Moving Chains: Toward Abolition

May 21, 2023

Castle Williams - Governors Island National Monument - Castle Williams

Governors Island - Governors Island - Colonels Row Green

Resched­uled to Sun­day, May 21, due to weather. 

On the occa­sion of Charles Gaines’s mon­u­men­tal work Mov­ing Chains on Gov­er­nors Island, Cre­ative Time and Gov­er­nors Island Arts present a day-long pub­lic pro­gram on Gov­er­nors Island bring­ing togeth­er an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary group of artists, schol­ars, and edu­ca­tors work­ing on strate­gies for abo­li­tion in art, law, edu­ca­tion, and polit­i­cal action. This event is free with reg­is­tra­tion, click here to reg­is­ter.

The day’s work­shops, talks, pre­sen­ta­tions, and walk­ing tour cen­ter on the pos­si­bil­i­ties and lim­i­ta­tions of achiev­ing abo­li­tion through the law. The con­test­ed, mov­ing, and blurred lines between peo­ple and prop­er­ty per­sists today as one of the foun­da­tions of racial cap­i­tal­ism, the eco­nom­ic and struc­tur­al after­life of slav­ery. As schol­ar, and pan­elist, Saidiya Hart­man argues, while dis­cussing the specters of free­dom, the polit­i­cal and legal struc­ture of lib­er­ty is a per­mu­ta­tion of slav­ery — free­dom can nev­er be pos­sessed, only shared. Mov­ing Chains: Toward Abo­li­tion offers an oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­sid­er how free­dom can be defined out­side of the con­tours of prop­er­ty, con­sid­ers past exam­ples of move­ments using the law in the fight for free­dom, and ulti­mate­ly asks whether abo­li­tion and the law are com­pat­i­ble or not.

Event Sched­ule

10 – 10:45AM: Black Gotham Expe­ri­ence Guid­ed Tour, Sois­sons Landing

11AM-1PM: Morn­ing Ses­sion, Cas­tle Williams 

• Ground­ing and Land Acknowl­edge­ment by Black Gotham Experience
• Pre­sen­ta­tion by Tali Keren and Alex Stra­da, 28^th Amend­ment Project
• Pan­el Dis­cus­sion: Abo­li­tion and the Law with Amer­i­can Artist, Albert Fox Cahn, and Kamee­lah Janan Rasheed, mod­er­at­ed by Che Gossett
• Pre­sen­ta­tion by Sarah Abde­laz­iz, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Abo­li­tion­ist Teach­ing Network

1 – 2PM: Lunch Break, Colonels Row

• Black Gotham Expe­ri­ence Lunch Circle
• 28^th Amend­ment Soap Box Installation

12 – 3PM: Drop-In Work­shops, Colonels Row 

• Drop into multi­gen­er­a­tional art­mak­ing work­shops and gath­er­ings to col­lec­tive­ly imag­ine free­dom while learn­ing about the pos­si­bil­i­ty, neces­si­ty, and stakes of teach­ing abo­li­tion today. This pro­gram is orga­nized by Tiffany Lenoi Jones with Akiea ​“Ki” Gross and Noor Jones-Bey, grantees of the Abo­li­tion­ist Teach­ing Network.

2 – 5PM: After­noon Ses­sion, Cas­tle Williams

• Pre­sen­ta­tion by artist Rus­sell Craig, Right of Return
• Pan­el Dis­cus­sion: Archi­tec­tures of Free­dom with Tork­wase Dyson, Cameron Row­land, and Rinal­do Walcott
• In Con­ver­sa­tion: Charles Gaines and Christi­na Sharpe

Orga­nized by Diya Vij, Cura­tor at Cre­ative Time, with Che Gos­sett, schol­ar of abo­li­tion and con­tem­po­rary Black art, co-orga­niz­ing the ses­sion pan­els; and artist and edu­ca­tor Tiffany Lenoi Jones, co-orga­niz­ing the drop-in workshops.