Introduction

I doubt anyone who lived through the year 2020 will ever forget it. The entire planet was forced to confront a worldwide pandemic unlike any that had been experienced in the previous 100 years. On May 25, 2020 the symptoms of the ongoing pandemic of racism were expressed in the murder of George Floyd. Black people have been telling the non-black community how members of law enforcement often brutalize us. This time, thanks to COVID-19 there was a captive audience who could not escape or deny what they saw in the national media. I knew the Bradley Center should have been collecting images of the protests in Los Angeles but it didn’t occur to me to photograph the protests myself. I was having quite a bit of anxiety about COVID-19. I could not see myself in the middle of crowds of people taking photographs. During a conversation with the Bradley Center’s Director of Special Projects, Dr. Karin Stanford, we both expressed deep regret that the Bradley Center was missing the opportunity to document possibly one of the most important movements of the twenty-first century. So I started photographing and recording Los Angeles protests taking place all over the city, from June through October, 2020. The experience was exhilarating, sometimes dangerous, and always illuminating. I will never forget the people I recorded, who passionately and selflessly protested, marched, spoke, and demanded justice and equality for Black people in this country. Hopefully, the visitors to this exhibition will leave with a better understanding of why people would risk their lives during a deadly viral pandemic to confront an unjust social pandemic.

Curation by Keith Rice and Claire Gordon
Photography by Keith Rice and Taylor Walker
Additional photographs provided by
Nicholas Soracco and
Raquel Natalicchio www.RaquelNatalicchio.com
@rockmyworldrocky ( IG )