1619th
Chanel Beebe
Mixed Media on Canvas
60” x 40”
2021
1619th Explained:
2020-2021 have given me ample time to begin reflecting on the origin stories of my identities, expectations and rights. As I explore, read, write, connect and collaborate, I find myself tussling with the tension between the rhetoric used to discuss our shared social experience and my own lived experience. Though I am American, I am African first. As I am a woman, I am Black. As I am a Citizen of this Land, I am Human. The conversations I’ve had and witnessed between those capitalized identities are poorly reflected in the media and that lack of representation inspired the creation of 1619th.
The truth of our journey as a species and nation is defined by what “we” did in 1619. The answer to our collective struggles is embodied in the energies my ancestors put into Juneteenth. In 1619th I attempt to visually overlay the energetic imprints of these points in history to make a commentary on our precarious positioning in 2021. Will this be a year that we create new economies and industries that send us down a deeper pathway of inequities (as occurred in 1619)? Or will this become a makeshift portal to a freedom that has always been ours (as celebrated by Juneteenth)?
1619th speaks to the drippy interconnectedness of our intention. While our intentions have always mattered, the long-term impacts of our intentions (the drips) will be what define us. While there is a real possibility for us to create something entirely new (the pink floating thought bubble,) there is also very really possibility and infrastructure for us to spiral down our most capitalistic and inhumane patterns. It is my hope that this piece inspires viewers to think critically about their role in our collective decision-making and spark conversations that echo the season of its creation: Juneteenth 2021.
What is the 1619 Project?
“The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.”
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/0 8/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html
What is Juneteenth?
“Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American Holiday.”
Source: https://www.history.com/news/what-is-juneteenth