ELEGGUA QUATREFOIL by Gerardo Castro
Red Spring
A continuation of Afrofuturist Art Exhibition:
Curating The End of the World
“In our first online exhibition, Curating the End of the World, we spoke out about the ‘cyclical chaos’ surrounding Black lives, Black art, Black futures. But out of chaos, comes clarity, renewed strength and vision. Red Spring explores the circular nature of systemic racism and the public policies—public safety, health, and wealth—that adversely impact Black and indigenous communities.”
—Sheree Renée Thomas, Curator
On-View Now, Powered by Google Arts & Culture
Organized by Scholar Dr. Reynaldo Anderson
Curated by Sheree Renée Thomas, Danielle L. Littlefield, and Dacia Polk with Black Speculative Arts Movement.
Curating The End Of The World: Red Spring is an exciting Afrofuturist resource, a creative lens, and a tool for interrogation asking the questions that plague us all: what ancient and familiar new blossoms will spring up from the change the world demands now? What sacrifices and compromises will be made in the days ahead? Red Spring evokes the clarion call for dignity, equality, and justice portrayed in Claude McKay’s classic Red Summer poem, “If We Must Die.”
Dedicated to a pioneering Afrofuturist forerunner Algernon Miller, the virtual exhibition is comprised of four distinct parts:
Featuring an international coterie of artists from Brazil, Colombia, the Caribbean, Canada, Africa, and the US, Red Spring speaks to the temporal and systemic changes that must come to pass throughout the diaspora in order to birth futures where Black Lives truly matter.
The exhibition includes Miller’s work in addition to pieces by environmental landscape artist Tobacco brown, figurative painters S. Ross Browne and Jimmy James Green, film and video artist Adebukola Bodunrin, award-winning flutist Nicole Mitchell and her group the Black Earth Ensemble, and many more celebrated artists in the full list below:
Ekpe Abioto & the African Jazz Ensemble
Linda D. Addison
Adeyemi Adegbesan
A. Slate
Jackie B
Adebukola Bodunrin
BSAM
Daniel Coates
Gerardo Castro
Mike Cooley
M. James Cooper
Creative Soul Photograph
Audra D
Morisha Daneé
Taylor Deed
Bryce Detroit
Muniyra Douglas
Arthur Flowers
Jimmy James Greene
Weenta Girmay
Zeal Harris
Winifred Hawkins
Ron Herd II
Hippy Soul (Teco Sensei and Idi Aah Que)
Synthia Hogan
Kiini Ibura Salaam
Intergalactic Soul (Marcus Kiser, Jason Woodberry, and Quentin Talley)
Janessa Jenkins Jasteria
Danian Darrell Jerry
Jacqueline Johnson
Patience Lekien
Jorge Eliecner Bermudez Lemus
Danielle L. Littlefield
Cudda Mack
Julia Mallory
Mahwyah Milton
Yasin Allah a.k.a. Mmilk
Nicky Monteiro
Meighan Morson
Roland Mulderian
Ashunda Norris
Picket Fence (Jay Webb)
Dacia J. Polk/InnerGy
Kristina Kay Robinson
Tokie Rome-Taylor
Andrea Rushing
Dedren Snead
Street Genius
Shawn Theodore
Paul Thomas the Recycle King
Sheree Renée Thomas
Eric Towles
Quentin VerCetty
Select works from the Red Spring exhibition will be featured at Live Arts’ 3D interactive platform home to virtual events, INTERSPACE, during the annual Live Ideas humanities festival of arts and ideas titled Live Ideas 2021—Altered-Worlds: Black Utopia and the Age of Acceleration. Taking place May 11-15, 2021, this year’s hybrid festival of live in-person and virtual programming will offer five days of activity designed to explore second wave Afrofuturism as the groundwork for a future unfettered from the ideals of white Enlightenment universalism.
Powered by Google Cultural Institute, visitors can experience the exhibition starting today by visiting www.NewYorkLiveArts.org. More artworks related to the exhibition can be seen at www.bsam-art.com and @bsamstl on Instagram.
