Why is Art so Powerful?

Perhaps the simplest answer to this question is that art touches us emotionally.

Art is powerful because it can potentially influence our culture, politics, and even the economy. When we see a powerful work of art, you feel it     1    deep within your core, giving us the power to make real-life changes.

It has the power to educate people about almost anything. It creates awareness and     2    information in a way that could be absorbed by many     3    . In a world where there are those who don’t even have access to good education; art makes education an even greater equalizer of society.

It breaks cultural, social, and economic barriers. While art hardly really solves poverty or     4    social justice on its own, it can be used as a leveled playing field for discourse and expression. The reason why everyone can relate to art is that everyone has emotions and personal experiences. Therefore, anyone can learn to appreciate art regardless of their social background, economic     5    , or political affiliation.

It     6    higher orders of thinking. Art doesn’t just make you absorb information. Rather, it makes you think about current ideas and inspire you to make your own. This is why creativity is a form of intelligence — it is a special ability that unlocks the     7    of the human mind. In fact, studies have shown that     8    to art can make you better in other fields of knowledge.

The truth is that people have recognized how powerful art can be. Many times in history have we heard of people being criticized, threatened, censored, and even killed because of their artwork. Those     9    for these reactions, may it be an aggressive government or a dissident group, take these measures against artists knowing how much their works can affect the politics in a     10    area. In the hands of good people, however, art can be used to give back hope or instill courage in a society that’s undergoing a lot of hardships.

Working Out Worries by Writing

After his father was driven to the hospital for emergent treatment, 43-year-old Yanatha Desouvre began to panic. So, he did one thing that he knew would calm himself: He wrote. Over the next few weeks, Desouvre filled several notebooks, writing about his worry as well as his happy memories with his dad. “Writing allowed me to face my fear and process my pain,” he says. Psychologists refer to that kind of writing as “expressive writing”. People do it by recording their deepest thoughts and feelings. However, different from writing in a journal, expressive writing is to reflect honestly and thoughtfully on a particular frustration or challenge.

A well-known psychology professor says that hundreds of studies have looked at the potential benefits of expressive writing and found it can help reduce pain and improve mood, sleep and memory. It may even help reduce symptoms of various illnesses, and prevent colds and flu.

Expressive writing takes effect because translating a painful experience into language allows people to make meaning out of it, some experts say. The process forces them to organize their thoughts and offers a sense of control, thus completing the pursuit of value from such an experience. Another research suggested that during expressive writing, the act of labeling a feeling can lessen the activity relating to nerves in the threat area of the brain. With these nerves relaxed, people can lower the symptoms of their diseases, enhance their appreciation for life, and increase the acceptance of various experiences in their lives.

What can’t be ignored is that it shouldn’t be used as a replacement for other medical treatments. And people coping with a severe depression may not find it useful to do on their own, without therapy. Yet, it can be a powerful coping tool for many, in large part because it helps battle against their reluctance to face negative emotions.

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6 . Railroads and Literature

Nineteenth-century writers in the United States, whether they wrote novels, short stories, poems or plays, were powerfully drawn to the railroad in its golden years.    1    By the 1850’s, the railroad was a major presence in the life of the nation. Writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau saw the railroad both as a sign to development and as an object of suspicion. The railroad could be and was a despoiler of nature. Furthermore, because of speed and noise, it might be a despoiler of human nature as well.

    2     Deeply philosophical historians such as Henry Adams hated the role that the new craze for business was playing in destroying traditional values. A distrust of industry and business continued among writers throughout the rest of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth.

    3     One thinks of melodramas, boy’s books, thrillers, romances and the like rather than novels of the first rank. In the railroads’ best years, between 1890 and 1920, there were a few individuals in the United States, most of them with solid railroading experience behind them, who made a profession of writing about railroading-works offering the ambience of stations yards and locomotive cabs.     4     But anyone who takes the time to consult their fertile writings will still find much information about the place of the railroad in the life of the United States.

There are several qualities of literature. One of them is its description of     1    (true) and beauty. Some truth and beauty remain unnoticed     2    a sensitive human soul brings them to our attention. A hundred men may pass a field and     3    (see) only dead grass; but a poet stops, looks deeper, sees truth and beauty, and writes. “Yesterday’s flowers am I.” One     4    (read) it is capable of seeing the beauty that     5    (hide) from his eyes before. Another quality is its appeal to our feelings and imagination. Its attraction lies     6    (much) in what it awakens in us than what it says. When Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus asks in     7    presence of Helen, “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?” he opens a door through     8    our imagination enters a new world, a world of love, beauty and     9    (hero). In general, literature is the written record of man’s     10    (think) and feelings, and the history of the human soul.

The Power of Poetry

“Thank you for leading us to these places of comfort,” one participant said. “It helped me feel connected to a greater sense of being, which is so needed during these times.” Her words echoed (和……共鸣) many of the participants’ feelings in Finding Comfort, the first installment of the Hope Storytelling Project.

We were inspired to create the project, a series of virtual poetry workshops held in partnership with the Cambridge Public Library and the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, for a simple reason: to create     1     through poetry.

In this time of social isolation and uncertainty, the need for meaningful connections is more apparent than ever. The longer the pandemic continues, we, as a nation, are quickly realizing how there is a(n)     2     of tools to fight the growing feelings of loneliness. Therefore we decided to use poetry as a(n)     3     for connection: to cultivate a safe space where free expression is     4    , different opinions are tolerated, and sharing stories offers therapeutic reflection. Through the combination of introspective writing and open group discussions, we have built a model in which poetry can directly     5     feelings of loneliness.

One of the most powerful and simple ways of dealing with emotional issues is communicating and listening to others with our undivided attention and open minds. Therefore, in designing the Hope Storytelling Project, we     6     designing our workshops for that particular purpose—to use poetry as a way to heal through individual reflection and group discussion. Divided into five parts (Finding Comfort, On Perspective, Approaching Emotion, Being a Witness and A New Hope), the Hope Storytelling Project seeks to guide participants through different forms of writing poetry, and finally, to uplift each other and create a sense of unity.

In our first workshop, participants shared childhood stories, memories about loved ones, and about the things they missed, such as hiking, going to work or simply hugging a friend. In the span of an hour, the virtual space felt     7     more tight-knit, warmed by shared poems and experiences. As we closed, many participants noted how this workshop     8     offered the space to simply write, listen and connect.

It is time to recognize how powerful creative expression, through mediums such as poetry, can be in times of despair, and we believe all aspects of poetry—reading, writing and sharing—can serve as an incredible cure for loneliness. In times like these, poetry will     9     us to imagine and to consider our journeys within the collective landscape, and we can use this to heal and to create meaningful connections. Poetry can be a(n)     10     medium of comfort and beauty, reminding us of how we were all closely connected, even in isolation.