Harriet Tubman mural; white racism

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[Mike Alewitz, the artist discussed in these articles, is a Marxism list
subscriber. A sample of his work can be found in the gallery section of
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LaBOR aRT & MuRAL PRoJECT
AGITPROP NEWS: 7.27.00

Special Harriet Tubman - Homeless in Baltimore Issue

In this issue:

1.  Harriet Tubman Mural Defaced
2.  Vandals Were Created by a Racist Society
3.  Harriet Visits the Visionary Museum
4.  Baltimore: Give a Wall
5.  Art Should Be the Freedom to Create
6. Joint Letter from Associated Black Charities, Clayworks and Mike Alewitz
7. Reader Feedback on Tubman Mural Controversy

____________________________________

1.  Harriet Tubman Mural Defaced

Tubman mural defaced at Harford County middle school
Racial epithets and swastikas found on mural depicting Underground Railroad
leader

-----------------------------------------------------

By Daniel Cusick
Associated Press

BALTIMORE--A mural of Harriet Tubman, who led slaves to freedom before the
Civil War, has been defaced with racial epithets and swastikas at a suburban
middle school in Harford County, officials said Thursday.

The painting on the facade of Magnolia Middle School, one of five works of
Tubman commissioned for public buildings around the state, was covered with
spray-painted epithets.

Don Morrison, director of public affairs for the Harford County School
System, said a custodian discovered the defaced mural about 5:30 a.m.
Thursday. The painting covers an 18-foot by 50-foot wall on the front of the
school building.

The Harford County Sheriff's Department was investigating the incident as a
possible hate crime. "Sometimes, it's hard to tell whether someone is acting
out of maliciousness or out of hate. But given the nature of the defacing,
we clearly feel that the remarks were inflammatory, and therefore, are
investigating it as a hate crime," said spokesman Lt. Ed Hopkins. He said
authorities have no suspects. Officers were immediately dispatched to canvas
the area.

The mural, by artist Mike Alewitz, depicted the founder of the Underground
Railroad inside a computer terminal screen, her hands outstretched across
the pages of a book. The central image is surrounded by a swirling red sea,
depicting Tubman's similarity to the biblical figure Moses, who lead the
Israelites out of slavery in Egypt by parting the Red Sea.

"It wasn't finished, but they may have thought it was," said Alewitz, who
has been working on the mural since early July.

Enrollment at Magnolia Middle School--which teaches grades 6, 7 and 8--is
864. Twenty-five percent of its students are black. The surrounding
neighborhood is closer to 50 percent black, Morrison said. The town is about
20 miles northeast of Baltimore.

Officials said the mural would be repaired, probably by painting over the
defaced portions.

Alewitz said this was not the first setback he has faced since he began work
on a series of five murals--called "The Dreams of Harriet Tubman"--to be
installed in Maryland as part of a Mid-Atlantic Arts Council project.

Another mural by Alewitz sparked controversy last month because of its
depiction of Tubman carrying a musket. The ceramic mural was to have been
displayed outside the Baltimore headquarters of the Associated Black
Charities. The group rejected the mural, however, as historically inaccurate
and condoning gun violence.

Alewitz, who teaches at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain,
Conn., and Baltimore Clayworks, which commissioned the work, said they
intended to search for "appropriately visible" sites in the city to hang the
work.

07/20/2000

____________________________________


2. Vandals Were Created by a Racist Society


Mural at Magnolia Middle School, Magnolia Maryland, Defaced by Racist
Graffiti

Press Statement by Mike Alewitz, Muralist, 7.18.00

Harriet Tubman was an educator of the first order.  She educated thousands
about racism and the evils of slavery.  She educated about the rights of
women.  She taught about the rights of working people and the elderly.
Education was an important component of her amazing life.

And yet she was illiterate.  The slave system from which she escaped was
based on keeping African-Americans ignorant of their own great culture and
history.

Here at the Magnolia Middle School, the workers, administration and faculty

are dedicated to continuing the educational traditions of Harriet Tubman.  I

am here to give visual expression to that effort.  This mural, part of a
series of murals called "The Dreams of Harriet Tubman," is entitled
"Education for All."  It is an effort of many individuals and groups,
including the Mid-Atlantic Art Foundation and Baltimore Clayworks.

Slavers and northern industrialists alike feared Harriet.  She waged an
uncompromising struggle against slavery, racism and social injustice.  The
slave catchers and northern racists could not stop her, and she will
certainly not be stopped by misspelled graffiti from a handful of cowards.

The destruction that you see here cannot be blamed solely on a few racists.

They are products of growing up in a society that too often tolerates racism

- that celebrates the execution of poor black people - that condones
inequality in education and employment.

When these criminals are found, it is my fervent hope they will be sentenced

to join me on the scaffold to help paint this mural.  There, we will discuss

and learn about Harriet Tubman, John Brown and Frederick Douglass.  We will

examine the great civilizations of Africa that gave so much of modern
civilization to the world, and the history of African-Americans here.  We
will look at how the wealth of this country was based on slave labor.  And
we will discuss the inequality that exists in society today, what that means

for working people, and how we can organize to change it.

We are going to repair the damage.  We are going to complete "The Dreams of
Harriet Tubman."  We will continue to paint murals that illuminate the
historic events of the past and the problems that facing working people
today.  We will continue to create a public art and public dialogue that
will inspire the young people of today to follow the example of Harriet
Tubman.

____________________________________


3. Harriet Visits the Visionary Museum


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


"DREAMS OF HARRIET TUBMAN" MURALS TO TOUR U.S. AND INTERNATIONALLY

PORTABLE MURAL TO BE PAINTED AT THE AMERICAN VISIONARY ART   MUSEUM


Baltimore Clayworks today announced that an important component of the
"Dreams of Harriet Tubman" is to be painted on-site at the American
Visionary Art Museum.  Artist Mike Alewitz, author of the work, will paint
the portable work in the sculpture barn of the inner harbor museum.

"Dreams" is a series of public art works being created throughout Maryland,
including at the Harriet Tubman Park in Cambridge, MD, her birthplace; the
Frederick Douglass Library at the University of MD Eastern Shore; the
Magnolia Middle School in Harford County; and other locations.  The project
has broad sponsorship from community and arts organizations throughout the
state.  It is being hosted by Baltimore Clayworks, a ceramic arts
organization with an extensive record of community involvement.

Alewitz's image of Tubman has been the subject of some controversy.  He
chose to portray Tubman as a militant, armed Moses (she was known as the
Moses of her people) - parting the seas of reaction and leading an army of
freed slaves into the future.  The mural also shows representations of a
slave ship, and what Alewitz refers to as "the slave ship of today - the
sweatshop."

"It will be a great pleasure to work here, surrounded by the fabulous art of
working-class artists.  Harriet belongs here - she also had visions, and
like these artists, was not afraid to act on them," said Alewitz.  "The work
we create here will remain true to Harriet and to those who are continuing
her struggle against racism and injustice.  Harriet Tubman was an
uncompromising fighter for freedom and social justice - that is how I will
paint her."

Deborah Bedwell, Executive Director of Baltimore Clayworks, announced that
the group is still seeking a large public wall for a permanent mural.
"Baltimore Clayworks remains committed to support of artists and making art
accessible to the greatest audiences possible.  We welcome a lively
discussion of art and it's place in society."

____________________________________


4. Baltimore: Give a Wall



----------------------------------
By Mike Alewitz
Op-Ed Baltimore Sun


THE RACIST defacement of my mural in Harford County has once again put a
spotlight on "The Dreams of Harriet Tubman." This series of murals, a gift
to the people of Maryland, has generated significant public scrutiny and
debate. As the artist involved, I would like to provide some insight into
this work.

I was invited by Baltimore Clayworks, an artist's organization with a deep
commitment to community involvement, to create a series of works in
Maryland. I was one of 54 artists selected nationally by the Mid-Atlantic
Arts Foundation as part of its program "Artists and Communities: America
Creates for the Millennium."

Clayworks and activists from the Underground Railroad movement had been
discussing the possibilities of work about the Underground Railroad and
Harriet Tubman. Their initiative corresponded with my own thinking -- that
this subject was an important one and one that was timely.

Harriet Tubman was a revolutionary who not only envisioned the future, but
acted to create that vision.

"The Dreams of Harriet Tubman" was designed to give visual expression to her
visions and to the great revolution that overthrew slavery, one of the
seminal occurrences in American and world history.

"Dreams" will be a necklace of murals painted across Maryland. They will
form one unified work.

The murals are to be anchored by a dramatic image on a major wall in
Baltimore City. It will depict Harriet Tubman as she was known: Moses.
Harriet is shown parting the seas of reaction, as she did in her life. Her
staff is the rifle that she carried. The children of Israel are the slave
armies who resisted their bondage and joined the Union ranks to defeat the
South. Drowning in the tide is Pharaoh's tribe: the slavers and other forces
of reaction.

Harriet's massive skirts will be a quilt of silhouettes formed by tracing
the outlines of visitors to the site, who would climb the lower rungs of the
scaffold and stand against the wall. In this way the living activists of
today will become a part of the mural, literally the body of Harriet Tubman.


At the sides of the mural, and in the smaller walls in other localities,
will be a series of vignettes based on Harriet's visions: Her dreams about
the Amistad and Nat Turner slave rebellions; her work with Frederick
Douglass, John Brown and other abolitionists; her success as a conductor of
the Underground Railroad; leadership as a spy, scout and guerilla in the
military conquest of the South, championing of the women's suffrage
movement; and experience as a nurse and educator.

When the mural in Harford County was attacked, the leaders of that community
-- educators, civil rights, religious and political leaders -- immediately
united to repudiate the racists and announce their determination to complete
the mural and continue to teach about Tubman and her movement.

Will the people of Baltimore show the same determination as we continue to
search for an appropriate wall for this work?

The working people of this city have made it clear that they support this
project. But while this backing is good, we still find ourselves seeking a
wall in a prominent location with institutional support.

I believe it is important to complete this artistic and educational project.
The reason is simple:

There will be no justice and there will be no peace in this country until
the United States faces up to this truth: The great wealth of this country
was built on the backs of slave labor. The descendants of those slaves
remain the victims of a vicious racism, unable to enjoy the fruits of what
their ancestors created.

"The Dreams of Harriet Tubman" will be painted -- if not in Baltimore, then
elsewhere in Maryland; if not in Maryland, then another state. And if I
cannot find a wall in the United States, then I will go to another country.
But, one way or another, it will be painted.

We are appealing to the people of Baltimore to provide us with a wall. This
is where Harriet belongs -- in glorious color -- as a symbol of the ongoing
struggle for social justice.

-----------

Mike Alewitz is a muralist and is on the art faculty at Central Connecticut
State University in New Britain, Conn. This article was written in
Baltimore.

Originally published on Jul 25 2000

____________________________________


5. Art Should Be the Freedom to Create

He sees the big picture
Murals: The artist tapped for the city's Harriet Tubman project has made big
depictions of the struggles of the little guy his life's work.

-------------------------------------------------------------
By Suzanne Loudermilk
Sun Staff


Often splashed across 50-foot walls in brilliant, hard-to-miss hues, the
paintings of Mike Alewitz are hard to ignore.

But Alewitz, an internationally known artist who has painted murals in
Chernobyl, Baghdad and Central America, wasn't quite expecting the attention
his Harriet Tubman projects have garnered in Maryland.

The first mural, proposed for the headquarters of the Associated Black
Charities in downtown Baltimore, was rejected by the group last month
because Tubman was depicted with a musket. The second, at a Harford County
middle school, was nearly complete when vandals painted over it last week
with swastikas and racial slurs.

He has three more Tubman works to complete as part of a statewide art
project commissioned by Baltimore Clayworks, a Mount Washington arts center.
The undertaking is part of "Artists and Communities: America Creates for the
Millennium," an initiative of the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and the
National Endowment for the Arts.

"This attack [in Harford] and the inability to get a wall in Baltimore has
set the project back," Alewitz acknowledged last week while trying to repair
the damaged mural at Magnolia Middle School in Joppa. "But I feel I have a
responsibility."

His sense of social justice started early. "I am a product of my times,"
says Alewitz, 49, who grew up in a working-class environment in Wilmington,
Del., in the 1950s. He was one of three children, and his parents both
worked - his mother as a factory worker and secretary and his father was a
plumber, although he returned to school and received a doctorate in history
when he was in his 60s. Both were involved in labor organizations before he
was born.

Alewitz came of age during the Vietnam War protests and became a student
leader on the campus of Kent State University in the anti-war movement.
"You had to question the war. It was easy. You didn't want to be killed," he
says. "Then you had to ask why the U.S. was involved."

In May 1970, he witnessed the shootings there that left four people dead and
nine injured during a demonstration to protest the U.S. invasion of
Cambodia.
"It was horrible, of course," he said. "A close friend of mine was killed."

Tom Grace, a union leader who lives in Amherst, N.Y., recalls university
classmate Alewitz from his student activist days.  "I remember him as a very
bright, intellectual individual," says Grace, who observed Alewitz
distributing leaflets around campus and speaking at student rallies. "He was
extremely well-read and a good mobilizer of a large number of students."

Alewitz didn't finish college at the time. Later, working as a machinist, he
became increasingly involved in the labor movement. He eventually decided to
express his activism through art, he says.  He returned to school in his
mid-30s at the Massachusetts College of Art. Because he had worked as a sign
and billboard painter, he gravitated toward painting murals and never looked
back

Now, Alewitz is teaching a mural painting class at Central Connecticut State
University in New Britain.

He often champions the little guy in his murals. His imagery includes
shackles, bright sunshine, dreamy nights, war-torn countries, immigrant
workers, twinkly stars, downtrodden laborers.

His mural in Chernobyl, painted on the 10th anniversary of the accident at
the Ukrainian nuclear power plant, commemorated the workers who died there.
"I was very struck by the imagery," says Deborah Bedwell, executive director
of Baltimore Clayworks. "The thing I loved about his works was the way he
illustrates his values, his choice of subject matter and the way he portrays
his subjects."

Alewitz was chosen from a pool of 200 artists for the Tubman project, she
says.
"I've learned more than I thought possible about mural painting and
history," Bedwell says. "Mike has deep political convictions."

Labor and strife are recurring themes in the murals. A book of his works
titled "Insurgent Images: The Agitprop of Mike Alewitz" is to be published
in the fall.
Alewitz calls himself an agitprop artist. He views "agitprop," a combination
of the words agitation and propaganda, as art used in a utilitarian way.

"I was determined to bring out a book of his works," says Paul Buhle, a
professor of American civilization at Brown University and labor historian
who is writing the introduction and a historic overview for "Insurgent
Images." "The issue of public art and its role in American life is very
important." He points to an Alewitz mural on a Teamsters union building in
Chicago, which shows Albert and Lucy Parsons, early labor organizers. "As a
mural, it's a way of reminding people of the way amazing things get done."

Despite the serious topics depicted in many of Alewitz's works, Buhle
describes the artist as a gregarious man who is usually prepared for a
struggle. "He's always involved in a controversy," Buhle says. "Part of his
stance is not only to defy official images by example, but to encourage
other artists also to do this and re-envision history."

Alewitz's current works championing the life of Tubman, a former slave who
led other slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad, reflect his
passion. He says he doesn't feel compelled to change the proposed mural
showing Tubman with a musket. "Art should be the freedom to create," he
maintains. "It can't be decided by committee, only in the heart and mind of
the artist."

He has painted a smaller, portable version called the "Baltimore Image,"
which is being exhibited at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.
Next month, he will take the 7-foot-by-20-foot piece to a national
conference at the AME Zion Church in Greensboro, N.C., where Tubman
worshiped in Greensboro, N.C.

"Harriet Tubman was a great revolutionary leader and a leader for all
working people in this country," Alewitz says. "She was created by a
movement. Ordinary people can do extraordinary things when part of a
movement."

Originally published on Jul 25 2000

____________________________________


6. Joint Letter from Associated Black Charities, Clayworks and Mike Alewitz

Letter to the Baltimore Sun

Recent articles in the Baltimore Sun and other media have fueled a lively
discussion about a series of murals about Harriet Tubman.  Much of this
discourse has been positive, and has led to a broad public education about
Harriet Tubman and the struggle against slavery and racism.  Those who favor
genuine democracy always welcome such discussions about art and politics,
however spirited.

A number of misconceptions have arisen about this project, however, which we
would like to clarify.

"The Dreams of Harriet Tubman" is a series of murals to being painted in
different sites throughout Maryland.  The conception for this art flows out
of a broad-based discussion among artists and community activists,
particularly in the Underground Railroad movement.  The theme was embraced
by Baltimore Clayworks, who is hosting Mike Alewitz, one of 54 artists
selected by "Artists and Communities, America Creates for the Millennium" -
a project of the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation.

A number of walls were considered for a major Baltimore mural.  Of those,
Alewitz specifically requested the wall of the Associated Black Charities
(ABC) Building.  He did this because he felt it to be a logical home for a
Tubman mural.  Harriet Tubman was, among her many other amazing
accomplishments, an extraordinarily charitable woman.

While Associated Black Charities was initially open to considering a mural
through this program, its Board of Directors ultimately decided that the
wanted to use their wall for a piece of art, selected with their
constituents,
that more directly relates to their mission and interests.

Clayworks and Alewitz are looking for another permanent space for the mural.
  A portable version is currently on exhibit at the American Visionary Art
Museum.

While people may and should debate the imagery or intent of this mural, we
feel it is important to remember that it is a work of art.  There is no
"correct" mural - artists all have different approaches, styles, techniques,
etc., based on their experiences, their ethnic backgrounds and a myriad of
other factors.

We want to reaffirm that we support the efforts of Associated Black
Charities,
Baltimore Clayworks and individual artists who attempt to use their efforts
to build a better society.

We recognize that Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad represent a
movement of international stature which artists of all ethnic backgrounds
should feel free to interpret.  At the same time we understand that the
attempts to destroy the culture of African-Americans, which began with the
slave trade, has not ended.  We feel it is critical to break down the many
obstacles placed in the way of Black, Latino and other minority artists.

We look forward to a successful completion of "The Dreams of Harriet
Tubman,"
a future mural project at the Associated Black Charities building and any
similar efforts by other groups.

Harriet Tubman was a fearless rebel, a conductor on the Underground RR, an
armed insurrectionist against slavery, a feminist, an abolitionist, a health
care worker, a domestic worker, an advocate for the elderly and an educator.
We join in celebrating her life and accomplishments.  By creating works of
art about her, and the movement that molded her, we hope to inspire the
Harriet Tubmans of today to take up her struggle for peace and social
justice.

S/

Donna Jones Stanley
Executive Director,
Associated Black Charities

Mike Alewitz
Muralist

Deborah Bedwell
Executive Director,
Baltimore Clayworks



________________________________________

Mike Alewitz, Artistic Director
LaBOR aRT & MuRAL PRoJECT
c/o Department of Art
Central Connecticut State University
New Britain, CT  06050
Phone: (860)832-2359
________________________________________

Website: http://www.igc.apc.org/laborart

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Louis Proyect

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