Portraits of Change Inspired by the Uprising
Exhibition opening: Friday, November 5 | 6:00pm. Sign up to attend the opening here.
Opening night events include a brief presentation from the artists and music by DJ DopeWave
Exhibition Dates: November 5-19, 2021
Savoy Gallery (unit 103) at The Savoy at Curtis Park
Portraits of Change is a provocative photo archival collection and short narrative film by husband & wife, Jonathan (Afro Indigenous) and Letishia Kelley (Diné) that documents the Minneapolis uprising in response to the murder of George Floyd and the counter protests at the 2020 Fourth of July GOP rallies held on sacred indigenous lands at Mount Rushmore without the permission of the Lakota Tribal Council.
Artists’ Statement:
“We witnessed the injustice of the police killing of an unarmed black man named George Floyd in Minneapolis. We saw how the Treaty of Fort Laramie between the Lakota Indigenous Tribes and the United States was broken again on July 3rd, 2020 as a Fourth of July celebration was held on sacred tribal lands without the approval of the Lakota Tribal Council. We’ve felt this current civil rights revolution coming to a boiling point in America and the Coronavirus only helped to push us past that breaking point in the summer of 2020. This historical collection of photographs and video footage that we captured of these protests for civil rights, reparations, justice, equality, and the returning of Indigenous lands will take you on an emotional visual journey through the various places we visited in 2020 such as Minneapolis and Mount Rushmore.” - Jonathan & Letishia
Convos with Gen Z
A provocative and lively intergenerational conversation between PlatteForum’s ArtLab High School Interns and community leaders and activists. ArtLab Interns will be discussing the social justice topics of Jonathan and Letishia’s work with invited leaders from the community.
Saturday, November 6 | 1:00pm
Exhibition on display November 5-19, 2021
Image information:
All images taken by Jonathan & Letishia KelleyTop row: Protesters at the Hennepin County Government building in Minneapolis, MN after the murder of George Floyd (May 28, 2020).Images bottom row: Protesters at the GOP 4th of July Celebration held on Lakota sacred lands without the permission of the Tribal government in Keystone, SD (July 3, 2020).