Justice for Trayvon Rallies Across the US Today

by Gregg Chadwick

Sometimes an image can cut through ignorance and provide a context for understanding and empathy. Today two photos from the more than 100 Justice for Trayvon Martin Rallies across the country struck me deeply:

Black Life Matters
from #JusticeforTrayvon Rally, July 20, 2013 in Atlanta Georgia
photo via @ajc and @thinkprogress

I Am Not A Suspect
from #JusticeforTrayvon Rally, July 20, 2013 in New York City

Towards A MORE Perfect Union: President Obama’s Remarks on Trayvon Martin (full transcript)

President Obama's Remarks About the Killing of Florida Teenager Trayvon Martin and "Stand Your Ground" Laws on Friday, July 19, 2013 at the White House
(full transcript and video)

The reason I actually wanted to come out today is not to take questions, but to speak to an issue that obviously has gotten a lot of attention over the course of the last week, the issue of the Trayvon Martin ruling. I gave a preliminary statement right after the ruling on Sunday, but watching the debate over the course of the last week I thought it might be useful for me to expand on my thoughts a little bit.



First of all, you know,  I want to make sure that, once again, I send my thoughts and prayers, as well as Michelle’s, to the family of Trayvon Martin, and to remark on the incredible grace and dignity with which they have dealt with the entire situation. I can only imagine what they’re going through, and it’s remarkable how they’ve handled it.

The second thing I want to say is to reiterate what I said on Sunday, which is there are going to be a lot of arguments about the legal issues in the case. I’ll let all the legal analysts and talking heads address those issues.

The judge conducted the trial in a professional manner. The prosecution and the defense made their arguments. The juries were properly instructed that in a case such as this, reasonable doubt was relevant, and they rendered a verdict. And once the jury’s spoken, that’s how our system works.

But I did want to just talk a little bit about context and how people have responded to it and how people are feeling. You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago. And when you think about why, in the African- American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it’s important to recognize that the African- American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that - that doesn’t go away.

There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me.

And there are very few African-American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a Senator. There are very few African-Americans who haven’t had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often.

And you know, I don’t want to exaggerate this, but those sets of experiences inform how the African-American community interprets what happened one night in Florida. And it’s inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear.

The African-American community is also knowledgeable that there is a history of racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws, everything from the death penalty to enforcement of our drug laws. And that ends up having an impact in terms of how people interpret the case.

Now, this isn’t to say that the African-American community is naive about the fact that African-American young men are disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system, that they are disproportionately both victims and perpetrators of violence. It’s not to make excuses for that fact, although black folks do interpret the reasons for that in a historical context.

We understand that some of the violence that takes place in poor black neighborhoods around the country is born out of a very violent past in this country, and that the poverty and dysfunction that we see in those communities can be traced to a very difficult history.

And so the fact that sometimes that’s unacknowledged adds to the frustration. And the fact that a lot of African-American boys are painted with a broad brush and the excuse is given, well, there are these statistics out there that show that African-American boys are more violent -- using that as an excuse to then see sons treated differently causes pain.

I think the African-American community is also not naive in understanding that statistically somebody like Trayvon Martin was probably statistically more likely to be shot by a peer than he was by somebody else.

So -- so folks understand the challenges that exist for African- American boys, but they get frustrated, I think, if they feel that there’s no context for it or -- and that context is being denied. And -- and that all contributes, I think, to a sense that if a white male teen was involved in the same kind of scenario, that, from top to bottom, both the outcome and the aftermath might have been different.

Now, the question for me at least, and I think, for a lot of folks is, where do we take this? How do we learn some lessons from this and move in a positive direction? You know, I think it’s understandable that there have been demonstrations and vigils and protests, and some of that stuff is just going to have to work its way through as long as it remains nonviolent. If I see any violence, then I will remind folks that that dishonors what happened to Trayvon Martin and his family.

But beyond protests or vigils, the question is, are there some concrete things that we might be able to do? I know that Eric Holder is reviewing what happened down there, but I think it’s important for people to have some clear expectations here. Traditionally, these are issues of state and local government -- the criminal code. And law enforcement has traditionally done it at the state and local levels, not at the federal levels.

That doesn’t mean, though, that as a nation, we can’t do some things that I think would be productive. So let me just give a couple of specifics that I’m still bouncing around with my staff so we’re not rolling out some five-point plan, but some areas where I think all of us could potentially focus.

Number one, precisely because law enforcement is often determined at the state and local level, I think it’d be productive for the Justice Department -- governors, mayors to work with law enforcement about training at the state and local levels in order to reduce the kind of mistrust in the system that sometimes currently exists.

You know, when I was in Illinois I passed racial profiling legislation. And it actually did just two simple things. One, it collected data on traffic stops and the race of the person who was stopped. But the other thing was it resourced us training police departments across the state on how to think about potential racial bias and ways to further professionalize what they were doing.

And initially, the police departments across the state were resistant, but actually they came to recognize that if it was done in a fair, straightforward way, that it would allow them to do their jobs better and communities would have more confidence in them and in turn be more helpful in applying the law. And obviously law enforcement’s got a very tough job.

So that’s one area where I think there are a lot of resources and best practices that could be brought bear if state and local governments are receptive. And I think a lot of them would be. And -- and let’s figure out other ways for us to push out that kind of training.

Along the same lines, I think it would be useful for us to examine some state and local laws to see if it -- if they are designed in such a way that they may encourage the kinds of altercations and confrontations and tragedies that we saw in the Florida case, rather than diffuse potential altercations.

I know that there’s been commentary about the fact that the stand your ground laws in Florida were not used as a defense in the case.

On the other hand, if we’re sending a message as a society in our communities that someone who is armed potentially has the right to use those firearms even if there’s a way for them to exit from a situation, is that really going to be contributing to the kind of peace and security and order that we’d like to see?

And for those who resist that idea that we should think about something like these “stand your ground” laws, I just ask people to consider if Trayvon Martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk? And do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting Mr. Zimmerman, who had followed him in a car, because he felt threatened? And if the answer to that question is at least ambiguous, it seems to me that we might want to examine those kinds of laws.

Number three -- and this is a long-term project: We need to spend some time in thinking about how do we bolster and reinforce our African-American boys? And this is something that Michelle and I talk a lot about. There are a lot of kids out there who need help who are getting a lot of negative reinforcement. And is there more that we can do to give them the sense that their country cares about them and values them and is willing to invest in them?

You know, I’m not naive about the prospects of some brand-new federal program.

I’m not sure that that’s what we’re talking about here. But I do recognize that as president, I’ve got some convening power.

And there are a lot of good programs that are being done across the country on this front. And for us to be able to gather together business leaders and local elected officials and clergy and celebrities and athletes and figure out how are we doing a better job helping young African-American men feel that they’re a full part of this society and that -- and that they’ve got pathways and avenues to succeed -- you know, I think that would be a pretty good outcome from what was obviously a tragic situation. And we’re going to spend some time working on that and thinking about that.

And then finally, I think it’s going to be important for all of us to do some soul-searching. You know, there has been talk about should we convene a conversation on race. I haven’t seen that be particularly productive when politicians try to organize conversations. They end up being stilted and politicized, and folks are locked into the positions they already have.

On the other hand, in families and churches and workplaces, there’s a possibility that people are a little bit more honest, and at least you ask yourself your own questions about, am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can; am I judging people, as much as I can, based on not the color of their skin but the content of their character? That would, I think, be an appropriate exercise in the wake of this tragedy.

And let me just leave you with -- with a final thought, that as difficult and challenging as this whole episode has been for a lot of people, I don’t want us to lose sight that things are getting better. Each successive generation seems to be making progress in changing attitudes when it comes to race. I doesn’t mean that we’re in a postracial society. It doesn’t mean that racism is eliminated. But you know, when I talk to Malia and Sasha and I listen to their friends and I see them interact, they’re better than we are. They’re better than we were on these issues. And that’s true in every community that I’ve visited all across the country.

And so, you know, we have to be vigilant and we have to work on these issues, and those of us in authority should be doing everything we can to encourage the better angels of our nature as opposed to using these episodes to heighten divisions. But we should also have confidence that kids these days I think have more sense than we did back then, and certainly more than our parents did or our grandparents did, and that along this long, difficult journey, you know, we’re becoming a more perfect union -- not a perfect union, but a more perfect union.

Springsteen Sings 41 Shots (American Skin) in Memory of Trayvon Martin

by Gregg Chadwick

 

Today in Ireland, Bruce Springsteen dedicated his powerful song 41 Shots (American Skin) with a call to justice for Trayvon Martin. The verdict in the Zimmerman case was tainted by the stench of ALEC's odious "Stand Your Ground" legislation.  "Stand Your Ground" laws are abhorrent. They are fundamentally biased. A recent study has shown that white people who kill black people in 'Stand Your Ground' states are 354% more likely to be acquitted of murder. 

Denise, an active duty US Marine, wrote a compelling argument against the jury's decision on twitter tonight, "If a man watches a woman while he is in his SUV, follows that woman in the dark and kills her because she fought him. Is he justified?"

As I write, more than one million  Americans have signed petitions demanding federal civil rights charges against Zimmerman. There is no doubt that Zimmerman killed Trayvon and yet has not spoken one word of remorse. Instead Zimmerman, called his violent act, "God's will."  

Thank You Bruce for dedicating this song to the memory of a young man cut down in a senseless violent act. Justice for Trayvon!

Winter In America

Today's sad verdict - a reminder of Gil Scott-Heron's song "Winter in America" http://youtu.be/kcHOq8i5Pyk ‪#‎TrayvonMartin‬ nod to @texyellowdogdem

Il Poeta di Milano at Dwell on Design With Saatchi Online

Saatchi Online ‏@saatchionline2h

"Il Poeta di Milano" by Gregg Chadwick #DOD2013 #7DaysOfDesign #art Visit us at Booth 1300 @ Dwell On… http://instagram.com/p/a1ftk7jQZi/ 

Gregg Chadwick
Il Poeta di Milano (The Poet of Milan)
24"x18" oil on linen 2012

Dwell on Design

Dwell on Design, America’s largest design event, 

returns to the Los Angeles Convention Center 

June 21-23, 2012. Curated by the editors of Dwell magazine, 

the three-day celebration brings together 

the best and brightest products, services,

 and thought leaders in modern design today 

for a series of conversations, demonstrations, tours, 

and much more. 

In addition to featuring over 350 exhibitors on the show floor, 

Dwell on Design encourages an ongoing design dialogue, 

showcasing over 70 presentations on three separate stages. 

LEARN MORE

Show Hours
Friday, June 21       10:00am - 7:00pm

Saturday, June 22   10:00am - 6:00pm

Sunday, June 23     10:00am - 4:00pm 

A Tribute to Gandolfini

by Gregg Chadwick

Yesterday in Coventry, Bruce Springsteen dedicated a live full-album performance of Born to Run to the recently-departed actor James Gandolfini. Born to Run is a cinematic album that conjures up the noirish romance of New York and New Jersey seen through the eyes of a youthful protagonist. Unspoken desires and Jersey lowlifes haunt this character as he roams a landscape of broken dreams from the break of day until the dark morning hours. Gandolfini's characters seemed to embody this endless search for something more, something bigger, something more real.  Gandolfini will be deeply missed.





Video: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Play Meeting Across The River for James Gandolfini in Coventry on June 20, 2013

Little Steven and James Gandolfini on April 7, 2002, during a Hard Rock Cafe Presents "Little Steven's Underground Garage" radio show at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York.
photo by Kevin Mazur / Wire Image

 

Video: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Play Backstreets  for James Gandolfini in Coventry on June 20, 2013

A Toast to Hannah

Communicating the loss of a loved one is never easy. It is best done in person but words alone can also provide light in a difficult time. With deep sadness I have to send on news about the death of our beloved family member Hannah Johnson. Hannah passed away Sunday night in a traffic accident, and her husband Matt is fighting for his life in a hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. (Update on Hannah's Husband Matt: Matt is coherent, awake, conversant and stood up today!!)

Hannah believed deeply that all are created equal and that we all deserve an equal share of human rights. Hannah worked tirelessly for marriage equality in California and New Jersey. 

Pictured in this New York Times photo from 2009 is my courageous family member Hannah Johnson tearing up as she applauds a New Jersey Senate committee vote on a bill to legalize gay marriage. The struggle continues in New Jersey and in California

photo by Richard Perry / New York Times

Troy Stevenson, the director of Garden State Equality, wrote about Hannah's passing:

"This is a horrible loss for our organization, our movement, and many of us personally. The last time I spoke to Hannah was just over a year ago, on the day we passed marriage equality. She was my first call. I thanked her for all the work she and her team put in and we cried together about finally getting the votes we had fought so hard for. She told me then how much all of you meant to her, and how the work she did in New Jersey was the most important work she had ever done... That is the effect you had on her, she wanted nothing more than to bring equality to each of you, and to all of New Jersey. In the coming days, we will organize a memorial to celebrate Hannah’s life, and we will share those details when we have them. For now, I think it is important that we lean on each other for support. Some of you may not have known Hannah, but your fellow Garden State Equality members did, and trust me, she was one of the most amazing souls I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. Those who didn’t know her would have loved her if you had, and those that did will love her forever...

As for me, I will never forget her; I will fight even harder in her memory, and I know that each of you will do the same. So, remember, when we win the freedom to marry, and we will win very soon, the first toast goes to Hannah."

For me, I am reminded by Hannah's passing to remember that we are called to take care of each other. Life is precious. Enjoy every second. 

And I know, with Hannah in mind, that I will fight for LGBTQ equality and human rights for all until the end of my days.

As an enlightened sage recently said to me, " Don't waste a single fucking moment of your life."

Love,
Gregg 

A celebration of Hannah's life will be held Saturday, May 25, 2013 at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, Madison, WI, 53705. 

Hannah's family will be there at 4:00 to welcome friends and family. The service will begin at 5:00. Fellowship and light refreshments will follow the service.

The family is asking that in lieu of flowers, memorials be directed to "Hannah's Fund for Matt" 

at Greenwood's State Bank, 117 No. Main St, Lake Mills, WI, 53551.

PS  Hannah was about to embark on a new journey as a teacher at an amazing school in Baltimore, Maryland.

Please watch the videos below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gGY-rwPefk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQgWNSBKq8k

More at:

http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/schools/annapolis-high-student-teacher-dies-in-wreck-in-boston/article_4d4cf885-914a-50bb-8a98-91a1f1402f8a.html

Hannah Marie Sinsky Johnson LeBlanc, June 28, 1983 - May 20, 2013

Sandra Lee and Artist Gregg Chadwick at artMRKT San Francisco

Sandra Lee and Artist Gregg Chadwick at artMRKT San Francisco, a photo by GreggChadwick on Flickr.

I Canti at #artMRKT SF

I Canti at #artMRKT SF, a photo by GreggChadwick on Flickr.

Thanks to everyone at artMRKT San Francisco for making the event such a big success. I hope to see all of you that I met in San Francisco again real soon. Maybe next time in Santa Monica?

A Painted Journey Down the Grand Canal

Canaletto's The Grand Canal in Venice from Palazzo Flangini to Campo San Marcuola, painted around 1738, provides the viewer a gondola ride down Venice's Grand Canal. Compare the 18-century city to the way it looks today in this video produced by the Getty Museum in honor of the painting's recent acquisition.

Music: Antonio Vivaldi: Oboe Concerto in C major (RV 447), Advent Chamber Orchestra. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

What’s New This Month: May, 2013

Gregg Chadwick
l'Horloge de Baudelaire
40"x30" oil on linen 2013

My paintings will be showcased in the Sandra Lee Gallery booth 

at artMRKT San Francisco - an international art fair held May 16-19, 2013 

Festival Pavilion - Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, California. 

I will be speaking at the upcoming “Categorically Not” event on Sunday May 19, 2013 at the Santa Monica Art Studios about my painting process and “what lies beneath” the layers of paint and the layers of ideas that go into each of my works. 

The event will be held in the Arena One Gallery. 

You can see more on this event at the Categorically Not website. 

Gregg Chadwick
Study for the City Dreams
12"x12" oil on linen 2012

My painting Study for the City Dreams will be in the Silent Art Auction at The 34th anniversary of the Venice Art Walk & Auctions which will take place on Sunday, 

May 19th, 2013 at Google Los Angeles in the Frank Gehry designed Binoculars Building

Review by Jeffrey Carlson in Fine Art Connoisseur:

Gregg Chadwick and Painting Time    

Astronaut Performs David Bowie's Space Oddity While Orbiting the Earth

by Gregg Chadwick

Tonight, a stunning cover of David Bowie's Haunting song Space Oddity was released from space by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station. The imagery is stunning, reminiscent of the film Moon directed by David Bowie's son Duncan Jones. Sometimes life really does imitate art, even while orbiting earth in a tin capsule in space.

UPDATE: Since I posted this last night, Chris Hadfield's video has gone viral with over a million views and counting!

 David Bowie's Facebook editors loves the clip stating,"It’s possibly the most poignant version of the song ever created." Their Facebook posts continues:

you may recognise the name of one of those involved in its creation.
We’re talking about Chris's fellow Canadian, the lovely Emm Gryner, who was a part of the Bowie live band in 1999/2000. Here’s what she said on her blog (http://smarturl.it/EmmBlog) regarding her involvement:
“The task was in front of me. I came up with a piano part. i then enlisted my friend, producer and fellow Canadian Joe Corcoran to take my piano idea and Chris' vocal and blow it up into a fully produced song. Drums! mellotrons! fuzz bass! We also incorporated into the track ambient space station noises which Chris had put on his Soundcloud. I was mostly blown away by how pure and earnest Chris' singing is on this track. Like weightlessness and his voice agreed to agree.And voila! And astronaut sings Space Oddity in space! I was so honoured to be asked to be a part of this. You wouldn't get too many chances to make a recording like this and not only that, to make music with someone who - through his vibrant communications with kids in schools to his breathtaking photos to his always patient and good-humoured demeanour - has done more for science and space than anyone else this generation. Planet earth IS blue, and there's nothing left for Chris Hadfield to do. Right. Safe travels home Commander! ”

And the New York Times has a nice piece on Chris, the video, and his time in space.

 

Find out more: Twitter Facebook Google+

 With thanks to Emm Gryner, Joe Corcoran, Andrew Tidby and Evan Hadfield

Empire State

 GreggChadwick 
Empire State
72"x36" oil on linen 2013

On View at artMRKT San Francisco
May 16-19, 2013
Sandra Lee Gallery, San Francisco
Booth #221

Memory Making: The First Emperor's Legacy at the Asian Art Museum

by Gregg Chadwick

China's Terracotta Warriors: The First Emperor's Legacy

at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco 

photo by Gregg Chadwick

 "I, Sovereign, am the First Emperor; my descendants will call themselves the Second Generation, the Third Generation, and will go on forever after." 
- The First Emperor, Qin Shihuang (259-210 BCE) 
   quoted by the historian Sima Qian (145-90 BCE)


China's Terracotta Warriors: The First Emperor's Legacy currently on view at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco until May 27, 2013 provides tantalizing glimpses of an ancient culture and its rulers' attempts to influence cultural and political memory. Over two thousand years ago, Qin Shihuang - the first emperor of China, began constructing a massive mausoleum to ensure, what Li He, the Asian Museum's associate curator of Chinese art, describes as the personal and political "continuation of the family's ruling position and the long-lasting reign of the dynasty" as well as individual hopes for an afterlife. 

The First Emperor began to plan his eternal place of rest from the moment he ascended the throne. The mausoleum took almost 38 years of hard labor and exquisite craftsmanship to construct. Ongoing archaeological excavations continue to reveal new secrets and hidden cultural treasures created to ensure Qin Shihuang's memory and lineage. Eight human-sized terracotta warriors made the journey to San Francisco. Each figure seems imbued with the ability to speak. Buried in a vast tomb with more than 7,000 comrades, some with horses and chariots, surrounded perhaps by flowing liquid mercury rivers graced by bronze waterbirds and bells, these sculpted warriors were meant to ensure Qin Shihuang's trip through the cosmos and eventual crossing to another realm. According to historian Sima Qian (145-90 BCE) the emperor feared that the creators "might disclose all the treasure that was in the tomb...(that) after the burial and sealing up of  the treasures, the middle gate was shut and the outer gate closed to imprison all the artisans and laborers, so that no one came out." The mausoleum was forgotten over the centuries. The tomb was not revealed until the 20th century, when Chinese farmers found fragments of terracotta sculptures as they attempted to assuage the effects of a drought with a new well. 

Armored General

221-206 BCE China

Terracotta

Qin Shihuang Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, Shaanxi, China

 Installation at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco 

photo by Gregg Chadwick

Rulers and politicians of all stripes are often in the business of memory-making. The recent unveiling of the George W. Bush Presidential Library comes to mind. Since President Calvin Coolidge, all American presidents have a stand-alone presidential library that holds their papers and memorabilia. But the G.W. Bush library is unique in that it is a museum that Rachel Maddow convincingly describes as a ridiculous attempt to make the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq seem like a good idea. Watch the Rachel Maddow video linked here and see if you agree that, as she puts it,"The case to invade Iraq was cooked up, a hoax put upon the nation." With this ridiculous attempt at memory-making by the Bush team in mind, I looked at Qin Shihuang's memory-mausoleum differently than I might have otherwise. What message was the First Emperor attempting to send on to future generations with his vast buried army of exquisitely crafted clay warriors?

Emperor Qin Shihuang used force to break up and subsume noble lands as well as compelling the noble families themselves to move to, his new capital, Xianyang. The emperor freed peasants from their feudal bonds, but then forced them into servitude for the state. Arthur Cotterell in his informative work, The Imperial Capitals of China, describes that the emperor's extensive construction and engineering program imposed a tremendous burden and that "this continued use of conscript labor strained the allegiance of the peasantry, especially when it was maintained by the naked force of cruel punishments." Due to this shift in labor allocations, agriculture suffered and famine ensued. Subsequently in 209 (BCE), starving, impoverished peasants staged the first large-scale rebellion in Chinese history. 

Was this sculpted army intended as a symbol to the living as well as the dead? With the rebellions that signaled the coming end of Qin Shihuang's short lived dynasty, it is unlikely that the emperor's memory-making had an initial effect on the Chinese populace. Gish Jen in her marvelous new book, Tiger Writing, quotes Chinese author Lin Yutang from his 1935 work My Country and My People, "that the Chinese are given to a farcical view of life, and that 'Chinese humor... consist[s] in compliance with outward form ... and the total disregard of the substance in actuality.'" 

 China's Terracotta Warriors: The First Emperor's Legacy is an exhibition that provokes cultural and historical critique as well as artistic engagement. Political art is rarely this exquisite. Don't miss it!

China's Terracotta Warriors: The First Emperor's Legacy includes objects from the Museum of Terracotta Warriors and Horses, the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, and the Shaanxi History Museum.

On Site View of Unrestored Warriors
at the Qin Shihuang Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, Shaanxi, China
Courtesy: Qin Shihuang Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, Shaanxi, China

More at:

The Imperial Capitals of China by Arthur Cotterell
Terracotta Warriors at the Asian Art Museum  SF Chronicle