Asiyah Kurtz, Executive Director of Camden FireWorks and co-panelist, addressed various circumstances Camden residents are facing.

For instance, “many people who ride the buses in [Camden] are zero-car families,” Kurtz said. “They don’t have cars. They’re riding a bus with wind in the snow, through rain. There’s no shelter, there’s no seating.”

Also, the median age in Camden is “very young.” Kurtz claimed that this problem is due to a lack of access: “If you don’t have access to clean air, fresh water, good health care, [and] fresh food, how are you going to age healthfully? You’re not,” Kurtz said.

In light of MLK Day and considering what issues Camden residents are struggling with, panelists discussed how artivism can mobilize communities in Camden and elsewhere. Artivism is a way of transforming society into a more equitable place through art.

“I don’t believe that art is just to be on the wall for beauty’s sake,” Kurtz said. “For people who are hurting, art can be really a mirror [and] can reflect [and] amplify how you’re feeling.”

Echoing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Kurtz urged people to think of art as a way to examine the needs of underrepresented communities.

“[Dr. King] said a riot is the language of the unheard, and that’s what art does,” Kurtz said. “It provides us with visual language.”

In addition to helping people survive and connect with one another, art can activate change. It can come in many forms. Each of the panelists has found creative ways to transform the community.
“We think of artists as curators of certain types of art,” Rann Miller, Director at Camden’s Promise Charter Schools and co-panelist, said. “As a teacher, you’re a curator of certain types of information and where the information comes from.”

Miller considers teaching to be a way to change the lives of our youth.

“I’m able to funnel my young people to certain places to find information [and] hopefully give them an accurate understanding of how to define truth for themselves,” Miller said.“Truth is manipulated, [so] young people have to have the tools in order to decipher what’s truth and what is not,” Miller said.

As someone heavily involved in activism, Kurtz has partnered with several projects throughout the city. “We have not forgotten about the people who maybe are undesirable, [like] our unhoused folks, folks who have substance use disorders,” Kurtz said. “We engage them in a research project to document Waterfront South [and ask them] ‘where are the places that are the least safe to you that we can intervene with public art?’”

Santos highlighted that it is crucial to support artists who may not have the opportunity to both work and create.
“I honestly think it starts with throwing house parties again,” Santos said. “You want to see [these] artists? Bring them into your home. Everybody that knows me knows my home [has] always been a place [where] people can lay their head. I’m usually cooking something, and we can chop it up over art.

In the spirit of Dr. King, the panelists provided several calls to action, emphasizing that we are all agents who should play our part.

“Give a damn,” Kurtz said.

“Find the thing that you care about and love that. [And] that requires that you give something [if] you care [and] if you are really doing the work. Now, if you just want to talk about it, that’s fine. That doesn’t cost anything. But if you want to make a difference, you have to give a damn.”
Miller stated that we have to “shy away from that Western pull to be individuals” and mobilize the community, both young and old. He argued that the elders have the connection to history, and young people have the energy to get things done.

“Sometimes the elders can’t just get up and do like they used to do, but if they got a young person [they’re] connected to [who is] full of fire, that elder can now cultivate that fire,” Miller said.

Santos said that communities need to be more “assertive” and “accountable” in exercising their power.

“I think what we’ve identified clearer than ever, especially in the last election, is that our powers have different subjects,” Santos said. “Our voting power – the democratic power – [is] very, very weak. Our creative power, thanks to people like you, [is] very, very strong. [And] the last power [we] have [is] spending power.”

Santos also called on artists to utilize their ability to connect with people, claiming that “the revolution needs a marketing agency.”

Donald Trump has just gotten started.

Panelists and attendees expressed their concern for the future of their community and nation and also gave practical steps on how to make a difference.

“Finding ways within our governance structure [to help] that pendulum of power swing back and forth between the people who elect and the people who are elected is a very important balance to try to strike,” Kurtz said.

People have to recognize what their own power is and how they can use it in their respective fields, Kurtz suggested.

“It requires a body of people who are not afraid to piss somebody off. Martin Luther King was not very well liked in his day, [but] he was revolutionary,” Kurtz said. “Everybody has power. How are you using it?”