My Lewis and Clark ride started at the Gateway to the West in St. Louis, which I’d show you here, but I had technical problems with my GoPro. It was an easy ride over the McKinley Bridge, to Wood River, where Lewis and Clark prepared for their trek West. I paused in Alton out of respect for the thundershower, then made my way to my Alma Mater, Principia College. They graciously allowed me to sleep in a beautiful spot overlooking the Mississippi River. I could hear the occasional lonely car passing in the night: a radio playing (which I think was on a barge parked for the night on the river, but I couldn’t see it); owls hooting; and I think a coyote or two.
I spoke to a fantastic group of history students. I hope they enjoyed the experience as much as I did.
And I saw a “Capstone” exhibit of graduating art students on the subject of “Grief.” All of the students’ work was fantastic. I had the opportunity to talk with one of them, Corey Carter, whose protest art struck me as both deeply personal and yet public-facing at the same time. Carter calls his approach “Push-Pull,” because he examines the narratives about African-American men that are imposed on him, but pulls from his own inner life to challenge those narratives.
Corey referred to experiences that were traumatizing without delving into them in detail. I chose not to press him for more information, because I felt like the story was right there, in the artwork. I think the significant thing—the thing that makes this a part of an essential American tradition, is that his work is an antidote to forces of silence and oppression. Here’s a quote from Corey’s “Artist Statement”:
These experiences occur so frequently that I have become desensitized to them on some level. Feeling that if I had spoken out against such activity, I feared that they would use my words to fuel their narrative they built against me. As a Black male this made me believe that I needed to be silent in my experiences in order to preserve my safety.
In this first “America on a Bike” video, Corey Carter talks about his development as a “protest artist,” and how painful personal experiences prompted him to break through barriers of silence.
We’ll see! I’ll have to get some of the kinks out. That should have been a pretty simple video to edit, but it took a whole day to put together.
I love that you're doing video too! Plan to put any on YouTube?