April 2 – May 6, 2018

OPENING APRIL 2, 5 – 6 PM

Fifty years ago the members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) made a historic call. SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael wrote ”One of the most disturbing things about almost all white supporters of the movement has been that they are afraid to go into their own communities—which is where the racism exists—and work to get rid of it.” Curated by Daniel Tucker, Organize Your Own: The Politics and Poetics of Self-Determination Movements features new works by contemporary artists and poets responding to archival materials related to the history of white people organizing in white neighborhoods, in keeping with the mandate from the Black Power movement to “organize your own” community against racism.

Organize Your Own was launched in 2016 as an exhibition and event series, inspired by historically activist working-class white neighborhoods in Philadelphia (the October 4th Organization) and Chicago (the Young Patriots Organization). Materials from these events have since been collected and published in book form. On the occasion of this catalog’s release and still timely nature of its content, a second iteration of Organize Your Own is traveling in 2017 and 2018. Its installation at the Texas State Galleries is part of this multi-city tour.

Original funding for the Organize Your Own project came from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. The exhibition at Texas State Galleries is funded in part by the Center for Diversity and Gender Studies at Texas State University.