Ethel Seno : Wishes & Hopes for 2017

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As we near the new year we’ve asked a special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2016 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for him or her. It’s an assortment of treats for you to enjoy and contemplate as we all reflect on the year that has passed and conjure our hopes and wishes for the new year to come. It’s our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ for inspiring us throughout the year.

Author, editor, curator, and cultivated corraler of unruly Street Artists for exhibitions like “Art in the Streets”, Wynwood Walls, Coney Art Walls, and this falls’ “Magic City” in Dresden, which she co-curated with Carlo McCormick, Ethel Seno is the sage point person for many Street Art, graffiti, and contemporary art heads. Endlessly curious and steeped in the geo-political influences and activist roots of Street Art, Seno shares with us this powerful image that shook her conscience this year.


Ieshia Evans in a Black Lives Matter protest
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Date: July, 2016.
Photograph by Max Becherer / AP

I love this photo by Max Becherer, which went viral this summer, because it is an inspiring example of peaceful resistance against state violence. The photo is of a nurse named Ieshia Evans in a Black Lives Matter protest in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in July 2016 after the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling.

Unfortunately the November presidential election marks 2016 like a historical turning point, and makes it more urgent to act on what we believe in; to stand up against any unprovoked aggression, bullying, or terror being inflicted on innocent people, and against the destruction of our social and natural environments.

I am planning to go to the Women’s March on Washington on January 21st because so much is at stake. As a good friend said, we must never normalize rhetoric rooted in fear, hate, greed, and ignorance. My wish for the new year is that we are braver and more empowered to move forward together.

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Photograph by Max Becherer / AP

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