by Shaun Leonardo
Who have we not been paying attention to? This is the question I would ask myself. To call for destruction erases the voices that have been speaking to us from the depths — pointing us toward necessary change. But have we been listening? Black and brown folks have always provided the building blocks, not only for the physical, architectural structures that hold up our society, but also all the equitable, ethical models of being — of existence. But the resources have always, so quickly, been taken and used to construct fortresses for only some. So let’s not ask of building. The urgencies have been revealed to us for many years, sometimes in a whisper and in others times a shout. But the mechanics of what I will call comfort only distract. This machinery will remove the very thing necessary for connecting us — our humanity. So let’s not ask of urgency. Maybe what we need for this sustainability we always speak of is to stop talking. The earth has been asking us to just listen. When creating I am quiet. At least I tell myself to be. Because I know the lessons of — dare I say — beauty and truth do not come when we think we’ve already reached them. That is not to say that movement — action — is unnecessary. It may just mean that we do not have the answers. So let’s not talk of practicality. Let’s discuss how some of us should move aside to let those who have had the better questions, take the lead.
Shaun Leonardo’s multidisciplinary work negotiates societal expectations of manhood, namely definitions surrounding black and brown masculinities, along with its notions of achievement, collective identity, and experience of failure. His performance practice, anchored by his work in Assembly – a diversion program for court-involved youth at the Brooklyn-based, non-profit Recess — is participatory and invested in a process of embodiment.
Leonardo is a Brooklyn-based artist from Queens, New York City. He received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, is a recipient of support from Creative Capital, Guggenheim Social Practice, Art for Justice and A Blade of Grass, and was recently profiled in the New York Times. His work has been featured at The Guggenheim Museum, the High Line, and New Museum, with a recent solo exhibition at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). From fall 2018 through spring 2020, Leonardo enacted socially engaged projects at Pratt Institute as the School of Art, Visiting Fellow.