Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg’s “Alienable Right to Life” art piece is a living, open-air collage and sculpture that challenges the right to bear arms versus finding freedom from our fear of each other. When exploring the outdoor, bigger-than-life exhibition, one will find names and notes about those lost to gun violence.
While, “Say their names” is a theme and verbal action, Firstenberg challenges viewers to see not one name but hundreds of names all at once. The magnitude of the numbers and names listed on the flag cannot help but grab one’s heart, trigger remembrance of the people, and connect how they died and what can be changed to address gun violence.
For instance, John McNamara of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis lost his life to gun violence in Maryland. I read about the mass shooting and saw the video clips on the news. How awful, I thought. The story, not really a story, but a traumatic event no one wants to remember. So sad, and easy to forget until last Wednesday. We were leaving the Wilson Building after attending an action with the Fair Budget Coalition asking the mayor and D.C. Council not to cut the financial safety net and services for the people residing in Washington D.C.
Back to the story: John McNamara could not fight for his life as it was taken by gun violence. We met his sister-in-law Jan McNamara at Freedom Plaza in front of the awesome sculpture collage. The American flag had LED lights backed by a printed Constitution of the United States. Each strip, which together made a flag, contained rows of names of those felled by gun violence. The largesse is overbearing. To see all those names… One might think, “Have that many people really been killed by weaponized guns?” Yes, I’m afraid so. Could their lives have been saved and their families spared the grief?
The words of others are told 30 feet away on a circular maze decorated with stripes and stars on the inside. Written on the walls were personal notes and names from visitors about people they knew, heard about, or thought about after seeing the exhibit. The eye’s attention could not miss the social justice exhibit protesting gun violence.
The visitors were tourists, the curious, and those who came specifically for the exhibit like the young people from GOODProjects. They brought students, many of whom live in high-risk communities with more than their fair share of gun violence. They came to see the exhibit, write their names, and tell their stories.
