Current
September 4-27, 2020
DOES MY VOICE COUNT?
Voter Suppression Then and Now
Photographs and Narrative by Jim Lemkin
Watch the Virtual Tour and Narration, created by Nick Verdi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9zljuoUa-8&t=75s
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Thursday, 12-5 pm; Friday, 12-8 pm; Saturday & Sunday 12 -5 pm. Closed Monday.
If you wish to make an appointment to see the show, please email lisathompson@apearts.org or meredithbove@apearts.org
Guidelines for visitors during COVID: Masks and hand sanitizing required, physical distancing, limit of 8 visitors at a time.
This September, A.P.E. Ltd. Gallery presents DOES MY VOICE COUNT? • Voter Suppression Then and Now, an exhibit of photographs spanning two moments in U.S. history, separated by 55 years, against a backdrop of a 400-year history of injustice and institutional racism. These photographs focus on only one aspect of that history—the attempt to suppress the voice and power of another.
About the Exhibit:
For millions of disenfranchised Blacks and people of color in the U.S., the 1965 Voting Rights Act marked the beginning of the end of voter suppression in Southern states. Within weeks of its passage, several civil rights groups issued a call to college students to come help register Black voters in Mississippi during the 1965 Christmas vacation. It was called Mississippi Freedom Christmas.
Jim Lemkin, a volunteer photographer heard the call and traveled the rural roads of Walthall County, Mississippi with a small group of other northern college students to help get the word out that voter suppression was now illegal. Against a backdrop of southern white resentment and hostility, the students went door-to-door, speaking with Black residents about their newly-won right to vote, and bringing them to a Federal registrar to complete the voter registration process. In March 2020, equipped with only an iPhone, Jim returned to the same county in Mississippi to learn what had changed in 55 years. He did interviews with several Mississippi Black elders and activists who were willing to tell their stories and talk about present day voting problems in Mississippi.
Today, voter suppression is far from over. In 2013, a key protection ensured by the Voting Rights Act was removed, opening the floodgates nationwide to evermore deliberate and unjust ways of suppressing the vote of people of color, minorities, the poor, the disadvantaged, and students. Handouts will be freely available at A.P.E. Gallery that discuss the forms of voter suppression that existed before the Voting Rights Act, and the present, even more pervasive suppressive laws
that exist in a majority of U.S. states. Also available will be an extensive list of organizations that need help to address voter suppression
Artist Statement
The vote is the voice, the breath, the spirit,
a great power that invigorates the quality of life in a democracy.
A democracy is a living organism. Democracy allows, even encourages different worldviews.
It thrives and is vital only when all of its parts harmoniously function and communicate together. Silence one part and the organism can never be fully healthy.
Does My Voice Count? documents two visits to Mississippi with a common theme: voter suppression. It is divided by time and political realities: The first trip was in 1965, a time immediately after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, which protected mainly southern Blacks from institutional disenfranchisement and racism in voting. As a 19 year old privileged, middle class White, I was invited into the lives of many Black persons and families as a guest in their community, to help them register
to vote for the first time.
In March, 2020, I went back to Mississippi to find out what had changed in their lives. It was seven years after the 2013 Supreme Court decision to roll back a key provision of the Act thus gutting its heart and soul. The rollback instantly opened the floodgates of evermore ingenious, deliberate and unjust ways to suppress the vote of an even greater number of people of color, the poor, elderly,
and disadvantaged.
___
It’s not only about politics. Voter suppression is usually thought of as a strictly political issue. Historically, all parties are guilty of this tactic: the party that controls local, county and state legislatures writes the rules for voting. Presently the majority of state legislatures in the U.S. are Republican controlled.
If we care about preserving our democracy, isn’t it time we reflect and act on this simple rule:
Treat each other as we would like to be treated? Has this perennial ideal that makes for a vitally functioning society fallen woefully by the wayside? Doesn’t true justice begin here?
In my view, only political strategies and actions grounded in moral courage, compassion, kindness
and wisdom will give us the contentment that our human collective seeks and needs.
I offer this exhibit as a hope to inspire viewers to
take action, protest and vote!
Jim Lemkin
DOES MY VOICE COUNT?
Voter Suppression Then and Now
Photographs and Narrative by Jim Lemkin
Watch the Virtual Tour and Narration, created by Nick Verdi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9zljuoUa-8&t=75s
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Thursday, 12-5 pm; Friday, 12-8 pm; Saturday & Sunday 12 -5 pm. Closed Monday.
If you wish to make an appointment to see the show, please email lisathompson@apearts.org or meredithbove@apearts.org
Guidelines for visitors during COVID: Masks and hand sanitizing required, physical distancing, limit of 8 visitors at a time.
This September, A.P.E. Ltd. Gallery presents DOES MY VOICE COUNT? • Voter Suppression Then and Now, an exhibit of photographs spanning two moments in U.S. history, separated by 55 years, against a backdrop of a 400-year history of injustice and institutional racism. These photographs focus on only one aspect of that history—the attempt to suppress the voice and power of another.
About the Exhibit:
For millions of disenfranchised Blacks and people of color in the U.S., the 1965 Voting Rights Act marked the beginning of the end of voter suppression in Southern states. Within weeks of its passage, several civil rights groups issued a call to college students to come help register Black voters in Mississippi during the 1965 Christmas vacation. It was called Mississippi Freedom Christmas.
Jim Lemkin, a volunteer photographer heard the call and traveled the rural roads of Walthall County, Mississippi with a small group of other northern college students to help get the word out that voter suppression was now illegal. Against a backdrop of southern white resentment and hostility, the students went door-to-door, speaking with Black residents about their newly-won right to vote, and bringing them to a Federal registrar to complete the voter registration process. In March 2020, equipped with only an iPhone, Jim returned to the same county in Mississippi to learn what had changed in 55 years. He did interviews with several Mississippi Black elders and activists who were willing to tell their stories and talk about present day voting problems in Mississippi.
Today, voter suppression is far from over. In 2013, a key protection ensured by the Voting Rights Act was removed, opening the floodgates nationwide to evermore deliberate and unjust ways of suppressing the vote of people of color, minorities, the poor, the disadvantaged, and students. Handouts will be freely available at A.P.E. Gallery that discuss the forms of voter suppression that existed before the Voting Rights Act, and the present, even more pervasive suppressive laws
that exist in a majority of U.S. states. Also available will be an extensive list of organizations that need help to address voter suppression
Artist Statement
The vote is the voice, the breath, the spirit,
a great power that invigorates the quality of life in a democracy.
A democracy is a living organism. Democracy allows, even encourages different worldviews.
It thrives and is vital only when all of its parts harmoniously function and communicate together. Silence one part and the organism can never be fully healthy.
Does My Voice Count? documents two visits to Mississippi with a common theme: voter suppression. It is divided by time and political realities: The first trip was in 1965, a time immediately after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, which protected mainly southern Blacks from institutional disenfranchisement and racism in voting. As a 19 year old privileged, middle class White, I was invited into the lives of many Black persons and families as a guest in their community, to help them register
to vote for the first time.
In March, 2020, I went back to Mississippi to find out what had changed in their lives. It was seven years after the 2013 Supreme Court decision to roll back a key provision of the Act thus gutting its heart and soul. The rollback instantly opened the floodgates of evermore ingenious, deliberate and unjust ways to suppress the vote of an even greater number of people of color, the poor, elderly,
and disadvantaged.
___
It’s not only about politics. Voter suppression is usually thought of as a strictly political issue. Historically, all parties are guilty of this tactic: the party that controls local, county and state legislatures writes the rules for voting. Presently the majority of state legislatures in the U.S. are Republican controlled.
If we care about preserving our democracy, isn’t it time we reflect and act on this simple rule:
Treat each other as we would like to be treated? Has this perennial ideal that makes for a vitally functioning society fallen woefully by the wayside? Doesn’t true justice begin here?
In my view, only political strategies and actions grounded in moral courage, compassion, kindness
and wisdom will give us the contentment that our human collective seeks and needs.
I offer this exhibit as a hope to inspire viewers to
take action, protest and vote!
Jim Lemkin