Chronicles | October 2020
ART
The U.S. Will Be Represented at the Venice Biennale by Simone Leigh
Simone Leigh is the first Black woman to represent the U.S. at the Venice Biennale, a prominent juried exhibition that was established in 1895. To be invited to showcase is an esteemed opportunity with the potential to also achieve awards.
In this article for the New York Times, you’ll find more about Leigh’s artwork and life. Quoted from the piece written by Hillarie M. Sheets:
“I feel like I’m a part of a larger group of artists and thinkers who have reached critical mass,” Ms Leigh, 52, said. “And despite the really horrific climate that we’ve reached, it still doesn’t distract me from the fact of how amazing it is to be a Black artist right now.” Continue reading here.
de Young Museum’s 125th Anniversary
The exhibition de Young Open is in celebration of the de Young Museum’s 125th anniversary. Over 700 artists local to the Bay Area are showing and will retain 100% of their sales. View here on the virtual web gallery for those of us that are not local.
FASHION
Crisis & Fashion Revolutions
I read an interesting opinion piece published by Business of Fashion titled, Could Crisis Re-Energise Fashion? It Happened in the 1970s. I found myself agreeing with most of its points because I’ve noticed that regardless if you’re someone is sticking to comfort, experimenting with what you have, using retail as therapy, or whoever, there is a change in how we’re dressing and it seems to be more freeing and creative.
The author Michael Coady suggests that COVID-19 could end fashion’s boring streak. He argues that a difference between the fashion revolution of the 1970s and the pre-pandemic is that brands are too occupied with giving consumers what they want rather than inspiring us. Now, consumers are creating more DIY projects, re-evaluating ourselves, and being more thoughtful about what brands we invest in.
PEOPLE
In Celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15th - October 15th
KERA featured various films this month centered on the influences and lives of Hispanic people which, can be accessed here. One of the films I watched that was especially inspiring was Dolores which, follows the life of Dolores Huerta.
In 1962 Huerta and César Chávez founded the labor union National Farm Workers Association later changed to United Farm Workers. In 2002 she resigned from the board of UFW shortly after Chavez’s death. Later that year, she was awarded the $100,000 Puffin Prize for Creative Citizenship. She chose to use it to fund the Dolores Huerta Foundation which, supports community organization.
Throughout her career, she has faced sexism and racism but, her heart for helping others has never stopped her, even after almost losing her life to police brutality at age 58. The Texas State Board of Education has even banned her name from being used in social studies. Politician Tom Horne once spitefully referred to her as Chavez’s girlfriend instead of co-founder and colleague. It took her a long time to demand the credit she deserves including for her famous catchphrase Sí, se puede! or Yes, we can!
The erasure of historical BIPOC figures such as Dolores Huerta is unjust so, I urge us all to continue to learn and lend support. You can stream Dolores if you’re a KERA member or rent from Amazon and YouTube.
In Celebration of National Coming Out Day, October 11th
Monica Roberts passed away at age 58 on October 5th. She was a prolific Houston-based human rights advocate and creator of the blog TransRiot which she described as, “A proud unapologetic Black trans woman speaking truth to power and discussing the world around her since 2006.”
Her work included remembering the trans lives that were lost to violence, advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, and much more.
She provided a space for recognizing the complexities and everyday moments of trans lives, beginning in a time where this was a rarity. From her blog’s beginning up to a month before her death she worked to represent her community and reported the facts. In one of her last post she showed her support for candidate Sarah McBride, who is looking to gain a seat in the Delaware Senate and is also a trans woman.
I admire her perseverance, when she began to transition in 1990 she was harassed for years until she decided to make activism and writing her career.
In Celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day, October 12th
Indigenous Peoples Day is a counter-celebration and rejection of honoring Christopher Columbus who represents violence, colonization, and a false narrative of America’s discovery. In observance, I chose to learn about the land of the Indigenous tribes I live on and support Indigenous businesses. I also highly recommend looking over this Indigenous People’s Day Toolkit created by Illuminatives.
Created by the Canadian non-profit Native Land Digital, this interactive map does its very best to provide the Indigenous territories in your city down to your street address. From my findings, it shows the tribe most prominent in Dallas, TX to be Kickapoo although, other sources state no specific tribe claimed the area. This Texas history is generally difficult to pinpoint due to the massive efforts by its officials between 1838 - 1841 to kill all Native Americans. To learn more about what we know of Indigenous People and Dallas, I’ll direct you to this article published by the Dallas Morning News.
To amplify BIPOC businesses, I have curated list of Indigenous-owned businesses to support as follows: