WANTED
Opening Vigil SATURDAY AUGUST 15th, 7PM
Press Conference MONDAY AUGUST 17th, 9AM
5239 Melrose Ave Los Angeles CA 90038
Visual Artists Group is pleased to present: WANTED, an exhibition and vigil in honor of those lost to hate crimes perpetrated by racist predators and the United States Government. As we contend with a new emergence of abject fascism we explore all the ways Black bodies are wanted. From persecution by government agencies, forced in fugitivism, and exile to sexual exploitation to cultural obsession to pathological police surveillance there is no space of reprieve for Black people subjected to the constant proclivities of the White, ruling class.
“Look. It’s the condition our condition is in. Everybody wants the life of a black man. Everybody. White men want us dead or quiet—which is the same thing as dead. White women, same thing. They want us, you know, ‘universal,’ human, no ‘race consciousness.’ Tame, except in bed. They like a little racial loincloth in the bed. But outside the bed they want us to be individuals. You tell them, ‘But they lynched my papa,’ and they say, ‘Yeah, but you’re better than the lynchers are, so forget it.’”
-Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon
We invite you to join an opening vigil Saturday, August 15th. We encourage you to bring flowers, moments, and tokens to honor the dead as they cross into ancestral territories. We offer a space for mourning, anger, and mobilization. On Monday, August 17th we invite you to a press conference calling for the arrests of Breonna Taylor and Elijah McClain’s murderers as well as a demand for reparations. We ask you to sign our list of demands and consider joining an organization to end capitalist expansion and greed.
Marcus Andrew - Los Angeles
Rebecka Jackson- Los Angeles