At the Witney Museum, an artist named Maya Stovall displayed three video pieces that are part of the Liquor Store Theater volumes. In each video their is one to three people performing a dance near or in front of a liquor store. It cuts between a dance performance to interviews of people part of the Detroit community. The element of dance in the videos seem a bit odd at first but one pedestrian explains the importance of music and dance and how it brings a community together. The pedestrian explains how music and dance can be like therapy. Art is a big part of the community, their are lots of graffiti and murals.

Pedestrians that are interviewed are asked about Detroit. The pedestrians talk about the past and the possible future of their home. Many of the interviewees discussed the changing of the city. The city is getting new stores and building new housing infrastructures. The pedestrians are asked about why people are being moved out. They worry that the new improvements might force poor people out like gentrification in New York. One couple explained how their rent had not risen but the building next to their did and many of those people how to move out.

The series felt that it was trying to bring awareness of the issues of gentrification. It was giving close first half accounts of those people experience the change in their neighborhoods. It also allowed people to talk about what their neighborhood is really like and combat a stigma or stereotype. One pedestrian explained although many go to the liquor store in his community. The liquor store has many other convinces like water and snacks. Having people from the community talk about issues that effect them allows for a perspective that isn’t show on television or a news article. I think it creates empathy and put a face to people being affected by the changes happening in Detroit.

The location of the shooting and dancing I thought was combating a stigma. A lot of liquor stores come to poorer neighborhoods. I felt like it showed that although people are coming in and out of the store. These same people are fully aware of life and politics around them. They are involved and aware of how their communities are changing. They have worries about being forced out of their community and they know that this is happening to them. One of the interesting things when watching people speak was no one knew how to deal or combat the problems. They seemed to accept the changes and the possible future outcome of their home. I felt it showed how as citizens we don’t feel like we can make a change or difference. 

I experienced a fourty five minute three channel video installation by John Akomfrah called The Unfinised Conversation. The video focused on the life and work of a theorist named Stuart Hall. He was a cultural theorist. John Akomfrah used archival footage of international events and a set of Stuart Hall interviews and intwins them. It felt like mesh of two documentaries. It also focuses on Stuarts Hall concept of ‘becoming’.

The installation had three screens side by side. It was not used to complete one image, instead each screen had its own image or video. I found it most fascinating when a screen or two screens would go completely red to draw the viewers attention to one particular screen. Also the choice of red instead of just black. The red maybe was related to some of the difficulties and struggles Britain was facing and darkside of how some immigrants didn’t make it. Sometimes the side screens operated as if they were trying to help create the scenery of the environment. There would be nature or a cultural video of a city and its people. The video would have chuncks of Stuart Halls interviews but there wasn’t a consistant flow of when you heard his voice and you also saw him.

The video focused a lot on . The struggles of immigrants and feeling not apart of a culture although they are actively participating and learning about it. The issue of assimilation of immigrants is an important topic that many Americans think about weather or not they are immigrants. Stuart Hall speaks out and mentions no matter how much he studies or changes to assimilate he will never feel like a Britain citizen. The video would go from moments like these with Stuart voice and image to the archival footage of historical events taking place in around the world. The archival footage would have a different person narrating. It would shift back and forth. When the story would change there was a small moment of silence but it would start up very suddenly and end the same way. It felt like fragments of history and Stuart.