JoAnne Bland visits ArtEZ
US civil rights activist JoAnne Bland inspires a new generation: How to come in action!
"Movements for social change are like jigsaw puzzles. Everyone is a piece. If your piece is missing, the picture is not complete. Why? Because you're the most important piece."
JoAnne Bland
ArtEZ is proud to invite JoAnne Bland, an important voice and civil rights activist from Selma, Alabama. JoAnne Bland is an iconic figure and story-teller: she marched in the early 60's over the Edmund Pettis Bridge with Martin Luther King Jr. JoAnne Bland is inspiring for today’s activists who can learn from an earlier generation at a time when questions about equality are more important than ever.
The jigsaw puzzle of social movements
On November 21, JoAnne Bland will talk about her role as a guide, witness and story-teller to motivate people to resist and to switch to action. JoAnne will be introduced by artist Jeremiah Day, organizer and initiator of this project. Jeremiah Day: “I think JoAnne Bland has real relevance for the climate Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future movements as she was a child-activist and has a lot to say on the subject of young people in politics, and the process of building social movements in general. I think it could bring some 'intersectional' discourse and public connection between different experiences of social movements.”
Lecture Selma, Dr. King and Today: The Jigsaw Puzzle of Social Movements
- Date & time: Thursday November 21 2019 (16:00-17:30)
- Location:Auditorium, Oude Kraan 26, Arnhem
- Language: English
- Entrance:Free
- Register: please register: studiumgenerale/artez.nl
- Initiated and hosted by Jeremiah Day
Co-organised by ArtEZ BEAR, The School of Missing Men en ArtEZ Studium Generale
On JoAnne Bland
JoAnne Bland from Selma, Alabama is the co-founder and former director of the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma, Alabama. Bland was a highly active participant in the Civil Rights Movement from her earliest days, and was the youngest person to have been jailed during any civil rights demonstration during that period. Currently JoAnne Bland is the owner and operator of Journeys for the Soul, a touring agency that specializes in Civil Rights tours with a major focus on Selma, Alabama.
“By the time I was 11 years old, I had been arrested 13 times that are documented. I was an active participant in Bloody Sunday, marching alongside 600 or more only to get brutally beaten, tear gassed and hit by policemen on horses with billy clubs. My early involvement in the struggle against "Jim Crow", the American apartheid, has been the foundation and fuel for my civil and human rights work.”
ArtEZ Studium Generale: Diversity Stories
As the Knowledge Curation Centre of ArtEZ, Studium Generale selects, reflects and presents knowledge and organises (research) processes in a context where the knowledge domains of art, science and society come together.
As part of her long-term research based on the question Diversity for what? studium generale researches since 2017 questions about gender inequality and identity. Giving voice to those who are not heard is an important part of that. From this research she provides inspiring lectures, reading groups and Empowerment trainings to make people stand up for their story.