We mourn, we grieve
The Out of Site community of artists condemn the violence that continues to impact black & brown, latino, asian, marginalized and gendered bodies in public space. We are horrified by the recent police murders of Adam Toledo, Anthony Alverez and Travon Chadwell in our City of Chicago. As a community of artists we are deeply concerned by the perpetual cycles of violence that continues to impact our daily lives. The militarization of Chicago Police Department contributes to this perpetuating cycle of violence that inhabits our school system to our city streets. Working in an ongoing commitment to building peace in public space we are angry at the lack of respect for human dignity, the human right to live a self-determined life, and to walk freely down a city street. How can we manifest an existence of liberty and freedom in the City of Chicago? How can we live without fear and threat of violence towards our bodies as we walk down our city streets?
As we consider the context in which we live and reflect on what it means to ‘being in place’ how do we respond to these entrenched systems of violence that traumatize our communities, our loved ones and our families? In my frustration I cleaned my house, this act seems so futile in the face a child’s life being removed from this earth in such a barbaric act of violence. In conversation with one of the speakers for this conference I became aware of the different positions of privilege when it comes to living a life without fear of violence. In the context of Chicago, one is not devoid of the extremities of violence and trauma that impact our lives - it is a daily reality we are living and working in.
In these moments I always turn to reading and picked up an essay by W.E. B. Du Bois titled The Nature of Intellectual Freedom:
“Here inflexible law merges with wish and will, and freedom is an indeterminate variable. Here men may restrain action in order to protect and guide ignorance and inexperience toward using freedom aright. It is in this borderland that more often too many men seek artificially to restrain such freedom as emerges for selfish and short-sighted aims. They choose ignorance, for fear too many will know; give the masses too little, so that a few may have too much; prefer hate to love, lest power change hands and prestige wane. They forget that it is the wide reaches of more complete freedoms that can ultimately best teach and guide our twilight ignorance amid the inescapable iron of law. The borderland where freedom chokes today may easily, as freedom grows, fade into its more complete realm.
Two barriers and two alone hem us in and hurl us back today: One, the persistent relic of ancient barbarism - war: organized murder, maiming, destruction and insanity. The other, the world-old habit of refusing to think ourselves, or to listen to those who do think. Against this ignorance and intolerance we protest forever. But we do not merely protest, we make renewed demand for freedom in that vast kingdom of the human spirit where freedom has ever had the right to dwell: the expressing of thought to unstuffed ears: the dreaming of dreams by untwisted souls.” [p.260]
As I reflect on the continued assault of individual freedom I ask myself, how can we be a force for peace? How can we end this cycle of violence and detrimental harm? I am moved to consider how can we change the systems that fail in their purpose to ‘serve, protect and care’. (The slogan on police cars in Chicago). As an organization we continue to stand for justice in public space where individual freedoms are respected and acknowledged as a human right. We stand for the human right to walk down a street without fear and threat of violence against our bodies. We stand for the right of every child to live a self-determined life. At this upcoming symposium we wish to create a space to reflect on public space and recognize this conversation is intersectional and has many grey areas and borderlands from which individuals speak. How can we create spaces to have these intersectional conversations without it becoming a polarized debate? We invite you to a space of listening where multiple voices and concerns are heard.
