Sydney Jackson ‘Just as much to celebrate’
After helping to organize rallies following the police murder of George Floyd, Sydney Jackson is shifting their social-injustice protest focus from large-scale events to the more personal, and from expressions of outrage to what they hope will be a joyful healing.
“The protests were very, very, just draining — not wholly in a bad sense — but they were just so emotionally demanding,” said the 22-year-old, who grew up in Oak Park.
“What became very evident to me was that while it is important to still assemble protests in a space for people to come together and voice their anger, it is 100% also a form of protest to try to now assemble some of these people who have been harmed by everything that’s going on in the world to try to come together in a positive light, in a moment of happiness, in a moment of healing,” said Jackson, who is nonbinary and uses they/them and she/her pronouns.
As Jackson put it on their Facebook page, a main focus this summer will be “organizing free outdoor events to embrace BLACK JOY & DANCE & MOVEMENT & LOVE … Celebrating such radical self love THROUGH DANCE despite racism, sexism, etc. is one of the most powerful things I know how to do.”
These events will be happening as Jackson this summer finishes up their University of Chicago degree, a double major in anthropology and comparative race and ethnic studies.
Alongside the social upheaval, the pandemic was a defining factor for Jackson, who shares an apartment with their sister, a DePaul student. “We’ve just been in Zoom school,” said Jackson. “It’s a means to an end for finishing. But at this point, it’s like what is even school anymore?”
Jackson hopes for a clearer, more in-person answer to that question in the future. “I am applying to grad school at Northwestern for their doctoral performance studies program,” they said. “And as much as it sounds silly, I really do kind of foresee myself branding as like a multidisciplinary artist-activist here in Chicago.”
On the near horizon, Jackson is excited about their scaled-down, upbeat approach. “As much as I think of protests as, you know, signs and banners,” they said, “I also think it’s just as important to bring people together and try to be in spaces that really only focus on us being happy too. Because as much as we have stuff to protest, we also have just as much to celebrate.”