As part of an interactive educational experience, undergraduate and graduate students integrate poetry/spoken word and music into joint complex performances that focus on critical contemporary social issues. The Cultural Arts & Social Action seminar concentrates on two critical areas of artistic development: Artistic Content and Artistic Delivery. The project is driven by Mulana Karenga’s theory of social artistic responsibility.  According to Karenga (2001), socially responsible artistic expression must meet three qualifications: (1) It must be functional, possessing the ability to address social issues particularly affecting oppressed and marginalized communities. (2) It must be collective, representing the fullness of the cultural experience of a people and (3) It must be committing, offering forth a motivation for the realization of a people’s true potential and an active work against social limitations.

The emerging student artists that participate in the Cultural Arts & Social Activism experience represent the potential of today’s young artist to embody the community connectedness and social dedication of great artists such as the late Paul Robeson for whom the cultural center at Penn State is named. These students form a community based performance group, “Collective Energy.” Collective Energy participates in travel performances within the local community, other Penn State Campuses, and a Spring Break Arts in Social Action Experience. In 2006-2007, Collective Energy served as the headliners for the BED Lounge at University Park, performed at the Greater Allegheny campus, participated in a poetry session with inmates at the Rockview Correctional Facility in Bellefonte, PA; and participated in a week-long education abroad experience in Trinidad & Tobago over spring break.