Cultural Placemaking Through the Arts - Chloe Cole-Wilson

Annotation Chloe Cole-Wilson is a poet who is a part of the performance art group Basement Poetry. Cole-Wilson is from the Lehigh Valley, and she talks about how she got involved with art, and what has drawn her to Bethlehem. Cole-Wilson describes the importance of art that challenges viewers to think about issues like race, gender, mental illness, and social justice. She reflects on the value of art, artistic landscape in Bethlehem, and how young artists like herself could be better supported. This interview is part of a series of interviews conducted by Lehigh University in collaboration with area artists Doug Roysdon (Mock Turtle Marionette Theater), Anna Russell, and Avi Setton. These interviews were supported in part by the Lehigh University Mellon Digital Humanities Initiative. An oral history interview is an act of memory and hence both highly selective and highly subjective. While it accurately reflects what a narrator remembers (or chooses to tell) of his or her experience and viewpoints, it may not accurately represent what actually transpired or what another person may have experienced. As such users should subject interviews to the same degree of critical scrutiny they would any other historical source.