THEY COULD HAVE CUFFED US, INSTEAD THEY…
Multi-media quilt by Janet Saboor
Multi-media quilt by Janet Saboor
THEY COULD HAVE CUFFED US, INSTEAD THEY…
Review by Malkia M’Buzi Moore
Janet Saboor began creating artistic quilts almost twenty years ago. She is a multifaceted, artist, youth advocate and community activist, engaged in Atlanta’s arts community for quite some time. She owned and operated Diaspora Arts, a boutique art gallery on historic Auburn Avenue until 1997. Her involvement in the multidisciplinary arts community in Atlanta and throughout the US helped hone her artistic eye. Traveling internationally to Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, Ghana, China, Japan, Cuba and throughout the Caribbean resulted in the global influences in her quilts. Her visual tool bank includes applique, African textiles, beads, shells, feathers, metals and more.
Janet’s intense energy is sometimes perceived as high- spirited. Her work, however is very deliberate and extremely disciplined. Her very first quilt, “God is the Center of Everything” made her talent immediately apparent. She began by creating a large 90x105 quilt with symmetry, detailed stitching, infusion of African textiles and one central symbol in a monochromatic quilt that suggests intricate movement by using multidimensional shading and patterns.
Although inspired by many talented artists, she said that Tina Dunkley and the late Louis Delsarte inspired her most. She credits her creative growth to other individuals and organizations as well, among them Darlyne Dandridge, her first quilt teacher and her membership in the SewJourner Quilting Guild of the Southwest Art Center in Atlanta. Her work has grown in form and content, although not always in size. Some of her most intricate pieces are only 36x44 inches. First used in a vibrant multi-squared piece celebrating African culture entitled Adinkra, the quilt’s interlocking grid was later revisited in this far more serious piece with social justice implications, They Could Have Cuffed Us Instead They… a quilted work of art with photographs of sixteen Black people ranging in age from 10 to 92- children, women and men murdered by police in the US.
Janet Saboor is an artist who “sees” her creations before she executes them. She flinched with pain each time she saw murders by police of Black people in the United States and she chose to illustrate the painful losses in this moving work of art. This photographic grid commands your attention. It’s her keen vision that allows her to “order” things in ways that others may not think to do: Faces contrasted by the American flag framing each one, all connected by miniature handcuffs. The entire quilt hangs on a bar by larger handcuffs.
These photos illustrate the many ways we positively perceive ourselves, note the “queen chair” 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston graced in her photograph as well as the joyous smile on the face of the young not yet man, 12-year-old Tamir Rice. These sixteen children, women and men ranging in age from ten to ninety-two years of age, were killed by police officers in the United States from the Northeast to Midwest to the South from April 28, 1973 to February 13, 2018. This quilt spans forty- five years of brutal murders at the hands of security officers sworn to protect and defend who instead brutally murder. These photos beckon you for various reasons. All of them display the extinguished promise and possibilities of lives taken.
We observe this quilt with heart wrenching emotion, reading the list of names with their ages, dates of death and location. You seek the faces and names you are familiar with first, because a case garnered national attention or the murder happened in your town or state, or the case was so particularly horrific that it seemed truly unbelievable. Why is it the more things change the more they remain the same? It seems everything old is new again. The protests that echo and amplify those that came before; the police oversight programs put in place that were diluted, then dissolved. The many police reviews and resolutions passed and ignored. Then came real hope, a national program created by President Obama just getting implemented in some states, intended for every state, dissolved and disbanded immediately by the Trump administration.
Janet is proud to be a part of the long tradition of artists who share the beauty and brilliance, as well as the pain and pathos of our African heritage and history of 400 years in the US. She joins the many whose work is a testimony to our fortitude, resilience, resistance and persistent determination to not just survive but thrive. Currently she is creating a quilt commemorating Sterling Thompson, a politician killed January 3, 1901 in Campbellton, Palmetto for The Fulton County Remembrance Coalition Memorial Quilt Committee for the Lynching Project. The exhibition date has not yet been set.
Activism is the thread that courses through the many aspects of Janet Saboor’s life. At the age of 16, she heard Malcom X speak and was inspired to become a member of the Nation of Islam under the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. She and her family continue to practice as Orthodox Muslims. The boundless energy of this lithe, regal woman who walks at least five miles several times a week can be credited to her eternal optimism. She celebrates our triumphs over the challenges we encounter. Her eyes sparkle when she says, “ Change keeps coming and together, we will win!”
Summaries of Six of the Sixteen featured in the Quilt
THEY COULD HAVE CUFFED US, INSTEAD THEY…
Clifford Glover was killed by a NYPD officer in South Jamaica Queens NY. on April 28, 1973. Glover and his stepfather were stopped for questioning because they matched the description of recent cab robbers. When they ran, Clifford was shot at least twice and mortally wounded. Shea claimed that he had fired upon the boy because he had pointed a gun at him. Police claimed young Glover pointed a pistol at them as he ran away, and hundreds of cops searched for this mystery gun – but they found nothing. Glover had not had a weapon. Following the shooting, community outrage resulted in demonstrations (some called riots) in the South Jamaica neighborhood of New York. As a result, officers were banned from firing their guns at fleeing suspects who posed no “imminent danger. Officer Thomas Shea, who fired the shot that killed Clifford Glover, was eventually acquitted of murder even though Glover was found to have posed no threat of any kind to Shea.
Amadou Diallo, a 23-year-old from Guinea West Africa was fatally shot February 4, 1999 by four New York City Police Department plainclothes officers: Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon, and Kenneth Boss. Carroll would later claim to have mistaken him for a rape suspect from one year earlier, a claim never confirmed by objective evidence. The officers fired a total of 41 shots, 19 of which struck Diallo, outside his apartment in the Soundview section of the Bronx. The four officers, who were part of the now-defunct Street Crimes Unit, were charged with second-degree murder and acquitted at trial in Albany, New York. Diallo was unarmed and a firestorm of controversy erupted after the event, as the circumstances of the shooting prompted outrage both in New York and nationally. Issues such as police brutality, racial profiling, and contagious shooting were central to the ensuing controversy and protests.
Kathryn Johnston a 92-year old Atlanta woman, was killed by undercover police officers in her home in northwest Atlanta on November 21, 2006. Three officers cut off burglar bars and broke down her door using a no-knock warrant in what was later described as a 'botched' drug raid. Police said Johnston fired at them and they fired in response; she fired one shot out the door over the officers' heads and they fired 39 shots, five or six of which hit and killed her. Later investigations found paperwork had been falsified stating drugs were present at Johnston's house, which had been the basis for the raid. The officers later admitted to having lied when they submitted cocaine as evidence claiming that they had bought it at Johnston's house. The three officers were tried for manslaughter and other charges surrounding falsification and were sentenced to ten, six, and five years by Chief U.S. District Judge Julie E. Carnes on a charge of conspiracy to violate civil rights resulting in death on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 .
Trayvon Martin age 17, was followed, shot and killed by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla. Martin had gone with his father on a visit to his father's fiancée. On the evening of February 26, 2012, Martin was walking back alone to the fiancée's house from a nearby convenience store. Zimmerman saw Martin and reported him to the Sanford Police as suspicious. Several minutes later, there was an altercation and Zimmerman fatally shot Martin in the chest. Zimmerman was injured during the encounter and stated he had been defending himself; he was not charged at the time. The police said there was no evidence to refute his claim of self-defense, and that Florida's stand your ground law prohibited them from arresting or charging him. After national media focused on the incident, Zimmerman was eventually charged and tried, but the jury acquitted him of second-degree murder and manslaughter in July 2013.
Tamir Rice age 12, was fatally wounded by a Cleveland police officer on Saturday, November 22, 2014 . The account police gave by the first- year officer did not match what a surveillance video of the shooting at Cudell Recreation Center on Cleveland's West Side reveals. The video shows officers pull up within several feet of Tamir, who was by himself underneath a gazebo. Immediately, the cruiser's passenger side door opens, an officer emerges and fires at Tamir, who drops to the ground. The officer got out of his car and told him to raise his hands. Instead, police said he reached for what later proved to be an airsoft-type gun, a replica of a semi-automatic handgun that shoots pellets. The officer fired two shots from less than 10 feet away. A least one of the bullets hit Tamir in the stomach. The two police involved failed to give first aid to Tamir. An FBI agent who happened to be in the area who arrived four minutes later administered first aid. Tamir was rushed to MetroHealth Medical Center and died early the next day.
Sandra Bland age 28, was killed July 13, 2015 Waller County, TX. Texas Department of Safety Trooper Brian Encinia stopped Bland in Waller County for not using her turn signal when changing lanes while she was driving. The interaction escalated quickly, with Encinia pulling Bland out of the car and arresting her for assaulting a public servant. She was found dead in her Waller County jail cell three days later. Her death was ruled a suicide by hanging. Encinia was fired from his job as a trooper and charged with perjury for lying in the report he filed after Bland’s arrest. Those charges were later dropped. According to family members Bland was taking a new job at Prairie View A&M University in Texas. She had graduated from the historically black college in 2009 and was returning there as a student ambassador, In the weeks before her death in police custody, Bland regularly used the #SandySpeaks hashtag to post videos on Facebook in which she denounced police brutality and racism. Sandra’s death prompted the Sandra Bland Act in 2017 to help determine how many people are routinely arrested for infractions that don't call for jail time.
Saturday, July 13, 2019 was declared Sandra Bland Day, for the city of Austin.
Steve Adler, Mayor of Austin made the proclamation:
Be it known that
Whereas,
Sandra Annette Bland died on July 13th, 2015 at the age of 28, while in police custody in Waller County Jail in Hempstead, Texas; and
Whereas,
Sandra Bland’s wrongful death was affirmed as such by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas in 2016; and Whereas,
The Texas legislature passed the “Sandra Bland Act” in 2017 that requires county jails to divert people with mental health and substance abuse issues toward treatment and requires that independent law enforcement agencies investigate jail deaths; and
Whereas,
Sandra Bland was an activist for racial justice, whose wrongful death was a call to action across the United States to change the way the criminal justice system produces unequal outcomes;
Now, Therefore,
I, Steve Adler, Mayor of the City of Austin, Texas,
do hereby proclaim
July 13th, 2019
as
Sandra Bland Day
in Austin.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto
set my hand and caused the seal of the City
of Austin to be affixed this 13th Day of
July in the Year Two Thousand Nineteen
Review by Malkia M’Buzi Moore
Janet Saboor began creating artistic quilts almost twenty years ago. She is a multifaceted, artist, youth advocate and community activist, engaged in Atlanta’s arts community for quite some time. She owned and operated Diaspora Arts, a boutique art gallery on historic Auburn Avenue until 1997. Her involvement in the multidisciplinary arts community in Atlanta and throughout the US helped hone her artistic eye. Traveling internationally to Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, Ghana, China, Japan, Cuba and throughout the Caribbean resulted in the global influences in her quilts. Her visual tool bank includes applique, African textiles, beads, shells, feathers, metals and more.
Janet’s intense energy is sometimes perceived as high- spirited. Her work, however is very deliberate and extremely disciplined. Her very first quilt, “God is the Center of Everything” made her talent immediately apparent. She began by creating a large 90x105 quilt with symmetry, detailed stitching, infusion of African textiles and one central symbol in a monochromatic quilt that suggests intricate movement by using multidimensional shading and patterns.
Although inspired by many talented artists, she said that Tina Dunkley and the late Louis Delsarte inspired her most. She credits her creative growth to other individuals and organizations as well, among them Darlyne Dandridge, her first quilt teacher and her membership in the SewJourner Quilting Guild of the Southwest Art Center in Atlanta. Her work has grown in form and content, although not always in size. Some of her most intricate pieces are only 36x44 inches. First used in a vibrant multi-squared piece celebrating African culture entitled Adinkra, the quilt’s interlocking grid was later revisited in this far more serious piece with social justice implications, They Could Have Cuffed Us Instead They… a quilted work of art with photographs of sixteen Black people ranging in age from 10 to 92- children, women and men murdered by police in the US.
Janet Saboor is an artist who “sees” her creations before she executes them. She flinched with pain each time she saw murders by police of Black people in the United States and she chose to illustrate the painful losses in this moving work of art. This photographic grid commands your attention. It’s her keen vision that allows her to “order” things in ways that others may not think to do: Faces contrasted by the American flag framing each one, all connected by miniature handcuffs. The entire quilt hangs on a bar by larger handcuffs.
These photos illustrate the many ways we positively perceive ourselves, note the “queen chair” 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston graced in her photograph as well as the joyous smile on the face of the young not yet man, 12-year-old Tamir Rice. These sixteen children, women and men ranging in age from ten to ninety-two years of age, were killed by police officers in the United States from the Northeast to Midwest to the South from April 28, 1973 to February 13, 2018. This quilt spans forty- five years of brutal murders at the hands of security officers sworn to protect and defend who instead brutally murder. These photos beckon you for various reasons. All of them display the extinguished promise and possibilities of lives taken.
We observe this quilt with heart wrenching emotion, reading the list of names with their ages, dates of death and location. You seek the faces and names you are familiar with first, because a case garnered national attention or the murder happened in your town or state, or the case was so particularly horrific that it seemed truly unbelievable. Why is it the more things change the more they remain the same? It seems everything old is new again. The protests that echo and amplify those that came before; the police oversight programs put in place that were diluted, then dissolved. The many police reviews and resolutions passed and ignored. Then came real hope, a national program created by President Obama just getting implemented in some states, intended for every state, dissolved and disbanded immediately by the Trump administration.
Janet is proud to be a part of the long tradition of artists who share the beauty and brilliance, as well as the pain and pathos of our African heritage and history of 400 years in the US. She joins the many whose work is a testimony to our fortitude, resilience, resistance and persistent determination to not just survive but thrive. Currently she is creating a quilt commemorating Sterling Thompson, a politician killed January 3, 1901 in Campbellton, Palmetto for The Fulton County Remembrance Coalition Memorial Quilt Committee for the Lynching Project. The exhibition date has not yet been set.
Activism is the thread that courses through the many aspects of Janet Saboor’s life. At the age of 16, she heard Malcom X speak and was inspired to become a member of the Nation of Islam under the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. She and her family continue to practice as Orthodox Muslims. The boundless energy of this lithe, regal woman who walks at least five miles several times a week can be credited to her eternal optimism. She celebrates our triumphs over the challenges we encounter. Her eyes sparkle when she says, “ Change keeps coming and together, we will win!”
Summaries of Six of the Sixteen featured in the Quilt
THEY COULD HAVE CUFFED US, INSTEAD THEY…
Clifford Glover was killed by a NYPD officer in South Jamaica Queens NY. on April 28, 1973. Glover and his stepfather were stopped for questioning because they matched the description of recent cab robbers. When they ran, Clifford was shot at least twice and mortally wounded. Shea claimed that he had fired upon the boy because he had pointed a gun at him. Police claimed young Glover pointed a pistol at them as he ran away, and hundreds of cops searched for this mystery gun – but they found nothing. Glover had not had a weapon. Following the shooting, community outrage resulted in demonstrations (some called riots) in the South Jamaica neighborhood of New York. As a result, officers were banned from firing their guns at fleeing suspects who posed no “imminent danger. Officer Thomas Shea, who fired the shot that killed Clifford Glover, was eventually acquitted of murder even though Glover was found to have posed no threat of any kind to Shea.
Amadou Diallo, a 23-year-old from Guinea West Africa was fatally shot February 4, 1999 by four New York City Police Department plainclothes officers: Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon, and Kenneth Boss. Carroll would later claim to have mistaken him for a rape suspect from one year earlier, a claim never confirmed by objective evidence. The officers fired a total of 41 shots, 19 of which struck Diallo, outside his apartment in the Soundview section of the Bronx. The four officers, who were part of the now-defunct Street Crimes Unit, were charged with second-degree murder and acquitted at trial in Albany, New York. Diallo was unarmed and a firestorm of controversy erupted after the event, as the circumstances of the shooting prompted outrage both in New York and nationally. Issues such as police brutality, racial profiling, and contagious shooting were central to the ensuing controversy and protests.
Kathryn Johnston a 92-year old Atlanta woman, was killed by undercover police officers in her home in northwest Atlanta on November 21, 2006. Three officers cut off burglar bars and broke down her door using a no-knock warrant in what was later described as a 'botched' drug raid. Police said Johnston fired at them and they fired in response; she fired one shot out the door over the officers' heads and they fired 39 shots, five or six of which hit and killed her. Later investigations found paperwork had been falsified stating drugs were present at Johnston's house, which had been the basis for the raid. The officers later admitted to having lied when they submitted cocaine as evidence claiming that they had bought it at Johnston's house. The three officers were tried for manslaughter and other charges surrounding falsification and were sentenced to ten, six, and five years by Chief U.S. District Judge Julie E. Carnes on a charge of conspiracy to violate civil rights resulting in death on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 .
Trayvon Martin age 17, was followed, shot and killed by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla. Martin had gone with his father on a visit to his father's fiancée. On the evening of February 26, 2012, Martin was walking back alone to the fiancée's house from a nearby convenience store. Zimmerman saw Martin and reported him to the Sanford Police as suspicious. Several minutes later, there was an altercation and Zimmerman fatally shot Martin in the chest. Zimmerman was injured during the encounter and stated he had been defending himself; he was not charged at the time. The police said there was no evidence to refute his claim of self-defense, and that Florida's stand your ground law prohibited them from arresting or charging him. After national media focused on the incident, Zimmerman was eventually charged and tried, but the jury acquitted him of second-degree murder and manslaughter in July 2013.
Tamir Rice age 12, was fatally wounded by a Cleveland police officer on Saturday, November 22, 2014 . The account police gave by the first- year officer did not match what a surveillance video of the shooting at Cudell Recreation Center on Cleveland's West Side reveals. The video shows officers pull up within several feet of Tamir, who was by himself underneath a gazebo. Immediately, the cruiser's passenger side door opens, an officer emerges and fires at Tamir, who drops to the ground. The officer got out of his car and told him to raise his hands. Instead, police said he reached for what later proved to be an airsoft-type gun, a replica of a semi-automatic handgun that shoots pellets. The officer fired two shots from less than 10 feet away. A least one of the bullets hit Tamir in the stomach. The two police involved failed to give first aid to Tamir. An FBI agent who happened to be in the area who arrived four minutes later administered first aid. Tamir was rushed to MetroHealth Medical Center and died early the next day.
Sandra Bland age 28, was killed July 13, 2015 Waller County, TX. Texas Department of Safety Trooper Brian Encinia stopped Bland in Waller County for not using her turn signal when changing lanes while she was driving. The interaction escalated quickly, with Encinia pulling Bland out of the car and arresting her for assaulting a public servant. She was found dead in her Waller County jail cell three days later. Her death was ruled a suicide by hanging. Encinia was fired from his job as a trooper and charged with perjury for lying in the report he filed after Bland’s arrest. Those charges were later dropped. According to family members Bland was taking a new job at Prairie View A&M University in Texas. She had graduated from the historically black college in 2009 and was returning there as a student ambassador, In the weeks before her death in police custody, Bland regularly used the #SandySpeaks hashtag to post videos on Facebook in which she denounced police brutality and racism. Sandra’s death prompted the Sandra Bland Act in 2017 to help determine how many people are routinely arrested for infractions that don't call for jail time.
Saturday, July 13, 2019 was declared Sandra Bland Day, for the city of Austin.
Steve Adler, Mayor of Austin made the proclamation:
Be it known that
Whereas,
Sandra Annette Bland died on July 13th, 2015 at the age of 28, while in police custody in Waller County Jail in Hempstead, Texas; and
Whereas,
Sandra Bland’s wrongful death was affirmed as such by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas in 2016; and Whereas,
The Texas legislature passed the “Sandra Bland Act” in 2017 that requires county jails to divert people with mental health and substance abuse issues toward treatment and requires that independent law enforcement agencies investigate jail deaths; and
Whereas,
Sandra Bland was an activist for racial justice, whose wrongful death was a call to action across the United States to change the way the criminal justice system produces unequal outcomes;
Now, Therefore,
I, Steve Adler, Mayor of the City of Austin, Texas,
do hereby proclaim
July 13th, 2019
as
Sandra Bland Day
in Austin.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto
set my hand and caused the seal of the City
of Austin to be affixed this 13th Day of
July in the Year Two Thousand Nineteen
The List of Sixteen Victims
Jerome DJ
Broadus II
Age 31
Date of Death
2-13-2018
Location
MacClenny, FL
Clifford Glover
Age 10
Date of Death
4-28-1973
Location
Jamaica, NY
Tamir Rice
Age 12
Date of Death
11-22-2014
Location
Cleveland, OH
Shereese Francis
Age 30
Date of Death
3-15-2012
Location Jamaica, NY
Tanisha Anderson
Age 37
Date of Death
11-13-2014
Location
Cleveland, OH
Trayvon Martin
Age 17
Date of Death
2-26-2012
Location Sanford, FL
Michael Brown
Age 18
Date of Death
8-9-2014
Location
Ferguson, MO
Freddy Gray
Age 25
Date of Death
4-12-2015
Location
Baltimore, MD
Broadus II
Age 31
Date of Death
2-13-2018
Location
MacClenny, FL
Clifford Glover
Age 10
Date of Death
4-28-1973
Location
Jamaica, NY
Tamir Rice
Age 12
Date of Death
11-22-2014
Location
Cleveland, OH
Shereese Francis
Age 30
Date of Death
3-15-2012
Location Jamaica, NY
Tanisha Anderson
Age 37
Date of Death
11-13-2014
Location
Cleveland, OH
Trayvon Martin
Age 17
Date of Death
2-26-2012
Location Sanford, FL
Michael Brown
Age 18
Date of Death
8-9-2014
Location
Ferguson, MO
Freddy Gray
Age 25
Date of Death
4-12-2015
Location
Baltimore, MD
Kathryn Johston
Age 92
Date of Death
11-21-2006
Location
Atlanta, GA
Sandra Bland
Age 28
Date of Death
7-13-2015
Location
Waller County, TX
Rekia Boyd
Age 32
Date of Death
3-21-2012
Location
Chicago, IL
Alton Sterling
Age 37
Date of Death
7-5-2016
Location
Baton Rouge, LA
Walter L. Scptt
Age 50
Date of Death
4-4-2015
Location
N. Charleston, NC
Philando Castile
Age 32
Date of Death
7-6-2016
Location Falcon Heights, MN
Amadou Diallo
Age 23
Date of Death
2-4-1999
Location
Bronx, NY
Eric Garner
Age 43
Date of Death
7-14-2017
Location
Staten Island, NY
Age 92
Date of Death
11-21-2006
Location
Atlanta, GA
Sandra Bland
Age 28
Date of Death
7-13-2015
Location
Waller County, TX
Rekia Boyd
Age 32
Date of Death
3-21-2012
Location
Chicago, IL
Alton Sterling
Age 37
Date of Death
7-5-2016
Location
Baton Rouge, LA
Walter L. Scptt
Age 50
Date of Death
4-4-2015
Location
N. Charleston, NC
Philando Castile
Age 32
Date of Death
7-6-2016
Location Falcon Heights, MN
Amadou Diallo
Age 23
Date of Death
2-4-1999
Location
Bronx, NY
Eric Garner
Age 43
Date of Death
7-14-2017
Location
Staten Island, NY
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