Pulitzer Prize-Winning Activist Yohance Lacour presents on why ‘Art is fundamentally necessary’

As part of the Mackin-Mailander Lecture series, on Wednesday, October 1, Clarke University students filled the seats of Jansen Music Hall to hear from Yohance Lacour, a Pulitzer Prize-winning artist and activist. Through raw experience and personal reflections, he spoke about the power of social justice-driven art: “It will stand the test of time; it is invaluable because social injustices aren’t going anywhere…”

Yohance Lacour in Jansen Hall

Speaking directly to the students of Clarke as a call to action, he emphasised how creativity through art is not just a form of self-expression but can also act as a vehicle for change.  

Lacour reflected on how his own life has been “Repeatedly marked by the social justice of art.” His youth was spent in the rise of hip-hop; he spoke of how graffiti, rap, and breakdancing acted as outlets of recognition for marginalized communities. What people saw as ‘youth rebellion’ was truly a cultural movement that reflected the injustice they faced.

As he delved further into how art has the ability to heal, he explained how “The key is justice, but it’s social through shared sentiments.” Speaking from his own experience of how art is one of the few forms of creation that truly centres someone by forcing them to be informed by yesterday, centred in the present and conscious of the future resonance it has to others. He allowed candid insight into his experience with oppression: “When you’ve suffered through oppression, you become numb to the concerns of others,” reinforcing the idea that art is fundamental in providing an environment to both voice and process what one has faced. In his words, “it is easier to speak through art especially when you have faced that social injustice.” 

Nearing the end of his lecture, he placed emphasis to the full room on how people naturally gravitate towards art, and when that art is driven by social justice, it has the ability to multiply its impact. To tie his speech together, he closed with the directly addressing the audience to continue creating, because social justice- driven art is ‘invaluable.’

His lecture was not only the spoken truth of how the presence of art offers a resounding, lasting expression, but a lived testimony by Lacour himself of how art is more than creativity when it is the catalyst for movement and the tether for one’s survival in times of hardship.