![]() ![]() As long as we don’t feel that, we’re going to be demanding our rights and equal treatment.” Nadia Jones poses near a print of Jordan’s photo of her. “We deserve to be able to be free to go where we want, to get an education, to get a home - to feel at peace and safe in the country that we were born in and live in. “African Americans are a part of America,” Marquita said. The Art and Activism exhibit can hopefully pass along that lesson to other museum attendees, she said. Nadia’s mother Marquita Jones said she was initially concerned about bringing her child to the protest, after hearing about actions last summer that ended with police violence, property damage and other traumatic events.īut by attending, Nadia saw how protests can remain peaceful even as emotions are heightened, Marquita said. Nadia Jones holds a sign reading “We Are The Future” after an attempted shutdown of the Dan Ryan Expressway in Bronzeville on Aug. The group set out to shut down the Dan Ryan Expressway, but it was met by counterprotesters and eventually redirected by police. 15, as she attended her first action alongside hundreds of other protesters against police brutality. Movement mainstays like Wright are featured in the exhibit alongside young people who took their first steps into protesting last summer. We can get our works in our museums,” Jordan said. “The message that I have to folks is: We can craft our own history books. Some of the people featured in his work - who joined him to view their photos at the exhibit Saturday afternoon - “didn’t have to die to be in a museum,” he said. Jordan’s photos in the exhibit are taken from his book, “ Chicago Protests: A Joyful Revolution,” which he created to reflect “pure, authentic Black joy” in the face of unprecedented upheaval. Attendees demanded the defunding of Chicago Police Department. ![]() Jermaine “Jayy Jayy” Wright, 19, dances at a Freedom Square occupation of a vacant lot across from the Homan Square police “black site” July 24. “I think of TV all the time, when people were showing all of these protests and it was like, ‘These violent people.’ I was like, ‘Where are y’all when these photos are being taken?'” Credit: Vashon Jordan Jr. “A lot of Black people live through trauma, and a lot of times their joy isn’t really expressed,” Wright said. The exhibit shows aspects of protesting that are often overlooked - joy, empowerment and community building - and provides a platform for the movement’s ideas that isn’t always available in other mainstream institutions, he said. So there are “no words to explain” the validation that comes from seeing a “Defund the Police” mask and T-shirt featured in a photo on the Museum of Science and Industry’s walls, Wright said. It features the photography of Vashon Jordan Jr., a Pullman-based photographer who documented protests throughout Chicago during summer 2020, and Chris and Zachary Slaughter, who documented murals on boarded-up buildings across Chicago.Īlso on display are murals painted by visual artist Jamiah Calvin and high school students from King College Prep and Kenwood Academy.Īctivists work tirelessly to share their joys and visions for a better world with others, said Jermaine “Jayy Jayy” Wright, a youth organizer at the Chicago Freedom School. “ Black Creativity: Art and Activism” is on display at the Museum of Science and Industry, 5700 S. HYDE PARK - As young Chicagoans reflect on a year of heightened organizing around police violence and injustice, a new exhibit is giving them an opportunity to showcase art telling “the collective story” around those protests. ![]()
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