I have my rain boots on, my raincoat, goggles, and hat. I have my umbrella in the hand and a flashlight in the other. It is dark, pitch black. We are all in the dark, the darkness of agitation, frustration, fearfulness, hatred, shame, anger, hunger, yes for food and for food that can not fill our stomachs, but much needed to fill our hearts, minds and spirits. 

It is dark. We can not see. It is as if there is a constant stinging moisture in the air that burns our eyes, so we shut them tight against the burning moisture in the air. We wander in the dark, eyes shut tight, feeling unloved, undervalued, underserved, agitated, frustrated, fearful, hated, shamed, in a state of anger. We lash out. When we meet or bump into someone, we lash out. We scream and fight in the “rough and tumble” style of the late 1700s. We gouge out eyes, bite noses and ears until they are no longer attached to one’s body. We disfigure, mame, and kill each other’s physical bodies and spirits.

I am not the only one with rainboots, raincoat, goggles, umbrella and flashlight. There are others who have somehow found ourselves with these tools, often after many years of struggling in darkness. We know inherently that it is our job to rescue others from the darkness, as we ourselves have also been rescued. We know the pain and suffering is great. We know that there needs to be a great number of people rescued for light to be ignited. We know that like our ancestors of old, when enough of us are saved from the darkness that blinds us, with eyes shut tight against the burning moisture in the air, we will become bearers of light, like the Olympians of past and present who carry the torch to light the Olympic Flame during the Olympic Games, we are bearers of a torch that will never go out, whose flame is eternal. We struggle. We fight, not to disfigure, not to mame, not to be killers of body, mind and spirit. We fight and struggle to help restore light to the world, the light of love, the light of respect, the light of caring, the light of patience, the light of creativity, the light of consideration for the actions we take that will affect the next seven generations.

I knew as a child that I was to teach. I began early. When attending kindergarten, on that eventful day, upon returning from school, I began to teach my cousins what I had learned that day. From that day forward, we played school. In high school, I joined Future Teachers of America, feeling destined to teach, I volunteered to tutor elementary school children. Upon graduating from high school, a friend and I, with the support of the South Side Community Arts Center’s Board, founded a summer academic and arts camp. It was successful, and ever since, I have wanted a center for arts and culture for neighbors and community members to attend arts events, engage in arts classes and workshops.

Why Art? It brought me out of darkness. It wasn’t immediate, nor was it as if somehow I have some sort of glow that makes everyone notice in terms of popularity or greatness. Rather it is more like breathing. No one notices, not even me.

The arts teach, encourage, and push one towards creativity. Creativity equals possibility. When we reach possibility en masse, the world will ignite because our inner light will have been activated! (“this little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine . . .” ) However, we need those other elements to fully light the world, the light of love, respect, caring, patience, compassion, and the light of consideration for the actions we take that will affect the next seven generations.

People keep asking, why art? Yet no one wants to “put their seers on to go, an’ hunt it up”. A radio personality, “Butterball” of the late 1960s, used to say that his mother said, “Butterball, you know you are a one, try to marry a 2 or a 3 so that your kids have a chance of being a 1 and a half or a 2. That thinking is part of our challenge. We are seeking someone else to do the work for us, who already has a key that moves them toward the light. What we have to understand is that all of us have the capacity to move toward the light and we, all of us have a key or keys, and all of us need to exercise the capacity for possibilities. We need to struggle in that direction. Why art? It makes us feel, think, and do things with power, depth, and intention. The arts is a vehicle that can allow us to activate our keys.

Why art? Art is rife with possibility. It opens doors! It opens hearts. It is a pathway to understanding, creativity.

Why me? I don’t know. I am not sure. I have thought about it over the years. I know I felt loved as a child. I know I love knowledge, and learning. I had for the most part wonderful, encouraging, and supportive teachers.

I would say that apart from a loving family, teachers and schools were a consistent impact on my life. Although I attended a parochial school during the day, the after school programs at Raymond, a Public School, provided me with the beginnings of a foundation that would lead to a career in the arts, founding a nonprofit arts organization. It was the 4-H Club. A teacher whose name I don’t remember, who taught us how to make hamburgers using an electric skillet. The interesting thing to me though, was that she proceeded to chop onions, and peppers and add them to the ground beef. I told her that she was missing some ingredients and that she was making meatloaf. Well, needless to say, the hamburger was delicious. Later, as a sixth grader, I became a member of the Senior Fine Arts Appreciation 4-H Club. As a member, I taught myself to sew, make mosaic ashtrays, and cook. I also learned to dance for the “Share the Fun Festival.”

Although brief and itinerant, the major impact was the South Side Community Arts Center (SSCAC). There, at seven years old, I was exposed to ballet, although the most I remember about it is sitting in the butterfly position, and having cookies and milk after class. Later, as a senior in high school and throughout college and my first few years as a teacher, I visited the SSCAC to observe art exhibits with a friend who is a visual artist. It was during this period, immediately upon graduating from high school, that we approached the SSCAC Board with the idea of a summer arts and academic program. They loved it especially Margaret Burroughs and Herbert Nipson, editor emeritus of Ebony magazine. They encouraged us and supported us as mentors and door openers. We actually organized and provided a summer camp for children who were bussed in from Chichgo’s West Side. Having not spent one day on a college campus, college students worked for us, as we provided academic tutoring, arts and physical education to children. That experience, in the summer of 1969, was a momentous event for me. It has followed me all these years. It was then that I wanted to found a community arts center. I tried a number of times. Each time learning more about what it takes to found and operate a community arts center.

I am a bearer of light. I am a spirit child of many: Dr. Burroughs and her husband, Mr. Nipson, and other supporters on the SSCAC’s Board, Robert Paige, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Gwendolyn Brooks, Haki Madhabuti, Silas Parnell, Ms. Williams (Senior Fine Arts Appreciation 4-H Club), Frederick Douglass, Mrs. Paterini, Miles Davis, one of the ballet teachers at the Ailey School, Patricia Rowe who both help and tried to ruin me, Patricia Carey, Pearl Primus, W.E.B. DuBois, Alain Locke, Katherine Dunham, Langston Hughes, Zebedee Collins and his wife Evelyn, Alice Dinizulu,Thea N. Barnes-who asked me to accompany her to a dance class (a request that changed the trajectory of my life) Esther Rolle, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Harriet Tubman-Davis, the artists of Afra-Cobra, Arnell Pugh, and Julian Swayne, Miss Ellis, Alvin Philips, Sojourner Truth, Wali and Andara Rahman, Sergei Diaghilev, Peter Westbrook, so many people, artists in particular have positively impacted my life and its trajectory. I have only mentioned a handful names; I know that it is my duty and responsibility to carry the light forward, carry the legacy forward. . . To whom much is given, much is required . . .

It is for that reason, and these light bearers, who made it possible for my vision, that I ask for your help to grow an arts center where people can come together as individuals and as members of communities to create art, to restore communities to excellent health, to be a stepping stone to individual positive life affirming, family affirming, community affirming possibilities and opportunities through the arts as participants, observers, supporters and lovers of art.

Marcia E. Heard, Ph.D.