Laboratories of the Future: Indigenous Activism and Design Politics at Alcatraz and Beyond
Fifty years ago, the Occupation of Alcatraz came to an end only after Indigenous activists had held the “Rock” for nineteen months and launched a movement for resistance and resurgence that continues today.
They used the island to stage a reckoning with the history and afterlives of American colonial expansion and articulate a political and cultural future for Indigenous peoples through protest, organizing, and design. This event reflects on two recent books that revisit the deep histories of the occupation and explore its relevance to debates over sovereignty, difference, and design today: Native Resistance: An Intergenerational Struggle for Survival and Life (Donning Company Publishers, 2019) by Dr. LaNada War Jack, a leader of the occupation, and Prospects Beyond Futures: Counterculture White Meets Red Power (Canadian Centre for Architecture, 2020) by Dr. Robert Kett, an anthropologist and Assistant Professor in ArtCenter’s Department of Humanities and Sciences.
Zoom link will be sent the day of the event.