Words Over Windows -- An Art Documentary

[pameladean]

My husband David has made a photo documentary of some of the art and graffiti that appeared on boarded-up windows after the protests against the killing of George Floyd began.

You can see all the photos on the website. There's also an ebook, I think intended mostly for tablets, and a paper book, both available via Amazon.

Here is the website:

https://wordsoverwindows.dd-b.net/

Many of these images are very beautiful. Almost all of them probably have the potential to be disturbing because of what the art arose from and commemorates, but they are aftermath. The ones I have extreme trouble looking at are those of the remnants of Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore, which was burned to the ground and fell into its own basement. You can still tell that it was a bookstore, crammed and overflowing with new and used books. It was one of two independent sf bookstores in Minneapolis, a fixture among book lovers, the first place I ever did an autographing session. This tragedy is not as deep as death, but it is very difficult.

Here is a link to the fundraiser. Don doesn't really know how much money he'll need to rebuild, whether he can do so on the site or should move elsewhere, whether he should consider moving to a mail-order business at his home, or what. But Uncle Hugo's in some form can rise again.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/let-us-help-save-uncle-hugo039s

The Midway neighborhood in St. Paul was also burned and damaged. Here's a page with a list of donation links at the bottom:

http://www.midwaychamber.com/member-relief

And here is a link for Black Visions Collective:

https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/

I didn't make this post to get your money for these causes. I thought people might want to look at the photos on the website. But very often people do want to know what they can do. So there are a few options.

Pamela

Comments

[minoanmiss]

Thank you for this, very, very much.

[kore]

Oh wow, this is fantastic! Thank you for linking!

[sartorias]

Thank you for the link to the art.

I am so glad the fund is still alive.

[halfmoon_mollie1]

Wow. Just WOW.

[arkuat]

I spent that week kind of huddled and traumatized until A came to visit. Meanwhile, dd-b was starting this amazing work. I am seriously impressed.

[asakiyume]

Those are remarkable, beautiful, moving images--I would never have known about this side of the aftermath of George Floyd's murder if it weren't for your posting this (and your husband documenting this). Thank you so much for posting.

And thanks also for the links; I *would* like to help out, and will.

ETA: (scrolling further down): I really love the one of the person actually making one of the designs--I'm amazed by the beauty that can be accomplished with spray paint and always like to see artists at work.

[spiderplanet]

There are a lot of new photos since I last saw this page. David is an amazing photographer and I'm very glad that someone with his skill was able to document this chapter in history.

[otter]

I found you via Serene. I live in Minneapolis, too, albeit in a very quiet part of NE. The images in David's photos are indeed beautiful and important to document the ways in which we need change. My eldest attended the school that was destroyed in the Target strip mall. My partner lives near there as well. My youngest went to Transitions Plus on Lake St. So many people close to us are closely affected by the ongoing violence against BIPOC.