The Matter of Art and Protest Approaches
This essay will use Negro spirituals and other R&B songs, including art expressions of protests in discussing the concept of protest and contributing in varied ways.
Friend and Anti-racist Social Justice Facilitator, Grace Aldrich recently shared the story about her son protesting the COVID-19 pandemic. This was inspiring on multiple levels. When one speaks of protest, often the immediate thought goes to signs, and groups of people in an outdoor environment or venue. The suggestion from Aldrich to her son to write a letter to the coronavirus, and his subsequent one-person protest may not have been seen by millions but was still a proactive act of resistance that was necessary for him and for people around him. Traveling through this story allowed me to arrive to the destination that protests can happen in many ways. The offering of and at a protest has to be authentic to the protestor, the experience, and the cause. When art enters the protest the confluence of words and various art forms allows for a multi-layered and further empowering experience.
This narrative art journey will infuse Negro spirituals, R&B lyrics and an homage to additional art forms and creative expressions to demonstrate the varied ways we can approach protests. Incorporating and highlights the use of art forms keep this moment a continual movement, learning and applying how artists have done this historically, to our present day.
Art at its core and very nature is a protest in that, it resists the confines of conformity, even in spite of those who regularly attempt to enforce it. Art has a way of allowing the exploration of a myriad of learning experiences by fostering critical thinking, facilitating discourse, incorporating life skills, and developing opportunities to “try-on” unfamiliar perspectives. Additionally, art has been an agent for cataclysmic change. Like justice, art is thwarted only by those who actively defile it and even then, it stands within its own truth. It refuses to settle, morphing continually, shifting and redefining ways of existing for the singular and for many.
What’s Going On? — Marvin Gaye
Mother, mother
There’s too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There’s far too many of you dying
You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some lovin’ here today, eh eh
Father, father
We don’t need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some lovin’ here today, oh oh oh
Picket lines and picket signs
Don’t punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what’s going on
What’s going on
Yeah, what’s going on
Ah, what’s going on
I live in a rural part of America where often the awareness of racial justice is seen as a complaint and not a right. Within the current awakening and awareness happening due to current events, art has been displayed in neighboring cities and towns.
As more people are interacting with it and each other, there is a collective community coming together for the sake of justice and opposing inequalities.
This pandemic has presented problems but also, opportunities. Many virtually attended George Floyd’s funeral as a way to support his family and stand in solidarity against the gross misappropriation of power that took his life. Looking into his casket cascaded us into the past of additional fallen and tragic murders such as Emmett Till, Medgar Evers and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Films like Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” from 1989 spoke of these types of brutal realities that are still happening today.
These Black lives haven’t mattered for so long to so many. If all lives matter, shouldn’t these be counted too?
Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around
Well don’t you let nobody turn you ‘round
Turn you ‘round, turn you ‘round
Well don’t you let nobody turn you ‘round
You got to keep on walkin’, keep on talkin’
Marchin’ to the freedom land
Well don’t let the politician turn you ‘round
Slow you down, slow you down
Well don’t let the politician slow you down
You got to keep on walkin’, keep on talkin’
Marchin’ to the freedom…
The Allegory of Good and Bad Government comprises six different scenes within three Fresco panels painted by Ambrogio Lorenzetti between 1338 and 1339. This artwork conveys social and political commentary through its visual form regarding good and bad government and its effects on the country.
The Rhodes of destruction are rife with choices. The decision to change happens instantaneously but the implementation can and usually does take time. Is it the same with protest and its effects? The recent removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes began as a protest in support of its removal and the fall of white supremacy in South Africa since March 2015.
Clay and pottery structures can be a channel to allow a Community to vent their frustrations. The Pottery of Protest exhibition in Chicago, Illinois showcased artwork with an emphasis on the collusion between police, prosecutors and political concealment of the murder of teenager Laquan McDonald.
Oh Freedom
Oh, freedom, Oh, freedom
Oh freedom over me
And before I’d be a slave
I’d be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free
Oh, freedom…
Norman Rockwell’s retrospective art exhibition, Four Freedoms is a series of four in which he identified essential human rights that should be universally protected; Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want and Freedom From Fear.
Hector Suarez’s work satirized the arrogant and corruptly wealthy and commemorated the everyday man. Brazilian performance educator, Augusto Boal and his Theatre of the Oppressed use of theatrical forms for community-based education and theater as a tool for social change. While these two artists are deceased, their life’s work and rally for improvement stays with us. Art has had a long and present role in activism. From the lens of photojournalism, visual arts, words and sculptures we are endowed with such gifts as Banksy’s, Devolved Parliament and Emory Douglas’s iconic and revolutionary usage of the ‘raised fist.’
Golden — Jill Scott
“…I’m taking my own freedom, putting it in my song
Singing loud and strong, groovin all day long
I’m taking my own freedom, putting it in my stroll
I’ll be high stepping y’all, letting the joy unfold
Golden
Livin’ my life like its golden
Livin’ my life like its golden
Livin’ my life like its golden
Livin’ my life like its golden
Livin’ my life like its golden
Golden…”
The desire to protest may come from a place of anger and pain but its representation doesn’t always have to reflect this. Resistance against oppression and in support of provocative peace and kindness is a protest within itself. As displayed by contemporary artist and political activist, Ai Weiwei, his large installation, Sunflower Seeds can be taken in at close range or at a distance. Its message represents a conversation within a relationship between the individual and Society encouraging reform.
Post-its and other creative communicative offerings from citizens in Hong Kong have been physically reshaping the city within urban landscapes. Lennon walls have been springing up on buildings and storefronts, walkways and bridges with varying messages supporting freedom and speaking out against oppression. Originating in Prague, the Lennon Wall concept from the 1960’s has been a poetic, anti-government and anti-oppression response reminiscent of the legacy and themes important to John Lennon: Peace, Love and Democracy. This protest concept and form, though ever-changing still steeped in these themes for the sake of art and community-centered protests, showing they can dwell side-by-side.
This may not feel like a beautiful time, but it is a golden opportunity in Time. For far too long these in justices have been going unchecked and largely ignored. With this Collective and Global awareness, we can all work together toward acknowledging, addressing and demanding accountability for unjust behaviors and practices. We are all masterpieces. Art can be disseminated traditionally as well as through our living, by using our minds, bodies, skills, and talents.
A Change Is Gonna Come — Sam Cooke
“…And it’s too hard living
But I’m afraid to die
Cause I don’t know what’s up there
Just beyond the sky
It’s been a long, long time coming
But I know that change is gonna come
I just need some comfort
Some kind of belief
That this war we’re fighting
Can really bring some peace
There’s no rhyme nor reason
Or sweet melody
More and more weapons
Mean less security
It’s been a long, long time coming
But I know that change is gonna come…”
One doesn’t solely have to be relegated to large crowds and signs in order to protest. There are other approaches and ways to contribute and accomplish the goal of justice and rights of freedom. A common thread throughout any protest, whether it be one or many is: Action. It has to be a continual mindset of words, actions and willingness. We must not only need to be better but actually achieve better. This form of Ally-ship promotes justice not just the lip service that generally surrounds it. Talking about it and not applying or sharing our form of artful protest is the antithesis of reformed justice.
From business, legislation or, volunteering, to watercolors, sculpture and other mediums, our life’s art will propel this moment into a long-term movement. Let us choose opportunity within this time and collectively create an Artful masterpiece curated for justice for all.
