BREATHE
A platform for artistic expression
A portal for anti-racist education and action
Artwork by Tania Love Abramson. For more on this piece, click below to view the September Issue
THEN
On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner died after he was wrestled to the ground by a New York police officer on suspicion of illegally selling cigarettes. While in a choke hold, Mr Garner uttered the words "I can't breathe" 11 times. The incident - filmed by a bystander - led to protests across the country. The police officer involved was later fired, but was never prosecuted. (From BBC News)
NOW
On August 23, 2020, Jacob Blake, 29, was shot several times in the back as he entered a car where his three children were seated. His family said he has been left paralysed from the waist down - although doctors do not know if it is permanent. (From BBC News)
BREATHE - A platform for artistic expression and a portal for anti-racism* education and action.
POEMS
Mary Anna Kruch - Breathe
Mary Ellen Talley - Oh, Say Can You See
Keith Holyoak - Jackals
Leopoldo Seguel - Inner Mapuche
"To be an artist, means never to avert one's eyes." Akira Kurosawa
PROSE
Halford H. Fairchild, Ph.D - Op-Ed - Connecting the Dots from Confederate Statues to Police Brutality
Maurice Antoine Caldwell - Essay - I Never Thought
Paul R. Abramson - A True Story - The Assassination of Martin Luther King
VISUAL ART
Tania Love Abramson - Say Her Name
Yaron Dotan - Image of a Lion
EDITORS
Leopoldo Seguel - Chief Provocateur
Keith Holyoak - Associate Editor
“It’s tragic, in a sense, because the bulk of white Americans treat and think of black people as though we came here yesterday—as though we are very different from and much less valuable than the bulk of white people—and do not realize what they’re doing, what they think they’re doing to black people, is what they’re really doing to themselves. “
James Baldwin, 1984 interview.
Dear Readers
We are exploring, with you, the intersection of art and racism. We acknowledge the intersectionality of racism with other issues of injustices and oppression, but our focus from the beginning was and continues to be racism in all its forms in the United States, especially on the impact of systemic racism on Black lives.
BREATHE IS A PLATFORM for anyone who does not avert their eyes from the effects of racism to contribute their version of artistic expression, regardless of their medium. We seek contributions that illuminate what is, what should be, what could be, what educates, heals, and inspires us to act.
BREATHE IS A PORTAL to learn from each other and then find our own ways to take action to interrupt and dismantle racist attitudes, behaviors and systems. White Americans have a great stake in dismantling racism. James Baldwin said it well in a 1984 interview, “ what they think they’re doing to black people, is what they’re really doing to themselves.”
BLACK LIVES MATTER
WHO GOVERNS MATTERS
ART MATTERS
*We have adopted the following definition: "Anti-racism is the active process of identifying and eliminating racism by changing systems, organizational structures, policies and practices and attitudes, so that power is redistributed and shared equitably." - NAC International Perspectives: Women and Global Solidarity. For more on defining anti-racism visit The Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre at the University of Calgary.