The following month, Gould, who is black, returned from New Jersey to DC with a banner that was a twist on the Monopoly “Go to Jail” card. On top of that, the Monopoly Man, whom he portrayed as black, was carrying a policeman away with a club. Next to the image was written, “You Kill Go StR8 2 Jail!”
Gould approached the fence and wrapped a zip tie around the corner, thinking it would secure the place until the authorities came and threw it all away.
However gould flag —and 1,601 other artifacts from the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence—have been preserved. More than two years after he attached it to the fence, it was scanned, archived, and unveiled Friday. rice field. online collection At Dig DC, the online archive of the DC Public Library.
Gould, a 45-year-old artist from Jersey City, said: “It’s really cool that people can interact with it, share it, put it in screensavers, etc. It’s a place where the world can be enjoyed.”
A new online archive provides the most comprehensive look yet at how the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence became an art gallery of resistance, and the thousands of people in D.C. protesting racism and police brutality. It expresses sorrow and anger overflowing between them.
Artifact promoted a variety of causes, including: Many proclamations of “Black Lives Matter” on posters, shields, flags, face masks and pictures of people killed by police. There were also signs demanding that leaders cancel rents, “all votes counted” and defend democracy.sign with Obscenities about the Proud Boys, a far-right group with a history of violence. Signature advocating for other social justice and human rights issues.
they According to Laura Farley, digital curation librarian at the DC Public Library, it lists 373 names, most of whom were victims of police brutality. Arabic, German, French, Haitian She also has over a dozen languages including Creole, Croatian, Lakota, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish, Urdu and more.
“The fence was an outlet for black people to feel anger, frustration, love and desire for us. Nadine Saylora black resident of Waldorf, Maryland, who played a leading role in the archive effort.
Law Enforcement Officer June 1, 2020 forced out hundreds of peaceful demonstrators Fired rubber bullets and chemical gas outside the White House amid protests against the police killing of George Floyd. President Donald Trump walked in Lafayette Square For a photo shoot at St. John’s Church.
The next day, a black chain link fence was put up around the plaza, and one of the first signs hung there, Seiler said.
Federal law enforcement reopened the park that same month, but it was soon closed again with a high fence reinforced with concrete walls. recognized that the fence’s transformation from a barrier to control protesters to a growing art collection of defiance was worth preserving and remembering.
Seiler, 57, Became a self-proclaimed guardian and curator of fences Then she started doing what she does best as a professional home organizer. She created stronger foundations for larger pieces, protected her other pieces with her coating of plastic, and reinforced them with her duct tape and zip ties. When artwork like Gould’s was damaged by rain and months outdoors, Seiler restored it, tracing her drawings and coloring them to bring them to life.
Starting in late October 2020, Cyler and fellow activist Karen Irwin stayed up all night by the memorial fence for three months. attacked or demolished.
The artwork was on display until January 2021, when Thaler and other social justice activists carefully photographed the fence panels and Removed each artwork While taking detailed notes, with future archiving in mind.
Since then, Sailer has continued to protect the artwork. She spent hours in her 5-by-10-foot storage unit in northeastern Washington, organizing and curating her art work, and transporting it to Baltimore in bulk. In Baltimore, archivists at the Enoch Pratt Free Library digitized it with a special art scanner that allows the material to be captured with a special art scanner. Their raw form shows how the debris has withstood rain and accumulated dirt, and withstood cracks and crevices. The archivist sent the digital version to her DC Public Library, and Thaler and others participated in writing a description of each item.
Finally, on Friday Seiler was able to see results and was proud that Fence’s story was recorded in the public record. It shows how protesters grieved together, found joy, and created a community.
The collection includes the DC Public Library, the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Library of CongressWhen Howard UniversityAliza Leventhal, an archivist at the Library of Congress, also helped with Seiler and Irwin’s collections.
“History is always happening. This is a really great example of people realizing it in the moment.
In cataloging its collections, the DC Public LibraryBlack Lives Matter DescriptionDuring this time, anyone interested could help describe the work before it was added to the online archive. Eleven he, a DC public librarian, one University of Maryland student, and his 35 members of the public worked on the description, Farley said.
“It’s great to see people describe in their native language what they’re seeing and how they’ve had the opportunity to connect with it and really contribute to a piece of history,” she said. I got
Born in Trinidad and Tobago and immigrated to the United States in 1987, Thaler wants people to have their voice heard in her collection and is inspired to continue to advocate for social and racial justice. The collection could be a resource for educators looking to bring this moment in recent history into classrooms across the country, she said.
The next step, she said, is finding a home to display the physical artwork.
“We want the community, the DC community, who put it there, who protected it, who created it, to be a part of it,” Sailer said. I don’t want it to happen. I want as many people as possible to see it.”