Downtown Rotating Art Displays

Karla Forrest-Hewitt, “Bending the Bars”
Instagram: @katthewi / Facebook: #KarlasHandmadeCreations

My name is Karla Forrest-Hewitt and I am a mixed media artist, wife and mother. I am an advocate for social justice and re-examining of practices to ensure that they are better suited for our community and for future generations. I love exploring different artistic expressions. Bending the Bars is a piece I completed this year in response to the need for communities to re-evaluate the meaning of justice and to make a commitment to equity and ensuring that the justice system serves us all. I believe that East Lansing is committed to its goals towards being an accepting place to live. Bending the Bars was created in response to Martin Luther King's request for “justice to spring from a new moral climate.” It calls attention to the need for us to think about what justice truly means and if and who it should serve. LaTosha Brown asked a question that challenged my thinking.  “What would America look like without racism?"  Was I allowed to envision such a place?  It is not a space that can be created without discomfort. But there it is, the new moral climate that justice must spring from if we are to stop the harm and injustice done to brown bodies. We must keep our eyes open and not forget where we have been and not let it hold us back. I envision an America where we are continuously striving for equity and are never satisfied with maintaining the status quo, but in lifting every man and woman. The image of shackled hands bending bars is symbolic of how we must change systemic racism and the policies that are still in effect today. The eye looking through the symbolic diagram of Africa, references African ancestry. The designs are symbolic of African fabric designs that tell beautiful stories.