Marin educator takes on racism
Marin Catholic educator tackles racism in art
It wasn’t always easy growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, for Orin Carpenter. As a Black man in the South, he navigated and witnessed racism and racial bias. From a young age, art became his way to find comfort and solace. That hasn’t changed throughout his three decadeplus career as an artist.
The longtime visual and performing arts director at Marin Catholic High School has not shied away from reflecting on the resilience and struggles of Black men in his collages, some inspired from childhood and some by the racial injustices and systemic racism that have been brought to the forefront by the
Q
Black Lives Matter movement. Why did you want to He taught an online workshop tackle these issues in this about that, “Educating For Racial workshop? Justice” for Boston College
A
this past fall. It’s time that we have to
Carpenter’s art was included deal with this. We have in “The de Young Open,” an exhibit swept it under the rug for so to honor the museum’s long. Art offers a better way 125th anniversary. He has also and a more open way to deal being selected as Novato’s Marin with the difficult subject. The Museum of Contemporary Art’s reason I feel like people won’t artist-in-residence for 2021. talk about race is because we all have to look at ourselves. It’s easy to point to someone else but what are we all doing?
Q
How did the workshop come about?
AAnne-Marie Funk, an assistant principal at Marin Catholic, had a connection there. They wanted to check in with their students of color at Boston College. They were were curious how students of color felt going to a Catholic school. Due to what’s happened recently, they’re like, we can be ignorant and need to find out, and they came up with this great idea to have a panel discussion with students and wanted to have a teacher moderate. Anne-Marie said, “I have a person who I think would be perfect for that.” After that panel discussion, they were like, “Would you like to teach a workshop doing that?”
Moments like this, it’s about reevaluating and self-reflecting on what we all can do better to
Q
help change. How did this year impact
your work?
A
I am a person of huge faith and I don’t believe in coincidences. I think there’s a purpose and time for everything. This past summer was an eye- opener for people. Because of the pandemic, we couldn’t turn our head. We had to digest what happened to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others. As an artist and African American, social issues have always been part of my consciousness. This year, that work became visible to society because now people were seeing that work differently.
Q
What drew you to teaching?
A
On my mom’s side, out of nine siblings, there were seven educators, so I say it was in my blood. My mom was a kindergarten teacher for 45 years. I had a good model of what a teacher is because of her. I knew I eventually wanted to teach when I would see a lot of her kindergarten students, once they graduated college or got married, would still send her Christmas cards or come see her. And me struggling in school, being a challenged learner, there were good teachers who were in my journey.
Q
Why is art a comfort for you?
A
When I was a kid, Mom would say, “When things anger you, put it on paper and let it out. Let it have a voice.” That’s something I always tell my students. Art is your voice. You can say what you want as loud as you want. Just make sure what you say is worth hearing.
Q
You also create abstract work. What inspired that? A
In the abstract, I found my voice, where the social consciousness work turned from being my escape to somewhat of a nemesis. I am having to see it and look and deal with it, and I had to find another venue. I needed that spiritual component, so the abstract work became my therapy.