Artistic response after the death of Michael Brown Jr. was passionate, intense and varied.
From poetry to documentaries, 狐狸视频 writers, artists and musicians found ways to channel anger and despair while stepping up to give voices to thousands of onlookers.
Creatives stood alongside clergymen, politicians and civilians united against predatory policing and the death of an unarmed Ferguson teen.
But it wasn鈥檛 so much the shooting of Brown as the resulting protests that inspired artist Damon Davis. His photographs of raised hands in 鈥淎ll Hands on Deck鈥 took signs of surrender and made them symbols of fortitude and community, the 狐狸视频 Art Museum said.
A play that compared an ancient Greek tragedy to what happened to Brown traveled from 狐狸视频 to Greece to off-Broadway.
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Bruce Franks, who went from rapper to political candidate, says, 鈥淲hat we did in Ferguson and what we did for Michael Brown changed the landscape in the entire world in terms of how you fight, how you push forward, and how you run for office.鈥
Art curators also see profound change. Musicians run social justice organizations. And a bookstore owner concludes, 鈥淲e moved the needle a little bit.鈥
Here are snapshots of cultural response 10 years after the international uproar over the death of Michael Brown.
Visual art can be a 鈥榤ighty tool鈥 for social issues
Since the Ferguson protests, 狐狸视频 artists have had pieces acquired by the Smithsonian, shown at the 狐狸视频 Art Museum, and installed in a new development.
Lisa Melandri, executive director of the Contemporary Art Museum 狐狸视频, says part of our cultural heritage is now the 鈥淢irror Casket鈥 piece at the Smithsonian鈥檚 National Museum of African American History & Culture.
鈥淪ince this tragedy, art has become more responsive to issues of social justice and systemic injustice, something that we have seen in our local arts community and across the country in not only the immediate aftermath, but also the ensuing years,鈥 she says.
The lead artist for 鈥淢irror Casket鈥 (which is what its title implies 鈥 a coffin covered in broken pieces of mirror) was De Nichols, who then lived in 狐狸视频. In 2021, she published a book for young readers called 鈥淎rt of Protest: Creating, Discovering, and Activating Art for Your Revolution.鈥 It gives readers ideas on how to create activist art and describes how visual pieces can stand out at protests.
But she also goes into the long history of art used in protest, including Francisco Goya鈥檚 鈥淒isasters of War鈥 etchings made in 1810-20; posters and banners included in the fight for women鈥檚 suffrage in the United Kingdom in 1914-18; Diego Rivera鈥檚 Mexican murals in the 1920s; and antiwar slogans and songs in the U.S. in the 1960s-70s.
Nichols writes: 鈥淲hen used in public spaces, protest art serves as a mighty tool to help people learn about social issues.鈥
Painted boards protected windows during the Ferguson protests, and rather than act as a temporary barrier, they have been acquired by the Missouri History Museum, inspired a coloring book and a separate children鈥檚 book and are now installed in the Delmar Divine building, serving as continual reminders for viewers.
The 狐狸视频 Art Museum acquired a painting by Kehinde Wiley after the internationally known artist chose subjects from Ferguson and nearby through 鈥渟treet casting.鈥 They posed for portraits inspired by traditional works in the museum鈥檚 collection.
For local artist Damon Davis, the protesters at Ferguson not only gave him purpose at the time, but the movement also continues to inspire him.
Lithographs of Davis鈥 photographic images of raised hands, 鈥淎ll Hands on Deck,鈥 were shown at the 狐狸视频 Art Museum just a couple of years ago, and last year his sculpture 鈥淧illars of the Valley,鈥 which marks the former Mill Creek Valley community, was installed outside CityPark. He also produced a documentary, 鈥淲hose Streets?,鈥 after Brown鈥檚 death.
鈥淚鈥檝e been building on these artistic skills my whole life to use to benefit somebody other than myself,鈥 he says. And the social justice issues underlying the protests will continue to be a part of his work:
鈥淚t鈥檚 all ongoing because America is built on exploiting Black and brown people. It鈥檚 not gonna stop; until I die, I鈥檓 going to be in this fight. So just like my father, my mother, just like they both, I鈥檓 a part of a continuum. So, no, it ain鈥檛 never gonna end.鈥
Davis, 39, says protest is a symptom of something bigger. 鈥淲e as artists are supposed to be scribes of the times that we鈥檙e in.鈥
James McAnally, director of the public art initiative Counterpublic, points out that Davis and others are also moving beyond protest art. Davis鈥 recent work centers on futurism.
鈥淪eeing only the pain, seeing only the anger is doing a disservice to the Black experience,鈥 McAnally says. 鈥淭he range of art we鈥檝e seen in the last decade connects to that journey. And I hope that as audiences we鈥檙e ready to receive that as well, to see the images of joy, futures of fantasy, that kind of, you know, those aren鈥檛 totally different than images of protests, you know. A continuum all needs to be there.鈥
Significantly, the protest art may have especially long-lasting effects on museums.
鈥淭o me, it鈥檚 hard to overstate the impact that it鈥檚 had on art and on culture more broadly,鈥 McAnally says.
In the past 10 years, he says, museums have hired more diverse leaders and shown more inclusive exhibits.
鈥淚f you enter a museum now, you see the collections that are of the shows that are happening with Black and Indigenous artists. And I think there鈥檚 a direct connection to what was happening with the protests in 狐狸视频 and the uprising in Ferguson, to what you see now in a more inclusive art world.鈥
Writers add to literature of social justice
Poetry can be a way to make social commentary, says Jason Vasser-Elong, who wrote about Michael Brown鈥檚 death in a poem that was published 10 years ago in the Post-Dispatch.
This year, he鈥檚 written a poignant new one, 鈥淢ike Brown at the Library,鈥 in which he imagines seeing the Ferguson man at age 28, browsing books by Black authors.
The past decade has been 鈥渏arring for writers鈥 like him, he says. Vasser-Elong says, 鈥淚 think a lot of writers, myself included, would romanticize about the Civil Rights movement, Black Arts movement, the Harlem Renaissance, and these different pockets in history where we were comfortable in that not being our reality. But now, these things are our reality. So, what do we do with this energy? A lot of us are writing.鈥
鈥淚 Saw Mike Brown at the Library鈥
Vasser-Elong, 45, is a professor at the Honors College at the University of Missouri-狐狸视频. He teaches writing to students, some of whom were only 9 or so when Brown was killed.
鈥淣ow in college classrooms, the discourse is centered around, you know, these different moments of tragedy (particularly police killings), and they have to grapple with it differently now. They鈥檙e like, 鈥極h, well, I remember Mike Brown, like I remember him as, you know, we played kickball together,鈥 or whatever it was. It didn鈥檛 hit them how significant his passing was.鈥
Although Vasser-Elong doesn鈥檛 think writers should use Brown鈥檚 death as a mere 鈥減latform鈥 for themselves, he also asks, 鈥淗ow do we allow these police killings to keep happening? I feel a sense of urgency in the Black community and in the white community, too 鈥 the people who are allies to Black folks 鈥 that we need to do something about this. This is not how we ought to be remembered.鈥
Kris Kleindienst believes Brown鈥檚 killing had an impact in the world of books: 鈥淚t woke some people up and mobilized others.鈥 The owner of Left Bank Books, where she has worked for 50 years, says people were suddenly asking for books about mass incarceration or by James Baldwin.
鈥淭hings we could barely justify keeping on our shelves suddenly became bestsellers. Young people interested in justice were one set of buyers, but also middle class white people who were wondering, 鈥楬ow could this happen?鈥欌
The bookstore, which began during the Civil Rights movement, has always been about supporting gay rights and antiracism.
Kleindienst says, 鈥淓very time there is a crisis of some sort, a bookstore鈥檚 response is 鈥榃hat do people need from us now?鈥欌
Ten years ago, the store replaced some books in its windows with Black Lives Matter signs. A Central West End patron wrote a letter of objection and said they would never buy another book there.
But now, Kleindienst says, literature by and about people of color sells to a broader audience. And interest in social justice was reignited after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
鈥淲e moved the needle a little bit.鈥
Over the last 10 years, the needle has also moved on diverse books. In 2014, according to the Cooperative Children鈥檚 Book Center in Wisconsin, only 5.2% of children鈥檚 books they surveyed were about Black people. In 2023, that number was 15%.
Although one can鈥檛 draw a straight line from Brown鈥檚 death, the resulting uprisings, discussions about Black lives and awareness of racism over the decade seem to affect the book industry. (The movement has also led to censorship efforts and other counterreactions.)
In 2017, Mississippi novelist Angie Thomas said she had already been working on her bestseller 鈥淭he Hate U Give,鈥 when Brown died. But she admitted:
鈥淚t was another wakeup call. We saw it with Trayvon (Martin), and we saw it years before with Oscar Grant, but there was something about Michael Brown and the reaction to Michael鈥檚 death that really hit me, specifically how this young man was villainized and blamed for his own death.鈥
Now, Kleindienst sees not just a hunger to read about difficult things, but an appetite for 鈥渏oy鈥 鈥 an increase in genres like Afrocentric fantasy and rom-coms.
She says, 鈥淧eople are also looking for things that aren鈥檛 linked to suffering.鈥
Theater moves forward, despite setbacks
After Michael Brown was shot, Duane Foster started getting tons of text messages from his Normandy High School students.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 Mike in the news!鈥 they wrote him.
Foster had been Brown鈥檚 drama teacher in 7th and 12th grades. In fact, he鈥檇 helped Brown earn a fine arts credit in the alternative school program earlier that year.
鈥淚nstead of doing regular coursework, I created a makeshift recording studio so he was able to record his rap songs, because he was heavy into rap. That鈥檚 how he got his credit. And he ended up graduating that summer, pretty much three days before he was killed,鈥 Foster recalls.
In addition to attending vigils and supporting students, Foster remembers being invited to participate in concerts with the school choir he directed. He even appeared in 鈥淎ntigone in Ferguson鈥 a play produced by a Brooklyn theater company that played for 15 weeks off-Broadway and even in Greece.
The Brooklyn company, Theater of War, reached out to Phil Woodmore, artistic director of voice at the Center of the Creative Arts (COCA), to write the score. For the Greek chorus in the play he incorporated the 狐狸视频 Metropolitan Police Department Choir, Trinity Community Church Choir, students from COCA, as well as singers from the community.
Foster says working with the police was eye-opening. 鈥(The officers) weren鈥檛 told to not talk about it, but it was kind of understood that they just didn鈥檛 discuss Ferguson. It was kind of taboo, and doing 鈥楢ntigone in Ferguson鈥 gave them an outlet to be able to talk about it,鈥 Foster says.
During those first few years after Michael Brown鈥檚 death, creatives poured into 狐狸视频 to be part of the moment. It caused local creatives to pause.
鈥淲e wanted to make sure people weren鈥檛 coming in and being vultures on the trauma that the community had experienced,鈥 recalls Jaqueline Thompson, artistic director for Metro Theater Company.
She worked on the Every 28-Hour Plays, a festival that featured 80 one-minute plays in response to Ferguson. It involved national playwrights and producers from Oregon. But it also brought together the local community to stage, act in and direct the plays.
The attention and funding 狐狸视频 theater was getting made it feel like there was a real change in the offing.
The Repertory Theatre 狐狸视频 brought in Hana Sharif as artistic director, the first Black artistic leader in the theater鈥檚 history. Plus, some early career directors of color were getting more opportunities, Thompson recalls. In 2019, the same year that Sharif started, the Black Rep staged the original production 鈥淐anfield Drive鈥 about the events surrounding Michael Brown鈥檚 death.
But everything shifted in 2020. 鈥淥nce the pandemic hit, theater in general was just trying to figure out how to survive, and we鈥檙e still feeling the residuals of that,鈥 Thompson says.
Rather than take risks with new plays, theaters started to stage more tried-and-true fare.
鈥淚 think that we have fallen back into just doing, you know, run-of-the-mill musical theater and plays,鈥 Foster says.
Plus, without the press still writing about 狐狸视频, not as many people were looking to collaborate. 鈥淚t feels like a lot of the outside organizations that came in, they came in and did what they did to get their names circulated with Ferguson and they left,鈥 Foster says.
Ron Himes, artistic director for the Black Rep, agrees: 鈥淔ive years after Ferguson, you could go to a (former) funder who鈥檚 like, 鈥極h, we鈥檙e not funding social justice anymore. Now we鈥檙e doing health care,鈥欌 he says.
That doesn鈥檛 mean that Brown鈥檚 impact still isn鈥檛 felt in theater. Himes points out that the Black Rep has always done the work, and continues to do the work, of putting on shows that explain the society in which a Michael Brown can happen.
鈥淎 lot of the work that we do is not necessarily specifically speaking about Ferguson, but it speaks to the issues that precipitate a Ferguson,鈥 Himes says. 鈥淚t speaks to issues about police states, and how a police department can operate in a way toward the Black community, which is different than the way it operates in other communities, that resources and opportunities are not the same for Black communities as they are in other communities.鈥
When Ferguson happened, Thompson was a drama professor at University of Missouri-狐狸视频. Earlier this year, she also took over artistic leadership at Metro Theater Company, which puts on theater for young people. In that role, she is recommitting to telling the untold stories of our community.
鈥淚鈥檓 going to be intentional about what I consider, finding the outlier stories and finding the things that have this human connectivity that connects us all,鈥 she says. 鈥淏ut (stores that) are also different enough that whoever we鈥檙e representing feels celebrated and seen.鈥
That鈥檚 not an easy feat, especially nowadays with America鈥檚 divisive political atmosphere. But theater makers across 狐狸视频 are willing to keep trying.
鈥淔erguson itself happened, but symbolically and metaphorically speaking, Ferguson is still happening,鈥 Foster says. 鈥淲e are still having injustices. We are still having inequities. And we have to continue to lift the arts up and use it as a mouthpiece for those who otherwise wouldn鈥檛 have a voice.鈥
Musicians on the front line of protests
Nothing was the same for Bruce Franks after Aug. 9, 2014.
The community leader and rapper had grown in popularity under the moniker Oops. He鈥檇 had many wins as an artist, recording over 400 tracks and gaining traction on the battle rap scene. But when Michael Brown was killed, Franks stopped recording music.
鈥淚 was not the same person on Aug. 9 that I was on Aug. 8,鈥 Franks says. 鈥淚 changed overnight. Everything that I thought mattered on Aug. 8, everything that I thought was important, everything I thought I was willing to die for was not the same after Aug. 9.鈥
Franks was one of many 狐狸视频 artists on the front lines after Brown鈥檚 death in Ferguson 10 years ago. The rebellion that followed catapulted the community into what became known as the Ferguson uprising.
The number of musicians present during the protests that ensued was countless. Rapper Tank the Machine recalls seeing artists like Tef Poe, T-Dubb-O, Bates, Bo-Dean, Ron G, GA Barz, the late Darren Seals, and many others on the front lines.
But it wasn鈥檛 just musicians. Poets like Corey Black and Tim Anderson used their voices to help mobilize the community. Local clothing brands like the Woke Brand gave them uniformity in their messaging through fashion. Together, rappers, dancers, singers and creatives created chants to rally and inspire protesters. They were connected through a shared rage and used their creativity as an outlet for their pain.
鈥淚鈥檓 a musician, so when I feel strongly about something, I have to do something about it, even if it鈥檚 as simple as stating my opinion to these rhythms and this melody,鈥 Tank the Machine says.
The residual organizations and actions that followed reflect the aftermath of the uprising on the 狐狸视频 music community. T-Dubb-O and Tef Poe went on to co-found Hands Up United, a social justice organization dedicated to Black liberation. Through Hands Up United, the two artists provide free books and meals to the community through the Books & Breakfast initiative. It also creates a safe space for teens and young adults with Friday movie nights and makes coding classes accessible for youth through the Roy Clay Singham Tech Program.
Franks never returned to recording hip-hop music. Although he continued battle rapping, his passion for making music faded. In 2016, Franks was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives. He says Brown鈥檚 slaying was his sole reason for running for political office.
Both T-Dubb-O and Tef Poe lost opportunities as musicians due to their involvement in the protests. T-Dubb-O says they fell under scrutiny from both the federal government and local police. However, he says he doesn鈥檛 regret his decision to stand up for the Black community and Brown.
鈥淲e always did our own thing, stood up for who we wanted to be, and be the artists that we wanted to be,鈥 T-Dubb-O says. 鈥淕oing out in Ferguson and fighting was just us being who we were, the artist and the person.鈥
T-Dubb-O says the lasting impact was on the entire 狐狸视频 community. He and Franks agree that there has been some change in the last decade. However, Franks says there is still more work to do.
鈥淚 think we have seen change,鈥 Franks says. 鈥淚 think we don鈥檛 give ourselves credit enough. That鈥檚 not to say that we should be satisfied or we should think that we鈥檙e done.鈥