This work juxtaposes Claude McKay’s 1922 poem “The Lynching” with the names of unarmed Black persons who’d been killed by police in recent years at the time of printing. In setting these two texts alongside one another, the viewer is asked to reckon with the violent spectacle of these killings as a contemporary form of media lynchings.

The creation of this piece was inspired by looking back on seven years spent living in Mississippi learning about the make-up of these United States. “Dear White Friends” is a call specifically to white Americans to do the work of recognizing the racial violence and inequity before them. Letterpress-printed in an edition of 20.

2016. Rubber-based ink on Johannot paper; hand-set metal type and photopolymer relief printed damp. 9” x 12”