Rural Resistance
The video “Juneteenth 2020. Whitesburg, KY” is a series of images and sounds that were taken in Letcher county in eastern Kentucky this summer. This particular demonstration was to celebrate the emancipation of slavery in America and rural resistance against the local government. An hour of unrest where residents drove around downtown honking their horns and plastering the store fronts with BLM art. An art parade and noise as a reminder that this particular community will not back down on racial justice.
There has been a lot of rural resistance, demonstrations, and peaceful protests happening in small communities all over the southern Appalachian region during the summer of 2020. Met with a lot of opposition, but overall proving that BIPOC folx in these hills are present and allies are demanding systemic change by standing with BLM. BIPOC individuals in the coal fields are generally even more susceptible to disenfranchisement, chronic public health crises, and economic trouble. These communities, where I just recently moved, have shown up to support through mutual aid, art, fundraising, demonstrations, and political organizing. We are labeled as Trump country, but it is far more nuanced than that. Rural black lives matter. This video, along with other pieces I have made this year, are an introspection about myself and identity along with confronting white supremacy and my own whiteness. I have biases and am unlearning a lot of toxic histories and social behaviors. This has been a period of unrest in many ways. But white folx being rattled out of their comfort zones are now looking at race, many for the first time, and the systems that are unjust to BIPOC communities. A global pandemic and a criminal justice system that attacks the body has enlightened many into trying to do better, learn & unlearn, support & demand justice, and want a better future in America for all bodies. These images are a testament that even in seemingly unlikely places there is change and introspection during these uncertain times.
