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non-Black friends — if this summer and year has opened your eyes to the on-going histories of state-sponsored anti-Black violence, I encourage you to continue to dig deeper into how what you’ve learned might be reflected in your artistic practice.
Seek out the voices of Black people who have been living and sharing their analysis and art with us for decades. Many of us process our feelings through art, but part of that processing must be critical in how we speak to visceral experiences that we have not lived.
It’s our responsibility to build mechanisms that recognize and reflect on the entitlement of NBPOC & white artists to Black experiences, vernacular, and culture. This is particularly true of contemporary classical spaces, where white-dominated institutions are giving newer and-
bigger platforms to speak around social and racial injustice.
We must question and analyze the impact of non-Black folks incorporating anti-Blackness as a feature of their work — it’s an invocation, and often appropriation, of Black trauma.
We must question and analyze the impact of non-Black folks incorporating anti-Blackness as a feature of their work — it’s an invocation, and often appropriation, of Black trauma.
Ask yourself ‘why’ when you choose to invoke the names and final words of the murdered and the deep histories of racial violence in this country — do you have the tools and/or experiences to speak on these topics?
Is anti-racism new to you and are you committed to listening and accountability? Do you know when to speak and when to step back and facilitate space for others’ voices? These are a few of the preliminary and absolutely necessary questions you need to ask and bring with you into-
solidarity-focused artmaking.
There is an urge to be making art on this subject, speaking on it, avoiding complicity through silence! But you do not need to be making art about racial violence in order to speak on it.
There is an urge to be making art on this subject, speaking on it, avoiding complicity through silence! But you do not need to be making art about racial violence in order to speak on it.
You should, however, consider using any platform afforded to you by your art to bring anti-racism into the room and conversation. This is not meant as an admonishment, rather the start of a wider dialogue and more thoughtful practices as we continue to work towards liberation.
further reading: Taylor Renee Aldridge published this [ https://www.artnews.com/artnews/news/black-bodies-white-cubes-the-problem-with-contemporary-arts-appropriation-of-race-6648/] article in 2016 confronting the visual art world.
Ryan Norville published this in August 2020 inquiring into the ways current efforts towards social change and action can affect the exclusivity of the art world: https://www.lofficielusa.com/art/now-what-life-post-protest-amplifying-black-art
This article from July 2020 showcases 9 Black voices speaking directly to experiences and advice for the classical music world: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/arts/music/black-classical-music-opera.html
Angela Pelster-Wiebe in 2018 speaks as a white artist approaching anti-racism and pitfalls of white perspectives writing on Black & brown trauma: https://lithub.com/white-artists-need-to-start-addressing-white-supremacy-in-their-work/
