2021ClarkeElijah

Hi class! My name is Elijah Clarke but I usually go by Eli. I am a fourth-year World Arts & Cultures major, I'm queer, my pronouns are he/him, and after reading most of everyone's blogposts I'm super excited to take this course with all of you! Pre-pandemic I was aiming to double major in PoliSci however due to the challenges of online school and personal challenges I decided to drop my double major and just focus on completing my WAC major. During my time thus far at UCLA, I have mostly focused my art and independent research on concepts related to United States politics, disability, and queerness. Possibly more relevant to this course though, in early 2019 I completed a research project on the political history of El Salvador after traveling there twice as an independent election observer. While my research project focused mainly on Central American politics, in the end, a significant portion of my time researching was dedicated to exploring the avenues through which people resisted political oppression in El Salvador, many of which were related to the arts, specifically theatre arts. In general, I am very passionate about the political impact of art and the power of artists to generate ideas and share perspectives. Over this past summer, I worked at the UCLA Hammer Museum during which an exhibit called Made in LA 2020 was showing. The exhibit displayed local art made by Los Angeles residents and as a result, I was able to interact with several of the artists and curators for the exhibit. All in all, there are a lot of reasons I am excited to take this course and I hope to learn more about Chicanx and Latinx art and possibly learn some about Central and South American politics and culture through the art.