Exhibits focus on black millennial self-representation, activism

UIC Honors College students will exhibit “Pedagogies of Protest,” a series of interactive panels that focus on protest related to social, cultural, political and environmental issues.

The University of Illinois at Chicago’s African American Cultural Center is continuing its 2017-2018 program, “Afro-Geographies,” by hosting two exhibits that will be on display and open to the public through the spring semester.

WHEN:

Opening Reception

Jan. 24
3:30 to 5 p.m.

Exhibits will run Jan. 24-May 11

WHERE:

UIC African American Cultural Center

Addams Hall, Rooms 200 and 209, 2nd floor
830 S. Halsted St.

DETAILS:

UIC’s African American Cultural Center will premiere works by Chicago-based photographer Nathan Mansakahn, as well as an exhibit focusing on the dialogue of protest, created by 16 UIC Honors College students.

Both exhibits are part of the center’s “Afro-Geographies” program, which began in the fall of 2017 and focuses on the intersections that people of African descent must navigate toward self-identity within past, present and future histories and experiences. The latest exhibits will run until May 11.

Nathan Mansakahn’s photographs are part of an exhibit, “Black Spectrum: A Closer Look at Black Joy and Expression.”

Mansakahn’s self-curated exhibit, “Black Spectrum: A Closer Look at Black Joy and Expression,” focuses on black millennials and how they choose to represent themselves through their hairstyles, clothes and accessories in ways that resist the status quo and constricting ideas of blackness. “My work makes visible how black millennials redefine socially imposed limitations, and illustrates diverse and valid ways of being black, which combat the harms that emerge from being boxed in,” says Mansakahn.

In “Pedagogies of Protest,” 16 Honors College students assembled interactive panels drawing attention to a range of social, cultural, political and environmental issues. The panels are a result of an Honors College seminar, “Pedagogies of Protest” organized by the course instructor and the center’s postdoctoral associate Mario LaMothe. The panels focus on creative forms of protest taking part in the world today.

The contributors include UIC students Berenice Balderas, LaCreshia Birts, Rehman Bokhari, Arianna Brown, Kayla Butler, Anisha Chandran, Ashley Estrada, Elyzandra Freitas, Lana Hishmeh, Dawn Joy, Nida Fayyaz, Jessa Mae Mendiola, Eleanor Grace Ravenwhite, Lucy Schiller, Marla Stamps and Viviana Uribe.

More information about available at (312) 996-9549 or online.