In 1971, soul singer Marvin Gaye released a melancholy and enchanting song called “What’s Going On,” which appeared on his album of the same name.
This album was unlike any album Gaye had ever recorded. The title song appealed for love and understanding, rebuking national leaders for the serious issues still plaguing the United States nearly 20 years after the beginning of the civil rights movement.
Institutional racism, disenfranchisement, and police violence against people of color remain strong, and the Vietnam War left tens of thousands of Americans dead and caused widespread civil unrest. “What’s Going On” captured the frustration and fatigue of progressive Americans with the racial oppression and brutality of the time.
At the time Gaye recorded this song, the civil rights movement was already energizing artists from a wide variety of creative fields and creating very rich collaborations between them and civil rights organizations. Visual and musical artists, actors, filmmakers, poets, and writers worked independently and collaboratively to advance the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1968, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It played a big role.
“Some poems, like many of the great passages of the Bible, can make people think about changing the whole human race and even the whole world. Poetry, like prayer, has power.” wrote poet Langston Hughes in the preface to his 1966 collection of student poems, Poems of the Freedom School. Founded by the Mississippi Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Freedom His School aimed to politically empower the state’s black youth through arts and cultural education.
This anthology is dedicated to the memory of Emmett Till.
These books, songs, poems, and other artistic expressions have effectively advanced the cause of civil rights and racial justice. That’s why conservative efforts to ban such creative enterprises from schools and libraries are troubling, supporters of the free expression of ideas say.
This year’s Banned Books Week, observed from October 1 to 7, marks a time when literary and visual artists are among the victims of today’s conservative censorship tide targeting school curricula and libraries. remind you that you are
• read: Banned Books Week: The most contested titles in schools and libraries
Banned Books Week “emphasizes the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community, including librarians, educators, authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers of all types, to solicit ideas. , to share and support freedom of expression,” Banned Book Week organizers said on their website.
This year’s theme is “Let’s read freely.”
“There have always been people who feared the power of art, music, and books, and they have always been unable to censor or outright ban art. Because we understand the forces that drive people,” Southern Poverty Law said. Margaret Huang, Center President and CEO. “We always find ways to overcome these pathetic efforts to control creativity and imagination.”
“Artwork”
As SPLC expands its collaborations with community artists in five focus states, one such project is a collaboration with Montgomery, Alabama-based artist and activist Michelle Browder for SPLC’s future Atlanta office. The authors of a new book ask the following questions: Is your approach to partnering closely with artists important to social justice success?
The answer is yes, according to Ken Grossinger’s “Works of Art: How Organizers and Artists Can Create a Better World Together.”
Grossinger, a prominent labor activist who is married to the painter Micheline Kragsbrun and helped write the book, believes that to perpetuate social justice, artists and social organizations should not be an afterthought, but must plan a campaign. They write that there is a need for strategic cooperation in the formative stage of development. “Decorate” the initiative.
“We know that policy and legislative victories can be achieved through community and worker organizing, protest and lobbying, but those victories are often temporary,” Grossinger said in an interview. “And when power shifts from one party to another, it goes back.”
“The political pendulum continues to swing from left to right and back again because we fail to address the underlying narratives of these battles.” We need more than just a change of hands, we need to change the values and attitudes of voters. Art and storytelling can help change the narrative and guide us on the way there.”
In his new book, Grossinger cites the powerful influence of socially conscious music artists such as Harry Belafonte, Nina Simone and Billie Holiday. “Strange Fruit,” a heartbreaking song about lynching released in 1939, has been called a “declaration of war.” It was the beginning of the civil rights movement. ”
He described how musicians performed at voter registration rallies in cotton fields, and the theater troupe, news department, photography department, comic books and other arts that SNCC established to teach politics in communities of color. The program is emphasized. The photographs taken by a young photojournalist named Danny Lyon for SNCC expose racism and police brutality and still resonate 60 years later.
Bridging art and social justice
Grossinger cited Black Lives Matter supporters and artists such as Jasiri It pays homage to mural artists and musicians. He cites examples of successful collaborations between artists and immigrant, immigrant, and refugee justice organizations, as well as national environmental justice organizations, which he says have helped them “reach broader audiences and make campaigns more effective.” “I have been slow to embrace art as a means of deepening my understanding,” he writes. We then discuss recent advances in technology, digital projection, and social media that have allowed us to reach more people.
Kalonji Gilchrist, an arts community organizer affiliated with the SPLC in Montgomery, Alabama, used his 1991 song “By the Time I Get to Arizona” to support hip-hop artists such as KRS-One, Goodie Mob and Public Enemy. He cited the achievement of “first work”. “They influenced who I am today,” he said.
In late August, Gilchrist’s 21 Dreams Art & Culture and SPLC’s Civil Rights Memorial Center (CRMC) teamed up to host an “Art is Activism” block party. In addition to music, the event will feature approximately 25 local artists, poets, and social justice organizations to raise community awareness on issues such as voting, civic engagement, health, violence, and the reintegration of returning citizens into the community. I did. Event partners include Alabama Appleseed, Alabama Forever, Alabama Forward, Michelle Browder, and New South His Bookstore.
“We wanted to bridge arts and culture with social justice,” said Tafeni English Relf, director of SPLC’s Alabama office.
Ann Beeson, chief program officer at SPLC, was a longtime leader in arts and social change initiatives before joining SPLC, and believes building bridges is a natural fit for the organization.
“The SPLC recognizes that building a multiracial, inclusive democracy in our current hostile climate requires innovation and radical imagination,” Beeson said. . “Artists are natural innovators, and there is a real alignment between building capacity for social justice innovation and deepening collaboration with artists and cultural leaders.”
“Control the media”
Grossinger told SPLC that there are certain prerequisites for successful collaboration between artists and cultural leaders.
First, artists and organizers should understand in advance what to expect from each other.
Second, the parties must agree on a timeline for collaboration. “Organizers want things to get done today or tomorrow, but artists don’t work that way,” he said of possible points of contention.
“Whereas organizers tend to think in terms of poll-tested messages, the quantitative impact of the campaign, like ‘how many doors did I knock on today?’ and urgency, artists think more qualitatively.” said Grossinger. “Artists don’t want their creative impulses to be stifled. That’s why understanding up front is so important.”
Gilchrist hopes that advances in technology in the arts will transform stories of social injustice into powerful experiences that move the public in new and dramatic ways.
He recently beta-tested virtual reality museum software during the civil rights movement, using artificial intelligence glasses and being transported back in time to an isolated lunch counter. The effect was so real that Gilchrist was forced to abort the test prematurely. This interactive software was developed by Jackson, Mississippi-based company Lobaki in partnership with Air University and Montgomery’s Innovation Hub, MGMWERX.
“It was heart-poundingly authentic,” Gilchrist said. “I felt anxious and scared as I saw the white person next to me yelling at me. There were a lot! I had to take off my glasses. I told the software program guy and the MGMWERX staff , I told them I needed a moment. I was forced to sit down at the counter and stood helpless as they yelled at me to stand up. Get out of here, [N-word]. ” They were taunting us to move. The people were white and mostly young. I remember their faces. ”
From the school lunch counter to today’s school board chambers, the battleground for equality and freedom, and who has the final say on what our nation should be and think, continues.
Censorship is “an attack,” Gilchrist said.
“It’s driven by fear, not good fear or fear to protect yourself from harm, but fear from losing control or facing something that makes some white people uncomfortable. Censorship of the Arts targets artists who represent marginalized communities: voices that are silenced, such as BIPOC, immigrants, and the LGBTIA+ community. It can teach us a lot. Indeed, such censorship Some would argue that the act is a tool of white supremacy. Control the media, control the information, control the people.”
Top photo: At the offices of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, arts community organizer Kalonji Gilchrist stands in front of a mural completed by a group of young artists. (Credit: Sierra Brinson)