Black Lives Matter Resources
This is intended as a wide-ranging (yet in no way exhaustive) list of resources. It includes general resources about anti-racism, white supremacy, and racism towards Black people (in the context of the US, UK, and elsewhere). In the context of art history – a discipline founded in white, male hegemonic academic structures, and which has historically privileged the art types that support that dominance – we list here sources that interrogate the hierarchical structures in our discipline, and include Black artists and Black art history. Our list also does not ignore the ways in which racism and in Aotearoa, white supremacy and colonial legacies, including in policing, has impacted tangata whenua, Pasifika peoples, and Black New Zealanders.
We include wide-ranging resources to promote accessibility – an invitation to read, watch, listen, and learn.
Black Lives Matter.
(Suggestions for more sources, or any feedback, can be sent to president@arthistorysociety.org)
Online Articles, Websites and Webpages
The US has a big racism problem and the art world is not helping: The Art Newspaper. Image source: The Art Newspaper.
Monuments across the US are toppled, damaged as protests over George Floyd's death continue: The Art Newspaper. Image source: The Art Newspaper.
Mike Cloud invents a new kind of portrait painting: ARTnews. Image source: ARTnews.
Black Bodies, White Cubes: The Problem with Contemporary Art's Appropriation of Race: ARTnews. Image source: ARTnews.
The art world's engagement with #BlackoutTuesday came under fire from critics and activists: Artsy. Image source: Artsy.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture launched a portal to facilitate conversations about race: Artsy. Image source: Artsy.
Interview - Lorna Simpson: The Guardian. Image source: The Guardian.
Black Lives Matter: How you can support the movement from New Zealand: Stuff. Image source: Stuff
Moana Jackson: Understanding racism in this country: e-tangata. Image source: e-tangata.
Renée Cox: A Taste of Power: Aperture.org. Image source: Aperture.org
Understanding white privilege: 20 everyday examples: Harpers Bazaar. Image source: Harpers Bazaar.
21 Essential Anti-Racist Books to Unpack Your White Privilege: The Helm Co. Image source: The Helm Co.
Major U.S. Museums Criticized for Responses to Ongoing George Floyd Protests: Artnews. Image source: Artnews.
Confederate Monuments Are Coming Down Across the United States. Here’s a List: NY Times. Image source: NY Times.
The Tailwind of Privilege, by Mary Breheny. Image source: Getty
The whakapapa of police violence, by Emelie Rākete. Image source: Jihee Junn for Spinoff
Why Are Black Women and Girls Still an Afterthought in Our Outrage Over Police Violence? By Brittney Cooper. Image source: Brandon Scott
Rediscovering the Black Muses Erased from Art History, by Tess Thackera. Image: Frédéric Bazille, Young Woman with Peonies, 1870. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Museums Have a Docent Problem – Inside the struggle to train a mostly white, unpaid tour guide corps to talk about race. Image source: John Kennard. Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, and Seoul. Slate.com
A whakapapa approach to history. By Kennedy Warne with Dame Anne Salmond. Image source: E-Tangata
Books/Articles:
Stamped from the Beginning, and How to be an Antiracist – Ibram X. Kendi
White Fragility – Robin Diangelo
How to Argue With a Racist – Adam Rutherford
Himid, Lubaina. The Thin Black Line. London: ICA, 1985.
Black and British: A Forgotten History – David Olusoga
White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue ... and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation – Lauren Michele Jackson
Decolonizing Methodologies – Linda Tuhiwai Smith
Art-specific Books:
Hassan, Salah M., ed. Gendered Visions: The Art of Contemporary Africana Women Artists. Trenton, NJ: Africa World, 1997. –– The collection includes the benchmark essay by art historian Freida High W. Tesfagiorgis, “In Search of a Discourse and Critique/s that Center the Art of Black Women Artists,” that is a major intervention in African American gender studies in art history.
Nelson, Charmaine A. Representing the Black Female Subject in Western Art. New York: Routledge, 2010.
Pinder, Kymberly N., ed. Race-ing Art History: Critical Readings in Race and Art History. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Sulter, Maud, ed. Passion: Discourses on Blackwomen’s Creativity. Hebden Bridge, UK: Urban Fox Press, 1990.
Zabunyan, Elvan. Black Is a Color: A History of African American Art. Translated by Paul Buck and Catherine Petit. Paris: Editions Dis Voir, 2005.
Tesfagiorgis, Freida High W. “Interweaving Black Feminism and Art History: Framing Nigeria.” In Contemporary Textures: Multidimensionality in Nigerian Art. Edited by Nkiru Nzegwu. Binghampton, NY: International Society for the Study of Africa, Binghampton University, 1999.
Specific to Aotearoa:
Anti-racism : Treaty of Waitangi. Published by Broadsheet, 1991
Maori Sovereignty – Donna Awatere, published by Broadsheet
Colonising myths - Maori realities: He rukuruku whakaaro – Ani Mikaere
Uncommodified Blackness: The African Male Experience in Australia and New Zealand – Mandisi Majavu
African youth experiences with the Police and the New Zealand justice system
Māori sovereignty, Black Feminism, and the New Zealand Trade Union Movement by Cybéle Locke - book chapter in ‘Indigenous Women and Work: From Labor to Activism’ edited by Carol Williams 2012.
The Black Pacific: Anti-Colonial Struggles and Oceanic Connections – Robbie Shilliam.
Films/TV/Videos:
13th and mini-series When They See Us– dir. Ava Duvernay
The Color of Fear – dir. Lee Mun Wah
Dear White People – tv series created by Justin Simien
Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People – dir.Thomas Allen Harris
Black Is the Color: A History of African American Art – dir. Jacques Goldstein
'Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat' – dir. Sara Driver
Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen – dir. Heperi Mita
Patu!, Bastion Point:Day 507, Mauri – all directed by Merata Mita
Webinars from the 2020 Conference: Te Tiriti-based Futures and anti-racism
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=277891210247710 – Te Ao with Moana: Two NZers with African Whakapapa discuss what it means to be Black in NZ
Radio/Podcasts:
Intersectionality Matters! Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw – from The African American Policy Forum
Code Switch – from NPR
Still Processing – Hosted by two Black, queer culture writers from The New York Times, Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris,
1619 – Hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones, from The New York Times
Arts-specific podcasts/conversations:
Art Beat - Black Artists Connected
Other things you can do/read:
Sign Petitions:
End Institutional Racism in Aotearoa
Organisations:
Black Visions Collective – “Black Visions Collective (BLVC) believes in a future where all Black people have autonomy, safety is community-led, and we are in right relationship within our ecosystems.”
People Against Prisons Aotearoa – “People Against Prisons Aotearoa (PAPA) is a prison abolitionist organisation working for a fairer, safer, and more just Aotearoa.”
PARS – “PARS Inc is a charitable organisation that has been operating for more than 100 years and whose sole focus is on supporting prisoners and their whānau.”
Organise Aotearoa – “We’re a collective of workers, renters, students, unionists, and political organisers who are building a movement for liberation and socialism.”
Third Culture Minds – “We seek to build a culture in Aotearoa New Zealand whereby ethnic youth of migrant and refugee backgrounds are able to unlock their full potential, and improve their mental health and wellbeing , supported by culturally responsive and accessible services, platforms, tools and resources, which provide the same excellent quality of services regardless of their ethnicity, race or origin.”
Donate:
George Floyd Memorial Fund
"Zoe Amara, a young black YouTuber, has set a way for you to donate to Black Lives Matter through ad revenue, wherever in the world you live. Just play the video she’s created and 100 per cent of the advertising revenue will go to bail funds. Make sure you disable any ad blockers, have your volume turned up (plug in headphones if you want to have it in the background), watch to the end and don’t skip the ads.”
Instas, Tumblrs, Blogs to follow:
instas: @ablackhistoryofart, @blackartistspace, @changethemuseum
tumblr: @medievalpoc
websites/blogs: https://www.brownartink.com/ , https://incluseum.com/
Other resource lists:
Here are other lists of resources where we found some of our sources, and which have others to check out:
https://tinyurl.com/antiracistresourceguide
https://www.tatoutatou.org/resource-library/antiblackracism
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/12AeFth1n2ShZwG_RfvUqeJ9hB9jpG2ekFhRAp40WgPM/htmlview
BIPOC people are disproportionately impacted by mental illness. This is a result of systemic issues such as intergenerational trauma (linking to the legacies of enslavement, segregation, and colonisation), the issues in the above resources such as police brutality, and inequitable access to mental health services causing poor health outcomes. Here are some resources:
https://www.sunshinebehavioralhealth.com
https://www.leva.co.nz/our-work/mental-health/
Why Is New Zealand’s Mental Health System Failing Māori and Pacific Communities? – Vice
“Black Lives have always mattered...We don’t leave here and stop, you know, we don’t leave here and stop. This is longevity. Some of you are artists, some of you are bankers, some of you are lawyers, some of you own shops/stores. You are important. Your individual power, your individual right is very, very important. We can all join together to make this a better world.”