Jan 20th 2023

The Promised Land

@ South Side Community Art Center

3831 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60653

Opening Friday, January 20th, from 5PM - 8PM

On view through Sunday, March 26th

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.

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

 

 

 

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