Art as Resistance to Displacement: Solidarity Among Gentrifying Communities
The theme of this year’s History of Art Series is Radical Legacies in Contemporary Creative Work. A series of four conversations curated by Shani Peters and Joseph Cuillier III of The Black School, focus on movement work from the perspective of Black artists and organizers from major cities throughout the country. These artist-led conversations, spanning from the institution to the individual, trace the topography of arts-based initiatives catalyzed by political unrest, guided by the span of organizing across time and place.
Working between grassroots publishing, public art and community activation, the archival implications of photography, and the materiality of healing work, these artists and practitioners will discuss their activist trajectories, to demonstrate how their individual practices intersect with adjacent movements within the US.
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Note: Center for Book Arts will hold this event entirely online. A Zoom link will be sent in an email to all registrants.
About the Program
Three artists born and raised in majority Black cultural centers: New Orleans, Harlem, and Detroit, will share their experiences in artistic production reflecting the current realities of gentrification in their communities. This conversation will navigate the speakers’ politically driven creative practices and the intersections with community building and land-based initiatives.
Speakers will consider:
- What legacies inform their work?
- How zine publishing, and text-based public art works have informed land-based organizing in three American cities experiencing widespread effects of gentrification?
- What futurity and potential exists for solidarity work between distant locations?
- What are the ways that creative collaboration and community building practices informed the fruition of their projects?
Note: Center for Book Arts will hold the event entirely online. A Zoom link will be sent in an email to all registrants.
About the Curators
The Black School (TBS) is an experimental art school teaching Black/PoC students and allies to become agents of change through art workshops on radical Black politics and public interventions that address local community needs. The Black School was founded by Joseph Cuillier III and Shani Peters in 2016. With socially engaged artists, designers, and educators working at the intersections of K-12/university teaching, art, design, and activism, all TBS programming is structured around our core principles of Black Love, self-determination, and wellness. Since 2016, The Black School has served over 400 students, facilitated over 100 workshops and classes, produced three Black Love Fests , collaborated with more than 40 professional artists, trained and employed 16 design apprentices, and partnered with over 50 organizations.
