Midterm Proposal

I chose the social issue of the erasure and neglect of black artist and the importance of their work in movements like #BlackLives Matter and going back to the Black Panther Party movement. All art finds truthful moments in the center of chaos. Black art is the lifeline that sustains movements . From the chaos of Trayvon Martins murder the #BlackLivesMatter movement was born. From the perpetual persecution by J. Edgar Hoover the Black Panthers Party for Self Defense’s Minster of Culture Emory Douglas created his eye opening street art. Both motive for the controversial are sprung from decades of injustice and disregard experience by Black people in America. Black art exists everywhere you lookHowever, the erasure of black art and not giving credit to black culture that art emanates from, art history systematically ignored the black communities contribution to art and even pop culture. There is a persistent lack of presence in major auctions houses, museums, galleries and even the curriculum that is taught to the next generation about the values of black art. Black art exists everywhere, not just in museums and galleries like the traditional art is portrayed; but its on buildings in the urban area, on bridges, and most importantly its on the canvases of our bodies.

 My life has been impacted as a black lgbtq+ woman I experience discrimination on a daily basis and it is something that I must rise above to be a bigger person. I am always told that I must keep my political blackness quiet and that my community doesn’t experience discrimination “like that” anymore after the civil rights movement and having a black president. However when I go into the store and am followed around like I’m a thief, when I have to constantly explain that just because you live in an urban area and have black friends doesn’t make you apart of my community, or even worse when I walk past the police and stand vigil when I see another black person being accosted by them I know that the issues facing my community is on going and that the information about the struggle I’d minimized. I know that the art done in memory of Mike Brown had many people enraged that someone would recreate that scene, but what people failed to realize is that that situation is constantly recreated in urban ares all the time. I will be doing a photo set series of police brutality from the eyes of the victim. I know what’s its like too have had a police officer pull a gun on me and the terror that I felt and I would like to be able to express that panic to others so they understand that at no point can I turn my blackness down nor will I silence my voice in the advocacy of black empowerment and equality.