Wade in the Water is an oral history project mapping the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement. How have individual perspectives shifted? How did you cope?
The goal of Wade in the Water is to compose an image of the impact of the movement for Black lives has since the unrest in Ferguson in the summer and fall of 2014, from snapshots provided by a range of Black interviewees. When this all began, it seemed to some that it would blow over by the next news cycle. Now, some are comparing it to the Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s. Has the movemen
11/09/2016
Keeping the words of Jarrett Key in our hearts today: "We are more than just victims; we’ve been in this damn country for 400 and some-odd years. We built this country. We’re not victims. We can do this, we just have to be able to encourage and empower ourselves."
Hang in there, fam.
11/07/2016
Want to change criminal justice? Look at local judges and prosecutors. Did you know you can vote for local judges on election day? There’s still time to read up on your ballot.
Who’s Responsible for Mass Incarceration? Two major articles by criminal justice experts last week roundly criticized Hillary Clinton for her support of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Both pieces are brilliant— I suggest you read…
11/05/2016
What we’re reading this weekend: the local ballot and the address for our polling place. We’re getting our adventure gear on and not letting voter suppression stop us from casting the vote Black activists fought hard for us have. See you at the polls on Tuesday!
‘The Voter Suppression Trail’ Find out if your vote can survive the great, flawed adventure of American democracy.
09/18/2016
What we're reading this weekend: an interview with the author of Hidden Figures, the story of the Black female mathematicians who helped put Americans on the moon.
"The black experience isn’t exclusively slavery/civil rights/Obama. There are certain stories that are automatically on the trajectory, and anything that’s not on that is hidden in the shadows. Meanwhile, most people live their lives between those dots."
Margot Lee Shetterly Wants To Tell More Black Stories The author of “Hidden Figures” on black excellence, visibility in STEM fields and why imagination is paramount to social progress.
09/07/2016
Wade in the Water issue 1 is now available for purchase in Codify Art’s new online bookstore. Drop by for original books and zines by artists and writers of color, including our interviewees Jon and Jarrett Key!
Wade in the Water by Maya Meredith A Year of the Movement for Black Lives The movement for Black lives is in the news every other day—protesting on college campuses, demonstrating against police violence, and demanding answers to problems of racial justice from the county’s highest offices. But how do you keep fighting when the death...
07/31/2016
Watch this page on Monday, August 1! We’ll be premiering our new website, where you can dive into the full text of our interviews on the movement for Black lives—and look out for more to come.
We are all tired that this is still happening. But as our interviewee Sammy Sainthil pointed out in Issue 1 (with thanks to Ta-Nehisi Coates):
"We have to understand that if we’re doing this because we want it to be finished in our lifetime, we’re doing it for selfish reasons. We know the “revolution” won’t happen in our lifetimes, it’s just not realistic...
Liberation work is necessarily generational work. We’re building on the work of people who came before us, and died before they ever got to see the work. I’m pretty sure if anyone who sought to start a movement to make the world a better place only did it under the condition that it would be fulfilled within their lifetimes, no comprehensive movement would ever have been born."
We're still working. Expect big news from Wade in the Water at the end of this month.
05/18/2016
From tolerating microaggressions to battling impostor syndrome, for Black students getting through college can take more than passing exams. Read Wade in the Water Issue 2 to learn how students are coping and how others are fighting back.
05/16/2016
We’re excited to feature more work from Jarrett Key in Wade in the Water Issue 2, as he continues his work manipulating typography to explore issues of Black empowerment and protest.
05/14/2016
In Wade in the Water Issue 2, Artist Dáreece Jordan Walker’s emotionally charged paintings convey the hard truths of racism in the U.S. Explore his work further below!
05/12/2016
For many Black women, accepting a natural hairstyle is a political and a personal journey. Artist D. Myntia Daniels depicts her own story in her Repentance portraits. Check Issue 2 for the full series, or visit her website:
05/10/2016
In the new issue, Ivorian-American artist Marvin Touré discusses race issues in art school, and the crossword puzzle piece he created to challenge the racial climate in his MFA program. More from Marvin at: http://www.marvintoure.com/