“Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.” —Maya Angelou (1928–2014)
How can we expand opportunities for each other while changing harmful systems?
Through this work I’ve learned that all of us leave a mark on the world in our own way. Possibilities may seem intangible when we work alone, like many of us did during the pandemic. Working in community unlocks unexpected potential in our work. Being in solidarity with a shared sense of accountability and vision for a brighter future put my skills to work for the greater good.
Gone, Not Forgotten, 2023 video collaboration with Michael Hart and Ren Davidson Seward as a metaphor that describes an interior landscape of loss and transcendence.
The call for abolition struck me to the core when the evidence for Ahmaud Arbery’s brutal slaying was subverted in 2020. How could I convey the depth of my sorrow and outrage? I sifted through the media bias to find the facts of the lynching. I synthesized those facts down to a few words to communicate how Ahmaud’s life was taken unjustly.
In June 2020, I was invited by the director of John Brown Lives!, the official friends group of the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid, New York, to install, as a public statement in reaction to Black Lives Matter, the first iteration of this memorial in a field adjacent to John Brown’s home. For the next four years, A Memorial Field grew from a shattering look at the history of racially-motivated violence in policing to an emotionally-stirring, reverential space for remembering and reflecting. It is said to have brought contemporary relevance to the John and Mary Brown farm.
More than 200 years before Ahmaud Arbery’s murder in broad daylight, Ida B. Wells said, “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” She had to find a way not to carry the weight of such hate crimes on her spirit then, as we must do now.
I am indebted to Martha Swan, founder and director of John Brown Lives!, who encouraged me to find a way. It was Martha and Commissioner Kulleseid’s team (Alane Ball Chinian, Cordell Reeves, and Yolanda Bostic Williams) at the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, who first endorsed the installion, Memorial Field for Black Lives (renamed A Memorial Field in 2022) during a time of international outrage and the Black Lives Matter uprising. Tragically, we are still compelled to fight their fight.
The history of violent assaults on Black bodies motivated me to better understand the ongoing struggle for civil rights in America which led to a second installation, Spiraling ‘Round the Promise of the Right to Vote. Voting rights inextricably entwined with the systems of oppresion that vye to keep people of color from full participation in the franchise, a subject especially relevant to the John Brown Farm.
I am in boundless gratitude to the friends, collaborators, facilitators, and accountability partners, in particular, Peter Seward and Anna Forsman, whose ongoing support has fed the steadfast belief in the work. The following list is in quasi chronological order.
Jerilea Zempel
Nancy Sinkoff & Gary Dreiblatt
Nell Painter & Glenn Shafer
Martha Swan, John Brown Lives!
Benita Law-Diao
Dr. Alice Green
Amy Godine
Brendan Mills, Cheryl Craft, and John O’Neill, John Brown Farm State Historic Site
Charlie Burnham and Fred Cash
Kathy & Arthur Morey
Tiffany Rea-Fisher, artistic director, EMERGE125
Erica Blunt, composer, Twelve45
Eleanor Stein and Jeff Jones
Ellen Driscoll
Steven Manning
Jane Haugh
Betsy Thomas-Train
Archie Shire, activist
Stephanie Ratcliffe, Director, The Wild Center
Ellen Bettmann
Paul Hai, Timbuctoo Institute
Nancie Battaglia, photographer
Saranac Lake Rotary Foundation
Dr. Louis J. DeCaro
Peter Neill
Marie Campbell, Blooms by Marie
Bear Fox
Russell Banks
Raoul Peck
Bella Desai and Chris Mulé, CRNY
Dr. Martin and Mignon Tyler
Kathy Bonavist
Shawndel Fraser
Mike Bishop, Cornell University
Michael Hart, filmmaker and musician
Mark Hofschneider, Counterpoint Media
—Ren Davidson Seward, artist
This project is made possible with funds from John Brown Lives!, Dr. Alice Green’s Center for Law and Justice in Albany, and Creatives Rebuild New York. Additional support has come from the Statewide Community Regrants program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts.
