Cal State East Bay’s Hayward campus can sometimes seem a bit drab due to its 1960s ultra-functional architecture. However, a group of students are determined to add a little color while continuing a legacy of free speech.
This month some of CSUEB’s most talented artists have been painting a mural on the Agora Stage across from the University Union, one of the most trafficked areas on campus. The work is entitled “Welcome to Babylon” and is dedicated to slain Hayward resident Oscar Grant. Puppets can be see dangling from strings and children are passively watching a television screen while hooked up to “the machine.”
Jack Eastgate, a graphic design student who is organizing the project, describes the scene.
“Education is taking a back seat to a select group of people who control and seek to control others, with a disregard to life,” said Eastgate.
The Angora Mural Project will continue throughout the school year and will take on several different forms. Planning of the current mural began on Aug. 3 and the painting will conclude around the start of Fall Quarter. On Sept. 22, organizers will meet to design the fourth stage of the project which will depict the Day of the Dead with painting beginning on Sept. 29. The rest of November will be spent creating “The Art of Hip Hop.”
Although the project is being funded by the ASI, the artists have complete control over their creation.
Eastgate says that the mural is, “a place where students can practice their skills,” but will also transcend artwork to become a “social commentary and protest.” The current design shows the dangers created by an entire generation of youth who watch too much television. They begin to lose their sense of creativity and stop thinking for themselves. The Federal Communications Commission reports that children watch approximately three hours of television a day, a trend which leads many to worry about the increasing role that the digital media has on their upbringing.
Free speech is an important part of campus life, a key aspect of the college experience is the cultivation of ideas and opinions. The very purpose of the Agora Stage is to serve as a venue for students to express themselves in a public setting. It was created in the memory of Alexander Meiklejohn, the namesake of the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences, who was a famous academic and ardent supporter of free speech.
The students who are lending their creative talents should be commended. As Eastgate puts it, “it takes a little courage to shift from the average drawing medium like a sketch book, to a much larger project like a mural.”