February 11, 2019, ‘BU Today’ (a Boston University paper) reports on a lecture given at BU by Angela Davis. One excerpt gets me going back to a remark I made yesterday during the Creative Sink. When asked what my check-in was for the day, I answered that I wished TINYisPOWERFUL would do better if it followed up on and drew from some of its collective experiences like the Beeple show, the latest Halsey gallery gathering and Friday’s Tiny Investigation at 68 Devereaux.

My point, yesterday was that, for example, had we had the opportunity to revisit the Beeple show, I would have expressed my revulsion for its high level of violent content. Now, in the meantime, because we dropped the topic, I may well have forgotten about Beeple altogether, and this would definitely be proof of my unconsciously developing a disinterest for our work. Really too bad… Fortunately though, in the meantime, I found a series of radio hours dedicated to Angela Davis. She had been in my mind for a while now. Her relevance is so very evident today. Particularly her views on non-violence. And here, I loop back to Beeple! With his over-the-top, violence. If I remember, a lot of it is directed towards women …. And here he is, at the console, chatting with admiring visitors, as he manipulates images of skin and blood!

Here is my point: each of our TINYisPOWERFUL experiences can be relevant and bring to the group an opportunity to broaden its scope, its collective knowledge, therefore its vision and, in turn, our individual choices. It went this way: violence was shockingly present in Beeple’s installation. I brought it up, although weeks later. I made the link with Angela Davis. I decided to broaden my familiarity with her work …

Here is an imperfect quote from her lecture at BU! The loop has been looped!

“I want you to imagine a world without violence. We need to find ways to talk about violence that don’t affirm its permanence, because it can be ended.”

And here is the link for the whole article quoted above:

https://www.bu.edu/articles/2019/controversial-civil-rights-activist-angela-davisdraws-huge-crowd/

I really think that it is essential that we, individuals in a collective, take advantage of each and every opportunity we get to broaden our base. The three young men who came to the Tiny Investigation the other day told Victoria and Rayn they had a great time. I observed how long they stayed at the front door, discussing for 20 minutes, long after everybody had left! Three young Black artists. What Victoria needs to do, I believe, is to invite them back, not necessarily to enroll them in TINYisPOWERFUL, but to have them show their work. Then and only then can we develop connections and reciprocity. They are the content of the container we represent and are trying to strengthen.

I now understand what Angela and Muthi call the container that was cruelly missing for them at ROOTS Camp. They meant the supportive circle of other artists necessary for their work to be integrated in the ROOTS collective, into the membership: a body of art kneaded into the ROOTS body of artists and activists.

This is what would be needed, in any case, for ROOTS – as a container – and all its members, groups and sub-groups, to resist the onslaught of violence which may explode in this country, at the occasion of the 2024 elections.