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I Can Breathe: Critical Race Theory, Access and Survival

Professional Development Workshop with OPEN DOORS Reality Poets & Cornell’s MakerLAB
Funded by Humanities NY Vision Grant
Collaboration with Craft@Large and Word2RI

I CAN BREATHE is a multimodal professional development for OPEN DOORS participants who typically have not had formal access to higher education or opportunities for intensive discussion of the United States history. Through poetry, OPEN DOORS members have successfully invested a lot of time in telling their story with their won words to an audience beyond the walls of Coler Nursing Center. The first goal of the training was to challenge the poets to situate their living experience within larger social/historical contexts. Second, introducing participants to critical race theory (CRT), stimulating conversations about not just what each poet believes to be true but the process through which individuals come to hold those beliefs and why.

The audio, video, and written content generated by OPEN DOORS members is the centerpiece of this interactive I CAN BREATHE Map of Roosevelt Island.

I Can Breathe Map

100"x48" layered canvas of RI Map was designed in Adobe Illustrator and was precisely cut from recycled cardboard using an Epilog Laser. 75 custom-designed layers of 16”x20” were then collaged together using collaging techniques by artists. At the heart of this project are the OPEN DOORS Reality Poets whose portraits are displayed and audio is relayed using the digital keyboard.

I Can Breathe Map Keyboard

This Digital Keyboard allows you to connect with each poet’s portraits on the art piece with their associated audio narration. This gives the viewer the chance to hear the story of the person from their voice. Custom design files were laser cut from recycled cardboard to create the housing for a Raspberry Pi connected with 8 buttons which correspond to the location and names of the poets on the Map. Press any button to play artist commentary and poetry. A Python code on Raspberry Pi directs each file to be played on an Anker bluetooth speaker.

Audio Records: