Activism

Solid Sound Collective – a project of the nonprofit Action Art Collaborative – brought five local musicians together to produce a set of original songs based on interviews with St. Louis activists and community advocates.

Materials made by We Stories are available for free until June 30.

St. Louis activist and protest leader Sasha Zemmel talks about the effort to end the abuse of elephants by the Moolah Shrine Circus.

The Rev. Kenneth McKoy is St. Louis’ “pastor of the streets.” A new documentary that tells his story premieres July 17 at the St. Louis International Film Festival.

St. Louis Metropolitan Police officers are investigating a noose that a Black contractor found hanging in a tree on an Asian American woman's property in the Benton Park neighborhood.

For the Rev. Michelle Higgins, pastoral work shares deep ties with social justice activism. The self-described “protester who has become a pastor” is the first Black woman to permanently lead the congregation at Saint John’s Church (the Beloved Community) in north St. Louis.

The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis' first podcast, “Radio Resistance,” is an 11-episode production that features conversations among exhibiting artists, local activists, scholars and politicians delving into St. Louis’ role in activism. Selections of “Radio Resistance” will air on our program biweekly on Wednesdays starting March 24, with the full episode being released the following day on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.

In the last two seasons of the show, we have covered the COVID-19 pandemic and the current uprising for Black lives, both of which continue to shape society today. The pandemic and the uprising also raised two major questions, which we’ll be addressing in our new season on environmental racism: How do we achieve a healthy life? And what kind of world do we want to leave for the next generation? These are profound questions for a region that boasts some of the most prestigious hospitals in the nation and is home to residents with some of the worst health outcomes. So in this season, we’ll trace the connection between systemic racism, housing conditions, and health outcomes. But we’ll also highlight the organizers, tenants rights advocates, and urban farmers who are working to improve conditions in their communities. The first episode of the environmental racism season drops on Friday, February 12th, anywhere you get podcasts.

Over the past months, we’ve seen civil unrest across the country in a renewed uprising for Black lives and the fight to hold police accountable. But we should not forget the painters, poets, musicians, and more who have decided that through their art they can motivate people to move into action. In this episode, we’ll hear from a young man who found beauty in destruction and created a group for local Black artists, the founder of ART House will share about how she is building a place for artists of color to thrive in their own community, and the founder of UrbArts will teach us about art’s ability to uncover systemic racism and how we can create a marketplace to support Black artists in a more meaningful way.

The call to defund the police has gained steam as activists and advocates bring attention to police budgets that they believe could be better allocated to education, healthcare, and social services. At the heart of this call is the question of whether or not police increase public safety. Growing numbers of people are joining a movement to abolish the current system of policing and imagine new structures for responding to mental health crises, domestic violence, and social problems created by poverty and racism. In this episode, we talk to the co-chairs of St. Louis’ Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression about police accountability and the tension between efforts to reform and desire to abolish the current system of policing.