Ana Kennedy
Ana Kennedy in Florence with her host mother (at left) and her host mother's friend (at right).
Lawrence University
Participant in the 2010 ACM Student Symposium on Off-Campus Study
People Have the Power: Reflections on Coversations about Art and the Art of Conversation
When I look through my photographs from my semesters in Chicago and Florence, so many of the images are of buildings. Blocks of public housing, the glass windows of lakefront apartments, the marble facade of the duomo, the door of my home stay family's apartment building. As nostalgic as I feel when I look at them, they don't capture what was most important to me during my time in these vibrant and exhilarating cities.
When I think of Chicago, I am reminded of graduating high school seniors and election day revelers, and when I think of Florence, I hear Patti Smith and the voices of the three Italian women, spanning three generations, with whom I shared an apartment. The individuals I met, however briefly or fortuitously, during my travels have had a profound effect on my life, and it is their words and faces and artistic creations that I remember most clearly. The resiliency, creativity, and wisdom that people demonstrated, regardless of age or language, continues to be an inspiration and is worth sharing with those who support social justice movements and believe in the power of art.
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