Description:
“Mapping Indigenous, Black and Asian Resistance in NYC” is a work-in-progress multimedia installation that honors the under told stories of decolonization, liberation, and uprisings against white supremacy led by people of color on Lenape land (currently known as New York City) spanning the last 400 years. The installation currently features three organza banners, a 75-minute video and a selection of research materials.
I started work on this project during my residency with KODA on Governors Island this past Fall 2021. This project has provided a critical creative outlet for me as I reflect on this last year of racial justice uprisings in the wake of the police murdering of George Floyd and in the face of COVID related anti-Asian violence. As a long time activist and avid student of history, I know that the white supremacist power structure has always pitted us, people of color against one another. I also know that Black, Indigenous, Asian and Latinx communities have a lot more in common than differences.
I wanted to provide a visual portal into those stories of resistance that are rooted right here in New York City. I specifically focus on the stories in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. As a lifelong New Yorker I knew little about these histories.
I spent countless hours researching, looking through newspaper archives, books and records, desperately trying to find oral histories and direct accounts told through Indigenous, Black, and Asian voices, but found very little. When there was a slave rebellion or indigenous uprising it was almost always told through the colonizer, the oppressor’s lens. Rarely, could I find an account from an emphatic witness or someone directly involved. Sadly most of these uprisings ended in tragic death and execution. And of course, we know this is how the dominant narrative gets shaped and fed to us as the “official” history.
The stories I cite are not meant to be comprehensive or exhaustive, just a snapshot of what I’ve been working on. The stories span nearly 400 years - from the first account of enslaved people of African descent stolen from their homeland and forced onto New York soil in 1626 then organizing rebellions in 1712 and 1741, to the stories behind today’s Astor Place was one of the larger Lenape gathering spaces known as “Kintecoying” a major inter-tribal crossroads to the founding of Chinese Equal Rights League, one of the first groups formed in 1892 to fight for the equal rights of Chinese-Americans at the time of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
My aim was to uplift these often undertold parallel and intertwined histories of resistance.
Closing with this quote from Chief Denise Stonefish Kihkay from the Eelünaapéewi Lahkéewiit Council Lenape Delegation Visit to New York in 2019 “Both the blacks and Chinese are natural allies in our work to bring greater attention to our place in our homelands.”
Installation pieces:
Banners (dimensions 24” x 48”) L to R:
“Indigenous Resistance Matters”
“Black Resistance Matters”
“Chinese- American Resistance Matters”
Video: Mapping Indigenous, Black and Asian Resistance in NYC (TRT: 1:14:33) - WATCH HERE
Table: Project Research Materials
