Ava DuVernay’s LEAP (Law Enforcement Accountability Project) Takes on Breonna Taylor Case with Dynamic Visual Poem

Yesterday on IG Live, Ava DuVernay’s narrative change collective ARRAY unveiled the latest artist commission for its Law Enforcement Accountability Project (LEAP), a propulsive fund founded in the wake of George Floyd’s murder to catalyze creative expression around police violence. The second recipient of ARRAY’s LEAP grant is Atlanta-based poet and activist W.J. Lofton.

Lofton’s new, original visual poem WOULD YOU KILL GOD TOO? questions plainclothes officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove of the Louisville Metro Police Department who fatally shot 26-year-old Breonna Taylor in her Louisville, Kentucky apartment last year. Lofton’s striking poem is accompanied by a visual interpretation commissioned by LEAP. In the artwork, Lofton describes the oppressive systems which destroyed and disregarded Breonna’s life while allowing her murderers to continue with their lives.

Announced in December, the first LEAP artist grantee is street photographer Steven Irby, also known as Steve Sweatpants. Irby’s photo essay, entitled 41 To ’99, amplifies the deadly actions of four New York City Police Department officers: Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon and Kenneth Boss. These men murdered 23-year-old Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo in the doorway of his Bronx apartment on February 4, 1999. The plainclothes officers fired a total of 41 shots, 19 of which struck Diallo. All four officers were found not guilty.

Administered by the non-profit ARRAY Alliance, the LEAP fund commissions projects across multiple disciplines including film, literature, poetry, theater, dance, fine art and music. LEAP is envisioned as a two-year project to catalyze a minimum of 25 artist commissions. The Ford Foundation was an inaugural funder of LEAP. Data was contributed by the analytics organization Mapping Police Violence. For more information, go to leapaction.org.