[audiobook] Staging Chinese Revolution: Theater; Film; and the Afterlives of Propaganda by Xiaomei Chen in Arts-Photography

Description

Since 1997; the war in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has taken more than 6 million lives and shapes the daily existence of the nations residents. While the DRC is often portrayed in international media as an unproductive failed state; the Congolese have turned increasingly to art-making to express their experience to external eyes. Author Ch?rie Rivers Ndaliko argues that cultural activism and the enthusiasm to produce art exists in Congo as a remedy for the social ills of war and as a way to communicate a positive vision of the country. Ndaliko introduces a memorable cast of artists; activists; and ordinary people from the North-Kivu province; whose artistic and cultural interventions are routinely excluded from global debates that prioritize economics; politics; and development as the basis of policy decision about Congo. Rivers also shows how art has been mobilized by external humanitarian and charitable organizations; becoming the vehicle through which to inflict new kinds of imperial domination. Written by a scholar and activist in the center of the current public policy debate; Necessary Noise examines the uneasy balance of accomplishing change through art against the unsteady background of war.At the heart of this book is the Yole!Africa cultural center; which is the oldest independent cultural center in the east of Congo. Established in the aftermath of volcano Nyiragongos 2002 eruption and sustained through a series of armed conflicts; the cultural activities organized by Yole!Africa have shaped a generation of Congolese youth into socially and politically engaged citizens. By juxtaposing intimate ethnographic; aesthetic; and theoretical analyses of this thriving local initiative with case studies that expose the often destructive underbelly of charitable action; Necessary Noise introduces into heated international debates on aid and sustainable development a compelling case for the necessity of arts and culture in negotiating sustained peace. Through vivid descriptions of a community of young people transforming their lives through art; Ndaliko humanizes a dire humanitarian disaster. In so doing; she invites readers to reflect on the urgent choices we must navigate as globally responsible citizens.The only study of music or film culture in the east of Congo; Necessary Noise raises an impassioned and vibrantly interdisciplinary voice that speaks to the theory and practice of socially engaged scholarship.