Over a nearly three decade period from 1980 to 2008,
U.S. incarceration rates have accelerated
from an estimated 500,000 to 2.3 million people. Disproportionately,
African-Americans and Latinos totaled 58% of all prisoners in 2008,
despite only representing one quarter of the U.S. population. So what
does this have to with the world of visual art? If you're Dread Scott it
has everything to do with art and what he believes is its
responsibility to be a catalyst for change.
Wanted Mock Police Sketch/Courtesy: Dread Scott
Scott a longtime political artist--perhaps most famously known for his controversial 1989 work
What is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag?
--has collaborated with the organization No Longer Empty for a project
addressing mass incarceration and the criminalization of youth titled,
Wanted.
The multilayered project includes a series of mock police sketches
created in and posted throughout Harlem depicting youth wanted for
innocuous non-illegal behavior. This act of subversion is meant to call
into question society's negative perceptions of youth of color that
often leads to increased police harassment, arrests and death as
evidenced by recent high-profile tragic cases such as the killing of
Michael Brown. [
Full disclosure: writer served as creative director of No Longer Empty's programming].
Check out images from the project and highlights from our conversation
with Scott about the intersection of art, politics and revolution.
On the politics of mass incarceration:
"America is a country that was founded on slavery and genocide. But the
war on drugs policies started by [Ronald] Reagan and presided over by
all presidents, including [Bill] Clinton and [Barack] Obama have served
to quadruple the prison population since 1980 with most of those
prisoners being Black or Latino. The war on drugs systematically
targeted this population and has resulted in what Michelle Alexandar
appropriately labels
The New Jim Crow. And coupled with the
laws, police focus, prosecutorial proceedings, sentencing, and parole
control; there is a cultural rationalization and ideology that Reagan
put forward that was widely touted in the major media at the time that
depicted Black youth as unredeemable criminals and monsters.
Wanted poster/Courtesy: Dread Scott
This
continues to this day to the point where George Zimmerman can murder
Trayvon Martin and get away with murder or where Staten Island police
can choke Eric Garner to death, get caught on video and have no
indictment for three weeks and counting."
On art as a tool for change:
"We need a revolution and anything short of that is not going to end the
oppressive conditions people are confronted with. I'm not trying to
change laws and while I hope for broader media coverage, I don't
evaluate a project based on this. My work raises important questions
that are confronting humanity. I hope to create space for people to
think about these questions and in some cases think in new and deeper
ways about them. This contributes to a broader process of people
building a movement for revolution."
Passersby reads Wanted poster/Courtesy: Dread Scott
On feedback from the community:
"The youth really got what
Wanted is about and got what this
was about right away. They saw it as a way to be defiant about how they
are being treated. Some older folks were more hesitant and I believe
that this cautiousness is unfortunately too common amongst older people
who tend to overly focus on potential risks."
"Overall the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. When taking the
Wanted
project flyers to put up in barber shops, nail salons and bodegas
people were overwhelmingly receptive. We talked with people and many
shared stories of how the police had abused or harassed them or their
friends and often wanted copies of the flyers to have. I'm certain that
there will be some in the community who don't like this project, but I
have not heard that sentiment yet."
Wanted posters/Courtesy: Dread Scott
On the future of Wanted:
"Wanted is going to be increasingly visible in Harlem in the coming days. And right now people can
download
copies of the poster and expand its reach, including to new cities.
Beyond this, now that it is out in the world, I have to assess where
things are at with the project and see what else I want to focus on and
plot any next steps."
****
The weekly
column, On the "A" w/Souleo, covers the intersection of the arts,
culture entertainment and philanthropy in Harlem and beyond and is
written by Souleo, founder and president of event/media content
production company, Souleo Enterprises, LLC.
