Priorities, 2021

This piece is inspired by the late spoken word poet Gil Scott-Heron’s 1970 poem titled “Whitey on the Moon”. The poem critiques the resources spent on the Apollo Moon Landings space program during a time Black Americans were experiencing social and economic upheaval at home. Speed ahead to 2021 where we see history repeating itself: NASA successfully lands their Perseverance rover on Mars while Black renters experience the highest average rates of eviction filing an eviction judgment in the country, during a global pandemic, with the largest disparity of any group lying with Black women. I edited Scott-Heron’s poem to fit today’s Black American upheaval and historical benign neglect policy by utilizing my personal font (a nod to NYC Graffiti) and centering the piece on the text as a message rather than the visual image.