This past semester, art students in Brett Colley’s class on printmaking, invited me to come talk about the Grand Rapids People’s History Project. The intent of the class was to have students investigate their own part of a People’s History of Grand Rapids and then make a print based upon an individual, social movement or a particular moment in history.

What we will be sharing from here on out over the next several weeks, are the result of what these students created, based on their own investigation or based on previous posting from the Grand Rapids People’s History Project. We are excited to have these newly created visuals to compliment the rich history of social movements from the resistance to white settler colonialism all the way up to the present.

The second print we feature is from Rachel Szegedy. This print, entitled White Lies, highlights the reality of White Settler Colonialism that is the foundation of history in West Michigan since the 1820s. Szegedy’s print is based on the theme of White Lies and several of the articles from the Indigenous Resistance section, such as More White Lies: Grand Rapids and Settler Colonialism and The Role of Church & State in Native Displacement in West MI : Settler Colonialism in Grand Rapids Part II. 

In addition, in our section on Lies Across Grand Rapids, which looks at historic markers in the area, we address several statues that build on the theme of White Lies, especially the statue of Catholic Bishop Baraga and the statue at GVSU’s downtown campus dedicated to Chief Noonday. 

Below is Rachel Szegedy’s print, White Lies.