Anthony-Ray Kouta
Arts Scholar
Pentathlon
Semester 1
As an experiential component of College Park Arts Scholars, I attended a selection of five art events during my first semester. These events ranged in art mediums and each sparked dialogue among my peers.
Pentathlon 1: Blacklight Painting Workshop
Event Logistics: 09/07/2022
Pentathlon category: #painting
The Blacklight Painting Workshop was an event where I was able to paint after a very long time, thought not completely foreign to me. I had not touched any type of paint in years and the “Blacklight” aspect of this event decreased my familiarity with this type of art even more. However, these factors were not negatives for me, they were what made this experience so fun.
Distinguishing the colors like red, black and blue was nearly impossible for me and led to some hilarious mistakes that I am able to laugh at now, but at the moment it caused some concern on how my painting would look at the end. I am pleasantly surprised with my finished product, especially my tree and sunset, as I actually started both of them by mistake. My tree started when I accidentally dabbed some black paint in the middle of my paper which sparked an idea in my head to keep on dabbing my paint brush in a triangle shape in order to make a Christmas tree. For the sky I was inspired by my friends as they blended their sky so well and I wanted to perfect mine which led me to put my paintbrush into what I thought was orange but in fact was red; now that my painting is dried I quite like that mistake. Which is something we discussed in the Art Scholars Colloquium. Sometimes mistakes lead to purposeful art.
As a Psychology major this workshop really made me think about how I want to be as a therapist, because while I was working I focused on my own work, I had a goal following instructions to the best I could and only looked at others work not to compare but to learn and possibly gain something from them. Even if I made a mistake I kept going until I ended up with a result I was happy about. This is a lesson I really want other people to understand; don’t look at others with envy but as inspiration for your own greatness.
Overall I had a lot of fun during this workshop and I am very content with my piece of art!
Pentathlon 2: Craft and Chat Moxie Screening!
Event Logistics: 10/07/2022
Pentathlon category: #film, #ArtsScholars
“Moxie'' is a movie in which the topic of sexism is heavily embedded into the plot. The main setting of this movie is Rockport Higshcool in which sexism there is ignored and women’s voices are often silenced due to the Principal of the school. The arrival of the “new girl” Lucy causes quite a stir at the school as she doesn’t let anyone push her around from the sexist boys to her dismissive principal; she makes it very clear that she’s not the one to mess around with. This inspires the main character of this movie Vivian who starts a magazine-like print that she shares in the girl’s bathroom in order to uplift the women in her school titled “Moxie.” We follow Vivian’s activism as she attempts to hide her identity as the creator of Moxie while advocating for the girls in her school.
I had never watched this movie before or even seen a trailer so I went to the screening with no expectations and was pleasantly surprised as it was extremely good for a myriad of reasons. This movie made me think about how art can be used in order to protest for a cause; Vivian’s Moxie papers were not just information papers, they were stylized, a lot like street tags which I think helped with the rebellious ideas she was promoting. The words she emphasized in her papers and the structure of each piece were purposefully done so that girls would be interested in reading her piece. The plot of the movie was also very intricate because the social issue of silencing the voice of women is still a big part of today's society. The dress code for example is something that is not foreign to a lot of girls just because their body is shaped a certain way they aren’t able to express themselves through their clothing, the double standards between the limitations put on women compared to the male population is something that truly aggravated me. The romance aspect of it was also highly enjoyable because the male lead was very likable to me and the way Vivian handles the relationship between him adds more entertaining conflicts to this movie.
Vivian’s character was really entertaining to me from a mental health standpoint (Psych Major here!!!!). She is like a sponge in this movie she absorbed a lot of people’s characteristics; at the beginning of the movie she was extremely similar to her best friend, then she attempted to be like Lucy and her mother (back when her mother was still in highschool.) Vivian is truly a feminist however, she still doesn’t really know who she is as a person and her art is the most accurate representation of her. She uses Moxie to express her true feelings, a good message that art is an amazing outlet for thoughts that are usually filtered and emotions.
Overall: This movie was extremely fun to watch with friends and the commentary I made with my friend made me enjoy it more.
Pentathlon 3: Pumpkin Function
Event Logistics: 10/21/2022
Pentathlon category: #presentation, #ArtsScholars
The pumpkin function was an event held by our Arts Scholars program where a Halloween tradition that is done by many people occurred. Personally, it was my first time decorating a pumpkin. I've always preferred looking at other people doing it from far away but participating in it was fun. While very short the comfort that this event brought was appreciated it gave me time to just relax and do something just for fun. It was honestly very therapeutic for me.
I learned that painting is a stress reliever for me even if I mess up it doesn’t particularly bother me as mistakes can be easily fixed with this form of art. Seeing all my peers being creative in their own way or recreating painted pumpkin ideas was so much fun as it even became a guessing game for me. The messiness of this whole event eased any tension I was feeling.
The freedom that I was able to have during this event truly made it some much more fun, having no instructions gave me freedom to do anything I wanted, even if in the end I thought my finished art was funny looking, being able to laugh about it in the end made every second I spent painting totally worth it.
Pentathlon 4: Sick movie night with Wendell&Wild
Event Logistics: 11/05/2022
Pentathlon category: #film
I was extremely sick this whole week and I didn’t have the energy to do anything that needed much movement and while scrolling through Netflix I saw that a highly anticipated movie (at least from what I saw on the internet) came out. Wendell and Wild. The reason why I chose this movie specifically is because of an argument that surfaced around it and I think it is closely related to some of the things talked about in art scholars in terms of the accessibility of art. Tim Burton had once said that he believed that black people would not fit his art style which is why he did not include them in any of his past projects. Which caused quite a controversy online and when the trailer for Wendell and Wild came out, which seemingly had a black main character and a Tim Burton like art style, many people including me were excited to see it.
That’s enough exposition now about the movie itself. Overall the colors are dark, the color palette for the background and characters is overall pretty much gray. The main character is Kay, a rebellious teen with a troubled past and the deal that she makes between 2 devils Wendell and Wild to come to the living world. After the first 5 minutes, the movie throws away any ideas that it will be just a cute family movie with the death of the main characters and despite the fluid animations, gag characters, and joyful character interactions this movie is actually incredibly dark. Death, hell, and demons are actually trivialized by characters which makes the whole citation comedic but reflecting back on what happens in the movie really makes it shocking to think about.
That’s what made me love this movie. It made me laugh multiple times, a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The art style really brought the characters to life. The plot was intricate as all the plotlines and subplot lines came to the same resolution. I even enjoyed the little musical breaks in the movie that was extremely unexpected.
Kay’s character was really interesting to me and I loved seeing her developments from dealing with the grief of her parents death, learning how to make friends, being vulnerable and how to accept herself fully. I love analyzing the psyche of a character when watching a movie.
Pentathlon 5: Embroidery Workshop
Event Logistics: 11/10/2022
Pentathlon category: #visual arts, #ArtsScholars
Embroidering was just so much fun I had never done that before nor had I ever thought about doing it as it seemed so complicated. In the beginning, I was extremely confused I had no idea what the process was going to be like. After the explanation, I found that embroidery is similar to focusing on a goal. Putting some of the cloth in the circle and focusing on your design in it made me think about how we are all like canvas and at certain times we need to focus on a goal to achieve. In my case right now my goal is to get my degree in Psychology and knitting is similar to my focus on my studies in order to get my degree which is comparable to design. I just saw this activity as a big extended metaphor. When thinking of Art Scholars I thought about the idea of expanding the way you produce art, trying new things is a good way to open your mind. Learning to embroid things was really fun and time-consuming yet relaxing. It was a very good de-stressor for me and I think that I may come back to it in the future.
Pentathlon
Semester 2
As an experiential component of College Park Arts Scholars, I attended a selection of five art events during my first semester. These events ranged in art mediums and each sparked dialogue among my peers.
Pentathlon 1: Making Valentines Day Cards
Event Logistics: 02/09/2023, Bel Air Lounge, RA Mark
Pentathlon category: #visual arts
Valentine's Day is the day of love. I like the idea, of showing affection to your significant other more than usual or professing your love to someone in a romantic way. However, I have never really been a participant, while I’ve gotten valentine’s day gifts from my friends and have received some for my friends I never really did it with someone I liked romantically, and well for this workshop, I tried to make this card with the idea of someone to give it to. To be honest I wasn’t able to think about it seriously because well while making it with my friends I just thought about giving it to them, as some of us don’t have a romantic interest in anyone receiving gifts from each other is still a form of love. In my Neuroscience class we have talked about how when people are on the same team their brain waves start to synchronize so I started wondering if my friends and brain waves were in sync in may sound weird but at the end of the day we were all trying to achieve the same goal make a cute a funny valentines day card for each other. Now, this does sound corny but friendship’s love does make me feel good so when I made my card I intentionally made it funny and corny.
My friends and I just had fun and while it was Valentine's day none of us were really thinking about doing anything romantic with the letters we made that day we just thought about how funny it would be when we each opened each other as a sort of Friendsgiving.
Now the thought process while making the card was all over the place, and while I call it a card mine really ended up looking like a booklet. Since I don’t even like the color red that much I chose pink which I think is still a color that evokes love. I messed up multiple times trying to cut hearts with colored paper so I ended up drawing most of them. Truly an exercise of trial and error on my part.
Also an extra moment I didn’t upload a selfie this time not because I don’t have one (I do) but because I felt like this picture was a perfect representation of the feelings I had during this workshop and the amusing atmosphere that was there.
Pentathlon 2: Galentines Day with Freinds!!
Event Logistics: 02/17/2023, Johnson-Whittle Hall
Pentathlon category: #presentation
Funny enough my second pentathlon is also related to Valentine's day and correlates to my first reflection almost like a continuous story. After my friends and I made the cards we had the idea of just celebrating valentines day together as friends. A “Galentines” now I didn’t even mean to participate as the term “gal” really made me think that it was just going to be for the girls in our friend group. It was implied, but my friends made sure to tell me that they wanted to include me despite my gender which honesly made me really happy and made me think about how I interact with the people within my gender and outside of it. For this event I baked some crêpes a french delicacy (resembles very thin pancakes) that I learned to bake from my mother. I had to make the batter a day in advance it wasn’t hard it’s the frying them that was tedioius, my recipe include eggs, vanilla sugar, milk and other ingredients but I don’t want to reveal my whole receipe to the public. Everyone invited brought food or snack to share; cake pops, brookies, ice cream came, salads even a Chick-Fil-A plater.
These past few years as a society we hav become a but more considerate on the way individuals identify, this is why we ask each other’s pronoun or gender in our classes in order to avoid confusion or discomfort. I have always identified as a guy my whole life and never had stopped but there were always times were I thought about my life if I was a girl. Not just a passing thought a actuall want. That is when I learned in my Psychology class a medical term called gender dysmorphia it’s the definition of the feeling I had. The want to change the gender you were assigned when you were born.
This may seem irrelevant, but I’m mentioning this because during this galentines event I felt like I belonged there, almost like I was also part of the girls. I still prefer to be a guy but this feeling os sisterhood even got to me and was the reason why I enjoyed it so much.
Pentathlon 3: Studio-A Craft & Chat
Event Logistics: 03/04/2023, Studio A
Pentathlon category: #visual arts, #Art Scholar
Pottery is something I hadn’t worked on since middle school so trying it again after a long time was nostalgic. At first, I tried to copy one of my friends who knew what she wanted to do because I had no plan on what I wanted to make but as I was copying her I realized that mine didn’t look the same, maybe because she had more experience or I was doing it wrong but I also just didn’t want to make something like a pot. I had to pause.
I reflected on how I wanted to use my creative side. Taking this too seriously was taking the fun out of this activity and I was too hard on myself for being a beginner. So instead of beating myself up for not being perfect, I accepted that I couldn’t make the most fantastic thing for the moment and just made something that I found cute. I made a little clay face that looked silly and I had a lot of fun making it.
We also got to pick clay objects that were already made and seeing what other people were able to make was honestly inspiring.
In my Psychology class, we talked about motivation and how there are 2 different types intrinsic and extrinsic. Extrinsic means reasons outside of your own sense of fulfillment; examples include money and grades. However while I was making mine I had an intrinsic motivation to do this as I just wanted to have fun, and wanted to create something that I could be proud of or even laugh at.
Pentathlon 4: Ella Mai Concert: “The Heart On My Sleeve Tour”
Event Logistics: 04/08/2023, Echostage
Pentathlon category: #Music
Ella Mai is one of my favorite R&B artists at the moment, so going to that concert was honestly an unforgettable experience. This was the first concert I ever went to that was not a school event, the production quality was incredible. The lights during the concert varied a lot and were made to create a mood for the performance, the red lights were tense and passionate while the blue lights were a bit more somber for sad songs and the white light was used for songs that were calm and serene.
I remember in Art Scholars we talked about the sense of community that concerts then create and that ties in with my major Psychology. In group settings like concerts, our emotions are more susceptible to reflect and feed off each other, whether it’s a stranger or a friend. If everyone is having fun you will most likely enjoy the event too. Even when I didn’t remember the lyrics to some songs I still had the time of my life.
I was able to meet new people there too and build a connection with them due to our love for the same artists, music made this a very diverse social event where everyone was welcome.
I am now so excited to go to more concerts and experience them with friends as it was truly amazing.
Pentathlon 5: Let's Watch "Jane The Virgin"
Event Logistics: 04/23/2023, Home
Pentathlon category: #Movies
This time for my pentathlon I chose to revisit a show that I haven't watched in a while, Jane The Virgin. This show is a telenovela-style TV drama on Netflix, Telenovelas are known to be extremely over the top and unrealistic. When I started watching it I started to think about the culture that is within this show, from its production of it to the actual references within it.
In Latin America Telenovelas are pretty standard they are the equivalent of Grey’s Anatomy for the U.S. It’s really interesting to just see the way the same medium of art (like cinematography) can change drastically because of culture. Actually, it would be more appropriate to say that each culture has its own addition and interesting quirks to each medium.
Another topic that is very interesting in that show and that I wanted to relate to Art Scholars is “What counts as art?” and “Pursuing creating art a real job?”
In the show, Jane wants to become a writer while her mother Xiomara aspires to become a singer, literature, and music are both art yet in the show Jane’s dreams feel although it’s more respected. Her wanting to become a writer is praised, and supported constantly throughout the show while her mother’s dream to be a singer seems to get shut down a lot at the beginning. Now they were other factors in the end but they were many comment thst kept telling Jane’s mother to get a real job while Jane was almost exclusively encouraged to follow her writing career. So is becoming a famous writer more respected a career than becoming a pop singer? That’s one of the questions that really made me think while watching the show.
Many people don’t like the idea of only focusing on the arts as a source of income they rather have people make it a hobby or side hustle it seems.
TRYathlon
Semester 1
College Park Arts Scholars, attended a selection of three art events each semester. Multitude of events that aim to expos us to different art philosophies and ideas.
TRYathlon 1: UMD Silent Disco Party
Event Logistics: 09/08/2023, UMD Clarice, NextNow Fest
Pentathlon category: #Dance #Art Scholars
In day-to-day life people in my generation often where headphones or air pods in order to listen to music through mondane activities. Unless the volume is extremely loud no one knows what someone is listening to, for example, I could be doing an assignment in class and have Megan Thee Stallion's full discography blasting in my ears during the whole class. My point is someone can look extremely calm and composed and the music that they are playing is completely unexpected. This silent disco event was so interesting because of how people interacted with one another. The 3 different channels on the headphones had a variety of music genres playing so most people never stuck to one; when someone would start to dance with a lot of energy or if someone recognized the dance people would look at what channel they were on and switch it to that to see if they would like it. The sense of curiosity that each individual had was highlighted as when you looked around the room you could see how intrigued people were when someone on another channel was dancing their hearts out. A conversation that we often have in Art Scholars is how places like concerts, festivals, and in this case, silent discos have demonstrated to be places where people find a sense of community and understanding through art they like. On paper being in a tight place listening to music curated by someone else that you may or may not like doesn’t sound amazing but in action being able to share your love for certain artists/songs and dance with the people around you brings so much joy.
TRYathlon 2: Juke Joint
Event Logistics: 10/11/2023,Stamp Grand Ballroom, Nyumburu Cultural Center
Pentathlon category: #presentation #Dance
UMD is one of the most diverse schools in Maryland in majors, interest, hobbies and culture. One way that the black population on campus makes its mark is by holding an event that has now been branded “Juke Joint.” It’s a talent show organized by the Nyumburu Cultural Center who incentivises talents that are on campus to perform on a large stage in order to foster a community among students. Anyone can perform and everyone is welcome. Just because a black organization is hosting it doesn’t mean that this even is solely for the black population. The Nyumburu Cul attempts to foster a feeling of belonging with everyone on campus.
During this fall juke joint the performances ranged from dance, rap, singing, poetry and also comedy. It was a night of fun where I was able to deepen my connections with friends as I learned more about similarities and differences that we had depending on which performances we enjoyed the most or the comment we made in response to the show. Overall there were 3 performances that really stood out to me and moved me: the first one was the Star Strutters performance. A black majorette team at my PWI. How many Predominantly white institutions can say that? Not only that but the Star strutters are amazing and have come a long way, they were once a small group, I even attended some of their workshops to learn more about majorette dancing and seeing them develop a team with so many talented members was inspirational to say the least. The Diazporic and Afrochique dance performances shocked me. The energy, facial expressions and technique of both teams almost made me want to jump on stage and dance with them. Seeing african culture being represented so well in the dancing world is a positive shift that I am seeing in the world and even on a smaller scale here at UMD. Seeing how everyone was in awe at these performances was a source of motivation for me as it reminds me why I love dance so much.
Sometimes dance, just like any art is difficult to continue practicing, with time it can be hard to find excitement when you get used to it. With the pressure of school it gets even harder to make time for it if it’s just a hobby however events like these where you are able to witness the joy dance brings or even if you’re on the stage just performing and having fun is what makes people come back to the arts.
That being said the other acts such as singing and poetry were beautiful almost all of them had a message that pertained to a bigger issue in the world when performing.
TRYathlon 3: Let's Watch Trolls Band Together
Event Logistics: 11/14/2023,Hoff Theater, SEE
Pentathlon category: #film #music
For this Tryanthlon My friend Bri and I went to the movie premier of the new Trolls movie. The Disney movie series is focused on music and the way it can be used to mediate conflict. When I say music, I’m also talking about all the things that accompany it, like dancing for example. Interestingly enough this movie is related to my Capstone project in a way; one of my goals in my project is to reveal how dance has been used as a way to impact history, in the Trolls cinematic universe, dance and singing are the way that they bring change in their world. Though they are small through their artistic talents, the Trolls are heard and respected. Their performances, bring people together and create a form of community This is also a topic that I want to mention in my capstone (community building) and the joy shared with everyone is marvelous to see on the big screen.
The movie itself has so many artistic techniques, from its dialogue with innuendos that are meant for adults, its cute art style, to fluid animation, to singing and dancing. So many different mediums are mixed to create this film which is what I believe Art Scholars aims to get my peers and I to do. To branch out of one’s comfort zone and to complement our current skills with new ones.
Something that I want to mention is that this movie still mentioned dark topics in my opinion, in this case, it was PTSD. The main character’s sister Viva is so frightened by an experience that she went through where her family was stripped from her that she refuses to get out of her village. It was interesting to see how a children’s movie approached this topic and how it resolved a mental health issue such as this one. As a Psych major, I couldn’t help but notice that while I knew in real life someone wouldn’t be able to get over their PTSD in an 1 hour and 30 minutes seeing it with imaginary characters, made me very happy, and made me want to cheer them one. Art’s ability to transport anyone of any age into this fantasy world where everything is possible is truly beautiful.
TRYathlon
Semester 2
College Park Arts Scholars, attended a selection of three art events each semester. Multitude of events that aim to expos us to different art philosophies and ideas.
TRYathlon 1: NEXT GEN Battles
Event Logistics: 02/17/2024,Hoff Theater, Afrochique
Pentathlon category: #dance #music
This event was a high school dance competition held by UMD’s African dance team Afrochique. Four high schools came and competed for the title of best African dance group in the DMV. The title of this competition was “Next Gen Battles” which gives an idea as to what the purpose of this event was, to cultivate the next generation of African Dance teams in the DMV, to showcase talents, and to elevate each other through our culture.
My favorite part of the competition was that each high school had to pick a country to represent through their dance and choreography. Seeing how much work these high schoolers put in, from props to wardrobe was amazing. My country, Cameroon was represented, and seeing my culture being beautifully portrayed made me incredibly proud. This made me think of an aspect of my Capstone Project that I hadn’t thought of before, the people of the cultures that I will be portraying may feel this same feeling of joy or pride when they see me accurately perform dances that have a lot of meaning to them.
During the show, there was also a step show from one of the best Step Teams in the country DEM Raider Boys so seeing African Americans stepping and a multitude of African dances being performed on the same stage reminded me of how diverse black culture is. When talking about Black people it can serve as a way to just speak about AAs but also Africans and as a second-generation Cameroonian American I relate to both cultures even if I’m closer to one rather than the other.
TRYathlon 2: Let's Watch Saltburn
Event Logistics: 03/14/2024, Hoff theater, SEE UMD
Pentathlon category: #film
SEE, an organization on campus had a free screening of the movie Saltburn. I had no idea what this movie was about however it had been popular on Tiktok a couple months ago and my friends wanted me to watch, and after watching it I don’t know how I feel.
Let me start with a quick overview saltubrn is a thriller/comedic film were we follow the main character Ollie and his obsession with another main character Felix and his family. The movie uses misdirection and shock vale to direct the audience focus away from the plots main twists. Some seen are quite shocking some may even say disturbing but the cinematography in this film is like any other.
The film’s use of angles and light is used for storytelling to push the audience to pick up on the clues left in the composition of a scene. For example a character in the shadows will have nefarious motives or character that the camera is focused on is in order to hide an action done by someone else. The music is also used to control the audience’s emotions. During certain pats of the movie there would be no music which would add an eerie and uncomfortable feeling to whatever was on the screen. The different mixed medias in this film are used masterfully to foreshadow different events, lead the viewer to certain thought processes and amplify the impact of scenes.
I mentioned how this movie could be disturbing however I also want to say that watching it was still a good time in a sense as I the whole theater shared the same experience, watching this movie and staying quiet is basically impossible there is always someone having a reaction to what’s happening and that lightens the mood a bit.
TRYathlon 3: Trinkets and S'mores
Event Logistics: 03/28/2024, Bel Air Picnic Tables, AAB
Pentathlon category: #artsscholars, #visualart
For this TRYatholon, I wanted to do something related to community building, something that could help me relax but also socialize with people. So AAB held this event, I saw an amazing opportunity. Making smores was a lot of fun, and relaxing for many reasons. From an artistic perspective, smores don’t seem that intricate, and well they aren’t it’s a simple process, you put 2 cookies and a marshmallow in between and you just put it next to a fire so that it melts a little bit. However, the process of just observing the marshmallow melt was quite calming, relieving me of all thoughts that caused anxiety. Multitasking while making smores is quite easy, though it may lead to a burnt marshmallow being able to talk about your day with friends is an amazing addition to this activity.
Also as amazing as the art scholars' community is these days it’s harder to talk and communicate with others that aren’t in your workshop or CPSA250 class. This mostly applies to me as a sophomore but I was so glad to catch up with fellow art scholars members and see how they were doing with their capstone, classes, or just general catching up.
This event made me think about the PSYC 404 class that I am taking which focuses on drugs and the way they affect the brain. In one of the lectures we discussed how stimulants affect people differently, specifically for happiness (dopaminergic) pathways are stimulated very differently for people. For me, this event definitely made me happy but someone else may view it as a waste of time, or wouldn’t want to socialize which would be the cause of no neural pathways activating. This may be due to past experience or preferences but I just thought it was a cool subject.
Community building through art is a topic discussed multiple times by art scholars and one that I am actually visiting for my capstone project in dancing. Bringing people together through simple activities is an incredible ability that art has. People are able to feel similar emotions and foster deeper connections through the medium that is art.
