Social justice and racial inequality have been a big talking point this year for good reason. Comparisons have been made between now and the 1960s when the Civil Rights movement was in full effect. However, the very fact that the comparisons are being made, means that we haven’t made as much progress in these areas as we would like. A new art exhibit in the FADS building on campus illustrates this point.
(Tonia Hughes) “So, itself, it’s entitled #1960Now. Again, it’s by Sheila Pree Bright, and what she’s doing in this work is connecting what was happening during the Civil Rights day with what is still happening now with Black Lives Matter movement. And the way that she does that formally is that she has portraits that she has taken of leaders from the Civil Rights day that are still alive and then also portraits of the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement, the Dreamers movement, things like that that are going on now.”
(Solomon Webb) “I like the paintings that were on the floor because the paintings symbolize that we need to stop this hatred and separation and division in our country, in order to do better, we must be better individually and then grow collectively to strive for better.”
(Hughes) “She also had included an installation where there was a black strip of chalkboard paint around the gallery and viewers were invited to use white chalk and respond to the work on the chalkboard. So, we also installed a similar kind of installation in the vestibule of the building where there’s a wall that’s painted with black chalkboard paint and viewers are invited to write on the chalkboard and respond to the work on the chalkboard.”
(Chance Fortune) “I wrote a quote that always moves me by James Baldwin {} And he said, “The country to which you have pledged allegiance has not pledged allegiance to you.””
(DJ Jordan) “”No matter how big a nation is, it is no stronger than its weakest people” and it was a quote for Marian Anderson.”
(Webb) “So, the quote from Martin Luther King Jr. that I wrote on the board was “Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.” And the reason why I wrote that because even though because in our country day, we were experiencing love, darkness and hatred. The more we strive to go for strive to fight for the light, which is like love, peace and equality, we’ll be able to change that darkness that we’ve experienced this year and hope for a brighter and better future next year in the years to come.”
If you want to go see the exhibit, it will be up at the FADS building until November 23. The woman who originally made this exhibit, Sheila Pree Bright, as well as another artist who deals with inequality, Wendy Redstar, will be coming to the college via Zoom for a public meeting as well as a private meeting for JCCC faculty, students, and staff on November 19th. You can find the link to the public event in the description below. For the Campus Ledger, I’m Landen Fields.