萝莉社

This is a student blog post submitted by Emily Smith, C’18. Emily is a Conflict Transformation Studies major with a focus on interfaith dialogue and a concentration in Biblical and Theological Studies.

As exciting and life-giving as I find the city of Chicago鈥攚ith its bustle, towering buildings, restless people, and tangle of smells and sounds鈥攊t is a relief to be in Northern Ireland. The rain and the clouds are familiar friends, as are the plethora of green scenery, what with my upbringing in Oregon. However, the cobblestone sidewalks, beautifully dated buildings, lilting accents, and meadows divided by shrubbery (and dotted with herds of adorable sheep) are somewhat new sites. Northern Ireland鈥檚 beauty lends itself perfectly to site-seeing, but its history, recent conflicts, and current situation provide a backdrop for something much deeper.

Tourism in Northern Ireland is worth about 4.9% of Northern Ireland鈥檚 GDP, sustaining over 40,000 jobs, and generating around 764 million GBP, or over 990 million USD (Invest NI & NI Department for the Economy). Many people walk the streets of Londonderry with accents that are foreign to this part of Europe, even this part of the world, and many of these people are here as tourists. There鈥檚 nothing听particularly wrong with tourism, as it does support local economies in many cases; that said, it is worth stating that this trip feels less like tourism and more like what I like to call traveling with purpose.

This trip to Northern Ireland is a 萝莉社 Global Partnerships (GP) trip, though it differs from any other trip in the GP department. The participants are all in Dr. Bob Hostetter鈥檚 International Conflict Transformation spring course, which is a class offered as both a Keystone class and as a part of the Conflict Transformation Studies (CTS) department. We spent four weeks specifically learning about the history of Northern Ireland, with a focus on The Troubles, the conflict that erupted in the late 1960s and lasted until around 1998 when the Good Friday agreement was signed. The kicker with this particular statement, though, is that while the violence of The Troubles ended in the 90s, the effects of the conflict and many of the sentiments are unreconciled.

Acknowledging that conflicts in Ireland and Northern Ireland are far from reconciled, the class is learning about the peace process in a very hands-on way, especially in the city of Londonderry. We are engaging with an organization called The Junction to learn about the value of storytelling and ethical truth-telling in a 鈥減ost-conflict鈥� context such as this. Additionally, we took tours of Londonderry and Belfast from differing perspectives of the conflict, namely the Republican/Catholic/Nationalist and Loyalist/Protestant/Unionist perspectives.

In my experience, traveling with a purpose has looked like going somewhere with intentions that surpass simply satiating curiosity. Traveling with purpose

• means paying attention to the things that may seem insignificant to the average eye, such as how a city is set up and why it might be set up that way;
• it means listening instead of telling;
• it means knowing my expectations and being prepared to have them demolished;
• it means avoiding overgeneralization and stereotyping;
• it means self-examination before, during, and after an exploratory experience;
• it means trying to understand on a deep level the experiences of the local people without trying to become them or thinking that I can ever truly understand how they feel or are.

萝莉社 aims to prepare students for lives of service and significance.听The concept of traveling with purpose fits into this idea of living a life of significance. If we treat our everyday lives as though we are tourists, we will not find our own purposes, nor will we do justice to our communities and contexts that we live in. Traveling and living with purpose looks like taking chances, listening to other people’s stories rather than deciding them, and constantly听performing self-examinations. It means using the resources we鈥檙e given to make life more than a routine, but it also means understanding that some people need to work really hard in a routine just to survive and that their purpose is going to look very different than our own.

As a Christian, traveling with purpose means not being just another traveler using the resources given to me, in life or in literal travel, but showing gratitude for those resources and using them in a way that benefits the world around me. It also means not abandoning my convictions, while simultaneously refusing to engage in judgement or condescension of others who do not understand Christ鈥檚 great love and might.

This is a student blog post submitted by听Emily Smith, ’18. Emily is a Conflict Transformation Studies major.

When I spoke with friends and family about going to New Orleans for Spring Break, it was very common to get some sort of response that had to do with the fun I was going to have, and usually in reference to the shenanigans in which I might participate. However, Bourbon Street was not a place I visited, nor did I collect beads. Instead, I road-tripped there with a group of seven other North Park students and we worked with a nonprofit called The Restoration Initiative for Culture and Community (RICC), which is operated out of one of the few Covenant churches in New Orleans called Canal Street Church. This organization does a number of things, including operate small business ventures that benefit New Orleans and her people, and lead visiting groups through their 鈥淩estoration Journey鈥� program.

This Restoration Journey is what my peers and I had the blessing to embark upon with the RICC staff. In their own words, it is a mission trip in that one鈥檚 鈥渆xperience is about recognizing that the privilege of some and the poverty of others are connected to each other through complex histories and injustices . . . [It] is as much a camp or a training center for formation, as it is a mission trip because we approach as learners rather than teachers.鈥� Over the course of our week in New Orleans, we were challenged by the theme of identity and what it means for ourselves, the city, and the city鈥檚 populations; we explored how these identities are enmeshed with one another rather than isolated from each other.

The conversation and exploration in New Orleans involved sightseeing, eating out and eating in, serving, and having intentional dialogue. We had our share of excitement and leisure, eating fresh beignets at Morning Call (twice in the week), listening to brass bands around Frenchmen Street, and shopping around the French Quarter. The bulk of our time, though, was spent learning about the city and volunteering with a handful of different nonprofit organizations. It was a powerful experience, for example, to see where the levees broke in the Ninth Ward due to governmental failure and historical neglect of that neighborhood鈥檚 population. Another vivid series of memories are seeing the patches of grass in historically disenfranchised areas and being told that those were all once occupied by homes.

Visible destruction and communal trauma require a lot of processing, and volunteering with a few nonprofit organizations helped with that in a healthy way. We had the opportunities to serve breakfast to some men and women experiencing homelessness, set up and help operate a shopping-style food pantry for a day, and tidy up a Christian center through which seafarers can talk to family, relax, and be given rides to Wal-Mart. An important and impactful non-service experience was visiting Studio Be, which is a warehouse where artist Brandan 鈥淏mike鈥� Odums displays his work surrounding Black history, Hurricane Katrina, and a number of other complex themes central to the identity of New Orleans.

With the focus of social justice (and injustice), we were also sure to remember the centrality of Christ, both to social justice and identity. We established early on in discussion that Christ should be the center of a Christian鈥檚 identity. Our relationship with Him is what guides us as we navigate life, and our relationship with Him should make it uncomfortable for us to live in and contribute to systems that oppress and abuse. It was convicting to have the conversation about privilege as much as we did, and see it play out in the city in a new way. Finally, our RICC staff leader, Michael Hitch, challenged us to compare New Orleans and the work that is being done for the people there with Chicago.

It was a joy to get to learn, serve, and grow as a small group of 萝莉社 students, and get to know a city the way that we did this Spring Break. New Orleans is more than a tourist location; it is a place that has felt incredible trauma, has seen much healing, and in this process of healing, embraces its culture of uniqueness, diversity, and a bit of a twisted antiquity. I would advise anyone visiting the city to venture outside of Bourbon Street and get to know the real heart of the city.

Read more of Emily’s blog posts.

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North Park’s Carlson Tower Gallery is a living hub of art as it houses student, faculty, and guest artist works throughout the academic year. Most prevalent each spring semester is the work of senior art students as they complete their senior seminar project which involves creating, curating, and exhibiting a solo art show.

Leading up to their senior exhibitions the students also participate in curating an “En Route” show, featuring up-and-coming local artists. The task of seeking out and engaging with professional artists听is part of the senior seminar experience as students witness first-hand the pursuit of art-making outside of the classroom.

The recent exhibit听En Route: Fine by Design showed side-by-side the work of two young artists, Dylan Bradshaw and Madeleine Hettich, graphic designers by trade whose personal practice also includes work that would traditionally be characterized as fine-art. Works shown听by Hettich included detailed drawings of live and taxidermied animals from Chicago’s Field Museum and a hand-made book exploring the artist’s short-term memory loss. Bradshaw’s works included a series of commissioned dog portraits created with vector illustration as well as an embroidered textile exploring Chinese culture and the concept of “craft” or “women’s work.”

Bradshaw and Hettich visited the gallery for the show’s reception, during which they were able to share about their works, their processes, and their thoughts towards the distinctions made between fine-art and graphic design. Both artists expressed some dismissal of these distinctions while recognizing that design-oriented work often poses unique creative challenges which help听inspire their听other practices. In regards to making work by commission in contrast to one’s own volition, Hettich denied that she thought of one as superior or more inspired than the other. “Half of Rembrandt’s work was likely commissioned. We recognize his work as fine-art, yet we can’t know if he听would have created them on his own.”

While听Fine by Design was an engaging, thought-provoking听show, it was also just a taste of what is still to come for Carlson Tower Gallery this spring. Currently on display is the annual Student Art Scholarship Exhibition which features student work submitted for the coveted art scholarship. A limited number of scholarships are awarded each year, and the submissions听are a fine display of promising talent. The scholarship show will remain through March 7, with the first senior exhibition of the year opening soon after.

To stay informed about future art exhibits and receptions be sure to check in with the art events calendar.

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