This Discussion Forum is available for posting during Weeks 6 and 7. The Final deadline to post here is Sunday, February 23 at 11:59 pm. You need only make one post during this time. As always, posts should be short and pithy, but insightful: if you exceed 300 words you are trying harder than necessary, and if you write less than 150 words you’re probably not trying hard enough.

Posts in this Board should react to ideas or concepts appearing in readings assigned during Weeks 6 and 7. Here are some suggested prompts:

• Your own topic: As always, if you don’t like any of the topics listed below, you can simply identify a concept from the reading that you do want to write about and go from there.
• The Visiting Gust Artist Lecture: As always, if you attend one of the weekly Guest Artist Lectures you may write about the ideas discussed during the talk. The lectures are always Thursday at 6:00.
  • February 13: Mary Kelly
  • February 20: Oscar Tuazon
• The impact of art can be very personal. Is there an idea in this week’s reading about “belonging”, about “emerging from shadows”, about recovering “neglected” stories that feels personal to your life or life’s experiences?
• Chang quotes mid-20th century artist Dong Kingman as saying his art is rooted “in between” west and east culture. Indeed, Kingman could not escape such perceptions whether he intended them or not. (p. x). Roughly 70 years have passed since these remarks. Do you think artists identifying or perceived as “ethnic” today are also fated to always be seen as bridging two cultures? Are they likely to share Kingman’s wish to “be myself”? (p. x)
• Trend defines elsewhere as having two distinct senses on his book’s first page. When you think about “elsewhere” in your own life, which of Trend’s two senses do you think best fits your own life?