Under the Mask: Creative Dis/Possessions of Borderlands Remembrance Practices

Authors

  • Lizzy Bentley The University of Arizona
  • Joanna Sanchez-Avila The University of Arizona

Keywords:

craft, memory, historicize, borderlands, hybridity, rhetoric, materialism, multiculturalism, cultural appropriation, All Souls Procession, Tucson, Arizona

Abstract

Each November, thousands of people gather in the small downtown of Tucson, Arizona, for a ritualistic and participatory event known as the All Souls Procession. While the Procession has drawn criticism for the cultural appropriation embedded in many of its crafting practices, its stakeholders are hesitant to acknowledge a meaningful connection to Dia de los Muertos as they frame the procession as an “authentic†multicultural event. Rather than flattening our engagement with the All Souls Procession into an either/or binary by solely condemning its problematic dimensions or praising its creativity, we choose to embrace the event’s complexity by continuing a both/and critical framework: a way of looking at the world that resists two-dimensional, binary categories. Our web-text takes the form of a multimedia scrapbook, a compilation of artifacts, sketches, sounds and snapshots that reflect our layered memories—as well as the layered histories—of the 2014 All Souls Procession. Through our craft, we invite you to explore some of the complexities of craft culture in community practice.

Author Biographies

Lizzy Bentley, The University of Arizona

Lizzy Bentley is a PhD student at the University of Arizona. Her scholarship explores arts-based inquiry, transnational feminisms, and micro-practices for social change. When not hunched over a computer, she draws, paints and eats hot dogs to maintain some semblance of sanity.

Joanna Sanchez-Avila, The University of Arizona

Joanna Sanchez-Avila is a PhD Student of English at the University of Arizona. She is interested in the transformative potential of everyday stories. These everyday stories can be crafted  through spoken word, photography, or utilizing the fashion of dapper threads  to convey a ‘style as resistance’ ethos. Her motto is Fierce, Fly, and Fabulous.

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Published

2015-09-10

Issue

No. 14 (2015): Craft Rhetorics

Section

Issue #14: Craft Rhetoric

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