BAYARD RUSTIN: The Medium Is The Message
Aesthetic experience was the cornerstone of Bayard Rustin’s success as the architect of the Civil Rights Movement. Breaking boundaries and pushing limits, Rustin harnessed the power of “the medium” to structure awareness, create dialogue, and galvanize a nation towards activism and authenticity.
Bayard Rustin lived his conscience and led by example. As an artist and activist, Rustin capitalized on the technology of his time, creating and dispatching messages that continue to activate societal change. Working side by side with an international and diverse group of contemporary changemakers and thought leaders, Rustin engineered the extraordinary by creating the criteria for change through dialogue and non-violence.
A critical examination of his archives reveals the true nature of his vision. Intuitive and erudite, Rustin’s facility with the medium of his era became the call of our nation. Whether through print or performance, Bayard Rustin changed the scale of interactions, shaping the character of the message by artful design.
The medium is the message. Letters, telegrams, phone books, calendars, passports, original handwritten documents, doodles, and mimeographed examples offer an extraordinary record of Rustins’ public and personal life. The vast collection of African American Folk Art, as well as early Christian, Asian and Byzantine religious icons adds deeper meaning in context, as does his exquisite taste in jewelry, silver, and porcelain. The archive also includes a meaningful collection of Rustins’ recordings of Negro Spirituals, Elizabethan, and French Medieval hymns and lullabies that cradle the collection in reverence and celebration.
The medium of photography has allowed us to create a story of intimate detail; the message is Bayard Rustin. Each photograph offers a unique portrait where the author’s words take on new life - we can practically feel pen to paper, hear the snip of scissors cutting, imagine finger tips pasting together the voice of the movement.
Telling this story has been an extraordinary journey. Thanks to the generosity and direction of Rustin’s life partner and executor Walter Naegle, THEP has set out to tell the story. We hope these photographs will serve as sensory entry points, stimulating conversation and inspiring all people.
