>I just wanted to talk about what black art does, I think, from my perspective
or what it can do, particularly when we talk about issues around
race and other intersectional ideas around identity.
The idea of an afrofuture or black space in the future is really a radicalized idea
particularly when you think about the amount of racialized violence that is
traditionally happened to black people in America.
And also, the systemic imprisonment of people of color because of the prison-industrial complex.
There has been a huge push back, I think, artistically, both poetically...
It's poets and practitioners from various standpoints of the Arts
who are also organizing on the ground, but using science fiction, fantasy, horror:
these different pop culture references, but through an afro-centric lens.
And I can see that that is going to be a put a even more powerful space.
>I grew up in a primarily white community
and I didn't have a good understanding of diverse backgrounds.
So one of the first classes that I took on campus was a visual theory class
and it really opened me up to feminism, black art, and all these different topics
and really understanding different cultures and understanding that.
So going more in depth into the black art discussion with John Jennings was really a
transformative experience, because you get to understand that there is a completely different
discussion happening in a black art sense as opposed to a regular art production
and how we view black artists and their artwork.
>As someone who's not part of the art field, I consider all art just to be art.
I don't consider- I didn't really think about things like feminist art or black art or all these
different types of subcategories. But the first thing that struck me
was when we spoke about how black art is something of some form of rebellion.
It can lead to you empowering not only other people of color but also showing that
to show these different opinions and express these different things and still have it be effective.
>The reason why I decided to talk about black art was
prompted a little bit by some of the issues that jumped off with Ashley Powell's art compliance piece
also known as the "whites only blacks only" signage.
One of things I thought was really interesting was the...
Let's say, I want to say that- not that illiteracy is the right word, but the lack of connection to black/feminin politics
as illustrated through protest art and different things of that nature.
And to me, a lot of the conversations that were happening around
this piece or these ideas were some things that have been discussed in the fifties.
>In regards to the "white only black only" art project on campus
I actually disagreed with the speaker, in this case.
When we talk about how the conversation was something that was more with the
African-American population on campus, and how they felt that it was something that needed to address
but I actually think it had a decent impact on the people that aren't of color on campus
and it made them think more about how it was just a small thing.
It didn't really invoke real racism but
to the extent that it did, it just brought up so much conversation that
everyone had to reconsider what these small acts or what we think are the small acts
and how they actually affect everyone else on campus.
And I think it definitely had a bigger role in showing that, not only to the people of color on campus, but
also to people aren't of color and making all of us understand how
even the smallest simple thing like a label could have such a big impact
and create such conversational and controversy.
>To a certain degree, black images of black people in a particular space is already protest art.
We're not necessarily supposed to be here.
Someone from my generation wasn't supposed to exist now.
I always reference myself as a unicorn because the space that I was coming up in
black males in an urban space were not supposed to live past 25 years old.
That was our life expectancy.
So to me, people of color in those spaces are already performing particular type of art.
When Black Lives Matter, as a space, is doing this disruption of someone's dinner or a speech
they are using the power of the text of the black body to make a statement, a political statement.
And so, I think that really really good black art
uses blackness, not only has an identity, but as a medium.
The medium itself, of race, becomes very powerful.
>All these artists who are trying to portray these messages I have to give more recognition to because
now I see a little bit more of their side, and I see a little bit more of what they're actually trying to portray
and how they're trying to fight back against these bigger schemes
with only using their two hands and a pen or paper or a pencil or a paintbrush.
Just all these different ways that I wouldn't have considered before.
Where now I have to actually consider it and I can tell other people about it.
Understanding the image, trying to understand what the artist is trying to convey...
Once you can grasp those things that's when the uneasiness sort of floats away.
You can understand what they're trying to say,
and then, from there, you begin to become more comfortable with it and you want to find out
what else is in there, what else are they hiding?
Because now that understood that one piece or what I interpreted that one part of it...
I will still feel uneasy, yes, but I'll have an easier time trying to understand what
was going on and I have an easier time looking at it the second or the third or even the fourth time around.
>I hope that the students who attended tonight will take away
parts of American heritage, parts of like the
sometimes unwritten history of racial politics in America, because I think that is part of what
I think what black art is supposed to do is to push back against these particular types of oppressive spaces.
There seems to be some serious issues in the fabric of our country around race
and I think that art has always been a really powerful
cultural production to deal with you know those types of issues.
And I hope that the students get that they also have a voice and that they can
utilize those types of tactics and to talk about these things actively.
>There wasn't a lot of diversity in the room but I think that that really stems from
the idea of people want to talk about things that actually impact themselves.
They want to talk about something that makes sense to them.
So for me, that outlet was through art and that's how I came to the discussion.
Art definitely has the ability to draw people together.
>I would say to the white students who didn't come, that they missed a part of themselves.
Because black history, black art, it's all American art.
This is our history together.
And one of things that always bothers me about February
and these spaces is this segregation.
This is our story together whether you like it or not. America is a very complex and
beautiful space, and some things we want to talk about, but as a black artist
it's part of my charge to do that.
And I train the students that I work with, whether whatever
issues they have to always speak truth to power
and actually talk about these issues because
they have to come out one way or the other.