Witnessed --  one part-installation, one part-live performance, depicted the shooting of a seemingly unarmed black teen. The work was presented Black History Month (February) 2017, on the heels of ongoing civil unrest around the killings of numerous un-armed black men and women around the United States.

 

The piece was made up of three components. 

 

First of which was the paper-maché characters and set I built. Two police officers ("Morts")  one holding a firing gun, the other a baton--and on the floor the black youth, who appears on his stomach, crawling, crawling to no end, for in the next breath, the bullet will be piercing his back, taking his fragile life with it.

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(The audience standing within close proximity of each other, gathered just beyond "Caution" tape which you would find at any crime scene.)

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Juxatapoze to this "static"--still-life--portrayal, I enter the room, escorted, with a white veil around my head...I can't see a thing, I appeared to crowd limp bodied, as if I had been beaten. Then a rope is placed around my neck, which is attached to brick wall adjacent the "crime scene".

 

(I've been roped to the wall like a common dog. On top of a cardboard cutout reminiscent of any houseless person's cardboard sign; which reads "Dead Or In Jail by 25". 

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The third part of the piece was the soundtrack and video montage which were created to play simultaneously. The opening of the show began with guests entering until the portion of the room designated as "witnesses" is full. Guests were given newspaper like pamphlets as they entered. 

 

Once the room was filled, Danae Simone, sang the Black National Anthem, as the lights were dimmed, and the mood was set. Danae then exited the room, and MLK's "I have a dream" speech followed, over Tribe Called Quest, We The People Instrumental....This kind of sound montage goes on for some bit, until silence, and I enter the room.

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(On the screen the audience is presented from excerpts from the Watts Riots, as well as the KKK riots of Denver.)

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It is at this point the Mike Brown testimonies began over the soundtrack. I pulled both his friends testimony and the officer's testimony and had them played back to back. Mind you, at this point in the performance I am veiled and roped to the wall. When the Officer's testimony begins, I began reacting to what he's saying, as if I was embodying the trauma Mike Brown must've felt. The officer describes shooting Mike Brown a first time---and I leap out into the audience with pain in a shriek, unable to relieve myself from the rope around my neck. The officer continues, shooting him a second, third, and fourth time--and with each utterance, I shriek even louder, I struggle and grimace even more until the officer says he shot him a final time; at which point the life leaves my body.....

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This was then followed by spoken words by Duce Gold, who has just been released from prison a few days prior, after having served 3 years for attempted robbery. I wanted him to touch on his experience in jail, and what truths, he could share with the audience from that perspective; he didn't miss a beat. 

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I ended the show with a special performance by Typhy, a closing speech, and destroying the set...entirely....The future doesn't have to be our past. 

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