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Brandie Davison

Davison’s piece was inspired by posters created in 1964 by the Harlem Defense Council to bring attention to police brutality and killings In Harlem. Black people in their own communities had long been suffering from violent policing. Uprising and protest broke loose when a 15-year-old Black boy, James Powell, was killed by an off-duty white police lieutenant, Thomas Gilligan. The posters were created when there was no justice for Powell’s killing and were accompanied by demands from the people. Davison’s thoughts were “If those same posters were created today, there would need to be several. Oftentimes we are only given imagery of the victims, which look like me, and that can be traumatizing. I think while remembering the victims it is important to remember the cause. This is what they look like.” Davison used a similar method where she wheat pasted 30 wanted posters onto sheets of wood, each with a different police officer that has been involved with police brutality and murder. Additionally, an excerpt about the civilian that had been murdered by each police office was included on the poster. This work was promptly taken down a week later after it had been put up where police officers guarded the individual that was assigned to take it down.