In the wake of the 2024 presidential election, many BIPOC and LGBTQ+ folks were feeling both hopeless and helpless. How could we get lawmakers to listen and acknowledge that our lives and well-being matter? And would it actually make a difference? The day after Election Day, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went live on Instagram, reassuring that yes, there is a long road ahead and a lot of work to do to protect our civil rights and democracy — but we will need to fight by working together and building community.

This is a message that many social activists have emphasized, including the great Grace Lee Boggs who said, “Movements are born of critical connections, not critical mass.” 

The same message is at the heart of the “Critical Connections: Protest Photography Past + Present,” currently on display at Pace University Art Gallery. Pairing historical Civil Rights Era photographs with contemporary photographs documenting the Blasian March, the exhibit provides much-needed hope and inspiration, stressing that social movements are fought by everyday people and achieved through intentional intersectionality.

About the “Critical Connections: Protest Photography Past + Present”

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Black police brutality and anti-Asian hate crimes exacerbated the already fraught relationship between the two communities. Black Asian activist, community organizer, and writer Rohan Zhou-Lee sought a safe space for racial solidarity and founded Blasian March in response. 

It was in this space over the years where photographers Stas Ginzburg, Josh Pacheco, and Cindy Trinh not only documented Blasian March protests, but also participated in them. Altogether, the team was invited to select historic photographs from the George Stephanopoulos Collection of news photography at Pace to showcase alongside their own contemporary protest photographs, and the exhibit was then curated by independent curator Sophia Ma, professor and art gallery director Sarah Cunningham, and Pace student Hannah Arias.

While the Pace University Art Gallery is a modest space in Lower Manhattan, the photographs and messages inside are mighty and complex, fiercely bold in a way that’s uncommon at many other educational and art institutions.

What is the significance of connecting past and present photography?

When shown two seemingly disparate images side-by-side, our beautiful brains strive to connect the dots and create stories that make sense of the images together. By interspersing Civil Rights Era and Vietnam War images with modern Black Lives Matter, anti-racist, anti-homophobia, and anti-transphobia protest photographs, viewers can’t help but notice the visual and historical parallels. The defiant raised fists, many decades apart, prove that these are not isolated, singular moments in history that eventually fade and are forgotten, but instead are scenes from the same decades-long revolution against oppression.

For Zhou-Lee, it’s the stories both the historic and contemporary Blasian March photos tell together. In a December 6th panel held at the gallery, Zhou-Lee explained, “We’ve seen how monumental the Civil Rights Era was, and how it advanced human rights. So to see the repetition of story can be a little bit frustrating, knowing that the things we have been fighting for, for generations, we’re going to have to keep fighting for, for generations. But there is an affirmation in each pairing of photos to let me know that the work we’re doing does matter, [that] the work we’re doing is going to tell a story for another.”

In addition to affirmation, these photos provide necessary documentation. Some of the historic photographs’ captions were originally written by journalists in a negative light, showing that the activists we consider heroes today were condemned by the media at the time. This is not too far off from today’s reality, where the media continues to depict protests as unruly clashes with law enforcement, violent riots, and looting. 

While mainstream media constantly pits minorities against each other, the exhibit reclaims history by acknowledging common ground and celebrating narratives of Black and Asian solidarity. At the panel, photographer Cindy Trinh explained, “We obviously have different histories and different experiences. […] But what is the same for all of us is that the racism we experience is all under the umbrella of white supremacy.”

“Critical Connections” honors the everyday people who fought and fight today for justice and reform. Black Panther leader Huey Newton and Coretta Scott King fight side by side with Rohan Zhou-Lee and many other modern-day protesters from diverse backgrounds: the new faces of the revolution.

When going through the historical archives, Trinh was drawn to images from the Vietnam War and immediately saw parallels with modern-day oppression for both Black folks and Palestinians. 

“The trauma of genocide and war still live in me, through my family,” Trinh said. It’s this shared narrative that can unite communities and empower us against occupation and Western imperialism.

With this in mind, the “Critical Connections” exhibit is not just connecting past and present, but also forging emotional connections between the photograph subjects and viewers, humanizing protesters, evoking empathy, and inspiring an urgent call-to-action in following generations. Because the contemporary photographers are positioned as participants of Blasian March themselves, their photos do not teeter into the retelling of trauma that takes advantage of those involved. Instead, these images celebrate moments of triumph from within the protest, shared by photographers who are feeling the same palpable emotions that bleed through the photos: the same rage, the same joy, and the same hope for a more equitable, safer, and loving future for all.

The “Critical Connections” exhibit is free to the public and on view in Lower Manhattan at 41 Park Row until January 25, 2025. Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday 12:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. with extended hours on Thursday until 7:00 p.m. Learn more about the “Critical Connections” exhibit at Pace University Art Gallery. You can also follow Blasian March on Instagram at @blasianmarch.

Cover Credit: Tameek Williams