“Dear 1968…From 1984,” reads a graphite drawing from Sadie Barnette in her current exhibition Do Not Destroy at Baxter Street at CCNY. The drawing appears as if written as a warning or a love letter from George Orwell’s dystopian (and, increasingly, documentary) 1984. Orwell’s 1984, even though published in 1949, could not feel more prescient today. Or in 1968, for that matter. The drawing, which resembles a print with its flawless script, refers to the surveillance of her father Rodney Barnette, who founded the Compton chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1968, by the FBI. Continue reading →