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Black Lives Matter: Art in Social Work Event
Last spring, in the wake of the brutal killing of George Floyd, John Thorne of Detroit conceived a memorial to the many victims of anti-Blackness in the United States. In their yard in Detroit’s University District, Thorne and his son created an array of wooden crosses, each with a name and photograph: of Floyd, of Breonna Taylor, of Malcolm X, of Trayvon Martin, of Dr. King and many, many more. In the center of the installation stands a large cross, unlabeled, memorializing victims whose identities were never known.
Word of the Thornes’ memorial spread, leading to a tour of southeastern Michigan. In Ann Arbor, the work was hosted by a west side neighbor of Professor Rogério M. Pinto. Pinto and Professor Beth Sherman were co-teaching two combined sections of Social Work 504, Diversity and Social Justice in Social Work — entirely online, of course. The two professors wanted to use the memorial as a teaching tool — and to do so in person. “We
imagined a socially distanced get-together,” Pinto says, “that would give our students an opportunity to meet in person, discuss some of what we had discussed virtually about racism and see artbased advocacy in action.”
One especially impactful moment for the class was hearing the names read out loud of the Black lives lost. Several of the people represented — Ahmaud Arbery, Priscilla Slater, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Regis Korchinski-Paquet and Maurice Gordon — were killed within the past year. “In the wake of these killings and given the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, it is crucial that social workers, especially those who identify as white, engage in critical conversations about racism. The visit to the memorial helped move our in-class discussions of racial injustice beyond, into our community,” said Pinto.
– Professor Beth Sherman
