lyrics

Is that what you said?

It’s just my imagination?

Just what you said is part of the discrimination

Why do you get to paraphrase my heritage

Our hope was passed down from generation to generation

How could you excavate my spirit?

Prayer and ritual were buried with it

“What hands reach down to revive them?

What spirits are disturbed?”

“For clarity in the torn and hidden stories settle next to number a path lit to what could be”

student statement

In response to this film Doubt & Imagination by Ariel René Jackson, I decided to create a short song incorporating some of the poetry from the film. Throughout my academic career, I’ve grown passionate about art history. There are many artifacts and other pieces of history that have been misunderstood due to the destruction and lack of preservation of many cultures' histories. I think Jackson proposes an important question asking the viewers who is responsible for representing a culture that has been intentionally misrepresented. I relate to this idea that’s presented in Jacksons work through the viewpoint of my own culture, however, I wanted to maintain the connection between Colonoware and Jackson’s film within my song, so as not to redirect the message to be about something other than the ideas within Jackson’s piece. I approached this song with the idea that I could use my voice and my perspective, with direct quotes from Jackson poetry, to encourage people to listen to others perspectives about something that’s from their own culture. In the fifth line of my song it says, “Why do you get to paraphrase my heritage,” connecting to the idea that many historians, usually white, have simply chosen to represent cultures and history. Especially African American culture and history, with a filter or how they wish for it to be perceived. I think we should question their authorities to judge what is or isn’t based on pure tangible evidence. Culture is not always tangible. It is usually passed down through generations via stories and spiritual practices. The only way to fully understand some pieces of history is if we understand it through the eyes of the ones who lived it and told their stories to their children and so on. It is a difficult task to try and rediscover what is true when many people in power have worked so hard to hide or change the truth.

It is not something that can simply be resolved once. It is an ongoing and long journey with many difficulties along the way. To represent this, In my song, there is no clear resolution in the music, moving between a tonic and predominant chord. This creates a lack of solid resolution and elicits the idea that the idea behind my song, just like many pieces and artifacts in different cultures lack the full comprehension or reasoning behind their creation and it is not

lelaina aguirre

shaina christine ereti