Centering Blackness: A World Re-imagined
Alicia Walters invites us to witness, honor and protect Black thought.
Last week I posted an image on Instagram of a beautiful public art project in the CHAZ (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone) area of Seattle. In the caption, I wrote, “The way we gather matters. Each letter has been done by a Black or indigenous artist.” In a comment, someone responded, “What’s wrong with letting a white or Latin or Asian artist do a letter?”
This week’s podcast explores the answer to that and other questions through the incredible work of a friend, activist, artist and fellow facilitator, Alicia Walters. I met Walters last year, well before Covid hit, when we were working on a facilitation project together. Over fajitas one night in Houston, she told me about an incredible project she had just launched called The Black Thought Project. Walters created a wall that invited Black people to write down their dreams for themselves and for their communities. And, invited non-Black people to come and participate but not by writing on the wall, but rather by witnessing, honoring, and protecting what was written on that wall.
In the midst of growing organized anti-racism demonstrations, calls to defund the police, increased pressure for criminal charges against the officers who killed Breonna Taylor, and people asking “What’s wrong with letting a white or Latin or Asian artist do a letter?,” I called up Alicia.
She couldn’t have imagined how deeply relevant her work has become, and, last week, amidst protests and a pandemic, she built a black wall again, and outside of her husband’s restaurant, Kingston 11, she asked Black people to dream:
What do you want for your precious black life?
What is safety to you?
And what would the world be like if black people were truly free?
And asked non-black people to again witness, honor and protect.
Take a listen to the 8th episode of Together Apart, Centering Blackness: A World Re-imagined.
