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In recent months, we’ve been forced to reimagine how we gather, whether virtually or in person. Alicia Walters, a facilitator, artist and cultural innovator, believes that gathering in person (responsibly, of course) is essential, especially right now, for the black community.
“There is power in black people taking up space, particularly when cities are intentionally trying and succeeding in removing us, making us invisible,” she said, referring to the recent protests against police brutality.
Ms. Walters recently set up a massive chalkboard in Oakland, Calif., and invited black people to express their innermost feelings and thoughts. She calls it the Black Thought Wall. It is part of the Black Thought Project, a social experiment Ms. Walters started in 2018.
“Anti-blackness is both the core wound and the organizing principle of this country, a through-line that permeates all of our institutions and cultures,” she said. Her thesis: Blackness must be centered physically, not online.
“Seeing and understanding the world through the black experience is the basis for our individual and collective healing,” she said.
For some people, the concept of “centering blackness” is a paradigm shift. Can you explain what it means exactly?
White supremacy — which has harmed everyone, including robbing white people of their own humanity — needs anti-blackness to thrive. Centering blackness removes both the fuel and the constraints of white supremacy, allowing everyone to be free of its tyranny.
Doing so acknowledges the historical root of this racial hierarchy that has intentionally placed black people at the bottom of society and gives us the opportunity to see the world through the lens of the black experience. It requires us to imagine how our rules and structures would be reorganized and envision a world where we all thrive because the bottom is removed. When we remove blackness from the bottom, everybody gets to be seen.
How does the Black Thought Project center blackness, for both black people and non-black people?
This project is providing a lived experience and an environment where black people feel safe, where they’re protected. It centers our love for ourselves and our visions for the world we want to live in: one that does not degrade, diminish or dispose of us.
The role of non-black people in the Black Thought Project is to protect the people and space; to witness what is happening in the space and to themselves at the moment; and to honor, taking in what is shared and letting it mean something in their life.
What do you say to those who see centering blackness as too radical of an idea?
I say, “You must be OK with not being fully human because centering blackness is the only way to reclaim and return to your full humanity.” We all harbor anti-blackness in our bodies — it’s the core wound of this nation that we carry and live by — and it has cut us all off from our own humanity. We’ve become desensitized to the suffering of black people, and all other human beings as a result.
Let’s take a step back. What does blackness mean to you?
In the most literal sense, it is having lineage from the African diaspora. But blackness is more than skin or hair texture-deep. It is a knowing and an experience. Not just one, but many. All the experiences woven together that we as black people have. Our experience is not monolithic, but we all know what it feels like to not belong, to have the constant internal chatter and external threat and constraint of whiteness. Ours is a journey of the constant pursuit of freedom, should we choose to accept it.
I once said that to become a black woman is to live the journey of discrimination, finding life in the safety net of sisterhood; discovering the deep sense of responsibility and weight of the world; and ultimately finding the inner strength and acceptance of ourselves, the deep love that calls us to live our precious lives.
The Black Thought Project is about taking up space, physical space, and gathering together. Why are both of these imperative for the centering blackness, and even healing?
The threat to our bodies and our homes is physical, therefore the response must be equally physical. A physical experience for black people, having a physical space, in their own communities where they are protected and witnessed — in their vulnerability, in their intellect, in their creativity, in their expression — is necessary. This social experiment tests whether communities can truly honor blackness in a public space. It challenges people to have a relationship with blackness that sees us not as a threat but worthy of protection.
This is also about bringing people together to shift their beliefs about what the world could be like. The experience of centering blackness through these installations reprograms our minds and bodies about how we relate to each other, how we relate to blackness, which is necessary to create new relationships and structures in society. This physical space is a place of healing for black people, and for everyone.
In the wake of Covid-19, gathering together has become more complex and difficult. Will there ever be a digital version for the Black Thought Project?
This is a safe space where black people can know they aren’t being exploited, their expressing isn’t being commodified, and where they are being honored. And that needs to happen in person, if it goes online it simply becomes a Twitter chat with white women saying, “I’m listening” and that’s not the same.
What new significance, if any, has the Black Thought Project taken on in the wake of the recent uprising against police brutality?
I’m really inspired right now by what I’m seeing in the streets. The conversations that I’m witnessing. We’re in a portal right now where we can make transformative change, and it really matters how we relate to each other in this moment. It matters how we talk to each other in this moment.
More than ever, we need spaces for black people to express themselves. There is a lot on our hearts and minds and we need to imagine we can build a world that centers blackness. We need to dream inside that world, and we need to be driving that vision for what’s on the other side of this.
What is your ultimate goal for the Black Thought Project?
I’ve done these walls in different parts of the city and one of the things I’d love is a permanent Black Thought Wall in front of a city building, like outside the courthouse. Asking black people going in and out of that institution — who are being constrained, judged, punished, who have zero control in that space — what makes them feel safe and what justice they’re seeking. And then to present these thoughts in a direct document, in a paper, or a direct action to the sheriff’s department or to the police department. To make visible the voice and presence of people who have no power within this system.
