Through These Realities aims to change the way we see things in the media, especially when it comes to people of color. It does this by using poems and photos. Six photographers who are also people of color made pictures inspired by poems written by six poets of color. These pictures include things from the poems, both in how they look and what they mean. This project is inspired by something James Baldwin said about the media industry:
“The industry is compelled, given the way it is built, to present to the American people a self-perpetuating fantasy of American life. It considers that its job is to entertain the American people. Their concept of entertainment is difficult to distinguish from the use of narcotics, and to watch the TV screen for any length of time is to learn some really frightening things about the American sense of reality.”
Artists use poetry and photography to make their experiences real, show the differences between the mainstream culture, and prove that people of color are a normal part of everyday life.