The Artist as a Claimsmaker

With Colum McCann

By: Samuel M. Gebru (@smgebru)

The 2011 Faith, Reason and World Affairs Symposium of Concordia College was held under the theme: “The Role of the Artist in Society: Inspiration, Issues, Impact.” It was Concordia’s 25th year of hosting this event on September 13-14.

I attended various sessions of the symposium, including the keynote address by Colum McCann, an award-winning novelist, author if the Concordia Summer 2011 book Zoli. One of the most important things Mr. McCann spoke about was the role and challenge of an artist to be socially relevant.

While he did mention the challenges artists face in being socially relevant, I wanted to learn more about what he meant and how it related to my Sociology 214 course, Social Problems, with Dr. Matthew Lindholm. In class we are discussing the importance and process of claimsmaking.

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