The August MKE Creatives looked through the prism of creativity in a way it hasn’t before – how can the work of protecting, and support of, civil rights be done utilizing creativity? We had Molly Collins, associate director of WI ACLU, and Emilio De Torre, director of the student branch of WI ACLU, come in to talk about this.
In attendance at the meetup were: Lisa (storyteller and brand strategist), Paul (serial entrepreneur and marketing specialist), Rosie (photographer, fine artist, and first-time author), Michelle (video and audio production), Paul (storytelling actor and character actor), John (CPA and investment advisor), Sam (student and aspiring game-developer), and me (photographer and connector). Find all the nifty Creatives HERE.
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Beginning their chat with us, Molly summed up the ACLU’s role pretty succinctly – “our job is to protect civil liberties for everyone in WI”. Getting people to be interested in rights/legal issues can be tough though, so “one of the ways we engage people is through art.” During the summer, you’ll see them out at many parades, and they’re often easy to spot because they regularly build giant puppets! Coming up in November, they host a Youth Social Justice Forum at UW-M. They’ll offer a wealth of short classes on topics like political cartooning, screen-printing, PSA creation, and many others. That Forum always has an enthusiastic attendance, forcing them to turn away attendees because the WI ACLU just doesn’t have the capacity to support them all yet! (so if anyone is looking for a good cause to volunteer with, or make a financial donation to…)
Both Molly and Emilio are “out of the closet geeks and we love to make stuff!”, said Emilio. He pointed out that when he started with the ACLU 11 years ago, many of the programs were dry and not that interesting. While those programs did share the necessary information, they just weren’t creating the engagement that the organization was hoping for. They had to find a new approach to get people interested. To that end, the WI ACLU and its student chapter began working more with local performing arts groups and getting into those previously-mentioned parades! They do a lot of their float construction with recyclable materials and found objects. One of their favorite floats was the “School-To-Dreams Pipeline”, put together to raise awareness of the “school to prison pipeline” problem.
Molly has a history of getting creative, and of protesting for civil rights. She remembers being a kid, protesting Regan’s “Star Wars” with her parents, and holding a poster featuring C3-PO with a slogan of “We only want THIS kind of STAR WARS”! When she was in high school, she often worked on stage-crew and really liked (and still likes) making costumes.
Molly mentioned a really important aspect to the creative work they do at the WI ACLU: “We do a lot of big-issue work that often takes a long time to bring about results, and there are few times where we can say ‘we’re done, we won that!’, but with these art projects…they’re refreshing because we >can< complete them, and show them, and say “yeah, we did that!”
Emilio spoke to the value of the projects, too: “Throughout my life, I’ve been making things – my dad was a carpenter – and I have lots of energy and interests, so I just >have< to be making things – it’s just who I am!”
And it’s good that both Molly and Emilio are so passionate, because they mentioned that all the construction and making of these art projects – that’s above and beyond their normal 40hrs/week of work. “Sometimes it can be hard to describe to the board why it IS important to make these giant puppets,” said Molly, “but our kids and members DO go to protests and civil rights actions…and to theatre performances and make art projects of their own.”
Everyone in attendance was mighty impressed with the efforts of our state ACLU branch, and the presentation closed with a reminder – if you like what the ACLU does, volunteer for their events, donate what you can, and “work hard to consciously break down the barriers of indifference!”
You can find the WI ACLU at their website, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
