Cancel Violence – National Center of Afro-American Artists

In our nation, notions of public commemoration, especially monuments, have traditionally focused on the great white man as hero. Women, people of color, and other marginalized groups have been largely invisible, irrespective of their contributions and sacrifices.

This exhibition challenges the great white man approach to monumentalization by celebrating the communal power of the people as they strive for civic health and social wholeness. With Cancel Violence, we have invited artists to give imaginative shape to the problem of violence in our communities and to project alternative futures.

Violence is endemic in our society, where it is a devastating legacy of slavery and colonialism. Johannesburg, Kingston, New Orleans, Boston—all are heirs to a bitter heritage of dehumanization and self-hatred expressed through inter- and intra-community violence, especially among youth. Predominantly Black and brown neighborhoods in cities across America are haunted by such economic, social, and psychological victimization.

Racism, discrimination, profound economic injustice, and a failed education system have substantially blocked pathways out of poverty, as reflected in the extraordinary wealth gap between ordinary Black and white households. Trapped by economic stagnation, damning social stigmas, crime, and violence, familial collapse is all too common in many Black neighborhoods and generates intolerable levels of self-destruction.

Each of us has an obligation to find ways forward that lead toward healing, wholeness, and self-love. Black artists help us light the way by visualizing for us both the problems and the possible solutions. Cancel Violence seeks to do just that.

Cancel Violence is a collaborative project anchored by two tenets: The first is that artists have a responsibility to use their art for positive social benefit to their community. The second is that positive social change requires dialogue and engagement across the whole of the impacted community. Cancel Violence focuses additionally on incorporating alternative approaches to memorialization, thus expanding how we think about the many contributors who advance our society.

With these values in mind, we invited eight concerned artists to share their ideas about intra-community violence—especially among youth—and proposed solutions. Additionally, together with scholars and our neighbors, we will convene discussions at memorials and public art sites within our community with the goal of inspiring dialogue that can lead us toward social and spiritual healing.

Edmund Barry Gaither

Museum, National Center of Afro-American Artists