Kizzy

This is a different kind of bus story.

The stop I have gone to for years on 22nd is gone now, I forget and just walk up to it anyway.

On this particular morning I decided to walk down burnside to 20th and catch the bus there. As I was approaching 20th on the opposite side of the street I needed , I saw this guy at the bus stop pull out a pen and write something on a sign pasted up in the tailors shop by the stop.

Based on his body language, I made a little bet with my self... he wrote something nice.

When I finally got to the stop, I checked out the sign, it was an 8and a half inch paper saying "sorry we can't open today, we are sick" and what was "graffiti ed" on it was "get well soon", with a smilely face. I said to the guy I'd seen write it, woha that is so great, thank you. He said, "yeah I felt a little like I was maybe vandalizing but opposite, I hope when they come they see this they know we care, they are just these old people running this shop, they put the bus schedules up in the window for us, they don't have to do that, they are really cool." I put quotes around this but this is just what I remember, he said it all a lot better.

We ended up talking a lot on the bus together, he made me feel really good about life, and my day. He doesn't call himself a social practice artist, he is just living the way he does. He let me make him feel good too. When he got off the bus, he came over and gave me a hug. It didn't feel like reflexive gesture, it felt really right.

My meeting with Kizzy this morning really made me feel both validated about social practice, and also like an idiot. Kizzy works in a home for disabled people, and is studying music theory on the side, he is in into sampling and hip hop. He is living his life, and is a social art practitioner in the way he lives. I know that I have an "reasonable agenda" for getting a degree, but this really begs the question of how will I enhance in a proportionately meaningful way what I can contribute because of my MFA experience? I'm not meaning to dis the whole MFA thing at all, I am just wondering , or feeling a responsibility to define it for my self as something more. I'm really privileged to be in this place for what is a very short time. Meeting Kizzy today made me realize that I need to dig in or branch out in order to add something to this opportunity.

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