artwork: Cey Adams, 2024
As I write this post on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as our current exhibition, Fragments of Self, approaches its final week, I am considering the identity of our country. In King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, he tells us:
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protests to degenerate into physical violence. . . . The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny.
. . . We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.
King gave that speech more than sixty years ago, yet the sentiment and words continue to ring true. Creative protests are degenerating into physical violence, currently due to extreme militancy by the Department of Homeland Security. But are we really secure with this new identity that America has taken on?
As America enters its 250th year, it seems our country has become a shattered fragment of what it once was. Our current exhibition points out that “Identity is never a singular phenomenon. It is a shifting constellation that brings together memory, culture, belonging, and displacement, all constantly revised, reclaimed, and reimagined.” I believe this is also true of our country.
Fragments of Self invites our viewers to engage not only with individual identity but also with the structural forces that shape it: gender, racial, and cultural identity, and the politics of belonging in a deeply divided society. It asks us to consider: who gets to belong, who gets erased, and who gets to define “home.”
Perhaps, as a country, we should consider these same aspects that define the communities across our land. Who gets to belong and become a part of the tapestry of America? Somehow, there is pride in our family legacies that began at Ellis Island, yet we are often quick to erase the very individuals who help make this country what it is and what it can be.
Today, tomorrow, and the day after that, we need to heal the fragmented self that America has become and let compassion override the hate and divisiveness that has taken root.
“I say to you today, my friends, though, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’” -MLK, Jr.
So today, as we honor Martin Luther King, Jr, tell us, what is your dream?
-trw
-trw
*You can enjoy Fragments of Self online through January 31st.