We Do Declare project

This is a contemporary reading of the #DeclarationOfIndependence as part of the WE DO DECLARE project.

With an ensemble of 56 readers from across America and around the world, the Declaration has been brought to life By The People, For The People. The simple goal: To engage our citizenry by getting people to really listen to these words. To hear them, not just as a historical document, but as a present call-to-action, from a diverse chorus of voices that we recognize. There were originally 56 signatures attached to the Declaration, inclusive of domestic and foreign born signees, so We collaborated with a diverse collective of 56 multicultural, multigenerational people from across the country and around the world, 241 years later, to make this urgent protest piece titled:

WE DO DECLARE.

NOTE: This project is one that recognizes the irony of this declaration on the unceded ancestral lands of the indigenous and native tribes of America. The intention is not to lose sight of this, but to invite discourse around the colonial histories that see us all at the complex intersection of settler occupation, by violent force, circumstantial coercion, or problematic inheritances of imperial privilege.

Recently screened at Capitol Hill Arts District Streaming Festival, Seattle, WA

April 29th, 2020 with Photographic Center NW and Northwest Film Forum

#WeDoDeclare #WeDoDeclareProject #LifeLibertyHappiness #WeThePeople #ARTasActivism


Sojourner Truth, 1864 (American ca, 1797 - 1883). “I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance”.  Source: Public Domain, Metropolitan Museum

Sojourner Truth, 1864 (American ca, 1797 - 1883). “I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance”. Source: Public Domain, Metropolitan Museum

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Descendants of Frederick Douglas Read His Speech, ‘What To The Save Is The Fourth of July?'

‘What To The Slave Is The Fourth of July?’: 168 Years Later, Descendants of Frederick Douglass Read His Speech | NPR from NPR on Vimeo.

The U.S. celebrates this July 4 amid nationwide protests and calls for systemic reforms. We asked five young descendants of Frederick Douglass to read and respond to excerpts of his famous speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" which asks all of us to consider America’s long history of denying equal rights to Black Americans.

We do declare.jpeg

WE DO DECLARE project. 56 readers from across the country and around the world, the U.S. Declaration has been brought to life By The People, For The People.

There were originally 56 signatures attached to the Declaration, inclusive of domestic and foreign born signees, so We collaborated with a diverse collective of 56 multicultural, multigenerational Americans from across the country and around the world.

This urgent protest piece uses the aspirational yet insufficient words in the declaration in the hopes of engaging civil discourse and action to preserve and improve the potential functions of a democracy.

WE DO DECLARE is a project of i.ma.gine | e.volve®


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reCONNECT Quilt project