No matter the motive, artist Katie Usher's has been keeping track of those murders with her art piece "Wall" - reflecting on those who have been murdered this year. Most of the names featured on the wall were taken from newspaper articles - mostly those written by Amandala reporter Kareem Clarke. So Usher decided to go further - she dedicated a wall to Kareem Clarke's work - cutting out and pasting Clarke's articles on the wall at the Image factory. Today we spoke to Usher about her inspiration for this exhibit and about the importance of letting Clarke's memory live on through his stories.
Courtney Weatherburne
"What was the first thing that struck you about his writing? If you'd like to say."
Katie Usher, Artist
"Well, that it was very well researched and you couldn't find grammatical errors and he really wanted to share the story. Not statistics but what happened? Why it happened? That was very important."
Courtney Weatherburne
"Would you say that inspired you to create this wall for him and in his memory?"
Katie Usher, Artist
"I think so because many of the names that I did for wall, I got those from stories that he had written unfortunately. So when he became a part of the list, that's when I really realize that I had to do something. After I did that piece I was compelled to show his work so that people could see how amazing his writing really was."
Courtney Weatherburne
"Tell us more about the one we have here. I believe in the press released, it said that you compiled his stories over the last past 6 months I believe."
Katie Usher, Artist
"More or less so. From February to July I got newspapers and I clipped out his articles and actually on some of these articles he has other articles on the back because that is part of the project too. it's not just showing that he was an excellent writer because maybe it's too high up to read but also to show that he was very very hard working. He got a lot of stories out and he got them out in a very professional way. It was a lot of work but I think, you know everything's funny. When you get towards the end there was the sense of finality and it was just sad because it was such a productive young person. In one of Sunday papers I took out 12 articles from him. So, it was like all this work and it's well done work and then you got to the final paper and it felt really final. Artists just like journalist are story tellers. To use what Yasser Musa said to quote his words, the only difference between us is that you have deadlines, we don't. We kind of Laissez faire a little bit or be a bit more flexible with time. So, it was compelling. I had to do it. I had no choice because his murder was a direct assault on freedom of expression and freedom of speech in my opinion so I had to do something."
There is also a section of the art exhibit called "Feed. Read." dedicated to Kareem Clarke. It's an art auction where you either donate money or books to the Children's Book drive. These donations will go to St. Joseph School - where a feeding program is also being supported in memory of Clarke.
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