Exhibition Opening Zoom Event on April 15, 2021

The virtual Exhibition Opening on Thurs 15 April 3:30-4:30 was a fascinating discussion of the Kean Student and Alumni Art Protest in Memory of George Floyd, on exhibition in the Human Rights Institute hallway. Kean President, Dr. Lamont Repollet delivered the opening welcome.

Dr. Jacquelyn Tuerk-Stonberg (exhibition curator, Kean Art History) presented the art protest as it occurred in Jersey City last summer and the current exhibition with a video walk-through. Several artists -- including Tino Cook, Marielena Guthrie, Mary Clare King, and Cheyonnoe Thompson -- discussed their artworks.

A star guest-speaker, Dr. Ruth Feldstein, introduced her award-winning research and nationally acclaimed documentary film, “How It Feels To Be Free,” that premiered on PBS American Masters Series this January on MLK Day. This documentary tells the inspiring story of how six iconic African American female entertainers – Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier – challenged an entertainment industry deeply complicit in perpetuating racist stereotypes, and transformed themselves and their audiences in the process.

Remarks by Curator Dr. Tuerk-Stonberg during the Event on April 15, 2021

Two weeks after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, a concerned group of Kean students and alumni organized a public protest in Jersey City, on Newark Ave – not as a march or chanting slogans, but with their art to battle insidious systemic racism in this country.

The organizers of the protest collectively call themselves Just Some Bums and Mary Clare, and they define themselves with these words:

“Just Some Bums is a collective of creatives and in this group, we like to create everything that we can, while also providing a platform for other artists to showcase their talents. This protest was created in response to police brutality and George Floyd’s murder. We recognize that not everyone is good with words or comfortable with marching through the streets due to the potential violence that can erupt. Rather than march and shout through the streets, we ask people to march and shout through art. Our main goal is to offer a friendly and comfortable environment that allows others to yell and express themselves without opening their mouths.”

The protest in Jersey City included art by 14 artists: Marcus Beckett, Brandon Bravo, Tino Cook, Dante, Alfonzo Gonzales, Marielena Guthrie, Mary Clare King, Destiny Rodriguez, Jasmine Ramirez, Brianna Scotti, Kasia Sierant, Cheyonne Thompson, Tyshaun Williams, and Jennifer Zuniga.. Gathering a crowd of passersby, the artists passionately discussed their artworks with a call for racial justice. I joined the artists that day and documented the protest with photographs here in the exhibition to accompany their works of art.

In the months following Jersey City, we brought this art protest to the campus community in the Kean History Department’s HistoryTALKS Community Forum on “Art and Racism” viewable on YouTube, and locally at the Cedar Grove and Verona Social Justice Group’s “Rally for Youth to Action” with press coverage in Tap into Verona/Cedar Grove and My Verona NJ local news. This exhibit is now on view in the Kean Human Rights Institute hallway through April 2021. It continues the passion and commitment of these artistic voices to address deep injustices within our personal and global communities.

The creative act of making art and discussing art has special power to express personal, genuine, and sincere feelings and thoughts. The hope is that these artists’ voices-for-change will encourage other students (college, high school, and younger) to engage visual art to explore their own reactions to racism. This artwork also brought together and strengthened a community of activists to support each other in peace and safety within the midst of public violence. Because we are stronger together, we invite artworks from you as well – the entire Kean community and beyond – including photos of protests you have attended, to be included in the exhibition website; just email me.

A Message from Kean University President Lamont O. Repollet, Ed.D.

Emailed to the Kean Community on April 16, 2021

... Yesterday, I had the opportunity to virtually welcome more than 100 members of our Kean community and others to a powerful and timely exhibit in memory of George Floyd in the Human Rights Institute Gallery lobby of the Nancy Thompson Learning Commons. I am proud of the Kean students and alumni who came together to create this exhibit, which includes paintings, photos and other artwork that they carried with them during a peaceful protest last summer following George Floyd’s death. Each piece of art conveys a personal response to the racial inequality and racism that continue to plague this nation.

This exhibit invites each of us to reflect on Floyd’s senseless death as we follow the trial of Derek Chauvin, the ex-Minneapolis police officer charged with his murder, and absorb the death this week of another Black man — 20-year-old Daunte Wright — at the hands of a Minnesota police officer. It is natural and understandable to become angry about these brutal incidents, but the students and alumni who created this exhibit remind us of another way forward — that we all can and should use our voices and creativity to express our views and demand the change we want to see in this world. I encourage each of you to visit the exhibit in person at the Learning Commons through May 3. If you have any protest artwork or photos of your own that you would like to submit for the online exhibit, you are invited to email curator Jacquelyn Tuerk-Stonberg, Ph.D. ...

Sincerely,

Lamont O. Repollet, Ed.D.

President

Article in The Tower, Kean's Award-Winning Student Newspaper, April 26, 2021

"Kean University Students and Alumni Spotlight Art in Memory Of George Floyd"

by Tasha Dowbachuk

A powerful activist art exhibit by Kean University students and alumni honoring George Floyd was opened this month, representing the deep emotion of many on campus as the world watched former Minneapolis police officer Derrick Chauvin found guilty on all three counts for his murder.

Unveiled in a virtual tour just five days before Chauvin’s guilty verdict on April 20, the collection of 14 art pieces in the the Human Rights Institute illustrates an assembly of reactions not only towards Floyd’s murder, but also the lives that were taken at the hands of police brutality and systemic racism in the United States.

A video recording taken by a 17-year-old bystander captured footage of Floyd in police custody on May 25, with Chauvin shown kneeling on his neck as Floyd gasped that he couldn’t breathe. The video garnered outrage and launched protests around the world.

The virtual art exhibition was curated by Dr. Jacquelyn Tuerk-Stonberg, Kean Art History professor of 17 years, as part of her personal commitment to support students in exploring the historical power of imagery.

“The creative act of making art and discussing art has special power to express personal, genuine and sincere feelings and thoughts, [and] the hope is that these artists’ voices for change will encourage other students to engage visual art to explore their own reaction to racism,” Dr. Tuerk-Stonberg said.

As the nation continues to protest in the fight towards ending racial inequality, the backbone of the exhibition is demonstrated through the passion and commitment of 14 artistic voices unified in their call for racial justice and to support one another in the midst of public violence.

Kean University President Dr. Lamont Repollet commemorated the exhibit on April 15 with an opening address followed by a nine-minute virtual tour produced by Tuerk-Stonberg, featuring oil, acrylic and mixed media artworks as well as photography of a student and alumni activist group called, Just Some Bums and Mary Clare.

The event — sponsored by Kean’s History Department and its Art History program, as well as University Relations, Kean Galleries and The Human Rights Institute — also included guest speaker, Dr. Ruth Feldstein, author and associate producer of PBS American Master series “How It Feels To Be Free,” which documents the lives of famous female entertainers, Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier.

Over 100 people attended the virtual event and listened to the artistic descriptions of four artists within the student and alumni group: Cheyonne Thompson, Marielena Guthrie, Mary Clare King and Tino Cook.

At the start of the presentation, viewers were introduced to a total of nine portraits of Cook’s artwork featuring the faces of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, George Junius Stinny Jr., Tamir Rice, Elijah McClain, Aiyana Mo’Nay Stanley Jones and Heather Heyer.

Cook said that his artwork is in direct response to the hypocrisy, disenfranchisement and bloodshed of his people in the United States and around the world.

“I want to bring truth to how far we have come and the things we have achieved being under a foundation of slavery and terror,” he said. “These things sound like they’re back in the 1800s, but they’re not. It’s things that’s going on all the time, my father lived it, now I have to live it and my grandparents lived it even worse.”

He continued by stating that when the public discusses racial matters and says they are getting better, he believes that people have been trying.

“What the young generation is doing today, I see them intermingling in college and everybody is dealing with everybody,” Cook said. “I think that’s one of the answers and to realize [that] just because I’m Black, that don’t mean I don’t have feelings, emotions or care for my children or want an education; I want the American Dream.”

Dr. Feldstein congratulated the artists through their courageous call to action and stated that the student alumni group is now a part of a long tradition of artists who have made similar choices that drew attention to racial injustice.

“Across centuries, artists have used different forms and mediums to challenge African American oppression and to affirm black visibility, as all of you have done so powerfully with your art,” Feldstein said.

Feldstein’s documentary series formulates the same call for racial justice through the tracings of how the six African American entertainment icons left their impact on and off stage to help advance the Civil Rights Movement and to reshape expectations of how black women are represented in an industry which perpetuates racial stereotypes.

“To most people in that era that I write about [the 1950s and 60s], most Americans didn’t march, they didn’t boycott, they didn’t join civil rights organizations,” Feldstein said.

Feldstein explained that what they saw on stage in theatres, or television screens in their homes, in films where they bought records and listened to music, is considered an uniquely powerful force through which they engage in black politics, where the public has learned for the first time what civil rights activism was and could be.

The revolutionary acts of activism through songs and performances by black women entertainers was transformative for both black and white audiences through the carefully selective representations of the black community to overcome discriminatory roles in the media.

As Feldstein listens and sees the art that students and alumni have created, she continues by stating that she sees so much of what the artists today have in common with the women she writes about.

“Both groups across decades have stoked citizen engagement and encouraged everyday people to reimagine what is possible,” Feldstein states.

“Both groups across decades have attended to issues with intersectionality as they make art and culture essential to the black freedom struggle.”

Dr. Feldstein called for students and the viewers of the event to continue to turn towards arts and culture to help make demand change and to do the everyday work of healing.

The “Kean Student and Alumni Protest Art Exhibition, in memory of George Floyd” exhibit is part of a larger effort to react to Floyd’s murder through art. It began two weeks after Floyd’s murder in May 2020 when a group of concerned Kean students and alumni organized a public protest in Jersey City on Newark Avenue, using their artworks, which are presented in the Human rights Institute art exhibit.

In July, the group then held a protest on Kean University’s campus called “Art As Protest In The Art, Race And Protest HistoryTalks Community Form,” sponsored by the History Department and viewable on YouTube. In August 2020, the movement developed beyond Kean through the youth rally to action, targeted towards high school students in Verona, Cedar Grove, and Montclair titled, “How Students Can Protest Racism.”

Kean’s exhibit runs through April in the hallway of The Human Rights Institute. The Kean community is invited to share their photography and artworks of activism with Dr. Tuerk-Stonberg by emailing their work to jtuerk@kean.edu.

Kean HistoryTALKS Community Forum on Art and Racism

July 7, 2020 Sponsored by the History Department

Dr. Jacquelyn Tuerk-Stonberg moderated a group discussion with artists -- Brandon Bravo, Tino Cook, Marielena Guthrie, Mary Clare King, Cheyonne Thompson -- who addressed the following issues:

How did the group initiate the idea of an art protest?

How is protest art different from other art?

How have their life experiences shaped their paintings?

How was coming together through protest meaningful to them?

What kinds of responses do you have to the other artists’ work?

Other student and alumni artists in the audience—Alex Desrivieres, Julie Gallagher, Avianna Green, Morgan Petzold, Timothy Rivera, and Komal Shahzadi—shared their thoughts regarding self-reflection, community building, or social growth.

Cedar Grove/Verona Social Justice Group "Youth Rally to Action"

August 8, 2020

This talk, “How Students Can Protest Racism,” was delivered by Dr. Jacquelyn Tuerk-Stonberg in this virtual conference designed for elementary and high school students to explore their reactions to racism through art.

Press coverage: TAP into Verona/Cedar Grove, Sarina Rivera, 8/7/20; and My Verona NJ Local News, 8/3/20.

Article in The Cougar's Byte, Kean's Leadership and Service Newsletter, April 20, 2021

"Protest Art Exhibit: When Art Becomes a Voice"

by Maria Paz-Lopez

On Thursday, April 15, Kean Galleries held on an online event on Protest Art Exhibit in Memory of George Floyd as a part of Kean University's Unity Week. Curator and Moderator, Jacquelyn Tuerk-Stonberg Ph.D., welcomes students and staff to join the conversation with artists as they discuss the stories behind their art.

Their main goal was to provide a safe and comfortable space for people to express their emotions about all that is going on in the world through art.

A nine minute walkthrough video was presented at the event, exhibiting various pieces that are now presented in Kean's Gallery located in the Human Rights Hallway. In this video, Dr. Tuerk-Stonberg walks down the gallery, piece by piece, talking about the various artworks and briefly speaks of their meaning.

Guthrie kept the faces of the people in her painting ambiguous in order for viewers to put themselves in their place. She says, "We want a new place for everyone to be unified."

Mary Clare King had wanted to create an interactive piece but it became difficult due to Covid-19. However, her piece was still as effective in getting the message across. Filling the Black Lives Matter fist with the names of those lost at the hands of racism, King focuses on the theme of inclusion. She wants the names to be said and known.

Tino Cook explains how he completely stopped what he was working on to create the nine protest pieces showcased in the exhibit. He opens up about his experiences with racism and that of the people close to him.

All of their work can be viewed at Kean's Human Rights Institute in person through May 7.

Dr. Ruth Feldstein, author and associate producer of "How It Feels to be Free" a PBS American Masters Series, was invited as a guest speaker to give some words to the artists and participants. Dr. Feldstein congratulates the artists and thanks them for their hard work and contributions. She was amazed by the power the artists showcased through their artwork.

Short on time, the event came to a close with a section for questions and discussion.

Inspired students are encouraged to submit their artwork and photographs to Dr. Jacqueline Tuerk-Stonberg through her email at jtuerk@kean.edu.

For students or staff interested in attending a similar event, they can check in on Kean Galleries on their Cougar Link.

To learn more about the artwork or gallery, one can visit the Instagram pages for Kean's Human Rights @kean_humanrights or Kean Galleries @keangalleries.