The Dark Noise Collective (Fatimah Asghar, Franny Choi, Nate Marshall, Aaron Samuels, Danez Smith & Jamila Woods) wrote this Statement: Call for Necessary Craft and Practice, four years ago. It’s powerful and pointed in its demand to create art that is anti-racist and refuses to uphold structural injustice.
“We, the Dark Noise Collective, invite our fellow artists of every creed, color, and genre to join us in a commitment to produce art that contributes to creating a better, more just world. While we value every artist’s prerogative to create whatever they must create, we cannot turn away from the unjust political times we find ourselves in, resulting in the murders of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people across the world. We recognize the unique positions and platforms we have as artists and educators, and seek to use these platforms and positions to combat injustice. We call for artists to engage with their duty, as citizens of a world ever in the wake of another unworldly horror, to join us in making the following commitments:
- We promise to create art with the mission of abolishing systems, institutions, and ethos that only serve the interest of white supremacy, neo-colonialism, cis-hetero patriarchy, sexism, violence-fueled capitalism and the intersections of all these that create volatile and grotesque realities for marginalized people globally.”
- There’s more ….
- You can read the whole thing here.