“Riot Today, Dance Later”
“we gave it a good try”
Visual artwork created using PhotoShop and poetry. The visual art was made using a variety of images taken on and during the historical events described along with additional images that were either used as overlays and/or to create the tone and aesthetic. The poetry was created using an organic form which is a form that grows or is inspired and influenced naturally from the poet's subject and materials as opposed to work shaped by form and artificial rules.
"Riot Today, Dance Later" is a détournement, an artistic practice created by French Situationists for transforming artwork to produce creations that negate conditions of artistic production and politically educate, of the 1966 Bayview-Hunters Point Uprising and the 1967 Human Be-In. Both occurred in San Francisco within less than three months of each other. The Uprising, a 5 day revolt against police brutality and suppressed rage over the abysmal conditions of the area at that time, occurred after a white police officer shot and killed a Black teen while the Human Be-In was a protest against Vietnam and the recent illegalization of LSD. The Be-In is largely remembered as the gathering that inspired the modern music festival while situating San Francisco as the epicenter of counterculture and protest. In contrast, the Uprising is largely disremembered and when retold, harmful narratives of “justified” violence and force via martial law, are centered. These political moments both sought change, yet when viewed together, they both highlight the tension and disparity between who tends to benefit during social unrest. The accompanying poem, “we gave it a good try”, provides additional context and seeks to explore how these two events coexist and create tension with one another.
Briana Swain, Riot Today, Dance Later
Restorative Justice for Bayview-Hunters Point Uprising and The Human Be-in, by Dr. D. A-R. Forbes-Erickson, Assistant Professor of African American Theatre & Dramatic Literature, Director/Facilitator, Black Theatre Group, Sacramento State
“Riot Today, Dance Later” by Briana Swain is a satirical commentary on converging historical moments of the Bayview-Hunters Point Uprising from September 27 to October 1, 1966, after San Francisco police officer Alvin Johnson shot and killed a Black teenager Mathew “Peanut” Johnson who was fleeing the vicinity of a stolen car. A few weeks later, the Human Be-in event was held at the Golden Gate Park Polo Fields on January 14, 1967 in San Francisco, California, inspiring the Summer of Love music festival that made the Haight-Ashbury district a symbol of counterculture, LSD, and Timothy Leary’s “turn on, tune in, drop out.”
Swain presents a détournement that utilizes historical or well-known images juxtaposed with other images to disrupt ideologies. She takes an image from the Bayview-Hunters Point Uprising with white police officers aiming to shoot, crouching down in the street; and she collages larger-than-life images of revelers and a dog from the Human Be-in concert - dancing, and “tuning out” in the midst of the Bayview-Hunters Point Uprising. Hovering overhead is a thick and heavy cloud with people from the Human Be-in, probably as “high” as the cloud, unconcerned about the racial injustice. The cloud literally overshadows the Bayview-Hunters Point Uprising below.
“Riot Today, Dance Later” includes a reading of the poem, “We Gave It a Good Try” by the artist/poet, to be read in conjunction with viewing the art piece. The poem reflects the irony of these two historical moments as consequential. Historically, the Human Be-in seemed to completely envelop and erase the Bayview-Hunters Point Uprising from memory. In the visual art and poem, Swain exposes this erasure in history. She uncovers the Human Be-in’s white liberal response against white middle-class values and the Vietnam war, contrasted with the apathy against the police shooting of Mathew “Peanut” Johnson, racism, and the oppression of Black communities. Even the name “Human Be-in” re-appropriated and mocked other protest names at the time, such as sit-ins staged at lunch counters to protest segregation.
Swain does restorative justice in memorializing and recontextualizing history in her art and poetry; and calls for action against ongoing police brutality of Black people since the Bayview-Hunters Point Uprising in 1966 until today. She skillfully reveals an indifference towards racism, the hypocrisy of the so-called counterculture associated with the Haight-Ashbury district, and its silence around Black pain and humanity with reference to the Human Be-in.