Traveling Along the Silk Road: Cultural Diplomacy at the Baker Institute
Wednesday presented another scintillating evening at the
Baker Institute; the focus was on cultural diplomacy and celebrated with a panel
discussion between moderator Alison Weaver, executive director of the Moody
Center for the Arts at Rice University, Ellen Susman former director of the U.S.
Department of State’s Artists in Embassies program as an appointee of President
Barak Obama’s and Haruka Fiji and Danny Mekonnen, percussionist and saxophonist,
respectively, from the Silk Road Ensemble. The panel discussion and Q and A was
bookended with performances from the five members of the Silk Road Ensemble
currently in Houston as part of a three year residency at Rice University.
Briefly, it was wonderful and a much needed light, particularly during these
times.
The central question was “what role does art and culture play
in modern society, in this increasingly contentious world?”
The answers were thoughtful
and inspiring. In a keynote, Eduardo Braniff, the Silk Road Ensemble’s
executive director, emphasized “curiosity, deep listening, and empathy” and
that “there is more that keeps us together than takes us apart”. Ellen Susman
led off with an overview of the work that Art in Embassies program did to
incorporate art that reflected that home culture in U.S. ambassador homes
around the world and served to promote dialog and diplomacy with an
understanding of the cultural milieu that diplomats are part of. This leads to
promoting greater awareness of and sensitivity toward the cultures of the
various societies with which diplomats engage. The curatorial aspect is
critical to the use of local art in an international building; art builds respect
and fosters collaboration.
In both of these responses, the Silk Road Ensemble, founded
22 years ago by Yo-Yo Ma, reflect a full spectrum of all these elements. Last
night alone, there was a coming together of artists from Iran, India, Japan…Texas(!)
that was itself a performative conversation of different cultures.
Danny Mekonnen, originally born in Ethiopia, but who grew up
in Houston, graduated from Harvard with a degree in ethnomusicology (is this
correct) and is now based in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts stressed the
responsibility of the artist in listening to the voices of other artists and people
you encounter in collaboration and in travel. In travel, he pointed out, you connect
with other artists and the result of these encounters and dialogs is
cumulative.
Haruka Fiji stressed that the role of the artist can be
limitless and is characterized by storytelling of our lives, feelings, cultures
and as she put it, “information”; information that you can’t get from YouTube,
Facebook or reading the news or a book about a subject. And this information, through
such collaboration and cultural encounters, travels beyond the boundaries of the
local culture, the regional society. As an example, she referenced traditional
songs of the rural fisherman from her area in Japan that were disappearing because
of depopulation in Japan. She had incorporated some of these songs in her compositions
and they’ve been performed and reinterpreted across the world.
There was a short discussion about the possible failures of
cultural diplomacy but honestly, from the examples that Ellen gave, these are
minimal. For example, she was working with a donor who wanted to give a bust of
Vaclav Havel to the ambassador’s house in Prague. She pointed out to the donor
that it would have to be an unrestricted gift; it might or might not be on view
forever owing to the vagaries of changes in ambassadors. If the next ambassador,
say, didn’t like the bust, it might wind up in a closet. In any case, the donor
didn’t relent and the donation did not go through.
Danny’s reply resonated a little more; that in all
creativity there is risk-taking and that, as he put it, “creating takes place
at the boundaries of comfort”. That said, in risk-taking art, there is a need
to be aware not to make something that is insensitive or made out of ignorance.
The question and answer session that followed the panel was
replete with questions from the heart about trust and how to create. A young
woman said she wanted to learn the Samoan folks songs of her family but said
that she wasn’t a very good musician and Haruka asked her to identify for whom
she was learning to make this music; it was a question that hadn’t occurred to
me but was quite salient. The who is the why in much of our creative endeavor.
Danny added that it comes from love. I concur.
The ensemble members reassembled for another performance and
brought a wonderful evening to a close.
I need to add that in keeping with the spirit of
collaboration, Wednesday night’s performance and panel discussion was the
result of the combined efforts of the Baker Institute, the Moody Center for the
Arts, and the Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance.
The institutions:
The panelists and performers:
http://nileproject.org/
(Danny Mekonnen, Saxophone)
https://www.harukafujii.com/
(Haruka Fiji, Percussion)
Sandeep Das, Tabla
Preeti Vasudevan, Dance
Shawn Conley Bass
https://www.facebook.com/Shawn-Conley-68112306017/
Comments
Post a Comment