When it comes to being an activist, every individual has a different way of rising to the occasion. The same is true with Janette Ikz, who does her activism with style. Miss Ikz uses poetry to fight for what she believes in. Miss Ikz is a passionate poet who speaks up about her tribulations in the past and how god helps her through it, she also takes it one step further, encouraging young women to speak up about sexual assault by becoming vulnerable to her audience and telling them about her past encounters with sexual assault. Her form of activism breathes new life Urban Art as she touches the core of individuals through her passion. It is her passion and determination to combine two of the aspects that makes her who she is to make a difference, which inspired me to want to do the same. With my love for fashion, art, and poetry I look to combine these passions by creating an Fashion-Art show, where I would create fashion pieces and statements that not only goes with but tells the story of Poets across the world, and not just poets but activist, journalist, and every other kind of occupation looking to make a difference in this world. After feedback from my classmates, I am even more encouraged to shoot for the stars and allow what I love to have the opportunity to make a difference in the world.
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It is not often that we as American’s look in depth on topics that do not affect us directly or anything that takes time to occur. However, it is time that we stop being a self-centered society and look beyond the scope of desires. When it comes to the topic of health, obesity has become a global epidemic. For example, London is suffering from child obesity as much as we are, a place that was once filled with happy, healthy children has now followed the footsteps of America, where unhealthy foods and their impact on our health are starting to determine the quality of our life. Meanwhile, there are a few individuals out there who are looking to improve our health through what they are most passionate about, for instance, the Adidas company in Germany, are looking to combine engineering and fashion to improve our lifestyle and how we can use concepts and ideas that people are passionate about for the betterment of our lives. This can be shown with the work that they are doing with their athletes and how they are monitoring the health of their players, which they hope will soon become something that everyday citizens can have and use to their benefit. There are also individuals who look to create interactive clothing that can adjust and mature with there owners, which can potentially lead to individuals buying less clothing in the long run. There are others also working to create a more sustainable society by biologist and fashion designers to create clothing that can be made with bacteria.
"Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a fucking sharp knife to it" - Banksy“A lot of people never use their initiative because no-one told them to.” |
What does this mean for the future of our society, ? Will we be able to monitor our health on a day to day basis? Will this futuristic concept help us become more vigilant individuals when it comes to our health? Imagine, being able easily monitor our health, keeping an eye on it throughout our time outside of the doctors office. Imagine the possibility of monitoring your heart if you’ve had a stroke, or maybe taking your blood pressure if you suffer from high blood pressure, or maybe even being able to take your blood sugar if you suffer from diabetes. |
The world is changing fast, technology is changing even faster. Why not use it to make impacts that can better our future in more ways than one? Why not imagine the impossible?
1000 Ways to Die and You Choose this One?
One of my favorite all-time shows is t.v. series, which recreates unusual supposed deaths and debunked urban legends and includes interviews with experts who describe the science behind each death. The show takes on a tongue-in-cheek dark humor with approach to death through its presentation of stories derived from both myths and science, the show makes liberal use of artistic license to change the circumstances of real-life incidents that resulted in death for greater entertainment value. Regardless of the shows dark humor and it’s unethical ways of making money on the misfortune of individuals, the show teaches us one very important idea; that we face danger everyday of our lives and mostly survive it.
There are a lot of ways to end up dead, everyday we fight a new fight a new war against germs, toxins, injury, illness, catastrophe, and more. So why is it that we continue to add to the pile? Why is it that we place ourselves in situations that will harm us, and why is it that when we notice these disasters from afar we still do nothing to try and stop them? Is it human nature to self-destruct, or is it in fact that we are too lazy to do anything about it?
That is the question we must ask ourselves right now, when it comes to childhood obesity. While it may seem like just an American issue where, in the 1970’s 1 in 10 Americans were obese, and now, 1 in 3 Americans are obese and ⅔’s of the population is overweight. This epidemic can now be seen across the globe in all ages, in places such as London, England, where 1 in 3 children are obese; which is higher than England’s average of 18.7%. A study done by the Health and Services Committee found that 240,00 children in London were obese.
A TED Talk by Jeff Speck informs us that, In America, 25% of young men and 40% of young women are to heavy to enlist in our military forces, while according to the Center of Disease ⅓ of children born after 2000 will have diabetes. We have the first generation of children in America who are predicted to live shorter lives than their parents.
Speck also informs us that 14 Americans die each day from Asthma, which is now caused by car exhaust and not factories. It can be seen that particles in air pollution is actually harming our lungs and even damages and kills brain cells, as reported by CNN. If we are aware of all of this why are we ignoring the signs and living as though everything is alright.
It is time to start taking action, not only to save our planet, but to save our lives as well. Jeff Speck asked “What if lifestyle is quality of life; something better”. I deeply believe his is how we have start thinking.
It is time to start taking action, not only to save our planet, but to save our lives as well. Jeff Speck asked “What if lifestyle is quality of life; something better”. I deeply believe his is how we have start thinking.
The Beauty of finding new ways to mark our existence
We are in the age where anything is possible and everything has been done. With that being the case, how do we go about making our marks on a world which has been marked in every way possible? That is the question today's youth ask ourselves. How do we leave a lasting mark so that we are not forgotten? So that the world and it's future generations knew we were here? How do artist make their own designs if everything is assumed to be already taken? How do we do any of this when we are just considered a bunch of hooligans, who do not know what they want in life or appreciate what they have? |
The answer is to do so by breaking the rules, finding a way to leave our marks, (I mean why not, it is already expected of us, right? So why not make the most of it) As a youth who actually did graffiti in her prime I can tell you that it is not just vandalism, however it does in fact exist, same as those who sell cheap knockoff designer bags on canal street. It is an art form that we created and embrace, while that does not necessarily mean that it is encourage by our elders we do it anyways. Why? Well, it is the same reason why our parents generation refused to follow their parents rules growing up, why my mother was considered a "hippie" back in your youth and why we look for approval in our peers instead of our parents growing up. Because, we want to make sure when we die our story does not die with us. That their is something left behind to say, "I WAS HERE"!
The "Arousal Culture" is so much more then just tagging the walls to annoy people. It is our way of yelling at the world and asking them to see our unique identities verses just being another youth looked down upon. It looks to show our individuality and our passion, our beliefs, our values, our goals in life. |
While it might not seem like it from just a glance, if one really stopped to look at the artwork displayed on the wall they would see the pain, passion, the story being told behind every artwork that is shown to the world. It is our jobs as the youth to pave the way for the upcoming generation, why should we be punished for our work of art? Is it just because it does not follow the status quo of what the older generation calls art? IS that fair to us as the youth?
Place and it's affect of Health
Where someone grows up has a large impact on their life, one of which includes health. Physical health, mental health, and even physiological health all of these are important aspects of health and all of these can be affected by where you live. With so many aspects contributing to someone's health it is hard to see that living in a crowded place might not necessarily be the healthiest choice. Why is this the case? Maybe it is because their are less resources for the individual to use or maybe it is because it affects with the individual's ability to remove themselves from the environment, because their is no place for the individual to escape to. But if this is the case, why do people still decide to move into heavily populated areas and others decide to stay in less densely populated areas? And what are the consequences to staying in less populated areas?
While densely populated areas, such as cities present certain advantages such potential job opportunities and easier access to health care. The their are some drawbacks to living in a city. Such as the fact that disease is easier to spread and the air is polluted. However, while rural areas do have advantages, such as better air quality; they too have their own drawbacks such as less accessibility to health services and sometimes even food depending on the location of these individuals. For instance, this can be especially seen in rural areas in developing countries such as those in Africa. Where individuals constantly face issues that affects their growth and future.
For example people who live in these under developed rural areas have less access to healthy drinking water and insignificant for for a healthy diet and sometimes even sanitation issues. This causes these individuals to face a higher likelihood of death and disease, thus causes many individuals to move to cities for hopes of bettering their living conditions - which increases the urban areas and decreases the rural areas. However, those who decide to stay and live in these places are forced to take care of basic needs before they consider education which leaves the developing country in an uneven distribution in educational rights amount Africa's populates.
The question we have to ask ourselves, however, is can we ever find a place that will be completely health in every aspect of our lives? And if not when do we draw the line on a place's drawback and how soon do we draw the line?
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A world full of people and here I am trying to find my place in it.
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