Amina and Hawthorne
An Encounter
Which cultures are you part of and where do you feel you belong?
After a weekend at an underground gig, Amina spent time with artists who were debating culture and identity. It’s 9am on a Monday morning and Amina heads to her first Arts 110 lecture with Professor Hawthorne. She knows her experiences are real and that the world is changing. But in a room like this, speaking up isn’t always easy.
Now she has a choice: stay quiet, or challenge the conversation?
How do ideas about fairness and having a voice shape the choices you make every day?
Wednesday arrives quickly.
Since Monday’s lecture, Amina’s phone has been alive with messages from friends on Crossroads, the new social platform where debates move fast and opinions move faster. The conversation hasn’t slowed down because the world hasn’t slowed down and videos are circulating FAST. She wonders if Hawthorne has a phone. Can he see the state of the world? Does he care to look? She takes a breath before stepping back into class where Professor Hawthorne stands at the front of the room.
Something in the air feels different today. Something has changed.
Who gets to decide what culture counts and who gets left out?
It’s Friday and Amina is looking forward to going to see her friends rock band tonight to let off some energy from the start of her arts degree. The final lecture of the week with Hawthorne but another 12 weeks to go. Today the lecture theme is tradition, art, and funding. But Amina can’t stop thinking about the artists she met at the underground gig last weekend. The ones creating work no institution would ever display. The ones who are informed by the current state of the world. Amina looks at Hawthorne and she remembers that there is a possibility for conversations to go somewhere new. If we are open to it…