This is What Activism Looks Like
The marches and protests that brought in the new year were the first indicators that 2017 would be full of political discourse and civil unrest. And, as the arts have always mirrored the world’s events, artistic expression is at a vigorous high. That’s especially true for artists in Baltimore, who have borne witness to the death of Freddie Gray and the city’s accelerating murder rate. To usher in the arts season, we take a look at some of the key figures who are shaping both arts and activism in the city.
Shan Wallace chose a block on the edge of two worlds to display her work. To the north of the 400 block of Park Avenue you have what some would deem progress—luxury apartments on the rise and the bustling Mount Vernon Marketplace food hall. To the south, boarded up buildings and smashed windows stand out like busted teeth. “I’m tired of looking at this shit,” the photographer and activist says, eyeing spray paint-tagged boards screwed over a bay window, underneath a sunblasted sign that still reads “Jimmy’s Chinese Food.” “Why does this have to look like this? So I decided I’d put some art up.”
Wallace, an East Baltimore native, has made a name for herself internationally by taking photographs that challenge the narrative of what it means to be black. There are depictions of a young father feeding a bottle to his tiny baby and protestors in powerful, open-mouthed stances at a march. It’s large prints of these photos, and others, that Wallace coats with wallpaper glue and affixes to vacant buildings on this spring day, the thud of a staple gun sealing her act of resistance. “I’m not even really supposed to be doing this, but who cares?” she says. “I just want people to embrace the community. And if you feel like you don’t love yourself, or like you hate your skin color, I want you to see my work and know people are standing with you.”
Wallace didn’t think twice about her action. It was innate—in her blood, so to speak. And that makes sense, because as an artist in Baltimore, she is following a lineage of artists who have similarly taken stands against social injustice, poverty, and civil inequalities in a city where these struggles are a part of daily life.
“We’re a highly challenged city,” says Baltimore artist and native Joyce Scott, one of last year’s recipients of a $625,000 MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant. “Our situation is just thrown in our face, and it feels like the whole world sees us as downtrodden and violent. And a very human response to this is an artistic one.”