 Welcome to the 2016 Sackler Center First Award. I'm Elizabeth Sackler, and I want to thank the Manhattan Country School and their wonderful musical teachers, Susan and Donovan, and their principal, Michelle Sola, and I also have to give full disclosure. My grandchildren go to the Manhattan Country School, but none of my grandchildren are for that age group, so it was not self-serving. But it was there that I heard these children, and I thought, what a wonderful way to start this evening. So I didn't have to Google for a Manhattan Country School, and I wish we had more of them because actually they learned we shall overcome at age four when they begin at the school and they sing it every morning Luther King Day, and they have a sign on the front of the door that says, we welcome immigrants. And in the sixth grade, in the sixth grade, they're learning all about Angela Davis as part of the civil rights curriculum, and so the children who sang here for us this evening know very well why they're here and they know who they're singing for. So thank you, Angela. For five years, the Sackler Center First Award, we've honored nearly a score of the most powerful women in this country, Anita Hill, Toni Morrison, Sandra Day O'Connor, all of them are listed in your program. And for almost 10 years, the Sackler Center's focus has been on equality, equity, and justice. Equal pay, equal wall space is the mantra for Council for Feminist Art, and the Council provides support, fiscal, and creative for the Sackler Center, and I want to thank all of you who are here this evening and our Chair, Marilyn Greenberg. In the past, thank you, during the past two years plus, the Sackler Center has brought to the forefront the programming and exhibitions of the history and history of injustice and bigotry and the truth and horrors of mass incarceration. States of denial, the illegal incarceration of women, children, and people of color is the Sackler Center's ongoing series funded by NOVO Foundation, and NOVO is represented here tonight, and I thank you for that. Currently on view is Adjardt Prop, thanks to our wonderful curator, Catherine Morris, and our special sponsors, including with us today the Embry Family Foundation, and thank you very much Lauren Embry, who is here, and also the Helene Zuckerseaman Memorial Exhibition Fund. So this evening is particularly special and important. It's an evening as the Sackler Center first awards honors in one person all that we hold dear, all for which we strive, and all for that we stand. All that has been the foci of our exhibitions and programming to wit the fight for freedom, the fight for equity, and the fight for justice. We honor Angela Y. Davis, who for four decades has been as a scholar and intellectual on the political and social forefronts for justice. Angela Davis is synonymous with truth. Angela Davis is synonymous with vibrant revolution, and I am grateful to her and to Gloria Steinem and to all the people who have gathered in solidarity to make this evening possible. We have organizers who are here, Mary Jo Shenz, Sophia Elijah, Lola West, Carol Robinson. We have 46 artists in support of social action for this evening honoring Angela Davis. We have 11 in attendance, and I will ask you and the organizers to please stand. Dara Bernbaum, Peter Coyne, Coco Fusco, Deborah Lee, Shola Lynch, who is the director of the movie we're going to see, Carrie Moyer, Faith Ringo, Charles Simmons, Kiki Smith, Mickalene Thomas, and Martha Wilson. Thank you. This introduction is filled with a lot of names, and I think we should all revel in them, because those 11 are also joined in spirit who could not be with us tonight. 35 artists, Marina Abramovic, Gata Amir, Ida Appelbrug, Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, Judy Collins, Cassine Dean, Jane Fonda, Alan Gilbert, Harmony Hammond, Tony Kushner, Suzanne Lacey, Wynton Marsalis, Audra McDonald, Marilyn Minter, Toni Morrison, Sharon Nushott, Jesse Norman, Lauren O'Grady, Yoko Ono, Suzanne Laurie Parks, Carolee Schneemann, Joan Semmel, Cindy Sherman, Joan Snyder, Susan Stroman, Susan L. Taylor, Julie Tamor, Fred Tomaselli, Kathleen Turner, Cara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, Ray Charles White, Domaine Wessel, and I thank them all for joining us for this evening. It's a lot of names and a lot of people to thank, but this has been an important evening, and one of the things that makes it all the more important is that I'm thrilled to welcome in our audience representatives and guests from five organizations that work tirelessly to end our country's policies of mass incarceration and state-sanctioned violence. There are organizations that support incarcerated and post-incarcerated people and fight for social equity. I ask you to please stand the Bard Prison Initiative. People who are here, Black Lives Matter, New York Chapter, Brooklyn Community Bail Fund, College and Community Fellowship, Girls for Gender Equity, and the Women's Prison Association. Thank you for standing. Thank you for letting us honor you and your work, and thank you to Tamara and Greg Belafonte, to Dona Ben Annarie, and Nicola Durakovic, and Clara Bingham and Joseph Finnerty-Barbra, and Richard Debs, Henry Elsasser, Sharon Fay and Maxine Schaefer, Diane Karp, Hedy Kleinman, Maudrie Mortay, Mary Jo, and Theodore Schen-Star, Starry Fun Night for sponsoring the seats so that we could have these people here. We thank you very, very much. A personal note I would like to say that I'm delighted that Ann Pasternak, who is our new and enthusiastic director, is sitting here as our director for the First Sackler Center First Awards, and I'd like to welcome you here. Once again, it's an honor to have our First Lady, the First Lady of New York, with us to celebrate the Sackler Center First awardees. Despite what the New York Post says, Ms. McCrae doesn't have to pay for the pleasure of being here with us tonight. She is the First Lady of the City of New York, and she honors the Brooklyn Museum with her presence, and of course, as our guests. Please join me in welcoming the First Lady of New York City, Sharon Fay. Good evening, everyone. I want you to know I don't feel like a guest. This is my home. This is Brooklyn. I want to thank you, Elizabeth, for that wonderful introduction, your partnership, your support, and your relentless commitment to amplifying the voices and visions of women everywhere. Oh, Brooklyn, I love it. So much energy in this room. I wish we could, you know, change the world with it. So I am grateful for the opportunity to introduce an abridged version of Free Angela and All Political Pursues, the masterful documentary by Shola Lynch. That title alone tells you a lot about why we are here tonight. When Angela Davis was in prison, her allies formed a defense committee, and they were planning to call it the National United Committee to Free Angela Davis. It was Davis who insisted that they call it the National United Committee to Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners, because she knew that the struggle was much bigger than just her. Yes, Angela was and is an icon. I was 15 years old when she went underground, and let me tell you, seeing her on the news with her stunning afro and her fist raised in defiance was nothing short of electrifying. But if Angela was not more than her proud locks or her power salute, we wouldn't be here tonight. She endures because she cannot be contained to a single era or episode. Angela was a revolutionary before she was in the news, fighting for black power while pushing her male compatriots to make room for the sisters. She certainly was a revolutionary during her celebrated trial when she stood strong and tall in the eye of a media storm. And she is a revolutionary today, applying her fierce intellect to a most worthy mission of dismantling the prison industrial complex. Her steadfast commitment to returning all power to the people is perhaps Angela's greatest legacy and lesson. Over the past few years, millions of minds have been awakened or reawakened by the tragic truncated stories of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tamir Brown, Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Tanisha Anderson, Natasha McKenna, and so many others who did not make the headlines but should have. The challenge before us now is to stay woke, as some of our young people say. This movement we're a part of isn't looking for part-time help. We need lifetime members. We need people who are all in, all the time. We need people like Angela. And I'm reminded of another Sackler First Award winner, Toni Morrison, who is also a member of Artist in Support of Social Action, which stands in solidarity with Angela. Ms. Morrison once wrote that, the function of freedom is to free someone else. I'm going to say that again. The function of freedom is to free someone else. Angela embodies those words. Even when her own freedom was in jeopardy, she never stopped fighting to free someone else. I am honored to welcome Angela Y. Davis to Brooklyn, and I hope you are all inspired by the film as I was. Thank you. Professor Angela Davis admitted that she is a member of the Communist Party. Who put her on the top 10? Everybody had a file on it. Her first lecture drew 2,000 students. Angela's education is now being put into practice. Angela Davis purchased four guns. There it is! Oh, I think she's trying to overthrow our system of government, and she admits that. The actions of the FBI and apprehending Angela Davis are a rather remarkable story. A U.S. district court judge set bail at $100,000. She knows that the movement to free our political prisoners is growing every day. This entire incident was a deliberate provocation. They wanted to break me. They wanted me to be spot. There was enormous feeling for Angela everywhere in the world. We know that she is innocent. We want to tell that Pharaoh in Washington to let Angela Davis go free. What they're doing to her is an exaggerated form of what happens every day to black people in this country. What does it mean to be a criminal in this society? They are not going to kill her. They're not going to imprison her. We're going to free her. We're going to win her freedom. Well, thank you. Welcome to the People's Republic of the Brooklyn Museum of Feminist Art. Right. We are so honored that you are here. I don't think, I mean, how many tears are there? I don't think you know how much you have been part of our lives. How many people are there? You know, it's really hard to imagine how you feel watching it. But I know there are people in this audience who are going through tough times, not on a global scale as you did. But what helped you survive? What can you, what comes to mind that you want to pass on to folks in this audience who are having trials, personal trials? Well, first of all, can I say that I'm really happy to be in Brooklyn? Which was my home for a few years during my high school years. I lived on St. Mark's Avenue and Kingston and went to high school in the village. And one of my high school classmates is here, Kathy Boudine. So it's really, it's really wonderful to be here in New York. And it's really great to see you, Gloria. It's been a while, a few years since we've seen each other. And I'd like to thank Elizabeth for organizing this event. Thank you. So, your question. I think, I mean, I've pondered this question often because there were times when, of course, I was quite frightened and absolutely certain that this was so enormous that there was nothing we could do that could defeat their plan to either send me to the gas chamber or to prison for the rest of my life. You know, what I suppose what made me feel capable of, you know, getting up every day and moving forward and continuing was the fact that there were so many other people involved in this struggle. This was not my struggle alone. And I had just a few months prior to my own arrest when I was doing work around the Soledad Brothers case, I can remember giving speeches and saying to people, you have to join the campaign to free the Soledad Brothers. No one knows who will be next. You could be next. And I had no idea at that time that I was actually referring to myself. But I think that so many people were willing to come forward and join the campaign because they knew that I had been involved and what made me feel less fearful and more capable of confronting whatever the future might bring was the fact that I was not alone. And even today when people talk about my story and there are some people our age who remember the whole situation from many, many, many years ago, I have to insist that it really was not about me. I was the target of those charges, not because of what I had done as an individual, but because of what the movement was doing at that time. And so I can only see myself as being one of many others. And that helped me. That helped me because I didn't feel alone. And I knew that whatever happened, even if it turned out that I was sentenced to death, I knew that I wouldn't be walking into that death chamber alone. And this is what movements are for. This is exactly what movements are for. So would you advise any folks here having a tough time to make sure? Bill community. Yes, Bill community. And I had this wonderful conversation with teenagers, high school students and some of the people who are involved in the education program here at the Brooklyn Museum. And it was an amazing conversation. I was saying we should have brought all of them up on stage with us to continuing. But I was saying that it's so important for us to recognize that we are more than individuals. We are so much more than individuals. We often think of ourselves only as individuals. Even when we experience trauma, even when we think that we are totally alone, actually we're connected to people all over the world who experience the same kind of traumas. And if only we can gather the strength and the courage that comes from feeling a part of a larger community, then we can accomplish all kinds of things. And I think that is what happened in my case. We achieve the impossible. We achieved what nobody believed was possible. And I was telling them, I said, you saw the images of Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover, who were considered to be the most powerful men in the world. And where are they now? Where are we now? Well, I also just want to ask you one other question, which I don't know if it has an answer or not, but is there anything about this that still makes you feel misunderstood? Because feeling misunderstood is a form of invisibility. Is there anything you want to tell us? I mean, Shola, thank you for this incredible film. But I know it's real hard to get such complexity. Into such a short space. Yeah, and Shola did an amazing job. I had not seen so much of that footage. And I told Shola that I had no idea how the FBI was able to capture me until I saw this film. That's true. And there are a couple of things that you didn't get to see because it's, what about 40 minutes cut out? Yeah, about 40 minutes that you didn't get to see. And you should all see the whole thing. And one of the things that's really interesting in the film and in the campaign was how I got out on bail. Because had I not been released on bail, I don't know what would have been the consequences in the actual courtroom. And I got out on bail because this, a white farmer from Fresno, California offered to put up his entire farm. And I mean, the story is told in the film. But Aretha Franklin said that she was, if I ever received bail, that she would go the bail. But she was somewhere in the West Indies. And it was impossible to transfer funds in the way we do now. It was a different stage of capitalism at that era. So, yeah, and I don't know, the story is somewhat complicated, but there were only a couple of days in which that might have been possible. Because the California Supreme Court had just overturned the death penalty temporarily in California. That meant that suddenly I was eligible for bail. And because there had been organizing all over the world, as soon as that decision came down from the Supreme Court of California, people started calling and sending telegrams. Yeah, that was the way we communicated in those days. And it was only as a result of that combination of massive movement pressure and this person who had been touched by the movement who knew that we didn't have the, it was $100,000, I think. That doesn't sound like a lot of money today, but it was more probably, it was more like a million dollars or more in those days. And that's how I actually got out of jail. But that's a great lesson. I mean, it's a lesson from the support that everything we do matters, in fact, or at least we have to behave as if everything we do matters because we don't know which thing really will. And also that the unexpected that this white farmer, I mean, did you, you met him, right? Yes, yes, we became very good friends. Roger McAfee, of course, we would become friends. We want to hear his name again. Roger McAfee. Okay, here's to Roger McAfee. And what did he say about why he did it? Well, he, you know, he, in his heart, he felt that he had to be willing. He believed in justice and he was a socialist at heart. As a matter of fact, after my trial was over, he ended up going to Cuba and getting involved in some agricultural projects there. But yeah, he was the embodiment of that movement. You know, he was one of millions and millions of people. And I think that's what it means to build a movement. No, and also to be surprised, you know, because he was not the person you thought was going to come forward. No, absolutely not. So we always need to look beyond what we think are the indicators, you know, and really speak directly. And, you know, I was thinking while you were talking about how tough it was that there's a form of this going, the kind, I mean, an electronic form, sort of, of the kinds of accusations and misunderstandings and so on that you suffered. And, you know, I would just like to say that as one completely safe white woman living in Manhattan, one of my relatives disowned me because, you know, I supported you. I mean, I didn't miss him, I have to say. He was not a nice guy. And I was giving him a commencement address at Queens College, I think, and it was the day that you were exonerated. And I said to all the graduates, you will always remember your graduation because this is the day, you know, Angela Davis was set free. June 4th. And all of the graduates cheered and a lot of their parents booed. So, you know, it was serious, you know, it was all kinds of people who should. My mother said she discovered who her real friends were because, of course, when I was underground, especially there were those who disassociated themselves entirely from her in Birmingham, Alabama, you know, who wants to be associated with a black communist revolutionary. My mother said, I do. She raised her voice. I would like to say, just as a little aside, the communism is so American, I mean, because Marx and Engels were inspired by the Iroquois Confederacy. Yeah, I mean, it's under our feet. There's a long, long history of socialist and communist activism in this country. Well, what's great is that now it's possible to criticize capitalism in ways that was impossible during those days. And so, you know, we have to thank the Occupy Movement for creating, opening the space and creating a new vocabulary and allowing us to say that something about this capitalist system is really, really rotten and needs to be changed, needs to be radically transformed. You know, let's talk about movements now because I do think that there's cause for great hope at the same time that there is clear backlash and craziness. And, you know, it's like that we may have the majority in terms of issues, but the backlash against it is so powerful and crazy and named Trump and all this bullshit that's occurring. So, you know, what gives you hope now? I mean, Black Lives Matter was founded by three young black women Right? Absolutely, yes. And I should say their names. Patrice, Colors, Opal, Tamari and Alicia Garza. And Opal, Tamari. Right, right. It's important to say their names. And they have three guidelines which I totally love. Lead with love. That's a little California, but still it's a good one. Two, low ego, high impact. Don't you love that? And three, move at the speed of trust. That I totally love. So, and at the same time, they have, they're wrongly accused. I mean, there was just a woman who was convicted in California, right, of Black Lives Matter leader in California. Yeah, who was convicted, right. Yeah, yeah. I just saw Jasmine three days ago, as a matter of fact, in Southern California. And she asked the same question that you asked me earlier. You know, what did you do to maintain your strength and where did the courage come from? And I gave her the same answer about community and ensuring her that we were not going to let her go to jail, but in the event that she did go, that she would not be alone. But Black Lives Matter is, this is what we've been waiting for. This is a historical conjuncture where, you know, all of the ingredients came together in an amazing way. And Opal and Patrice and Alicia, they were able to read the times and understand that this is what we need at this moment. And it has legs, I think, in a way that is as important as Occupy is. Didn't have the same kind of visceral lasting power. Well, I don't know about that, because I think it's important for us to see these moments as connected. And Occupy, of course, it was impossible to have an unending encampment. That had to come to an end, but the consequences are still with us. We have this new vocabulary, we have new movements against eviction, and I see Black Lives Matter and all of the organizations and formations that have emerged, say, since Trayvon Martin in 2012 as linked. So you have Occupy in 2011, right? And then you have the upsurge against the killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012. Troy Davis, we almost managed to prevent him from being executed. And then, of course, in Florida, you have the emergence of the Dream Defenders, who are still going strong. And then you have organizations that develop in New York, Justice League in New York, BYP 100, Black Youth Project in Chicago. So all of this is connected. And I think that this is a moment when there is so much promise, so much potential. And of course, we never know what the outcome is going to be. We can never predict the consequences of the work that we do. But as I always like to say, we have to, and I think somebody found a quote of me saying this somewhere, I saw it on the screen, we have to act as if it is possible to build a revolution and to radically transform the world. And let me say that if people had not been doing the work, this wouldn't have happened. If you look at the three women who are the co-founders of Black Lives Matter, they're all activists. They were all trained in work. For example, Opal does work on immigrant rights. And Patrice, whom I knew before Black Lives Matter emerged, has been involved in building campaigns against police violence in Los Angeles. She's also trained by the Bus Riders Union. And then Alicia Garza has been working with the Domestic Workers Alliance and has been doing that work for many years. So these are all seasoned activists. It didn't just happen. It didn't just happen because they said Black Lives Matter. No, it's like in Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks did not just sit down on the bus. Exactly. And the civil rights movement didn't just happen. We've forgotten all of the activism of the 30s because communists were involved. And Rosa Parks can be depicted as this nice woman. Seemstress. But people don't realize that she was an activist against rape. She did dangerous work. She was a trained activist. Yeah, and she was investigating a sexual assault case at the bus stop. Exactly. Exactly. I'm getting a little time signal on how much more time I knew this was going to happen just as we got into our conversation. We would be told that it's time to end. There's so much, so much that we want to thank you for. And that we want to Well, you know, there is something that I would that I would really like to say. Because and I think it's a good way to conclude. And I think that we saw it in the film, the emphasis on global connections and global solidarities. In the U.S., we are encouraged to think that we are the only people in the world who really matter, you know. And sometimes even revolutionaries think that revolutionaries from the U.S. know more than revolutionaries from, say, Brazil or from Palestine. And I think it's so important now to cultivate the international, the global connections. And the work that is being done around justice for Palestine is so central to the development of healthy radical activism in the United States of America. So I just needed to say that. Well, I think the fact that we were together in this room with such incredible people, I hope you all meet each other. You have to promise me to turn to the great person next to you because you are a great person. And figure out what outrageous act you're going to do tomorrow and the next day. And because you have given us such hope and such an example that we are indeed all linked, we are not ranked, and that we can behave that way. And we thank you. Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you so much. If you would allow me, I would like to present you with the Sacramento Center First Award with a bow to the final paragraph written by James Baldwin as an open letter to my sister, Angel Roy Davis, in your 1971 book, Angel Roy Davis and other political prisoners, if they come for you in the morning. And I quote, The enormous revolution in black consciousness, which has occurred in your generation, my dear sister, means the beginning or the end of America. Some of us white and black know how greater price has already been paid to bring into existence a new consciousness, a new people, an unprecedented nation. If we know and do nothing, we are worse than the murderers hired in our name. If we know, then we must fight for your life as though it were our own, which it is, and render it passable with our bodies the corridor to the gas chambers where if they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night. Therefore, peace, Brother James, November 19, 1970. This is a beautiful award. And I entirely appreciate your choice of the quote by James Baldwin from the open letter he wrote, which actually launched the whole campaign for my freedom. And I'll say in accepting this award that we need these struggles more than ever during this time. We've talked about the emergence of new movements. But what we have referred to is the extent to which racism has been revealed in ways that many of us who are seasoned activists had thought it had been consigned to the dustbin of history. I often feel that by mentioning Trump's name, I'm conjuring up this figure, but I will say that we have learned how important it is to prevent Donald Trump from winning the election. We have to do whatever is in Mexico's election, right, not preceding the election and then decide that it's okay to go back to doing what we were doing before. So I would like to thank you for this award. Thank you so much, Elizabeth. Thank you, Gloria. And let's get the organizing going.