Transcript: The Art of Isolation and Protest

00:00
(Gentle mysterious music)

00:06
Nikki Frumkin: I think a lot of people are feeling waves of emotions.

00:16
Jillian Chong: A lot of artists are popping up everywhere, trying to add some life into this situation.

00:30
Joe Nix: We're out here pouring our hearts out.

00:35
Takiyah Ward: We've been cooped up in our houses for months for fear of virus, and then the virus that is racism in America rears its ugly head.

00:47
Joseph Francis: Right now, America's crying, America's bleeding, you know? And then the whole world hears it and feels it.

01:00
(Logo)
(Gentle mysterious music)

01:07
Morgan Zion: Somebody reached out to me, and she was like,“I need you to come and mural up my board. I don't like this depressing feeling of having just a board up.”

01:15
Morgan Zion: And then I was like, "Girl, I am there for you."

01:26
Keoke Silvano: With the coronavirus, been a lot of xenophobic sentiments coming towards Asians. People have been poking their heads into Jade Restaurant and saying, "Hey, stop serving that bat soup."

01:35
Keoke Silvano: I wanted to make sure that we prevent people from tagging the business.

01:43
Carol Rashawnna Williams: We're all suffering the same anxiety. And so, for me, art is a way that can help people just feel a little bit happy.

01:52
Carol Rashawnna Williams: I mean, even 5% happiness just walking by, and if you smile and you see it, to me, that is a positive. (Laughs)

02:03
Jillian Chong: If you're an artist, you're an entrepreneur, so you don't always know when the money's coming in.

02:09
Joe Nix: I'm terrified every day about what's gonna happen with my business. I had to close because of everything that's happening.

02:17
Carol Rashawnna Williams: I work full-time as an artist and as soon as COVID hit, all of my contracts, all of my exhibitions, basically either got canceled or put on hold. And it was devastating.

02:35
Nikki Frumkin: It's definitely tough, but it's been nice to sort of see how creativity is showing up in unexpected places.

02:50
Carol Rashawnna Williams: Today this woman walked by, and she said, "I don't see any other Black artists down here painting murals."

02:57
Carol Rashawnna Williams: And there's a problem with that, and it's because of the same reason my community is getting devastated by COVID.

03:05
Takiyah Ward: We've been cooped up in our houses for months for fear of virus, and then the virus that is racism in America rears its ugly head.

03:15
(Crowd chanting:) Whose lives matter? Black lives matter!

03:29
Che Sehyun: I was here out in the streets, and the police were staying a block away, literally babysitting white vandalers, and they didn't protect the ID at all.

03:38
Che Sehyun: Different people, not just Asian people, coming together, there are Black people, there's white people, there's Indigenous people all coming together right now.

03:47
(Spray paint can clacking)

03:55
Joseph Francis: Being Black in America, when I walk up, I have to prove who I am.

04:01
Joseph Francis: When the world saw what happened to George Floyd, that right there was a blatant lynching in front of everybody.

04:10
Kelli Wimbley: Seattle is waking up. I think it's waking up. I think there's been a lotta hurt in this community, people being displaced,

04:20
Kelli Wimbley: The governments that are in charge have been erasing Black people in communities for a long time. And this is a response.

04:37
(Gentle meditative music)

04:40
Joseph Francis: The stars right there are fading, ’cause that's how I feel about America right now. The stripes are bleeding.

04:47
Joseph Francis: The arts are from the heavens. That's a miracle that only sometimes I get to experience,

04:56
Joseph Francis: But when I'm down there painting it with the people, we all experience it.

00:04:59
Takiyah Ward: The pandemic obviously brought on challenges that no one could've imagined, and artists showed up.

05:06
Takiyah Ward: And then the virus that is racism in America rears its ugly head. So once again, artists, we show up.