Poetry and Politics: The Quiet, Unfolding Lesson of Alan Kaprow

Written for his memorial 2007UCSD Visual Arts Gallery

I worked for Allan Kaprow as a graduate student in the late 1980’s, one of many. I doubt that he would remember me., but his contribution to my education was more profound than I realized at the time. I was introduced to his seminal article, “The Real Experiment,” by one of my fellow teaching assistants and it has directed my artistic and political work ever since.

Once I left graduate school I found myself working in community settings in which I was continuously asked to take a leadership role in helping shape policy or initiatives that would extend arts education to children, fund and support public art, strengthen existing arts organizations, form new artistic support groups, link the arts with social justice issues, and generally create a space in which both community need and artistic vision would come together.

As I wrote in an early essay, “The Citizen Artist,” this has not always an easy dance, this tango of poetry and politics. The navigation of bureaucratic minutiae, the endless lobbying of those with power, the constant “dialogue” with individuals and groups who cannot agree; these forces can combine to wear down even the most ardent activist.

It is during those times of battle fatigue that I call up Allan Kaprow and his gentle vision outlined in “The Real Experiment.”

In the article Kaprow gives the examples of a woman recreating a walk, and a man running for public office. Both are artists. The first example is pure poetic vision, the second is problem solving. Both were done with such great intentionality that it moves the reader to reconsider the arbitrary lines we draw between Art and Life. He turned my attention toward the idea of “lifeworks” that get to the core of connectedness between the gestures we call “art” and the very essence of our humanity.

It is this connecting line that I walk every day, and the place into which I retreat to refresh when the culture wars get too noisy. I am grateful that Allan Kaprow created that sanctuary and conceptual framework for me; that he pointed me to the deep well of water that exists whenever I need it.

Today I swept the yard and I thought of Allan sweeping in a place without lines of demarcation.

Aida Mancillas, MFA 1988

Public Artist
Commissioner, San Diego Commission for Arts & Culture
Founding member, Public Address, a public art advocacy group
Founding member, Las Comadres
State Representative, Marriage Equality USA
Latino Outreach Chair, San Diegans Against Marriage Discrimination
Member, Latino Services Advisory Committee, San Diego LGBT Center
Past President, Centro Cultural de la Raza

Thank you Allan.