This Week: America’s Voices Against Apartheid at City Hall through August, MICA Grad Show IV -Studio Art reception, Soon Come group exhibition reception at 360 House, Mary Hallam Pearse artist talk at Baltimore Jewelry Center, Tae Hwang in conversation with Shae McCoy at Top of the World, Maryland Arts Summit at UMBC, Darlene R. Taylor book reading at Academy Art Museum, Landis Harry Larry / Glorian / Red Moon Green at Current, live Ellington tribute recording at Creative Alliance, and free admission to Joyce J. Scott’s solo exhibition at the BMA — PLUS applications for Artscape Literary Arts + Artist Prints Fair are open and more featured opportunities!
BmoreArt’s Picks presents the best weekly art openings, events, and performances happening in Baltimore and surrounding areas. For a more comprehensive perspective, check the BmoreArt Calendar page, which includes ongoing exhibits and performances, and is updated on a daily basis.
To submit your calendar event, email us at events@bmoreart.com!
America’s Voices Against Apartheid
Ongoing through August
@ Baltimore City Hall
America’s Voices Against Apartheid is an exploration of the remarkable contributions made by U.S. citizens to the international movement that dismantled the apartheid system in South Africa, which persisted from 1948 to the early 1990s.
Co-curated by Kennedy Center Vice President of International Programming, Alicia Adams, the exhibition’s U.S. premiere holds significant meaning for the institution. Adams notes, “This exhibit holds a special place in our hearts at the Kennedy Center, given our longstanding relationship with artists from South Africa, which began with the African Odyssey festival in the late ’90s and continues through our World Stages programming and international festivals. Partnering with the South African Embassy and Ambassador Barbara Masekela for the 10th-anniversary concert celebrating the end of apartheid, featuring the late Hugh Masekela, further reinforced our commitment to this enduring connection.”
Themed “Confronting Injustice at Home and Abroad,” America’s Voices Against Apartheid delves into the development of the U.S. anti-apartheid movement, showcasing the pivotal role American citizens and organizations played in the global fight against apartheid. The exhibit illuminates the roots of the enduring relationship between Americans, particularly African Americans, and South Africans, dating back to the 1880s.
Project Director, Dr. Jean Bailey, emphasizes the significance of the exhibition in fostering cultural and academic collaborations between South Africans and Americans, with a special focus on empowering the African American community. Dr. Bailey shares, “The AVAA project provides an exceptional opportunity to build upon historical relationships and cultivate new partnerships between Americans and South Africans. This exhibition is not only a celebration of our shared history but also a testament to our renewed commitment to mutual engagement and cooperation, extending to the broader African continent.”
America’s Voices Against Apartheid will spotlight well-known celebrity activists such as Harry Belafonte, Arthur Ashe, Steven Van Zandt, and Debbie Allen, alongside ordinary American citizens and organizations that courageously challenged both the South African apartheid regime and their own government’s “constructive engagement” with discrimination. Their united voices resonated across America, transcending race, age, wealth, and political affiliations, as they marched on the streets, campuses, institutions, and government centers, unequivocally denouncing apartheid and their government’s anti-democratic policies. They stood firm against oppression.
The exhibition will not only honor the heroic anti-apartheid activism of the 1980s and ’90s but also shine a light on the trailblazing social justice pioneers of the late 1800s and early 1900s, who recognized that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” America’s Voices Against Apartheid will also spotlight the vital contributions of Black churches, Black press, and Black colleges and universities in this movement, while forging connections to contemporary social justice movements in the U.S., South Africa, and the African Diaspora.
In conjunction with the exhibition, the Kennedy Center will host panel discussions, a film screening on October 15, and a captivating Millennium Stage performance by the Ndlovu Youth Choir on November 15.
AVAA Curatorial Team: Jean Bailey, PhD, Alicia Adams, Khephra Burns, Camille Dantzler, PhD, Tara Hammons, Veronica Jackson, Charles Johnson, PhD, Emilia Potenza, Sonja Woods, M.A.
MICA Grad Show IV | Reception
Wednesday, June 19 :: 5-7pm
MICA Riggs and Leidy Galleries, Lazarus Center
Studio Art, MFA (Summer Low-Residency) – Riggs & Leidy Galleries
Soon Come // a group exhibition by the 2024 Young Artist Archival Fellowship | Opening Reception
Wednesday, June 19 :: 5-8pm
In the pursuit of nuance, we foreground the need to reclaim histories that conjure the power to push through, to recreate and expand. The revolutionary act of confronting to retrieve is not one that is meek, it is diligent and forceful. This exhibition explores inquiries of revolutionary love, spirituality, identity and imagination. Textiles, photography, video, sound, assemblage, and poetry stating our claim of ‘ We did it Before, We can do it Again!’.
Where: 360 House
FREE EVENT – MASKS REQUIRED
Donations are appreciated + encouraged
ALL AGES WELCOME
Food will be served
These programs will happen in-person at a private location in the Original Northwood neighborhood in Baltimore. The exact location will be emailed to you upon confirmation of your RSVP.
Read more of this week’s picks at BmoreArt.
