We Do Declare project, 2017
This is a contemporary reading of the Declaration Of Independence as part of the WE DO DECLARE project.
With an ensemble of 56 readers from across America and around the world, the Declaration was revisited in the summer of 2017, By The People, For The People with notes of prescient protests to the political circumstances impact the U.S. and the world after the election outcomes of November 2016.
The simple goal was 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 To hear them, not just as a historical document, but as a present call-to-action, from a diverse chorus of voices that we recognize, with the additional understanding that the Constitution and Bill of Rights that follow this document, are still insufficient in providing equal rights to all. 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 in solidarity titled: WE DO DECLARE.
This project is one that recognizes the irony of this declaration on the unceded ancestral lands of the indigenous and native tribes of Turtle Island (North America). The intention is not to lose convenient 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. This protest piece uses the aspirational yet insufficient words in the declaration that at the time of its composition, did not in fact recognize or include all people in the definitions, privileges, or protections of citizenship. And so, this work was made in the hopes of engaging civil discourse and action to preserve and improve the potential functions of a liberated and equitable society for all its citizens and inhabitants.
#WeDoDeclare #WeDoDeclareProject #LifeLibertyHappiness #WeThePeople #ARTasActivism
We Do Declare
The 56 Readers:
Adama Delphine Fawundu, Adrian Sides, Andy Anderson, Angelica Lara, Anishka Clarke, Anna Braithwaite-McGregor, Anni Merejo, Arlene Rapal, Beatrijs Van Steertegem, Berette Macaulay, Bianca Jones, Brandt Adam, Brenda Leon, Dale Woodard, Damian Hoover, Dawn O’Neil, Draden Hoover, Emeri Fetzer, Eugene O’Neil, Fekeathia Crittendon, Godfrey Simmons, Jr., Grace Slack, Irene Perez, Jackson Woodard, Janet Kaigwa, Jenetha Philbert, Jennah Klein, Joan Yarrow, Julie Vallat, Justin Lynch, Karen Momoh, Kevin Robinson, Kristine Pregot, Kyle Gerry, Laura Chavez Slack, Laura Ummel, Lori Sommer, Mark Pergola, Nicholas Lynch, Nicholas Smith, Niya Bascom, Patricia Pergola, Raphael McGregor, Raxann Chin, Raymond Kraft, Rhonda Hoover, Richard Wright, Rosemary Des Plas, Sam Wood, Sean John, Staci Smith, Teresa Pergola, Vernice Miller, Walt Townes, Winsome Brown, Yolanda Lewis Producers: Berette Macaulay, Mark Pergola, Vernice Miller
Filmed by: Ensemble
Edited by: Berette Macaulay
Locations: United States of America, (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Washington), France, Jamaica, Kenya, Sierra Leone
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 Slave Is The Fourth of July?' - an NPR sponsored reading in Summer 2020, in the heat of BLM protests to July 4th celebrations after the murder of George Floyd
WE DO DECLARE is a project of i.ma.gine | e.volve®