Acts of Refusal

This is a portrait of Richie, who is part of the HOWDOSAYYAMINAFRICAN? Collective, during the time when Michael Brown was fatally shot by the Ferguson Police. Richie’s back was turned away as an act of refusal to America’s consistent violence and denial of humanity towards Black lives. Police deaths continued with Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, and countless others both known and unknown. Now it’s 2020, and the list still goes on with Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and George Floyd tearing open again and again the wound that hasn’t healed, that will never heal until the denial stops and true accountability begins…