Education Is Not A Crime – What’s Next?

IranWire interviewed Saleem Vaillancourt and Michael Castelaz while they were in Detroit, Michigan about what comes next for the #EducationIsNotACrime project

For the last couple of years, the #EducationIsNotAcCrime campaign has been active all over the world. Can you tell us a little about what’s been happening over the last few months, and what lies ahead?

#EducationIsNotACrime is at a new stage in its development. While we are trying to stay with the story of the Baha’is in Iran and their right to higher education, the next logical step, which came out of the message from the film Changing the World One Wall at a Time, is connecting the issue of the Baha’is in Iran to other communities that have also experienced discrimination in education, as well as in other forms. 

We are now in Detroit and the idea is to do our project here; to stay on the story of the Baha’is in Iran, to stay within the realm of public art, and to really connect this issue more closely to communities in the United States and their educational needs, thus making a concrete difference to the situation in the United States.

What drew you specifically to Detroit? 

We were invited here by some of the Baha’is in the Michigan community to start exploring this space and to see what potential there might be to do what #EducationIsNotACrime has done before – which is to create murals to raise awareness of a story in Iran – but we also wanted to explore how to take it further and do something that is distinct. 

What can be done in Detroit that is “distinct”?

We saw that there was the opportunity to create some other kinds of installations that have practical uses for the community, but also serve as billboards. This was an opportunity for us to do different kinds of street art beyond just murals, and so we hit upon the idea of bus shelters. This would serve as very practical in terms of giving people space to sit and wait for the bus, and also the opportunity for artists to really create striking pieces of work on the structure itself. After we came up with this idea, a contact of ours pointed out that the city of Detroit and local government here was actually focusing on creating a much improved bus route and bus service.

We were very lucky to come up with the bus shelter idea, but we didn’t know exactly what to do with it. One of the reasons why the idea came up is that Detroit is a city where some people don’t have adequate access to transportation and that maybe this is one of the reasons why they can’t go to school, or cannot get the job that they need. There is a reliance on public transport, but there is also a lack of some of the infrastructure that makes that public transport more usable. For example, Michigan has very cold and wet winters, and people waiting for the bus are exposed to the elements. We thought it would be great to be able to build bus shelters to serve this need, and that these bus shelters could also be works of art. 

This idea was existing within a vacuum, but then we found out about the initiative of the city: GOAL Line. This stands for Get On And Learn. It was incredibly serendipitous that we were able to pitch this idea to the city. We met with the mayor’s team and pitched this as an extension of their project. It gives GOAL Line some visible presence on the ground, but it also serves the needs of the campaign – which is to talk about the situation of the Baha’is in Iran. And we can do this by serving a community here in the United States. What was very striking about meeting with the city was that at the end of our presentation we said we want to do this because it’s both useful to the city of Detroit and it helps us raise the issue of the Baha’is in Iran. We feel that there is a unique form of storytelling that raises awareness about one group of people by serving another. Both groups are dealing with educational disadvantages. On the one hand, it’s a policy imposed by the government, on the other, it’s a structural problem. 

The reason that this bus route has been developed is because the kids in this neighborhood often go across the city line to a different school in a different municipality – which is better funded and is generally seen as better. This deprives Detroit’s schools of resources. That’s why this bus route exists.

Tell me about the artwork envisioned for these bus shelters.

We still want to use world-class artists, and would commission them to work with us on these bus shelters. The final design on each of these structures will have panels or surfaces that will be covered in art. It’s not going to be on the same grand scale of the murals that #EducationIsNotACrime has done in the past, it’s going to be a different kind of art – but it’s still going to be world-class art. Each one will be unique. 

We will also be creating some new murals in Detroit which will be entirely consistent with this new project. For example, murals on the sides of the schools that are being served by this bus route. But while it is true that the artwork itself on the bus shelters won’t be as big as the murals in Harlem, for example, this will be a physical installation that is used every day by the community. It has its own kind of presence and scale and it will be through its use and its connection to the neighborhood that it achieves its purpose of attracting attention and creating a narrative, rather than focusing on size. 

The aim is to create 10 of these bus shelters by next September, and we will be working with local artists here in Detroit. We also want to highlight local stories, so each shelter will hopefully have as part of it a local Detroit story. The mural that we have already done in Detroit, and which is also with the first prototype bus shelter that we are in the process of working on right now, focuses on the story of Robert Hayden. Hayden was the first African American poet laureate of the United States. He was a native of Detroit and during his life he became a Baha’i. As a literary figure he is not as well known as some of the other more recognized poets. Also, here in Detroit, very few residents know that someone who achieved this level of esteem and acclaim in his life came from the city, and not only that, but he also accomplished these things through intellectual and literary progress. So we want to look at the story of Robert Hayden as somebody who not only is an inspirational figure for the people here, but who was also a Baha’i, and who faced discrimination and hardship during his life because of his race. He is an example of the power of education, and he himself became an educator. We hope that this is a template that will be able to highlight other global and local stories. These individuals will of course not all be Baha’is, but they will be people who have been significant in the community of Detroit, and especially the African-American community. One idea, for example, is of a woman who runs a local bookshop here. She is one of just a handful of African Americans to own local bookstores in the whole country. So highlighting stories like this is very interesting as well. These are people who aren’t famous, but who are significant in terms of what they have done in their own lives.
 

In what other ways does the creation of the bus shelters impact the local communities?

One of the issues that is existing within the city of Detroit right now is the issue of gentrification. A lot of what we’ve been hearing from the local communities is the desire to maintain the narratives of their communities and maintain control of their own stories that are being told. Working with these bus shelters gives us an opportunity to sponsor a community and help them seize control of their own narrative, and tell the stories that are important to them. I think that’s a huge plus for us and something we feel really excited about and honored to be a part of.

Part of the plan is that the artwork for the bus shelters is going to be part of art workshops that we will be developing with some of the folks at the schools, and also at the activity center within the community, which is in the hub of this bus line. We also met a young man who, among the many things that he does, trains young men in construction in skilled labor. So all these bus shelters are going to be built by young people who are being trained in this course right out of high school. So even the construction of this is not in isolation from education and it is providing people with opportunities. 

And beyond Detroit?

Some of our supporters here in Michigan want this to be a national campaign. I think that what we have is a unique model and we would like to see this being replicated elsewhere. But I don’t think it’s a question of just rocking up in a city and splashing up some murals or building some bus shelters. I think it’s more about getting to know a place, understanding what’s needed, and then seeing how our experiences and our particular approach can perhaps serve that community.  

We would also like to make a film about the bus shelter project and all the lessons we’ve learned, and then hopefully this is a way in which the story will be told more widely. Part of the power of the murals of #EducationIsNotACrime is that we tell the story online, and it becomes a way of injecting the story into the media. We want people on the ground to understand why we’re doing this, and it’s very important, but if all that anyone knows about these bus shelters is that they keep them warmer and drier in the winters, then that’s fine. Because these bus shelters will also tell their stories online, through the media, and they will advance the roles of the campaign there.

And do you have any final thoughts about the project you’d like to tell IranWire’s audience?

It is both strategic and principled to want to serve people in Detroit as a way to talk about the Baha’is in Iran. It is principled because we want to do something of value where we are, and it is strategic because it creates a broader relevance. 

We are trying to participate in the process that is much bigger than us and that is designed to raise the overall quality of education in Detroit. We are making a small contribution to this, while also connecting this kind of initiative to a global concern about educational inequality. The causes for educational discrepancies and these disequilibriums are very different, but the outcomes are very similar.