2021

Hattie & Edgar In Mandeville (Abraham & Sarah)

No Rule – Multiply Alpha

Jesse Wright

Curated by Evonne M. Davis

An interdisciplinary artist and educator drawing equally on his humanitarian work and his Jamaican-American heritage, Jesse Wright brings his blended prismatic vision and unapologetic spiritual narratives to Gallery Aferro’s Main Gallery in the solo exhibition, No Rule – Multiply Alpha. Through this collection, Wright seeks to promote a return to “the source” or “beginning,” in hopes of emphasizing our underlying daily experiences.

The No Rule – Multiply Alpha series reconnects the artist to his mother’s homeland of Jamaica by depicting family members and locals as vessels for biblical allegory and commentary on the impact of life throughout the diaspora. 

At a time when individuals are divided by physical boundaries and sociopolitical issues, Wright’s work seeks to champion making connections, promoting empathy, and considering one another’s journey.

Image: Hattie & Edgar In Mandeville (Abraham & Sarah) by Jesse Wright

Misogyny Papers-Apology II by Victor Davson - cropped

Misogyny Papers-Apology

Victor Davson

Guest Curator Cynthia Hawkins, Ph.D.

Assistant Curator Juno Zago

Misogyny Papers/Apology is an ongoing project that seeks to negotiate a space for rethinking gender stereotypes and systemic racism by creating an environment that melds the intimacy of the artist workspace with the full accessibility of a public exhibition. Conceived and executed by veteran artist Victor Davson, the project draws on a long tradition of socially engaged art and channels it through the lens of contemporary life in the wake of the #MeToo movement. 

For the tenure of the exhibition, Davson will take up residency in Gallery Aferro’s Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery in a collaboration that will merge the vision of the Misogyny Papers/Apology project with the mission of Gallery Aferro into one seamless alignment: to disrupt the existing race-gender power dynamics in American culture openly and fearlessly. 

From conception to development to its earliest iteration, the exhibition has been shaped by the following literary works: Sheila Jeffreys’ Beauty and Misogyny, Kate Manne’s Down Girl, Eve Ensler’s The Apology, Patricia Hill Collins’ Black Feminist Thought, and bell hooks’ Ain’t I a Woman.

Image: Misogyny Papers/Apology II by Victor Davson

Elevator Music 7: IDES

Curated by Juno Zago

Elevator Music 7: IDES, curated by Juno Zago, invites visitors to step inside an early-1900s refurbished Otis Elevator and experience the work of New Jersey radical thinkers expertly remixing discord, introspection and hope.

IDES, an iconoclastic 4-piece punk band accelerating into the 22nd century, embraces unabashed lovers of both hardcore’s brutal dissonance and pop’s sharpest hooks. While combining harshness and harmony into a hybrid sound all their own, IDES’ music centers on concepts of loneliness, disparity, and withdrawal, both tangible and conceptual.

Though the music can be jarring and the subject matter bleak, IDES believes in the glimmer of hope hidden in their songs: 

There is a power in letting go and embracing our darker selves. And if you find yourself relating to any part of what you are hearing, know that you are not alone.”

IDES has self-released two LP albums and several Extended Plays. Their 2021 split-release with their comrades in Sunrot marks their 10th year as a band. IDES members includes: Jill (vocals), Nick (guitar + vocals), Nicholas (bass) and Tony (drums).

Enjoy their music at Gallery Aferro, then purchase their work via their Bandcamp page. 

Image courtesy of IDES

Poem Booth: Calling Upon Self

Curated by John Gavin White

Participating Artists:

blkcowrie
Albert E. Cook Jr.
James C. Ellerbe
Ngoma Hill
B. Sharise Moore
Anjuli Nunn
Ameerah Shabazz-Bilal
Kindred Sojourner White
Empathy LaRue White
Shaheed K. Wood

Poem Booth: Calling Upon Self is the latest interactive installation that encourages language lovers to step inside a vintage 1960s-era wooden telephone booth to enjoy an innovative experience that only comes at the intersection of art and technology.

Curated by celebrated author, philosopher and poet John Gavin White, the poem booth will feature the voices of 10 spoken word artists, poets and griots sharing their brilliance channeled through the dialectics of the telephone as metaphor. In this selection, poets are being called on to call upon themselves as a means for calling out to the greater world in hopes of one day having that call returned.

White’s curation is one of several artistic experiences marking the release of his latest collection of poetry and prose: I, John de Conqueror: A New Spelling Of My Name. Drawing on inspiration from Zora Neale Hurston, the new title speaks to the perpetual dehumanization of cisgendered, heterosexual black males and the erasure of their trauma and vulnerability as human beings outside the lens of alienation and distress.

Images, left to right: Phone receiver by Alexander Andrews | Phone box by Daniels Joffe | I, John de Conqueror: A New Spelling Of My Name by John Gavin White