I am sure by now that you’ve come across this, as it has already been posted to all sorts of blogs and appeared in the news. But hey, this is August, the dog days of summer, so maybe you’ve missed it.
It is perhaps one of the most original takes on the arts in America, making the case for the arts as service to the nation, thereby establishing a relevance above and beyond what is ordinarily expressed.
I would sure love to know more about this, such as: did she write it herself? Did Ella Baff help her just a bit? I hope that we will hear more from Ms. Maddow on this subject.
“Sometimes we choose to
serve our country in uniform, in war. Sometimes in elected office. And those
are the ways of serving our country that I think we are trained to easily call
heroic. It’s also a service to your country, I think, to teach poetry in the
prisons, to be an incredibly dedicated student of dance, to fight for funding
music and arts education in the schools. A country without an expectation of
minimal artistic literacy, without a basic structure by which the artists among
us can be awakened and given the choice of following their talents and a way to
get to be great at what they do, is a country that is not actually as great as
it could be. And a country without the capacity to nurture artistic greatness
is not being a great country. It is a service to our country, and sometimes it
is heroic service to our country, to fight for the United States of
America to have the capacity to nurture
artistic greatness.” — MSNBC’s Rachel
Maddow, speaking at Jacob’s Pillow
I’m guessing this is in response to MSNBC’s nemesis FOX News’ reports on the NEA supporting porn.
I came across your post today and first wanted to thank you for interest in the recent PillowTalk with Rachel Maddow. I also wanted to let you know that Ms. Maddow researched and prepared her introductory comments on her own. Actually, we didn’t even know that she had prepared a statement until she arrived at the Pillow that afternoon and asked if she could include it in the talk.
The quote that you posted was part of that opening statement and there were many more insightful and interesting points made by Ms. Maddow and Suzanne Carbonneau throughout the rest of the talk. We were honored that she took the time to join us that afternoon and share some of her thoughts on arts and society.
Best,
Mariclare Hulbert
Director of Marketing and Communications
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival