Join us for another key event in our ‘Creativity’ month where we welcome Aaron Bryant, Curator of Photography, Visual Culture at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC, and Barby Asante, Artist, Curator, Doctoral Researcher and Healer in training. They will each present a short talk and then come together in conversation around the themes that emerge.
Aaron Bryant
On May 25 of last year, Minneapolis police officers detained George Floyd, after an employee at a convenience store called 911, alleging that Mr. Floyd purchased cigarettes with a counterfeit bill. Seventeen minutes after the first officers arrived, George Floyd was unconscious, and showing no signs of life. As reported by Minneapolis prosecutors, for 7 minutes and 46 seconds, Mr. Floyd suffocated. His neck and breathing were constricted by the knee of one of the arresting officers, and that moment changed the course of history. Through the use of visual culture, this discussion will position Black Lives Matter protests from summer of 2020 within a larger historical context.
Barby Asante
Barby Asante will reflect on some of her recent projects, including the development of the artist collective sorryyoufeeluncomfortable which was born out of her project Baldwin's Nigger Reloaded (2014-onward) and Declaration of Independence (2017- onwards), an iterative and collective writing performance project that brings together Black and Womxn of colour to reflect on how the personal is political through a performative forum designed to mirror the conference halls used to negotiate and produce treaties of independence, coalitions, trade deals, manifestos and policies. She will use her reflections to explore what it means to develop an artistic practice that is moving towards imagining liberation.
Book your place and find out more information.
Find out more about other events and news on our Black History Year blog.
