Defying the Shadow
Defying the Shadow presents images by Black artists and of Black figures that resist the consumptive impulses of looking. As anti-portraits or visages that challenge the impulse to be known, comprehended, categorized, or easily identified, these works oppose a historical narrative of dispossession and domination that continues to violate the humanity of Other-ed bodies. By examining how Black subjects operate in and against contemporary political systems—and their constant negotiation of surveillance and the risk of violence—this show considers the defiant body as not only a site of possibility, but also a challenge to authoritative systems of knowing, including the white-supremacist function of the traditional gaze. Beginning with Sojourner Truth’s abolitionist portraits stamped with the slogan “I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance,” these assembled works—ranging from 19th-century photographs to contemporary prints—focus on the appearance of shadows in formal and metaphorical settings. (image: Nicole Buchanan, DG 14, 2015. Gift of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.)
On View through June 6, 2021 Location: RISD Museum
Joana Vasconcelos: Valkyrie Mumbet
Renowned Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos will premiere a new monumental site-specific installation. Known for her unprecedented multimedia works, Vasconcelos, in her first U.S. solo show, will honor Elizabeth “Mumbet” Freeman, an enslaved woman whose court battle for her freedom in 1781 helped make slavery illegal in Massachusetts. The large-scale installation entitled Valkyrie Mumbet, is the newest in her Valkyries series, named after Norse female war goddesses, which pays homage to inspiring women.
On View through 2020 Location: MassArt Art Museum (MAAM)
Let’s Celebrate Ashley Bryan!
African American artist Ashley Bryan is one of Maine’s cultural treasures. A noted painter, printmaker, illustrator, author, puppet maker, and storyteller, Bryan, who turned 97 on July 13, came to Maine as a member of the first class to attend Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1946. He began to summer regularly in the Cranberry Isles, a group of islands off Mount Desert Island, in the late 1940s, and has lived on Little Cranberry Island year-round since the late 1980s. In 2019, Henry Isaacs and Donna Bartnoff Isaacs, longtime friends and neighbors of Bryan’s on Little Cranberry Island, donated over fifty works of art including paintings, drawings, and prints, and numerous other items including copies of his books. The core of this exhibition is drawn from this generous gift. Watch an exhibition lecture online here: https://www.bates.edu/museum/ashley-bryan/
(Image: Ashley Bryan, [Untitled Collage from Beautiful Blackbird], n.d., paper collage, 19 5/8 x 28 1/8 in. (framed), Bates College Museum of Art, gift of Henry Isaacs and Donna Bartnoff Isaacs, 2019.2.3)
When Women Lead: Governor Madeleine Kunin of Vermont
Over fifty years post women's suffrage, a Vermont governor, not a first lady, wore a gown to an inauguration.
Throughout her career, former Vermont Governor, Madeline Kunin, broke this and many other barriers for women in politics. Governor Kunin recently donated her three inaugural gowns to the Vermont Historical Society. They are on view, alongside an exploration of Kunin's life and political career, in the National Life Gallery at the Vermont History Museum. Clothing and textiles can be richly symbolic objects, and Kunin's gowns are no exception. Clothing worn to public events by female politicians is still a subject of intense interest and debate. Kunin put it succinctly: "When women lead, they have to think about what to wear."
Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail Self-Guided Tour
Today’s downtown includes sites of the earliest urban settlement, the waterfront, homes of the early merchants, and, consequently, the earliest enslavements. Enslavement of Africans was part of Portsmouth life by 1645, although the first records of Portsmouth merchants participating in the slave trade were in the 1680s, with captives mostly male children and adolescents sold directly from ship or dockside near the area where Prescott Park is now. A 1775 census reported 656 enslaved Africans in New Hampshire, mostly in Portsmouth and adjacent towns. Since colonial times, Portsmouth’s population has remained 2 to 4 percent Black. Note: guided tours are also available.
Permanent Location: Museum sites on the trail include Strawbery Banke Museum, The Moffatt-Ladd House & Garden, Governor John Langdon House, and John Paul Jones House
John Brown Birthplace Site
"Although the house where John Brown was born is no longer standing the birthplace site is still a profoundly moving place to visit and to contemplate America's tragic history of African American slavery and John Brown's role in ending that injustice. The site of the birthplace is maintained as a clearing on the side of John Brown Road. The quiet, contemplative nature of the site is enhanced by the fact that the homestead clearing is surrounded by 100 acres of preserved land that is now a heavily forested watershed. In 2003 the John Brown birthplace was listed on the State Register of Historic Places and designated as a State Archaeological Preserve. That designation recognizes the historic and archaeological importance of the John Brown Birthplace and provides measures for its protection such as penalties for un-authorized ground disturbance at the site." - Torrington Historical Society. Read more about John Brown on the Connecticut Humanities Connecticut History website here: https://connecticuthistory.org/hidden-nearby-john-browns-torrington-birthplace/
On View Permanently Location: Torrington Historical Society, CT