Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop

Art and Protest: Voices and Visions of Artists from Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and Minneapolis"

September 4^th, Fall 2020 Workshop

Image credits: Creatives After Curfew. #creativesaftercurfew@ljpinko

We have witnessed massive protests across our nation and around the globe in response to the murder of George Floyd and the numerous Black men and women murdered by police, including Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and so many more. Peaceful protests have generated violent government and police responses as well as growing pressure on elected officials and policy makers to address demands for the reform, defunding, and/or abolition of police and for racial justice and an end to institutionalized racism.

This workshop on “Art and Protest” featured an informal discussion among the following artists from different cities who share a strong commitment to activism, public education, and social justice: Leslie Barlow (University of Minnesota), Shanell Kitt (Howard University), Ife (Keshad) Adeniyi (Howard University), and Cosmo Whyte (Morehouse College). Participants discussed how their artistic practices are informed by contemporary and historical protests, the role of art in protests, and the aesthetic principles of art and design that inform their work. They also talked about the different media used in their art, the pedagogies that inform their teaching of art in different spaces (e.g. colleges, prisons, public spaces, etc.), and how art is transformed across these spaces and in the hands of different publics, privates, and communities. The discussion among artists was followed by a Question & Answer period.

Meet Our Panelists

Corinne Teed || Moderator

Corinne Teed is a research-based artist working in printmaking, installation, time-based media, and social practice. Their work lives at the intersections of queer theory, ecology, critical animal studies and settler colonial studies. Teed teaches in the Art Department of University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Leslie Barlow

Leslie Barlow is a visual artist, educator, and space creator living and working in Minneapolis, MN. In her visual art practice, Barlow's current work uses figurative oil painting to share stories that explore the politics of representation, identity, otherness, and race. Barlow actively exhibits her work throughout the United States and many of her pieces can be found in private and public collections. In 2019 she was awarded both the McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship and the 20/20 Springboard Fellowship, and in 2020 was a recipient of the MSAB Cultural Community Partnership Grant. Recently she joined a collective of public artists (Creatives After Curfew) in community mural work in response to George Floyd’s murder and in solidarity with the subsequent unrest and uprising. She currently teaches at the University of Minnesota, helps run the organization MidWest Mixed, and she also supports emerging artists as the Director of Studio 400. Her latest body of work that she has been creating for the past two years, Within, Between, and Beyond, will be exhibited in early 2021 at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Shannel Kitt

Shanell Kitt is a visual artist and licensed social worker from The Bronx, New York. She received her Master of Social Work degree and Master of Fine Arts degree in Studio Art - Painting from Howard University. Drawing inspiration from memories and intersectional experiences, her abstract paintings and installations communicate her thoughts on social justice, loss and consequent grief, womanhood, empowerment, love and spirituality. Shanell supports utilizing art as a tool to assist in the healing process and has facilitated several self-expression through art workshops in New York City, Washington, District of Columbia, and Maryland.

Keshad Adeniy

Keshad Adeniyi is a visionary with a heart for education, advocacy, and activism. In addition to academia, he believes that artistic mediums such as poetry, rap, and visual art, are instrumental in educating people who come from various walks of life. Born in Los Angeles, Keshad grew up at the intersection of South Central and Watts, California inside of a household impacted and informed by the implications rendered by both the Crack crisis and the Carceral State. Both Parents, while they were loving, suffered a great deal from addiction. And being that he is a 1st generation Nigerian, immigration made his upbringing with poverty nuanced.

Keshad’s Love for art grew out of his need to understand, and teleport to different places, places his Favorite artist took him with both their lyrics and insight. Since 2012 Keshad has used his art to not only build community but to engage in critical discourse concerning the Black plight in upwards of 12 prisons/jails both domestically and internationally. California, New York, Washington DC, Uganda, Africa, and London, England are some of the places his work has taken him.

It was Keshad’s interest in Art, activism, and history that inspired him to add education/academia to his mission.

In 2018 Keshad graduated from NYU’s American Studies Program. There he researched Branding and its implications on race. His research used the stories of Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, and Dolly as markers for historic moments in the United States where the state leveraged different branding methods to help aid in the capturing of black bodies deemed "out of place.” He is currently completing his Ph.D. in History at Howard University where he is researching the implications Civil War impressment methods had on the carceral elements that come into fruition at the start of the Reconstruction Era.

Cosmo Whyte

Cosmo Whyte (b.) 1982, Jamaica, has exhibited his works in the United States, Jamaica, Norway, England, France, and South Africa. Whyte has been the recipient of the Art Matters Award (2019) and The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2019), the Working Artist Award (2018), The Drawing Center's Open Sessions Fellowship (2018), Artadia Award (2016), the International Sculpture Center’s “Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award” (2015) and the Edge Award (2010).

Our Cities in the News

Artists Lead the Way

Minneapolis

Creatives After Curfew is a decentralized collective of BIPOC/Queer artists and allies who mobilized during the Minneapolis uprisings in June 2020 to share resources, skills, and knowledge as a contribution to the movement.

George Floyd & Anti-Racist Street Art Project Database of street art Created by: Dr. Todd Lawrence, Dr. Paul Lorah, and Dr. Heather Shirey with the Urban Art Mapping Research Project and student research collaborators Tiaryn Daniels, Hannah Shogren-Smith, and Chioma Uwagwu. Based in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of St. Thomas, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA

Kyeland Jackson, “This Minnesota Project Is Building a Map of Every George Floyd Mural in the World,” PBS Newshour, June 26, 2020.

“Black and Asian Solidarity”- Cedar Artist Collective members Tou SaiK Lee join with Cedar Executive Director David Hamilton to MC “We Believe in Unity- Black and Asian Solidarity”, a program on Thursday, July 2nd at 7:30 p.m. to explore the potential for cross-cultural solidarity in the current movement for justice for Black Lives. Find ongoing programming on Cedar Cultural Center Public Access Channel.

"'The Community is Tired. The Community is Hurt': Twin Cities Musicians Talk George Floyd Uprising" by Jonathan Bernstein, Rolling Stone, 29 May 2020.

The New Dawn Theatre, Penumbra, Pillsbury House, Yellow Tree, Mixed Blood, Gremlin, and Plymouth Congregational Church created ‘A Breath for George’ to memorialize him through a variety of songs, poems, and interviews. It runs from June 14 to July 9 at various locations around the Twin Cities and the state.

In his spoken word poem ‘My Mother’s Words,’ teenager Josh Nkhata adds to the current climate with his own experiences as a young person of color. He crafted the poem after watching instagram stories as the nation and Minneapolis reacted to the death of George Floyd. It is raw and powerful, and highlights the brokenness of our society today in less than five minutes.

When Philando Castile was killed, artists came together to craft a mural honoring him. It was created in the public sphere, which gave ownership of the mural to the broader community, but the plywood mural was eventually removed. The Twin Cities and communities across the nation and the world are engaged in conversations abou how to preserve the protest art generated in the wake of George Floyd's murder.

Walker Art Center's Nina Mackie's interview with Aruna D'Souza, author of Whitewalling: Art, Race, and Protest

Penumbra Theater - Driven by the mission of voicing the African-American experience, Penumbra Theater has made a name for itself as the only professional African-American theater in Minnesota. Founded in 1976, Penumbra Theater grew out of the Black Arts Movement and quickly gained a reputation for authentic productions that centered the African-American experience and tradition. In addition to theatrical productions, Penumbra Theater works closely with the community to provide opportunities for employment and employs more people of color than all the other theaters in Minneapolis combined. Penumbra Theater is not only known for their theatrical productions. They also have a summer institute program, which teaches leadership skills to young artists, multiple equity training courses, and internships for students which focus on art and social justice.

Mapping Black Identities Exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art "challenges the notion of Black identity as monolithic [...] this exhibition seeks to amplify underrepresented voices and create connections around the concept of Blackness in contemporary art across time and place.

Atlanta

Charly Palmer, an artist inspired by Ezra Jack Keats who utilizes vibrant colors and patterns in his work, claims that "art should change the temperature of the room," which his certainly does. His website includes images of his artwork that are available.

Art and Activism in Atlanta explores the interaction between art and activism within the public sphere, specifically referring to the role of graffiti and vandalism. It also talks about the role art plays in calling communities to action and encouraging change, looking at how the creation of art within a public space offers ownership of the art to the greater public while also challenging them to face their preconceived notions of the world.

The traveling exhibit entitled "Speak What Must Be Spoken" that included one-act plays, songs, dances, and artwork. Artists of all mediums joined together to show their response to various social justice issues, including police brutality and gun control/violence from January through May.

Alternate ROOTS supports the creation and presentation of original art that is rooted in community, place, tradition or spirit. They are a group of artists and cultural organizers based in the South creating a better world together. Alternate ROOTS calls for social and economic justice and is working to dismantle all forms of oppression – everywhere.

Atlanta Artists Deface Their Own Murals To Bring Awareness To COVID-19 In Minority Communities by Summer Evans, WABE, June 22, 2020

Washington D.C.

These Artists Are Trying to Keep DC a Chocolate City by Rosa Cartegena, Washingtonian, March 21st 2017.

Black Artists of DC (BADC) began in 1999 when three artists: Viola Leak, PLANTA and Aziza Claudia Gibson-Hunter decided to address the lack of communication and support between local Black artists.

Omolara Williams McCallister (pronouns : O /love/beloved) is a conceptual artist working primarily with textiles to produce adornments for spaces and bodies which include installations, performance pieces, and sculptural 3 dimensional work. Across all mediums O's practice revolves around using art as a tool for social change. While O's studio work contemplates the ways that individuals’ identities and bodies are politicized through social interaction O's public work engages everyday folks in organizing their communities for social change.

Black Lives Matter DC is a radical collective of Black artists, infrastructure builders and movement healers and strategists from the future, organizing in the here and now around two movement equations. These equations inform how we live as our highest selves while dismantling White Supremacy, Patriarchy, Capitalism, Imperialism and the role the state plays in supporting them.

Urban and University/College Organizations

Twin Cities

ACLU Racial Justice Program || The ACLU Racial Justice Program aims to preserve and extend constitutionally guaranteed rights to people who have historically been denied their rights on the basis of race.
Black Lives Matter - Minneapolis Facebook page || BLM’s mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes..and more.
Black Visions Collective || BVC aims to center their work in healing and transformative justice principles, intentionally develop the organization's core “DNA” to ensure sustainability…and more.
Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity (BOLD) || BOLD is a national training intermediary focused on transforming the practice of Black organizers in the US to increase their alignment, impact and sustainability to win progressive change. BOLD carries out its mission through training programs, coaching and technical assistance for BOLD alumni and partners.
Blackout Collective || BlackOUT Collective is a radical full service direct action organization. We build organizations’ capacity to execute creative and effective direct actions in service of their organizing and advocacy work...and more.
Color of Change || Color of Change is the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. Color of Change leads campaigns that build real power for Black communities. We challenge injustice, hold corporate and political leaders accountable, commission game-changing research on systems of inequality, and advance solutions for racial justice that can transform our world.
Minnesota Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC) || NOC is a member-led non-profit organization focused on the intersection of race, the economy and public policy
Racial Equity Action Support Network (REASN) || REASN brings together racial equity champions and advocates from community, nonprofit, and government organizations across Minnesota providing support.
Swing Left, Anti-Racism Action Hub || Organizations aiming to dismantle systemic racism in America...and more.
Take Action MN || Take Action Minnesota is a multi-racial people’s organization building power for a government and economy that works for all.
Women for Political Change || Women for Political Change (WFPC) holistically invests in the leadership and political power of young women and trans & non-binary individuals throughout Minnesota.

Atlanta

Black Lives Matter Atlanta || We are unapologetically Black in our positioning, and committed to collectively, lovingly and courageously working for freedom and justice for all Black people (and by extension all people) regardless....and more.
Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta || The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta strives to be an organization that is not only anti-racist but openly stands in support of our Black colleagues, donors, nonprofit partners and neighbors...and more.
Ending Racism Through Education || The Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation provides individuals, teachers and classrooms with learning materials to help shed light on American history that is often either misunderstood or skipped over.
Racial Justice Action Center || RJAC’S mission is to engage in transformative organizing to build the grassroots leadership, power, and capacity of marginalized communities to win political, economic, and social transformation in the Atlanta Metro Area.
Racial Justice Action Center (RJAC) || RJAC builds the grassroots leadership, power, and capacity of marginalized communities to win political, economic, and social transformation in the Atlanta Metro Area...and more.
Southerners on New Ground || SONG envisions a sustainable South that embodies the best of its freedom traditions and works towards the transformation of our economic, social, spiritual, and political relationships.
YWCA and Racial Justice || At YWCA, we demand a world of equity and human decency. We envision a world of opportunity. We commit ourselves to the work of racial justice. We will get up and continue to do the work until injustice is rooted out, until institutions are transformed, until the world sees women, girls, and people of color the way we do: Equal. Powerful. Unstoppable.

Washington D.C.

Anti-Racism at Fair Budget Coalition || The Fair Budget Coalition advocates for budget and public policy initiatives that address poverty and human needs in the District of Columbia.
NOPE DC Neighbors for Racial Justice || NOPE (Neighbors Organizing for Power and Equality) Neighbors takes action to (1) flip the presidency, Congress, and statehouses from Republican Red to Democratic Blue and to (2) support local (DC and Montgomery County) issues that threaten our nation’s democracy and social and racial justice.
Partners SURJ DC || SURJ DC focuses on how to best support Black- and People of Color-Led organizing work and follow their leadership.
Popular Democracy & Popular Democracy From The Ground Up Toolkit || The Center for Popular Democracy works to create equity, opportunity and a dynamic democracy in partnership with high-impact base-building organizations, organizing alliances, and progressive unions.
Race Forward || Race Forward catalyzes movement building for racial justice. In partnership with communities, organizations, and sectors, we build strategies to advance racial justice in our policies, institutions, and culture.
Racial Equity in D.C. || Racial Equity in D.C. works toward racial equity in DC in many ways and believes that the government should fight racism, not enable it.
Racial Justice ACLU of D.C. || The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nationwide non-profit, non-partisan, membership organization devoted to ensuring free speech, equal rights, and other civil liberties.
The Equity Lab || The Equity Lab seeks to disrupt racial and ethnic inequity by engaging organizations in issues of race, equity, diversity, and inclusion (REDI)

Centers and Students Organizing for Social Justice Across 4 Campuses

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Amnesty International at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities

A University chapter of the world's largest human rights advocacy and awareness organization that is a non-partisan, non-political and non-religious group of activists working for the betterment of humans all over the world.

Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Minnesota (SDS)

Organizations that seek to create a sustained community of educational and political concern; one bringing together liberals and radicals, activists and scholars, students, and workers. It maintains a vision of a democratic society, where at all levels people have control of the decisions and resources that affect their lives.

Minnesota Justice Foundation Student Chapter at the University of Minnesota

Justice Foundation dedicated to providing an opportunity for students to meet and work together with other students on issues of social justice and public interest law...and more.

International Justice Mission at UMN

A group dedicated to ending slavery for good by partnering with the International Justice Mission (www.ijm.org) to advocate for the 40+ million slaves in the world today.

College Democrats at the University of Minnesota

The purpose of the College Democrats at the University of Minnesota is to promote the candidates and issues of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, and to work for progressive social change on campus and at all levels of government.

White Coats for Black Lives

The group’s mission is to eliminate racial bias in the practice of medicine and recognize racism as a threat to the health and well-being of people of color.

Coalition for Progressive Change

A coalition of students building power in our community through grassroots organizing and activism.

Human Rights Student Association

An avenue for the U of M community to be able to learn and engage with human rights programming...and more.

Spelman College

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Collage division of the NAACP that focuses on encouraging students to get involved in social change...and more.

Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Campus Center

An inaugural sites for the first Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Campus Centers at Spelman.

National Action Network

One of the leading civil rights organizations in the Nation with chapters throughout the entire United States. Founded in 1991 by Reverend Al Sharpton, NAN works within the spirit and tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to promote a modern civil rights agenda...and more.

Howard University

Howard University College Democrats

A student-run organization dedicated to advancing the goals and ideals of the Democratic Party.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

NAACP to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights without discrimination based on race.

National Council of Negro Women

The National Council of Negro Women, Howard University Section is a section of the National Council of Negro Women Incorporated, which seeks to create a just society in which the quality of life is enhanced for all people...and more.

Morehouse College

The Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership

AYCGL is comprised of four interdependent institutes (areas of programming) designed to provide institutional, national and international leadership.

Leadership Studies Program

Students in this program will both study and emulate these exemplary leaders, both women and men, and they will seek inspiration and guidance from diverse leadership styles or models.

The Institute For Social Justice Inquiry And Praxis

The Institute for Social Justice Inquiry and Praxis serves as a social justice hub of AYCGL that utilizes "freedom" theories - in real time - in ways that teach, develop and implement solutions to social justice inequalities, particularly as they relate to peoples of Africa and its Diaspora.

The Institute For International And Experimental Education

The Institute focuses on co-curricular and integrative learning experiences designed to prepare students for global and domestic leadership.

Student Life or Office of Student Life

The Office of Student Life (OSL), supports the mission of Morehouse College and the retention, progression, and graduation of men by providing opportunities through registered student organizations and Student Life sponsored activities that are designed to cultivate learning, improve student development, provide leadership opportunities, compliment academic programs, and enhance character development.

Campus Activities

Student Leadership Program

The Office of Student Life aligns with the college’s mission to s to develop men with disciplined minds who will lead lives of leadership and service.

Institute for Research, Civic Engagement, and Policy

An Institute whose primary mission is to bring together individuals and groups to study and develop solutions to complex social problems, this institute will lead investigation and problem-solving for the Andrew Young Center of Global Leadership.

National Conversation

Articles

"Creation in Confinement: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration" by Nicole Fleetwood, New York Review, April 28th 2020

"Dionne Brand: On Narrative, Reckoning and the Calculus of Living and Dying" by Dionne Brand, The Star, July 4th 2020

"Beauty is a Method" by Christina Sharpe, e-flux journal, December 2019

"'We Can Enact the Future We Want Now': A Black Feminist History of Abolition" by Lola Olufemi, The Guardian, August 3rd 2020

"Yes, We Literally Mean Abolish the Police" by Mariame Kaba, New York Times, June 12th 2020

Podcasts

NPR In Black America "is a long-running, nationally syndicated program dedicated to all facets of the African American experience. John Hanson profiles a diverse selection of current and historically significant figures whose stories help illuminate life in Black America. Guests include civil rights leaders, educators, artists, athletes and writers describing their experiences, achievements and work in chronicling and advancing the quality of African American life."

Scholar's Strategy Network Podcast- No Jargon presents weekly interviews with top researchers on politics, policy problems, and social issues: Episode #225 (“Black Lives Matter, Police, and America’s Democracy”, Interview with Vesla M. Weaver, JohnsHopkins U.- June 24, 2020; Episode #222 (“Violence in Resistance”, interview with Ashley M. Howard, U of Iowa, June 2, 2020; Episode #206 (“Creating Inclusive Campuses”, interview with Bedelia Nicola Richards, U. of Richmond, Feb. 12, 2020); Episode #207 (“From the Tea Party to the Resistance”, interview with Leah E. Gose, Harvard U, Feb. 20, 2020)

Books/Reading Lists

Art as Theory and Praxis

Bradley, Rizvana. Dec. 2019. “A Gathering of Aporetic Form.” e-flux journal (issue 105). www.e-flux.com/journal/105/302971/a-gathering-of-aporetic-form/.

Copeland, Huey. 2013. Bound to Appear: Art, Slavery, and the Site of Blackness in Multicultural America. The University of Chicago Press. Read chapter 3 here.

Fleetwood, Nicole. 2020. Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration. Harvard University Press. Read chapter 4 here.

Moten, Fred. 2018. Black and Blur. Duke University Press.

Moten, Fred. 2003. In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition. Minnesota University Press.

Sharpe, Christina. 2016. In the Wake: On Blackness and Being. Duke University Press.

Sharpe, Christina. “Beauty Is a Method.” e-flux journal (issue 105), Dec. 2019, www.e-flux.com/journal/105/303916/beauty-is-a-method/.

Silva, Denise Ferreira da. Dec. 2019. “How.” e-flux journal (issue 105). www.e-flux.com/journal/105/305515/how/.

Black Lives Matter and Contemporary Racial Justice Protests

Carruthers, Charlene A. 2018. Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Racial Movements. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Cohen, Cathy J. and Sarah J. Jackson. 2016. “Ask a Feminist: A Conversation with Cathy J. Cohen on Black Lives Matter, Feminism, and Contemporary Activism.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society vol. 41 #4: 775-792.

Davis, Angela. 2016. Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement. Chicago; Haymarket Books.

Estes, Nick. 2019. Our History is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance. London & New York: Verso Press.

Ince, Jelani, Fabio Rojas, and Clayton A. Davis. 2017. “The Social Media Response to Black Lives Matter: How Twitter Users Interact with Black Lives Matter Through Hashtag Use.” Ethnic and Racial Studies vol. 40, #11: 1814-1830.

Kahn-Cullors, Patrisse and Asha Bandele. 2018. When They Call You a Terrorist. N.Y.: St. Martin’s Griffin.

LeBron, Christopher J. 2017. The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an Idea. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ransby, Barbara. 2018. Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimaging Freedom in the 21^st Century. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.

Rickford. R. 2016, January. “Black Lives Matter: Toward a Modern Practice of Mass Struggle. In New Labor Forum (Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 34-42) Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications.

Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. 2016. From Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation. Haymarket Books.

Taylor, Vanessa. June 8, 2020. “’Why Minneapolis?’: How Deep Surveillance of Black Muslims Paved the Way for George Floyd’s Murder.” The Progressive.

The History of Movements for Racial Justice

Allen, Robert L. 1969. Black Awakening in Capitalist America. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.

Andrews, Kenneth T. 2004. Freedom is a Constant Struggle: The Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and Its Legacy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Bell, Joyce. 2014. The Black Power Movement and American Social Work. N.Y.: Columbia University Press.

Biondi, Martha. 2012. The Black Revolution on Campus. Berkeley: U. of California Press.

Burns, Andrea A. 2013. From Storefront to Monument: Tracing the Public History of the Black Museum Movement. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.

Bush, Rod. 1999. We Are Not What We Seem: Black Nationalism and Class Struggle in the American Century. N.Y.: New York University Press.

Gaines, Kevin. 1996. Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, Politics, and Culture in the Twentieth Century. Chapel Hill: U. of North Carolina Press.

Geschwender, James A. 1977. Class, Race, and Worker Insurgency: The League of Revolutionary Black Workers. N.Y.: Cambridge U. Press.

Gomes, Ralph and Linda Williams, eds., 1992. From Exclusion to Inclusion: The Long Struggle for African American Political Power. N.Y.: Greenwood Press.

Joseph, Peniel. 2006. The Black Power Movement: Rethinking the Civil Rights-Black Power Era. N.Y.: Routledge.

Jeffries, Judson L., ed. 2006. Black Power in the Belly of the Beast. Urbana: U. of Illinois Press.

Johnson, Josie R. 2019. Hope in the Struggle. Minneapolis: U. of Minnesota Press.

Kelly, Robin D.G. 1996. Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class. N.Y.: Free Press.

Kelly, Robin. 2002. Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Boston: Beacon.

Kendi, Ibram X. 2012. The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstruction of Higher Education, 1965-1972. N.Y.: Springer.

Marable, Manning. 1984. Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction in Black America, 1945-1982. Jackson: U. Press of Mississippi.

McAdam, Doug. 1999. Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970. Chicago: U. of Chicago Press.

Morris, Aldon. 1984. The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change. N.Y.: Macmillan/Free Press.

Ogbar, Jeffrey. 2004. Black Power, Radical Politics, and African American Identity. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U. Press.

Robinson, Cedric. 1997. Black Movements in America. N.Y.: Routledge.

Robinson, Jo Ann Gibson. 1987. The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.

Rogers, Ibram. 2012. The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965-1972. N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan.

Rojas, Fabio. 2010. From Black Power to Black Studies: How a Radical Social Movement Became an Academic Discipline. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U. Press.

Von Eschen, Penny M. 1997. Race Against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937-1957. Itacha, N.Y.: Cornell U. Press.

Williams, Mary Braddock, Rose Freeman Massey, and Horace Huntley. 2006. “Nerve Juice” and the Ivory Tower Confrontation in Minnesota: The True Story of the Morrill Hall Takeover (at the University of Minnesota). GrantHouse Publiishers.

Winant, Howard. 2001. The World is a Ghetto: Race and Democracy Since World War II. N.Y.: Basic Books.

What are They Shouting About?: Racism and White Supremacy in America

Alexander, Michelle. 2012. The New Jim Crow. N.Y.: The New Press.

Autry, Robyn. 2017. Desegregating the Past: The Public Life of Memory in the United States and South Africa. N.Y.: Columbia University Press.

Baldwin, James. 1993. The Fire Next Time. N.Y.: Vintage.

Blackmon, Douglas. 2008. Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black People in America from the Civil War to World War II. N.Y.: Doubleday.

Bittker, Boris. 2003. The Case for Black Reparations. Boston, MA: Beacon Press

Carmichael, Stokely, and Charles V. Hamilton. 1992 [1967] Black Power: The Politics of Liberation. N.Y.: Vintage Books.

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. 2014 (June). “The Case for Reparations.” The Atlantic.

Doane, Ashley W., and Eduardo Bonilla-Silva. 2003. White Out: The Continuing Significance of Racism. N.Y.: Routledge.

DuBois, W.E.B., 1903 [1989]. The Souls of Black Folk. N.Y.: Bantam.

Feagin, Joe R. 2001. Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, and Future Reparations. N.Y.: Routledge.

Feagin, Joe R. 2010. The White Racial Frame: Centuries of Racial Framing and Counter-Framing. N.Y.: Routledge.

Glaude, Eddie S. Jr. 2016. Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul. N.Y.: Broadway Books.

Henry, Charles P. 2009. Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial Reparations. N.Y.: New York University Press.

Katznelson, Ira. 2005. When Affirmative Action was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in 20^thC. America. N.Y.: W.W. Norton.

King, Marin Luther Jr. A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. N.Y.: Harper Collins.

Steinberg, Stephen. 1995. Turning Back: The Retreat from Racial Justice in American Thought and Policy. Boston: Beacon Press.

The Theory and Practice of Protest

Gilkes, Cheryl Townsend. 1982. “Successful Rebellious Professionals: The Black Woman’s Professional Identity and Community Commitment.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 6 (3): 289-311.

Hobson, Janell, ed. 2017. Are All the Women Still White?: Rethinking Race, Expanding Feminisms. Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press.

Kendi, Ibram X. 2019. How to Be an Anti-Racist. N.Y.: One World.

Loeb, Paul Rogat. 2014. The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizens Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear. N.Y.: Basic Books.

Meyer, David S. “How Social Movements Matter.” Contexts v.2, #4: 30-35.

Morris. Aldon & Jane Mansbridge. 2001 Oppositional Consciousness: The Subjective Roots of Social Protest. Chicago: U. o Chicago Press.

Piven, Frances Fox and Richard Cloward. 1977. Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail. N.Y.: Patheon.

Scott, James C. 1990. Domination and the Art of Resistance. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Tufekci, Zeynap. 2017. Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Exhibitions, Webinars, and Workshops

Kara Walker's "The Jubilant Martyrs of Obsolescence and Ruin" is a cut-paper silhouette installation on display at the High Museum in Atlanta, GA based on the Confederate Memorial Carving on the face of Georgia’s Stone Mountain. In the work, Walker uses caustic, satirical imagery to reconcile the history of oppression and injustice experienced by African-Americans in the South with the persistence of racial and gender stereotypes and ongoing efforts to advance equality in America.

Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration is a major exhibition on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City exploring the work of artists within US prisons and the centrality of incarceration to contemporary art and culture. Featuring art made by people in prisons and work by nonincarcerated artists concerned with state repression, erasure, and imprisonment, Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration highlights more than 35 artists, including American Artist, Tameca Cole, Russell Craig, James “Yaya” Hough, Jesse Krimes, Mark Loughney, Gilberto Rivera, and Sable Elyse Smith. The exhibition has been updated to reflect the growing COVID-19 crisis in US prisons, featuring new works by exhibition artists made in response to this ongoing emergency.

Images from Simone Leigh's “Loophole of Retreat”, winner of the Hugo Boss Prize 2018.

Images from Grada Kilomba's ILLUSIONS Vol. II, OEDIPUS,

Love is the Message, the Message is Death Roundtable I: a roundtable discussion of Arthur Jafa's art installation, Love is the Message, the Message is Death, "a powerful collage of found and original footage exploring the Black American experience, set to Kanye West’s song “Ultralight Beam.”" See also: Roundtable II

Poetry is not a Luxury: The Poetics of Abolition: "with readings from poets Canisia Lubrin and Nat Raha and reflections from critical thinkers and scholars Saidiya Hartman and Christina Sharpe, this panel chaired by academic, curator and writer Nydia A. Swaby explores the poetics of abolition, “for it is through poetry that we give name to those ideas which are, until the poem, nameless and formless-about to be birthed, but already felt.”"

The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master's House: Abolitionist Feminist Futures: the transcription and audio of a recent panel discussion with Black feminist scholars and activists Gail Lewis, Miss Major, Zoé Samudzi and Hortense Spillers, chaired by Akwugo Emejulu. "From Black Trans organizing for post-incarceration re-entry services and against criminalisation, to Black feminist scholarship and psychoanalysis, to Black radical imaginations and political formations, the panel asks: What new tools and instruments can we fashion to help us dismantle the master’s house and build architectures of freedom?"

Christina Sharpe and Torkwase Dyson in Conversation: Black feminist scholar Christina Sharpe and artist Torkwase Dyson share interests in tackling meaningful and ethically responsible ways to wrestle with the many challenging issues of contemporary society, including those influenced by post-civil rights and postcolonial landscapes.

Anti-Racism Study Dialogue Circles (ASDIC), provide antiracism dialogue experiences that build awareness, knowledge, communication across structures of domination, motivation and commitment. ASDIC also offers consulting and custom workshops to businesses and organizations seeking to improve their capacity and competence in interacting with communities and individuals of color.

Watch the past conversations here:

WE CAN'T BREATHE: Virtual Conversations on Systemic Racism

- Foundational Context: Sunday, June 21
  - Introduction to immediate events: the complexities of Minnesota’s history with Native & Black communities, the Minneapolis police (history of reforms without cultural change), and the history of racial injustice in Minnesota. How is Minnesota a reflection of the United States’ history with race and other core issues?
- Understanding: Sunday, June 28
  - Joe Feagin will present with two local antiracist activists. How does the killing of George Floyd manifest the White Racial Frame? What is meant by systemic racism and how it is evidenced in the killing of black Americans? What is some of the relevant history here?
- Actions Required: Sunday, July 12
  - Joe Feagin will present with two local antiracist activists. What are the political-economic causes and impacts of the Black revolts in Minneapolis? How should we understand the underlying conditions that caused them, as well as the police violence that precipitated the events?
- The Way Forward: Sunday, July 19
  - What does a meaningful response look like? We will discuss police reform, addressing racial injustice and inequity in Minnesota. What would systemic change look like? What should be the community’s response?

East Side Freedom Library, hosting a series of conversations how the crises are impacting the way activists are thinking about issues ranging from police violence to climate change, labor rights to voting rights, public health to neighborhood wellbeing, and more broadly, incremental reforms versus deeper change.

Georgetown Law, Rethinking Policing Series: Activism and Reform: Includes "Justice for George Floyd: Understanding Responding to Minneapolis”(June 5th); “Transforming the Police" (June 11th); “Preparing the Next Generation: Activism and Healing”(June 18th); “Police Abolition: What Does It Mean” (June 24th)

University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Center for the Study of Politics Governance Zoom Webinars:

“The Minnesota Paradox” with Dr. Samuel Myers, Dr. Joe Soss, and Dr. May Dao Hang, Tuesday, June 30, 12:00-1:00pm; watch here.
“Black Lives Matter and the 2020 Elections, with Professor Michael Minta (U of MN), Ashley Jardina (Duke U), Christopher S. Parker (U of Washington-Seattle), and LaFleur Stephens-Dougan (Princeton U); Wednesday July 15, 12:00-1:00 pm CT; watch here.

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