Rashaad Newsome
– Artist’s Website –
It is a point visual artist Rashaad Newsome made when he commissioned protesters to storm the stage of the opening of the ‘Killer Heels’ exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. One protester held up a sign that read “R.I.P. Islan Nettles”. Nettles was a 21-year-old black trans woman who was fatally beaten by a group of men while walking down the street with friends in New York City. The moment brought attention to the troubling reality that trans black women represent 72% of LGBTQ homicide victims. “I created the work because I wanted Islan Nettles to be remembered and her story to be heard,” Newsome told me after the performance.