Bayeté Ross Smith

2024 Street Work Artist
Written By Anjali Deshmukh

Bayeté Ross Smith is an artist, visual journalist, filmmaker and education worker, working at the intersection of photography, film & video, visual journalism, 3D objects and new media. He is Columbia Law School’s inaugural Artist-In-Residence, a Presidential Leadership Scholar, a TED Resident, a Creative Capital Awardee, an Art For Justice Fund Fellow, a BPMPlus Grantee, a POV NY Times embedded media maker and CatchLight Global Fellow.

2024 Street Work Earth: what Bayeté did

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Hip Hop 50 Boombox, by Bayeté Ross Smith
Sep 22
Hip Hop 50 Boombox, by Bayeté Ross Smith

Participants contributed their favorite songs on freedom and liberation alongside perspectives on climate change to Bayeté Ross Smith’s mix tapes on the climate change crisis, part of a sculpture made of sugarcane and cotton boombox replicas. Their songs and voices were mingled with pre-recorded perspectives from Street Work participants. (Photo by Cindy Trinh.)

2024 Street Work Earth: how it felt

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Mirrors. “Hip Hop 50 Boombox”
Mirrors. “Hip Hop 50 Boombox”
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“The storytelling power of the arts is an excellent tool for community engagement and action around the most critical issues of our time. It not only creates awareness but is a catalyst for generating ideas and thoughtful solutions from diverse segments of society.”
— Bayeté

Art

Image captions, left to right.

  • HIP HOP 50 SUGARCANE AND COTTON BOOMBOX SCULPTURE. WALLACH GALLERY, HARLEM NY.

  • NORTHEAST SCULPTURE SOCIAL JUSTICE BILLBOARD PROJECT. MINNEAPOLIS MN.

  • "WHO IS A THREAT? WHO IS A VICTIM". WITH FOR FREEDOMS, NEW ORLEANS LA.

  • GOT THE POWER: MONTGOMERY. INSTALLED AT THE MMFA.

Anjali Deshmukh
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