A Care/full Response for the Sake of Humanity

Co-written by Ashara Ekundayo and Isha Rosemond for Artist As First Responder

February 8, 2023

On January 10, 2023 a video circulated online one day after Collier Gwin, a white, male, gallerist and owner of Foster Gwin Gallery was seen leaning against an iron gate next to his gallery yelling “move, move, move” as he hosed down “Q”, a homeless Black person lying down on the sidewalk. The attack took place in the days following California’s “atmospheric river” - a succession of torrential rain and flash flooding which made for a particularly wet environment in the midst of unusually cold weather. The viral video quickly became a reminder of the violent and entitled rage and disdain that many Bay Area residents feel toward people who are unhoused, particularly business owners who contend with people living in or nearby their doorways. 

This isn’t the first time a San Francisco business, in particular a gallerist, has violently reacted to a homeless person. Interdisciplinary artist Cheryl Derricotte reminded us in a recent conversation that there have been other gallery owners such as Don Soker who dumped two buckets of water from a second story roof onto a houseless white woman and her tent in 2019. The SF Chronicle article documenting this most recent incident also states the myriad of ways that assaults on houseless people circulate the internet at least once a year and that day-to-day attacks go largely unnoticed.

This normalized behavior brings us to a question: What are artists, arts/cultural spaces, galleries, and individuals working in creative economies doing to navigate the nuanced reality of managing a private business in public spaces where more and more people are being forced to call home?  Additionally, we are challenged to unpack the implications that stem from the art sector/industry model of entitlement where the ultra-wealthy are shielded from the harsh realities that may impact gallery sales.

“It’s about humanity,” says curator Jonathan Carver Moore. 

Moore is the owner of Jonathan Carver Moore Gallery, a new Black-owned commercial gallery opening in the Transgender District of San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood this March. “This is also a part of the territory where there may be someone sleeping in the corridor of my door when I get to work.  You really do just have to approach it with a humanitarian perspective remembering that this is someone’s child.”

Similar thoughts and statements were offered by Dr. Courtney Desiree Morris, a University of California-Berkeley professor and author of "To Defend this Sunrise: Black Women's Activism and the Authoritarian Turn in Nicaragua,” who emphatically expressed her rage during her ritual cleansing of the sidewalk where Q was attacked in her responsive performance, We are a long-memoried people \ a prayer for Q.

“On a very basic level, and in terms of an everyday response, for me it felt like there needed to be a kind of call for, or calling attention to the lack of empathy that has become normalized in rapidly gentrifying cities like San Francisco [and Oakland] that have become unlivable for many people.”

When Morris first saw the attack circulating Instagram, she immediately reached out to her friends and fellow artist-activist-organizers to see if there were any “collective” responses underway. Morris is no stranger to using her creative social practice to respond to cultural violence and trauma and has created and performed ritual responses to Palestinian hunger strikes, the public murder of teenager Nia Wilson on her way home, and many more. 

“One of the comments I remember being the most struck by was an offering from Ellen Sebastian Chang,” Morris says. Chang is an artist and creative co-conspirator who is well known for the ritual interventions highlighting the sex trafficking of Black and Brown women and girls through the site-specific art project House/Full of BlackWomen that she has co-produced for six years with choreographer/ritual artist amara tabor smith in Oakland, CA. “Ellen was like, I’m angry about this guy, and I understand why so much rage is being directed at him for inflicting such violence, but what I’m thinking about is this person that he attacked. Who is this person? Are they okay?” From then, Morris decided that her creative response would center Q and invoke a greater call to action for our human community to remember our empathy.

As the weeks have gone by, the public imagination has shifted further and further away from Q as Collier Gwin faces the consequences of his actions. His tone has changed from refusing to apologize, to now requesting that the City of San Francisco “do something” about the houseless people living on the streets. Also, some public opinion indicates business owners siding with Gwin as the victim and, as Morris says, “Q is no longer a consideration in the conversation.”

“One of the things that I am struck by is the use of the language of “taking matters into their own hands” to defend violent actions but never to form an empathetic response,” Morris says.

“I’m excited to be an art gallery downtown and in the Tenderloin neighborhood,” Jonathan Moore says. “While we know this is a business, we also want it to feel like it is a place of business that truly believes in community. We care about the collectors who buy the art, the people who visit the gallery….and about the individuals who live on the street outside our doors. Everyone is a part of the arts community here, and we want to remember and respect that.”

At the time this article was published, Artist As First Responder found out that “Q” is receiving mental health resources from a City agency and Collier Gwin is being charged by District Attorney Brooke Jenkins with a misdemeanor battery “for the alleged intentional & unlawful spraying of water on and around” a homeless person. He is scheduled to be in court to face these criminal charges February 17, 2023.
Follow Story Updates on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/artistasfirstresponder/

AAFR Updates

JOIN US IN BRAZIL!

International Film Festival This Summer!

AAFR opens our chapter in Salvador, Brazil in July at the inaugural “Odù” international film festival created and curated by Black Freedom Fellowship Founder & AAFR Curatorial Assistant Isha Rosemond.

Submit Your Film Today

Exclusive Content: We Are A Long-Memoried People

“You know, it's always interesting to me that people use the language of taking matters into their own hands to defend violent actions but never to form but never to form an empathetic response,” — Courtney Desiree Morris

GAIN ACCESS to the full interview with artist Courtney Desiree Morris as well as other Exclusive “Members-Only” programming by Becoming A Monthly Patreon Donor for as little as $5/mo!