Say Their Names is the culmination of several months of collaboration among freelance designers, independent artists, and staff of the Public Theater. The intention: to memorialize Black lives lost to police violence in the United States over the past eight years and to also respond to those losses with visual art.  

Chanted by protesters, “Say Their Names” has become an anthem in the #BlackLivesMatter Movement, calling us to remember lives ended too soon. 

Running more than five and a half hours, the projections include the names of more than 2,100 victims of police killings, along with specific details of their lives and deaths, in an attempt to illustrate the devastating effect that routine violence has on Black families and the Black community.

The compiled list drew names from two major sources: the website "Mapping Police Violence" and The Washington Post’s "Police Shootings Database." Information gathered from these well-researched sites informed the details we chose to include about victims. Once sentences were composed, a team cross-checked names, dates of death and other content against news articles and obituaries in the hopes of creating a complete and accurate list. The list will continue to be updated for as long as the installation runs.

Say Their Names is dedicated to the individuals memorialized here and to the names we do not know.