Shannon- Tupac- Day Three

Our second day at the Tupac center was focused on learning about the arts scene in Atlanta. We started off the day meeting the executive director at the Tupac center. He thanked us for our help and asked each of us about our connections with the arts. Next we spoke to four people involved in the arts in Atlanta; a choreographer, a playwright, a director of a non-profit organization supporting individual artists in Atlanta, and a governmental employee in charge of allotting grants to artists in Atlanta. All of these people had gotten degrees elsewhere and followed somewhat crooked paths that landed them back in the arts. What I took from the roundtable is that a person should follow his or her passion no matter what it is, there are many ways to be involved in the arts, and the arts can be incorporated into any lifestyle. It was comforting to me to know that my passion for the arts could still remain an essential part of my life even if I do not plan to pursue the arts as a career. When a person grows up with the arts, the arts will follow him for the rest of his life. After the roundtable, we watched part of a video on Tupac’s life that was meant to help us understand why Tupac ended up the way that he did. In order to understand Tupac on an even deeper level, we went to a library to view some of Tupac’s personal writings. The one that stood out to me the most was Tupac’s design for a restaurant. It struck me as surprising to find out that Tupac has lofty hopes and dreams just as everyone else does. He was a true dreamer. Seeing these personal documents in his handwriting reminded us that Tupac was a person just like us.