Emmett Till slept here

For Black History Month, you know what would be really cool? I’d love to see more cities preserving significant sites related to the Movement for Black Lives. Maybe city leaders across the country could follow Chicago’s recent example.

Chicago’s city council has granted landmark status to the apartment building where Emmett Till once lived, up until he was lynched in Mississippi in 1955. Breonna Taylor’s life deserves to be remembered too. The tragedy of Emmett’s murder launched the 1960s civil rights era; Black Lives Matter activists continue to demand justice for people like Breonna. You might remember a Kentucky grand jury refused to bring murder charges against the Louisville police officers who shot her as she slept.

Here’s the thing that really gets me: that grand jury announced its decision exactly 65 years after Emmett Till’s murderers were acquitted in Mississippi.

Breonna’s memorial has since been moved to the Roots 101 African American Museum in downtown Louisville. If you’re in a position to support them, please consider donating to help the museum preserve Breonna’s memorial. If Mississippi can memorialize 51 sites connected to Emmett’s death, and Chicago can commit to protecting one building from being torn down, it should be comparatively easy to establish one permanent museum exhibit in Kentucky.

BLM Artist Grant: What about the kids?

I can’t wait to hear more about the fall 2021 exhibit planned at Washington State University! The twenty Black Lives Matter Artist Grant winners have been announced. Now for the next step: showing our work on campus, in the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.

I’m glad the selection committees included a few students like Mikayla Makle, president of the Black Student Union. Now that the first jolts of excitement have worn off, though, I wonder how the exhibit will land with other WSU students. I don’t expect anti-BLM protests. But as recent graduate Promise Calloway observed, micro-aggressions are fairly common.

I’m well aware there are plenty of people who think BLM means “only Black Lives Matter.” Not just in Pullman, Washington, but in Eugene and Portland, Oregon, where the two other branches of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum are located. I hope the only thing (and it’s a big one) that might interfere with the exhibits is another spike in coronavirus infection rates. The current lockdowns in Washington and Oregon are supposed to end on December 14th and 16th, respectively. So mask up, all right? Let’s not delay The Big Show any longer than necessary.

Genesis, Exodus: when is it time to leave?

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to…” bail out of a pariah nation, I suggest we leave in style.

Dirigibles feature prominently in the latest altered books I’ve finished. Not just because I’m a fan, but because all the old “signs of the apocalypse” jokes feel way too real these days. There is just. So. Much for African Americans to leave behind: climate change floods and fires, the coronavirus pandemic, white supremacists in general, police brutality in particular…

Remember why Black Lives Matter protesters faced off with Seattle police in May? Credit: Kelly Kline/Flickr

It’s gotten me thinking about #Blaxit again. (Think Brexit, but with Black people leaving the U.S. instead of Britain leaving the European Union.) If you haven’t savored the brilliant essay by Ulysses Burley III at The Salt Collective yet, I highly recommend it. Once your laughter subsides a bit, proceed to the absolute genius that is Awesomely Luvvie’s take on Blaxit.

In my version of Blaxit, we’re still debating whether to leave or stay. But if we go, we’re taking zeppelins out of this nightmare, fully stocked and ready for space travel. I’ll post the altered books very soon (right after I’ve had them properly documented) so watch my Instagram account for the upcoming first look.