While interning for the Education Department at Levine Museum of the New South this summer, I've heard community members time and again comment, “Now, the Levine Museum does history the right way.” Over the course of this summer, I've increasingly understood what it means to “do history” the “right way.”
Growing up in small-town North Carolina, I had a very limited understanding of history—especially when it came to the history of the South. Like many other Southern children, I was taught to believe and accept that Stonewall Jackson was a great leader and that the Confederate flag was an acceptable symbol of Southern identity. It was not until I started studying Anthropology in college that I started to ask myself questions about how history is made, published and taught.
Traditionally, history has been fabricated based on limited perspectives and the loudest voices in the room. In other words, power plays a major role in the shaping of history. Just as the accumulation of power has depended on socially constructed factors-- race, skin color, displays of wealth—the ability to write and tell history has been centralized along similar constructs. As a result, what we know of events, people, culture and places are really objects of partial histories and partial truths. These are problematic in that they are only a sliver of the many perspectives that actually exist.
Levine Museum has sought to break away from the classical museum model by employing a bottom-up approach. It seeks to allow community members to speak for themselves and tell their own stories. Ranging from the use of listening sessions to collect community input on exhibit design to programming pop-up sessions to collect oral stories, Levine Museum is inclusive of narratives across the spectrum of race, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion and more. Emphasis is placed on self-representation and the multiplicity of voices and perspectives.
Last spring the Museum hosted Out of the Shadows: Undocumented and Unafraid, an artfully crafted exhibit from artist Annabel Manning and curator Carla Hanzal, which featured names, photos and narratives of undocumented students around North Carolina. The exhibit was particularly exemplary of the museum’s approach as it empowered and gave voice to a population of students who have been systematically disfranchised and disempowered. In July, the Museum opened LGBTQ: Perspectives on Equality which also took on the approach of having visitors and community members tell their stories and influence what direction the exhibits and programming should take.
Such exhibits not only make what we do authentic so that it resonates with visitors and their thinking we did the history “right;” but more importantly, they serve as community safe space where stories are validated and appreciated as threads of a richer community fabric.
~Yeeva Cheng, Education Intern
What other stories would you like to see told?
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Out of the Shadows: Undocumented and Unafraid is a participatory art project, conceived and orchestrated by artist Annabel Manning. Immigrant youth from Charlotte and the Triangle area of North Carolina collaborated with Manning to create portraits, which were then digitally altered to portray the youth's visible and invisible status simultaneously. Compelling and personal, the pieces featured in the exhibit demonstrate how art can be a deliberative and imaginative forum for exploring complex issues about immigrant labor, education, and legal status.
Please meet activist and artist, "Touchdown"
Does the concept of being both visible and invisible relate to your experience, and if so, how?
Yes. I participate in this society as any other regular person but then there are moments that always remind you that you are not quite the regular person…that there is something missing and that it will limit you. Traditionally, before growing to questioning the immigration system and all that benefit from its lack of working, I understood that not having legal status must be kept secret or invisible as much as possible. Every day was about negotiating identity in a home that is not “your own.” Even today with all the empowerment that has come from being involved in the immigrant youth rights movement, it is still difficult to branch out outside of social justice circles and be fully visible. You don’t know how people will react…to a certain point one may not care but the fact is that the system in which daily life functions with things such as employment, you must be kept invisible or at least the full you and your identity must not be known. At the end of the day it is still a liability upon which many things depend on.
When did you first become aware of your circumstance of being undocumented? What is it like to be undocumented?
I became aware of this status upon crossing the border by foot with my family. Additionally, it became evident that I was different when I was in school K-12th grade. I was very aware of this immigration status because everything was pointing in the direction of hiding it or making it invisible and just faking it but as youth sometimes that is the last thing you are willing to do. I did not want to participate in a mock presidential election at my elementary school because I had to vote and I knew then that was not allowed for someone like me who did not have a social security number. For me being undocumented became about learning how to negotiate my presence anywhere I went and often being very scared to open what I thought would be a Pandora's box type of situation. However, you learn that life has to continue and if you don’t go back to “your” country then you have to learn the ins and outs of living while being “illegal.” This encompasses everything from your friendships to your goals to the practical thing of getting fake social security numbers in order to get a job somewhere. That’s the truth. This country and its politicians push us to these fringes in which we have to make decisions for which results in either direction have you as the “illegal” losing out.
What is your dream for immigration reform?
I don’t dream about immigration reform…anymore. I just dream of an empowered community that comes to understand that with or without immigration reform we are worth it and must not live afraid. If there is no reform then I would hope that undocumented people would live life being unafraid and willing to risk it all in this country because the alternative means losing our dignity.
What does coming out of the shadows mean for you?
Coming out of the shadows for me means a process of healing. It does not necessarily get rid of the fear. Coming out of the shadows means you allow yourself to consider the possibilities of being deported or targeted and having a plan of action for that. It means breathing like you own yourself and your future instead of a nine digit number. It is only the beginning of a longer term process for liberation.
Out of the Shadows: Undocumented and Unafraid is on display now through June 29, 2014.
Tell us below what does activism mean to you.
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Out of the Shadows: Undocumented and Unafraid is a participatory art project, conceived and orchestrated by artist Annabel Manning. Immigrant youth from Charlotte and the Triangle area of North Carolina collaborated with Manning to create portraits, which were then digitally altered to portray the youth's visible and invisible status simultaneously. Compelling and personal, the pieces featured in the exhibit demonstrate how art can be a deliberative and imaginative forum for exploring complex issues about immigrant labor, education, and legal status.
Please meet artist and activist, Annabel Manning
What impact do you hope “Out of the Shadows” will have on the public?
I hope that the artwork in Out of the Shadows: Undocumented and Unafraid will show the public how it feels to be in this state of being invisible and without rights.
I am also interested in the complicity that all the documented (myself included) should feel for the predicament of the undocumented because we are partially responsible for it. I believe all U.S. citizens are complicit because we are benefiting from the work and culture of the Latinos and because, directly or indirectly, we help to make or keep them invisible. My hope is that the public will develop a sense of responsibility for this issue and fight for the rights that the undocumented youth deserve.
How has this Movement changed you?
The visibility in the general public in North Carolina that the student youth have attained thus far has inspired me to expand this project. The goal is to provide even more Latino undocumented youth (and their families) with art tools that allow them to express themselves visually and to engage the public in discussions or confrontations about the youth’s specific dreams and demands for immigration reform.
How did you choose the medium for your artwork?
The show includes photographs, sunprints, monoprints, and a digital installation (with camera, mirror and projection) – all reflecting the youth’s experiences of feeling invisible in their communities, outside their families and friends, separating them into two selves: how they see themselves versus how others see them. This theme emerged from my discussions with them and then we adopted the mediums to capture it in multiple ways.
What does activism mean to you?
To be able to create participatory art activities with communities like Immigrant Youth Forum (IYF) and United 4 the Dream (U4TD) to engage the public in discussions or confrontations about the youth’s dreams, fears, and demands regarding civil rights, education, labor, and citizenship.
Out of the Shadows: Undocumented and Unafraid is on display now through June 29, 2014.
Tell us below what does activism mean to you.
Be sure to follow us on Twitter, tag us on Instagram and like us on Facebook.
