14 Jan 25th–Jan 31st, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Why Phoenix? As Dr. Rashad Shabazz, an associate professor in the schools of Social Transformation and Geographical Sciences & Urban Planning at ASU, tells it, he and Dr. Michael McQuarrie, the director of the university’s Center for Work and Democracy, were in Minneapolis in 2022 and attended an event called Rise & Remember on the anniversary of Floyd’s murder. The George Floyd Global Memorial hosted the event, which included an auction of the right to display some of the memorial offerings outside of Minnesota. The Center for Work and Democracy won the auction. Shabazz, who is a member of the Center for Work and Democracy and also on the board of the ASU Art Museum, asked museum director Miki Garcia if the pieces could be shown there. “This museum’s vision is to center art and artists in the service of social good and community well-being. That’s our purpose,” Garcia says. “If ASU’s charter is inclusivity and innovation, how do we think about that in the role of a university art museum? When we think about memorials out in the landscape, they are commissioned, they are artists, they are civic. But this is a people’s memorial, and this has a right to be acknowledged and honored just like all the memorials that are out in the public landscape. It felt for us like a really good proposal and idea to be in a museum,” she adds. Austin says it was important for the pieces to be seen outside Minneapolis, and the exhibit “ties the protests and the injus- tices together in a way that as activists we have already tied together and are supporting each other across the country. We are taking the voices of protest from the memorial and lending them to amplify the stories and the voices in Phoenix.” Shabazz says there are parallels between the ongoing problem of police brutality both in Minneapolis and Phoenix, and indeed, one of the first things the viewer sees in the exhibition is a list of some of the people who have been killed by Phoenix Police Department officers. “We think it’s also important to have it at a place like Arizona because Arizona and the Phoenix metropolitan area has a long history of racism, of anti-Black violence and police violence against Black and brown and Indigenous people and people with serious mental illnesses,” he says. “Our police department is currently under investigation with the Justice Department. We have a history of this here, and we hope this fosters a dialogue.” The exhibit “Twin Flames” is certain to foster dialogue, along with anger and tears. Set up in one large room on the second floor of the museum, about 500 signs are organized according to themes — Say Their Names, Justice?, Black Lives Matter, Community Brings Safety, and Solidarity. “They were left by the local community in Minneapolis, people throughout the state, throughout the nation and the world, to share their pain, their sorrow, their frustra- tions, their anger, their hope, their solidarity and their desire for possi- bility, and these signs are a collage of that,” Shabazz says. “They speak toward solidarity, they speak toward accountability, they speak toward hope and possibility, they speak toward acknowledging that Black lives are valuable and that they matter, they speak toward remembering our past, and they also speak toward the possibilities for a different future,” he adds. Out of the thousands of options, the pieces in “Twin Flames” were chosen by a Community of Practice that included Black Phoenix residents as young as 9 years old. The signs are big and small, square and round and heart-shaped. Some are written in Spanish. They’re scribbled on notebook paper, written in marker on bright poster board, angrily scrawled on the walls of cardboard boxes, painstakingly printed by small children who misspell “racism” and write their Ks backward. (All the signs in the exhibit that are written by children are placed lower on the wall so other children can see them better.) They read: “My Black Family Matters.” “Justice for George.” “You Don’t Need Tear Gas — We’re Already Crying.” “Am I Next?” “How Many Weren’t Filmed?” “Prosecute the Police.” “Nurses for Fair Treatment.” “Your Life Mattered, Mr. Floyd.” “No Justice, No Peace.” “My Blackness Is Not a Threat.” “Trans Black Lives Matter.” “The Power Top: Brittany Corales, Maria Esch, Dr. Rashad Shabazz and Miki Garcia. Corales is a curator at the ASU Art Museum. Esch is a researcher at ASU’s Center for Work and Democracy. Shabazz is an ASU professor. Garcia is the director of the ASU Art Museum. Bottom: More than 500 signs will be on display at the museum. (Photos by Mary Berkstresser) “WE ARE TAKING THE VOICES OF PROTEST FROM THE MEMORIAL AND LENDING THEM TO AMPLIFY THE STORIES AND THE VOICES IN PHOENIX.” Sacred Sparks from p 13 >> p 16