Patrons view portraits of Khorry Ramey and Maria Miller at The Luminary. Courtesy of D'Marco Turner.
Bound by Blood exhibition
Along the main wall of The Luminary’s gallery space, seven portraits of St. Louis women are accompanied by multiple paragraphs of text. Each woman wears everyday clothes and looks into the camera, while behind her, a collage of colorful flowers blooms outward. The exhibition—titled Bound by Blood—centers the stories of women whose loved one’s lives have been taken by state violence.
Bound by Blood is a collaboration between legal advocacy organization ArchCity Defenders and visual production company My Friends and I. The physical exhibition at The Luminary closes February 3, but the portraits and accompanying videos are always available online. In addition to the visual components, ArchCity Defenders has released a companion publication, “In Her Words: The Impact of Fatal State Violence on Black Women and Women of Color Left Behind.” The multimedia project details the stories of women survivors whose loved ones were killed by police or died in custody, as well as that of a Black transgender woman facing constant threats to her safety while incarcerated. Through featured video interviews, Tammy Bufford, Toni Taylor, Gina Torres, Khorry Ramey, Wanda Parker, Maria Miller, and Lexii Alexander share their experiences.
ArchCity Defenders specializes in advocacy work to address state violence, the criminalization of poverty, and other systemic racial issues. Bound by Blood is part of the group's Fatal State Violence Project, which supports St. Louisans affected by “instances in which state sanctioned institutions and their respective actors such as police officers and jails guards become deadly.” According to a recent study from Mapping Police Violence, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department had the highest rate of police killings by population of any police department amongst the 100 largest U.S. cities between 2013 and 2022. Further, in 2021, an ArchCity Defenders report found that the majority of people killed by police in St. Louis and the surrounding counties from 2009 to 2019 were Black men.
While creating that 2021 report, ArchCity Defenders’ team gathered both empirical data and interviews with impacted families. Many of the survivors who were able to share their stories were women who had lost a family member or friend to fatal state violence. ArchCity Defenders staff attorney Brittney Watkins says the Bound by Blood exhibition aims to be a platform for those voices.
“We’ve really seen women and femmes at the forefront—they’re calling for justice for their loved ones, doing advocacy work, and they’re at the helm of navigating shifting family dynamics,” Watkins says. “The first report was a general overview of fatal state violence. With [Bound by Blood], we wanted to acknowledge who is being impacted in different ways that the media often doesn’t cover.”
In the video interviews, several women discuss how media narratives portrayed their loved ones negatively, failed to accurately report the facts, and ultimately didn’t afford their stories care or sensitivity. Many also touch on the state’s failure to provide transparency or accountability for its actions. However, their answers also speak to how they’ve practiced self care, love, and advocacy in the wake of these traumatic events. For Cami Thomas, founder of My Friends and I, the ultimate aim of the video and portrait elements was to uplift each interviewee’s message.
“We wanted the women who we shared that space with on the day that we recorded and took photos to feel good about what they saw and how they were portrayed,” Thomas says. “That was the number one goal for us. It was a great feeling to have the women walk into the space and feel that we had accomplished that—because at the end of the day, that’s who it’s about.”
Watkins is aware that this exhibition may be some St. Louisans’ first engagement with issues of federal state violence. Going forward, she hopes it won’t be the last.
“We like to say there's a role in the movement for everyone—you don't necessarily have to be an activist,” Watkins says. “Whether it's writing encouraging words to people, literally bringing people water, cooking, or helping out with childcare at a meeting, there's a lot of different ways that people can get involved in this work. No way is too small. Don't shy away from asking, even if you're unsure or you feel like you might do something wrong. There are people here to help you and would love and appreciate your willingness to help out with these issues.”
ArchCity Defenders holds hybrid meetings for the Fatal State Violence Project every third Friday of the month at the Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being. The 6 p.m. portion of the healing session is reserved for impacted families, while the 7 p.m. slot is open to the community. The program also has a volunteer-run crisis response team that’s available on Instagram and Facebook.
