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Challenger Community News • March 30, 2016 • www.thechallengernews.com
Powerful Ashley Powell! ASHLEY POWELL: Our Compliance Burchfield Penney Art Center Friday, April 8 7:30 PM
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shley Powell, a University at Buffalo graduate fine arts student, made international headlines last fall after she mysteriously and suddenly hung radically charged "black only" and "white only" signs around campus as part of an art project entitled, Our Compliance. Her goal was to provoke a searing conversation. According to the New York Times, "And indeed it did. The signs shocked students and jolted the university at a time when discussions about race and race relations have been prominent in the news." The art project stirred controversy among school administrators, faculty members, and students are still deliberating whether to adopt guidelines for public art on campus. TheHuffington Post, Washington Times, WBFO-NPR, New York Daily News, The Atlantic, Huck Daily News (U.K.), MSNBC, Inside Higher Education, Buffalo News, The Public, Daily Mail.com, UB Spectrum and Buffalo State Record are just a smidgen of media outlets that covered the story or provided political commentary. "This piece was created to expose white privilege. Our society still actively maintains racist structures that benefit one group of people, and oppress another. This project makes forceful what has been easy for you to ignore," said Powell. "It is a delusion to believe that we can change society without first changing ourselves." Our Compliance was met with great support and great backlash. The Burchfield Penney will present a talk Friday, April 8, at 7:30 pm with special guest Ashley Powell who will discuss how critical race theory is often coupled with different artistic practices to influence consciousness and to begin to instill actual changes in society. The event is free and open to the public. ASHLEY TO APPEAR AT BUEN VIVIR GALLERY Under Attack: Environmental Racism for Economic Benefit and Convenience. First Friday Artist’s Talk by Ashley Powell on April 1 at 7 p.m. Ashley Powell [1] will discuss her exhibit, Black on the Ground, White in the Air, on First Friday, April 1 at 7 p.m. at the ¡Buen Vivir! Gallery for Contemporary Art [2], 148 Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo.
PRISONERS ARE PEOPLE TOO CANCELED! For the first time in history, nearly 11 years (!), there will be NO monthly meeting of PRISONERS ARE PEOPLE TOO, INC. The meeting that would have taken place on March 28 has been CANCELED. Our next monthly meeting will take place on APRIL 25. Recent car accidents, BaBa’s in January and mine this month, have sidelined our efforts to keep up with the pace of our organization’s work. Please join us on April 25, 7:00-9:00pm, at the Pratt-Willert Community Center, 422 Pratt St., Buffalo, when monthly meetings will resume. We apologize for the inconvenience. -Karima Amin
Black Folks and Electoral Politics continued
ing supporters, close enough to touch him. As he holds out his hand for Trump to shake it, he is utterly ecstatic. His face is jubilant...his glee is unbridled. Like everyone on the row, he’s jumping and reaching, and can barely contain his excitement. But Trump walks past him repeatedly, back and forth on both sides, deliberately ignoring him, shaking hands and signing autographs. As he finally walks away, we see the brother’s expression again, which now appears to run the gamut of opposite emotions: shock, confusion, utter disbelief, horror, dejection and pain. We need a collective moment like this. The ignorant, unrefined and garish deportment of Donald Trump has given us the valuable gift of seeing the political parties as they truly are. His obscene and boorish diarrhea of the mouth has amplified what was always there, calling us mightily to re-assess our own myopia and gullibility. The stage is set for us to embark upon what can be a thrilling metamorphosis, emerging as a self respecting, enlightened body politic, fully attuned and fully wedded... to our own best interests. More next time.
Black History continued back wages owed to Scott, appealed the decision to the Missouri Supreme Court. 4) The Fight Continues Unfortunately, the court overturned the lower court’s decision and ruled in favor of Sanford. Scott then filed another lawsuit in a federal circuit court claiming damages against Sanford’s brother, John F.A. Sanford, for Sanford’s alleged physical abuse against him. According to PBS.org, the jury ruled that Scott could not sue in federal court because he had already been deemed an enslaved African under Missouri law. 5) The Supreme Court Case Scott appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reviewed the case in 1856. Due to a clerical error at the time, Sanford’s name was misspelled in court records, making it Sandford. 6) The Ruling In March 1857, the court ruled in a 7-2 decision that Scott was still an enslaved African and therefore not entitled to sue in court. Scott could not be defined as free by virtue of his residency in the Wisconsin Territory, because Congress lacked the power to ban slavery in U.S. territories. African Ameri-
can Registrystates that Chief Justice Roger B. Taney’s 54-page majority opinion of the court had wide-ranging effects. Additionally, the Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or enslaved, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court.
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