Cara Levine | This Is Not a Gun

Cara Levine

This Is Not a Gun

Saratoga, USA: Sming Sming Books, 2020

284 pp., 28 x 14 cm., paperback

Edition size unknown

The bookwork This Is Not A Gun is the third component of a work that also includes a public workshop with collaborators from around the USA and a series of wood carvings begun in 2016. Each of the items were chosen because they were once used as justification for police officers shooting an unarmed civilian. The items include a flashlight, a hairbrush, a wrench, a broomstick, a bible, a submarine sandwich, and so on. 

The book gathers contributions from 40 artists, writers, healers, and activists who each respond to 40 objects that police officers have mistaken for guns when perceived through the lens of racism and power.  It includes a foreword by Cara Levine and an introduction by Elena Gross. Contributors include: Kemi Adeyemi, Jessica Angima, Sampada Aranke, Quenton Baker, Shamell Bell, Gregory Boyle, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Elizabeth Dorbad, Amanda Eicher, Ekaette Ekong, Guillermo Galindo, Faye Gleisser, Sonia Guiñansaca, Angela Hennessy, Constance Hockaday, Jessica Ingram, Kate Johnson, Chris Johnson, Christopher Johnson, Ann Lewis, Rodney Lucas, Eliza Myrie, Keni Nooner, Kambui Olujimi, sidony o’neal, Candice Price, Kirat Randhawa, Will Rawls, Joshua Ross, Bayeté Ross-Smith, Emilia Shaffer-Del Valle, Jadelynn Stahl, Ashley Stull Meyers, Khadija Tarver, Jade Thacker, Prophet Walker, Leila Weefur, Amir Whitaker, Marvin K. White, and Christine Wong Yap.

"This book was planned to arrive in 2020 long before the pandemic and before these much-needed social uprisings. Nevertheless, something profound happened to America after the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and too many others. Many in our nation who had turned a blind eye for the decades previous, were spurred to act, and finally could not deny the systematic oppression and violence enacted on the People of Color in this country. Like many in this fight, I am eager to see institutional and sweeping change. As for our project, it feels like we have a moment to seize here, where America might be listening. And in that moment, I hope to insert this book of care and diligence, of creative force and collective power."

- Cara Levine