Current Project: Creating Insight through Outsider Art

Institutionalized: The Artwork of Zululand Prisoners

Read or download my final Independent Study Project here

Returning

Getting to South Africa took

many papers.

Today they are in the trash.

My bedroom has changed little since

leaving and

the house

is quiet.

I don't know how I like my tea anymore.

Where can I go to remember myself?

The church, the mall,

a book, a meal,

my studio, my music,

running down the road?

Instead of myself,

I find new life

sprouting from

return to old ritual:

pen to page,

paint to canvas,

knife to carrots and cucumbers,

the walk down the driveway in the morning

where Americans are

the most important

war casualties to be announced.

Stha teaches Steph How to Dance

I'll be leaving South Africa in 10 days, and am in awe of this whole study abroad experience. Did I really know so little when I first got here? I feel like I know Durban and KwaZulu-Natal so well now.

I have had the lucky opportunity to walk in many different worlds, seeing through the eyes of Zulus, Afrikaaners, Englishmen, Indians, the rich, the poor, and many in between. I've learned where locals get delicious roti rolls at any hour of the night for just 25 rand. I've learned the candid intricacies of the South African prison system, and how offenders can be victims too. I've learned the feeling of flying. I've learned that I am extremely, extremely powerful.

I've always said that I am a very lucky person, but have never known it to be more true than now.

Interior Monologue

Another way to hear my stories!

During my study abroad experience, I have been working with Reach the World, an organization that allows young students in New York City to learn from the stories of students studying all over the world!

You can follow my journey at:

http://www.reachtheworld.org/journey/522