PROJECT DETAILS WRITTEN BELOW.

The mural is inspired by W.E.B. Dubois's poem, A Litany at Atlanta, which was written as a response to the lynching of Sam Hose in 1899.  Pieces of Hose's body were cut off as souvenir's by the mob and Hose's knuckles were found by Dubois in a mason jar for sale in a grocery store window when he was on his way to a meeting to discuss the lynching.  That experience by Dubois was the inspiration for the poem.  The reverberation of historic events through current life continues.  A desire for understanding the need for involvement brought the other factors of this work into place. The mural is created by me repetitive knocking on the wall.  This repetition brings a mixing of blood into the black and white mural.  Living for six weeks in Chicago I tracked the number of shootings for the month of July, 2016.  The prominence of the railroad with its historic narratives is paired with the influence the railroad had throughout the building of Chicago.  A railroad spike is brought in for every person shot during July in Chicago, IL while I was living there.  The total count was 428 people.  The work is activated by the viewer walking through the space.  Each step creates a clanging of the spikes against one another sounding a continued agency.