Ready, Berkeley Arts Center, 2019

Ready presents mobile stations created by Related Tactics (Michele Carlson, Weston Teruya, and Nate Watson) that gather and deploy a collection of artists’ interventions, tools, and strategies that can be used to interrupt systems of marginalization, exploitation, and erasure, large and small. The assembled materials range from the poetic to prompts for guerilla actions, from stickers to seeds, prompts for literary analysis to the building blocks for temporary gatherings, but are all linked through their interest in encouraging individual agency in challenging everyday moments where we are often caught off guard or isolated from allies. Engage with and take home these tools to use them beyond the exhibition.

Ready includes the works of Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik, Janaki Jagannath & Cece Carpio; Cute Rage Press (Aram Han Sifuentes & Ishita Dharap); Rebecca Goldschmidt; Vero Majano; Nyeema Morgan & Mike Cloud; Kim Nguyen; and Related Tactics

Photos by Minoosh Zomorodinia

Be Ready Cart is handmade by Related Tactics with interventions actions by Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik, Janaki Jagannath & Cece Carpio; Cute Rage Press (Aram Han Sifuentes & Ishita Dharap); Rebecca Goldschmidt; Vero Majano; Nyeema Morgan & Mike Cloud; Kim Nguyen; and Related Tactics.

All items may be taken home. Be ready.

Divest From Your Self by Kim Nguyen

The work proposes a future shaped by non-white methodologies, cultural production and practice. It is driven by ideas and ideals of how we want to be and how we want to live, even if imperfect and presently false.

No Matter the Intentions cards by Related Tactics. Underlying No matter the intentions is a critique of arts institutions and organizations engaging concerns of inclusivity, equity and diversity in their programming, staffing, organization and funding strategies from the perspective of artists and arts workers whom are the target for those strategies. These statements are not exhaustive nor complete; they are not meant to be a guideline nor a list of steps to be followed. These cards can be handed out or posted where it feels necessary to begin a conversation to examine systems founded on white supremacy and inequity.

No Matter the Intentions cards by Related Tactics. Underlying No matter the intentions is a critique of arts institutions and organizations engaging concerns of inclusivity, equity and diversity in their programming, staffing, organization and funding strategies from the perspective of artists and arts workers whom are the target for those strategies. These statements are not exhaustive nor complete; they are not meant to be a guideline nor a list of steps to be followed. These cards can be handed out or posted where it feels necessary to begin a conversation to examine systems founded on white supremacy and inequity.

“Long term decision-making is power and it matters. If you do not have people of color on staff, serving on your board, and in leadership positions, your organization is not diverse, inclusive, nor equitable. It does not matter how many artists of color you show or what signs you hang in your window.”

… Was Here by Vero Majano draw on the language of graffiti slap tags--a guerilla tool used to claim territory and assert presence--to remember figures and groups from San Francisco Mission District history, particularly in the Chicanx community. For a neighborhood continuing to fight for its cultural identity in the face of waves of displacement and gentrification, these stickers are a continuing reminder of the people who have been here and should not be forgotten.

Seeds of Sanctuary by Sita Bhaumik, Janaki Jagannath, & Cece Carpio. These packets contain marigold seeds which come from those that had been carried by a woman named Florencia as she travelled by foot with the migrant caravan from Central America in 2018. After a chance meeting with Janaki near the US-Mexico border, Florencia gave her these seeds so that she might plant them. The plants flourished and Janaki has since distributed seeds to other farmers. The seeds and flowers speak to resistance, resilience, and contemporary & historic migration of people and nature.

100 Ropes by Rebecca Goldschmidt.

Coconut rope has been an essential survival tool for thousands of years: from ties in canoe-building, knotted fishing nets, in tools, or as lashing for building houses. At first glance, these handmade sennit lengths might seem too absurdly short to be functional, but their compact size still suggests potential uses and carries a social history. Many hands put in work to make these ropes: from Alex, who climbed the tree and cut and husked the coconuts, to Jess, Audrey, Juvana, and others who helped prepare the fibers in weekly gatherings. These acts of talking story and connecting to the embodied knowledge of generations of rope-makers--plus the story you will add to them--extend the life of these short lengths. No matter how small the action and difficult the obstacles, we still have ways to connect with each other and consider what useful technology might look like in our futures together. Please take a rope and find a use for it. Feel free to use the hashtags #CoconutRopeInAction and #ReadyBAC to share images of your rope out in the world!

The Displacement of Communities. Cute Rage Press (Aram Han Sifuentes & Ishita Dharap)

Response Cart by Related Tactics is a mobile cart with seating that hosts actions that require responsive intervention. It is a place to sit, write, and contemplate.

Interrogating Fiction: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (Genesis/Redux) Nyeema Morgan & Mike Cloud.

Morgan and Cloud invite you to dig into popular fiction to collectively think through how it shapes our cultural narratives. Through provided response cards, you can begin rethinking and structuring well worn tales; in this case, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. Each card has a line from the original text, as well as a pair of questions: one that asks us to look at the past of what might have happened leading to this point in the story, and one that tasks us with envisioning a new, as yet created future for this story. These statements can begin to create space for more critical, visionary, or equitable stories for one another. The artist duo has also created a postcard that you can take with you, that includes guidance on how to utilize these strategies in your own collection of books or popular stories.

Interrogating Fiction: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (Genesis/Redux) Nyeema Morgan & Mike Cloud.

Installation view of response station and cards.

Response Cart by Related Tactics.

This side features six questions quoted and adapted from Amiri Baraka’s poem "Understanding Readiness," a poem he wrote for Kwame Ture (also known as Stokely Carmichael).

Megaphone Cart by Related Tactics

Around the perimeter of the gallery are a series of questions inspired by, and adapted from, Amiri Baraka's "Understanding Readiness," a poem he wrote for Kwame Ture (also known as Stokely Carmichael). In reading the poem at UC Berkeley in 2007, Baraka recounted that Ture would greet the poet with the declaration, “prêt pour la révolution!” (“ready for the revolution,” a quote from Guinean political leader Sékou Touré). Wondering what it means to be ready, Baraka punctuated the poem with a series of questions. In reflecting on this exhibition, Related Tactics looked back on Baraka’s prompts for inspiration. As you reflect on projects from the exhibiting artists, we also invite you to consider what it means to be ready in our current moment--for the revolution, for equity and justice, to live together in community. On one cart you’ll find blank cards and pencils, along with a list of the questions. We invite you to respond to any or all of the questions and leave the responses on the small shelves under each corresponding question on the wall. We also invite you to push the megaphone cart around the room as you read other peoples’ responses--speak them aloud through the megaphone if they resonate or declare your own answers!

Installation view of quoted and adapted questions from Amiri Baraka’s "Understanding Readiness," a poem he wrote for Kwame Ture (also known as Stokely Carmichael) with visitor response cards.

Installation view of quoted and adapted questions from Amiri Baraka’s "Understanding Readiness," a poem he wrote for Kwame Ture (also known as Stokely Carmichael) with visitor response cards.

Installation view of quoted and adapted questions from Amiri Baraka’s "Understanding Readiness," a poem he wrote for Kwame Ture (also known as Stokely Carmichael) with visitor response cards.

Installation view of quoted and adapted questions from Amiri Baraka’s "Understanding Readiness," a poem he wrote for Kwame Ture (also known as Stokely Carmichael) with visitor response cards.

Installation view of quoted and adapted questions from Amiri Baraka’s "Understanding Readiness," a poem he wrote for Kwame Ture (also known as Stokely Carmichael) with visitor response cards.