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Brittany Ferrell & Alexis Templeton
“This is definitely a revolution, and I don’t think people get how serious this is. We are not stopping anytime soon. Time and time again, after the teargas, after the rubber bullets, after the Tasers, after the mace, people still keep showing up because we understand reform is not good enough. We have to overthrow and dismantle this system with the powers that be right now and in order for that to happen we have to keep pushing and pushing and holding a mirror up to America.
The young people leading this movement, they know it’s a revolution, they know that it’s going to be a marathon, not a sprint, and that’s the beauty of it. You have people that have dedicated their lives, they quit everything else they were doing to do this work because they know what they’re up against.”
What do you say to people who are afraid of what they see on TV with the protests?
“Fear should not lie on the side of justice. When they see what is happening on TV and are fearful, we are living it, and we are fearful of the people who are supposed to protect and serve us. We are fearful of the people that are in office and are supposed to create policy and push legislature in favor of the people.”
Brittany Ferrell & Alexis Templeton are co-founders of Millennial Activists United, whose mission is to build powers and leadership to create sustainable communities.
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Dacia and her son, Tristan
"To be a mom during this time it evokes different feelings. As parents, we naturally worry, but we’re worrying about surface things. Now we have to worry if our kids can play outside.
Being a part of what’s going on, protesting, demonstrations, die ins, sit ins, boycotts, that affects the entire family.”
Dacia Polk is an active protestor and went to Ferguson hours after the shooting to spread awareness .
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Marcellus Buckley / Marcellus Da Poet with friends in Canfield Green Apartments, Michael Brown's old home.
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Dacia Polk
“Death in the black community is something that is not talked about it in a way where it’s an open discussion. It’s either the person that’s closest to them talks about it with the immediate family, who talks about it with the homeboys—the home boys are the actual family due to the issues in black families, it just kind of leaves you with your friends being your closest family more so than your actual blood family.
I thought it was interesting how his cousins, and his best friends, some guys he was rapping with, and his mom—everybody was out there talking about how crazy it was that it happened, the dialogue has remained open. Here, months later and were still talking about it. It was unfortunate that this has to happen for the dialogue to be opened up but what better way for the healing process to occur.
To be a mom during this time it evokes different feelings. As parents, we naturally worry, but we’re worrying about surface things. Now we have to worry if our kids can play outside.
Being a part of what’s going on, protesting, demonstrations, die ins, sit ins, boycotts, that affects the entire family.”
Dacia Polk is an active protestor and went to Ferguson hours after the shooting to spread awareness
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Farrakhan Shegog proudly stands next to his inspiration: a sculpture of Dred and Harriet Scott in front of the Old Courthouse.
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Mike Kinman in front of the Ferguson Police Station.
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Darrick Smith in front of the Workhouse, where he was wrongfully incarcerated and suffered at the hands of prison guards.
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Elizabeth Vega with Pignata
"On August 9th while at the Ferguson Police department, I encountered a three-year-old boy. He looked shocked and overwhelmed. A child lost in a crowd chanting for justice. I got on my knees and asked: "Are you ok baby?" With tears in his eyes this child said "They shot Mike Mike and I saw him dead in the street." I took his hand and we made a protest sign. He immediately put his hands in the hands up position. I traced them on poster board. I helped his sister spell out JUSTICE. As an artist and counseling student I knew children who witnessed these events were struggling.
In that moment Art in Canfield was born. We took art supplies to Canfield a few days later. Over the course of a month and with a team of committed volunteers, a huge story wall was created by both children and adults.
It is a patchwork of expression -- anger, grief and a tenacious hope. Childrens's stories shared over glitter glue, crayons and construction paper moved me to tears.
The tween boys who made buttons because their school didn't want them to talk about what was going on in their neighborhood.
The little girl who wrote her murdered uncle's name on numerous strips ribbon as she shared stories about him that made her mother sad.
The little girl who made a button that read "I don't trust the police." When I pointed out not all police are bad, she asked "Yeah, but how will I know the difference?" I had no answer for her and my silence in that moment planted me in this movement."
-Vega
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Marcellus Buckley / Marcellus Da Poet in Spanish Lake, a previous site where the Spanish kept African American slaves.
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Mallory Nezam, creator of Chalk #UNARMED
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Alexis Templeton
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Heather de Mian, a passionate livestreamer in the movement.
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Heather de Mian, a passionate livestreamer in the movement.
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Pastor Traci Blackmon in her pulpit.
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Alexis Templeton & Brttany embrace in their home
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Tef Poe / Kareem Jackson
"When I was a kid and I was thinking about listening to music, I always thought that it would be dope if the dude who had the #1 album in the country actually cared about the people who bought those albums, actually had a relationship with those people outside of just getting their money.
I always wondered why wasn't that the case. We grew up in a world where the musicians really weren't activists anymore.”
Do you think we will ever see each other as equal?
“No. And the reality of the situation is that this conversation is too forward for most people to have. According to the system in the way that society is set up, we’re not all equal. Being considered all equal in this type of social structure is a unicorn. It's the idea that you're supposed to hope and believe and trust to acquire. But nothing in the fabric in the way that society is designed is equal. There's no way this society can have people operate on an equal basis.”
Tef Poe is a rapper and agent for social change. Born and raised in St. Louis, Tef actively organizes and fights for human rights with groups such as Amnesty International, Hands Up United, Organization for Black Struggle, and Justice For Reggie.
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Site of the Shooting
Ferguson, September 2014
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Maria Chappelle-Nadal
"Everyone has a role in this movement. For 15 years, I've worked in state government and have been a victim of institutional racism and have said nothing. It was my heart that led me on the streets, and now I have to do the job I was elected to do. I have to be a legislator."
What is the importance of revolution?
“Part of revolution is to get people to understand what your position is, and have some type of sensitivity to your experiences--to get to a common ground and create change among others. If you’re too quiet or silent, there’s not going to be any kind of change. So to some degree, you need agitation. The protestors are out every single day. There are some situations where I disagree with them, but I know to affect change, they’re going to have to continue in this movement doing what they’re doing, just as I am going to have to continue what I’m doing in the legislature. For me change, is statutory. It’s about changing laws, so that everyone is treated equally. Because of the laws we have in place, people are not treated equally at all.
For years I have dealt with institutionalized racism and I never said anything because I knew how I would be confronted or how I would be marginalized. I do not want my experiences to happen to these young people.”
Maria Chappelle-Nadal is state senator from University City, Missouri, and is one of the first people on the streets after the shooting of Michael Brown.
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Lola Zasaretti
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Jonathon Pulphus
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Rabbi Susan Talve
“Revolution is the action that brings about transformation. Revolution is the possibility of change, the possibility that things don’t have to be business as usual. Revolution means there’s more than 1 person that wants change; revolution means there’s a groundswell of people, grassroots movements, more than one, because revolution takes everyone.
The violence isn’t just police brutality. The violence is the education system that allows for segregation. The violence is in the health care system that creates disparities between zip codes that are next to each other. The violence is, of course, in institutionalized racism and oppression we find in our police culture. When you have militarized policing, you’re asking for trouble, then it is us against them.
The problem is that white people forget privilege. We don’t get it. We have to really be opened to that. All these dismantling racism programs, is to help white people see it’s different when you’re white in this country, and that’s not ok. We need to be more than allies, we need to be advocates. We need to be advocates. Because it’s going to kill everybody in America.
What we need is a new narrative. We need a narrative that helps everyone see they are part of the problem and can be part of the solution.”
Rabbi Susan Talve, who leads Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis, is one of the many clergy that has been helping lead and participates in movements in Ferguson and St. Louis.
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Reverend Starsky Wilson
What do you think your role in this movement is?
Someone asked me sometime ago what my movement superpower was. I’ll tell you the same thing. So I think my role in this movement is to be a shapeshifter. That’s my movement superpower. To be able to work in different spaces with integrity. To be able to speak with young people at the street at night. To be able to walk with, translate, and agitate within appropriate circles of policy makers. To be able to call the church to its work. And finally to invite philanthropy to support the movement of organizing advocacy. I’ve got several different places here, wearing different hats, so ultimately I’m Shapeshifting.
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Maria Chappelle-Nadal
"Everyone has a role in this movement. For 15 years, I've worked in state government and have been a victim of institutional racism and have said nothing. It was my heart that led me on the streets, and now I have to do the job I was elected to do. I have to be a legislator."
What is the importance of revolution?
“Part of revolution is to get people to understand what your position is, and have some type of sensitivity to your experiences--to get to a common ground and create change among others. If you’re too quiet or silent, there’s not going to be any kind of change. So to some degree, you need agitation. The protestors are out every single day. There are some situations where I disagree with them, but I know to affect change, they’re going to have to continue in this movement doing what they’re doing, just as I am going to have to continue what I’m doing in the legislature. For me change, is statutory. It’s about changing laws, so that everyone is treated equally. Because of the laws we have in place, people are not treated equally at all.
For years I have dealt with institutionalized racism and I never said anything because I knew how I would be confronted or how I would be marginalized. I do not want my experiences to happen to these young people.”
Maria Chappelle-Nadal is state senator from University City, Missouri, and is one of the first people on the streets after the shooting of Michael Brown.
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Rabbi Susan Talve
“Revolution is the action that brings about transformation. Revolution is the possibility of change, the possibility that things don’t have to be business as usual. Revolution means there’s more than 1 person that wants change; revolution means there’s a groundswell of people, grassroots movements, more than one, because revolution takes everyone.
The violence isn’t just police brutality. The violence is the education system that allows for segregation. The violence is in the health care system that creates disparities between zip codes that are next to each other. The violence is, of course, in institutionalized racism and oppression we find in our police culture. When you have militarized policing, you’re asking for trouble, then it is us against them.
The problem is that white people forget privilege. We don’t get it. We have to really be opened to that. All these dismantling racism programs, is to help white people see it’s different when you’re white in this country, and that’s not ok. We need to be more than allies, we need to be advocates. We need to be advocates. Because it’s going to kill everybody in America.
What we need is a new narrative. We need a narrative that helps everyone see they are part of the problem and can be part of the solution.”
Rabbi Susan Talve, who leads Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis, is one of the many clergy that has been helping lead and participates in movements in Ferguson and St. Louis.
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Osagyefo Sekou
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Ka’milla McMiller
“I feel that being a black trans woman, there’s a lot of white people who don’t see me because I’m black. There’s also a lot of cis people who don’t see me because I’m trans. I had to leave school because I was getting harassed. I had girls calling me a man, things thrown at me. I got into a fight because a girl was calling me a man for so long and I kept telling the administration about it and they weren’t doing anything. So I thought it’d be best to take matters into my own hands. Even with me thinking about school and how I had to choose my safety over my education, and also feeling the amount of shame and guilt that comes from that.
The biggest thing I want people to know is just to listen. I would describe listening as trying to truly understand what we’re saying instead of letting it go in one ear and out the other.”
-Ka’milla McMiller is one of the leaders of "The Sisterhood”- an organization that is made up of and led by young trans women of color to develop leadership and build power to create change.
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Jamala Rogers with her book, Ferguson is America: Roots of Rebellion.
Jamala Rogers came of political and cultural age during the tumultuous 60’s and became active in the black student movement. Jamala has held and currently holds leadership and membership in several organizations that share her vision for a more just and peaceful world. Jamala has challenged the criminal industrial complex for decades focusing on police violence, prison reform, wrongful convictions and the death penalty. She is associated with the exonerations of several Missouri men and women including Ellen Reasonover, Joseph Amrine and Darryl Burton. Currently, she is the coordinator for the Justice for Reggie Clemons Campaign; an inmate on Missouri’s Death Row who many believe has been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death. Her latest book is Ferguson is America: Roots of Rebellion.
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Darian Wigfall
What role do you think artivism plays?
“When Cornel West was here, he was saying that artists are the vanguard of a new movement. People that create art usually see something that’s not there and want to create with just their art. Art is crucial, especially music. I think of the Black Panther posters and how stark they were of a strong black cat crawling, the movement in that image is very powerful.”
Darian is a poet and artivist.
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Bishop Derrick Robinson
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Sandra Tamari
“In August of 2014, a group of Palestinians and Palestinian solidarity activists went to Ferguson to show solidarity. We didn’t really know what to expect. Everything had been so chaotic and there was a lot of tension because there had been disruptions happening at night, and the police were crazy already.
But what we experienced was this amazing outpouring of love. People were coming up to us, giving us hugs, and there was just this disbelief among people in that community that anyone who wasn’t black and didn’t live there cared.
We were always greeted with great love and there was this recognition that there were connections right from the start. Very early on Palestinians and Palestine were tweeting at Ferguson activists telling them how to deal with tear gas, telling them “this is how the police deal with us,” telling them “be careful” and “this is that you should do”. [Things like] don’t rub your eyes when the tear gas hits – those messages were very organic. We were just showing up and if you wore a keffiyeh or had a Palestinian flag then they were automatically like “Thank you. Thank you for being here, thanks for those tweets.” And it’s grown tremendously since then.”
Sandra Tamari is a Palestinian American organizer. She is a member of the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee and co-chair of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.
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Darrick Smith
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Angel Carter
“Black healing is a daily necessity because Black Oppression occurs daily. Because we endure this every day.
In this movement, everyone has their roles with what they focus on. I have been focusing a lot on self-care, trauma, and mental health. Because when you get people teargasing you, pointing guns at your head, that doesn’t have the best effect on your mental state. “
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De Nichols
"I have a 12-year-old brother, Michael. He only wants to be Michael Jackson, but our world will make him Michael Brown. This is an issue that has been occurring regularly in our nation, and it took Brown’s death to make everyone go over the tipping point. In the future, we shouldn't have to wait for something to happen to have our measures, our strategies, our tactics in place to prevent it. Protesting isn't for everyone, but everyone can do something."
De Nichols helps creative changemakers bring their ideas to life. In addition to serving the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, she is also creator of Design Serves (D*Serve), a current Clinton Global Initiative project that teaches design skills and civic engagement to K-12 youth and helps them identify and actualize social change ideas in their neighborhoods.
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De Nichols
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KB Frazier
“I was ANGRY when I first heard the news about Michael Brown. Thoughts of all the other young Black males who have been shot down or strangled by the police went through my head. How could this happen again? Why is it that our children’s lives seem to be of no value to those who are supposed to protect and serve our communities? I stayed angry for a while.
I was FRUSTRATED about what to do. I thought about our collective consciousness of violence. I thought about the way in which I have been violent with my speech and actions with my loved ones, coworkers, friends and neighbors.
I was DISGUSTED with how others and I were treated at the protest gatherings. Even with my cowboy boots, my 5’3″ stature was nothing compared to standing face to face with someone in full riot gear shooting tear gas just because I was there. Not because I did anything wrong, just because I was breathing the same air.
But when it is all said and done, I’m HOPEFUL. I have protested, marched, passed out food and picked up trash with my people on the street. We ARE the beloved community that Dr. King talked about, but we have forgotten.
In the days, weeks, months and years ahead, we have a lot of work to do to ensure healing from this disease of racism. But this is an internal work. Fixing the problem as I see it is an inside job. I’m ready for a revolution and it starts with me.”
KB Frazier always brings his drum to protests and sings leading others in chants. KB helps lead worship at a synagogue in Saint Louis and a spiritual center in Belleville, IL.
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Ferguson, September 2015
Public Story
Fragments of Ferguson
Credits:
sara swaty
Updated: 05/31/20
Fragments of Ferguson
A series of individual stories told in pictures and words, exploring the real lives behind the public conversation surrounding the death of Michael Brown, Fragments of Ferguson exists to advance both personal and societal understanding of the volatile conversation about race and ethnicity underway in cities all across the country. Perhaps no story is more emblematic of this moment than that of Ferguson, Missouri. As a St. Louis native now living in Los Angeles, Swaty is positioned as the ultimate Insider/Outsider -- one whose perspective includes both the macro and microcosmic experience of the time and place where the story unfolds. “I feel like a St. Louis artist,” she says. “My heart lives there.”
The shooting of Michael Brown on August 9, 2014 inspired a sustained national civil rights and social justice movement -- starting with #blacklivesmatter and then subsequently #handsupdontshoot, #icantbreathe, and #sayhername, the movement that started in Ferguson turned outrage and resistance to oppression into a political rallying cry.
Fragments of Ferguson recognizes the community of passionate and dedicated individuals who refused to be silent in the face of injustice -- beyond the homicide and humiliation, but the subsequent lack of criminal accountability for Officer Darren Wilson. It takes communities from all walks of life to make change -- activists on the streets and on social media, politicians, lawyers, artists, clergy, writers, musicians, and many more. People young and old are combining forces in the streets, courts, and online. No one can fight injustice alone. We all need allies.
Making big, broad ideas more accessible through the unique combination of visual art and the written word, Swaty’s documentary structure combines fine art portraiture with a set of questions whose answers become the captions, pairing moving artistic portraits with perspectives told in their own voices.