“But just as important: in the story that QUEEN SUGAR tells, activism is at the center. On the show, Micah has his own experiences with police abuse. And we see what we usually do not: the long-term harm it causes, the way it rattles and haunts him. We also see Black characters confronting white characters about their complicity, which is rarely modeled so well on TV. And amidst it all, we see Black characters debating how big changes in society happen, and specifically, the role of protest.”
Rashad Robinson, President, Color of Change

“But just as important: in the story that QUEEN SUGAR tells, activism is at the center. On the show, Micah has his own experiences with police abuse. And we see what we usually do not: the long-term harm it causes, the way it rattles and haunts him. We also see Black characters confronting white characters about their complicity, which is rarely modeled so well on TV. And amidst it all, we see Black characters debating how big changes in society happen, and specifically, the role of protest.”

Rashad Robinson,
President, Color of Change

LESSON TWO

Introduction

Nova uses her investigative nature and passion for social justice at the NOLA Daily News to uncover the truth about police brutality. Micah, a victim of abuse at the hands of a St. Joe police officer, organizes a local rally to protest the construction of a prison which he proclaims, “will put hope in cages.” For Ralph Angel, Darla and Blue their farmland and home become the place of resistance as they stand along the roadside holding signs with fists raised in declaration of Black Lives. In the spirit of defiance that echoes the youth that organized to desegregate the south, high schoolers at St. Josephine use their bodies as symbols of freedom and take a knee during a basketball game. QUEEN SUGAR, since its inception, has given viewers a front row seat to the story of protests taking place across America in real-time.

Through the eyes of the Bordelon family, viewers have been able to better understand events in their own communities that mirror the ones shown on their television screens. Activist Rashad Robinson writes, “The show is telling us to watch, and then to act. Stories like those on QUEEN SUGAR give us a new language for processing the events we see happening around us — and to us — while helping us also feel like we belong in the story ourselves.”

LESSON TWO

Introduction

Nova uses her investigative nature and passion for social justice at the NOLA Daily News to uncover the truth about police brutality. Micah, a victim of abuse at the hands of a St. Joe police officer, organizes a local rally to protest the construction of a prison which he proclaims, “will put hope in cages.” For Ralph Angel, Darla and Blue their farmland and home become the place of resistance as they stand along the roadside holding signs with fists raised in declaration of Black Lives. In the spirit of defiance that echoes the youth that organized to desegregate the south, high schoolers at St. Josephine use their bodies as symbols of freedom and take a knee during a basketball game. QUEEN SUGAR, since its inception, has given viewers a front row seat to the story of protests taking place across America in real-time.

Through the eyes of the Bordelon family, viewers have been able to better understand events in their own communities that mirror the ones shown on their television screens. Activist Rashad Robinson writes, “The show is telling us to watch, and then to act. Stories like those on QUEEN SUGAR give us a new language for processing the events we see happening around us — and to us — while helping us also feel like we belong in the story ourselves.”

What’s Old is New Again, and Again, and Again and Again

New Orleans is a world-renowned city, celebrated for its unique architecture, music and cuisine and admired for its mixture of culture and heritage. However, since its inception as the northernmost Caribbean colony of the French, New Orleans and its surrounding parishes have been a land of revolt and protest as its inhabitants sought to dismantle chattel slavery, demand justice and secure freedoms.

Protest in America is not a new thing. Most American students learn about a very famous 1773 protest involving tea from their history textbooks. However, many students never hear about one that happened even earlier, in 1688, when “Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania, created the first written protest against slavery in the new world.”

Think you’re the first in your community to demand better for its citizens? Let’s take a look at protests and rebellions that helped to shape Louisiana and America.

ACTIVITY

Outcry to Uprising – Remembering the Protests of New Orleans

In multiple seasons of QUEEN SUGAR, audiences follow the journey of characters who stand up and speak out against injustices in St. Josephine Parish. Even the music in QUEEN SUGAR supports the call for equality and equity. Do you remember the season 6 finale featuring the song titled “Safe Where?” by Ra-Re Valverde? The song is an outcry for justice following the police killing of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. in his White Plains, New York home in November 2011.

Source: ARRAY | LEAP

The histories of the real St. James Parish, the city of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana are also filled with courageous acts of protest. Use this map to explore protests from the 1800s through today.

Queen Sugar sugarcane graphic

Reflection Questions

Consider protests and other acts of resistance that took place during the period of African enslavement in the Americas, the Civil Rights Era of the 1950s and 1960s and the Black Lives Matter movement.

  • What elements are common across each/what are the similarities?
  • How is each unique/what are the various differences?

ACTIVITY

A LEAP of Faith:
“Blue is the Color You See Before You Die” as a Lens for Understanding Artistic Activism

In QUEEN SUGAR, Season 3, Episode 13 (“Blessing and Blood”), Micah organizes a rally to protest the plans for a nearby prison in St. Josephine. At the rally, Micah opens up to the community about his life-threatening experience with a police officer while being pulled over.

Watch the Video

“If we allow this, St. Jo becomes another place that puts hope in cages and continues to systematically destroy the lives of Black and brown people. But we can stop that,” he says. “I truly believe that we—we are the ones that we’ve been waiting for.”

Artistic expressions, like symbols, slogans, posters, murals and public art, have long accompanied social movements, lending an immediate visual representation to important ideas. This concept of art as protest is described as artistic activism, or artivism. In this activity, participants will learn that activism can be expressed in different ways, including through art.

All media is constructed and contains messages that are intentionally placed. In today’s world it is important to use a critical eye to deconstruct information that we receive. Just as strong imagery was used during the anti-slavery movement, artists and communities continue to use visual arts as a medium for change.

Protest art, symbols and iconography can be found in social movements throughout the world and at various times of social unrest and injustice. In 1942, during WWII, the anti-Nazi group the White Rose adopted the flower to protest fascism and the persecution of Jews. 26 years later in the Southern streets of Memphis, African American sanitation workers marched in solidarity professing their humanity with three simple words in graphic text, ” I Am a Man“, just one day before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. From clenched fists spray-painted on sidewalks to stories of resistance painted on alley walls, the legacy of art as a vehicle of change continues to amplify the voices of those who struggle to be heard.

  • Why do we engage in activism?
  • How might you reclaim or reframe an everyday word or symbol to actively resist stereotypes and oppression?
  • What can a protest tell you about the social and political climate in which it was created?
  • What is the purpose of art? Should it challenge us? Should it make us question conflicts and societal issues we see and read about in the news every day? Should art be a relief or solace from the stresses and turmoils of everyday life? Should it be about beauty or is it about symbolism? Or is art about something else or a combination of these things and more?

ACTIVITY

A LEAP of Faith:
“Blue is the Color You See Before You Die” as a Lens for Understanding Artistic Activism

In QUEEN SUGAR, Season 3, Episode 13 (“Blessing and Blood”), Micah organizes a rally to protest the plans for a nearby prison in St. Josephine. At the rally, Micah opens up to the community about his life-threatening experience with a police officer while being pulled over.

Video clip courtesy of OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network

“If we allow this, St. Jo becomes another place that puts hope in cages and continues to systematically destroy the lives of Black and brown people. But we can stop that,” he says. “I truly believe that we—we are the ones that we’ve been waiting for.”

Artistic expressions, like symbols, slogans, posters, murals and public art, have long accompanied social movements, lending an immediate visual representation to important ideas. This concept of art as protest is described as artistic activism, or artivism. In this activity, participants will learn that activism can be expressed in different ways, including through art.

All media is constructed and contains messages that are intentionally placed. In today’s world it is important to use a critical eye to deconstruct information that we receive. Just as strong imagery was used during the anti-slavery movement, artists and communities continue to use visual arts as a medium for change.

Protest art, symbols and iconography can be found in social movements throughout the world and at various times of social unrest and injustice. In 1942, during WWII, the anti-Nazi group the White Rose adopted the flower to protest fascism and the persecution of Jews. 26 years later in the Southern streets of Memphis, African American sanitation workers marched in solidarity professing their humanity with three simple words in graphic text, ” I Am a Man“, just one day before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. From clenched fists spray-painted on sidewalks to stories of resistance painted on alley walls, the legacy of art as a vehicle of change continues to amplify the voices of those who struggle to be heard.

Procedure

  • ASK: yourself these questions:
    • How can art influence the way we think and act as individuals and as a society?
    • What role does art play in protest?
  • EXAMINE: and analyze the role activism art has in documenting events and creating social change using this chart.

Reflection Questions

  • Why do we engage in activism?
  • How might you reclaim or reframe an everyday word or symbol to actively resist stereotypes and oppression?
  • What can a protest tell you about the social and political climate in which it was created?
  • What is the purpose of art? Should it challenge us? Should it make us question conflicts and societal issues we see and read about in the news every day? Should art be a relief or solace from the stresses and turmoils of everyday life? Should it be about beauty or is it about symbolism? Or is art about something else or a combination of these things and more?

ACTIVITY

Take Action:
Exploring and Mapping Activism Art in Your Community

“Laws never change culture, but culture always changes laws.”
— Phillip Agnew, Community Organizer

Watch the Video

With the killing of Amadou Diallo as his primary point of departure, photographer Steven John Irby reimagines the traditional candlelight vigil by subverting its intended meaning of marking where a life has been lost and honored by loved ones. Irby enlists a visual motif around death and repurposes these candles in order to penetrate the invisible wall that protects certain privileged communities from the reality of state-sanctioned, police violence. The imagery included in this photo essay seeks to disrupt the silence in White communities surrounding the murder of Black people by relinquishing Black victimhood and instead offers a plea for police accountability.

Artistic activism is a “dynamic practice combining the creative power of the arts to move us emotionally with the strategic planning of activism necessary to bring about social change.” Art moves us. Activism or protest art has been used throughout history, to shine a light on injustices and move people to action. It is all around us. Take a closer look around your community and see!

  • What makes artistic activism so powerful?
  • If you were able to find activism art (e.g., social justice stories, equality stories, street art, or murals) in your community, what has been the typical reception of the art? Is it welcomed, honored and celebrated? Is it ridiculed, vandalized or ignored?
  • If your community does not have examples of activism art, what might be some reasons?
  • How was your activism art piece received by the community?
  • If you found activism art in your community, how does it make you feel and what has it inspired you to do?

Additional Resources

Aja Monet and Phillip Agnew: A love story about the power of art as organizing

Emory Douglas:
The Art of the Black Panthers

Arts Activism in Simple Steps

Cases for Political Art –
The Art Assignment

Performance and Protest:
Can Art Change Society

Artist Mario Moore’s Work Seeks to Enshrine Black Americans’ Presence

Queen Sugar sugarcane graphic

Additional Resources

Aja Monet and Phillip Agnew: A love story about the power of art as organizing

Emory Douglas:
The Art of the Black Panthers

Cases for Political Art –
The Art Assignment

This lesson is presented in several modules. Use your desktop or tablet to go deeper with QUEEN SUGAR into these lessons and activities.

QUEEN SUGAR