“I Believe Like A Child That Suffering Will Be Healed And Made Up For, That All The Humiliating Absurdity

tacita dean

zoleikha with her handmaidens after her second dream of yousef / yousef and zoleikha united after potiphar's death, 16th c., iran

Dogwood and Dead Vine, 5 4 21, Photo by Joe Bruha, Copyright 2021

Feelings unspoken are unforgettable. Nostalghia (1983) Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

The Black Panthers fed more hungry kids than the state of California

It wasn’t all young men and guns: the Black Panther Party’s programs fed more hungry kids than the state of California

The Black Panther’s Free Breakfast for Children Program is probably their best-known initiative, the press finding an intriguing story juxtaposing the Panther’s tough-guy-in-leather-jacket image with the act of serving small children plates of hot food. Importantly, it was mostly women who led these survival programmes, and women made up a majority of the Panther membership. They served in leadership roles from ‘Officer of the Day’ (essentially the office – and people – manager for each branch), to organising the many details of a location’s breakfast programme to initiating and leading food justice, healthcare and housing programmes within neighbourhoods.

So why does the image of the Panthers as a masculinist and violent organisation persist? The answer lies in part with media distortion, influenced both by the sexism and racism that misrepresented the Panthers. There was also a misinformation campaign by the FBI, led by J Edgar Hoover, waged against the increasingly popular Panthers, which had an enduring impact on how people saw them.

Nostalghia (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1983)

Roy DeCarava, Woman walking above, New York, 1950

The Choice of Evil        © Marilyn Kirsch Abstract Painting and Photography by Marilyn Kirsch

Sculpting In Time (Introduction), Andrei Tarkovsky