Broad Art Museum

Exhibition: Farmland: Food, Justice, and Sovereignty

Title of Installation: The Highway Dragon

Presenters: Willye Bryan, Prince Solace, Betty Sanford, Greta Mchaney-Trice, and artist Mila Lynn

Artist Mila Lynn (b. Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1995) was invited to collaborate with the Justice League of Greater Lansing and the I-496 Project to create a work inspired by the land struggles Black communities face in the Greater Lansing area. The work will be on display in the exhibition "Farmland: Food, Justice, and Sovereignty" at the Broad Art Museum beginning in January 2025.

“When the Justice League of Greater Lansing Michigan was presented with the opportunity to participate in this exhibition, I immediately thought of an artist who could both comprehend and convey the historical discrimination and displacement of African Americans due to the construction of I-496; to capture the destruction of generational wealth in art form. Equally important, I thought of an artist who had the heart to illustrate the future of what repairing the breach of wealth inequities would resemble for African Americans. Mila Lynn provided that vision.” — Prince Solace, President

There are numerous reasons for this country’s racial wealth gap: the stain of slavery, emancipation without compensation, the southern history of sharecropping, Jim Crow laws, redlining, and laws like the G.I. Bill of 1944 that were intended to help Americans but only helped white Americans.

The concept of reparations has a legacy in Michigan. Since 1989, House Bill 40 has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, first by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and most recently by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX). The bill, which has never been brought to a floor vote, requires, “a commission of thirteen people who would be tasked with examining the history of slavery in the United States and the systemic racism that resulted, including Federal and State Government’s role in supporting it and recommend appropriate remedies to Congress.”

The Justice League of Greater Lansing Michigan exists to repair the breach caused by the historical damage of slavery and its aftermath. In the spirit of repentance for the sin of racism, we seek to build relationships and facilitate reparations between houses of worship and collaborative partners to increase wealth equity for African Americans in the Greater Lansing Area. We have cemented our commitment to healing and becoming the Beloved Community by making the connection between faith and racial justice in the form of reparations.

In the Greater Lansing Area, reparations will be committed mainly from predominately white Houses of Worship as part of their efforts to repair the breach caused by centuries of slavery, inequality of wealth accumulation, and the failure to live into God’s Plan of equality for all of humanity.

What can reparations look like in action today? Our mission has been to create an Endowment Fund through contributions from faith-based and individual donors as well as corporate and community-based organizations. The Fund is managed by our Advisory Council consisting of African Americans from different sectors in the community, and it is used to support education scholarships, home ownership, and business startups.

The Justice League of Greater Lansing also selected objects from the collections of its founder, Willye Bryan; advisory council member Betty Sanford; and local educational consultant Greta Mchaney-Trice, on display in the exhibition Farmland.

Learn more about the exhibition here: Broad Art Museum - Farmland