Arts & Culture | New Haven Pride Center | Visual Arts | COVID-19
| Slides courtesy of Siobhan Ekeh. |
Siobhan Ekeh clicked to a slide that displayed six pieces of artwork, some sketched in pen, others painted in acrylic paints covering pages of a notebook. At the top left corner, Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Stormé DeLarverie were rendered in black and white. For Ekeh, this was not just a piece of artwork. It was a symbol, honoring people who fought for gay rights.
“If you are queer or trans you really owe these people respect and honor,” she said.
On a recent Friday, Ekeh held a virtual workshop titled Visualizing a Better Future through the New Haven Pride Center, meant to bring to attention the importance of artwork and art-making as a form of protest. Close to 10 people attended, all young and seemingly ready to make a change in society. Several of the artists went on to contribute to the Center’s exhibition #ArtAgainstViolence, which runs through Sept. 11.
“I believe art is an important tool to use in speaking out against injustice because it transcends language and ideology in a way that you can’t do with other methods,” Ekeh said. “Even people who disagree with you can see your art and understand your perspective, feelings, and ideas. You can get through to people with art, even if they are closed off to words and information.”
Ekeh was outside in nature, sitting on the grass, as she began the workshop. She opened the call with an icebreaker, asking people to share their names, pronouns, their favorite way to express themselves, as well as something they were excited about. She laid ground rules, including verbal content warnings for graphic violence, respecting pronouns and personal identity, and staying away from “invasive questions” to foster safety and respect.
She then followed up with the question: “What violence in your community do you want to respond to?”
Ekeh used her slideshow as participants suggested different answers. Some, for instance, responded that they wanted to prevent all violence against members of the LGBTQ+ community. She presented artwork from Watson Mere, Kadir Nelson, Nikkolas Smith, Samuel Luke, Esma Bošnjaković, Greg Deal, and Antoinette Thomas, all of whom express anti-violence messaging through their work.
She spoke on multiple articles that showed topics of transgender awareness, police brutality, and colonial violence. She spoke about what she liked about each artist and gave the viewers their contact information.
Thomas’ work, displayed at the end of the slideshow, caught participants' attention. Ekeh explained that she takes the struggles of being a Black woman living in a structurally racist society, and uses humor to illuminate the situation. On display were three pieces of her artwork, all in cartoon form.
One piece of work showed two women talking. One is Black; the other is white. The white lady begins: “As a POC don’t you … ” The other interjects, saying she is “Blackity Black Black” to express that she is not only a person of color, she is a Black person.
“I love how she uses humor to get across her lived experiences,” Ekeh said. “ She strikes an excellent balance of drawing people in with humor and style while also being uncompromising about her feelings, identity, and message.”
She went on to show several other pieces of artwork: giant murals commemorating missing Indigenous girls, paintings that represent how Black people are kept safe and followed around by their ancestors. She offered two prompts to participants: they could make art that channeled the idea of ancestors watching, or art that channeled “a simple message.”
After 45 minutes of work time—set to a soundtrack of Black artists—people began to share their creations. Cecilia Dondorful-Amos showed a sketch, done in pen, depicting stick figures holding objects. It appeared as more of an outline for a later, more put-together piece of work that might follow.
“It’s inspired by the painting of the people signing the Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull,” she explained. “But instead, it’s going to be me doing various things—protesting, signing petitions, making music, speaking, etcetera. Then there will be me sitting down at the table just chilling reading a book.”
“It’s kinda a ‘Declaration of Independence’ from the expectation of always being on top of everything,” she added. “It’s okay to calm down and collect yourself especially as a Black woman.”
Amy Nichols also shared her work, based around the teaching that the ancestors are listening, and they hear when someone invokes them. She drew an animated version of herself with a Black Lives Matter t-shirt, a cedar hat above a raised Black fist, and three of her ancestors in the background. In the work, one beats a drum with a Black power fist. All of them are wearing traditional regalia.
“To decolonize we need repatriation, Indigenous sovereignty, and Black liberation,” she said.
Jewel Booker is a student at New Haven Academy who has been working with the Arts Paper as a summer intern. To find out more about the #ArtAgainstViolence exhibition, visit the New Haven Pride Center's website. A discussion among artists is planned for Friday Aug. 28. View the exhibition in the Facebook Live video above.