Chapter 5 and 6 quotes

Chapter 5, 3 quotes

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world” (page 171)

I loved this quote so much and reading the chapter brought a smile to my face. Many times we talk and talk about how we want certain things to change. However, it is important to stop and ask ourselves. What am I doing to change things around? I think it is important for us to remember that changes always should start within us.

“In addition to becoming good storytellers, we need to teach ourselves to be really good listeners. By listening to the stories that people already tell themselves, we can begin to figure out how to fit our facts into their stories.” (page 188)

I think this is another important factor because listening is everything. Listening to stories and paying attention to them is what makes us understand whatever is going on. As the chapter states with the example about the increased black and brown kids to fearful white Texans. How can we tell a good story? How can we tell sympathetic messages and get to people? By listening to what stories people are saying, we can fit them with our concerns and make them a powerful message. That’s the power of listening and executing.


“Artistic activism is a full-service approach to reaching hearts and minds, and this is what makes it so effective.” (page 207)

I love this quote because art and activism go hand in hand. I think at the end, as the chapter states, the goal is to reach hearts and minds. That’s why they work so well together. As I said in class, many activists are artists, and many artists are activists, which is poetic.



Chapter 6, 3 quotes

“It is very, very difficult to persuade most people to give up their old ways and try something new” (page 211)

This quote made me laugh, because of the neighbor Nick's example, haha. As the chapter states, we all have a neighbor like Nike, who is stubborn and will never listen to us. However, we give up so easily, we accuse them of being ignorant and rest our case. It is important to remember that we can develop practices to pursue people, as the chapter states, there are always ways to work around stubborn people. What is important is don’t give up.


“As artistic activists, we need to always think of our audience. These are the people we hope our message will reach, and whose behavior we want to change. Yet, all too often, our audience is the last thing we think of.” (page 235)

This is very important, as the chapter states we all have been rejected one way or the other, in school, social groups, etc. It is super important to include everyone and don’t leave anyone out. In the end, our messages are for the audience, and we should try to include as many people as we can, it should always be our priority.


“There is one audience we shouldn’t give much thought to at all: haters. As artists and activists, we are sometimes tempted to address our work directly to those who vehemently disagree with us, only to then become enraged (and perversely excited) when this audience rejects us.” (page 241)

As the song says, haters gonna hate, hate hate hate… Is important to remember one thing, haters want a reaction from us, and they feed their energy with our reaction. That’s why it is important to ignore them. At some point, they will get tired and move on. That’s the remedy, when we ignore them it hurts them all more than when we respond.