witness poets
May all who witness, also act. That witnessing is never still but rather an embodied-living-breathing experience
Witness poets (by Palestinian writer, poet and scholar Mosab Abu Toha)
Witness trees
Witness sky
Witness ecosystem
Witness elders
Witness youth
Witness artists
Witness grief
Witness dust
May all who witness, also act
That witnessing is never still but rather an embodied-living-breathing experience
And here we are on day 89 of the genocide in Palestine
20,000+ people have been killed
We have to act
Ceasefire now
All film photographs in this newsletter are part of an ongoing collaborative series of double exposure/shared views with Nicholas Valdes, 2023- ongoing
The first part of this newsletter is a BULLETIN BOARD with upcoming and current shows, projects, book releases and events, that I hope you will come to and share with your communities.
And the second part is ROOTS, WEBS, NETS, and BRANCHES. A written offering, sharing of work, expansion of what's going on in my studio, practice and brain.
This part is paid and I invite you to support my work for $5 a month, $50 a year or become a founding member for $150 a year
ROOTS WEBS NETS BRANCHES BULLETIN BOARDS is my practice, is labor, is my work.
Part 1. BULLETIN BOARD
We Hold
On view from December 1, 2023- February 29, 2024
Screening at the top of the hour, 24 hours a day
8775 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA
‘We Hold’ started as a series of collages that weaved worlds and resistance legacies, made while I was living in Richmond, VA. Questions about who holds resistance histories in and around the neighborhoods we reside in and how do they get archived, asking local activists about where and how I can learn of the struggles fought in this city, asking questions about how to find Black Queer community, learning through and with new language, getting clearer about the connective tissue between Oakland, CA and Richmond, VA and all past-present-future homes, learning to live and make home and community through questions asked, answering all my questions through Black Queer activists opening up their porches as sacred sanctuary, weaving within and feeding the deep resistance, liberation and survival fabric of a soon to be new home.
In the Summer/Fall of 2023, that same series of paper collages were then used in the creation of this animation. Huge shoutout to Sair Goetz for their outstanding motion graphics support. Lifting letters off the page and into action, giving breath to question marks and deep care to every minute of this new piece. And to Jeanne Vaccaro for curating me into this incredible series!
LAST WEEK: On view from July 7, 2023- January 7, 2024, Thursday-Sunday, 11am-5pm
Lewis Gallery, MOCA Cleveland, Cleveland, OH
Highlighted Press: The Defining Exhibitions of the Year, Art News and Art in America Review
Featuring work by Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Pelenakeke Brown, Sky Cubacub, Emilie Louise Gossiaux, Felicia Griffin, Joselia Rebekah Hughes, Jeff Kasper and Finnegan Shannon.
Finnegan Shannon is a creator of loopholes. Their work is mischievous, methodically chipping away at traditional museum practices. By framing institutional change as artwork, the pace of possibility quickens. With Shannon at the helm, Don’t mind if I do is an experiment in more deeply collaborative exhibition-making, demonstrating how even temporary changes in power structures create pathways of access for visitors, artists, and staff.
This project is the realization of my access fantasy !!
I’m disabled and I need to sit and I love to sit. I’ve been dreaming about an exhibition where instead of having to move from artwork to artwork, I could sit somewhere comfortable and have the artwork come to me. So voilà! A conveyor belt of artworks surrounded by a variety of seating options.
When planning this project, a big question was: what artwork should the conveyor carry? The artists, writers, and thinkers featured nourish my life and practice, and I can’t resist a chance to share their work. Each of the objects presented asks for varied ways of interacting and opens up possibilities for how and what an artwork can convey.
-Finnegan Shannon
Palestine Will Live Forever
Collaborative edition with Ghost Proposal
Order free copies here, they ship anywhere in the United States of America
Please march in the streets with this work, put it up in your public facing windows, gift to a beloved, become a tool for you to learn from and with Palestinian people in their fight for self determination and land back!
In honor of this new and continued year, I want to introduce a new vessel that I will be sharing work within,
The weekly broadcast: Footnotes & Headlines, is the connective tissue and on going webbing of my work, is the forecast, the check in, the dispatch, the pulse, the ritual of coming together every week, is grief bubbling big big, is tired words, is an invitation, demand
is named after a book published by Corita Kent, Footnotes & Headlines in 1967, which is a book full of prayers, demands, notations, pages full of brightly colored words bringing us in close, is writing, is spell making,
Footnotes & Headlines is only viewable to paid subscribers
is a whisper to join today, to receive these weekly works, like a gift in your pocket every week, is $5 a month, $50 a year or become a founding member for $150 a year
if you are already subscribed, thank you! You will automatically get these weekly dispatches.
Footnotes & Headlines is letters becoming poems becoming banners becoming kites
How many witness poets in the world are still alive?
*Tweeted Mosab Abu Toha on December 31, 2023
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