Grow On

September has come and gone so quickly! I feel like I have grown so much these last couple months. Recently, I’ve been working with an organization called the Appalachian Media Institute (AMI). I’m helping them with the re-launch of their youth drop-in and safe space. I’ll be hosting workshops, film screenings, and yoga classes there! I will also be interning with an organization called All Access EKY, raising awareness about reproductive health in the region. I’m excited, it’s the first time I’ve been able to do community work like this and its so fulfilling.

Last week, I visited my hometown of Columbus to see my family and attend an event at my alma mater called ReMix. The event was for Denison alumni, specifically entrepreneurs, to meet and discuss their life paths after Denison. It was inspiring to see how different people’s experiences are after college. It’s been four months since I finished school and I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’m rolling with it.

On September 20th, I got to attend an opening reception at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Their newest exhibition, entitled HERE, features installation pieces from three well known Ohio artists: Ann Hamilton, Jenny Holzer, and Maya Lin. In the artist talk preceding the opening, the artists talked about the similarities and differences in their work, as well as the impact they hoped their work would have on the audience. All three artists are known for addressing global issues, particularly climate change and class inequality. The scale of these issues is demonstrated in the scale art itself. Walls of the galleries are covered in text, flooding the viewer with powerful statements and ideas. The exhibition is consuming, it swallows the viewer up in its devastating reality and spits them back out into the world, urging each visitor to DO SOMETHING.