Part of our “Art and Artists are Essential” collection and invitation.

Amir Williams ’18 shares her multimedia project, with stringed instruments, she created to “capture the musical ensemble of the current protests and fight for lasting change.”

Our bodies in collective, create the orchestra.

The sounds of the movement are our song.

I made this project to capture my community’s lament in response to the police killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Tony McDade, Rayshard Brooks, Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells, Riah Milton, and countless others.

I chose to share this work on Juneteenth as a way to commemorate the final ending of slavery in the US and the long-awaited liberation of our ancestors. It is an urge for us to recognize and celebrate the resilient beauty exhibited in our fight for further freedom today.

— Amir Williams ’18

Scroll on and play the videos, in which Williams combines her original animation and audio recordings.

Amir Williams is a storyteller and documentarian who received her BA in Public Policy, Education, and Documentary Studies from Duke University in 2018. Find more of her work here.