Bridge Creation/Altar at DDLM , Photo Credit: Angela Kwak

Group 3’s Altar, Photo Credit Photo: Janet Thomas

Group 3’s Altar, Photo Credit: Janet Thomas
Bridge Creation/Altar at DDLM Event, Photo Credit: Angela Kwak
Date: November 2nd, 2017
Location: El Centro de la Raza
Event: Dia de los Muertos, Honoring Those Who Built Bridges Not WallsDate: November 2nd, 2017
Location: El Centro de la Raza
Event: Dia de los Muertos, Honoring Those Who Built Bridges Not Walls

Interviews:

Michael Dixon:
It means from my limited understanding kinda like a unity thing among people. That’s what I’m about too so that’s how I take it. I was a black panther/black student union at UW and we started the office of minority affairs through protest when I was 16. This is what you have to do. You have to overcome, it’s about people. Not just certain kinds of people, it’s about all people. We do better when we stand up for all of us.

Riall Johnson:
It’s a day of honoring the dead. Making sure the people in our lives are never forgotten. Some people don’t like to bring memories of death up and block it out but we want to make sure they are remembered in the right way. This celebration is honoring death and life in the right way and I don’t have a problem remembering death.

Picture/Interview Summary:

The two pictures we chose to upload are one of our group’s altar and one of a bridge that was created by another group for the Dia de los Muertos event. We chose these photos because they represent the theme of the event. Our group’s altar honors trans lives that were lost to violence in 2017 and those trans bodies, people, and lives built bridges to mainstream society and constantly worked to dismantle destructive and dehumanizing representation of trans people. The two interviews we chose were also of people who truly understood what DDLM means while also contributing their own unique interpretations.

Photo Category Summary:

The category we chose for our pictures is Ceremonio/Healing. As a group we felt that this category best fit our pictures as an extension of the theme, honoring those who built bridges not walls. One of our pictures is of a bridge that a group at the event created and the words that are written on them represent healing such as “family”, “love”, and “unity”.

Live-Blog Links:

Group 3 Blog Post #2: The Event!

Group 3 Live Blog Post #1: Setting up!

Original Post Link (UnapoloJJATIC Blog):

https://unapolojjattic.wordpress.com/2017/11/08/post-dia-de-los-muertos/

Today we arrived at the event as a class and got to observer other altars/ofrendas as well as show our altar to other guests at the event. It was interesting to the see the various ways in which other group chose to interpret the theme, “honoring those who built bridges, not walls” as well as the celebration of dia de los muertos as a whole. As a group we got to interview many people and one person that stood out in particular was Michael Dixon from the Black Panther Party. Michael told us that dia de los muertos to him was a celebration of life and death as well as unity and the coming together of community for the celebration. Michael is also and alumni of the UW and helped create OMAD and stressed the importance of resistance and passing down resiliency through generations.

On October 31st our group arrived at El Centro de la Raza and set up our mini altar. Our theme was centered around honoring and remembering the lives of transgender people who lost their lives to violence in 2017. Altar making has historically given the “others”/marginalized members of society the opportunity to have their voices and existences both seen and heard and our group saw this as the perfect opportunity to honor trans lives. Trans people defy social norms and exist in resistance to normative society and so we used altar making and creativity to also defy these norms. A picture of Marsha P. Johnson, a leader in the gay/trans rights movement, was the center of our altar and we also included pictures and names of the 23 trans people who lost their lives this year.