After listening to the hateful rhetoric that followed the 2016 election, Kelly Parks Snider was moved to use art as a tool to broadcast voices from communities most vulnerable to bigotry, intolerance and racism.
As a white, heterosexual woman, she realized much of the hate was not directed at her, yet she wanted to actively disrupt it. So she approached 25 Wisconsin activists with the question: “What is it that needs to be said that isn’t being said?” She also asked if they’d participate in an exhibition that would inspire change.
The result is the traveling, multimedia exhibit Women Against Hate United by Love, which runs at Arts + Literature Laboratory Oct. 5 - Nov. 3. The show, formerly shown in Milwaukee and Appleton, includes visual art, a panel discussion, film screenings, a children’s workshop and a get-out-the-vote yarn “craftivism” workshop that will take the message to the streets. Women Against Hate will also be featured at this year’s Racial Justice Summit, sponsored by the YWCA.
“When I begin an exhibit I always ask the question ‘why,’” says Parks Snider, whose solo exhibit Hidden in Plain Sight is running concurrently at ALL. “It’s my response to living and what I see. So I connected to women throughout the state whose lives have been affected, whose families have been affected, whose communities have been affected by that hate rhetoric. I connected to them and asked them that very simple question.”
Activist Kathy Flores, an anti-violence program coordinator at the Milwaukee LGBTQ organization Diverse & Resilient, describes Parks Snider as having “a brain like a popcorn machine, always popping out fresh, hot new ideas about art.”
Flores signed on because Parks Snider’s vision involved using art a focal point for community discussions and events. “She came to my workplace and told me she wanted to promote women activists who are working in communities to combat hate, to bring us all together through this exhibit, but to move it beyond exhibits to incorporate into our own activism,” says Flores.
For the visual component, Parks Snider enlisted two other printmakers —Tandem Press’ Rachael Griffin and Leigh Garcia — to create provocative dry-point etchings of each activist that include an inspirational quote. Parks Snider chose the medium because she felt the raw quality of the line work reflected the authenticity of the words. The three collaboratively etched the images, which were then printed on a press owned by the recently deceased Warrington Colescott, a UW-Madison professor and printmaker known for his political satire. Each print was silkscreened and features a simple, powerful message. Examples include a portrait of Astar Herndon that reads, “We are all Americans but if I’m not free you’re not free,” and the etching of Flores, which reads, “Those who seek to cause us harm fear our brilliance, resilience, strength, power and light.”
A number of interactive events are paired with the visual exhibit. On Oct.13, activists will share their stories as part of a panel discussion following a screening of excerpts from the film Zero Week.
“I learned how much I don’t know,” says Griffin about collaborating with the activists. “It was uplifting to see how people support each other.”
Parks Snider says the participants in Women Against Hate understand the way issues are intertwined. “They don’t just care about their own children; they care about their community and other people’s kids. We are the protectors of our community. When one community suffers, all communities suffer, and they understand that.”
