Art

Artist Shanequa Gay’s Immersive Ode to West End Extended

THE BURTON WIRE — Artist Shanequa Gay’s immersive, site-specific exhibition LIT WITHOUT SHERMAN celebrates Atlanta’s historic West End neighborhood. Integrating a mix of mediums, the exhibit includes murals painted onto the museum walls, specially designed toile schema wallpaper, and interactive video vignettes which tell West End stories. The exhibit has been so popular, with many patrons visiting several times, that it has been extended. LIT WITHOUT SHERMAN: A Love Letter To The West End will be on view through December 22, 2019 at Hammonds House Museum, 503 Peeples Street SW, Atlanta, GA 30310.

Published

6 years ago

October 7, 2019

Oakland Post

Artist: Shanequa Gay (Photo by: Hammonds House Museum)

By The Burton Wire

Atlanta, GA – Artist Shanequa Gay’s immersive, site-specific exhibition LIT WITHOUT SHERMAN celebrates Atlanta’s historic West End neighborhood. Integrating a mix of mediums, the exhibit includes murals painted onto the museum walls, specially designed toile schema wallpaper, and interactive video vignettes which tell West End stories. The exhibit has been so popular, with many patrons visiting several times, that it has been extended. LIT WITHOUT SHERMAN: A Love Letter To The West End will be on view through December 22, 2019 at Hammonds House Museum, 503 Peeples Street SW, Atlanta, GA 30310.

“This exhibit is a collaboration,” states Gay. “Not only do I express my personal affection and feelings about the West End, but I worked with members of the community to help tell their stories. The neighborhood has a rich history and its residents include activists, artists, politicians, scholars and people from all walks of life.”

“As an artist my goal is to create works that are public and exchange based, explore current social and ethical issues, and focus on the experiences of African-Ascendant bodies and communities,” explains Gay. “Decorum is my weapon of choice as it is a language that can speak through various mediums such as paints, prints, fabric, dinnerware, and wallpaper. Our first human introductions to the world begin in the home through the lessons of the ‘homemaker.’ Women are the mothers, nurturers and preeminent storytellers of our community. In my work I use the ‘homemakers aesthetic’ as a way of introducing new, old, or mythological narratives. I am very excited about working in collaboration with Hammonds House Museum to integrate community and art making in such an authentic way.”

“LIT WITHOUT SHERMAN has resonated with our community, as well visitors from around the world,” states Leatrice Ellzy, Executive Director of Hammonds House Museum. “From the scenes depicting a local couple on a date, the welcoming image of the owner of Soul Vegetarian, to the homage to W.E.B. DuBois and HBCU’s located here in the West End, there are so many wonderful stories being shared.”

Shanequa Gay is an Atlanta native who completed her AA in Graphic Design and Fashion Marketing from the Art Institute of Atlanta, a BA in Painting from The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), summa cum laude, and her MFA in Art History at Georgia State University.

Gay was one of 10 artists selected for OFF THE WALL, a Mural initiative led by WonderRoot and the Atlanta 2018 Super Bowl Host Committee. In 2013, Gay was chosen by The Congressional Club to be the illustrator for the First Lady’s Luncheon hostess gift for First Lady Michelle Obama. Gay’s work includes television and film features in Lionsgate’s Addicted, the BET series Being Mary Jane and Zoe Ever After, and Greenleaf on Oprah Winfrey’s network, OWN.

Gay’s work has been featured at venues including Art Basel Miami (2018) and Chastain Arts Center in Atlanta, GA (2019). For more information, visit shanequagay.com.

This post was curated by Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D. Follow her on Twitter @Ntellectual.

Follow The Burton Wire on Instagram or Twitter @TheBurtonWire.

This article originally appeared in The Burton Wire.

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Griot Theater Company Presents August Wilson’s Work at Annual Oratorical Featuring Black Authors

The performance explores the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson whose 10-play Century Cycle chronicles the African American experience across the 20th century, with each play set in a different decade. “Half a Century” journeys through the final five plays of this monumental cycle, bringing Wilson’s richly woven stories to life in a way that celebrates history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Published

2 months ago

February 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Late playwright August Wilson. Wikipedia photo.

By Godfrey Lee

Griot Theater Company will present their Fifth Annual Oratorical with August Wilson’s “Half a Century,” at the Belrose on 1415 Fifth Ave., in San Rafael near the San Rafael Public Library.

The performance explores the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson whose 10-play Century Cycle chronicles the African American experience across the 20^th century, with each play set in a different decade. “Half a Century” journeys through the final five plays of this monumental cycle, bringing Wilson’s richly woven stories to life in a way that celebrates history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Previous performance highlighting essential Black American authors included Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Lorraine Hansberry with Langston Hughes.

The play will be performed at 3:00. p.m. on Feb. 20, 21, 22, 27, and 28 at 7:00 p.m., and on Feb. 23 at 3:00 p.m.

For more information, go to griottheatercompany.squarespace.com/productions-v2

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Activism

MLK Day of Service Volunteers Make Blankets and Art for Locals in Need

“Everyone has an opportunity to participate,” said Glenda Roberts, kinship support care program manager at CCYSB. “Our nonprofit organization and participants recognize how important it is to give back to the community and this is serving. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, ‘Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.’”

Published

3 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Photo courtesy of the nonprofit.

By Kathy Chouteau
The Richmond Standard

The Contra Costa Youth Service Bureau (CCYSB) and Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church (BMBC) are collaborating with a team of volunteers for a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, Monday, Jan. 20 that will wrap the community’s most vulnerable people in warm blankets and provide them with an uplifting gift of art.

Volunteers will kick off their activities at BMBC at 11 a.m., making blankets for the unhoused people served by the Greater Richmond Interfaith Program (GRIP) and art for those in convalescence in Richmond.

Others will get to work preparing a lunch of chili, salad, a veggie tray, and water for participants, offered courtesy of CCYSB, while supplies last.

“People of all ages are welcome to participate in the MLK Day of Service,” said Roberts. Volunteers can RSVP via phone to Glenda Roberts at 510-215-4670, ext. 125.

CCYSB Boardmember Jackie Marston and her friends donated the materials and supplies to make the blankets and art projects. The nonprofit is also providing the day’s complimentary lunch, as well as employees to volunteer, under the direction of CCYSB Executive Director Marena Brown.

BMBC, led by Rev. Dr. Carole McKindley-Alvarez, is providing the facility for the event and volunteers from the church, which is located at 684 Juliga Woods St. in Richmond.

Located in Richmond, CCYSB is a nonprofit youth advocacy organization that serves eligible children, youth, and low-income families with a variety of wraparound services so they can thrive. Programs include academic achievement, youth mentorship, truancy prevention and direct response.

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Vandalism at Richmond Ferry Terminal Saddens Residents

Residents have been lamenting the destruction online. Ellen Seskin posted photos of the vandalism to the Facebook group, Everybody’s Richmond, on Jan. 12, saying she encountered it while out on a walk. “It was on the sidewalk, the street, the doors to the ferry, even in the art installation and the ‘stone’ benches,” she said. “I reported it but knowing how slow they are about getting things done — I just know that the longer you leave graffiti, the more likely they are to spray it again.”

Published

3 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Graffiti mars the walkway at the Richmond Ferry Terminal. Photo by Kathy Chouteau, The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

“This is why we can’t have nice things,” stated the post on NextDoor.

The post referenced images of graffiti at the Richmond Ferry Terminal. Not just on the terminal, but also on public artwork, on trail signs, on public benches and the boardwalk.

On Wednesday, the Standard stopped by to see it for ourselves. The good news was that it appears the graffiti on the terminal and on the artwork, called Changing Tide, have been cleaned for the most part. But graffiti remained abundant in the area around the relatively new ferry terminal, which opened to the public just six years ago.

Graffiti artists tagged benches and the boardwalk. Cars that had done doughnuts in the street marked the cul-de-sac just outside the historic Craneway Pavilion.

A ferry worker told us the graffiti had been there since before he started working for the ferry service about a week ago.

A member of the Army Corps of Engineers who did not want to be named in this report called the scene “sad,” as “they’d done such a nice job fixing it up.”

“It’s sad that all this money has been spent and hoodlums just don’t care and are destroying stuff,” he said.

It wasn’t immediately clear how soon the graffiti would be removed. The Standard reported the graffiti to the city’s graffiti abatement hotline. We were prompted to leave a message reporting the address and location of the graffiti.

“It was on the sidewalk, the street, the doors to the ferry, even in the art installation and the ‘stone’ benches,” she said. “I reported it but knowing how slow they are about getting things done — I just know that the longer you leave graffiti, the more likely they are to spray it again.”

In the comment section responding to Seskin’s post, local attorney Daniel Butt questioned why there aren’t cameras in the area.

On Nextdoor, one resident suggested searching to see if the tags match any accounts on Instagram, hoping to identify the perpetrator.

On its website, the City of Richmond says residents should graffiti immediately call Public Works graffiti removal and/or Code Enforcement at 510-965-4905.

Kathy Chouteau contributed to this report.