Title: A Dark Blue History
Medium: Graphite, conte, ink, digital collage, personal writing (in collaboration with Sishir Bommakanti); certain texts cited within piece
Dimensions: 8 in. W x 10 in. H, 48 pages
Date: 2018
Narrative project in collaboration with Sishir Bommakanti and Minneapolis-based police abolition/alternatives organization, MPD150. The full work, an illustrated, non-fiction zine investigating the history of the Minneapolis Police Department and its place within American policing institutions.
https://sishir.com/
https://www.mpd150.com/
2022 reprints of this book are the result of a 2022 Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Due to length and nature of this project, audio recordings and full written transcripts are not available. However, Alt Text image descriptions are still included below.
Alt Text: Cover. Image (and all subsequent pages) in white, black and greys. A crowd of signs and upraised hands in a variety of skin tones. One sign reads "A DARK BLUE HISTORY." Another reads "In Support of MPD150's Exhibit: Making it Real: Our History with Police and Our Future Without Them."
Alt Text: Endpaper cover interior spread. Far off, satellite view of Minneapolis from north end of the city; the Mississippi River is visible, meandering from upper left corner of left page to lower right of right page.
Alt Text: Left page; introduction text with handwritten title repeated at top of page, punctuated with small drawing of handcuffs. Right page; first block of text punctuated by drawing of hand with phone, middle of page shows a group of hands building/painting model cityscape, bottom of page a pair of hands holding a sign with an exclamation point icon.
Alt Text: Full page spread. Side view of a police cruiser in darkness, its flashing lights casting bright, white light to the left and right areas of the spread.
Alt Text: Left page; a suited, white hand places a white chess piece on a city map, on which rests an empty glass and numerous, toppled, darker chess pieces. Right page; underneath an ornate city government building are a collection of twisting black roots and tendrils.
Alt Text: Left page; upper half of page shows four small frames with drawings of stereos, jewelry, dining sets, and electronics. Lower half shows the backs of two police officers huddled around table piled with looted items. Right page; collaged documents of an item manifesto of personal belongings stolen by police officers during property seizures.
Alt Text: Full page spread. A burning expanse of forest is in view, fire, sparks, and smoke leaping into a darkened sky.
Alt Text: Left page; a figure stands authoritatively, its had and left side obscured by a Klan hood/robe. As the robe parts, its insignia gives way to a police badge, and a uniformed torso is visible, the arm of the wearer resting on their gun holster. Right page; a collaged view of several businesses, with signs reading "Dewey's," "Stonewall," and "Gene Compton's."
Alt Text: Left page; through an otherwise pitch-black space, a police cruiser's headlights and sirens illuminate white patches of space; just visible in the back seats are numerous hands, clutching at the window. Right page; another white light illuminates an isolated individual seated on the ground, looking up at the blinding light.
Alt Text: Full page spread. On a black, painted background, a line of riot police emerge from the darkness, batons and shields raised in threatening postures. Just visible beneath their faceplates are bellowing, shouting faces and rows of teeth, making them look more monstrous than human.
Alt Text: Left page; four small frames are scattered across page, featuring portraits of Winona LaDuke, Carol Kratz, Arvol Looking Horse, and Eddie Benton Banaise. Behind them are black highways, spreading across page. Right page; two bulldozers loom in a clearing, one reaching into the air, the other's digging arm stretching towards viewer.
Alt Text: Left page; page dominated by mass of filthy gears and interlocked pieces of machinery. In bottom right, an outstretched hand can be seen desperately reaching out from mass. Right page; scattered across page are sheets of target practice paper, each one with a figure emblazoned with an icon: a Black Power fist, a peace sign, a trans rights symbol, an "A" in a circle.
Alt Text: Full spread view. A police cruiser faces the viewer, its interior obscured except for a pair of white hands gripping the steering wheel. In the extreme foreground a crowd is just in view, looking at the cruiser.
Alt Text: Left page, three distorted drawings of Ronald Reagan, George Bush. Sr. and Bill Clinton, with unsettling proud or stoic expressions. Right page, a mass of hands handcuffed together, stretching off of the page, seemingly without end.
Alt Text: Left page, on a painted, black background, three drawings of doorways are present, with each door visibly smashed or destroyed. Right page, in front of a cloud of smoke, the silhouette of a riot officer holding a baton is visible. Within the silhouette are numerous weapons and pieces of police equipment: rifles, grenades, armored vehicles, ammo, mace, etc.
Alt Text: Left page, a near bird's-eye view of a city in the process of being built with cranes; however, all the buildings are built from barred cages. Right page, a side view of a black child sits on a mattress in a prison cell, their prison fatigues far too large -- a size for an adult, not a child.
Alt Text: Left page, cramped, uneasily stacked views of dilapidated houses, windows boarded up, and piles of belongings and boxes outside of them. Right page, a single figure with a backpack and winter clothing stands with their back to the viewer, looking at a barbed wire fence. On fence are three panels depicting a bench, a highway underpass, and alley.
Alt Text: Full spread is nearly black, with barely visible splattered paint, reminiscent of blood.
Alt Text: Full spread image shows view of a small cityscape on a table, made of numerous single homes, apartments, tents, and Indigenous tipis. Surrounding this cityscape are numerous hands with paintbrushes and pencils, in the process of painting and building additional dwellings.
Alt Text: Left page: in bottom left, a pair of hands hold a cellphone, filming something. Spreading out from this phone are many other phones, all filming sections of a greater whole; shown to be a recoiling officer in riot gear. Right page: A hand holds a megaphone, with numerous individual speech bubbles emitting from it.
Alt Text: Epilogue text and artist/author information overlaid faintly visible images of plant wildlife native to Minnesota. An ink drawing of a honeybee is above the text on left page. A small of the community image two pages prior is above text on right page.
Alt Text: Bibliographic information bordered by drawn plant wildlife native to Minnesota.
Alt Text: Endpaper cover interior spread. Repeat from beginning cover interior spread. Far off, satellite view of Minneapolis from north end of the city; the Mississippi River is visible, meandering from upper left corner of left page to lower right of right page.
Alt Text: Back cover. Another view of cover image with a crowd holding signs and upraised hands and fists with a variety of skin tones.