Existing comment:
Nekisha Durrett
Prepare to Participate
Tinted window vinyl
2020
Two striking images on glass, one historic, one contemporary, honor Dr. King's legacy in the entry of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. The image on the east side, taken from a 1967 photo in the Library's archives shows Dr. King addressing a crowd at the Cardozo High School stadium. The west side shows four Cardozo student leaders, photographed by Durrett in early 2020. The dots making up each image include thousands of protest buttons championing a variety of causes.
The imagery on the buttons is based on historic buttons from The People's Archive at DC Public Library and artwork created by youth at library workshops during 2019. The buttons echo King's message in 1967, that DC residents must "prepare to participate" in the future of our city.
Nekisha Durrett is an artist and teacher at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, where she is an alumna. Buttons for this project were sourced from the NIa I. Kuumba Papers, The People's Archive at DC Public Library. Special thanks goes to participating library patrons and students from Cardozo High School and Duke Ellington High School. |