It Takes a Nation: Art for Social Justice
WITH EMORY DOUGLAS, AND THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY, AFRICOBRA,
AND CONTEMPORARY WASHINGTON ARTISTS
Curated by Sandy Bellamy
September 6 through October 23, 2016
Courtesy of Emory Douglas, Artist Rights Society (ARS), NY. Photo courtesy of Art Resource, NY.
A panel discussion on The Creative Process of Bringing Truth to Power: The Art of the Black Panthers and AFRICOBRA.
Join us for a discussion with artists and scholars of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 70s. Panelists discuss the idea of activist art and the visual aesthetic strategies of the Black Panther Party and AFRICOBRA, including local perspectives from the Black Arts Movement.
Panelists include Akili Ron Anderson, James Phillips and Colette Gaiter.
EXHIBITION DESCRIPTION
In the Alper Initiative space, Washington artists respond to the graphics of Black Panther artist Emory Douglas with sculpture, paintings, photography and multi-media installations. The exhibition features Emory Douglas and Howard University colleagues and members of the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (“AFRICOBRA”): Jeff Donaldson, Akili Ron Anderson, James Phillips, Jay Jarrell and Wadsworth Jarrell. Collectively, they create a powerful lens to the socio-political landscape of the late 1960s and 70s that helps to visualize the 1967 Black Panther Party 10-point platform addressing issues of freedom, employment, economic exploitation, affordable housing, education, war, police brutality, prison, due process, and access. The exhibition also includes artists examining these same issues 50 years later within a contemporary context, including: Holly Bass, Wesley Clark, Jay Coleman, Larry Cook, Tim Davis, Jamea Richmond Edwards, Shaunte Gates, Jennifer Gray, Amber Robles Gordon, Njena Jarvis, Simmie Knox, Graham Patrick, Beverly Price, Sheldon Scott, Stan Squirewell and Hank Willis Thomas.
RELATED EVENTS
September 10, 6-9 pm: Early Fall Opening Reception
September 26, 6 pm: "All the Power to the People!" An Artist's Talk with Emory Douglas
September 29, 6-8 pm: Film Screening of The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.
October 8, 2-3:30 pm: Panel Discussion: The Creative Process of Bringing Truth to Power: The Art of the Black Panthers and AFRICOBRA.
Akili Ron Anderson, 2016, " Harriet Tubman - The Underground Railroad"