‘You Sang Off Key is an installation weaving personal, historical, and educational narrative together for a varied look at the relationship between the voter and the vote. The name is pulled from a story about my grandmother experiencing voter discrimination in Mississippi as a Black woman. When trying to vote in the 1960s, she was requested to sing The Star-Spangled Banner and then denied her right to vote for singing “off key.” Her journey to becoming an honored civil rights activist is visually expressed by digital art on large velvet banners. Elements such as a newspaper and an old decommissioned ballot box in chains are placed throughout. Through the exploration of these components, viewers are asked to reflect on their own feelings about voting.’ –Brianna Harlan
