Despite the current exhibition of her photography at the Block, Bev Grant remains conflicted about being described as an artist. “The artistic eye which informed what I shot and how I framed it belongs to me,” she acknowledges, but “in fact, I took these photos mostly as part of my activism.”
On October 9th, to mark the opening of Dissident Sisters: Bev Grant and Feminist Activism, 1968-1972, Bev Grant joined exhibition co-curator Ruslana Lichtzier in conversation at the Block Museum. In front of an engaged audience, the pair discussed Grant’s long career and involvement in social justice movements, particularly through her role as a photographer and filmmaker for Newsreel. Sarah Brown, Director of the Women’s Center at Northwestern University, provided an effusive introduction to the event, highlighting the intersectionality and intimacy of Grant’s work and lauding Grant herself as “extraordinary.”
“I think that all of you who have come here will remember the name Bev Grant because of her work as a photographer, organizer, coalition builder, and musician. My ask is that you also remember what it feels like to be spoken to from an honest place and how that instructs your own contribution toward our contemporary fights for social and material justice.”
– Sarah Brown, Director of the Women’s Center,Northwestern University
Dissident Sisters pairs seventeen recently acquired photos by Grant with ephemera from the Northwestern Library and works by Chicago artists Peggy Lipshutz, Pearl Hirschfield, and the Women’s Graphic Collective. The exhibition is organized into three sections, tracing Grant’s documentation of the feminist movement, protests against the Vietnam War, and the Black Panthers.
Throughout their conversation, Lichtzier and Grant discussed the experiences captured on camera in Grant’s photographs, from organizing in the women’s liberation movement to her involvement with Vietnam War protests and later the Black Panthers and Young Lords. Grant described her work as “participant photography,” emphasizing her role in the action she captured on camera rather than as a spectator or a distant documentarian artist. For Grant, the camera was as much a tool for activism as carrying a banner or sign.
“I feel a contradiction in the fact that I own these pictures. I took these photos, but in fact, they should belong to the people; the history that they portray. I’m really a conduit in my own mind and would find the greatest satisfaction in knowing they could be of service or of relevance to the community history they are part of… In the same way I saw my camera as a tool or a weapon, I see myself as the mechanism igniting that tool or weapon in service to those who are waging the struggle.”
– Bev Grant
Grant’s closing message was for younger generations, who still grapple with many of the same social issues that Grant’s generation fought to change for decades. While acknowledging the difficulty of maintaining momentum, Grant encouraged young people to have hope, to get out into the world, and to learn beyond the classroom: “Don’t be afraid to fail because that’s how we learn.”
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