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Citizens: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

Sensitivities not observed. Any belief of our country accepting or acknowledging a different races experience as the same as their own, is either highly misinformed and misguided or intentionally ignorant. Citizen tries to encapsulate the everyday existence of black people in a systemically white hierarchy that has been built here in the United States. Through a series of vignettes, the cast creates a series of places where racism happens. Starting with the double standards imposed on Serena Williams after winning the US Open and being criticized for her celebration as ghetto or hood. Moving on to casual moments between “friends” where one uses racially charged descriptive words to jokingly describe them. Showing this accepting nature of subtle stereotyping or outright racist acts that happen across our country. Citizens plays to our emotions, while making you cringe at the inevitability of certain situations to end the way they do. You are put into a state of discomfort by seeing these things happen on stage to juxtapose how cringeworthy these actions are in real life to show you where things should change.

Nandita Raman - Untitled (Cinema Play House)

I love the movies. The smell of the popcorn to the sticky floors between the seats. I remember growing up going to some run down theaters, but the location was never the draw, it was the opportunity to see something new. The spectacle of some action movie with my estranged father was, typically, our go to if we ever did anything. These run down seats from Indian Movie theaters can just be super imposed on theaters from my own memory here in the Bronx.

Cassandra Hooper - Untitiled (Flying Boys Series)

This image speaks to youth and playfulness in the unknown. Growing up, no matter where I was, I was trying to enjoy myself. I loved to find and explore abandoned buildings, the last thing on my mind was “is it scary?” or “something can happen to me in there.” I just saw it as something new and anything new was cool. This image of a boy cannonballing into an unknown or dark pool speaks to the freedom that came with adolescence. You didn’t know what was going to happen, but you were excited at the prospect of finding out. You jump without thinking, sure mistakes can and probably will be made, but the fact is you did something without a care, without a second thought, and when as an adult can you say you have done that with any regularity.

Julian Kreimer - Fence

When I look at this piece I revert back to my time as child growing up in the city. Looking back on my childhood, I can attribute most of my memories to the park in my projects. Some were bad, some were good, but I wouldn’t change them for anything, they are a part of what made me who I am today. My friends and I would be outside playing full contact sports on concrete until well past the lights were shut off, it was just something you did. Through all the cuts, scrapes, and bruises we had fun, and that is what I feel as I look at this painting.

Three New Buildings - Marc Ganzglass

Buildings, rendered as photo-etchings on brass plates, are presented on oak plinths in the style of historical markers. The brass plates serve a dual purpose: to commemorate new buildings and to generate ‘new’ images of the constructions that permeate the landscape. The image speaks to me because I was born and raised in New York City. This photo-etching of a building in the midst of construction, similar to that of a historical marker makes me think back to what was in my neighborhoods before transplants and widespread gentrification. What were once considered the outskirts of the city limits are now prime real estate looking out onto any section of Manhattan. The overcrowding and the skyrocketing of rents in Manhattan have pushed the uninformed middle American, trying to make it in the big city, to widen their rental search, driving up rents in what were once affordable living spaces.

While I was not around to see Kwaku Anase, from the clip, I gathered the spiders connection to the people in the featurette. Having learned that it was a depiction of Ananse, I know this would be pertinent to the story moving forward. I wish I could have seen the movie, having read both American Gods and Anansi Boys, to see another depiction of the trickster god. I can see from the short desciption a girl runs from her fathers funeral into the woods and finding out what Ananse would be up to can be interesting. I, also, have a personal experience with spiders that wasn’t very pleasant, so seeing spiders can rattle me on occasion. Look up a Huntsman Spider and imagine grabbing one out of your shoe in your bare hand. This history ties and binds me to this particular screencap as well.

My choice on the field trip to the Brant Foundation was:

Keith Haring - Untitled 1981

Baked enamel on metal

The reason this piece reached out to me personally was because of my connection to the artist. As a new yorker born and raised in the bronx, whenever I would go into Manhattan, i would pass a commissioned piece by Haring that is on a handball wall stating “Crack is Wack”. This has been a staple of New York City street art for as long as I can remember and stands as a reminder of where I am from what my generation grew up through.

iPhone Stained Glass

http://www.anthonyantonellis.com

I like the idea of Anthony Antonelli’s image of the iPhone Stained Glass because it shows on, many levels, one is how much, as a society, we covet and protect our phones similarly to old stained glass windows. But the image also works on a separate intonation, one of which the phone is a window into our private lives. Our phones hold so much data, personal to us, that opening it up freely to the world is tough and they can only see the icons and home screen as a so called window into our souls.