Learning their stories through walking

Stories start with a single step.

Kimberly Powell, professor of education, art education and Asian studies, holds a dual appointment in the College of Education and the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State.

As a 13-year-old, Powell managed to have a conversation with then-President Jimmy Carter. Powell spoke to Carter as part of the live radio show “Ask the President” on National Public Radio (NPR). Classmates at Barnstable Middle School  in Hyannis, Mass. had invited the president to visit the school’s campus — with Powell eventually making a lasting memory on a phone call broadcasted nationwide.

“What, if any, impact did that have? Did it affect my life? In some ways it did in terms of being heard and being seen,” Powell said.

Powell’s research delves into the details of socially engaged art and art education.

“The idea of art can look very different from an object or a formal performance in a theater,” Powell said. “This idea that art can be about constructing new social realities, but also inquiring into existing ones.”

She calls her research project StoryWalks. Powell invited residents of San Jose, California  to lead her through a tour of their neighborhood. Weaving through complex histories and personal pasts, Powell was introduced to a community that was directly touched by internment camps, redlining and resilience. Powell said they share stories as they walk.

“Walking has proved to be this act of caring and curation,” Powell said. “What walking does is it engages people actively with their place.”

It illustrates how communities don’t pave over the past, but instead steps into a space of socially engaged art. As Powell explained, “Art can be about constructing new social realities,” adding that we should be “inquiring into existing ones.”