Fri 7/23
Last year, days after George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis — an incident caught on idea that shocked the world — thousands of people turned out in the streets of downtown Cleveland, as they did around the country, to protest police treatment of Black citizens. A peaceful, mostly young and female, crowd flooded Lakeside from the Free Stamp to the Cuyahoga County Courthouse, marched to Public Square and then largely dispersed. But police, focused on pepper spraying and teargassing those peaceful demonstrators, were caught flatfooted when a small contingent of vandals broke windows and looted stores on Euclid Avenue a few hours later.
In the crowd were a number of Clevelanders who do photography for fun or as a serious pursuit; they captured different aspects of the day in images. Now Prama Artspace in Parma is showing some of these images in Year of Protest 2020, with work by AJ Almy, Anderson Rush, Arron Bound Denyce Renee, Anastasia Pantsios and Nico Pico Train. The show also includes work by noted local artists such as Joyce Morrow Jones.
The show opens on Friday July 23 with a poetry reading by Siaarra Freeman, Krystal Sienna and John Latimer. It will be on view through Sunday August 22.