Promoting Systemic Change, Equity, Social Justice, & Community Engagemen...

Young Chicago artist makes history with pieces around the world, and a p...

Capital Region Creative Corps Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum

"Art is Business"

Our working title is "Tactical Urbanism Art in Placemaking."

Project activity will begin in December 2023 and be completed on September 30, 2024. 

FOCUS AREA: Social Justice and Community Engagement.

 

This program is a media outreach and engagement campaign. 

Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum will focus on Social Justice and Community Engagement.  

It is also an economic and workforce development program, demonstrating how artists from multiple disciplines can be instrumental in developing and implementing critical campaigns to address our most pressing community issues. 

This grant program intends to provide as broad a geographic reach as possible, serving all 58 counties in communities that demonstrate the highest levels of need as indicated by the California Healthy Places Index (HPI). Sub-grantee organizations should demonstrate strong, ongoing relationships with communities within the lowest quartile of the HPI and will support meaningful engagements with those communities through this grant. 

Presentation by Artist Artlisia Bibbs on Popup Research Station CAFE

"Art is Business" http://www.bibbsfineart.com/.

My Background

 Visual artist, Artlisia Bibbs, captures life's journey through bold, colorful expression.

Her Dadaism, Pop Art, and Figurative Art style involve creating "from the heart," letting her present moment of awareness form the process of creation.   

Artlisia is a native of Mississippi but has been proud to call our Nation's Capital, the metropolitan Washington DC area, home for the past 30 years. Surrounded by creative influences throughout her life, her mother, a crafter and artist, exposed her to the arts and creativity at a very young age.

Artlisia is a self-taught collage artist, painter, and sculptor who regularly creates privately commissioned color and theme-inspired works of art for clients like The Links, Inc.; Ingram Design Group; Michelle Bailey of Black Entertainment Television; John Houston of Whitney Houston Entertainment, and many others.

                                           My Inspiration

   Dadaism is my current inspiration. Dadaism is an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centers in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (c. 1916). Dada emerged on the New York art scene around 1915 and flourished in Paris during the 1920s. Dadaist activities lasted until the mid-1920s. 

Dadaism developed in reaction to World War I; the Dada movement consisted of artists who rejected modern capitalist society's logic, reason, and aestheticism, instead expressing nonsense, irrationality, and anti-bourgeois protest in their works. The art of the movement spanned visual, literary, and sound media, including collage, sound poetry, cut-up writing, and sculpture. In addition, dadaist artists expressed discontent toward violence, war, and nationalism and maintained political affinities with radical left-wing and far-left politics. 

Artists are the storytellers of their time. In this time of Post Trump, January 6th Commissions, and the overthrow of Roe vs. Wade, Dadaism inspired me to think outside the box in style and to keep a sense of humor during these very dark times in American history. I hope you enjoy each image as much as I enjoyed creating them. I laughed a lot. Enjoy...

Artlisia Bibbs Fine Arts    

A LOOK TO THE FUTURE

August 29, 2022, |Art and Activism

Community Conversation and Quilt Installation

"Art is Business"    https://www.chicagotextileweek.com/week-of-events/community-conversation-and-quilt-installation.

Blue Circles is a community art project developed by Amanda Christine Harth for her residency SAIC at Homan Square.

I visited this Community Conversation and Quilt Installation, and so glad I did. 

On Friday, September 30th, 2022, I joined an open-ended community conversation about Chicago's textile art and craft communities and their interrelating histories. 

What is Chicago's textile history, and what can we do to remember that history while creating its present and imagining its future?

This conversation occurred in Nichols Tower, part of Chicago's textile history. Once part of the original Sears, Roebuck & Company, the building now hosts the School of the Art Institute's Homan location. Several community quilts will be displayed during the conversation as a reminder of Chicago's rich quilting history and to link this gathering to the tradition of quilting circles as a community gathering, planning, and healing site. Featured quilts include A quilt from recent denim dying and quilting workshop participants at SAIC Homan, a "circle work" quilt made by Teen Creative Agency, and quilts from a local church.

Gatherings like quilting circles, sewing clubs, embroidery protests, and knitting collectives inspired this community conversation! So, in the spirit of those gatherings, bring your projects (knitting, crochet, embroidery, card weaving, quilt squares, fashion sketching, hand stitching, lace work--whatever!) to work on during the conversation. Some basic materials will be on hand if you don't have a project to bring. Then, CTW representatives and makers of the quilts on display will give brief opening remarks to set the stage for the remainder of the program.

RESOURCE: Sickler Welcome Blanket Kits, 2000 Miles of Warm

Sickler Welcome Blanket Kits, 2000 Miles of Warm Welcomeblanket.org, Making change with Art & Activism-Craftivism. Partnering with refugee resettlement agencies & immigrant aid groups to distribute blanks. 

Donating quilts to those in need of a warm welcome. What better way to welcome than a pretty, fun, and useful blanket? The need is great. 

Where are the blankets going?

Your blankets are helping three organizations:

THE IRC, our refugee resettlement partner, works with asylum seekers who have been released from detention.

Miry's List a movement dedicated to welcoming new arrival refugee families.

Catholic Charities USA, aiding in their Helping at the Boarder program.

Learn More:

The IRC: https://www.rescue.org/topic/seeking-safety-border

Miry's List: https://miryslist.org/

Catholic Charities USA: https://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/story/helping-at-the-border/

The Welcome Blanket: https://www.welcomeblanket.org/welcome-note

Bronzeville Artist Lofts Present ON-DEMAND DANCE

"Art is Business"

Bronzeville Artist Lofts   Open Studio featured resident dancer- Imania Fatima Detry, “On Demand!”  Come dance with Imani!!!.. In class, you will go on a journey through the beginning of the traditional West African movement and how it relates to the contemporary music played now. Imani has been expanding on her choreography with fusing styles that include Djembe and Doun Dance, Sabar, House, Chicago Footwork, and Afrobeat.

With over 20 years of professional training and performance with Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago as a principal artist and as the Assistant Artistic Director of Ayodele Drum and Dance, she truly enjoys and works in the efforts to preserve African dance and culture as well as share her current experiences and style in her teaching and performing. 

https://lucky-plush-productions.myshopify.com/collections/afro-house-with-imania-fatima-detry

Spoken word artist Binkey, aka Lawrence Tolefree, will host a three-part series on BEATNIKS giving a platform to discuss these critical issues from the perspective of African dance forms.  This can help a person deal with emotional conflicts, become aware of issues, and express unspoken concerns. 

Bronzeville Art Tours. Music therapy is another tool to relieve stress and anxiety and is often played loudly in space activations and activities here at the Bronzeville Artist Lofts, where each collaborative art partner resides.

Event Description; Bronzeville Art District Trolley Tour, August 19th, 2022, 6PM- Bronzeville Artist Lofts, 436 E. 47th Street.

STILL SEARCHING Art Exhibit - by Artist Damon Lamar Reed

"Art is Business" Join artist Damon Lamar Reed in his quest to bring missing Black women in Chicago home through the Still Searching project. Bit.ly/still_searching

 STILL SEARCHING Art Exhibit - The Artisan Collective - South Shore Chamber of Commerce by Artist Damon Lamar Reed

About this event

This Black History Month, experience a vivid series of portraits of missing Black women and girls in the Chicagoland area at the Still Searching exhibit by Damon Lamar Reed, a prolific Chicago hip-hop artist, and muralist.

On February 25, between 6pm - 9pm, join to learn more about this project, raising awareness about missing black women in Chicago. See the portraits and then catch a sneak peek of the upcoming documentary on the project, which has received funding from Hulu through the Hulu/Kartemquin Accelerator Program.

This event is free to the public with a suggested donation of $10 per attendee. Proceeds from prints, raffles, and donations will go to the Still Searching project to support public artwork that raises awareness of missing women in Chicago.

Refreshments will be served.

About Damon Lamar Reed

There's truth to the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. Artist Damon Lamar Reed brings that truth to reality. From hip-hop to public art, he strives to create messages that reach the depth of the human condition.

After graduating from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Damon began his career as an artist and entrepreneur. To date, he has created over 280 public art projects, including works for Super Bowl 46, Showtime(The Chi), Gatorade, the Chicago Blackhawks, Ticketmaster, and Sears, to name a few. His work is featured in books such as Kym Pinders', Painting the Gospel: Public Art and Religion in Chicago. During the George Floyd riots, the BBC featured Damon's art's impact; recently, News Nation, ABC, CBS, WGN, and NBC featured him because of his latest series, Still Searching, where he paints portraits of missing women in Chicagoland. He is also filming a documentary with the same name backed by Hulu, Kartemquin Films, and Still, I Rise Films.

“What is Racial Justice?” Closing

"Art is Business" Fran Joy Artist/Curator/Life Coach

We will have a guest speaker, a psychologist, Dr. Litesa Wallace, and former running mate to mayor Daniel Biss when he ran for governor. She will speak on the current racial climate and its psychological impact.

This has been a significant exhibit. Please let me know if you can make it by replying to this email. I look forward to seeing you all again soon. Also, there have been requests from various sources for a closing event for the "What is Racial Justice?" Exhibit.

I want to thank Angela Allyn, the Noyes curator, for this opportunity to make it happen. I hope that you all will be able to attend. It has been an honor to have you all participate. People are still coming to view the exhibit, and some have returned to see it again and brought others, including curators from the Block Museum and a class of Northwestern students.rtists,

We started this with an opening on “What is Racial Justice?” What does it mean? What does it look like? How do we get there?

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere!” MLK Jr

We opened with featured guest speaker, Jude Laude, former school board member, speaking on Haiti and we raised $1080 for the relief effort at the border. We closed with featured speaker, Dr Litesa Wallace, former IL State Rep, speaking on the impact of the current racial climate. Both were educational, informative and moving.

I would like to say that we closed also at this time period with a clear, historic and rare example in America of what racial justice is and how we get there, with the “guilty" verdict of three men in the south who hunted down and killed an innocent man for the color of his skin. 

My heart felt thank you goes out to all the participating artists who answered the call with varied expressions of what it all means.

The exhibit received a lot of buzz, visits, repeat visits and praise and made me humbled and proud as a curator. Mayor Biss visited with his family, Block curators came and took pics, Northwestern classes came through and many others.

Thanks also to the artists who donated prints for the silent auction and those who gave artist talks at the closing. It’s always inspiring to hear more from the artists about their work.

I hope we find more collaborations in the future, because art crosses boundaries and constructs.

Take care and have a safe and joyful season!

Curator Fran Joy Presents "What is Racial Justice?"

"Art is Business"

"LIFE" Young Brides- Children 1936 – 1941

Radical justice and women's rights movement beginning with child brides.

24" x 24"

Mixed media collage mixed media, acrylic, crayon, nail polish, lacquer.

"LIFE" Young Brides- Children 1936 – 1941, 24" x 24", Collage mixed media, acrylic, crayon, nail polish, lacquer.

Finding these images for this collage on the museum board was purely random. I was looking through a box of vintage LIFE Magazines dated 1936-1941. I selected these images because they were used in an article captioned "The Age of Parenthood Declines as Young Girls Marry." The content was disturbing to me. I turned the pages of history and saw how disturbed the moral needle was in the United States during this era.

The creation of "Social Experiments" and "Child Protection Laws" buried in the Social Security Disability laws, only after animal rights. During this era, we were a country at war. These wartime childhood images come from original pages of LIFE, emotionless, blank stares, wondering what happens behind the blankness. 

05/17/1937, "Dionne Quintuplets" were not protected by these laws; they were exploited by the Canadian Government and their father. Incest is the biggest taboo in our civilized society. Even a Judge from Florida is being charged for subjecting youth to years of abuse to support his lavish lifestyle at the expense of systematic abuse to hundreds of children. The American Government encouraging child brides, in wartime, with images of junior mothers a media campaign that messages images of the culture of young brides.

These images are collaged around a little black girl playing in the streets refreshed and cleansed, unaware, or maybe aware that things are black and white. Her caption "Street Shower."

"Trends in Premarital Childbearing: 1930 to 1994," a study of U.S. Census figures has shown that the percentage of first births conceived out of wedlock almost tripled and was far more significant for African American community. 

What is your vision of it?

International Day of the Girl Child, also known as International Day of the Girl, is a United Nations observance held on October 11. It was officially inaugurated by UN General Assembly in December 2011 to recognize girls' rights and raise awareness of girls' challenges.

Globally, 1 in 3 women will experience gender-based violence in her lifetime. In the developing world, 1 in 7 girls is married before her 15th birthday, with some child brides as young as 8 or 9. Adolescent girls have the right to a safe, educated, and healthy life, not only during these critical formative years but also as they mature into women. 

How do we get there? Radical feminists speak out and organize against violence against women and change the narratives.

"LIFE" Young Brides- Children 1936 – 1941, 24" x 24", Collage mixed media, acrylic, crayon, nail polish, lacquer.

The first time I presented this painting was in 2013,  in response to "Which Way Our Children." In this group exhibition, 13 African American Artists reflected on our children and their future in America.  I left the images black and white to speak of times of a very dark period in our history. Now looking at that history nearly a century later. 

The Noyes Cultural Arts Center, owned by the City of Evanston, is a lively home to over 20 artists and arts organizations offering music, theater, and visual arts programs and studios, comprising a full stage seating 190 people and two galleries. The galleries exhibit local artists, with exhibitions changing every two months. This historic building is home to many arts organizations and artists.

PRESENT/BREATH: PARTICIPATORY DRAWING/PERFORMANCE ACTION September 5th, 2021

"Art is Business"https://www.evanstonartcenter.org/events/presentbreath-participatory-drawingperformance-action

PRESENT/BREATH: PARTICIPATORY DRAWING/PERFORMANCE ACTION

 

Date

Sun, 09/05/2021 - 01:00 PM - Sun, 09/05/2021 - 02:00 PM

Two event participants

Sunday, September 5 at 1pm | Register Today!

Let's look at one another again - freed from Zoom screens and lonely living rooms. Let’s see each other as humans in the three-dimensional wild.

Come and join 10-min participatory drawing actions. Community performance artist Petra Kuppers invites people to create surreal contour drawings of one another, of dancing participants, and of quietly meditating ones. All materials provided, zero drawing experience necessary, grounded in disability culture values.

Enjoy spending a few minutes to look deeply at and witness another human being.

Register today. This event is free and open to the public.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

EITHER WRONG OR RIGHT JUST EXAMINE

"Art is Business"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/either-wrong-or-right-just-examine-curatorial-fellowship-2021-

JOIN US: RSVP- 1pm - 4pm, with Virtual Artist Talk 2pm - 3pm

ARTISTIC VISION FOR CURATED EXPERIENCES AT 

EVANSTON ART CENTER. 

Our artistic vision entails an intergenerational curatorial practice that seeks to provide a model for emerging and established curators to innovate in curating inclusive experiences, gain practical curating experience, and critically reflect on how their curatorial style will imprint on the Evanston community and the world. Four exhibitions, each running two weeks, on how artists examine the state of their environment in society through themes of Racism, Spirituality, Documentation, and Art as Wellness

A call for diverse artists (i.e. Women, People of Color, LGBTQIA, and Disabled Artists) to provide works that reflect each theme, ensuring experiences are accessible, inclusive, and educational for all people with visible/invisible disabilities.

Bruton and Adero’s artistic vision entails an intergenerational curatorial practice

that seeks to provide a model for emerging and established curators to innovate

in curating inclusive experience, gaining practical curating experience, and critically

reflect on how their curatorial style will imprint on the Evanston community and

the world. In four exhibitions, each running two weeks, exhibiting artists will

examine the state of their environment in society through themes of Racism,

Spirituality, Documentation, and Art as Wellness.

7@7: Black Artists & their Art with Seven [UK], Curators Rose Cannon & Alpha Bruton

Rose Cannon of Rose Cannon Gallery facilitated the discussion. 

7@7: Black Artists & their Art with Seven [UK]; Curators Rose Cannon & Alpha Bruton & Artists Baz@ Cumberbatch; David Niari; David Anthony Geary; Sholo Beverly; William Kwahmena-poh

WATCH ON EXOPOLITICSTV https://youtu.be/BlkwdO07y18

WATCH ON TRUE TUBE.CO: https://newsinsideout.com/2020/07/77-black-artists-their-art-with-seven-uk-curators-rose-cannon-alpha-bruton-artists-baz-cumberbatch-david-niari-david-anthony-geary-sholo-beverly-william-kwahmena-poh/

WATCH LIVE July 25, 2020 STREAMING ON Exopolitics TV: https://youtu.be/C7XEjz9yrTw

Black Artists show their Art:

Black Artists: https://www.evanstonartcenter.org/black-lives-matter

Black Artists: https://www.evanstonartcenter.org/exhibitions

Rose Cannon: Facebook.com/CannonFineArtGallery/

Alpha Bruton: https://alphabrutonartprojects.blogspot.com/

Baz: http://www.bazmauiart.com

Alpha Bruton: https://www.blogtalkradio.com/phantomgallerychicago/2020/07/21/soulwork-a-conversation-with-william-kwamena--poh-part-2​

David Anthony: http://www.Davidanthonyart.com

David Niari: www.davidniari.com

Launched in December 2014, NewsInsideOut.com has begun its mission to expose a media-built matrix of fabrications being promoted against the public interest.

Backed by a cooperative of Truth journalists citing contractual rights to mainstream access, NewsInsideOut.com offers investigative reporting, news, and opinions turning the matrix of manufactured consensual reality inside out. In addition, reports from the site deconstruct memes (evolutionary principles in the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena) whose ongoing production was identified as a de facto mission of the current mainstream.

NewsInsideOut.com represents a deliberate attempt to ensure that news from Truth movement journalists such as Jon Kelly and Alfred Lambremont Webre reaches a more comprehensive public arena in the mainstream media. Both Kelly and Webre have defined current YouTube, Facebook, and website presences known throughout the awakened communities. The NewsInsideOut.com site is focused on professional news publishing operations providing grounds for digital syndication (how stories enter mainstream news outlets including radio, newspapers, and television.

NewsInsideOut.com interviews and articles further our journalistic mission and protection from governmental interference under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms of the Canadian Constitution, and the Magna Carta (UK). They are an absolute prohibition and bar to any imposition, criminal, equitable, common law, admiralty law, civil to NewsInsideOut.com‘s publication of actual facts.

Sojourner Truth: The Forgotten History of the Slave Who Fought For Women's Rights

"Art is Business"  https://www.sojoartsmuseum.org/about

The Phantom Gallery Chicago Network has sustained during the COVID-19 Pandemic, due to the support of the SOJO Art Museum, one of the Phantom's network partners. Shonna McDaniel's has worked with me over the years, from 1990 founding member of Celebration Arts Visual Arts, 1995 to one of the co-founders of Visual Arts Development Project. She started her museum project in 1999.

Shonna McDaniels, a visual artist, and community activist, envisioned an institution to preserve Black history and celebrate the accomplishments of African American people and their legacy. As a result, the previous name of Sojourner Truth Multicultural Art Museum changed to Sojourner Truth African American Museum. We offer resources to document, preserve, and educate the public on the history, life, and culture of African Americans.

                            Parent and Founding Board Director Ollie McDaniel's and Shonna McDaniels  

From the archives of the Resistance Library: Unsung Heroes The Forgotten History of the Slave Who Fought For Women's Rights 

 Sojourner Truth: The Forgotten History of the Slave Who Fought For Women's Rights Sojourner Truth was a lot of things. She was a slave. A mother. A wife. An activist. A preacher. A woman who wasn’t afraid to stand up for what she believed in, regardless of the consequence. A woman who spoke her mind, even when everyone around her disagreed. Filled with such courage and bravery, she could see the potential of liberty for all, even when faced with adversities far worse than people see today. 

Sojourner Truth was never a victim of circumstances, even though they were bleak for much of her life. When life knocked her down, she’d get back up, ready to fight again. She lived by her own standard, even though it was considered radical. She didn’t care. She was here to speak her truth, which she never failed to do. Even her self-given name says as much. 

“Sojourner” means “to stay awhile,” combined with Truth. To stay awhile in truth. To stand in truth. Many would say that’s exactly how she spent her life. 

  Sojourner Truth: From Slavery to Freedom Sojourner Truth was brought into this world a slave named Isabella Baumfree around 1797. Born on a plantation about 95 miles north of New York City, Belle only spoke Dutch until she was nine years old when she was sold, along with a herd of sheep, for $100. She would be sold two more times by the age of 13, when she found herself owned by John Dumont and his second wife, Elizabeth. The truth was not treated well as a slave and would recall her owners as cruel and punitive. At 18, she fell in love with a slave boy named Robert, who was owned by a neighbor. When his owner found out the boy was in a relationship with a slave from a different master, he was severely beaten, and Truth never saw him again. It’s believed that her first child, James, may have been Robert’s. Her second child, Diana, is most likely the result of rape by Dumont. Truth birthed three other children to Thomas, a slave she eventually married, who was also owned by Dumont. 

 In 1826, the year Dumont told her he’d grant her freedom, then refused, Truth took her youngest child who was still an infant and left the Dumont estate, escaping from slavery. Years later, when talking of the event, Truth said, “I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be alright.” Two years later, when Dumont unlawfully sold Truth’s son, Peter, she took him to court. Truth became the first black woman to win a case against a white man and gained custody of her son. 

 She spent the next decade working as a housekeeper and servant, and in 1843, Isabella Baumfree had a religious experience. She converted to Methodism and changed her name to Sojourner Truth. She moved from the city and devoted her life to serving God through preaching about the abolition of slavery and equal rights for women. In 1844, she joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, a self-sufficient religious and abolition group that lived on over 470 acres, raising livestock and running a sawmill, gristmill, and silk factory. 

While there, she met many heroes within the abolition movement, including William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and David Ruggles. Sojourner Truth: A Radical Among Radicals At six feet tall, Truth stood out in a crowd, but it wasn’t just for her height. She was a woman who said what she thought and what she believed in without reserve. 

She gave her first anti-slavery speech in 1845 in New York City and was soon considered one of the most inspiring speakers of the era. In 1851, Truth gave her most famous speech, entitled “Ain’t I a Woman?” at the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. Although it’s held in esteem today, the speech is surrounded by controversy. Given extemporaneously, the speech focused on not just being black, but on being a woman, something that was unusual even amongst abolitionists, who only focused on the rights of black men, not black women. The original speech was reprinted in two different local newspapers, and the phrase “Ain’t I a Woman?” wasn’t recounted in either one. But 12 years later, in a transcription published by Frances Dana Barker Gage, the speech had changed. “Ain’t I a woman?” appeared four times and the whole speech had a southern feel. This was odd, given that Truth was from New York and Dutch was her first language. 

But a southern dialect fit the narrative that was being created at the time, and after multiple publications of the speech by Gage, the modified version has stood the test of time. Truth’s advocation of rights for not just blacks, but women – and even black women – was considered radical, even in her circle. She was ostracized among the abolitionists, although she did remain friends with others within the equal rights movements, including Susan B. Anthony. 

 Perhaps it was also her unorthodox and no-BS attitude that made her unliked. At one speech in 1858, after being ridiculed and called a man, Truth revealed her breasts to the crowd to prove her womanhood. Sojourner Truth: Fighting Through the War and Beyond When the Civil War broke out, Truth did what she could to help the cause. She recruited black men to fight for the Union, and her grandson even enlisted and served in the 54th Massachusetts regiment. Truth started working for the National Freedman’s Relief Association in 1864, which led her to meet with President Abraham Lincoln regarding the needs of black people in America. 

 After the war, Truth fought to secure the promised land grants (40 acres and a mule) for t was unsuccessful in her attempts. She continued to fight for equal rights for both blacks the black men who fought in the war. She even met with President Ulysses Grant in 1870 brand women until she died of infected leg ulcers on November 26, 1883. Nearly blind and almost deaf, Truth spent her life fighting for what she believed in, regardless of the cost. 

Sojourner Truth: A Legacy Although Truth saw the 13th Amendment passed, she did not live to see women granted equal rights. Even so, Sojourner Truth has been recognized as having a huge influence on the women’s equality movement and that her influence helped pave the way for the 19th Amendment, which wasn’t ratified until 1920. 

 In recognition of her efforts, Truth, along with four other women and the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Procession, will be featured on the $10 bill in 2020, as part of the 100-year celebration of women winning the right to vote. Sojourner Truth was also memorialized in 2018, with the U.S. Navy naming a ship the USNS Sojourner Truth. She was the inspiration for the NASA Mars Pathfinder Robotic Rover, “Sojourner.” Smithsonian Magazine listed her in the “100 Most Significant Americans of All Time.” She has been inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame and her face has graced a USPS stamp. Although recognized as a hero today, Sojourner Truth’s life was not an easy one. Yet even when, literally, stoned and beaten, Truth continued to fight with words and with dignity. She stayed with her truth and worked to change the world. 

This tribute was written by Molly Carter Ammo.com's Resistance Library: Unsung Heroes The Forgotten History of the Slave Who Fought For Women's Rights You're free to republish or share any of our articles (either in part or in full), which are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Our only requirement is that you give Ammo.com appropriate credit by linking to the original article. Spread the word; knowledge is power! 

Bronzeville Art District November Virtual Open Studio, Cesar Conde

"Creative Conversation", artists speaking about their art practice, November 20, 2020, focuses on

 Open Virtual Studio, "Creative Conversation"- Artist Cesar Conde.

"in·sight /ˈinˌsīt/ the capacity to gain an accurate and deep intuitive understanding of a person or thing:

intuition, perception, awareness, discernment, understanding, ... "

Cesar Conde 

Cesar Conde was born on September 23, 1963, in the Philippines. He came to Seattle in the early '70s when his family emigrated to the United States. Both his parents were white-collared professionals. Conde went to a public school in Seattle and was part of the first busing integration program. However, his first year of schooling was in Chicago's west side, where he was exposed to African-American, Latino and Polish communities. He grew up pressured to assimilate into the American culture in order to survive.

Travel exposed Conde to different cultures, which is reflected in his art. He learned to draw in Florence, Italy, and studied painting in Monflanquin, France.

Exhibitions:

Southside Weekly said "Conde's art is an art that does, and when looking at his portraits, one cannot help but feel that art can and must do things for us, that it must be strong, not flimsy. Indeed, that is Conde's whole goal: to remind us of the hard truths under the surface of our biases and judgments, lest we forget what happened to Trayvon," Jake Bittle, November 20, 2013

His work is featured in the Chicago Contemporary.

 "The film". 13 November 2013. Retrieved 15 February 2016.

 "Cesar Conde Art". Archived from the original on 23 April 2011. Retrieved 15 February 2016.

 "South Side Weekly"

 "Chicago Contemporary". Archived from the original on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 15 February 2016

Coming soon.  Join us on December 18m, 2020  7pm - 8pm

Phantom Gallery: http://bit.ly/Phantom_Tour Meeting ID: 859 7433 6882

 Virtual Open Studio featuring:

Renee Baker- Experimental Film 

Post Modernism:

Lois Stone

Phillip Cotton

The Phantom Gallery will look at how the city influences art, and artists transform the city by contributing to civic dialogue and quality of life. These installations will produce "Creative Conversations" presenting artists speaking about their art.

2020 Program virtual gallery openings will focus on Examining the State of Our Environment- and having conversations with artists in their studios. 

The aim of the Phantom is to examine changes in current curatorial production and to develop innovative displays in relation to virtual spaces. "Curatorial Practice" explores the impact of the urban environment on the artist and their work, and the contributions that artists make to the vitality of a city. The place where art is imagined and made, whether in a physical or virtual space, affects the idea, the process, and the final product. 

B. Ra-El Ali Thunder Zoom Virtual Open Studio Artist Interview

BRael Ali Thunder

https://www.facebook.com/brael.ali

BReal Ali  

http://www.braelali.com/

B'RAEL ALI THE ARTISAN

BRAEL.ALI13@GMAIL.COM

773-494-2391

IG: BRAELALITHUNDER

FB: BRAELALITHUNDER

TWR:BRAELALITHUNDER

SOUNDCLOUD: BRAEL THUNDER

https://phantomgallery.blogspot.com/2016/07/black-experimentalism-let-us-examine.html

My title B’Rael Ali is an affirmation that I use so that I always remain conscious of my spiritual identity and purpose. My purpose being a creative force sent from the cosmos, a bringer of truth.  I was born on the south side of Chicago and I have lived much of my life in the urban City. I am a graduate of the Southern Illinois University of Carbondale achieving a BFA in Painting and Drawing. I am also a spoken word artist. My artwork and poetry are infusions of urban life, history, and social commentary. I believe that knowledge of self is the true answer to anyone’s individual struggles because gaining it has improved my life tremendously. My artwork and poetry serve as a form of education, displaying the lessons and philosophies that help me during my struggles in order to help others through their struggles as well. Art is my language, Art is my way of solving the problems of today in order to create a better future.

 Much of my artwork features dancing figures. Dance is the physical cultivation of the Spirit through mental release and rhythmic processes. Dance historically, and contemporary is a large part of African and African American culture being used for ritual purposes, ceremonial, as well as social. My artwork depicts those traditional uses of dance through 2D drawings on paper that are enhanced with acrylic paint and pastels. I use the dancing figure as a creative vessel to express African American culture and issues. Through compositions designed from the figurative image of the dancer, I compose narratives that describe the African American experience, largely addressing identity, reconnecting African Americans to their African ancestry. The collaboration of symbols new and old creates the persona of "Afrofuturism" in my work, allowing my art to become ritual. 

The Phantom Gallery will look at how the city influences art, and artists transform the city by contributing to civic dialogue and quality of life. These installations will produce "Creative Conversations" presenting artists speaking about their art.

2020 Program virtual gallery openings will focus on Examining the State of Our Environment- and having conversations with artists in their studios. 

The aim of the Phantom is to examine changes in current curatorial production and to develop innovative displays in relation to virtual spaces. "Curatorial Practice" explores the impact of the urban environment on the artist and their work, and the contributions that artists make to the vitality of a city. The place where art is imagined and made, whether in a physical or virtual space, affects the idea, the process, and the final product. 

Join us on December 18th, 2020 for our final installment of Virtual Open Studio featuring:

Renee Baker- Experimental Film 

Post Modernism:

Lois Stone

Phillip Cotton

Artist Finally Gets Her ‘Seat At The Table’

"Art is Business" Reposted/ By Genoa Barrow | OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer

Local artist and museum founder Shonna McDaniels hope her new mural "A Seat At The Table," painted as part of the Wide Open Walls project, will uplift the community.

At the time, numerous calls to City Hall by people who would today be called Becky or Karen prompted a heated community town hall meeting about inclusion. In the end, SMUD, sponsoring the art installation, cut the check and chopped the project.

Ms. McDaniels never stopped fighting for a seat at the table for herself and other local Black artists. She's the founder of the Sojourner Truth Art Museum and is a vocal advocate for more diversity, of artists and images, in public art opportunities.

This week, it was a full-circle moment as she completed the last stroke on a mural for the Wide Open Walls project. Ironically, the towering ode to Blackness was created on the wall of a SMUD substation. "A Seat At The Table" is located in Midtown at 1430 19th Street.

"I cried," she said of the opportunity. "I literally cried like a baby because this has been a long time coming."

The mural was inspired by African actress Lupita Nyong'o. Featuring a dark-skinned woman as the focal point was deliberate for Ms. McDaniels, who wants the image to "uplift" her community. The large-scale painting took Ms. McDaniels and a team of enthusiastic fellow artists and volunteers less than a week to complete.

"I have so much support. Artists from all different genres have come out to help. We've had performing artists, dancers, visual artists, just so much support," she said.

As they filled in Ms. McDaniels' vision, area residents stopped by to admire the work in progress. They marveled at the detailed African pattern whose bold, orange lines draw in the eye and the eyes of a Black woman who seemed to mesmerize them from her high place of distinction on the wall.

Hundreds of residents and tourists, primarily White, stopped by to see the mural being created. There were often supportive honks from drivers-by.

She and a family-friendly group of volunteers received a very different reception a decade ago.

"Art is a peaceful act and then we had all these people driving by and calling us ni**ers and monkeys and asking us who authorized us to 'paint those aliens (Black people) on the wall.' The kids were traumatized," Ms. McDaniels recalled.

While she's created plenty of art since then, the incident is as fresh in Ms. McDaniels' mind as a new coat of paint, but she's glad recent calls for equity and social justice have painted a different picture.

"What a difference 10 years makes," she said.

"A Seat At The Table" is the second Wide Open Walls mural for Ms. McDaniels. Another, a tribute to the Ndebele women of South Africa, is located at 3217 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Oak Park. Other Black artists with murals added in 2020 include Brandon Gastinell (1616 J Street), the late Michael Mcdaniel (917 7th Street), Nosego (1730 L Street), Brandon Alexandr (7th Street and Improv Alley), and Leecasso, whose tribute to late Congressman John Lewis and "Black Panther" actor Chadwick Boseman can also be found at 7th Street and Improv Alley.

With "A Seat At The Table" finished, Ms. McDaniels, is focused on her next project, expanding her museum space in South Sacramento. Expansion, she says, will allow for more Black art to be displayed and showcased in new and innovative ways.

By Genoa Barrow | OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer

Conversation Town Hall "You Get What You Deserve: Welcome to the indignation

"Art is Business" Press release update: You may already know,  Space in the Gap (SG).  evolved out of Phantom Galleries LA (PGLA) programming.

 

SPACE IN THE GAP

Every idea needs space

 Space in the Gap produces, co-produces, and hosts cultural events and creative small businesses in vacant commercial spaces.  PGLA organizes the art in storefront programming for SG.  Loiter Galleries, a non-profit art in storefront program that launched out of PGLA’s stARTup program to incubate new art in storefront programs will curate exhibitions as well. 

Pop Up Research Station is a space to pool resources and support those working in temporary public art. PGLA loves The Conversation Art Podcast so we invited Michael Shaw to host his virtual café’ in collaboration with the SG online calendar.  

This last year, PGLA & SG had quite a few false starts. No surprise due to rapidly changing environments  We remain committed to creating opportunities for our arts community. New spaces are launching in Mission Viejo, Orange County this November. Loiter is programming in Long Beach.  This email blast is to invite you to Friday’s Conversation Café!  We knew you wouldn't want to miss it and we look forward to seeing you!   Don't forget to VOTE! :)

Cafe: The Conversation Art Podcast 11:30 AM PST. FRIDAY. 10.30.2020

You are not going to want to miss our next virtual cafe with special guest Nato Thompson  (curator, and author of Culture as Weapon, and former 2-episode guest of this podcast, will be doing a short presentation titled  "You get what you deserve: welcome to the indig-nation." 

[hosted by artist Michael Shaw host of The Conversation Art Podcast.]

Friday, October 30, 2020, 11:30 am to 1:00 pm PST.  

Online:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86576127651 

Password:  art podcast (zoom details below)

Thompson will discuss "the rise of effect as a semiotic expedient in the age of social media. This net-based emotional roller coaster has lent an all-too familiarity with internet trolls and moral outrage as the go-to language of online communication... this phenomenon that has not only provided the rise of Donald Trump, but also a growing understanding that affects holds more sway than content."

Thompson will do a roughly 15-minute presentation, followed by a q&a.

The continued conversation after the Q&A may be offered where we will choose topics prompted by our discussion and take them into the break out rooms for more intimate and in-depth exchanges. into the break out rooms for more intimate and in-depth exchanges. 

 

About Nato Thompson

From: https://www.natothompson.com/about

I am an author and curator based in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. I love this city. I write often about contemporary art and politics. I have also been doing interviews on Instagram on IGLIVE @natothompson with a show titled Let's Talk Alternatives.

Currently, my passion is the production of cultural infrastructure. I should soon be announcing something a little more specific in this regard. It has been a long time coming. I arrived at it by way of working in a variety of contemporary art non-profits while also navigating the complex territories of art, activism, and the production of meaning.

This journey has been informed by my work with Philadelphia Contemporary where the dream has been to build a civically engaged world-class kunsthalle (contemporary non-collecting art museum) in Philadelphia. Previous to Philadelphia Contemporary (I joined in November of 2017), I worked at Creative Time as Chief Curator from the years 2007 to 2017, before that I was at MASS MoCA from 2001-2007. 

 

More about Cafes:

Cafe's range from an hour to 90 minutes. You can drop in at any time during the call. Custom breakouts are available so you can move into small groups as desired with whomever you choose, or on any topic you wish.  A Cafe Menu is posted for each cafe.   Cafes happen on a regular schedule or can occur spontaneously. Cafes are a place to connect, network, and hang out. 

 Our intention is to inspire participation and collaboration creating an online experience like no other.   The SG Calendar offers our communities a place to network on an ongoing and casual basis.

For questions or more information contact Space@SpaceintheGap.com

SG Mailing list  http://eepurl.com/space 

Space in the Gap produces, co-produces, and hosts art & culture events and creative small businesses in vacant spaces. Every idea needs space.

LJA BeanSoup The Social Move Larissa Akinremi Johnson

Larissa Akinremi Johnson:

The Social Move is an initiative founded by Larissa J-Akinremi. She has been a tutor and mentor for over 30 years and is the product of the “ It takes a village to raise a child”.

Artist Statement

The daughter of creative visionary’s activist Bobbie Johnson and Zaid A. Maalikulmulk, 80s club kid and social curator Larissa Johnson-Akinremi (b. Baltimore, MD, 1969) began her career as a jewelry designer in the early 1990s after college and years later as a freelance make-up artist and fashion stylist. In 2000 she became the host, promoter, and nightlife social curator for Deep House Page; Chicago’s premier source for music entertainment and dance culture. Now her focus is on photography and curation. 

She is inspired by nature, people, social interaction, music, and dance culture. She enjoys the surreal, and spiritual realm and some of her work encompass those forms. Larissa’s process includes photography of human form, a play on light, and body movement, which also includes spoken word, animation, video, and performance art. In her spare time and upon request she is also a DJ. Johnson’s first solo exhibition People, Places, and Things took place in 2015 at Tangible Things. Her work was most recently featured at Beats and Treats, a solo exhibition at Chicago’s Bronzeville Room 43.