Black Lives Matter Protest Movement
My passion is documenting communities from a firsthand, participatory perspective… so during the pandemic, I switched focus to what was going on in our country and became involved in the Black Lives Matter protest movement.
In 2020, I dedicated 80 straight days protesting for Black lives and recording audio interviews, capturing video clips, and photographing protest communities in 10 cities. Afterwards, some of my footage unexpectedly made it into a National Geographic doc - “Keepers of the Dream”.
After focusing a lot of my photography/videography and life on the music scene, I’ve been looking for ways to capture and tell stories of deeper topics and current happenings around the world, in hopes to help spread awareness and ultimately leave a positive impact. During the pandemic, I felt called to support the Black Lives Matter protest community and also use my journalism skills to understand what truly was happening in our nation. Using the little funds I had from unemployment money at the time, I lived on the road for 80 days out of a car/hotel rooms/people’s couches to travel from 10+ cities to be an extra body in the marches. I recorded 40+ audio interviews of those who’ve been on the street in their cities supporting the movement, some for over 100 days straight. I was invited into mothers’ homes who have lost their sons at the hands of police brutality to hear more about their experience. I marched with family members of Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake. As a new, white female face with a camera and occasionally adorning a bulletproof vest, I had to quickly gain the trust of each BLM protest community as I walked into their city in order to march with them and get approval to genuinely and safely capture the experience. I’m so touched and inspired by the resilience and strength of this community and humbled that they shared their stories with me.
I hope one day to help share the imperative stories of the nationwide Black Lives Matter protesters’ and supporters’ experience in a bigger way, tying in all the people, organizations, non-profts, march leaders, volunteers, journalists, activates, lawyers, victims’ families, and more who I’ve met along the way.
Footage in National Geographic & ESPN’s The Undefeated - “Keepers of the Dream”
Below is a list of cities and key marches
