"Lift Every Voice" By Laura Migliorino

Double Exposure Photograph

Artist Statement

On an ordinary Memorial Day evening in South Minneapolis, the life of George Floyd came to a tragic end at the hands of the police. For 8 minutes and 48 seconds, a Minneapolis officer crushed the neck of George Floyd, taking his life over a $20 bill.

A wave of grief, pain, fear, guilt, and rage swept through Minneapolis in a matter of hours and unleashed a clarion call for justice worldwide. I live here, the neighborhood corner where George Floyd died is like every other corner in Minneapolis. It’s a corner I know well, and I never expected that spot to be anything but ordinary. My feelings about what happened here were mirrored by many residents of Minneapolis, an upper midwestern city that is fly over territory. We do not stand out, we are not the source of news, we exist in the expansive space that most people cannot point to on a map.

My way of responding to the pain that seized my home was to get my camera out and explore. It soothed me, it humbled me, and gave me purpose. As a steward of the history, I did not want this moment, or these feelings to be forgotten. Throughout this experience James Weldon Johnson and his legacy were with me, the centuries of the struggle faced by African Americans drove me. When I began to think of an image for the JWJ Lift Collective I knew that an image from the Floyd tragedy has been included. The photograph It Happened Here…Minneapolis blends the words of Lift Every Voice and Sing with the hands of mourners at the Floyd Memorial in Minneapolis on June 4, 2020.