Risk and Renewal: Disrupting the Censorship Debate Through Arts-Based Research

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 11:40 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Arts-Based Educational Research Roundtable Session (Table 1)

Abstract

This session introduces Choral Risks, a new choral composition with lyrics drawn from texts relevant to the push to censor books. Found poems circumscribe the framing of this moment as a debate and the musical settings of those lyrics evoke immediate and visceral qualities of reading, teaching, learning, and living through a censorious era. Choral Risks attempts to ​​“remake the social world” (Baron and Eisner, 2012, p. 27) of classrooms and schools where censorship impacts teachers and students. Using fragmentation, opposition, and lyricism, the poet and composer deploy the human voice to challenge semantic values of words and move beyond conventional narratives to capture more nuanced, textured, and emotionally fraught experiences, ultimately honoring the act of reading.

Authors

• Ann D. David, University of the Incarnate Word

• Kevin Salfen, University of the Incarnate Word