Words escape my mind in an attempt to write a follow-up to last year’s story, Vanilla isn’t White. Instead, breaking news headlines are a cacophony of words. But, long-live visual artists who have the courage to inspire us into action and remind us that today’s politics aren’t normal. This past summer, The Brooklyn Museum had an inspiring exhibit, We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85. Last week, I visited the Whitney Museum’s exhibit, An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940–2017. It was at the Whitney Museum, I read a poem by W. H. Auden: September 1, 1939. It’s an inspirational poem written on the onset of World War II. Sadly, Auden’s words continue to be applicable today.
