'Interrupting Privilege' at NAAM Is a Powerful Conversation Around Race and Its Intersections

by Troy Landrum Jr.

The Northwest African American Museum (NAAM) holds many visual histories, exhibits, and stories of the amazing legacies of African American people. It stands tall in the Central District as a catalyst for who we are, where we come from, and the glory we continue to walk into. It is not only defined by the visual displays of greatness but also the conversations that are had in this space — conversations that have the power to change the landscape and move the needle of liberation forward.

On July 6, the walls of NAAM listened in on one of those conversations. Ralina L. Joseph, the host of an ongoing exhibit titled "Interrupting Privilege," gathered community members for a powerful Radical Listening Session and discussion on activism. A beautiful showing of many different folks gathered at NAAM on Saturday morning for a chance to listen to not only the historical whispers of the museum but also the present heartbeat of what it means to be an activist today.

Joseph, the director of the Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity (CCDE) and associate dean of equity and justice at the University of Washington's Graduate School, shared with the community what it means to be a radical listener and how to cultivate that skill. At the forefront of this conversation were two elder past participants of the project, Aggie Briscoe and Clyde Walker. This was a moment in which the community was able to sit at the feet of wisdom and begin to soak in knowledge. Community members were able to capture quotes, such as Walker saying, "The trees that I sit under the shade of now were planted by my grandparents." In other words, the work that I am doing now is not for me but it is for those after me. Lastly, they received the chance to experience the exhibit in all its glory, along with the new "Emmett Till & Mamie Till-Mobley: Let the World See" exhibit that "Interrupting Privilege" is in partnership with.

The "Interrupting Privilege" program was created in 2016 out of the University of Washington by a cohort of faculty, staff, graduate, and undergraduate students at the CCDE aiming to bring all different kinds of community members together for a powerful conversation around race and its intersections. After the incredible impact of the 2016 conversation, the community asked for more, channeling new community lead voices and topics, such as Saturday's discussion around activism. From 2016 to the present day, these conversations have been recorded and turned into the "Interrupting Privilege" exhibit, to reach beyond its humble genesis.

"Interrupting Privilege" blossomed at a time when the majority of the nation was in shock over the presidential results. A moment in time when young adults felt the heavy burden of a nation's question — "Where do we turn to next?" — and were desperately trying to find somewhere to put the energy of their pain and disappointment. Under Joseph's guidance and mentorship, the University of Washington graduate students eventually targeted that pain toward action by starting these incredible conversations.

"So, at the heart of this, we do these things called radical listening sessions," Joseph said. "So, we bring together people to record the conversations, and we have it all up on our websites so there are people that use it for teaching and for research and all different types of places."

Radical listening is at the centerpiece of every conversation. Everyone who is a part of the conversation learns this skill through the process, and that process is captured for those listeners who wander into the "Interrupting Privilege" exhibit. To encapsulate the truest definition of radical listening, Joseph describes it in this way: It means listening to what others from different intersectionalities of identities are saying and using those skills to combat biases. The number of conversations that have been recorded, according to Joseph, ranges into the couple of hundreds. These conversational moments can then be displayed as beautiful portraits of community members, the graduate students who created the exhibit, and information around the topic, along with QR codes to listen in on those conversations. The exhibit is a full immersion, bringing you back to that moment of time, as if you were in the very room when it happened.

"Interrupting Privilege" will run through September. It will also be announcing through its website when and where more recorded community conversations will happen, which will be a great chance for community members to be a part of the history and present of the project. As the excitement stirs and more community voices are involved, the exhibits push toward their vision for the future. After December, the project hopes to raise funds and, as stated by Joseph, "to grow through this coalition and go do other Black museums and cities, connected with a university, with a community space. What we are really trying to understand is what's happening in the moment, but try to understand that this is on the local flavor of race and racism, and so in Seattle, it would be totally different from then going in L.A., or in Austin, or in Philly."

What a privilege it is to be a part of such a movement. And to know that NAAM was one of the first to listen in on one of many momentous conversations. You can be a part of the conversation; you can fully immerse yourself in the moments of American history when the community sat down, found a space, and learned to be radical listeners. What we ultimately understand through learning how to become radical listeners, Joseph says, is that "engaging in conversation differently, listening differently, can make a change with our structures of inequality. What we are thinking about is how do we make a change on an individual level and have that reverberate out. … We can hit all of our spheres of influence. … We think this is how change can happen."

📸 Featured Image: (From left to right:) Ralina Joseph, Shannon Advincula, Julie Feng, Josh Griffin, Mercy Bertero, and Joel Allen at the opening night reception for 'Interrupting Privilege' at the Northwest African American Museum on May 9, 2024. (Photo: Tara Brown Photography)