Quinn Delaney is founder and President of Akonadi Foundation. She and her husband, Wayne Jordan, developed their passion for working for racial justice through their life experience and their work with young people organizing in their schools and in the street.
The Akonadi Foundation is based in Oakland and funds movement building organizations working for racial justice. “The vision of racial justice has echoed through generations of struggle for equity and human rights. The work the Akonadi Foundation supports and engages in honoring these historic struggles and offers a bold and broad vision for the future of the United States and the future of the world. Since 2000, the Foundation has been working to support and nurture a racial justice movement that can finally put an end to the structural racism that lies at the heart of social inequity in the United States. We realize that this vision can only be realized in partnership with communities, philanthropic organizations and countless others who share the dream.”
Quinn came to the Taller Tupac Amaru’s art exhibit at ProArts in December. She was inspired by the political art that we have been producing in the Taller and approached me with a brilliant idea of creating a commemoration card for the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. This was the first time that I would bring my art making into my work at the Akonadi Foundation. The concept for the art for both the commemoration card and a silkscreened poster was to capture movement building and communities living their traditional cultures as a form self-affirmation and resistance to racism.
The following is the “story” of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial discrimination. Ju
lie Quiroz-Martinez helped craft the written portion of the card:
“On March 21, 1960 the movement against apartheid was spreading as blacks across South Africa began demonstrating against “pass laws” requiring them to carry identity cards. In the township of Sharpeville, a huge crowd of black Africans gathered peacefully outside a police station, singing and offering themselves up for not carrying cards. The police opened fire, killing sixty-nine people, including ten children. Six years later the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed
March 21
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
and called on the international community to commemorate that tragedy and to work together to combat racism and discrimination wherever they exist.
On this day the Akonadi Foundation would like to thank you for your contribution toward building a racially just society.”
It was exciting to work on commemorating such a significant sacrifice in the struggle against racism.
-melanie
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- Akonadi Poster
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- Card (back)