Anja Matthes: NYC Protest #BlackLivesMatter
Photographer Anja Matthes has been joining the protests currently happening in New York City.
The protesters walked from Bryant Park uptown on 5th Ave and turned west before reaching the Trump Tower, where police behind barricades could be seen ahead. Speakers who carried a home loudspeaker guided the growing group organically, weaving at a steady pace towards the west side, avoiding any police roadblocks. I’m struck by how incredible young this protest movement is, very mixed in races. Lots of conflict could have been avoided if these peaceful protesters would have met peaceful police.
The group chanted and shouted: “Say his name, George Floyd. Say her name, Breonna Taylor” to “NYPD suck my Dick”
The march was long and spirits high. During moments of silence along the way, the protesters kneeled several times before arriving at the downtown Manhattan courts. On the old building’s steps framed inside its pillars, one of the young speakers mentioned that other protesters from Brooklyn were stopped from joining the Manhattan march. Before marchers stepped onto a crowded Brooklyn Bridge, they chanted, “Peaceful Protest!” One of the peakers screamed into the mic: “Repeat after me! This is a peaceful protest! We will not invite violence and/or provocations towards the cops [and will] hold each other accountable for everyone’s actions. Stop and intervene when you see looting, this is a peaceful protest!”
Some people jumped onto the street running alongside the pedestrian path, stopping the traffic towards Brooklyn. A young woman standing in the middle of the highway held up her protest sign with dozens of cars lined up behind her waiting.
It was dark when the protesters reach the Barclays center on the other side of the bridge in Brooklyn . Three silhouettes of cops standing looking down on us seemed intimidating.
I have never seen so many cops in riot gear.
Anja Matthes is an award-winning documentary photographer, videographer, and visual storyteller based in New York City. Over the past seven years, Matthes has focused her personal work on LGBTQ youth of color. Anja has exhibited projects about the Kiki Ballroom scene at Rayko Gallery and SF CameraWorks. In 2016, Anja received the International Women in Journalism (IWMF) grant for her long-term project about the Kiki scene. With the support of IWMF, Housing Works and Open Source Gallery, Matthes produced and distributed the Kiki Yearbook to members of the Kiki scene. The book was introduced into the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture archive and the project was featured in W Magazine. In 2019 her work with the Kiki scene was also featured in The Atlantic and The New Yorker. Matthes won the Pride Photo Award 2019 and in February, she received an HMI Honors Award for her work with the Kiki youth.
