Community Resources Promoting Equality
Dear ICA Miami community,
In this moment of incredible anguish, we reaffirm that ICA Miami stands in solidarity with the community organizers, activists, and artists who denounce racism, police brutality, and systemic injustice in our society. I wanted to share with you an update about additional action the museum is taking to step up in our current moment and address systemic racism as an institution.
I have been proud to see many of our staff members protest and actively participate in our democracy, and to discuss with them and with audiences how ICA Miami can support and catalyze much-needed change. Art must connect to its time, or else it is irrelevant. Our mission is to provide a platform for “the exchange of art and ideas,” and we would fail if that did not include acknowledging the revolutionary ideas of our Black leaders. This is a commitment we have made since our founding, and have sought to achieve throughout exhibitions and education programs that represent the stories of our community.
To pursue this goal even more assertively, we are today committing that ICA Miami will take a fully majority-minority approach to our programming. In addition, this year and for the foreseeable future, we are dedicating 75% of our acquisitions budget to representing communities of color. We look forward to building on this commitment for years to come.
At present our staff has compiled a resource page to amplify important work by organizations and voices to correct racism and injustice, in continuation of our role as a platform and advocate. We hope that these materials can offer historical and theoretical complements to direct activism and inspire participation in effecting positive change. If we have missed something, or if you have suggestions that can help us better understand this international crisis, please share that with us here.
We mourn the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Tony McDade, among the countless others who have been victims of racialized police violence. Miami, like communities throughout this country, is profoundly impacted by forces of systemic oppression that affect our livelihoods, our cities, and our culture. As conscientious citizens rise up to demand radical change and equality, we acknowledge how much work we still have left to do.
South Florida Organizations
(F)EMPOWER: Intersectional feminist organization promoting decarceration for people of color through arts, performance, and protest.
PowerU: Education and empowerment programs for Black and Brown youth and Black women in South Florida.
LGBTQ+ Freedom Fund: Bail fund providing relief to jailed LGBTQ people in 15 states and counting.
The Circle of Brotherhood: Organization offering community service, economic development, crime prevention, conflict resolution and mediation, educational services, and youth mentorship.
Catalyst Miami: Nonprofit organization committed to solving issues adversely affecting low-wealth communities throughout Miami-Dade County.
ACLU of Greater Miami Chapter: Organization at the center of nearly every major civil liberties battle in the US for more than 100 years.
Maven Leadership: Collective investing in social impact leaders who are queer and trans people of color.
Sunshine Behavioral Health: a free resource that has free or low-cost sources for mental health treatment in the Black community.
Did we forget someone? Let us know.
National Organizations
Black Visions Collective: Minnesota-based black, trans, and queer-led organization committed to dismantling systems of oppression and violence.
Mutual Aid NYC: Mutual aid fund providing relief to the city of NYC.
Reclaim the Block: Coalition advocating for and investing in community-led safety initiatives in Minneapolis neighborhoods.
Campaign Zero: Organization using research-based policy solutions to end police brutality in the US.
Black AIDS Institute: Working to end the Black HIV epidemic through policy, advocacy, and high-quality direct HIV services.
Trans Cultural District: The world’s first legally recognized trans district, which aims to stabilize and economically empower the trans community.
NAACP: Preeminent organization fighting for the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination.
ICA Miami Community Partners
As we continue to show our solidarity in these times, we would like to highlight the partnerships we have within the community. These organizations listed are dedicated to providing resources to the communities that are greatly affected. Some of their efforts include aftercare programs, providing housing, intergenerational mentorship, intervention programs, and more. Learn more about ICA Miami Community Engagement here.
Breakthrough Miami: Educational organization using a unique “students-teaching-students” model to create a rigorous, vibrant learning community.
Girl Power: Prevention and intervention social change program that promotes positive behavior, enhances social skills and improves academic performance in at-promise girls ages 11 to 17.
Lotus House: Dedicated to improving the lives of homeless women, youth, and children through shelter, support, education, tools, and resources.
Miami Children’s Initiative: Organization focused on breaking the cycle of family poverty in Liberty City.
Overtown Youth Center: Youth development program that provides comprehensive services to at-risk youth.
PATH (Preserving, Archiving and Teaching Hip Hop): Organization teaching the history, philosophy, and main elements of Hip Hop culture to promote creativity, advance scholarship, strengthen leadership across generations.
Pridelines: Education, support, and resources for LGBTQ+ and questioning youth.
South Florida CARES Mentoring Movement: Community-mobilization initiative dedicated to healing the effects of centuries of structural disparities that are destroying multitudes of Black children’s lives.
Urgent Inc.: Youth and community development organization dedicated to empowering young minds to transform their communities.
Recommended Reading
Racism, Anti-Blackness and Protest
Vargas João Helion Costa. The Denial of Antiblackness: Multiracial Redemption and Black Suffering. Minneapolis: MN, 2018. (Buy)
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo, Moon-Kie Jung, and Vargas João Helion Costa. State of White Supremacy: Racism, Governance and the United States. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2011. (Buy)
Obama, Barack. “How to Make This Moment the Turning Point for Real Change,” June 1, 2020.
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me. Toronto: CNIB, 2016. (Buy)
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New Press, 2012. (Buy)
Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. New York: Penguin Random House, 2016. (Buy)
Eddo-Lodge, Reni. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race: The Sunday Times Bestseller. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014. (Buy)
DiAngelo, Robin. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. Boston: Beacon Press, 2018. (Buy)
Oluo, Ijeoma. So You Want to Talk About Race. New York: Seal Press, 2018. (Buy)
Morrison, Toni. The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2019. (Buy)
Kendi, Ibram X. How to Be an Antiracist. New York: One World, 2019. (Buy)
Kendi, Ibram X. Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. New York: Nation Books, 2016. (Buy)
Dr Loretta Ross, Smith College: Spring 2020 reading list.
Family and Children
“Talking about Racism and Bias: Resources for Parents and Caregivers.” Accessed June 3, 2020.
Davis, Heather Greenwood. “Talking to Kids about Race,” June 1, 2020.
NYT Reading List for Explaining Racism and Protest to Children.
Intersectional Feminism
Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought. New York / London: Routledge, 2009.
D’Souza, Aruna. Whitewalling. Art, Race & Protest in 3 Acts. New York: Badlands Unlimited, 2018. (Buy)
Hartman, Saidiya. “Venus in Two Acts”. Small Axe 12, no. 2, June 2008 (2008): p. 1-14.
Hartman, Saidiya. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2019. (Buy)
hooks, bell. Feminist Theory. From Margin to Center. Boston: South End Press, 1984.
Jackson, Phyllis J. “Liberating Blackness and Interrogating Whiteness”. In Art / Women / California 1950–2000: Parallels and Intersections, edited by Diana Burgess Fuller, Daniela Salvioni. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2002. (Buy)
James, Joy, and T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, eds. The Black Feminist Reader. Oxford, UK ; Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2000. (Buy)
Jones, Kellie, ed. Now Dig This! Art & Black Los Angeles 1960-1980. New York / London / Munich: Delmonico Prestel, 2011. (Buy)
Jones, Kellie. “Black West. Thoughts on Art in Los Angeles”. In EyeMinded. Living and Writing Contemporary Art, edited by Kellie Jones.Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2011. (Buy)
Jones, Kellie. South of Pico. African American Artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2017. (Buy)
Lorde, Audre. Sister Outsider. Crossing Press, 1984. (Buy)
Morris, Catherine, Rujeko Hockley, eds. We Wanted a Revolution. Black Radical Women 1965-85. A Sourcebook. Durham: Duke University Press, 2017. (Buy)
Morris, Catherine, Rujeko Hockley, eds. We Wanted a Revolution. Black Radical Women 1965-85. New Perspectives. Durham: Duke University Press, 2018. (Buy)
Rankine, Claudia. Citizen. An American Lyric. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2014. (Buy)
Sharpe, Christina. In the Wake: on Blackness and Being. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016. (Buy)
Spillers, Hortense. “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: An American Grammar Book”. Diacritics 17, no. 2 (1987): 65–81. (Buy)
Wang, Jackie. Carceral Capitalism. Semiotext(e), 2018. (Buy)
Event Timelines
George Floyd: New York Times, ABC News, Rolling Stone
Breonna Taylor: USA Today, WLKY Louisville
Tony McDade: Rolling Stone
Ahmaud Arbery: New York Times, Georgia Bureau of Investigation
Voices and Perspectives from ICA Channel
Key to our mission is a commitment to bringing underrepresented voices to the forefront and to providing a platform to acknowledge and explore pressing societal issues, including oppression in all forms. See below for videos that add to the conversation around community activism, the arts, and the Black experience.
Germane Barnes: We’re Here. Acknowledge Us.
During a Q&A session following his lecture at the Knight Foundation Art + Research Center, architect and urban designer Germane Barnes unpacks the significance behind the landmark Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C.
⏯ Watch Germane Barnes’ full talk on the role of the architect and architecture in today’s intersectional environment here.
ICA Ideas: Diamond Stingily in Conversation with Rindon Johnson
Artist and poet Rindon Johnson and Brooklyn-based artist Diamond Stingily discuss Stingily’s work included in her first solo museum presentation at ICA Miami, and myriad influences, including childhood memories, hair, fantasy, and the Amish.
⏯ Watch Diamond Stingily explain how the joy of Black art subverts expectations here.
ICA Stories: Matthew Angelo Harrison on “wrong history,” distance, and objective identity
Artist Matthew Angelo Harrison discusses how growing up with the “wrong history” and “books from a half-assed history class” inspired his practice, the significance of distance in his work, and how approaching identity from an objective perspective transcends the physical self.
Miami filmmaker Faren Humes gathers raw footage that she recorded at a Martin Luther King Parade in the Liberty City neighborhood from 2019. The images capture the joy and energy of community celebration but also suggests, through the presence of police lines and helicopters, the pervasive tensions of post-Civil Rights social relations.
Celebrating Juneteenth
Understanding Juneteenth
Editor. “Jun. 19, 1865: Reflecting on Juneteenth.” Equal Justice Initiative.
Juneteenth Events and Rallies
Konbit Against Police Brutality and Harassment (Friday, 4:30pm, Little Haiti): Rally on the corner of North Miami Avenue and 62nd St, Little Haiti, Miami, in support of victims of police brutality.
Juneteenth Black Movie Drive-In (Friday, 7:30pm, Miami Gardens): Celebrate Juneteenth with SocialXchange at their inaugural Drive-In Movie experience featuring a screening of Coming to America (dir. John Landis, 1988, USA).
9th Annual Juneteenth Food & Music Festival (Event, Friday, 8pm, Wynwood): Food, music, and activities hosted by the Hungry Black Man.
Juneteenth Virtual Events
BLKFREEDOM.org (Friday, all day): Video presentations on justice, freedom, and democracy will run throughout the day. The project is coordinated by Black museums and institutions from across the U.S., including Miami’s Black Archives Historic Lyric Theatre.
When Liberty Burns (Friday, all day): Miami Film Festival is hosting a virtual screening of this powerful and important documentary by Dudley Alexis, taking a look at the 1980 McDuffie riots in Miami’s Liberty City and other neighborhoods.
Zoomteenth (Friday, 5:30pm): This event by Florida New Majority is a virtual event “celebrating Black freedom, culture, and success.”
ACLU Online Discussion (Friday, 7pm): The Greater Miami chapter of the ACLU is hosting a Zoom meeting to discuss bringing independent civilian oversight to the county’s police department.