Kimberly Drew- This is What I Know About Art.
Quote 1- "In this book, I wanted to share a few moments that have shaped me as an activist and as a proudly angry black person who has loved art for as long as they can remember. There was a point in my career where I feared my anger. I feared that my anger would scare others. But looking back, I know without a doubt that I have the right to be mad on these pages and out in the world. ... my story is not wholeheartedly about anger and it could never be. My story is also about generosity. It's about the things that artists and friends teach us and how we employ them in our own lives." Pg 59-60
Response- This quote embraces and brings light to Kimberly's journey, her ups and her downs as she pursued being an artistic activist. She almost in a way gives permission to be angry to every other black person and there is a lot of freedom in that. Being angry and being black shouldn't make you an angry black person, and it also says it's okay to feel passionate about the things that upset you in this world and how you can create change through creating community and sharing your passions with others. I loved how unapologetic she is in the book, in this quote and in her overall journey. Its definitely inspiring for my creative and professional pursuits as well.
Quote 2- " My faith in the importance of art had never been more concrete. It was images, sculptures, and writing that helped me wade through the anger I was feeling. ...The tears felt like a battle cry for the strong person I needed to become at that point in my life, in my career, and for my growing audience. The tears helped me liberate the part of myself that I was afraid to be. A part of myself that I thought I had to hide." pg 48-50
Response- I felt the weight of Kimberly's pain in the quote as she discussed how she walked around in her community and her work place during the time of Eric Garner's Murder and any other black deaths due to police brutality at that time. As she looks around she see's no-one around her that is affected by these happenings as much as she is and it feels as if their are rules in society that doesn't allow people of color room to feel hurt pain and anger, especially in a work environment where the tragedies do not directly affect them. Through her creative practices, she was able to find healing and find her voice to aid the anger she was feeling and the action of crying became transformative and liberating for her as well. These same expressions, I definitely connected to as I was reading especially during the Pandemic when the #Blacklivesmatter movement began rising in growth. That silence, and pain was such a weight to carry, and though I didn't participate in protests at that time, I began hosting art events as a form of creating safe spaces, conversation, community and social interaction that would help aid that pain I was carrying and embrace my freedom and a young black person.
Quote 3- "On my own social media pages, I wrote angry tweets about the lack of diversity, and by the end of the of the weekend, I had fielded interviews... By Monday, word had gotten back to the Studio Museum, and yet again I was called into a superior's office for something I shared on social media. ...This time, it was the director's office, Thelma Golden's Office. .. During my meeting with Them, she told me about the consequences of my actions and generously taught me that my voice was a powerful one. Instead of leading with rage, she helped me understand this difficult crossroads. By the end of the meeting, she asked me to think deeply about what I wanted to say, and, more importantly, How I wanted to be interpreted. It was not just enough to be angry. I had to be strategic." pg 42-43
Response- I enjoyed these few sentences in the book because they hold a lot of weight. It discusses how Kimberly was passionate about the anger she felt towards the lack of diversity and representation of POC in the art world, especially in her line of work. This lack of representation hits close to home for her that's why she does the work she does with her blog and through social media. Often times we use social media as a platform for our anger and rage and sharing our brutality honest opinions on the world. Sometime however, without thinking how what we say or post on the internet follows us everywhere we go, and in this case created a lot of attention for Kimberly. She had to deal with confrontation in this situation about her actions and her boss, Thelma addressed how to handle this situation better. But this makes me think about nowadays how people get cancelled on the internet for sharing certain feelings and even can get fired from their jobs for creating such controversy. Kimberly was very bold, unafraid, and unapologetic, and uses the internet in a very unique way to create forms of activism and protest, whether she realized it or not. She was also able to learn from her mistakes on angrily venting on the Internet and move forward in a more strategic way to get the results she wanted.
Art from Kimberly Drew's Blog + Response
Hank Willis Thomas, Scarred Chest (2003).
12:37 pm • 10 September 2018 • 609 notes
I chose this art work from Kimberly's Blog because I was Intrigued by the capturing of the body form in this photograph. This photograph elegantly captures the bare torso of a black and also represents controversial topics such as scarification, branding, and even some racial topics. In this photograph, You will see a black man posed forward with 9 NIKE Brand check signs branded into the skin on his chest. Seeing this image raised a big of problematic concern about slavery and how many colored people throughout history has had their skin scarred and burned to be branded for representation. This happens with slaves and slave owners, in branding and marketing deals, in sororities and fraternities, and even in different African cultures for traditional reasons. This photographs says and represents a lot at once while also showing simplicity, beauty, and even popularity.
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