Art brings societal change as it is generally accepted across all cultures. Art is the most effective way of communication for it goes beyond cultural and societal boundaries. Since the times of human evolution, art is the only element that indicates the existence of communication amongst human beings. Various methods of communication exist, but none of them communicates more effectively than art does, as it entails signs and body language. Therefore, art enables people of various cultural backgrounds to understand the communicated message in nearly equal ways. This paper looks into Tish Jones, who is as successful personnel in the contemporary art industry and his contribution to the society through artwork. He is a young person whose artistic talent has inspired many people in the contemporary world. In addition, he talks of art as a mirror of the society, and thus it should be open to all people regardless of their cultural backgrounds as each one of them is part of a society that art reflects. The value of this analysis is based on the life of Jones as a successful artist, who joined the industry as a young child and prospered as a teenager. Hence, his life supports the thesis statement of this paper, as he is an agent of social change in the world by inspiring people and fighting for the truth through art. Tish Jones is an influential artist, poet, emcee, and a master of the spoken word and thus this paper highlights how he interacts with the society and the contribution he has made to the world through his skills.
Tish Jones
Tish is a renowned poet, activist, and emcee from Minneapolis. He has actively been involved with Intermedia Arts since 2005 as a young teenage. As a poet and emcee, Jones is fond of speaking to people about the most controversial topics through lyrical art. He was inspired to join the art industry as an early age, which together with his love for people and desire to pursue truth, made him an art icon in the country. He is currently synonymous with leadership, community development, and authenticity and young people view him as an agent of truth across the country. Looking into his background, Tish Jones nurtured his art with the help of his second grade teacher. He was a good performing student in science and his teacher introduced him to the theatre, which was created only for the good performing students. As young students, they could only do simple forms of play, but he felt connected to art, and thus he realized the need to make other people become connected as well. He recalls that his origin as a poet and emcee enables him to connect many people to art.
However, not everybody is good in art, as it requires talent, inspiration, and passion to succeed as an artist. Jones has exhibited real talent and passion in his work, and when asked about what inspires him, he said, “real life, love, truth, God, hurt, joy, word, and people” (“Intermedia Arts” par. 3). His answer was brilliant and it contained a deep meaning of his life and career. Art is real whenever it is supposed to convey a message to the audience, and as an activist, he has to defend the truth by referring to the real life events and issues that people understand. Secondly, love, hurt, and joy can be combined because they are feelings, which he uses to develop his theme and perform in order for the audience to understand his messages clearly. He needs to have a feeling of what he should tell the audience as that is what enables him to perform perfectly for art is not only about words, but also about the body language expressed by the innermost feelings.
Thirdly, God and truth can be combined because God is truth. The human judgment is based on laws and morals, but morals are stronger than laws. Truth is based on morals, and thus God, as a supreme being, is the giver of the conscience to human beings. Conscience holds the moral values. In other words, Jones believes in God, who helps him to defend the truth through art. Fourthly, word and people can be combined because people need to hear a word in order for them to understand the message therein. Hence, the word has to inspire him before people who need to hear that word (Nightingale et al. 34).
In the contemporary world, the majority of people have a great desire of changing the world into a better place for livelihood. However, the major problem lies identifying the most effective tool for achieving that desire. Nevertheless, Jones has proved art as the only tool for speaking out loudly without raising strong controversies if not intended to insult a part of the audience. When asked about how he has used art to change the word, Jones said that people cannot speak out the ugly truth, but art makes it more appealing to speak out and interesting to hear. As aforementioned, word inspires Tish and he says that he uses his spoken words to pass across the truth on a light note. Hence, art is an effective tool for uniting people and changing the world (“Kulture Klub Collaborative” par. 6).
Jones is excited about art because it has enabled him to develop human character. After high school, he was invited to Intermedia Arts, and this chance was a lifetime opportunity to him as it helped him to transit from teenage to adulthood as a strong artist. In addition, his character of love for the people enabled him to view art as an essential tool for networking and making a large family. He says that art makes him excited about life coupled with enabling him to change lives of other people with what he has learnt by his own.
Looking into how Jones interacts with the society, he seems humbled by the art industry that requires persons of good morals and character. Having started as a young artist, he has lived in harmony with the society that he loves and serves with his talent. Given that he is a renowned superstar in the industry, it implies that people love him and they want him stay longer in the art industry. In addition, he is an understanding individual, which enables him to tolerate those that try to bring him down in terms of unfair competition from some quarters in the industry. In addition to being an understanding individual, he is prudent, which is requisite in order to succeed whenever he has to convey a debatable message through artwork.
In addition, Jones is one of the youngest philanthropists in the contemporary world. He has been working tirelessly to ensure that women are treated fairly in the world and he mostly fights for their rights through poetry and spoken word presentations. Hence, the world views him as a true agent of change in fighting for the truth and rights of the oppressed through art. Having worked for the Intermedia Arts for nearly ten years, he has become one of the most successful artists in the organization whose main objective is to inspire social change with core values as open, mirror, and innovative. Taking Jones as a product of Intermedia Arts, it suffices to conclude that art truly changes the world if it is based on strong core values of the artists. Jones is truly open-minded and creative, and thus he is capable of thinking deeply about a real life situation and creatively developing words for communicating the problem to the world.
On the benefits of art to the society, the life of Tish Jones is a clear evidence of the benefits of the art industry to the entire world. He is inspiring to his audience and those who have learned about him through other means apart from art. People love inspiring individuals and especially the young ones who look up to the people who have done remarkable things in life as mentors. He beat the odds by standing out as an activist male teenage in the art industry and his work became a revelation to his audiences. In addition to fighting for the truth as an activist, he loves entertaining his audience through emceeing and spoken word presentations and he has won various awards such as the VERVE Grants for Spoken Word Poets in 2009 (Jones and Vázquez 56).
The world has numerous successful artists and they give back to society through various ways as individuals, but the fact that they are in the art industry makes them all philanthropists as they communicate what adds value to the human life through art. Art demands a lot of hard work to nature since an artist has to spend time practicing before standing out in any kind of a presentation. Hence, there is a need to appreciate any artist who stands out in this industry. However, the level of individual success varies as some perform better than others do due to creativity and the message being passed across. In addition, some artists work hard for the money earned in the industry and they support no projects that contribute towards making the world a better place for humanity. Hence, to the audience, some artists are more successful than others are not because they have more money, but due to their contribution towards societal change.
The society benefits by getting true leadership through art. Whenever Jones fights for the right of the oppressed through art, he asks the authorities to develop and implement mechanisms that would improve the lives of the oppressed. Hence, he seeks the kind of leadership that upholds rights of all humans by protecting them against oppression of any kind. It suffices to say that Jones is a transformational leader because he not only advocates for fairness through art, but also he exercises it in daily life. he has a heart of helping people from all backgrounds and he does it out of love rather than fame as is the case of the majority of artists in the contemporary world, and this aspect makes him stand out as a transformational leader.
Going by the saying that leaders are not born but natured, art helps the society by developing leaders. Artists who stand out for being talented and creative have high chances of becoming leaders in the real life. Art is supposed to be real and it good leaders should possess this product of creativity. Jones uses his creativity to communicate to the world that good leadership is vital to the societal change as it is only through the good leadership that truth can be upheld. His confidence in fighting for truth and good leadership emanates from his passion, and hence his desire to become a transformational leader, who understands the needs of his followers (Gabbidon and Greene 78). Lastly, the presence of activists in a society enables people to live in peace by being aware of some people watching for their rights from being violated by those in authority. The residents of Minnesota have great confidence in Jones as a defender of their rights because he always talks about anything displeasing to the people through art. Hence, it can be concluded that art speaks more effectively than any other ways of communication, and it has the capacity to contribute to a positive societal change in the contemporary world. In addition, art is essential to societal development because through successful artists such as Tish Jones, the world has developed through good leadership and less violation of human rights in society.
Works Cited
Jones, Tish, and Diego Vázquez. Bittersweet Butterflies: Women’s Writing Program at Ramsey County Correctional Facility, Minneapolis: Horizon Press, 2014. Print
Gabbidon, Shaun, and Hellen Greene. Race Crime and Justice: A Reader, New York: Routledge, 2013. Print.
Intermedia Arts: Tish Jones 2014. Web.
Kulture Klub Collaborative: Home is where You Make it 2009. Web.
Nightingale, Kimberly, Tish Jones, Bronson Lakesha, Diego Vázquez, Nena Godwin,
Sonya Hicks, Kristina Jackson, Niki Mercedes, Joielynn Kinnunen, Sleepy Rios, Darla Wills, and Latrice McKinney. A Place Inspired by Words: Women’s Writing Program III, Minneapolis: Arcata Press, 2013. Print.