息...
AM: He liked about 50 of my photos, back-to-back, in the middle of the night --
莫奈:他点赞了 大约五十张我的照片, 在大半夜,毫不停歇 ——
PA: What I saw was an artist committed to truth and justice -- and she's beautiful, but I digress.
阿格纽:我看到的只是一个 遵守着真理与正义的艺术家-- 并且她十分漂亮,但这跑题了。
AM: Our story actually begins across many worlds, over maqluba and red wine in Palestine. But how did we get there?
莫奈:其实,我们的故事 开始于多个世界的跨越 跨越了巴勒斯坦的抓饭以及红酒。 但我们是如何走到这一步的呢?
PA: Well, I was born in Chicago, the son of a preacher and a teacher. My ears first rung with church songs sung by my mother on Saturday mornings. My father's South Side sermons summoned me. My first words were more notes than quotes. It was music that molded me. Later on, it was Florida A&M University that first introduced me to organizing. In 2012, a young black male named Trayvon Martin was murdered, and it changed my life and millions of others'. We were a ragtag group of college kids and not-quite adults who had decided enough was enough. Art and organizing became our answer to anger and anxiety. We built a movement and it traveled around the world and to Palestine, in 2015.
阿格纽:好吧,我出生在芝加哥, 是一个牧师和老师的孩子。 在周六的清晨,萦绕在我耳畔 的是我母亲唱的教堂乐曲。 我父亲的南方布道也唤召了我。 我最早学会的音符比名言更多。 是音乐塑造了我。 之后,我在佛罗里达农工大学中 学到了怎样去组织策划。 2012年,一个叫特雷沃恩·马丁的 年轻的黑人男性被谋杀了, 这改变了我和数百万人的生命轨迹。 我们是一群底层社会中的大学生, 尚未成年, 我们已经受够了。 艺术与组织成为了我们对愤怒 以及焦虑的解决方式。 我们创立了一项运动 并且它传遍全球 在2015年的时候, 传到了巴勒斯坦。
AM: I was born to a single mother in the Pink House projects of Brooklyn, New York. Maddened by survival, I gravitated inwards towards books, poems and my brother's hand-me-down Walkman. I saw train-station theater, subwoofing streets and hood murals. In high school, I found a community of metaphor magicians and truth-telling poets in an organization called Urban Word NYC. Adopted by the Black Arts movement, I won the legendary Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam title.
莫奈:我是一个单亲妈妈的孩子 在纽约布鲁克林中居住着 由粉红房屋计划提供的房子。 在被生存逼得抓狂的情况下, 我开始投身于书籍,诗歌 以及我哥哥二手的随身听。 我看着火车站剧院, 用低音炮发出的噪音 喧哗着整条街与车头的壁画。 在高中,我发现了一个由 善用比喻的魔术师 以及说真话的诗人组成的组织 叫做“纽约城新语”。 在被黑人艺术运动接受后, 我赢得了传奇新波多黎各 诗人俱乐部的大奖。
(Applause and cheers)
(掌声与欢呼声)
At Sarah Lawrence College, I worked with artists to respond to Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake; I discovered the impact of poetry and the ability to not just articulate our feelings, but to get us to work towards changing things and doing something about it, when a friend, Maytha Alhassen, invited me to Palestine ...
在莎拉劳伦斯学院, 我与艺术家们合作 来对卡特里娜飓风 以及地震做出回应。 我发现了诗歌的影响力 以及它的力量, 不仅限于表达我们所感, 更多的是让我们去努力改变事物 并且对之有所贡献, 当我一个朋友,梅萨 · 阿哈森, 邀请我到巴勒斯坦时...
PA: We were a delegation of artists and organizers, and we immersed ourselves in Palestinian culture, music, their stories. Late into the night, we would have discussions about the role of art in politics and the role of politics in art. Aja and I disagree.
阿格纽:我们是艺术家 以及组织者的代表, 并且我们沉浸于巴勒斯坦文化, 他们的音乐,故事。 夜里晚些时候, 我们举行一些关于艺术 在政治上所扮演的角色 与政治在艺术上的地位的讨论。 阿贾和我不同意。
AM: Oh, we disagree.
莫奈:喔,我们不同意。
PA: But we quite quickly and unsurprisingly fell in love. Exhibit A: me working my magic.
阿格纽:但是我们毫无意外地 以迅雷不及掩耳之势坠入爱河。 让你们看看 我所展现出的魅力。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
AM: Obvious, isn't it? Four months later, this artist --
莫奈:很明显,不是吗? 四个月之后,这个艺术家--
PA: and this organizer --
阿格纽:与这个组织者--
AM: moved into a little home with a big backyard, in Miami.
莫奈:搬到了迈阿密 一个拥有大后院的小屋。
PA: (Sighs) Listen, five months before this ever happened, I predicted it all. I'm going to tell you -- a friend sat me down and said, "You've done so much for organizing, when are you going to settle down?" I looked him straight in the face and I said, "The only way that it would ever happen is if it is a collision. This woman would have to knock me completely off course." I didn't know how right I was.
阿格纽:(叹气) 听着,在这发生前的五个月, 我全都预测到了。 你们得相信我 —— 我的一个朋友让我坐下然后说, “你已经为组织策划做了太多, 你打算什么时候安定下来呢?” 我直勾勾地看着他的脸 说:“令这发生的唯一的办法 是一场激烈的碰撞。 这个女人得让我完全为她而倾倒。” 我不知道我有多正确。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Our first few months were like any between young lovers: filled with hot, passionate, all-night ...
我们刚刚开始的几个月 就同任何年轻恋人们一般: 充斥着彻夜的兴奋的与热情的...
AM: nonstop ...
莫奈:毫不停歇的...
PA: discussions.
阿格纽:讨论。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
PA: Aja challenged everything I knew and understood about the world. She forced me --
阿格纽:阿贾挑战了我对 这个世界的一切的认知。 她强迫我 ——
AM: lovingly --
莫奈:含情脉脉地 ——
PA: to see our organizing work with new eyes. She helped me see the unseen things and how artists illuminate our interior worlds.
阿格纽:用新的角度来 审视我们的策划成果。 她帮助我看到盲点 以及艺术家们是如何点亮 我们的内在世界的。
AM: There were many days I did not want to get up out of bed and face the exterior world. I was discouraged. There was so much loss and death and artists were being used to numb, lull and exploit. While winning awards, accolades and grants soothed so many egos, people were still dying and I was seeking community. Meeting Phillip brought so much joy, love, truth into my life, and it pulled me out of isolation. He showed me that community and relationships wasn't just about building great movements. It was integral in creating powerful, meaningful art, and neither could be done in solitude.
莫奈:有许多日子我 曾不想从床上起身 来面对外面的世界。 我被挫伤了。 那儿有太多的伤亡 而艺术家正被利用来麻木, 哄骗大众。 当获得嘉奖以及补助时, 自我能被抚慰, 但人们还在死去 然后我在寻找一个社群。 认识菲利普给我的生活 带来了许多欢乐,爱以及真理, 并且这把我脱离了独处。 他给我展示了社群以及人际关系 不只是关于打造伟大的运动。 它在创造有力并且意义 非凡的艺术时是必不可缺的, 而这在孤身一人时是无法完成的。
PA: Yeah, we realized many of our artist and organizer friends were also lost in these cycles of sadness, and we were in movements that often found themselves at funerals. We asked ourselves what becomes of a generation all too familiar with the untimely ends of lives streamed daily on our Timelines? It was during one of our late-night discussions that we saw beyond art and organizing and began to see that art was organizing.
阿格纽:嗯,我们意识到了我们许多 艺术家以及组织者朋友也同样迷失于 这类伤感循环, 并且我们处身的这场运动, 常常使我们出现在葬礼当中。 我们曾问过自己 是什么让我们变成了一代太习惯于 在我们的时间线中, 目睹一个个生命过早地结束。 在我们一次深夜讨论时 我们看到了超越 艺术和组织本身的东西 并且开始去将组织视为艺术。
AM: The idea was set: art was an anchor, not an accessory to movement. Our home was a home of radical imagination; an instrument of our nurturing hearts; a place of risk where were dared to laugh, love, cry, debate. Art, books, records and all this stuff decorated our walls, and there was lizards -- walls of palm trees that guided our guests into our backyard, where our neighbors would come and feel right at home. The wind -- the wind was an affirmation for the people who walked into the space. And we learned that in a world -- a bewildering world of so much distraction -- we were able to cultivate a space where people could come and be present, and artists and organizers could find refuge.
莫奈:想法是这样建立的-- 艺术本身是一支锚, 而不是运动的一个附件。 我们的家,是激进变革想象的家; 是一把培育我们内心的乐器; 是一个我们敢笑,敢爱, 敢泣,敢论又充满风险的地方。 艺术,书籍,唱片以及所有 这类东西装饰了我们的墙壁, 那儿还有蜥蜴, 和棕榈树之墙引领领宾客前往后院, 在那里,邻居们会感到 如同在自己家一般。 那风 —— 风是对走进那个地方 的人的一种肯定。 然后我们学习到在一个世界 —— 一个充斥着许多心烦意乱的 令人迷惑的世界—— 我们有能力培养一个 人们可以光临的空间, 并且艺术家和组织者足以找到慰藉。
PA: This became Smoke Signals Studio.
阿格纽:这便成了烟雾信号工作室。
AM: As we struggle to clothe, house, feed and educate our communities; our spirits hunger for connection, joy and purpose; and as our bodies are out on the front lines, our souls still need to be fed, or else we succumb to despair and depression. Our art possesses rhythmic communication, coded emotional cues, improvised feelings of critical thought. Our social movements should be like jazz: encouraging active participation, listening, spontaneity and freedom. What people see as a party ...
莫奈:当我们挣扎着去为我们的社群 提供衣食住行以及教育; 我们在精神上渴求联系, 快乐以及目的; 当我们身躯在前线作战时, 我们的灵魂依旧需要被满足, 否则便是在绝望与压抑中屈服陨灭。 我们的艺术掌握了律动交际, 编码的情绪线索, 对于批判性思维的即兴感受。 我们的社会运动应该像爵士乐: 鼓励积极参与, 倾听, 自发性以及自由。 人们看作是一个派对的东西...
PA: is actually a movement meeting. See, we aren't all protest and pain. Here's a place to be loved, to be felt, to be heard, and where we prepare for the most pressing political issues in our neighborhoods. See, laws never change culture, but culture always changes laws. Art --
阿格纽:其实是一个运动集会。 看吧,我们不都是反抗和疼痛。 这是一个被爱的地方, 被感知,被倾听, 在这里,我们为了我们邻里 之间最紧急的政治问题 而准备。 看吧,法律永远不会改变文化, 但文化总是改变法律。 艺术,
(Applause)
(掌声)
Art as organizing is even changing and opening doors in places seen as the opposite of freedom. Our weekly poetry series is transforming the lives of men incarcerated at Dade Correctional, and we're so excited to bring you all the published work of one of those men, Echo Martinez. In the intro, he says ...
艺术作为组织本身时甚至改变 以及对那些被视为 反自由的地方敞开大门。 我们每周的诗歌系列 正在转化囚禁在 达德修正监狱的人的生活, 并且我们十分兴奋地 向你们分享其中一人的出版作品。 厄科 · 马丁内斯。 在引言里,他说,
AM: "Poetry for the people is a sick pen's penicillin. It's a cuff key to a prisoner's dreams. The Molotov in the ink. It is knowledge, it is overstanding, it is tasting ingredients in everything you've been force-fed, but most of all, it's a reminder that we all have voices, we all can be heard even if we have to scream."
莫奈:“诗歌对于人们来说 就相当于一只病者的青霉素。 是手铐钥匙之于囚犯的梦想。 是墨水中的莫洛托夫。 这是知识,是导向, 是在你所有被迫咽下的 食物中的品尝成分, 但最重要的是,这是一个提醒, 提醒我们都可以发声, 我们都可以被听见 即使我们需要呐喊。”
In 2018, we created our first annual Maroon Poetry Festival at the TACOLCY Center in Liberty City. There, the Last Poets, Sonia Sanchez, Emory Douglas and the late, great Ntozake Shange, performed and met with local artists and organizers. We were able to honor them for their commitment to radical truth-telling. And in addition to that, we transformed a public park into the physical manifestation of the world we are organizing for. Everything that we put into poetry, we put into the art, into the creativity, into the curated kids' games and into the stunning stage design.
在2018年,我们创建了 第一个年度栗色诗歌节 在自由城的Talcocy中心。 在那,“最后的诗人”, 索尼娅 · 桑切斯,埃默里 · 道格拉斯 以及现已去世的伟大诗人 尼托扎克 · 尚吉 表演并与当地艺术家和组织者会面。 我们能向他们致敬 因他们对激进地讲真话的遵守。 还有, 我们改造了一个公园 把它变成了我们所 策划的世界的实体体现。 我们对诗歌灌注的心血 同时也灌注雨对艺术,于创造性, 于组织的孩童游戏 以及出色舞台的设计。
PA: Our work is in a long line of cultural organizers that understood to use art to animate a radical future. Artists like June Jordan, Emory Douglas and Nina Simone. They understood what many of us are just now realizing -- that to get people to build the ship, you've got to get them to long for the sea; that data rarely moves people, but great art always does. This understanding --
阿格纽:我们的工作是 在未来很长一段时间内 去令文化组织者们意识到运用 艺术去点燃激进变革的未来。 如朱恩 · 乔丹一般的艺术家, 如埃默里 · 道格拉斯 以及妮娜 · 西蒙。 他们知道了我们才意识到的-- 若让人们一同来建造方舟, 你得先激发他们对大海的渴望; 数据很少动摇人们, 但伟大的艺术却总能奏效。 这种理解,
(Applause)
(掌声)
This understanding informed the thinking behind the Dream Defenders' "Freedom Papers," a radical political vision for the future of Florida that talked about people over profits. Now, we could have done a policy paper. Instead, artists and organizers came together in their poetry to create incredible murals and did the video that we see behind us. We joined the political precision of the Black Panther Party and the beautiful poetry of Puerto Rican poet Martín Espada to bring our political vision to life.
这种理解塑造了 梦想捍卫者的《自由报》背后的理念, 一种对佛罗里达未来的 激进改革的政治视野: 重视人们,而非利益 我们本可以做一份政治报纸。 取而代之的是,艺术家和 组织者在诗歌当中被召集 来创造不可思议的壁画 以及制作了我们身后的视频。 我们融合了黑豹党的政治精确 以及波多黎各诗人 马丁 · 埃斯帕达的美妙诗歌 如此实现我们的政治愿景。
AM: Now thousands of Floridians across age, race, gender and class see the "Freedom Papers" as a vision for the future of their lives. For decades, our artists and our art has been used to exploit, lull, numb, sell things to us and to displace our communities, but we believe that the personal is political and the heart is measured by what is done, not what one feels. And so art as organizing is not just concerned with artists' intentions, but their actual impact. Great art is not a monologue. Great art is a dialogue between the artist and the people.
莫奈:现在成千的,不同年龄 种族,性别及阶层的佛罗里达人 将《自由报》视为他们未来的生活。 数十年来,我们的 艺术家及艺术被利用, 镇静,麻木大众, 向我们贩卖思想, 并且来置换我们的社区, 但我们相信个人的便是政治的 并且人心是由所做来测量的, 而不是所感。 所以艺术作为组织本身时 不只是关注艺术家的意图 但更关注于他们实际的影响。 伟大的艺术不是一场独白。 伟大的艺术是一次 艺术家与人们的对白。
PA: Four years ago, this artist ...
阿格纽:四年前,这个艺术家···
AM: and this organizer ...
莫奈:与这个组织者···
PA: found that we were not just a match.
阿格纽:意识到我们 真的不只是一根火柴。
AM: We were a mirror.
莫奈:我们是一片镜子。
PA: Our worlds truly did collide, and in many ways ...
阿格纽:我们的世界真的开始碰撞, 方方面面地...
AM: they combined.
莫奈:融合了。
PA: We learned so much about movement, about love and about art at its most impactful: when it articulates the impossible and when it erodes individualism, when it plays into the gray places of our black and white worlds, when it does what our democracy does not, when it reminds us that we are not islands, when it adorns every street but Wall Street and Madison Avenue, when it reminds us that we are not islands and refuses to succumb to the numbness, when it indicts empire and inspires each and every one of us to love, tell the truth and make revolution irresistible.
阿格纽:这次运动中, 我们学习到了太多 关于爱以及艺术在其 最有影响力的时候: 当它展现出不可能时, 当它侵蚀个人主义时, 当它在这非黑即白的世界 里扮演灰色地带的角色时 当它办到我们民主力所不及时, 当它提醒我们并不是孤岛时, 当它使除了华尔街和麦迪逊大道 之外的每条街更加灿烂时, 当它提醒我们并不是孤岛时 以及拒绝对麻木感屈服, 当它控诉帝国 同时点燃了每一个人去爱, 去说真话, 去让革命无法抗拒的灵感。
AM: For the wizards --
莫奈:这些奇幻的,
(Applause)
(掌声)
AM: For the wizards and ways of our defiance, love-riot visions of our rising, risen, raised selves.
莫奈:我们反抗的方式, 稀奇古怪, 不断上升前进的自我 揣着热爱抗争的视野。
The overcoming grace -- fires, bitter tongues, wise as rickety rocking chairs, suffering salt and sand skies.
克服困难的优雅姿态 —— 烈火,苦涩, 睿智如摇摇晃晃的摇椅, 体会蓝天下的盐与沙。
Memories unshackled and shining stitches on a stretch-marked heart.
不受束缚的回忆与闪耀被缝合 在一颗满是皱纹的心上。
For the flowers that bloom in midnight scars. How we suffered and sought a North Star. When there was no light, we glowed. We sparked this rejoice, this righteous delight. We have a cause to take joy in. How we weathered and persisted, tenacious, no stone unturned. How we witnessed the horror of mankind and did not become that which horrified us.
为了那些在午夜伤痕中绽放的花儿。 我们是如何苦寻北极星的。 当那里没有光时,我们发光,发亮。 我们点亮了这般喜悦, 这充满正义感的快乐。 我们有去欣喜的理由。 我们是如何风吹日晒与坚持的, 顽强的, 尽我们一切努力。 我们是如何见证人性的恐怖, 却又不成为我们曾畏惧的人。
PA: Thank you.
阿格纽:谢谢你们。
AM: Thank you.
莫奈:谢谢你们。
(Applause)
(掌声)