Faith Ringgold (American, born 1930). For the Women’s House, 1971. Oil on canvas, 96 x 96 in. (243.8 x 243.8 cm). Courtesy of Rose M. Singer Center, Rikers Island Correctional Center. © 2017 Faith Ringgold / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
If you say “97%,” folks that know will nod their heads. Numbers don’t lie, even when politicians are hard at work to dismantle the Voting Rights Act, systematically disenfranchising powerful voting blocks across the country.
.
97% is no lie. It is the truthiest truth. It is the word of African-American women made good. Perhaps better than just about any other group nationwide, black women know the nature of the status quo. Ever since Thomas Jefferson and his ilk raped children and adults alike, keeping and selling their own offspring as slaves, black women have born witness to horror and trauma that few dare name.
.
But the days of silencing and marginalizing have come to the end, as we enter a new age. No longer will we tolerate the whitewashing of history in the service of oppression, exploitation, and blood money. We wanted a revolution: today and tomorrow – until justice is served.
.
The Brooklyn Museum brings the heat, delving into a transformative period in American history. We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85, now on view through September 17, will be traveling around the country over the coming year,
.
You can see it for yourself at the California African American Museum, Los Angeles (October 13, 2017 through January 14, 2018); the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York (February 17 – May 27, 2018); and at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (June 26 – September 30, 2018).
.
Should you be unable to see the show, or simply want more, something to have at home, you must pick up a copy of the Sourcebook, published by Duke University Press, as it goes beyond the traditional exhibition catalogue, becoming a singular artifact.
.
In this day of Google-this and Tweet-that, we tend to lose touch with the power of the printed object, of the way it can be held in the hand, perused in peace, without the jangling interruption of technology. It emits no blue light; it does not track your movements and record you activities; it does not interrupt you with push notifications, telephone calls, or text messages. It allows you to be with the writer’s voice alone, a singular audience of one, silent but for their words inside the sanctity of your mind.
.
The Sourcebook rounds up and republishes rare documents be iconic figures of the time, including Gloria Anzaldúa, James Baldwin, bell hooks, Lucy R. Lippard, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Lowery Stokes Sims, Alice Walker, and Michelle Wallace. Many of the documents are reproduced in facsimile form, recreating the spirit of the period and its style.
.
Suddenly, it all comes rushing back — whether you were there or not. The printed page becomes a repository of soul and here you can finally be set free. Liberated from the endless scroll that is designed to zap you of the force required to organize, a Sourcebook restores to you the power you need to keep the revolution going, 360 degrees.
.
The lessons of the past are all the more poignant today; it’s not that we forgot, it’s that PTSD is real. The counterattack was as brutal as it was gloved, hidden in plain sight through the genocidal practices of benign neglect, crack, AIDS, and the prison industrial complex. The counterrevolutionaries stay organized, working against Nature and Truth, trying to roll back the clock as though such a thing were possible.
.
The Sourcebook is an exquisite tool: it is a necessity. It is art weaponized and an act of love to the self. Far be it for me to say more than Get yours today.
.
Jan van Raay (American, born 1942). Faith Ringgold (right) and Michele Wallace (middle) at Art Workers Coalition Protest, Whitney Museum, 1971. Digital C-print. Courtesy of Jan van Raay, Portland, OR, 305-37. © Jan van Raay