Wimsatt, students discuss public awareness
By Shaun Bishop
Nov. 24, 2002 9:00 p.m.
Fliers advertising the event read: “Billy
“˜Upski’ Wimsatt speaks on “˜Why UCLA is
America’s best hope to save our ass in the 21st
century.'”
But “Upski” didn’t want to come 3,000 miles to
UCLA just to bore students with another anti-war seminar on
Iraq.
The session became a brainstorming session on how to make people
realize and take action against the wrongs of President Bush and
his recent foreign policy decisions.
And so he turned the students into the speakers.
About 60 people, mostly UCLA students, showed up Friday
afternoon to the Third Floor Lounge in Ackerman Union to meet Billy
Upski Wimsatt, a journalist, author, artist and community
organizer.
Hailing from Chicago and now a New York resident, Wimsatt has
worked in the hip-hop scene for years ““ writing for such
publications as the Chicago Tribune, Vibe and XXL. Infamous for his
graffiti writing in the Windy City, he has also written two books
““ the most recent being “No More Prisons,” which
discusses urban life, home schooling and philanthropy.
Wimsatt admitted he had expected to speak to a 200 person
audience, but adjusted his plans to fit the more intimate
setting.
The event’s purpose became helping students come up with
ideas for bringing about true public awareness on issues such as
the possible war on Iraq, and then thinking about strategies for
making these changes in the real world.
Wimsatt said his goal for the last event of Global Justice Week
was to help UCLA students who he said are “numb, isolated and
cliquish” to generate ideas and be inspired to take
action.
A few students started the gathering with partially prepared
opening statements that set the tone for the afternoon.
Third-year philosophy student Mimi Lu asserted, “We
don’t try and find the truth for ourselves … People do
care, they’re misinformed.”
Fifth-year Asian American studies and English student Anunh Vang
compared today’s protests to those of the 1960s, saying,
“Student activism is a corrupted term that limits us as to
what we can do. We need to talk to students as “˜agents of
change.'”
The “agents of change” theme resonated throughout
the discussion, as after the opening statements were over,
attendees got down to business.
Wimsatt told the students, “Think of a dream you have for
yourself, and think of taking a step toward that dream. Now think
of a dream for something outside yourself, and step toward
that.”
Next, students split into groups of three, talked about things
they’ve struggled with in their lives, things they’ve
achieved, and things they want to achieve.
Finally, they brainstormed ways to make change happen in areas
like student government, the media and school administrators.
“I need all of you, that’s why I’m here. You
all need all of you, that’s why you’re here,”
Wimsatt told the students near the end of the event.
“I’ve never done anything like this before,”
Wimsatt said. “I feel like this is a model I want to do
everywhere in the country. It started here.”
Gregory Hom, a fifth-year geography student, felt the discussion
was creative and said, “I think now people who haven’t
been involved yet will take that extra step most students are
afraid to.”
