Something more to love about Atlanta. Im not sure if it was coming of age or moving to the Deep South, or maybe it was both, but I am very grateful to live in a city, maybe the city, that broke or at least loosened the tight grip of the old ways in our world. It is inspiring to see what Atlanta is today, and the previous work is inspiring new, ongoing work on behalf of Universal Human Rights. On a more personal level, I will never forget stepping into a classroom in middle Georgia, 28 years old, fresh from grad school, to teach a course on Music Appreciation to a class of university workers who were taking courses to earn their own undergraduate degrees. There I was, for the first time in my life, the only white man in the room, standing in front of 40 or more middle aged African American men and women. I was appointed to teach the class about musical beauty. I felt so very ashamed as I looked at their faces and wondered about their own life stories, what their jobs were, how their lives and mine were the same, and how they were different, and I thought immediately and specifically that their lives were probably rich with music of all sorts, none of which would be represented or discussed in the textbook my Chair had directed me to use. The short story is I did not pass out the syllabus. I regrouped quickly; flushed Im sure, I sat on the desk, and I started talking to them about anything you can notice about a sound-- how high, how low, from where, how loud, how soft, shrill, soothing, random or patterned, etc. This class, 6 or maybe 7 pm in a mid Sept evening of 1996, it was the beginning of a great personal awakening for me-- I revamped the syllabus, ordered different teaching and study materials, and I started studying what I came to call Aesthetic Apartheid, what it is, how it is manifested not just in secondary and university education, but most importantly, in our relations with one another. Shame breaks you, and if grace is present, you learn. Grace is still present and I am still learning. Im looking forward to going to the museum.
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 01:12:21 +0000
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