South Side Community Art Center

AN EVENING WITH SHAWNÉ MICHAELAIN HOLLOWAY & CAMILLE BACON
2022-05-12 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago)
ZOOM REGISTRATION HERE

SSCAC is thrilled to invite you into one of many conversations between SHAWNE MICHAELAIN HOLLOWAY and Camille Bacon that have activated feelings of remembrance, love, grief, and longing. For this program they will respond to the liminal, but expansive spaces within EMERGENCE that relate to aspects of desire, yearning, and intimacy specific to the Black queer femme/lesbian gaze and ways of being.

SHAWNÉ MICHAELAIN HOLLOWAY is a new media artist and poet. Known for using sound, video, and performance, HOLLOWAY shapes the rhetorics of technology and sexuality into tools for exposing structures of power. She has spoken and exhibited work internationally in spaces like Performance Space New York, The New Museum, The Kitchen, The Time-Based Art Festival at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. SHAWNÉ is currently teaching in the Film, Video, New Media, and Animation departments at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Camille Bacon is a Chicago-based writer who is cultivating a “sweet Black writing life” as informed by the words of poet Nikky Finney and the infinite wisdom of the Black feminist tradition.

This program is presented in conjunction with EMERGENCE: Intersections at the Center, currently on view until July 2, 2022.
EMERGENCE: Intersections at the Center spotlights The South Side Community Art Center’s historical role in supporting a full spectrum of Black artists through an intersectional viewpoint. The first exhibition of its kind at the South Side Community Art Center, EMERGENCE positions the Center as an important anchor for Black LGBTQ artists who belonged to its community from its founding in 1940 to the 1980s and beyond.

Funding for EMERGENCE programming is generously supported by Northwestern University.

CEREMONIES: A SELECTION OF SHORT FILMS BY MARLON RIGGS
2022-05-19 18:00 - 20:00
RSVP HERE

In conjunction with EMERGENCE: Intersections at the Center, the current exhibition at the South Side Community Art Center, CEREMONIES will be screened IN PERSON, in partnership with South Side Projections.

Co-curator of EMERGENCE and SSCAC Public Programs and Engagement manager zakkiyyah najeebah dumas-o’neal will lead a post-discussion with Aymar Jean Christian, associate professor of communication studies at Northwestern University and co-founder of OTV | Open Television. Aymar also served as an advisory panelist during the organizing phases of EMERGENCE.

A filmmaker unlike any other, Marlon Riggs was an unapologetic gay Black man who defied a culture of silence and shame. Riggs used a bold mix of documentary, performance, poetry, and music to confront the legacy of racist stereotypes and the impact of AIDS on the Black community. He died in 1994 of AIDS-related illness, leaving behind a vital, living body of work that wrestled with the very definition of what it means to be Black.
Marlon Troy Riggs (1957-1994) was an American filmmaker, educator, poet, and gay rights activist. He produced, wrote, and directed several documentary films including Ethnic Notions, Tongues Untied, Color Adjustment and Black Is, Black Ain’t. His films examine past and present representations of race and sexuality in the United States.

CEREMONIES directly references poet Essex Hemphill’s groundbreaking anthology of short stories and poetry Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry, which won the National Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual New Author Award when it was published in 1992. The book’s poems and essays expand on many important social issues at the time, such as the white objectification of Black men, as epitomized by Robert Mapplethorpe’s The Black Book; AIDS in the Black community; and the complex dynamics gay Black men experience in both the white LGBTQ+ community and in Black culture – very much in alignment with Rigg’s exploration of these topics as it appeared in his film works. In addition Essex Hemphill’s poetry was also featured in Marlon Riggs’ documentaries Tongues Untied (1989) and Black Is … Black Ain’t (1994).

This program features three short films by Marlon Riggs: Affirmations (1990), Anthem (1991), and Regrette Rien (No Regret)(1993), of which depict the visual, artistic, and political convictions of a transformative and pioneering filmmaker whose work is a historical document of Black gay sexuality from a Black perspective and still deeply relevant today.

This program is generously supported by, and in partnership with South Side Projections.
Founded in 2011, South Side Projections presents films at locations across Chicago’s south side to foster conversation about complex social and political issues. At many screenings, we enlist scholars, activists, and filmmakers to lead discussions, while other screenings offer opportunities to present seldom-seen films of historical and artistic value to the communities of Chicago’s south side.

Black Magic: A Tintype Photo Project with Adam Davis
2022-06-03 12:00 - 2022-06-04 16:00
Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary artist Adam Davis brings his 1850’s tintype photo practice to the South Side Community Art Center!

On June 3rd and June 4th, South Side Community Art Center will host artist Adam Davis and his ‘Black Magic’ tintype photography project. Through this participatory photo activation, Adam will offer free portrait sessions to members of the Chicago community.

Davis will create 2 portraits per session – one for participants to take home and one for his own archive. Traveling to historically Black cities and communities nationwide, Davis is in pursuit of creating 20,000 tintype portraits of Black Americans with the goal of creating the largest contemporary archive of Black American portraits.

Themes of Afrofuturism, celebrating the Art of Magic, and Queerness have become foundational to Davis’ process throughout the project.
Black historical art spaces, such as SSCAC are critical to Davis’ intent to be in conversation with the legacy of Black artistic innovation, community engagement, and Black archival contributions to the culture.

Please read below on how to participate:

Portrait sessions will take place at SSCAC from 1pm – 4pm.

Each portrait session will take 20 – 30 minutes, which includes a chemical development process. Due to the nature of this process, RSVP time selections are required to participate.

We kindly ask that you select 1 time slot for yourself only, so that we’re able honor each participant per session.

RSVP HERE

Adam Davis (b. 1994) is an American Visual Artist, Educator, and Arts Education Advocate born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Davis obsessively seeks to apply his passion for creativity, communication, and storytelling to assist in finding solutions to problems that hinder diverse and equitable cultural progression at the intersection of the Arts and Education within the Black community. With a degree in Education and 6 years in the classroom, Davis’ work intends to document the lives of Black bodies in a way that educates, empowers, and returns the permission to dictate how they are photographed to the subject. Delving into personal narratives on religion, queerness, mental health, and the greater understanding of the global African diaspora, Davis creates images, both moving and still, from a place of curiosity.

Davis is a resident at the 54 year old Black Owned and operated community arts organization St. Elmo Village in Los Angeles, California. Here Davis developed his darkroom practice on campus in the facilities opened by founder Roderick Sykes. Davis’ second solo exhibition, titled Black Magic, was created at the Village and opened at the Byrd Museum in Los Angeles, where his darkroom practice lies at the center of his practice of making tintype portraits. The exhibition monograph was successfully published soon after by Paper Chase Press and debuted at the New Art Dealers Alliance fair in Miami during Art Basel Week 2021. Davis’ work has been featured in the LA Times, SKEW Magazine, Umber Publications, and AFAR among others.

A Queer History Tour of Bronzeville
2022-06-04 12:30 - 15:00
Join us with Rachael Pierce on Saturday, June 4th for a Queer history tour of the Bronzeville area, as well as learning more about SSCAC’s role in highlighting queer histories as they relate to Black artists!

Rachael will also facilitate a storytelling component on our front stoop with longtime Southsider and elder Sandi Byrd after the tour.

RUN OF PROGRAM:

Walking tour will begin at South Side Community Art Center, and take place from 12:30PM – 1:45PM.

Storytelling back at South Side Community Art Center will take place from 2PM – 3PM.

RSVP HERE

Rachael Pierce is a community builder from the South Side of Chicago. She’s a lover of history, black queer herstory to be exact; and as CEO of her production company, Pi360co, Rachael works to create spaces and platforms for queer BIPOC women to bravely share their stories and explore their spirituality. Her passions meet at the intersection of everything and are influenced by her Queer, Black, Indigenous identity. Rachael believes she is called to empower folks to bravely gather, build community, and share their stories of life and faith.

This program is presented in conjunction with EMERGENCE: Intersections at the Center, currently on view until July 2, 2022.

EMERGENCE: Intersections at the Center spotlights The South Side Community Art Center’s historical role in supporting a full spectrum of Black artists through an intersectional viewpoint. The first exhibition of its kind at the South Side Community Art Center, EMERGENCE positions the Center as an important anchor for Black LGBTQ artists who belonged to its community from its founding in 1940 to the 1980s and beyond.

Funding for EMERGENCE programming is generously supported by Northwestern University.

THE FRONT
2022-06-11 14:00 - 16:00
THE FRONT: FEATURING PERFORMANCES BY DARLING SHEAR, SHANTA NURULLAH, AND ZAHRA BAKER!

We’re excited to host these dynamic performers who will be activating our Burroughs Gallery with performances that respond to themes of the body, queer introspective experiences, Black femme histories, and folklore!!

Calling you to bring friends, family, and chosen family.

ShaZah
2 – 2:45PM

ShaZah is the performing duo of Shanta Nurullah and Zahra Baker. They combine storytelling, singing, poetry and instrumental music to explore a broad range of themes and genres rooted in the African-American experience. “Om Mission,” their recent commission for About Face Theatre’s partnership with the Stony Island Arts Bank, focused on Black lesbians in Chicago. They conducted interviews and developed a video and live performance that recognizes the contributions, struggles, and dreams of their peers. In addition to presenting this show for About Face Theatre’s Kickback Festival, ShaZah presented it at Navy Pier’s Chicago LIVE Again weekend last fall and at Rhode Island Black Storytellers’ Funda Fest.

Shanta Nurullah has been performing, as a storyteller and musician, around Chicago and nationally for over fifty years. A 2021 3Arts Awardee, she plays sitar, bass and mbira, is a member of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians); co-founded the all-women’s groups Sojourner and Samana; and currently leads the band Sitarsys. She received the Zora Neale Hurston Award from the National Association of Black Storytellers as well as the Artist Fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council.

Zahra Baker is folk and jazz vocalist. Her performance history includes vocalist for “Performance duo: In the Spirit” (with Emily Lansana), which has been featured at festivals including several (NABS) National Association of Black Storytellers festivals, National Storytelling Festival Jonesborough, Tenn, and Texas Storytelling Festival. Zahra has been vocalist for jazz ensembles, theater companies, social justice activism and healing workshops.  She has also worked as a teaching artist for over 30 years, primarily in the Chicago area. Currently, she is co-founder of Freedom Song Leaders, Classic Black, and is a member of Shanta Nurullah’s Sitarsys.

Darling Shear
3pm – 3:45PM

Darling Shear is a Chicago Native but has roots in Atlanta where Darling started dance training. Darling has trained in Ballet, Modern, Jazz and African. Her career highlights have been working with Bubba Carr choreographer/artistic director to Cher for 12 yrs and counting, Rhonda Henriksen soloist with Hubbard Street and Twyla Tharp, Tracy Vogt former Philadanco dancer, Hinton Battle the Original Scarecrow from the broadway production of “The Wiz” and Lauri Stallings Hubbard street soloist and founder/artistic director of gloATL.

Darling, a freelance dancer/choreographer in the city has worked with The Fly Honeys of the The Inconvenience, Body Cartography of Minneapolis, Links Hall, Victoria Bradford, Chicago AIDS Foundation, chances dances, no small plan productions, Slo’Mo, the Public hotel, Soho House Chicago, Growing Power inc., EXPO Chicago, Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, the school of the art Institute, Depaul Art Museum, University of Chicago, University of Illinois in Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago Film Archive, Chicago Athletic Association Hotel, Salonathon, and Open TV beta.

In 2018 Darling was chosen as the cover model and also quoted in Micah Salkind’s Oxford published book ‘Do you remember house? Chicago’s queer of color underground’. Followed by receiving The Between Gestures scholarship to Austria to attend Impulstanz in Vienna also the Chicago Dancemakers Forum fellowship and Links Hall CoMission Fellowship, along with a 3Arts nomination in 2019. Darling’s career has been one with a strong spiritual center and allowance of universal well-being.

“I sit back, observe and consume my surroundings and tell stories from an unbiased perspective. There are 3 sides to every coin and I aim to be the ridged. My work reflects the Contrast and Alignment of the cooperative components of life.”

JUNETEENTH AT THE HOUSE
2022-06-18 12:00 - 16:00
SSCAC CELEBRATES JUNETEENTH WITH MUSIC, POETRY, COMEDY, AND FAMILY ART MAKING ACTIVATIONS – FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

FAMILY ART MAKING ACTIVITIES
12 – 2PM

*POLAROID PHOTO ACTIVATION
*CYANOTYPE ACTIVATION
*LIMITED EDITION TOTE BAG LAUNCH FEATURING THE WORK OF ARTIST BRANDON BREAUX
*PRINT WORKS BY ARTIST ERIC VON HAYNES
*PHOTO ACTIVATION WITH ARTIST CATALYST CECIL MCDONALD JR.

WE’RE THRILLED TO HOST DJ DUANE POWELL, POET RESITA COX, ARTIST CATALYST CECIL MCDONALD JR. AND COMEDIANS MAX THOMAS & ARLIETA HALL!

1:30 – 4PM

Duane Powell’s love for music started an early age growing up in the 1970’s being exposed to Chicago’s rich soul music scene. He has spun at and has had residencies at many of the most popular venues around Chicago including the House Of Blues, Virgin Hotel, The Promontory and Reggie’s Music Club. In addition, he has opened for many heavyweights in soul music including opening for Frankie Beverly & Maze at The Taste Of Chicago and has shared the bill with many legendary DJ’s and Grammy-winning producers in the dance music world including Joe Claussell, DJ Spinna, Steve “Silk” Hurley, Maurice Joshua, Josh Milan, Timmy Regisford, Ron Trent and more.

As a promoter, he launched the SOUNDROTATION brand in 1999, further cultivating the underground soul scene in Chicago giving many of those acts their performance debuts in the market.

Resita Cox’s films are a poetic portrayal of her community’s irrepressible spirit and resilience in the face of racism. Her documentary film work is people based, meaning it not only features unique, personal stories, but it also prioritizes relationships and is constantly working to reimagine an equitable filmmaking model. Born and raised in the South, her films center Southern, Black communities and use them as a lens to examine topics ranging from environmental justice to racial justice – all themes she also explores through her poetry and performance.
With a degree in journalism from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Resita started her career as a storyteller in TV news as a reporter in North Carolina and later in Chicago. Resita has worked with Kartemquin Films as the Impact Producer on their Emmy-nominated docu-series produced with The Marshall Project, We Are Witnesses.

She is the director of Freedom Hill, a documentary about the environmental racism that is washing away the first town chartered by Black people in the nation, with which she was named a 2021 Hulu/Kartemquin Accelerator Fellow. She holds an MFA from Northwestern University in Documentary Film and is a 2021 Sister’s in Cinema Documentary Fellow. Resita was also recently named a North Star fellow with esteemed documentary organization, Points North Institute.

Max Thomas was raised on the Southside of Chicago. He grew up on Jimi Hendrix, Bernie Mac, & Soy Milk. Max has been featured at Zanies, The Comedy Store, The NBC Break Out Comedy Festival 2017-2019, Jokes and Notes, The Second City Chicago & Hollywood, Laugh Factory, Steppenwolf Theater, Black & Funny Festival, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Detroit Improv Festival, Boston Improv Festival, Out of Bounds Festival Austin, TX, The Hideout Chicago & Boston, The Revival Theater, Keenan Thompson: The Ultimate Comedy Experience and Lollapalooza Music Festival.

His acting credits include Chicago P.D. (NBC), Broke Down Drone (Film), Hot Date (Netflix), Studio B (Web Series), Code-Switched (Web Series) and Othello (CST). His performance training is from The Second City Chicago, The School at Steppenwolf & The British American Drama Academy(BADA).

Arlieta Hall is a host, actress, improviser, stand up comedian, and first time filmmaker from Chicago. She is a 2021 Second City NBC Bob Curry Fellow who recently co-starred as Sadie on Showtimes’ The CHI episodic.

Arlieta is also a caregiver for her father who is a person with Alzheimer’s and takes the power of “Yes, and…” to communicate with him and using their story to make her first film “Finding Your Laughter” Catch Arlieta Hall while you can performing all around the city, zoom, and get a sneak peek of her upcoming documentary

I am most interested in the intersections of masculinity, familial relations, and the artistic and intellectual pursuits of black culture, particular as this culture intersects with and informs the larger culture. Through photography, video, and dance/performance, I seek to investigate and question the norms and customs that govern our understanding of each other, our families, and the myriad of societal struggles and triumphs. I studied fashion, house music and dance club culture before receiving a MFA in Photography at Columbia College Chicago, where I currently serve as an adjunct professor and a teaching artist at the Center for Community Arts Partnership at Columbia College Chicago.

My work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, with works in the permanent collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art, Chicago Bank of America LaSalle Collection, and Museum of Contemporary Photography. I was awarded the: Joyce Foundation Midwest Voices & Visions Award, the Artadia Award, The Swiss Benevolent Society, Lucerne, Switzerland Residency and the 3Arts Teaching Artist Award. I participated in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence program in July 2013. In 2016 the ﬁrst edition of my monograph In The Company of Black was published and was shortlisted by the Aperture Foundation for the 2017 First PhotoBook Award.

Cecil is currently a SSCAC Artist Catalyst as part of the Public Art & Civic Engagement(PACE) Capacity Building Initiative grant from the Mural Arts Institute, a program of Mural Arts Philadelphia.

MAMA GLORIA: IN HER HONOR
2022-06-23 18:00 - 20:00
A film screening and community gathering in honor of the late Mama Gloria Allen.

Luchina Fisher will screen her film Mama Gloria, in addition to honoring the life and impact of Gloria Allen, a Black transgender icon and activist who dedicated her life to Chicago’s trans community.

Mama Gloria (2020) by Luchina Fisher. 1h 16m

Chicago’s Black transgender icon Gloria Allen (1945 – 2022) blazed a trail for trans people like few others before her. Emerging from Chicago’s South Side drag ball culture in the 1960s, Gloria overcame traumatic violence to become a proud leader in her community. Most famously, she pioneered a charm school for young transgender people that served as inspiration for the hit play Charm. Luchina Fisher’s empathic and engaging documentary is not only a portrait of a groundbreaking legend, but also a celebration of unconditional love, the love Gloria received from her own mother and that she now gives to her chosen children.

LUCHINA FISHER (she/her) is an award-winning director, writer and producer who works at the intersection of race, gender and identity. She is the founder and CEO of Little Light Productions. Her feature directorial debut Mama Gloria, about Chicago trans icon activist Gloria Allen, was nominated for a 2022 GLAAD Media Award. The film premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival and BFI Flare London; won numerous jury awards; and made its broadcast debut on World channel and PBS. Previously, Luchina co-executive produced and co-wrote the critically acclaimed feature documentary Birthright: A War Story, which appeared in more than 70 theaters nationwide, qualified for Oscar consideration and streamed on Hulu. She is the director of two scripted short films, including Danger Word, and has written and produced several nationally broadcast documentaries. She most recently produced two episodes of the upcoming History channel series with President Bill Clinton and is directing a feature documentary on predatory lending in housing. Luchina began her career as a journalist and has written for People, the Miami Herald, The New York Times, O, The Oprah Magazine and ABCNews.com. Luchina is a Sisters in Cinema Documentary Fellow and a member of Brown Girl Doc Mafia, the Black Documentary Collective and Film Fatales. She is an inaugural recipient of the Brown Girl Doc Mafia Black Director’s Grant and a Spark Fund Award Winner from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Firelight Media. Luchina is based in the New York City area.

This program is presented in conjunction with EMERGENCE: Intersections at the Center, currently on view until July 2, 2022.

EMERGENCE: Intersections at the Center spotlights The South Side Community Art Center’s historical role in supporting a full spectrum of Black artists through an intersectional viewpoint. The first exhibition of its kind at the South Side Community Art Center, EMERGENCE positions the Center as an important anchor for Black LGBTQ artists who belonged to its community from its founding in 1940 to the 1980s and beyond.

Funding for EMERGENCE programming is generously supported by Northwestern University.

...of the land: acts of refusal and ratification
2022-07-15 - 2022-09-24
A three-person exhibition featuring new and recent works from Chicago-based artists Ajmal ‘Mas Man’ Millar, Lola Ayisha Ogbara, and R. Treshawn Williamson exploring homeplace through sculpture, self-imaging, & materialism.

R. Treshawn Williamson. Charcoal rubbing, screen printed debris, White Oak, Etched plaque.
Left half. 15 x 20. 2021.

…of the land: acts of refusal and ratification features new and recent works from Chicago-based artists Ajmal ‘Mas Man’ Millar, Lola Ayisha Ogbara, and R. Treshawn Williamson exploring sculpture, self-imaging and history through postcolonial lenses, collective & individual recollection and peculiar materialism. Their use of storytelling holds significance for spatiality and locality to become common ground through the fielding of land, labor and industry.
Ajmal ‘Mas Man’ Millar expands the sculptural form welding metal, Trinidadian carnival culture and identity politics alongside the African diaspora. Lola Ayisha Ogbara merges West African and African American interior design aesthetics with bodily sculptural ceramic forms, with performative photography – that rest and refuse a Western gaze.

R. Treshawn Williamson creates historical context for his own familial roots in the mining of charcoal material for large scale screen-printed tapestries in a careful consideration of laborious processes as praxis. Millar, Ogbara and Williamson engage in practices that consider topographic timelines and performance as an essential tool making for an interesting dialogue about homeplace.

An opening reception will take place July 15th, 5- 8pm.
Please RSVP here

Ajmal ‘MAS MAN’ Millar is a self-taught contemporary visual artist and mas man (carnival costume designer). His work includes mixed–media sculpture that combine collage, painting, repurposed materials, scrap metal, performance, and photography interrogating notions of cultural heritage, sexual and gender identity, and ritual practices as a first-generation African American black queer man born to Trinidadian immigrants. Ajmal earned an undergraduate degree from Morehouse College in 2008 and earned an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2021.

I am working on a collection of works engaging the Yoruba cosmological concept of Chi and its existence in everything, alive or inorganic. I create amalgamations of found objects and scraps of steel combined with encaustic. Inspired from my carnival technique of ‘wire bending’, Afrofuturism, and Afro Surrealism, I have an opportunity to express my emotions and thoughts as experienced in the various environments I collect from and exist in. My welding is drawing in space to depict the transcendent properties in masquerade. My goal is to contextualize a queer blackness rarely experienced through imagination, invention, and the investigation of dreams, magic, and ritual.

He currently lives and works in Chicago, IL.

LOLA AYISHA OGBARA (cultural worker & artist) born and raised in Chicago, Illinois holds many talents under her belt, i.e. sculpture, sound, design, photography and installation art. Ogbara holds a Bachelor of Arts in Arts Entertainment & Media Management from Columbia College Chicago in 2013 and a MFA in Visual Arts from Washington University Sam Fox School of Art & Design.

“My practice explores the multifaceted implications and ramifications of being in regards to the Black experience. I work with clay as a material in order to emphasize a necessary fragility which symbolizes an essential contradiction implicit in empowerments.”

In 2017, Ogbara co-founded Artists in the Room, a collective of artists and scholars who host artists, emerging and established, in hopes of serving as a catalyst for artist development and networking. Ogbara has also received numerous fellowships and awards, including the Multicultural Fellowship sponsored by the NCECA 52nd Annual Conference, the Arts + Public Life and Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture Residency at the University of Chicago, and the Coney Family Fund Award hosted by the Chicago Artists Coalition.

Ogbara has exhibited in art spaces across the country and is currently based in Chicago, IL.

R. Treshawn Williamson is a Chicago based essayist and multidisciplinary artist of Black American descent, from Prince George’s County, MD, by way of Livingston, Alabama, and Augusta, Georgia.

Williamson’s work is a meditation on the obstruction and surveillance of the lived histories of African-Americans. He investigates the application of cultural re-imagination in the African Diaspora through the engagement of oral histories, post-colonial theory, folklore, and ethnomusicology. In 2020 Williamson earned his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

He currently lives and works in Chicago, IL.

Emerging Artist Series featuring Tianna Bracey
2022-08-19 - 2022-10-22
SSCAC IS PROUD TO FEATURE ARTIST TIANNA BRACEY FOR A SOLO PRESENTATION OF RECENT WORKS.

Tianna Bracey is an emerging artist employing portraiture as a vessel for connection. Her most recent series of work reimagine space as connection to ancestry. Her portraits are transformed into whimsical dreamscapes to amplify the presence of generational storytelling through repurposing and reinventing elements from daily surroundings. Each work aims to consider the ways in which familial ties, nostalgia, and memory can be woven into the fabric of daily life as an invitation to find purpose, strength and solace through heritage.

Tianna received a Bachelors of Art in Art History from the University of Missouri (Columbia, MO). Her work has been exhibited at The Chicago Athletic Association (Chicago, IL), Happy Gallery (Chicago, IL), The Martin (Chicago, IL) and Zhou B Art Center (Chicago, IL). In 2021, she was awarded the Curious Creators Grant from curious elixirs (Brooklyn, NY) and the New Futures award from Saatchi Art’s The Other Art Fair (London, UK). The following year, she was a recipient of the SPARK grant from the Chicago Artists Coalition (Chicago, IL).

We’re thrilled to feature Tianna as our first exhibiting artist to be showcased in our micro-gallery, and hope you’ll join us!

DJ ShamPain Wishes will also join us for the opening reception.

ShamPain Wishes is an Artist/DJ/Designer native to St. Louis but based in Chicago.

Inspired by the Spike Lee Joint “25th Hour” where a toast is given stating “Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends!,” their eclectic sound touches on Dance music from across the African and Club Diasporas.In any given set you’ll touch House, Funk, Soul, Disco, R&B/Soul, Garage, Ballroom and so much more!

OPENING RECEPTION:
Friday, August 19
6-8pm
RSVP HERE

Riddim Rite of Passage: A Sound Activation with Ajmal 'Mas Man' Millar
2022-08-20 13:00 - 14:30
Artist Ajmal ‘Mas Man’ Millar will facilitate a participatory sound activation referencing his Trinidadian heritage.

We invite you to join us with artist Ajmal ‘Mas Man’ Millar for a special rite of passage participatory sound activation using found metal, which the artist uses often within their practice. Traditionally, rites of passages have functioned as a critical tool of individual rejuvenation and cultural interconnection.

Ajmal’s use of metal within this program is inspired by and symbolic of the ‘riddim section’, which is specifically linked to African diaspora percussions.

Each participant is encouraged to bring found metal (without sharp edges) that they have access to.

The session will encompass:

– Introductions and group welcome where each participant will share their found objects with the group
– Several exercises to build cognition, individuality, improvisation, and harmony.
– Ajmal will also provide a variety of metal rods and wooden sticks used to strike the metal, thus collectively producing waves of sound in the likeness of steel drums.

***The session will be sonically recorded, and video documented.

RSVP HERE

D-Composed Gives Family Edition at South Side Community Art Center!
2022-09-03 13:00 - 14:30
D-Composed brings their Music in Color experience to life at South Side Community Art Center!

Founded in 2017 by Kori Coleman, D-Composed is a chamber music experience that celebrates & honors Black creativity and culture through the music of Black composers. To date, D-Composed has gained national recognition with appearances on The Colbert Show alongside Jamila Woods and has collaborated with notable institutions and highly recognized brands such as Apple, The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, & The Rebuild Foundation.

This year D-Composed is featuring commissioned sketches from their Music in Color Vol. 4 coloring book featuring artists Dwight White II, Amoz Wright, Kayla Mahaffey, and Aaliyah Lachele of Peanut Buddarart!

RSVP HERE!

Kori Coleman has crafted the organization’s artistic & programmatic vision with the development of conceptual programming that fosters collaboration with Black artists across mediums and disciplines.

In addition to being the Executive Director and founder of D-Composed, Kori is a brand strategist working in marketing & advertising. She is a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia with a B.A. in Philosophy.

Violinist Caitlin Edwards began her musical journey at the age of 8 within a non-profit organization in her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. She gained acceptance into the Alabama School of Fine Arts and music festivals such as the Kennedy Center Summer Music Institute and the National Repertory Orchestra. She later attended the University of Louisville (BM) and DePaul University (MM). Caitlin is a 2022 Esteemed Artist Award recipient from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, a 2021 3Arts/Walder Foundation awardee, 2018 Gateways Music Festival Rising Star, a co-curator with the Fulcrum Point New Music Project, and a former fellow with the Chicago Sinfonietta. In addition, she has received Grammy certificates for recordings on Disney’s “The Lion King” and for albums by John Legend and PJ Morton. She released her debut album, “Exhale,” in 2021.

Caitlin is a classically trained violinist, but she’s inspired by gospel, jazz, hip-hop, and neo-soul. She composes original music and intentionally performs the works of Black composers to make sure that these compositions are remembered and spotlighted for aspiring young BIPOC musicians and the world as a whole. Caitlin is a proud member of D-Composed and Ensemble Dal Niente.

Tahirah Whittington is a Grammy-nominated cellist, and a founding member of D-Composed and the Ritz Chamber Players. She is currently the cellist for the Broadway show Dear Evan Hansen National Tour. Previously, Ms. Whittington was the cellist for Hamilton: An American Musical in Chicago. Studio recordings include The Lion King (2019), Beyoncé’s The Lion King: The Gift, and albums by John Legend and PJ Morton.

Television and film appearances include the movie, “Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” and episodes of “Empire”. Tahirah remotely recorded the cello solo for Rhiannon Giddens’ “Cry No More” arranged by composer Michael Abels. She received her Bachelor’s Degree from New England Conservatory and her Master’s Degree in Cello Performance from The Juilliard School. Tahirah has studied with Laurence Lesser, Joel Krosnick, and Hans Jørgen Jensen.

Metropolis: A City In Black
2022-09-16 19:00 - 20:30
Metropolis: A City In Black, by Cecil McDonald Jr., is a public installation in the historic bay windows of South Side Community Art Center.

South Side Community Art Center invites you to attend and celebrate the launch of Cecil McDonald’s public art installation, programmed alongside the final Bronzeville Art District Trolley Tour!

As a part of the Public Art & Civic Engagement Capacity Building Initiative, granted to the South Side Community Art Center from Mural Arts Institute, a program of Mural Arts Philadelphia, artist Cecil McDonald, Jr. has been commissioned to create a socially engaged public work of art. His project will feature images from SSCAC’s archives intertwined with portraits of Bronzeville community members to celebrate the dual histories and legacies.

Metropolis: A City In Black, by Cecil McDonald Jr., is a public viewing installation in the historic bay window of the venerable South Side Community Art Center. Over six months, McDonald traversed the streets, parks, beaches, porches, and neighborhoods in and around Bronzeville. Photographing friends, strangers, and passersby from a mobile studio, McDonald created both formal and candid portraits; the portraits, collaged with moving abstract imagery, create an odyssey of humanity infused with all the unique sensibility and tempo of black life in the metropolis.

RSVP HERE

Cecil McDonald, Jr. is interested in the intersections of masculinity, familial relationships and the artistic and intellectual pursuits of Black culture—particularly as it intersects and informs the larger culture. He investigates and questions the customs that govern our understanding of each other, our families and the myriad of our shared societal struggles and triumphs. He works to reveal the ordinary experiences, complexities and tenderness in relationships between Black people through photography, video, dance and performance.

“I am especially interested in the spaces free from the white gaze: the few places Black people feel comfortable being themselves. My work often highlights the culture—the art, music, and film—that Black people fill their homes and lives with. My art asserts the full humanity and rich culture of Black Americans.”

All images courtesy of artist Cecil McDonald, Jr.

THE GESTURE ITSELF IS PROTECTION SPELL
2022-09-17 13:00 - 15:00
Performative activations from current exhibiting artists R. Treshawn Williamson & Lola Ayisha Ogbara, with special guest artist Jada-Amina.

Borrowed from Lola Ayisha Ogbara’s video work ‘Bound For Glory’ from her continuing series The Perfect Servant, THE GESTURE ITSELF IS PROTECTION SPELL proposes questions of the body, disruption, labor, acts of looking, and materiality through movement, sound, and mythmaking.
Williamson, Ogbara, and Amina engage in multidisciplinary practices that reference homeplace, memory, and the “gaze” that take place across photography, video, sculpture, sound, and printmaking.

THE GESTURE ITSELF IS PROTECTION SPELL will feature a collaborative live sound activation by R. Treshawn Williamson and Jada-Amina followed by Lola Ayisha Ogbara’s video work ‘Bound For Glory’, in which Ogbara uses Chicago’s labor intensive history, centralizing Black women domestic workers, to envision a radical future for Black lives. Ogbara finds an additional dialogue between sculpture and experimental photography that challenges our relationship to viewership. Ogbara questions, “What lengths are we willing to go to in order to protect what is rightfully ours?” as she begins to imagine a collective disruption in the way we use our bodies to perform artistic labor.

In the same ways Ogbara imagines collective disruption and Black women’s labor , R. Treshawn Williamson and Jada-Amina also explore the Black maternal and cultural re-imagination through sound mixing and oral histories, through what Amina describes as “a sonic meditation grounded in incantation and afro-sentimentality…”

Image courtesy of Lola Ayisha Ogbara. Bound For Glory. 4 minutes 36 seconds. 2021

This program is the final program related to our current exhibition “…of the land: acts of refusal and ratification” , which features new and recent works from Chicago-based artists Ajmal ‘Mas Man’ Millar, Lola Ayisha Ogbara, and R. Treshawn Williamson exploring sculpture, self-imaging and history through postcolonial lenses, collective & individual recollection and peculiar materialism.

*Top Image courtesy of artist Jada-Amina. Revolutions. 00:01:35 min. B&W Super 8 scanned to digital, 2017.

HOMECOMING: ON THE YARD
2022-10-01 13:00 - 17:00
HOMECOMING: ON THE YARD 2022

HOMECOMING will be SSCAC’s first large-scale outdoor program, intended to be a city-wide call and response to Black artists!

RSVP HERE

HOMECOMING will be SSCAC’s first large-scale outdoor program, intended to be a city-wide call and response to Black artists to further celebrate our legacy as the first Black arts center in the nation, reconnect with past artists, as well as commemorating the new and expansive ways we are moving forward as an organization! We’re calling our community to come back home!

We invite you and your families to celebrate with us alongside live musical performances from Sam Thousand and Team Jukeboxx Mas Band with special guest DJ Rae Chardonnay hosted by “Toaster” (Tim Henderson)!

Sam Thousand (formally known as Sam Trump) is a multi-instrumentalist, singer/writer, producer/composer and a 3Arts Recipient with 15+ years of experience in live performance art, curation, and self-management. Since picking up the trumpet at age 7, his artistry has allowed him the opportunity to perform in all corners of North America as well as overseas.

Sam Thousand has become a fixture in Chicago’s music scene through various stages from the Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park to a cozy nook in a low-lit speakeasy in Fulton Market. He has maintained years of performance residencies and has curated special events from tributes to artist showcases. In addition to performing and curating, he has served as a booking manager to facilitate performance opportunities for other musicians. Sam Thousand is co-founder of multiple Chicago-based organizations and is a business owner and entrepreneur. Everywhere he goes, he brings a sophistication that engages & uplifts.

Rae Chardonnay is a DJ and cultural programs producer based in Chicago. She is the Founder of Black Eutopia, a series of segmented programming intended to cultivate space for marginalized communities; and co-founder of the award winning Party Noire where joy for Black queer, trans and gender non-conforming people is centered.

Since Rae began her DJ career, she’s been noted as one of Chicago’s Top 5 DJ’s by NPR, and Chicago’s Best DJ by the Chicago Reader.

Team Jukeboxx Mas Band is a carnival inspired performance company founded by Stacy “Jukeboxx” Letrice. The mas band first made their debut in 2018 at Windy City Carnival, a not-for-profit festival and colorful parade that takes place in Chicago during the month of August. In just one year, the band took home the title of “Band of the Year” and won the award for “Best Dance Performance”.

This big win opened the doors for the group to perform at various festivals and cultural events within the Chicagoland area and surrounding states. Their mission is to educate their audiences about Caribbean culture while providing a small taste of the beauty and artistry of Caribbean Carnival.

Toaster is the Co creator of Big Kid Slam, a poetry slam invested in centering marginalized voices and terrible prizes. He has competed at every level of poetry slam, most recently competing as an Individual World Poetry Slam finalist.

Toaster has been featured in poetry events all over America, Vancouver and most recently Germany. His work can be found on Button Poetry, All Def Digital, Sofar Sounds and National Public Radio.

Featured Food Vendor

Dozzy’s Grill!

Special Thanks to Pigment International & Department for Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE)!

ReSource Symposium: Art and Resourcefulness in Black Chicago
2022-10-07 10:00 - 17:00
This convening will help shape the research questions, thematic structures, and community connections for the South Side Community Art Center’s “ReSOURCE” exhibition, scheduled for 2024 as part of the Terra Foundation’s Art Design Chicago program.

This symposium brings together artists and academics, agricultural practitioners and community organizers, to learn from one another’s ideas and practices. A private portion of the symposium will allow participants to convene in a smaller group to discuss plans for the exhibition and associated programming with the goal of ensuring the project is shaped by input from people representing a range of community organizations as well as artists, curators, and researchers.

The exhibition, scheduled for 2024 explores the historical and contemporary resourcefulness of African American artists and cultural creators in Chicago who form a tradition of creative genius that “makes do,” recycling materials, repurposing skills, and building on personal and community resources.

The public symposium on October 7 will take place on zoom and will include panel discussions with scholars, urban gardening community leaders, and artists, followed by a private session on Saturday the 8th.

All panels will take place virtually via Zoom CDT. For more information regarding the public symposium, please see the full site here

OCTOBER 7 SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS

ERIKA ALLEN
Co-Founder & CEO of Urban Growers Collective | Speaker and Advisor

Erika Allen (she/her) is the Co-Founder & CEO of Programs and Development Strategy for Urban Growers Collective and the President of Green ERA Educational NFP and Co-Owner of Green Era Sustainability Partners.

Erika has been appointed by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker for the IL Leadership Council for Agricultural Education (ICAE) for a 3 Year term (2022-2024). Allen was recently appointed by the Biden Administration to join the Farm Service Agency Committee for Illinois. She was awarded the 2022 James Beard Leadership award.
Erika received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her MA in Art Psychotherapy from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She uses her experience as a visual artist to consult with individuals and organizations to support their visioning of social and economic changes. She is passionate about social justice and working with multicultural groups in the elimination of racism, related oppressions, and the root causes of poverty by integrating creative and therapeutic techniques alongside food security and community development.

MEKAZIN ALEXANDER Founder of Earl’s Garden Mae’s Kitchen | Speaker and Advisor

Over the past 20 plus years Earline “Mekazin” Alexander has been committed to ensuring that underserved residents in the City of Chicago receive equitable services to improve the quality of their lives and promote their wellbeing. She has worked in a variety of capacities serving children, youth, adults, and seniors, and the developmentally disabled and states that “the challenge is making sure you always have a continuum of service and to make certain that you are doing what is necessary to take people to the next level while addressing their critical needs.”

Earl’s Garden Mae’s Kitchen community garden evolved to create a safe space where all generations in the Englewood community and its surrounding areas could have a place to just be. Be involved with food education and healthy eating, artistic expressions, community events. Earline Alexander believes “creativity creates a balance in life” and she foresees Earl’s Garden Mae’s Kitchen being a part of that balance.

BASIA BROWN
Director of Development at SkyART | Advisor

Basia has worked with various non-profit organizations throughout Illinois including Springfield Urban League, Robert R. McCormick Foundation and Chicago Housing Authority in a variety of roles ranging from development, case management, program administration and more. She began serving the community through an artistic lens during her collegiate career providing Art Therapy sessions to cancer patients and their families at Decatur Memorial Hospital in Decatur, IL.

After completing her BA in Human Services form Millikin University she took on the challenge of connecting others to communities in need which led to becoming the Director of Development for Howard Area Community Center in Rogers Park. After receiving her certification in Nonprofit Management from the University of Illinois at Chicago extended campus and two years of service to northern Chicago, she joined SkyART as the Assistant Director of Development in January 2020 and later promoted to Director of Development in July 2021.

ASHLEIGH DEOSARAN
PhD Student, Northwestern University | Panel Moderator

Ashleigh Deosaran (b.1992, Trinidad and Tobago, she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist and scholar. She is currently a doctoral student in Art History and a Gender and Sexuality Studies Mellon Fellow at Northwestern University. She researches modern and contemporary art with a focus on the Anglophone Caribbean, through the lenses of queer theory, cultural studies, and postcolonial thought. After earning a B.A. in Fine Arts & Psychology from Pace University (’16), she completed an M.A. in Modern Art: Critical and Curatorial Studies at Columbia University (’19). She has held curatorial research positions at the Dia Art Foundation and the Public Art Fund in New York City.

Most recently, she co-curated a video program for Alice Yard’s presentation at documenta fifteen and was awarded the Block Museum Curatorial Fellowship (’22-’23). Her critical writing has been published in Hemisphere: Visual Cultures of the Americas, Field Magazine, and Pree Literary Magazine.

CHELSEA FRAZIER
Black feminist ecocritic and assistant professor of African American Literature and Culture at Cornell University | Speaker and Advisor

Chelsea Mikael Frazier, PhD is a Black feminist ecocritic—writing, researching, and teaching at the intersection of Black feminist theory and environmental thought. Across a diverse array of platforms, all of Dr. Frazier’s work is geared toward creating paths toward harmonial Worlds that no longer rely on the harm of Black people, the destruction of our environment, or the exploitation of femininity to keep spinning.
In 2019, she founded Ask An Amazon, an educational hub where she designs educational tools, curates community gatherings, gives lectures, and provides consulting services meant to help students, professionals, and organizations with their intellectual and creative development. Dr. Frazier is an assistant professor of African American Literature and Culture at Cornell University’s Department of Literatures in English.

Dr. Frazier is currently at work on her first book manuscript, a years-long ecocritical investigation of contemporary Black women artists, writers, and activists. Frazier illuminates the cultural histories and creative contributions of Black women who’ve carved-out a rich and transformative practice of ecological ethics alternative to the “environmentalisms” that are readily legible in Western society.

CANDACE HUNTER
Chicago Visual Artist and Water Rights Activist | Speaker and Advisor

Candace Hunter is a self-sustaining visual artist residing in Chicago and calling the world home. Her touring solo shows, DUST IN THEIR VEINS: a Visual Response to the Global Water Crisis, HOODED TRUTHS, and SO BE IT. SEE TO IT. have enjoyed robust viewings in multiple cities. Her multi-disciplined work, LOSS/SCAPE, the Landscape of Loss, examined the major loss of human capitol on the Western shores of Africa during the TransAtlantic Slave Trade.

Hunter is a proud recipient of the 3Arts NEXT LEVEL/SPARE ROOM Award (2021), the Tim and Helen Meier Family Foundation Grantee 2020 and honored by the collective, Diasporal Rhythm’s (2014/15).

SEITU JONES
Multi-disciplinary artist and Community Organizer | Speaker and Advisor

Seitu Ken Jones is a multidisciplinary artist, advocate and maker based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Working between the arts and public spheres, Jones channels the spirit of radical social movements into experiences that foster critical conversations and nurture more just and vibrant communities from the soil up. He is recognized as a dynamic collaborator and a creative force for civic engagement.

Jones is a recently retired faculty member of Goddard College in Washington State. He holds a BS degree in Landscape Design and a MLS in Environmental History from the University of Minnesota. He’s been a Senior Fellow in Agricultural Systems in the College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Science Resources at the University of Minnesota and is a member of the board of managers for the Capitol Region Watershed District.

ALEXANDREA KEITH
PhD Student, Northwestern University | Panel Moderator

Alexandrea Keith is a third-year doctoral student in the Department of History at Northwestern University. She studies 20th century Black cultural politics and history in the United States, United Kingdom, and English-speaking Caribbean. Her research interests include Black arts activism, Black Power, and racial liberation politics. She is particularly interested in how Black women across the Atlantic have used theater as a form of cultural politics and activism.

In addition to her scholarship, Alexandrea serves as the Graduate Student Advisor for the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship at Northwestern where she supports undergraduates students of color interested in pursuing careers in academia. Prior to attending graduate school, she graduated magna cum laude with majors in History and African and African American Studies from Dartmouth College in 2020.

FAHEEM MAJEED
Chicago Visual Artist and Co-founder of the Floating Museum | Speaker and Advisor

Faheem Majeed (American, b. 1976) is an artist, educator, curator, and community facilitator. Through his unique experience, he creates works focusing on institutional critique and meaningful community dialogues. As part of his studio practice, Majeed transforms materials such as particle board, scrap metal and wood, discarded signs, and billboard remnants, breathing new life into these often overlooked and devalued materials.

From 2007-2011 Majeed was the former executive director of the South Side Community Art Center. Currently, he is the co-director and founder of the Chicago based arts collective, Floating Museum.

Majeed is a recipient of the 2020 Field and Macarthur Foundation’s Leaders for a New Chicago Award and the 2020 Joyce Foundation Award. His work has been exhibited in numerous institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, SMFA at Tufts, and the Hyde Park Art Center. Majeed received his BFA from Howard University and his MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

GERVAIS MARSH
PhD Candidate, Northwestern University | Panel Moderator

Gervais Marsh is a writer, scholar and curator whose work is deeply invested in Black life, concepts of relationality and care. Their writing, artistic and curatorial work is rooted in Transnational Black feminist theory and praxis. They are a PhD candidate in Performance Studies at Northwestern University and their dissertation explores the generative possibilities of difficult intimacies through the work of several Black queer visual and performance artists. Their writing has been published in ARTS.BLACK, Musée Magazine, Sixty Inches from Center, Sugarcane Magazine and PREE: Caribbean Writing, among others.

They are an editor with Ruckus Journal and recent curatorial projects include Heather Brammeier’s Maybe Never and A.J. McClenon’s Notes from VEGA, both at the Hyde Park Art Center. They grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, a home that continues to shape their understanding of self and relationship to the world.

MEIDA MCNEAL
Artistic and Managing Director of Honey Pot Performance | Speaker and Advisor

Meida Teresa McNeal works with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events’ Executive Administration team as the Senior Manager of Arts & Community Impact Investments building and implementing artist recovery programs and creative placemaking grantmaking initiatives.

Prior to this role, Meida worked with the Chicago Park District as Arts & Culture Manager supporting community arts partnerships, youth arts, cultural stewardship, and civic engagement initiatives. Projects included cultural planning projects from neighborhood cultural center activations and citywide asset mapping, and a cultural stewardship training program focused on neighborhood resource development through the lens of arts & culture in communities.

Meida is also Artistic and Managing Director of Honey Pot Performance. She received her PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and her MFA in Choreography & Dance History from Ohio State University. She has produced numerous creative projects as both a solo artist and with Honey Pot Performance, performing in Illinois, Rhode Island, Ohio, California, and Trinidad.

ROSALYN OWENS
Executive Director of Bronzeville Neighborhood Farm | Advisor

“Rosalyn Owens” is Director-In Training for the Bronzeville Neighborhood Farm. After the unfortunate death of her husband, Johnnie L. Owens, Jr., she immediately without much thought about what she was doing, made the decision to continue her husband’s work at the garden in Bronzeville feeling that he would want her to continue his legacy.

Rosalyn left corporate after working for: AT&T, CHA and, Arthur Andersen to pursue an education career. Obtaining her graduate degree in Curriculum and Instruction, she found her true calling; helping students attain knowledge. Roz has taught students from pre- kindergarten through adult. Her philosophy is founded on the premise that all students deserve a good education from an educator who is passionate about their students learning.

She’s excited about the work ahead and, is determined to continue Johnnie’s work in Bronzeville as a place for folks to gather, enjoy nature and exchange ideas amongst each other.

FAWN POCHEL
Co-Founder, First Nations Garden | Speaker and Advisor

An advocate for social and environmental justice, Fawn is the co-founder of the First Nations Garden located in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood. Fawn has over a decade of community organizing and advocacy experience focusing on raising awareness of Native Peoples living in Chicago with the goal of contributing to the personal sovereignty, healing, and educational pursuits of Native youth. Fawn has worked closely with communities across the city to incorporate land-based pedagogies and Indigenous worldview into curricula and policy while developing and implementing innovative community programming through an Indigenous lens focused on the preservation of native plants, heritage foods and dismantling systems of white supremacy.

In her free time Fawn prides herself on being an Auntie to an autonomous grassroots collaborative, Chi-Nations Youth Council, whose mission is to create safe space for Native Youth through Arts, Activism and Education.

DEJAH POWELL
Frontloading Structure & Culture Coordinator with Sunrise Movement Chicago | Advisor

Dejah (she/her) is an organizer based in Chicago, with Sunrise Movement, a youth-led movement to stop the climate crisis and create millions of good jobs. Dejah has a fierce commitment to building a multi-racial, cross-class movement that will win Green New Deal legislation federally and locally. During her time in Sunrise, Dejah was a volunteer in the Chicago hub, leading in fundraising and trainings. She started full-time, as a Regional Organizer and Lead Organizer, providing coaching and organizing support for Sunrise hubs around trainings, electoral organizing, and actions across the Midwest. She’s also led several organizing programs, including a 2020 BIPOC Organizing School, training black and brown youth in key skills to win a Green New Deal.

When Dejah’s not cooking up plans to grow the movement and build power to win a Green New Deal, she enjoys reading, roller skating, and meditation. Dejah is a 2018 graduate of Cornell University with a degree in Environmental and Sustainability Science.

TARYN RANDLE
Farm, Food, Familias Coordinator at LVEJO, Founder of Getting Grown Collective | Speaker and Advisor

Taryn is a farmer, learner-teacher and connector. Born and raised on the southside of Chicago, Taryn is committed to connecting Black and Brown people with the land, each other and practices that train present and future generations to survive the unexpected.

Taryn began growing with the land in 2017 through co-founding Getting Grown Collective(GGC) with family, friends and neighbors on 63rd & Morgan in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. Currently Taryn is a Farm, Food, Familias Program Coordinator with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization(LVEJO) and a Farm Liaison for Grow Greater Englewood(GGE)

ANTON SEALS
Executive Director, Grow Greater Englewood | Speaker and Advisor

L. Anton Seals Jr. is a South Shore Chicago, IL native. Seals is a multidimensional servant leader, organizer, entrepreneur, educator, community connector and impact producer. Anton is currently the Lead Steward/Executive Director of Grow Greater Englewood (GGE). Transforming vacant city lots into farm businesses, via a network of Black and brown urban farmers, GGE is a social enterprise focusing on building an equitable and resilient local food system, fostering protections of vacant land in divested communities, and connecting those residents with community wealth building opportunities. Seals focuses on authentic “equity in action” and also works in the arts and cultural space, producing campaigns for nationally broadcasted documentaries.

In 2019 Seals founded OURS, a vertical Cannabis and Hemp company. Anton is a 2018 Next City Vanguard Fellow and 2010 German Marshall Fellow. Seals serves as a Trustee for the Woods Fund of Chicago and is Chair of the South Shore Works Planning Preservation Coalition.

RASHAD SHABAZZ
Associate Professor in African American Studies and Geography at Arizona State University | Speaker and Advisor

Rashad Shabazz’s academic expertise brings together human geography, cultural studies, gender studies, and critical race studies. His research explores how race, gender, and cultural production are informed by geography. His most recent work, Spatializing Blackness,(University of Illinois Press, 2015) examines how carceral power within the geographies of Black Chicagoans shaped urban planning, housing policy, policing practices, gang formation, high incarceration rates, masculinity, and health.

Professor Shabazz’s scholarship has appeared in the journals Souls, The Spatial-Justice Journal, ACME, Gender, Place and Culture, Cultural Geography, Occasions, and Places. In addition, Shabazz has also published several book chapters and book reviews. Professor Shabazz’s scholarship is also public facing. He has also appeared on local, national, and international news programs such as the BBC, Time Magazine, and 20/20. He is currently working on a book that uncovers the development of the Minneapolis music scene from its beginning in the mid-19th century to the release of Prince’s magnum opus, Sign O’ The Times, in 1987. Professor Shabazz received his Ph.D. in the History of Consciousness from the University of California-Santa Cruz in 2008.

TAMARA BECERRA VALDEZ
Visual artist and Educator | Advisor

Tamara Becerra Valdez is an artist and educator who works at the intersection of archives, oral histories, material studies, and ecology. She has participated in national and international multi-disciplinary projects focused on art, preservation, and ecology, including: Tender House Project, City of Chicago Park District, Political Ecology: Platform Chicago, Whole Life Academy, and The Anthropocene Campus with the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin.

She has held residencies at ACRE and BOLT Residency at the Chicago Artists Coalition. In 2021, she was awarded a 3Arts Make A Wave grant. She received her MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago and BFA from the University of Texas at Austin. Tamara is also a gardener, seed saver, and collective member at El Paseo Community Garden in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago.

9 Artists/ 9 Months/ 9 Perspectives
2022-10-08 - 2022-12-17
9 Artists/ 9 Months/ 9 Perspectives features work by the collective, Dandelion Black Women Artists.

OPENING RECEPTION RSVP HERE

Nine Black women artists engaged in collaborative efforts to create artworks that transcend and transform events in the year 2020. In their eyes, art-making became a transgressive act through activism, documentation and vision. Utilizing book-making, craft-making and works on paper, 9 Artists/9 Months/ 9 Perspectives presents a birth of vision under hardship felt worldwide, collectively allowing us to reckon with our own perspectives, reflections and welfare.

This exhibition presents the conception, gestation, and birth of a collaborative artists’ books created by nine Black women artists of the collective, Dandelion Black Women Artists. Their responses, perspectives, and reflections were inspired by the continuous struggle for health, social, and economic welfare of marginalized people during COVID-19, the lack of response from the federal government, and the political allyship of socio-political grassroots movements like Black Lives Matter. Craft-making became a transgressive act through artivism, perspective, and vision.

Their work embraces Black feminism as theorized by artist/art historians such as Freida High Wasikhongo Tsesfagiorgis, in which art created by Black women artists depict the Black woman as: 1) subject rather than an object; 2) the exclusive or primary subject; 3) active rather than passive; 4) sensitive to the self-recorded realities of Black women; 5) imbued with the aesthetics of the African continuum—sustaining a personal vision that embraces Afrocentric tastes in color, texture, and rhythm.

Exhibiting artists include:
Adjoa J. Burrowes, Julee Dickerson-Thompson, Aziza Claudia Gibson-Hunter, Michele Godwin, Francine Haskins, Pamela Harris Lawton, Gloria Patton, Gail Shaw-Clemons, and Kamala Subramanian.

9 Artists/ 9 Months/ 9 Perspectives will be on view from October 8 – December 17, 2022.

Dandelion Black Women Artists Talk
2022-10-08 13:00 - 15:00
Members of the Dandelion Black Women Artists collective will join SSCAC Exhibitions Manager & Curator Lola Ayisha Ogbara in conversation.

RSVP HERE

Our upcoming exhibition 9 Artists/ 9 Months/ 9 Perspectives features work from the Dandelion Black Women Artists collective. These nine Black women artists engaged in collaborative efforts to create artworks that transcend and transform events in the year 2020. In their eyes, art-making became a transgressive act through activism, documentation and vision.

We hope you’ll join us with coffee and cake, for what will be an unforgettable and memorable intergenerational panel!

Gloria Patton. I Hear You. Monotype. 14′ x 11′. 2022

All based in the DMV region, otherwise known as the Beltway – SSCAC is proud to welcome this dynamic collective for a conversation moderated and facilitated by SSCAC Exhibitions Manager & Curator Lola Ayisha Ogbara, who worked exclusively with the artists in organizing 9 Artists/ 9 Months/ 9 Perspectives for it’s Chicago premiere at SSCAC.

Exhibiting artists include:
Adjoa J. Burrowes, Julee Dickerson-Thompson, Aziza Claudia Gibson-Hunter, Michele Godwin, Francine Haskins, Pamela Harris Lawton, Gloria Patton, Gail Shaw-Clemons, and Kamala Subramanian.

9 Artists/ 9 Months/ 9 Perspectives will be on view from October 8 – December 17, 2022.

Black Fine Art Month Salon Talk 'Who’s Got Next’
2022-10-14 18:00 - 20:00
We’re proud to partner with Pigment International, Pigment International for a Salon Talk that explores Black Chicago Art History and legacies, featuring our favorite TikTok historian ‘6figga_dilla’ !

Known on social media as ‘6figga_dilla’, Shermann “Dilla” Thomas is a lifelong resident of Chicago’s Auburn-Gresham neighborhood and his Tik Tok videos on Chicago history attract thousands. He will feature a debut video project, tracing the long lineage and global impact of Chicago Black art history.

An intimate conversation will take place with Ciera McKissick (curator); Jordan A. Porter-Woodruff (collector); zakkiyyah najeebah dumas-o’neal (SSCAC); Alicia Goodwin (jewelry designer and collector), and Indianapolis based historian Kaila Austin as it regards continuing Black art legacies!

The conversation will be moderated by WTTW’s Angel Idowu.

Refreshments and drinks will be provided to all attendees, we hope to see you there!

G to G Coaching Session: Tax Preparation for Artists and Freelancers
2022-10-22 12:00 - 13:30
SSCAC is thrilled to partner with ILA Creative Studio for their G-to-G Coaching Sessions, in a 3-part series of artist development resource workshops that intend to help close the gap of limited, sustainable business resources, specific to the needs of Black artists.

You were just paid 7K to create an illustration for a major brand…they sent you a W-9…why?

Or picture this, Nike hired you to do a spoken word voiceover in their upcoming commercial, you were paid 5K and forgot to tell Uncle Sam. Yikes!

Better yet, you composed a score for the latest Disney film and were paid 10K, how much of that belongs to you?

We have some insights for you!

During this 3-part series, we will hold space for artists and freelancers to learn and grow in key areas of interest. So much of our time as practicing artists goes into actually creating our wonderful art, but we MUST create time where we learn about the necessary business etiquette.

Each session will be led by coaches and teaching artists who will provide insight on a specific topic, with the intention of assisting Black artists to work toward achieving sustainability in their field.
ILA Creative Studio’s G-to-G Coaching Sessions are an opportunity for professional practicing artists (18+) to have space to learn and grow in their respective fields – led by a mentor or coach that provides specific insights on a specific topic. These sessions help to translate effective ways for Black artists to achieve sustainability in their fields.

First up, “Tax Preparation for Artists and Freelancers”, led by Shana Isom! Where she’ll cover all things tax and financial management.

Shana Isom has been working in the accounting industry since graduating from the University of Illinois in 2008. Shana’s professional experience and scholastic achievements influenced her to join Kerry Van Isom and Associates. Through her public accounting experience, Shana has gained technical training on proper accounting standards and practices.

Shana tackles common tax situations as well as complex accounting scenarios for individuals, businesses, and service organizations. As a licensed CPA, she provides audit services for non-profit organizations and consulting services on deficiencies in internal control management.
Shana specialization in financial management and tax debt resolution for businesses and individuals, has solidified her as a trusted business consultant, and continues to provide clients with consultations that ensure long-term proper business management.

Snacks and sponsored tea will be provided by Joy & Magic Tea. Very limited spots are available. Stay tuned for remaining sessions!

REWIND & PLAY | SSCAC x Black Harvest Film Festival
2022-11-20 12:30 - 14:30 | Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N State St, Chicago, IL, 60601, United States
SSCAC and Black Harvest Film Festival, in partnership with the Gene Siskel Film Center invite you to a complimentary afternoon screening of REWIND & PLAY!

Image courtesy of REWIND & PLAY. 2022, Alain Gomis, USA, 65 mins

In 1969, famed jazz pianist Thelonious Monk performed at the 3,000-seat Salle Pleyel concert hall in Paris. Before the concert, he recorded an episode of the French television show “Jazz Portrait,” hosted by pianist Henri Renaud.

In this daring work of non-fiction filmmaking, director Alain Gomis examines not the interview, but the raw archival footage – the moments not seen by the television audience – where it becomes painfully clear that the host and producer are only interested in the musician if he plays voiceless and silently, without speaking about his experiences as a Black artist during a time of social and political unrest. Despite the oppression, Monk plays on – his music, now in the context of REWIND & PLAY, all the more exceptional.

REWIND & PLAY will be preceded by SHUT UP AND PAINT.

Image courtesy of SHUT UP AND PAINT. 2022, Alex Mallis, Titus Kaphar, USA, 21 mins

In SHUT UP AND PAINT, contemporary painter Titus Kaphar uses film as a medium to explore, challenge, and examine the ways in which the art market seeks to silence his activism.

The 28th Black Harvest Film Festival – Chicago’s annual showcase for films that celebrate, explore, and share the Black, African American and African Diaspora experience – will be held November 4 through 20 in person and November 21 through 27 online! Festival passes and tickets for our full lineup of feature films, short film programs, and special events are now on sale!

Complimentary popcorn from Chicago-based and Black owned popcorn company Herby Pop will be available for attendees.

RSVP is required, and limited tickets are available, so we hope to see you there!

3831 Holiday Pop-Up!
2022-12-10 12:00 - 16:00
Join us to get a head start on holiday shopping at our first 3831 Holiday Pop-Up, with some of the city’s most talented Black creatives!

Image courtesy: Limba Gal Jewelry.

Come through to support some of Chicago’s most gifted and talented Black creatives as we move into the Holiday season!

3831 Holiday Pop-Up is a mini pop-up market hosted in our historic Burroughs gallery, that will feature vendors working across a variety of businesses from jewelry to candles, books, and more!

Check out our incredible list of vendors:

Reformed School
ELUKE by Etiti Ayeni
Limba Gal Jewelry
Literary Black Girl
Red Elephant Candle Company
Graceful Cakes
with more to be announced !

This event is free and for all-ages, so we encourage you to bring your family!

G to G Coaching Session: How To Balance Creative Work & Multiple Projects
2023-01-07 12:00 - 13:30
The second development resource workshop in our series artist development partnership with ILA Creative Studio!

SSCAC is thrilled to partner with ILA Creative Studio for their G-to-G Coaching Sessions in a 3-part series of artist development resource workshops that intend to help close the gap of limited, sustainable business resources, specific to the needs of Black artists.

ILA Creative Studio’s G-to-G Coaching Sessions are an opportunity for professional practicing artists (18+) to have space to learn and grow in their respective fields – led by a mentor or coach that provides specific insights on a specific topic. These sessions help to translate effective ways for Black artists to achieve sustainability in their fields.

So much of our time as practicing artists goes into actually creating our wonderful art, but we MUST create time where we learn about the necessary business etiquette. Each session will be led by coaches and teaching artists who will provide insight on a specific topic, with the intention of assisting Black artists to work toward achieving sustainability in their field.

Second up, “How To Balance Creative Work & Multiple Projects”, led by Adia Sykes and Tiffany Johnson! Where they’ll cover all things project management, artist development strategies, and self-care advocacy within the arts.

Adia Sykes is an arts organizer and curator based in Chicago. Her practice seeks to center philosophies of improvisation, intuition, and care, engaging them as tools through which meaningful relationships between artists and viewers can be cultivated, while leaving space for the vernacular to mingle with constructs of history and theory.

As an administrator advocating for racial equity and sustainable ecosystems for creative practitioners, she has held roles with organizations like the Chicago Artists Coalition, where she started their SPARK Grant— a joint effort with the Joyce Foundation providing unrestricted grants to artists of color, not formally trained artists, and artists with disabilities. At present, Adia is Co-Director of Programs at Threewalls which is an arts organization that fosters contemporary art practices that respond to lived experiences, encouraging connections beyond art. She is also a Lead Organizer of the Chicago Art Census, a city-wide research project that collects, maps, and visualizes data that illuminates the lived experiences and working conditions of art workers in Chicago.

Her curatorial projects include Locating Memory (Chicago Mayor’s Office, 2018), Project Radio London (Centro Arte Opificio Siri in Terni, Italy, 2018), and The Petty Biennial.2 (Chicago, 2019-2020). She has also realized projects with the Art Institute of Chicago, Sullivan Galleries, Woman Made Gallery, ACRE, Material Exhibitions, Roman Susan Gallery, and Comfort Station. She also currently serves as Board Chair for Chicago Dancemakers Forum.

Adia earned a Masters in Arts Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in Anthropology from the University of Chicago.

A Southsider, born and bred, Tiffany M Johnson is interested in spaces (and a world) where Black people can exhale. A queer Black woman, she is a researcher, survivor advocate, and cultural worker passionate about community building through imaginative, underground, and cooperative practices.
Tiffany attended SOAS, University of London, for her Master’s in Migration and Diasporas Studies. Currently pursuing a DIY Ph.D., her research focuses on otherworld-making community practices through ancestral technologies, creative expressions, and ecological relations.

She is ACRE Residency’s Programs Director, which supports emerging artists develop, discuss and present their artistic practices. Under this role, she also manages the Chicago Art Census – a comprehensive, cross-discipline data collection effort created by and with the art workers of Chicago. In addition, as the Consultant Curator with the Chicago Park District, Arts & Culture Unit (ACU), she co-designed and led the development of the public curatorial residency program, Anchor Residency.

She is a member of the Cooperation for Liberation, an open study and working group focused on cooperative histories in Black communities and is co-stewarding the development of the survivor support mutual aid group, Project Nebula.

Snacks and sponsored coffee will be provided by Sip & Savor!

MLK DAY: VISION BOARDS FOR NEW FUTURES
2023-01-16 13:00 - 15:00
Honoring the future MLK dreamed of, while also bringing in our own visions for the futures we want to create!

Join us for an afternoon of vision boarding, as we honor the radical dreaming of Martin Luther King Jr.

MLk believed in the dreams of revolution, and creating a society based on equality and justice. As we honor the radical future MLK dreamed of, we invite you to visualize your own visions for the futures we want to create.

“..We must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterday’s into bright tomorrows. Let us realize that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

– MLK, “Where Do We Go From Here?,” delivered at the 11th Annual SCLC Convention, Atlanta, Georgia, August 16, 1967.

“Without new visions, we don’t know what to build, only what to knock down. We not only end up confused, rudderless, and cynical, but we forget that making a revolution is not a series of clever maneuvers and tactics, but a process that can and must transform us.”

– Robin D.G. Kelley, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination

Image Courtesy: Associated Press.

What is a vision board?
A visual representation of your goals or a collective goal! These poster-sized visuals typically contain all kinds of images, colors, and text that represent something you’re trying to accomplish. There are really no rules when it comes to vision boards, since it’s about creating something that will inspire you to realize your dreams and goals on a daily basis.

Some vision boards focus on a singular idea, while others look at the bigger picture of what you might want the future to look like.

What does an equitable future look like? What do you dream of for yourself, and for your community? What does freedom look like and feel like?
These are just a few questions that we’re considering, and hope you’ll join us in visualizing new futures together!

We’ll provide the materials, but encourage you to bring any old magazines, newspapers, or paper materials you have lying around your home!

The Promised Land: Opening Reception
2023-01-20 17:00 - 20:00
Eleven artists with ties to North and South of the Mason-Dixon Line respond to just how much Black life has always been in transit.

The Great Migration was one of the largest movements of people in United States history. It has transformed cities like Chicago, Detroit, New York and Pittsburgh between 1916 and 1970. Chicago received more than 500,000 Black Southern Americans during this time.

To Southern Blacks, Chicago was considered the “Promised Land”. Stories of big city life — jobs with good wages, homes with running water, and basic freedoms denied to Blacks in the South — made the Northern city a prime destination for Blacks coming from below the Mason-Dixon line. As the most documented migration in US history, photographers like Gordon Parks, Florestine Perrault Collins, Moneta Sleet Jr., Roy DeCarava, and Coreen Simpson created imagery that demonstrated Black life in movement.

Today, contemporary artists and image makers respond to the many migrations of African Diaspora peoples and the influences of these movements in their work.

Derrick Woods-Morrow. Non-traditional Acts of Divination: Impression. Photograph. 18 in. x 24 in. 2019.

Featured Artists:

Lawrence Agyei
Anwulika Anigbo
Rose Blouin
Billie Carter-Rankin
Jen Everett
Mandela Hudson
Shabez Jamal
Sulyiman Stokes
Darryl Terrell
Loren Toney
Derrick Woods-Morrow

Darryl DeAngelo Terrell. 279º W 42º21’39” N 83º2’20″W Detroit, MI. Archival inkjet print. 24 in. x 36 in. 2021

Join us for an opening reception as we celebrate a diverse breath of photo and image works from some of the most promising artists exploring the possibilities and realities of Black life in image-making and photography.

Image courtesy (above). Sulyiman Stokes. Untitled (Momma #2). Photograph. 11 in. x 14 in. 2021

Black Adornment & The Found Object
2023-02-11 13:00 - 15:00
Join SSCAC Archives and Collections Manager LaMar Gayles Jr. for an afternoon exploring mixed media art, our collections, and adornment objects from his personal collection.

In this participatory program, join SSCAC Collections and Archives Manager LaMar Gayles in exploring examples of adornment and mixed media objects from the archives of the South Side Community Art Center and his personal collection.

This will be a unique opportunity for attendees to explore objects with connections to the history of the Center, how these objects have been made, how these works have aged over time, and thinking through the sociocultural materiality of these objects. Participants will have an opportunity to hold and interact with objects, be introduced to art material behaviors as well as preventive conservation practices that can better preserve these works for the future.

This program will be small and intimate with an attendance cap at 25 participants total, please RSVP in advance.

Black Family Portraits with Seed Lynn
2023-02-18 11:30 - 16:00
Join us with photographer Seed Lynn for a free family portrait session!

For this Black History Month, we’re thrilled to partner with photographer Seen Lynn to offer free family portraits to our community!

The Black family portrait, throughout history to the present, has always been an accessible, but vivid practice of self-representation that offers a more genuine and realistic portrayal of Black identity and dignity. Whether being made candidly within the family, or posing for a staged portrait, Black family portraits continue to reveal the inherent beauty, resilience, diversity, and style of our people and culture.

Learn more about our guest photographer below:

Writer, imagist, and artist, Seed Lynn, submits memory work as a liberatory practice. Whether sensually, technically, or artfully applied, Lynn meets the lens as a travelin’ state where listening and witnessing make voice timeless. And true.
This light invades his work, finds and frames subjects honestly, and creates brave space where stories find students. Lynn’s own studies concern how we remember ourselves, how that memory is imaged, and how remembrance itself, in the face of oppression, is a cathartic and radical act of protest.

We hope you’ll join us for what will be a memorable moment for you and your family!

NOTE:
We are prioritizing families who do NOT have studio family portraits, so we ask that you only reserve a space for you and your family if this applies to you. Portraits will be organized through 15-minute time blocks, with limited availability, so RSVP is required!

if for any reason you cannot make your timed reservation, please notify us right away so that we may open a slot to another family.

*notices can be made to SSCAC Programs Manager: zakkiyyah@sscartcenter.org

Artwork Documentation Workshop with Colleen Keihm
2023-02-25 12:00 - 13:00
Learn how to successfully document your artwork!

In conjunction with our current photo exhibition, ‘The Promised Land’, in partnership with LATITUDE, we’re thrilled to offer a free photo-documentation workshop for artists!

If you’re interested in learning more about documenting your artwork in an exhibition, for web use, or for your portfolio we’ll be working with photographer and LATITUDE Executive Director Collen Keihm! She will cover camera basics, what materials to have on hand, and how to set up a basic digital workflow to successfully document your artwork.

Photo credit: Loren Toney.

Colleen Keihm is the Executive Director at Latitude, a Chicago digital lab with high-end printing and scanning equipment that operates an artist in residence program and organizes arts programming. She received her MFA at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a BS in Photography at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Her work has been exhibited in Chicago at FLXST Contemporary, Flatland, Roman Susan, Filter Photo, and Tiger Strikes Asteroid. She has been an artist in residence at Hatch Projects at the Chicago Artist Coalition, Institut fur alles Mogliche in Berlin, Germany, and Studio 3325 in Chicago.

Her work is a part of the photography collection at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and she is a proud member of the Midwest Photographers Project. In addition to her role at Latitude, she is an educator in the Photography Department at University of Illinois at Chicago.

A Promised Land On The Horizon: Artist Talk
2023-03-11 13:00 - 15:00
‘The Promised Land’ exhibiting artists join SSCAC Exhibitions Manager and Curator Lola Ayisha Ogbara in conversation.

Our current exhibition ‘The Promised Land’, features eleven contemporary photo and image artists working across a diverse range of visual methods, that re-imagine stories of city life and the Great Migration through the decolonization of the lens, Southern rooted influences, movement, family archives and portraiture.
The Great Migration was one of the largest movements of people in United States history. It has transformed cities like Chicago, Detroit, New York and Pittsburgh between 1916 and 1970. Chicago received more than 500,000 Black Southern Americans during this time. To Southern Blacks, Chicago was considered the “Promised Land”. Stories of big city life — jobs with good wages, homes with running water, and basic freedoms denied to Blacks in the South — made the Northern city a prime destination for Blacks coming from below the Mason-Dixon line. As the most documented migration in US history, photographers like Gordon Parks, Florestine Perrault Collins, Moneta Sleet Jr., Roy DeCarava, and Coreen Simpson created imagery that demonstrated Black life in movement. With familial ties to North and South of the Mason-Dixon Line, this stellar group of contemporary artists respond to the many migrations of African Diaspora peoples and the influences of these movements in their work.

This exhibition was organized and curated by SSCAC Exhibitions Manager Lola Ayisha Ogbara, and features the following artists: Lawrence Ageyi, Anwulika Anigbo, Rose Blouin, Billie Carter-Rankin, Jen Everett, Mandela Hudson, Shabez Jamal, Sulyiman Stokes, Darryl DeAngelo Terrell, Loren Toney, and Derrick Woods-Morrow.

Complimentary coffee and cake will be provided during the program.

Learn more about the artists joining us:

Loren Toney is a published fine art and portrait photographer based in Chicago, Illinois. Finding her artistic footing in authentic emotion her portraiture is used in a wide array of spaces. From live music to behind the scenes photography she’s attuned to capturing the present moment. She was raised in the south suburbs of Chicago and received a BA from Columbia College Chicago as a Cinematography major and Photography minor. Her work focuses on the complexities of interpersonal relationships and identity, particularly the experiences of black men and women. She has been featured in “The Art Of Blackness,” exhibition in 2019 as well as Columbia College’s Library for an installation entitled “The Americans Now”. She was an Artist in Residence for Latitude Chicago in April 2018.

Her clients have included Rolling Stone, New York Times, Pitchfork, Goldenvoice.

https://lorentoney.com/

Sulyiman Stokes is a self-taught interdisciplinary artist from the South Side of Chicago whose sole focus is telling Black folks’ stories. Though music and photography are his primary areas of exploration, he regularly immerses himself in whatever medium is available to him to maximize expression.
Capturing and keeping a record of the ways Black folk struggle toward liberation by way of his work is his contribution to the very same pursuit.

Stokes’s photographs are Black-centric. Through them, he captures the ways in which Black people express their diverse talents and rich culture in everyday life.
Stokes captures the essence of his subjects through the use of soul-stirring and expressive images.

– Dierdre Robinson, South Side Weekly.

https://sulyiman.com/

Rose Blouin has created documentary and fine art photography since 1980. Blouin’s work has been exhibited in a number of museums and galleries including Woman Made Gallery, Nicole Gallery, The South Side Community Art Center, Artemesia Gallery, The North Suburban Fine Arts Center, Evanston Arts Center, and the State of Illinois Art Gallery. Her work has received awards in juried exhibitions including Tall Grass Arts “From Earth” exhibition, Black Creativity (Museum of Science and Industry), University of Chicago Logan Center for the Arts “Chicago Jazz: A Photographer’s View,” DuSable Museum Annual Art Fair, and the Milwaukee Inner City Art Fair. Her photographs have been published on the covers of South Side Stories (City Stoop Press), Columbia Poetry Review (Columbia College Chicago), and Killing Memory, Seeking Ancestors by Haki Madhubuti (Lotus Press). Photos of Gwendolyn Brooks are included in Say That the River Turns: The Impact of Gwendolyn Brooks (Third World Press, 1991) and Revise the Psalm: Work Celebrating The Writing Of Gwendolyn Brooks (Curbside Splendor, 2017.)
Blouin has had solo shows at the South Side Community Art Center and at the Ferguson Gallery of Concordia University featuring photographs from South Africa.

Most recently, Blouin mounted a solo exhibition of photographs from Havana at The New Studio in Evanston (2016). She is also a founding member of Sapphire & Crystals, a collective of African-American women artists.

https://roseblouinphotography.com/documentary-portfolio

Anwulika Anigbo (b. Nigeria 1987) is a Chicago-based artist tracing the historical and somatic roots of everyday life as it is practiced within blackness through imagery and processes. Her work chronicles and investigates self-determination, presence, knowledge production, and memory. Anigbo uses deep embodiment to make meaning at the intersections of life by rooting her practice in creation as a continuous process of personal and domestic liberation.

Anwulika’s work has been exhibited at The Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (South Korea), Chicago Artist Coalition (Chicago), EXPO Chicago with FOR FREEDOMS (Chicago) and the Chicago Athletic Association (Chicago). She was recently a 2022-23 Fellow with the Economic Security Project, the December 2022 and January 2023 Artist in Residence at Chicago Athletic Association, a 2021-22 Artist in Residence at the Chicago Artist Coalition, and a 2022 3Arts Ignite Fund Awardee. Her work is included in the collection at Ryan Lee Gallery, 21c Museum and private collections. Anwulika is also the founder of The Love Ethic Project which channels creative resources towards the production of a love ethic through direct discourse and action.

At any given moment we stand at the intersection of histories, embodying and accessing more than what we have personally experienced. How far back and forward can individual and collective memory take the process of self-determination. My work uses familiar personal moments and cultural references to access somatic memory and histories of self-determination layered onto our most rudimentary and interior moments. If you know you know, if not discourse is still welcome.
-Anwulika Anigbo

https://anwulikaanigbo.com/

Billie Carter-Rankin (b.1995) is a visual artist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She experiments with photography, darkroom processing, and archived images to explore loss within personal and collective memory. Her work primarily focuses on the absence of information, and the potential that is created as a result of that absence.

Carter-Rankin has been featured internationally in exhibitions such as the Setouchi Triennial 2019 in Japan, along with a number of publications such as TIME Magazine, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Oxford American.She graduated with a MFA in Photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2020, and her BA in Media, Journalism, and Film from Howard University in 2018.

https://www.billiecarterrankin.com/

Mandela Hudson is a multidisciplinary artist and designer who lives and works in Chicago, IL. His curiosity and enthusiasm for multiple forms of visual communication assist in the creation of projects in disciplines such as photography, woodworking, filmmaking, and book design. A commitment and the overall aim to build greater bonds and healthier relationships within respective art communities has helped in the growth of his practice.

In 2018, Mandela founded Projection Publishing, a platform that focuses on collaborative contemporary experiences in the visual arts. Projection works to promote and distribute printed matter from an array of creatives working in a multitude of mediums.

*Above image: Rose Blouin.WP People 84. Archival inkjet photograph. 19 in. x 26 in. 1987

"where the light corrupts your face..." | Opening Reception
2023-04-07 17:00 - 20:00
Artists Andres L. Hernandez, Tonika Lewis Johnson and Roland Knowlden consider the many definitions of space, site, and home.

Spatial griots Andres L. Hernandez, Tonika Lewis Johnson and Roland Knowlden invite you to consider how socio-economic and geographic oppressions impact the way we see (or don’t see) our environments. Hernandez uncovers embedded histories and systems of power within built and speculative landscapes to imagine these spaces otherwise. Social justice artist Lewis Johnson advocates for urban communities by documenting the disparities among Chicago residents who live on opposite ends of the same streets across the city’s racial and economic divides. Knowlden critically deconstructs the elements of our urban fabric and its architectural histories to reassemble them as cartographic abstractions and imagined landscapes.

Gwendolyn Brooks, a brilliant author, poet, and life-long resident of the historic neighborhood of Bronzeville, becomes the Mecca of these stories as this exhibition interrogates dilapidation, buried histories, and what it could mean to be Black in space. Architecture is an ever-present form of storytelling. The architectural historiographies of Black space have often been written by poets who have elegantly told our stories of spatiality. Brooks gave us a voice we didn’t know we needed while underlining the importance of Black interiority. Like Brooks, June Jordan has used poetry to advocate for Black lives. Jordan was an architect, through a feminist practice that centers how we think about cartographies. Jordan invited us to challenge and redefine prevailing socio-spatial constructs towards dignified spaces for all communities. This is one of many reasons why she is an additional pinnacle of reference for an exhibition which poetically grapples with the many definitions of space, site, and home.

Andres L. Hernandez is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary practitioner. Initially trained as an architect, he has previously worked within architectural offices, community organizations, public schools, museums, and other institutional contexts.

Hernandez’ projects include commissions for the University of Arizona School of Art; 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale; and Pulitzer Arts Foundation and Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. With Dark Adaptive, he co-developed performances for The Drawing Center; MoMA; Sharjah Biennial; and Performa. Hernandez held artist residencies with MCA Chicago; University of Arizona; Chicago DCASE; and University of Chicago. He participated on design teams for the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial, and the Museum of the Obama Presidential Center. His awards include the Efroymson Family Fund Contemporary Arts Fellowship, and the 3Arts Award in Visual Arts.
Hernandez is currently an Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

“My work draws forward the latent potential of words, spaces, sounds, and movement to elicit liberatory ways of being. I explore the embedded attitudes, histories, policies, and systems of power within and beyond our world(s) as a method of imagining and existing otherwise. I site my practice at the intersection of the social and the spatial. I consider the symbiotic, yet, fraught relationships between built and natural environments and their inhabitants, and speculate alternative pasts, presents, and futures for all. My work takes many forms, including collaborative and socially-engaged works, as well as independent, studio-based practices. Drawing, installation, and writing are my preferred media, alongside sound and performance”.

https://andreslhernandez.com/

Tonika Johnson is a photographer, social justice artist and life-long resident of Chicago’s Southside Englewood neighborhood. Her art explores urban segregation and celebrates the nuanced richness of the Black community, countering media depictions of Chicago’s violence. Tonika’s work reveals injustices and inequalities, past and present, evidenced in the built environment and enshrined in real estate and land use practices, including historic preservation. Her Folded Map Project™ brings residents who live at similar addresses but miles apart on Chicago’s racially segregated South and North sides together in conversation about the city’s racial and economic divides. The Folded Map Project™ questions how everyone is socially impacted by racial and institutional conditions segregating the city and challenges viewers to contribute to a solution.

Tonika was selected as the National Public Housing Museum’s 2021 Artist as Instigator to expand her investigation through “Inequity for Sale,” a project highlighting the living history and legacy of greater Englewood homes sold through Land Sale Contracts in the 1950s and 1960s, which led to the unscrupulous loss of people’s homes and equity preventing the generational transfer and building of Black wealth. Tonika’s artistic contributions have gained citywide recognition in the last seven years, including being named a 2017 Chicagoan of the Year by Chicago Magazine, being exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Rootwork Gallery in Pilsen, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Harold Washington Library Center and at Loyola University’s Museum of Art. She is a 2019 Field Foundation “Leader for a New Chicago” and a Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events Cultural Advisory Council member. In 2022, Landmark Illinois’ named her one of their Influencers for her “Inequity For Sale.”

Tonika is the co-founder of the Englewood Arts Collective and Resident Association of Greater Englewood, and she now serves as the Creative Executive Officer of the Folded Map Project™ nonprofit organization.

https://www.tonijphotography.com/

Roland Knowlden is a Liberian American interdisciplinary artist and architectural designer from New Jersey, currently based in Chicago, IL. Knowlden’s architectural background has cultivated his ongoing interest in constructed landscapes, city planning, and the cultural and social implications of racialized spatial mapping. Working across painting and drawing, Knowlden’s approach to abstract and experimental mapping articulates a visual language which makes visible the tensions wrought by erasure, displacement, and palimpsest.

Interrogating notions of origin, belonging, boundaries, and power, Knowlden’s critical cartography aims to not only reproduce existing environmental experiences and affects, but to propose new spatial realities. With each new configuration and composition, Knowlden furthers his practice of imagining otherwise.

https://rolandknowlden.com/

BLACK SPACE: Architectural Historiographies & Spatial Landscapes
2023-05-06 14:00 - 16:00
Artists Andres L. Hernandez, Tonika Lewis Johnson and Roland Knowlden discuss the intersections of space, architecture, and Blackness with SSCAC Exhibitions Manager and Curator Lola Ayisha Ogbara.

Artists and spacial griots Andres L. Hernandez, Tonika Lewis Johnson and Roland Knowlden invite you to consider how socio-economic and geographic oppressions impact the way we see (or don’t see) our environments, in a conversation with SSCAC Exhibitions Manager and Curator Lola Ayisha Ogbara.

Hernandez uncovers embedded histories and systems of power within built and speculative landscapes to imagine these spaces otherwise. Social justice artist Lewis Johnson advocates for urban communities by documenting the disparities among Chicago residents who live on opposite ends of the same streets across the city’s racial and economic divides. Knowlden critically deconstructs the elements of our urban fabric and its architectural histories to reassemble them as cartographic abstractions and imagined landscapes. Gwendolyn Brooks, a brilliant author, poet, and life-long resident of the historic neighborhood of Bronzeville, becomes the Mecca of these stories as this exhibition interrogates dilapidation, buried histories, and what it could mean to be Black in space.

Themes in the exhibition reference and/or explore the following: Urban planning, socio-economics, equity, Mecca Flats, Psycho-geography: The impact that our physical space has on us, segregation, Gwendolyn Brooks, June Jordan, Chicago architecture, poetics of black spaces/environments, artists David Hammons and Jack Whitten.

This exhibition was organized and curated by SSCAC Exhibitions Manager Lola Ayisha Ogbara.

*Complimentary coffee and cake will be provided during the program.

Andres L. Hernandez. Benign Neglect. Installation view. 2014. Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.

Tonika Lewis Johnson is a photographer, social justice artist and life-long resident of Chicago’s South Side Englewood neighborhood. Her art explores urban segregation and celebrates the nuanced richness of the Black community, countering media depictions of Chicago’s violence. Tonika’s work reveals injustices and inequalities, past and present, evidenced in the built environment and enshrined in real estate and land use practices, including historic preservation. Her Folded Map Project™ brings residents who live at similar addresses but miles apart on Chicago’s racially segregated South and North sides together in conversation about the city’s racial and economic divides. The Folded Map Project™ questions how everyone is socially impacted by racial and institutional conditions segregating the city and challenges viewers to contribute to a solution.

Tonika was selected as the National Public Housing Museum’s 2021 Artist as Instigator to expand her investigation through “Inequity for Sale,” a project highlighting the living history and legacy of greater Englewood homes sold through Land Sale Contracts in the 1950s and 1960s, which led to the unscrupulous loss of people’s homes and equity preventing the generational transfer and building of Black wealth. Tonika’s artistic contributions have gained citywide recognition in the last seven years, including being named a 2017 Chicagoan of the Year by Chicago Magazine, being exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Rootwork Gallery in Pilsen, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Harold Washington Library Center and at Loyola University’s Museum of Art. She is a 2019 Field Foundation “Leader for a New Chicago” and a Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events Cultural Advisory Council member. In 2022, Landmark Illinois’ named her one of their Influencers for her “Inequity For Sale.”

Tonika is the co-founder of the Englewood Arts Collective and Resident Association of Greater Englewood, and she now serves as the Creative Executive Officer of the Folded Map Project™ nonprofit organization.

https://www.tonijphotography.com/

Andres L. Hernandez is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary practitioner. Initially trained as an architect, he has previously worked within architectural offices, community organizations, public schools, museums, and other institutional contexts.

Hernandez’ projects include commissions for the University of Arizona School of Art; 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale; and Pulitzer Arts Foundation and Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. With Dark Adaptive, he co-developed performances for The Drawing Center; MoMA; Sharjah Biennial; and Performa. Hernandez held artist residencies with MCA Chicago; University of Arizona; Chicago DCASE; and University of Chicago. He participated on design teams for the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial, and the Museum of the Obama Presidential Center. His awards include the Efroymson Family Fund Contemporary Arts Fellowship, and the 3Arts Award in Visual Arts.
Hernandez is currently an Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

“My work draws forward the latent potential of words, spaces, sounds, and movement to elicit liberatory ways of being. I explore the embedded attitudes, histories, policies, and systems of power within and beyond our world(s) as a method of imagining and existing otherwise. I site my practice at the intersection of the social and the spatial. I consider the symbiotic, yet, fraught relationships between built and natural environments and their inhabitants, and speculate alternative pasts, presents, and futures for all. My work takes many forms, including collaborative and socially-engaged works, as well as independent, studio-based practices. Drawing, installation, and writing are my preferred media, alongside sound and performance”.

https://andreslhernandez.com/

Roland Knowlden is a Liberian American interdisciplinary artist and architectural designer from New Jersey, currently based in Chicago, IL. Knowlden’s architectural background has cultivated his ongoing interest in constructed landscapes, city planning, and the cultural and social implications of racialized spatial mapping. Working across painting and drawing, Knowlden’s approach to abstract and experimental mapping articulates a visual language which makes visible the tensions wrought by erasure, displacement, and palimpsest.

Interrogating notions of origin, belonging, boundaries, and power, Knowlden’s critical cartography aims to not only reproduce existing environmental experiences and affects, but to propose new spatial realities. With each new configuration and composition, Knowlden furthers his practice of imagining otherwise.

https://rolandknowlden.com/
