I AM WE: The Re:Evolutionary Art of Wayne Curtis, Emory Douglas, and Yusuf Lateef
About the Event
In her book the Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century, Grace Lee Boggs writes “History is not the past. It is the stories we tell about the past. How we tell these stories – triumphantly or self-critically, metaphysically or dialectally – has a lot to do with whether we cut short or advance our evolution as human beings.”
The exhibition “I AM WE” brings together three artists whose practices recontextualize American history through the lens of revolutionary movements, from the avant-garde legacy of Black midcentury abstract expressionists to the self-determination and liberatory politics of the Black Panther Party. Individually, and collectively the works chosen for this exhibition speak from each artist’s lived experience – drawing from their unique roles as teachers, organizers, philosophers, and cultural creators. Connected by a visual language that balances care, community, and resistance, the work in this exhibition affirms humanity while challenging widely held assumptions of history.
Curtis and Douglas bridge the Black radical tradition between their respective homes of Detroit, MI and Oakland, CA – two cities connected through a legacy of visionary organizing. Through Douglas’s prolific career he championed the anti-imperialist critique of the Black Panther Party whose deep understanding of symbolism through visual language forever changed the cultural lexicon of resistance.
Lateef and Curtis share a profound philosophy of education as a tool for liberation. They have devoted decades to teaching both in and outside of conventional educational systems – from Curtis’s Art in the Garden program at Feedom Freedom Farm and programming at the James + Grace Lee Boggs Center in Detroit, MI to Youth Arts Alliance in Southeast Michigan, Toledo School for the Arts, University of Toledo, and Radiant City Arts in Lateef’s home of Toledo, OH.
Presented here in relation to one another, these three artists imagine worlds that can be possible through overlapping visual languages and common values. This exhibition charges the viewer to ask themselves, where do you find yourself in the arc of justice?
