In the wake of the 2024 presidential election, many BIPOC and LGBTQ+ folks were feeling both hopeless and helpless. How could we get lawmakers to listen and acknowledge that our lives and well-being matter? And would it actually make a difference? The day after Election Day, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went live on Instagram, reassuring that yes, there is a long road ahead and a lot of work to do to protect our civil rights and democracy — but we will need to fight by working together and building community.
This is a message that many social activists have emphasized, including the great Grace Lee Boggs who said, “Movements are born of critical connections, not critical mass.”
The same message is at the heart of the “Critical Connections: Protest Photography Past + Present,” currently on display at Pace University Art Gallery. Pairing historical Civil Rights Era photographs with contemporary photographs documenting the Blasian March, the exhibit provides much-needed hope and inspiration, stressing that social movements are fought by everyday people and achieved through intentional intersectionality.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Black police brutality and anti-Asian hate crimes exacerbated the already fraught relationship between the two communities. Black Asian activist, community organizer, and writer Rohan Zhou-Lee sought a safe space for racial solidarity and founded Blasian March in response.
It was in this space over the years where photographers Stas Ginzburg, Josh Pacheco, and Cindy Trinh not only documented Blasian March protests, but also participated in them. Altogether, the team was invited to select historic photographs from the George Stephanopoulos Collection of news photography at Pace to showcase alongside their own contemporary protest photographs, and the exhibit was then curated by independent curator Lin Ma, professor and art gallery director Sarah Cunningham, and Pace student Hannah Arias.
While the Pace…
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