Author Talk & Book Signing

Mark will focus his talk on:

Title:  One Tribe: Art’s Role in Moving a Culture from “We/Them” to “Us”
David Brooks has argued that Americans currently live in an age of what he labels "shallowization," where collectively we are struggling against forces that seem intent on making us become shallower versions of ourselves. He identifies two primary drivers: technology and politicization, writing that we are inundated with shallow opinions via bytes of images while simultaneously everything is enmeshed in predictable partisan outrage. His remedy: "flee to the arts." I expand on this argument, suggesting that the nature of art allows us to "try on other skins," that by seeing from other points of vision allows us to practice empathy. Art can also use camouflage for us to gain access to experiences and ideas we might not otherwise encounter because we might tap our feet to the beat of a song regardless of the lyrics, consider an idea because a comedian made us laugh about it. or live inside another's view when we inhabit a first person narrator.