Art

Black History Month: Art at Fisk University Galleries

NASHVILLE PRIDE — For Black History Month, visit the art galleries at one of the world’s greatest educational institutions, Nashville’s own historic Fisk University.

Published

6 years ago

February 26, 2019

Oakland Post

By Cass Teague

For Black History Month, visit the art galleries at one of the world’s greatest educational institutions, Nashville’s own historic Fisk University. Their 2019 exhibitions and programs reflect the long and rich history of Fisk University’s impact within the Arts both past and present. Three exhibitions run through March 19, 2019, before giving way to new ones for the Spring.

-SCAPE: 20th-century African-American Artists Inspired by the Built Environment, is located on the upper level of the Carl Van Vechten Gallery. This exhibition features works by Walter Williams, Stephanie Pogue, Aaron Douglas, Romare Bearden, Beauford Delaney, Richard Hunt, Sam Middleton, Leon Hicks, and others alongside Hughie Lee Smith’s The Walls, 1954, on loan from Art Bridges.

The Prophet’s Library Vol. II, is a solo exhibition of works by Wesley Clark. It is located on the lower level of the Carl Van Vechten Gallery. Built around a narrative construct of a curated private collection of objects, The Prophet’s Library unabashedly delves into dialogues concerning Black Americans in the only land they’ve known — yet a place hard to call home.

“Identity and reparations are two prominent recurring themes<“ says Clark. “Reparations delineates reconciliation of what is owed Black Americans to be a regular and prominent thought leading toward action in American society. Identity responds to my recognition of how intentionally the Black image has been co-opted & distorted; the devastating effects of those actions; and the need to counter those maneuvers. Each mingles with economics, government, value of life, and history, intertwined and layered throughout the individual works creating a subtle yet well-established thread between the objects.:
Echoes of the Harlem Renaissance, curated by Fisk Museum Leadership Program students Genevieve Antoine, Zakiyya Beasley, Ambar Gonzalez, Taryn Nurse, Stephane Prieto Ponce, Robert Riojas, ArJae Thompson, Michael Marie Thomas, Dominique Williams, and Jordan Wright, is on view at the Aaron Douglas Gallery (third floor of the Franklin Library). Fisk Museum Leadership Program students curated this exhibition during their orientation week, selecting works from the Fisk permanent collection by Henry O. Tanner, David Driskell, William H. Johnson, Malvin Gray Johnson, and others.

In the year 2019, Fisk will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Carl Van Vechten Gallery, 75th anniversary of Fisk University’s Department of Art, and 90th anniversary of the Spring Arts Festival with two new shows opening this spring: 615 North + Artists in Residence 1888-2019: Fisk Faculty & Alumni Show. These two exhibitions will reflect the long and rich history of Fisk University’s impact within the Arts both past and present.

With support from the Fisk University administration, faculty and students, community, and Friends of the Gallery, over the last 3 years they have opened 15 exhibitions, recruited and trained over 60 Gallery Ambassadors, welcomed over 20,000 visitors from across the world, and developed and sustained partnerships with museums, academic and community organizations. Their team has also given over 50 talks and participated in panels and conversations in the United States and abroad. Fisk University Galleries has been fortunate to secure funding from the Tennessee Arts Commission, Walton Family Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Andy Warhol Foundation, among others.

This article originally appeared in the Nashville Pride.

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Activism

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

1 month 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

2 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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Art

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

2 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.