Have you been appropriated?
Welcome to the ArtsBound Newsletter. Every Tuesday, I share three thoughts or insights meant to help performing arts students and young professionals flourish in their life and career. Today’s newsletter is part-three of what accidentally became a mini trilogy examining what’s involved in living a creative lifestyle.
- 6.5-minute read -
(NOTE: I started ArtsBound because I believe the world would be a better place with more people living their true calling. If you know a student or young professional who is searching for their niche in the performing arts world, consider forwarding this email to them. If this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up to receive my newsletter every Tuesday. It's free, and I’ll never share or sell your data.)
1. Being ‘possessed’ by the creative spirit.
As I wrote last week, when Inspiration brings an artist together with a creative idea, she might become possessed by the idea, hosting the creative germ as it takes on new life within her. Citing an episode of the podcast, This Jungian Life, I described this act of ‘possession’ as akin to the creative energy characteristic of the Greek god Dionysus. After having the idea, the discipline and steady work required to manifest the creative idea - to give it its own ‘body’ - is represented by the Greek god Hephaestus.
This week, the word in focus is appropriation, and I’d like to use this word to have one more look at this concept. To ‘appropriate’ has two basic meanings: 1) to take something (from another); and 2) to set aside for a specific purpose. (You can see how closely the word appropriation is related to all meanings of the word possession.)
My argument here is that, to live a creative life, we must be the object of the first type of appropriation and the actor of the second type.
‘Being the object of appropriation’ means allowing yourself to be inspired, carried away, swept up, inhabited, taken over, or even invaded by a creative idea - in short, being ‘possessed’ by creative inspiration. There’s nothing you can really do to force this (although people resist it all the time), but what you can do is cultivate a welcoming environment for Inspiration. Sometimes we are visited by big ideas we can’t ignore, but little ideas are around us all the time. Do your best to be aware of them, and trust your intuition if it’s telling you that an idea might be worth developing.
‘Being the actor of the second type of appropriation’ (setting something aside) means reserving time and energy in your routine to ‘build the new body’ your creative idea has asked you to make for it. And just as a reminder: I believe this applies to Everyone - with a capital E - not just composers, playwrights, and choreographers. ‘Building a new body’ might mean rehearsing a Shakespeare monologue that you’ve been inspired to learn - a process that inherently involves you creating your own interpretation and performance. Or, it could be having a great idea for dinner and cooking something fresh and different!
So we see Dionysus and Hephaestus take shape again in these two essential components of the creative process. Now, we turn to another (very sensitive) understanding of the word appropriation.
2. Cultural (mis)appropriation.
If I asked you who has (or had) more creative integrity - Elvis Presley or Taco Bell - who would you say?
That’s the question Malcolm Gladwell asks in a brilliant episode of his podcast, Revisionist History, that tackles the issue of cultural appropriation. Since I first heard his show, I’ve loved Gladwell’s journalistic style and sense of storytelling... and maybe it’s just because the topic is near and dear to my heart, but I believe this episode is exceptionally brilliant.
In fact, I have such admiration for what Gladwell has done with this 42-minute episode, I’m going to do my best not to spoil it for those who are inclined to listen. I’ll just say this: he argues that there is a good and a bad type of cultural appropriation (what I would call cultural mis-appropriation).
The topic is near and dear to my heart, because I am fascinated with what can happen when cultural elements combine to create something new. As a songwriter/composer I’ve worked with a significant amount of musical content from South Africa and Haiti, and I’ve worn traditional West African garb (gifted to me by a friend from Guinea) while playing my djembe from the Ivory Coast. So as a White man who has a tremendous amount of respect for the cultural heritage of people from these places - but who is an outsider… a privileged outsider (!) - what must I do to avoid insulting those whose music and culture I admire so much?
As Gladwell argues, I believe that the right kind of cultural appropriation actually paves the way for a broader understanding of the world and greater cultural sensitivity. For artists, I think cultural appropriation is actually quite commonplace. We draw inspiration from our experiences, and if we are taking in the artistic output of other cultures, its influence is bound to show up in our own creative endeavors. Heck, even having your bluegrass band cover a Beatles song is a form of cultural appropriation.
So how can you be sure you are committing the good kind of cultural appropriation and not the bad? Consider the following:
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Call it what it is: Recognize that you are appropriating. Assume the posture of an inspired outsider who would like to learn more about another culture and experiment with blending elements of that culture with your own. Find culture-bearers who are willing to act as a guide.
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Check your attitude towards authenticity: For quite some time, the academic stance on performing “world music” was to ensure the most authentic performance possible. This was a well-intentioned attitude, but inherently missed the mark. If you properly assume the role of an outsider, you quickly see that it is impossible for you to produce a truly authentic presentation of art from another culture.
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Consider context: What is the original context of the content you wish to appropriate? What are you hoping to do with it? Can you treat it with as much reverence as those who hold it as their own? There is a very simple, but extremely insightful, model for cultural re-contextualization put forth by Huib Schippers in a 2006 article published in the British Journal of Music Education. If you follow this model (which, if you are being mindful, you might already be doing this intuitively), you’ll be certain not to do something foolish like take a sacred concept from an indigenous culture and put it on a t-shirt alongside a reference to grilled cheese (please don’t do this).
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Examine the power dynamics between your culture and the culture from which you are appropriating: This is where people get themselves into trouble. If there is any ounce of oppression, dominance, and/or privilege in the relationship between cultures, you must move forward with extreme care. All of the advice above becomes even more important, especially finding a ‘guide’ in someone who can easily identify as a cultural insider. If you can’t do this, reconsider your project.
Getting this right is tricky. But, if you have the right attitude, take the time to learn as much as you can, and undergo a thoughtful re-contextualization process, mindful cultural appropriation can produce a creative outcome that indicates an honorable relationship between cultures while actually developing a willingness in others to respect, explore, and embrace what they might have previously thought of as foreign.
And the world needs more of that.
Thank you, Malcolm Gladwell, for explaining this to us in such a delightful way!
3. Do it better, or do it differently.
As a final punctuation on the idea of cultural appropriation, I’d like to share a quote from my friend and musical collaborator, John Panaccio.
One of John's favorite creative endeavors is arranging familiar pop songs for solo guitar. He has a philosophy of covering other people’s music that has guided me in my own endeavors.
This is what he says:
When you are covering someone else’s song, you have to either
do it better or do it differently.
Implied in his statement is his sincere belief that you can’t do it better. Thinking that you can do it better is like saying you can be more authentic than the original.
No one can do the Beatles better than the Beatles.
What Schippers says in extensive academic language in the article referenced above, John has expressed in a simple sentence: there is no such thing as authenticity outside of the original context. Therefore, be thoughtful and sensitive and how you recontextualize another person’s creative work.
If you can manage to do this, I believe you create something brand new - with its own new authenticity - out of what already existed.
By the way, John was featured on Episode 6 of the ArtsBound Podcast, and he has lots of other beautiful and wise things to share. I encourage you to check it out!
Your creative energy is one of those most important things you possess. If you are looking for ways to better develop or harness that energy, and think you might benefit from working with a guide, hit reply on this email to get in touch with me.
See you next week!
Lee
PS - I started ArtsBound because I believe the world would be a better place with more people living their true calling. If you know a student or young professional who is searching for their niche in the performing arts world, consider forwarding this email to them. If this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up to receive my newsletter every Tuesday. It's free, and I’ll never share or sell your data.