A thought on revolution, the sacred, and light

Earlier this week I saw an exhibition entitled “Dancing the Revolution: From Dancehall to Reggaeton” which traces the impact of Carribean sound and movement.

Two things struck me about this exhibition.

The first was spiritual component of dance in Carribean culture. Going to a dancehall, for instance, is called going to church because the act of dancing is seen as transformative in the way that spiritual possession can be experienced in the Voodoo and Santeria practices in Cuba and Haiti. And in Panama, the buses driving through towns blasting reggae music are knows as diablos rojos or red devils.

The second was art as mode of revolution, which is the subject of many a conversation with my fellow artists—writers, photographers, dancers, painters. Which, reminds me of a Toni Morrison quote I cling to in these difficult times: This is precisely the time when artists go to work—not when everything is fine, but in times of dread. That’s our job!

And really, we are all artists! What is an artist but one who creates to express thoughts and feelings—whether through garden design or cooking or singing one’s child to sleep or painting. Modes of expression. Creation rather than destruction.

So I walked out of the Chicago Museum of Contemporary art on a sunny August afternoon with hope. I walked out into a plaza that had been transformed into a farmer’s market, with local cheeses and artisanal breads and the most beautiful cherry tomatoes. I walked out into the city with a delicious apple and crusty sourdough bread with the sun beating down on my face.

I walked down Michigan Avenue transformed, having been shown a way to face hard times, how to find spirituality in word, in movement, in color, how to “dance the revolution”, and to raise ourselves above the darkness with the light of our art! Because, as Pasternak, one of my favorite writers, reminds us, What for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but an inward music: the irresistible power of unarmed truth.