Skip to main content

New top story from Time: ‘Would You Kill God Too?’ W.J. Lofton’s New Poem, Commissioned by Ava DuVernay, Puts a Spotlight on Breonna Taylor’s Killers

https://ift.tt/3j27QaB

Filmmaker Ava DuVernay counts herself as one of the many people inspired by W.J. Lofton’s powerful visual poem “We Ask For Fire”—in which he repeats the words, “the cops who murdered Breonna Taylor are at home with their families”—as protesters around the world demanded justice following her death last March.

“I was deeply moved,” DuVernay tells TIME. “The idea that one artist was able to unite a very striking written voice with a visual voice—a marriage of the vocabulary it takes to be potent in both forms—was very interesting to me.”

DuVernay has now commissioned Lofton, 28, to create another visual poem for her Law Enforcement Accountability Project (LEAP), which she started in the days after George Floyd’s murder last May in Minneapolis, and aims to call attention to police brutality as well as the code of silence that exists around it. The resulting work, “Would You Kill God Too?,” debuts Sunday. In the poem, Lofton asks a series of questions to three Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers—Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove—who conducted a “no knock” warrant raid on Taylor’s apartment late at night on March 13, 2020. During the raid, the officers fired more than thirty shots into her residence, killing her.

“How do you explain this to your children?” he asks the officers. “Did you tell them the blood on your shoes belonged to a Black girl, or is she not worth mentioning?… God was in the room when you made a massacre out of someone’s child.”

“I wanted to confront them like they confronted Breonna,” Lofton says. “It’s so important to constantly name the officers, so they don’t get to go back and just live their lives after they’ve taken someone’s life.”

(It is exceedingly rare for officers who have killed Black civilians to be charged; of the three officers, only Hankison has been charged—for “wanton endangerment,” for firing into Taylor’s neighbor’s apartment.)

“Once they kill Black people, do we just accept that they disappear behind a blue shield?” DuVernay asks. “As an artist, I have no domain on how to fight that other than to tell people in this country that we don’t have to let these officers walk away.”

Read more: Racial-Justice Organizers are TIME’s Guardians of the Year

LEAP is a two-year initiative that aims to raise awareness and put pressure on law enforcement through a series of creative works spanning film, theater, photography, poetry, music, sculpture and dance. (Inaugural funders included the Ford Foundation and Ryan Murphy.) Lofton’s piece is the second to be released. DuVernay says that a central challenge of the project has been realigning artists’ creative focus from the victim to the officers. “It’s the opposite of what our culture has trained us to do: It’s okay to say the victim’s name, but we’ve been asked to turn our back on the law enforcement side,” she notes. “We have to think about these cases differently.”

Lofton began writing the poem last September, turning to the music of Nina Simone and the art of Carrie Mae Weems for inspiration. “A life was snuffed out, and having to revisit this every day, having to carry this in my body and feel the weight of it—it was very emotionally difficult,” Lofton says.

After finishing the poem, Lofton then filmed visual accompaniments in Atlanta, where he lives, capturing images of Black love as well as tragedy. Visual references include a hoodie that quotes Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I A Woman” speech and a confederate flag. “ I wanted to put historical reminders throughout the film that challenge this idea we live in a post-racial society,” he says.

DuVernay hopes to put out a new LEAP piece every month. “We have the funds to identify artists who want to get into the dirt with us and make art that stands in contrast to the standard narrative around police killing Black folk,” she says.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Breaking News LIVE: Top Headlines This Hour https://ift.tt/30mZeTB

The total number of global coronavirus cases has surpassed 35 million, including more than 1,066,000 fatalities. More than 27,629,990 patients are reported to have recovered. Follow this breaking news blog for live updates on the coronavirus pandemic as it continues to pose a challenge for health workers and scientists who are in a race against time to produce a vaccine/medicine. 

Trump nominates Amy Coney Barrett as next justice of Supreme Court https://ift.tt/36gC99f

President Donald Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Saturday, capping a dramatic reshaping of the federal judiciary that will resonate for a generation and that he hopes will provide a needed boost to his reelection effort.

FOX NEWS: Miniskirt named 'most iconic fashion statement of all time' in British survey

Miniskirt named 'most iconic fashion statement of all time' in British survey It’s official: Nobody remembers your sweet Members Only jacket from 1983. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/2yTg1Dn

4th Street Transit Lane Offers Muni a Path Forward

4th Street Transit Lane Offers Muni a Path Forward By Bonnie Jean von Krogh A new transit lane was installed last week   on 4th Street in SoMA as part of the previously approved 4th Street Transit Improvement Project . As the first transit lane put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, this change will help protect Muni passengers as congestion returns to city streets. Transit lanes allow buses to complete trips in less time and turn around back into service more quickly. That means with our limited resources, we can provide more Muni service with the same number of buses, reducing crowding and maintaining better physical distancing onboard. The benefits that transit lanes provide – saving time and avoiding congestion – have become critically important during COVID-19 to protect the health of Muni passengers. Physical distancing requirements mean that Muni’s passenger capacity is cut in a third from pre-COVID levels. When buses ...

FOX NEWS: Woman who had to cancel birthday trip because of coronavirus recreates entire vacation at home in viral video

Woman who had to cancel birthday trip because of coronavirus recreates entire vacation at home in viral video There will be no crying for this birthday. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/2Xwfa4W

Sushant Singh Rajput Death Case LIVE Updates: Actor's sister Shweta Singh Kirti hits back at Rhea Chakraborty https://ift.tt/3hEjyXe

Rhea Chakraborty's deleted WhatsApp chat has put the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in action. The team began their investigation on Thursday and reached Goa in search of Gaurav Arya, who was in contact with Sushant Singh Rajput's girlfriend Rhea in connection to buying and selling drugs. The move came after NCB filed an FIR against the actress and two others. On the other hand, Rhea Chakraborty's claims that Sushant's family didn't love him and he hadn't met his father in five years received a sharp reply from Sushant's sister Shweta Singh Kirti.

New top story from Time: What to Watch For In Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s First Presidential Debate

https://ift.tt/3kSr0zp Four years ago, Donald Trump prepared to debate his general-election opponent for the first time. Down in the polls to an experienced, traditional pol, he had been reduced to spreading weird rumors and casting doubt on the legitimacy of the vote, even as questions swirled about his personal finances. Now Trump is the incumbent president, and the conditions could not be more different as he prepares for his first debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden on Tuesday: a nation wracked by disease, disorder and disasters; an election neither candidate is treating like a foregone conclusion. And yet the similarities to 2016 are striking, from new questions about Trump’s taxes to another open Supreme Court seat . The main similarity, of course, is Trump—a singular political figure who has intensely polarized the nation. The debate, scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. Eastern at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, is especially momentous because voters ha...

New top story from Time: Swimmer Killed in Apparent Shark Attack Off Maine Coast

https://ift.tt/30QB2IN HARPSWELL, Maine — A woman was killed in an apparent shark attack off the coast of Maine on Monday, a rare occurrence that has only been recorded once before in the state by an unprovoked shark. Maine Marine Patrol said a witness saw the woman swimming off the shore of Bailey Island when she was injured in what appeared to be a shark attack. Two kayakers helped the person get to shore, and an ambulance provided further assistance, but she was pronounced dead at the scene, Marine Patrol said. The name of the woman was not available on Monday. There has only been one recorded unprovoked shark attack in Maine, New England shark expert James Sulikowski told the Portland Press Herald. Sulikowski, who researches for Arizona State University, said it’s possible the shark mistook the person for food. The state Marine Patrol is urging swimmers and boaters to use caution near Bailey Island and to avoid swimming near schooling fish or seals.

New top story from Time: ‘We’re Nowhere Close to the Deal’. Coronavirus Aid Package Talks Break Down as Trump Rejects Help for Cities

https://ift.tt/3098lHW WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday dismissed Democratic demands for aid to cash-strapped cities in a new coronavirus relief package and lashed out at Republican allies as talks stalemated over assistance for millions of Americans. Another lawmaker tested positive for the virus. Republicans, beset by delays and infighting, signaled a willingness to swiftly approve a modest package to revamp a $600 weekly unemployment benefit that’s running out. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., roundly rejected that approach as meager, all but forcing Republicans back to the negotiating table. Without action, the aid expires Friday. “We’re nowhere close to the deal,” said White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. He said they’re “miles apart.” Stark differences remain between the $3 trillion proposal from Democrats and $1 trillion counter from Republicans, a standoff that is testing Trump and Congress ahead of the November election and putting...

Geary Boulevard Improvement Project Update

Geary Boulevard Improvement Project Update By Amy Fowler Geary Boulevard is a critical east-west arterial and one of the busiest bus corridors in North America, connecting downtown San Francisco to the Richmond District. The SFMTA has been busy working on the second phase of planned improvements on Geary, called the Geary Boulevard Improvement Project , to improve Muni’s 38 Geary bus service and address traffic safety between 34th Avenue and Stanyan Street.  The project is building on the success of the Geary Rapid Project , which was recently completed on time and on budget and has already shown promising travel time savings on the eastern half of the Geary corridor.    Last fall, we asked neighbors in the Richmond about their priorities for transit, safety and driving issues on Geary via pop-up events on the corridor and a Virtual Open House. Thanks to input from over 600 community members , the SFMTA has used this feedback to draft the detailed, block-by-bloc...