About this session

Session Host: Indigo Arts Alliance and The Southern Maine Workers' Center

Time: 2:00 - 3:30pm

Format: Interactive Conversation

Facilitated by: Arlo Hennessey and Nyawal Lia

Speakers and Performers: Titi De Baccarat, Atiim Chenzira, Aminata Conteh, Athena Lynch, Ashley Page, Marcia Minter, Daniel Minter, Jennifer Rachele

Description: Dr. King, John Lewis and Ms. Rosa Parks, were joined by so many leaders from all walks of life who served to usher in the civil rights era. Among them were many artist activist like Jack Whitten, David Hammons, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Elizabeth Catlett and more. The Black Power movement of the 1970’s saw artist Barkley Hendricks, Emory Douglass, Bettye Saar, Nina Simone freely expressing the deep emotions of the people.

“Not only was the art of the Civil Rights Movement providing new methods for activism via a plethora of different visual mediums to express what was happening, but many exhibitions organized during this period were fundamental in raising money for CORE (Congress of Racial Equality).”

In the Summer of 2020 the art installation "Counting from Thirteen" located at 754 Congress St. in Portland, Maine was created. Inspired by the Equal Justice Initiative, it speaks of the counted and uncounted Black citizens who have fallen to America’s many modes of racism since the passage of the thirteenth amendment that abolished chattel slavery and ushered in State sanctioned terrorism against Black citizens (https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-codes).

During the conversation we will interrogate how to this day, the effects of Jim Crow are demonstrated by the lack of protections (legal/ social) for the industries of work disproportionately held by Black people, specifically Black Mainers.

How do we witness/experience this in our own lives? How will you (or do you) use ALL of the gifts you can bring to amplify your voice?