Upon arriving at Hamline University,  I had my whole future planned out I would become a forensic scientist and work at the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. I always loved my science classes and even became a teacher's assistant for my favorite class in high school, Human Anatomy and Physiology. I would soon find out after taking an ecology class that maybe I wasn’t cut out to do that type of work and my interest in forensic science had shifted elsewhere. I struggled trying to pass that class and was completely distraught about what I had thought would be my career. I originally came to Hamline with a Criminology major, and a Forensic Science minor.  Our common read for the year was Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson: this was a book that I could not put down. It criticized the criminal justice system and had real life experiences from those that were unjustly incarcerated. This very book sparked the question that puzzles me: How can the land of the free hold the most incarcerated people in the world, and why are they disportionately brown and black people? These questions led me to change my field of study to a Social Justice major and a Digital Media Arts and Criminology minor.

The same semester I struggled to pass that science class I took two very influential classes that helped shift me into my current academic path: Art, Creativity, and Social Change, and Crime and Justice in America. The first class was my first year seminar, which originally caught my attention because the class description said we would talk about Beyonce’s visual album (we never actually did). It was a happy accident, because this class was actually not my first choice. We explored the use of different forms of art and its impact on the awareness of social issues such as spoken word, poetry, rap, and comedy. We watched the documentary Race is the Place, which focuses on race in America by examining performances and interviews in a variety of cultures. The second class was taught by Jason Sole. I connected with his experience because it is one similar to many of my relatives in southside Chicago. I was born in Chicago, and the violence there made it almost impossible to have a normal childhood hence my relocation to Minnesota. I learned so many things in that class that I was never exposed to in all my education, and I was awakened to the broken systems in America. This realization angered me and I displaced my anger into art which would progress with my knowledge of the injustices I’d encountered. Art was my way of meditation, it was relieving and therapeutic. At first, it seemed impossible to find something that could fulfill all my interests because they were all so different. I was told to speak with Professor Valerie Chepp and she recommended majoring in Social Justice due to its accommodating and customizable curriculum. We had come up with a great idea to intertwine my different areas of interest into a concentration of Race, Art, and Social Justice. 

My major and minors have always brought up the question: Well what do plan on doing with all of that? I have a hard time trying to articulate all the things I plan to do with them, but I know that art is powerful and imitates reality. Combining art and social justice will bring light to issues often left in darkness. Summer of 2019, I was a part of a HECUA program called: Race in America: Then and Now, we learned so many things about the important people who were part of the Civil Rights Movement and got to meet so many amazing people including, Hollis Watkins, Charles McLaurin, John Steele, Myrna Carter Jackson,and more. As I’m writing this I am currently taking an Independent Study class on Social Justice and the Black Arts Movement. I’ve been reflecting on the black aesthetic in different art forms from theatre to poetry. These artists used their art to reflect on the challenges they were facing. My experience in social justice has taught me to think critically about the issues that are occuring around me and also think about how I can be more involved to make change. The knowledge I’ve gained has helped to make me more confident in the positions that I take on issues, it has made me more aware of political actors, and systems that have been oppressive. I hope to be able to effective create work that can inspire others to fight for a just, diverse, and equitable society.