Using Arts Activism and Poetry to Catalyze Human Rights Engagement and Reflection

Abstract

Human rights are fundamental to our global social work profession, and teaching methods must be developed that truly engage students in taking a human rights approach to their work. This paper presents the process of engaging students in arts activism as a strategy for teaching about human rights in social work, and also discusses the catalyzing power of arts activism and poetry therapy to deepen student reflection on human rights. Students' responses to their involvement with One Million Bones—a global arts activism effort to prevent and remediate mass violence—are presented with commentary and interpretation. In this preliminary study, results indicate that arts activism and poetry therapy can work together to promote reflective engagement with human rights.

Keywords::

• Arts Activism
• Poetry Therapy
• One Million Bones
• Human Rights
• Reflection
• Social Work Education
• Critical Pedagogy

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the following social work students and community members for their participation in the installation at the College of Social Work, as well as the subsequent poetry writing: Chris Burney, Marlena Caporice, Chelsea Fox, Agnes Furey, Kristin Goff, Andrea Hollingsworth, Jon Jefferson, Monica Rupchis, Khadija Waldron, and Denitra Washington. Additionally, gratitude is due to Naomi Natale, the founding artist of One Million Bones.