The Great Barrington Project Presents Brooklyn Artist Delano Burrowes' "How do You See a Black Person?" Performed in His Mostly White Great Barrington,Mass. hometown.
Delano Burrowes, a Brooklyn writer and artist, will enact "How Do You See A Black Person?" several times on the streets of Great Barrington during the week of May 16, 2022. Anyone walking by will have the opportunity to sit and make eye contact for up to ten minutes with the Black person in front of them and consider whatever emotions/thoughts may be brought up by doing so. On May 22 there will be a free community event - co-organized with local activists - discussing the ideas of the project.
Great Barrington, MA, May 05, 2022 --(PR.com)-- The project is connected to the ideas and concepts of the Black writer W.E.B. Du Bois, specifically how Black people internalize the ideas that their existence is a problem, and are always aware of how they're seen - “double consciousness.” This conversation has become even more topical and relevant since BLM awareness has changed the conversations about race. Growing up in a predominantly white town, Delano Burrowes was always conscious that he was being observed and categorized, which took a psychological toll.
In “liberal” places like Great Barrington, it can be easy to overlook the different forms that racial biases can take. Car doors being locked upon seeing a Black face. Purses clutched closer to bodies. Disparity in how Black students are reprimanded in local schools. It wasn’t until he read Du Bois’s Souls of Black Folk as an adult, that Burrowes understood how deeply he’d been affected by his relationship as the “observed” at the expense of a relationship to himself.
With this project Delano Burrowes get to reclaim that experience - having control over being stared at and using it as the start of a conversation. He has the obvious connection to Du Bois, as a Black writer from Great Barrington, but there is also a personal connection. His late aunt Esther Dozier was minister of Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church, the same church Du Bois had attended as a child. Reverend Dozier was an activist and was very vocal about the need for Great Barrington to finally take efforts to acknowledge both Du Bois and its own attitudes about race. More than two decades later, the town has finally started to write some of these wrongs.
How Do You See A Black Person? asks participants to investigate the ways they have been conditioned - through media, advertising, politics, culture etc - to associate Blackness with being a problem. Double Consciousness is an awareness that others often see one's Blackness before they see the individual.
Marina Abramovic’s MoMA performance, which he saw in person, is an obvious inspiration for Burrowes's piece. The simple act of seeing and being seen was profoundly moving for participants and those of watching. He has also been influenced and inspired by Pope L., Tilda Swinton,Theaster Gates, Dread Scott (who gave him invaluable advice about this piece) and others.
Several times throughout the week, How Do You See A Black Person? will be enacted in unannounced public spaces. At the end of the week, there will be a free community listening/talking/seeing event at Saint James Place in Great Barrington. Black Berkshires residents will talk about their experiences and how they are seen and not seen in their communities. The GBP website has been collecting stories and several of those will be read by volunteers and actors. There will also be speakers who will discuss the consequences of being seen as “a problem” - physical and mental health, education, school to prison pipeline etc. Younger ( middle school ) residents will describe how they are seen and share their ideas on how changes can be made.
Though this piece is about Blackness, there’s also a universality to it. In a vastly divided country, we all need to question how we see each other. I hope people leave with more awareness of the different forms bias can take and how to do some of the work to help dismantle that within themselves.
Delano Burrowes is a Brooklyn artist and writer, originally from Great Barrington. His poems have been published in the Rumpus and his Huffpost essay was one of their most commented on pieces of 2021. His performance art has been performed in The Brooklyn Library, Museum of Modern Art (unsanctioned), and Repair the World Brooklyn. He was recently featured on the popular blog, Humans of New York, where he talked about growing up in Great Barrington. He is currently writing a memoir about overcoming addiction and internalized racism.
Delano Burrowes
413.429.1632
www.thegreatbarringtonproject.squarespace.com
thegreatbarringtonproject@gmail.com
ig@theodorehuxtable & @thegreatbarringtonproject
In “liberal” places like Great Barrington, it can be easy to overlook the different forms that racial biases can take. Car doors being locked upon seeing a Black face. Purses clutched closer to bodies. Disparity in how Black students are reprimanded in local schools. It wasn’t until he read Du Bois’s Souls of Black Folk as an adult, that Burrowes understood how deeply he’d been affected by his relationship as the “observed” at the expense of a relationship to himself.
With this project Delano Burrowes get to reclaim that experience - having control over being stared at and using it as the start of a conversation. He has the obvious connection to Du Bois, as a Black writer from Great Barrington, but there is also a personal connection. His late aunt Esther Dozier was minister of Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church, the same church Du Bois had attended as a child. Reverend Dozier was an activist and was very vocal about the need for Great Barrington to finally take efforts to acknowledge both Du Bois and its own attitudes about race. More than two decades later, the town has finally started to write some of these wrongs.
How Do You See A Black Person? asks participants to investigate the ways they have been conditioned - through media, advertising, politics, culture etc - to associate Blackness with being a problem. Double Consciousness is an awareness that others often see one's Blackness before they see the individual.
Marina Abramovic’s MoMA performance, which he saw in person, is an obvious inspiration for Burrowes's piece. The simple act of seeing and being seen was profoundly moving for participants and those of watching. He has also been influenced and inspired by Pope L., Tilda Swinton,Theaster Gates, Dread Scott (who gave him invaluable advice about this piece) and others.
Several times throughout the week, How Do You See A Black Person? will be enacted in unannounced public spaces. At the end of the week, there will be a free community listening/talking/seeing event at Saint James Place in Great Barrington. Black Berkshires residents will talk about their experiences and how they are seen and not seen in their communities. The GBP website has been collecting stories and several of those will be read by volunteers and actors. There will also be speakers who will discuss the consequences of being seen as “a problem” - physical and mental health, education, school to prison pipeline etc. Younger ( middle school ) residents will describe how they are seen and share their ideas on how changes can be made.
Though this piece is about Blackness, there’s also a universality to it. In a vastly divided country, we all need to question how we see each other. I hope people leave with more awareness of the different forms bias can take and how to do some of the work to help dismantle that within themselves.
Delano Burrowes is a Brooklyn artist and writer, originally from Great Barrington. His poems have been published in the Rumpus and his Huffpost essay was one of their most commented on pieces of 2021. His performance art has been performed in The Brooklyn Library, Museum of Modern Art (unsanctioned), and Repair the World Brooklyn. He was recently featured on the popular blog, Humans of New York, where he talked about growing up in Great Barrington. He is currently writing a memoir about overcoming addiction and internalized racism.
Delano Burrowes
413.429.1632
www.thegreatbarringtonproject.squarespace.com
thegreatbarringtonproject@gmail.com
ig@theodorehuxtable & @thegreatbarringtonproject
Contact
The Great Barrington Project
Delano Burrowes
413-429-1632
thegreatbarringtonproject.squarespace.com
Delano Burrowes
413-429-1632
thegreatbarringtonproject.squarespace.com
Contact
Categories