LaToya Ruby Frazier Shea S. Cobb and Amber N. Hasan
The Gordon Parks Foundation
April 21, 2022
Flint Is Family In Three Acts
LaToya Ruby Frazier in Conversation with
Flint Artists and Activists Shea S. Cobb and Amber N. Hasan
Moderated by Michal Raz-Russo, Programs Director, The Gordon Parks Foundation
This conversation was hosted in conjunction with the publication of LaToya Ruby Frazier: Flint Is Family in Three Acts—the inaugural recipient of The Gordon Parks Foundation / Steidl Book Priz—and the opening of its accompanying exhibition at the Gordon Parks Foundation Gallery. Flint Is Family In Three Acts chronicles the ongoing man-made water crisis in Flint, Michigan, from the perspective of those who live and fight for their right to access free, clean water. Featuring photographs, texts, poems, and interviews made in collaboration with Flint community members, this body of work serves as an intervention and alternative to mass-media accounts of this political, economic, and racial injustice.
Frazier first traveled to Flint in 2016, as part of an Elle magazine commission to do a photo essay about the water crisis there. During that trip she met Shea S. Cobb, a Flint poet, activist, and mother; and Amber N. Hasan, a mother, hip-hop artist, herbalist, and community organizer, who developed a collaborative creative sisterhood with Frazier. Divided into three acts, Flint Is Family follows Cobb as she fights for her family’s and community’s health and well-being. Spurred by the lack of mass-media interest in the impact of this ongoing crisis, Frazier’s approach ensures that the lives and voices of Flint’s residents are seen and heard, and that their collective creative endeavors provide a solution to this man-made water crisis. Flint Is Family In Three Acts is a twenty-first-century survey of the American landscape that reveals the persistent segregation and racism that haunts it. In equal measure, it is also a story of a community’s strength, pride, and resilience in the face of an ongoing crisis. The exhibition features photographs from Act II and Act III of Flint Is Family In Three Acts, texts by Flint community members, as well as a video Frazier made to accompany the September 2016 Elle article.
Courtesy of: The Gordon Parks Foundation
