Discourse for Democracy
This year, the Polis Innovation Accelerator invited all Duke undergraduate, graduate, and professional students to put their creative talents to work offering original creations that reflect the theme: “Discourse for Democracy.”
Extreme polarization--or intense division and distrust resulting from people’s opposing opinions on various issues--has become a prominent feature of our political landscape. While diverse perspectives and healthy debate are integral to a well-functioning democracy, the disunity and even violence that extreme polarization can generate pose a serious threat to democracy. The arts offer a powerful mechanism for promoting meaningful political discussion and helping people find common ground.
Read on to see our finalists and their work!
IA Art Competition Finalists
Visual Arts Category
1st Place Winner
Lizzy Kramer (PPS '22) for "STOP"
This piece was taken in Asheville, North Carolina, following the BLM protests in reaction to the murder of George Floyd. I think this moment in time taught us as a nation the importance of art as a form of mediation as people took to the streets across the US to protest. However, people who don't want to hear the arguments of those protesting can ignore, can look away and not interact with protestors. But what they can't ignore, is the art that protestors left behind, becoming permanent parts of the city's landscape through painted windows and store fronts which appeared in many cities at the time. I think this shows the power of art to speak through sight when no one is listening with their ears. I think of the "STOP" in the photograph as a warning. Not just a warning for Derek Chauvin , but a warning of the danger of when people stop listening to each other. The colors in this photo also capture historically American colors, hinting at the relevance of this message to our country at this moment in time.
2nd Place Winner
Carsten Pran (‘22) for “Livestream"
"Livestream" reimagines the Renaissance painting "Two Wrestlers" by Cezare Fracanzano as a present-day fight between the mascots of the Republican and Democratic parties as they grapple and tear at each other's robes. In the background, a towering smartphone relays live footage of the fight, and its viewers respond in a deluge of ephemeral reactions and comments. For me, this scene encapsulates a transition of political discourse into a digital realm whose currency is clicks, reactions, and buzz. Compared to in-person discussions or structured debates, this discourse is extremely rapid and unbridled: those who get their point across must be the loudest, most persistent, or the most shocking. In this environment, it is quite easy to feel unheard or forgotten, which can breed resentment and breach divisions. It also paves over the nuances of individualized political belief because the terrain has been gamified into ‘teams’ and the information floods into our collective consciousness at a mind-bending speed. The pillars of democracy which line the flanks of the painting begin to crumble as the buzz magnifies, adding only more chaos and action for viewers to react to in a vicious circle.
3rd Place Winner
Nathan Strang (PPS‘24) for “Politics is for Power”
This piece seeks to display the devastating effects that polarization can have on our livelihoods. For many, politics comes second to security and wellbeing, yet a polarized political climate has the potential to seriously jeopardize these constructs. The consequences of extreme polarization are pervasive, destructive, and (when taken to the extreme) catastrophic. The piece displays a suited man overlooking a pile of rubble, destruction that he presumably contributed to. Though the institution of power is left standing following this destruction, it holds no weight against the backdrop of suffering and chaos. Thus, we see that there is some seriously flawed logic driving political polarization, as the unrestricted clash of ideas over how to build a better world ultimately leaves us worse off.
4th Place Winner
Mahira Jain for “DemoCrazy: An Unkept Promise”
In DemoCrazy: An Unkept Promise, I have attempted to use acrylic paint to depict Islamophobia in the current Indian context. Half the frame shows a broken masjid, a reference to the demolition of the Babri Masjid as an attack on Muslim religious identity, enclosed in the image of a burqa-clad woman crying. To the left are the words to Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s Bol Ke Lab Azad Hain Tere in the Nastaliq script, and to the bottom left is the broken word SECULAR written across the Preamble to the Indian Constitution. There’s also a barbed wire depicting the division of India and Pakistan, one of the rallying cries for the justification given by Islamophobes of the country. Through An Unkept Promise, I intend to depict the multifaceted attack on Muslims that has been carried out in India over the course of its history, regardless of the secularism that the Constitution holds as an essential feature of Indian democracy.
IA Art Competition Finalists
Writing Category
1st Place Winner
Amanda Ostuni (MPP ‘23) for “We Hold These Truths Self-Evident”
This piece discusses the major threat to democracy that is polarization, and the first step to solving polarization. That step, and the message of the piece, is to acknowledge that some topics that drive polarization shouldn't necessarily be compromised on for the sake of coming together. Rather, all people must understand that things like equality of race and sexuality are nonnegotiable -- but that outcome is possible, and if it's achieved, then the nuances of issues can be worked out. This is my version of what discourse on democracy should be.
The U - S of A
Is in a state of disarray
Cracks bursting open
Like on Pangea’s last day
People lined up at
The edge of each side
Of a great deep divide
Polarized, pulverized
By endless vitriol
Racing towards an epic fall
This lust for the extreme
That’s shredding our seam
Needs to stop
Before it all goes pop
No doubt we need to find a resolution
To stop our societal pollution
But here’s the thing about our nation:
Our claim of united
was always a fabrication
We’ve always been a glass that’s shattered
Our flag a little tattered
Our problems of this moment
every previous day did foment
So, fixing our current state
Isn’t about restoration
It’s a renovation
A transformation
Not back to what was before
But into the Democracy of dreams and lore
Yet how to get there, that’s the wonder
Where to start with a world so pulled asunder
Some who think themselves wise
Say it’s all about compromise
On everything, there’s middle ground
That should and could be found
That’s a pretty picture, to be sure
But the notion isn’t pure
Because some things aren’t up for compromise
Truth is truth and lies are lies
Truth – racism is real
Truth – women don’t have a fair deal
Lies – queerness is a sin
Lies – we must fear all immigrants with darkened skin
Those statements are facts, not fiction
That is the only viable conviction
We can only come together at the table
If our basic shared sense of humanity
And reality
Is stable
Once everyone accepts all humans are humans
Who breathe air
Bleed blood
Think thoughts
Lust and love
Live and die
That’s when unification will be possible
And our eruption will be stoppable
We denounce hate
Then we negotiate
figure out how one’s sexuality
And another’s religion
Can coexist without nuclear fission
Figure out how to explain
Why police feeling disrespected
Isn’t the same as people of color not feeling protected
Why this clash between Black and blue
Exists and has killed so many or left them bruised
Why the reasons for it all need to be erased
With unanimity and haste
Figure out how to lift people up out of impoverished despair
Without bringing others down to a depth seen as unfair
We can do all this and more
Navigate the stormy seas to a paradise shore
Trudge through a field of land mines
If only we can start with a baseline
We do that, and then
We strip away all the noise
Of politicians yelling for votes
By throwing out absurdist quotes
To the media begging for clicks
Fueling the anonymous voices trolling for kicks
Without that mess, we make Americans from opposite ends
Feel like two strangers in a quiet, empty bar
With nothing to do but talk from the heart
Over a game of darts
And fried food plates
A semi-forced American discourse
That just might save our United States.
2nd Place Winner
Chloe Nguyen (PPS ‘24) for “Competition to Debate:
Evolving for Political Discourse and Democracy”
This piece follows my evolution from being a competitive dancer to a debater and how this process has shaped my perspective on conducting political debates and discussions in our increasingly polarized political climate. It calls for a revolution in political discourse away from cancel culture and towards constructive conversations to promote the best solutions to the world's most pressing problems. Fundamentally, it is evidence that we can change how we conduct our democracy: away from polarization and towards harmony.
Please welcome to the stage, number 723, Latin Beats! the announcer’s voice bellowed through my ears as my heart pounded. Foot throbbing, I prepared for my performance. Dismissing this setback as just another I would endure, I stepped on stage, and would not step off until two years later, when what I thought was a small bruise became a permanent fracture and four torn ligaments. Provided with all the tools necessary to succeed, my unyielding, privileged spirit had convinced itself that I could fight through anything and control this outcome, like the rest. However, for the first time, I could not control my future, and that terrified me. Falling from the stage propelled me into an uncertainty which, although frightening at first, forced me to grow out of complacency and into a new person.
Three years later, I found my new stage in front of a sticker-covered, wobbly debate stand. Although the pressure still mounts before I step up for my performance, so much more has changed. Initially, I joined debate in an effort to grasp at the edges of my fleeting identity as a competitive dancer. You see, debate was originally a way for me to combine my academic interests with my competitive personality. Over the past three years, however, debate has transformed my personality rather than preserve it.
As an intellectual game which relies on learned knowledge to rebut unpredictable arguments, debate requires that I prepare for discussing various theories and topics which had never crossed my mind before I joined the activity. After reading philosophers like Zizek and Sjoberg, I began to question my personal biases, realizing that the loss of control I experienced in dance was new to me only because of the privileged environment I was born into. Lessons like these formed cracks in the foundation of my formerly unwavering beliefs and changed the entirety of my world view.
Formerly known as the conservative middle school student who was unafraid to challenge her liberal teachers on every potential issue, I slowly began to shift my political stance. For fifteen years, my point of view was shaped exclusively by my parents’ views and the impassioned speeches of Fox News hosts. However, debate forced me to read various analyses of the inequities which plague our education and healthcare systems, the frightening reality of climate change, and the importance of immigration in our country. Faced with a plethora of evidence on both sides, I made a decision to shift left in my political views. That is not to say the transition was easy; rather, my views on hot-button issues have escalated tensions between my parents and me to a boiling point. Though my parents perceive my views as a manifestation of my “rebellious teenager” phase, they fail to recognize that I respect their arguments and use them to scrutinize my own beliefs. Debate has taught me that every opportunity is a learning opportunity, no matter the context.
In college, however, I’ve found that it is difficult to have well-rounded, constructive conversations with my peers about hot-button issues. “Cancel culture” discourages discourse and encourages political partisans to retreat into the comfort of circles of people who agree with them, at the expense of our democracy. And the Duke campus bubble is just a microcosm of broader trends promoting a fractured American public and Congressional gridlock. In our increasingly polarized moment, what can we do to improve?
If my intellectual transition was any evidence, choosing to be curious, understanding, and forgiving in order to promote learning and pursue better solutions to complex problems is a choice that anyone can make. If you had asked my liberal middle school history teacher, with whom I regularly had debates, what my perspective on politics is today, I doubt he would have an accurate guess. As people, we should be allowed to make mistakes and grow from them, especially when it comes to having productive political discussions. I am extremely lucky that my parents have afforded me their support and patience as my political beliefs change. I made mistakes, but those mistakes have enabled me to better engage with their ideas to come to a well-rounded conclusion about complex topics. As college students and the next generation of world leaders, it is our job to reform how political discourse is conducted. We should debate and discuss, not compete to win.
While I would have viewed my inability to conquer an injury three years ago as a defeat, it was actually that failure which made me grow most as a person. Thanks to debate, I begin each day with an open mind, ready to scrutinize my innate beliefs about the world, learn from others, and apply these lessons to my actions. While engaging respectfully with ideologically diverse peers, I hope to discover the best solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Stepping back, I recognize that what I once saw as my devolution from dancer to debater was actually my evolution from a narrow-minded, self-centered competitor, to a curious scholar and activist who is committed to searching for harmony.
3rd Place Winner
Manon Fuchs (PPS ‘24) for “Dear Democracy,”
I outline hypothetical diary entries to democracy through the years. It would be dishonest for me to outline my relationship with democracy as anything but imperfect. Thus, I document my engagement with democracy from the age of nine to nineteen. In this ten year span, democracy entered, left, and re-entered my good graces. Through this piece, I intend to show that discourse is important to engage with democracy. But only though an individual’s will and effort can they build a strong relationship with democratic institutions. Democracy bleeds into each stage of our lives—but whether it flourishes or withers away depends on our discourse with it.
At nine we became acquainted. I would press my right palm against my chest, and utter words foreign to me. My pledge to you cascaded through my teeth because I liked to hear myself talk.
At ten I greeted you at the dinner table. My parents’ words hung like droplets in the air, festering before they exploded. Through puffs of smoke I saw you and wished you never came.
At eleven I sought your counsel for a matter of great importance. Before I knew what utilitarianism was, you sat atop my left shoulder and whispered sweet nothings into my ear. Dear Parents, test prep is an over-priced investment into my future.
At twelve I tarnished your name and lost a game. Note to self: social studies simulations of shipwrecks delve into chaos when your partner’s dream career is in dictatorship.
At thirteen I shook your invisible hand. It was cold and clammy.
At fourteen you were nowhere to be found. The leaves evaporated that November morning, and a new season was upon us. The only person who didn’t cry was my math teacher.
At fifteen I exiled you. The failures stacked up and I needed something more, grander, and less clammy.
At sixteen I laughed at you and Francis Fukuyama.
At seventeen the world shut down. We watched the television, our hands clasped in desperation. I’d read your lips but I couldn’t see them.
At eighteen I avenged my year fourteen. Pen in hand, I evoked your name in a secluded booth. We won and lost that day.
At nineteen a bomb tore us to shreds. I want to piece you together but I don’t know if I can. My mother called and asked if she should buy a 15,000 dollar Chanel bag since the world’s ending soon.
4th Place Winner
Katherine Gan (‘22) for “whose hands & whose labor”
I am thinking about "Discourse for Democracy" in the context of COVID-19 and labor. COVID-19 has certainly shed light on who is allowed to participate in the "Discourse for Democracy," for low-income people of color are often excluded or neglected in policy decisions. There is often little acknowledgment of the labor (especially in service) that makes an upper-class lifestyle and "push back to normal" even possible. This poem aims to highlight the labor that makes a fine dining experience in a restaurant possible; what would our country and nation look like if service jobs and labor were valued, particularly during the pandemic (nurses, teachers, bussers/waiters, etc).
calloused fingers, tracing an outline
etched permanently, temporarily, in the hand
holding scars from mistakenly sliced fingers,
worn down from hours days weeks months of
dishwashing, charcoal uniform soaked with grease
whose hands?
cut your bread
scrub your dirty dishes
pour your water
take out your trash
cater your anniversarybirthdayweddingretirement dinner
bring you condiments & refills
ask you, politely, to wear a mask
provide you with said mask after you roll your eyes
box your take out
deliver your dessert
fold your napkins
weathered soul, toughened by stomached insults from
customers, swallowed exhaustion and repetition:
thank you for coming!
my pleasure!
so sorry about that!
whose labor
makes is possible for you to thrive
during a pandemic
IA Art Competition Finalists
Performing Arts Category
1st Place Winner
Guss Gress (PPS ‘25) for “I Have Multiple”
When I think of unity across political lines, I think of my aunt. Just last week, we had a long talk in which we disagreed on a lot of topics, ranging from guns to the provocative content presented in Duke’s recent production of Me Too Monologues, which I performed in and which she attended. Listening to her opinions helped me understand her more, and in spite of our sharp political differences, I had never felt closer to my aunt. Our conversation got deep, and political, when we started discussing the Me Too show, a piece of art. Good art inspires thought, dialogue, and more art; so it makes sense that our subsequent conversation inspired me to write the piece I’m presenting to you, I Have Multiple. This conversation, which I depict in the piece, demonstrated how a discourse for democracy can be a discourse for family, and a discourse with family can be a discourse for democracy.
2nd Place Winner
Jason Kreinberg (‘24) for “Hooks on American String”
Despite America’s many ideological rifts, the sustained belief in a collective soul is the principal reason for the success of the American democratic experiment. For over 200 years, cleavages have threatened to tear us apart, yet the ability to look past the partisan has always triumphed. Unique in the world, as a country founded completely on an ideal, the United States doesn’t experience the double-edged sword of ethnic, racial, historical, and geographical ties. In such an intangible society, our ability to feel connection to each other is of paramount importance. Unfortunately, this ability to find common ground is dangerously close to the point of no return. In the past two decades, identity politics, the internet, malicious actors, and a breakdown of our once robust institutions have widened the divide between Americans, breaking our shared links and polarizing a once united country. No longer can we empathize with the shared humanity of our political opponents and politics has clouded our ability to socialize. This context laid the stage for my internship with a Congressional campaign in the 2020 election, as I began the campaign with no comprehension of how the other half of the country lives. I villainized the other, viewing them as irrational, non-human, and distinctly un-American. Yet, through forcing myself to interact with these people, I realized that we are not as different as I once thought. Despite the challenges, the collective American soul is not dead; by looking deep enough, we always find shared values. The only way to fix American politics is through rebuilding empathy with discourse, no matter how difficult it may seem.
3rd Place Winner
Kelly Padalino (‘25) for “The World I Wish to See”
This piece was choreographed to Amanda Gorman's Inaugural Poem which she gave on the steps on the Capitol building days after the January 6th riot. It was that moment of the insurrection where our democracy truly began to unfold because our divisions became too strong to maintain any system of order. Gorman's poem takes us on a tour of the current political landscape, while the movements are meant to reflect the emotions and discourse that revealed themselves on January 6th. This piece is meant to be a reminder of our past, but also a call for a better future, one with less polarization and a prevailing democracy.