Authors, historians and curators can absolutely be activists. It’s about wanting to change something and committing to that change. Kimberly Drew is an art curator, but she is an activist as well as she is actively changing the art community and building a space for Black artists. bell hooks is a certified author who published numerous theories, and participated in public lectures, discussing topics of race, the gender binary and feminism all together. She is absolutely an activist through her writing and her sharing her personal experiences, "As their daughter, I was taught that it was my role to serve, to be weak, to be free from the burden of thinking, to caretake and nurture others."
One moment in the book that really stuck with me was when, through the use of her college education, Drew realized that she wasn’t seeing the artists and pieces that really called to her. She had changed to this major because her internship in Harlem sparked a light in her, but when it was time to continue her education there was no spark. A quote from the memoir states, "As time went on, I also realized that I didn't get many opportunities to learn about the artists and movements that got me interested in art in the first place. There have been Black people since the beginning of time, but I was not seeing any of their art in any of my classes. How would I find more artists like Basquiat, Hancock, Simpson, or Ligon?" She is rightfully frustrated and upset that Black artists aren’t being taught about in her classes, and she decides to take matters into her own hands to teach herself and others. This is the beginning of her activist journey and she’s confident enough to be the change she wants to see.
Connecting Kimberly Drew’s story to the art exhibition Artistas de Latinoamérica Sueños y Posibilidades (Latin American Artists: Dreams and Possibilities), they are the same in the way they choose to represent their artists. Drew’s tumblr blog only features pieces by Black artists, and she continues that in her art curator profession as she only curates pieces from Black artists. The exhibition: Artistas de Latinoamérica Sueños y Posibilidades (Latin American Artists: Dreams and Possibilities) only showcases Latin American Artists. It’s curating a space directly for them and allowing them to use their voice. Art and activism connect in the sense that anyone can do art, but what they choose to put on the piece or where they put it is what truly makes it activism. We can absolutely describe the art curators of the exhibition as activists. They are addressing the issues of discrimination of Latin American Artists by creating a space for their work to be showcased, and only showcasing work by them. They are utilizing their resources to create something for a specific group of people that breaks societal standards, and that is activism.
Undocumented/ Documented by Natali Bravo-Barbee is a series of black and white framed photographs of passports that showcase the resilience and aspirations of those who went through trials and tribulations in hope for a better future. Each passport is personal, real and candid. It showcases the power that bureaucracy holds over individual people’s lives and how that affects them and their history. This art piece discusses various topics of immigration and belonging and personal identity and how that connects to government identifications. This work is activist in the sense how powerful it is to show immigration passports, as that is extremely important. The message of basing someone’s value off of a simple piece of paper is something that has been talked about for ages, and directly relates to activism.
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| Written excerpt about Natali Bravo-Barbee's Undocumented/Documented |
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| Natali Bravo-Barbee's Undocumented/Documented |
The Secrets of Medicine by Tenjin Ikeda is a 40 x 26 inch, black, red and green, multi-block linocut print that discusses the topic of humble beginnings and having to live off what the land has to offer. This piece can be seen as a message of poverty as it takes place in Rio Grande and Santurce and Ikeda specifically calls the home “the wooden shacks.” The print is powerful as the person to the right seems to be like a tree, almost growing and moving on outside of this house that they started in, but there are two more people in the shack that can’t escape. They are trapped in the endless cycle while the person can move on, and maybe that was intentional. They gave this person a better uprising than they had so that they would be able to do something different. The use of medicine helped to keep Ikeda safe and well, as their parents lived off the land.
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| Tenjin Ikeda's The Secrets of Medicine |
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| Written excerpt about Tenjin Ikeda's The Secrets of Medicine |
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