HANDS
Video:
Food insecurity in Newark
at least 30% of residents have to travel more than a mile for healthy and affordable food
The residents of the downtown South Ward area were in a food desert until the opening of ShopRite
The goal of this video project was to shed light on food insecurity in Newark by focusing on the people who provide. This video also aims to encourage viewers to participate in mutual aid and to humanize the homeless and those in my community struggling. Fixating on the hands forces viewers to pay attention to actions rather than who is performing them. It allows viewers to recognize intention and space. It forces the viewer to pay attention to any details they can about those shown in the video, what can you recognize? Are these the hands of an old man? a mother? a child? How well are they able to take care of themselves, and what resources might be available to them. America perpetuates an individualist society, economically we are forced to work to survive and we end up forgetting that at our roots is community. This video emphasizes that we are not so different. It stands as a reminder that all oppression and liberation are interconnected. As activists as humans while it is always important to extend ourselves our roots are in community and that change starts with impacting those around us and hoping that they reciprocate that change. Our fight is against capitalism, we are battling the war between classes. We are in the same boat, if you don't own you work for those who own and you suffer under their power. History has shown us time and time again that all oppression is connected! This is a systemic issue rooted in the white man's greed. None of us are free until all of us are free. Remember that our fight as activism is rooted in universal liberation.
*For this project, I participated in my local community soup kitchen at NIA Masjid & Community Center, which is held twice a month outside Newark Penn Station.
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