Black in Place: Honoring the Black Diaspora’s Legacy

It’s Black History Month but the current regime is trying to wipe it away. It began as a way of remembering important people and events in the history of the African diaspora, with an emphasis placed on encouraging the coordinated teaching of the history of Black Americans in the nation’s public schools. Since its inception, the Black community met the creation of Black History Month with enthusiastic response.

Angels Gate Cultural Center selected the proposal for Black In Place two to three years ago. Curator Naomi Stewart told Random Lengths News that it’s so interesting how relevant it continues to be no matter when the exhibition is shown. At that time, when she was just processing the murder of George Floyd and talking with artists, conversations and her own curiosity led her to the ideas presented in Black In Place.

“Now and even in this most visceral, interface way of stripping down DEI, stripping down Critical Race Theory being taught, ripping down black history, it’s ridiculous. We need to keep doing this,” said Stewart during a walk-through of this group exhibition.

Countering erasure, Black In Place interrogates the living contradictions of existing while Black, invoking ancestral and indigenous wisdom to explore how Black artists cultivate dreaming through making.

The exhibition includes artists Leslie Dubois-Adkins, Adeola Davies-Aiyeloja, Denise ‘deLaSNP’ Coke, Dea Jenkins, Steven A. Johnson II, Denese King-Ashley, Kandy G. Lopez, Rosalyn Myles, Cheyann Washington and Fallon Williams. Through audio, portraiture, painting, digital/augmented reality, fiber art, poetry, drawing and installation, the artworks engage hidden narratives, ancestral wisdom and unbridled expression to both sow and assert Black existence.

In her curatorial statement, Stewart presents three guiding questions by which viewers can engage with the artworks. She has strategically placed works in the gallery to reflect the evolutionary themes discussed below.

How does the act of archiving unveil hidden narratives to sow existence?

How can indigenous and ancestral wisdom enrich and guide the Black sojourner?

How can Black people live out their fullest expression through making and dreaming?

Living Contradiction

From these questions, Stewart explores the erasure the Black diaspora has survived and calls on what esteemed African-American collectors Bernard and Shirley Kinsey refer to as the “myth of absence.” Stewart posits these artworks dispel the notion that what is unseen does not exist. The paradox of existing while being rendered invisible is an ongoing reality for the Black Diaspora, particularly in the West.

These works address the questions above serving as topical examples of Black individuals’ existence, enrichment, guidance and living out their fullest expression.

Stewart also draws from 18th-century enslaved African poet Phyllis Wheatley. Her poem On Being Black Brought from Africa to America (1773) encapsulates the erasure of Black people during enslavement, leading to a subconscious “doublemindedness.” (The title of Wheatley’s poem is On Being Brought from Africa to America.)

Double-mindedness: the split between one’s public performance to accommodate whiteness and the internal self, creating a sense of disconnection and otherness that resonates for many marginalized groups today.

Los Dos Kandys, yarn and paint on hook mesh by Kandy G. Lopez addresses the internal and external negotiations of cultural duality. The mixed media piece draws from Frida Kahlo’s Las Dos Fridas (1939). A first-generation Afro-Caribbean American, Lopez explores the paradox of visibility and invisibility navigating the tension between her intersecting identities and reflecting on how Black individuals assert presence in spaces where they have often been erased.

From a distance, the meticulous piece appears to be a painting, until you approach it, when it reveals flesh-colored yarn for the artist’s skin and other colors of clothing for two Kandys, who sit holding hands, just as in Las Dos Fridas. The left Kandy wears an embroidered, traditional Mexican folk dress with a red, white and blue ruffle, from which the yarn trails downward beyond the piece’s mesh border. Kandy on the right wears a tank top and torn jeans. Las Dos Kandys unfinished hair accentuates the cultural significance of hair within Afro-Caribbean and American identities, signaling an ongoing journey of self-discovery. A necklace with a cowrie shell, (repeated throughout the exhibition) tied to the transatlantic slave trade, symbolizes resilience and ancestral connection, underscoring Lopez’s broader themes of survival and cultural pride.

“This piece is kismet because it really ties well into another element of this statement which is about living contradictions, double-mindedness and grappling with identities that might be conflicting,” Stewart said. “How do we hold space for both or multiples? How do we perform if we need to?”

Steven Anthony Johnson II interrogates the theme of double-mindedness in Dear Beautiful Black Baby (2020-present), graphite on paper, audio, album with photos and transcripts. Johnson uses intimate portraits and interviews to explore the complexities of Black familial relationships.

Rosalyn Myles transforms personal history into poetic form in her installation Daisy Lee Hightower (2022), a tribute to her grandmother. Using a dining table and architectural elements, Myles creates a sculptural timeline that reflects her grandmother’s life across different eras.

Encompassing double-mindedness, Stewart submits, the three artists confront the complexities of Black life, exploring the push-and-pull of self-actualization and performance, and how these can contradict one another within a society that often demands conformity.

Power of Enunciation

With an understanding of the Black experience as a living contradiction, Stewart said reclamation and memory become powerful conduits to cement our existence. She noted, Myles and Johnson’s archival installations are transitory pieces to this subject.

The dissolution of “otherness” begins with the reclamation of culture. Dea Jenkins’ Recollective Memory, 2023 Cotton, Khadi Movement cotton, raw slub cotton, unprocessed linen, acrylic on canvas, responds to otherness through the representation of knowledge.

Jenkins’ statement describes memories as often emerging in cloudy fragments, billowing to the surface when triggered. “Their mirages are like inked stains, fading over time. The gaps in memory tease at disjointed timelines coercing the collector to stretch and tie together loose ends.”

Recollective Memory’s linen base with its watery substances and fluid shapes imitates “the tenuousness of formed histories and the unreliability of performed memory.” Honeyed tones of gold, tea and light brown spread throughout the base as black lines dart over and across the earthen hues. Jenkins offers that the organized woven threads (which culminate to a point) juxtapose the unstructured paint, highlighting Black culture’s propensity to generate creativity despite a lack of supportive structures. The woven piece hangs simply on top of the painted background, indicating that it could exist on its own. However, without the context of the abstract painting, the artist asserts, the weaving would lose its broader meaning.

Echoes of Elders, mixed acrylics with inks, mediums, collage, aquarelle. The piece, depicting a mask draws on Adeola Davies-Aiyeloja’s recent journey to the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles in Ghana, where the ancestral spirits of the transatlantic slave trade left an lasting impact on the artist. The castle dungeon walls evoked traces of those who endured unimaginable suffering. Inspired by these sites, Davies-Aiyeloja channels the resilience, anguish, and strength of her ancestors, using her art to give voice to silenced stories.

Through a palette reflecting the castle’s stone and the surrounding rock, this work calls on viewers to confront the enduring legacies of systemic inequality.

Accompanied by jewelry maker Davies-Aiyeloja’s beautiful Orisa Ibile God-like sculptures, with hand-fabricated enamel mask on copper, cowrie shells, raffia, beads, mixed metals, brass, tin, copper and bronze, the piece serves as a potent reminder to honor the past and protect the future.

Dreaming while Black, making while Black

To dream and make while Black, Stewart wrote, is an act of resistance and reclamation, pushing back against oppression by bringing the Black imagination into the forefront.

In Bodega (Just Another Day) (2022) digital on canvas with augmented reality capabilities, Denise ‘deLaSNP’ Coke evokes the nostalgia of a New York summer day, blending memories of her hometown with a sense of loss. In the piece, a young, Black woman strolls down the street with shopping bags. Vibrant colors, augmented reality, animation, and sounds create an atmosphere that celebrates joy amid a changing landscape. The ‘Bod aye ga’ window captures the voice and creativity of the community with strategically placed signs weaving together multiple narratives; Coke’s Afro-Caribbean heritage (“Culture, Respect, Family”), and community activism (“Save the Block,” “ REINVEST”) The peaceful and immaculate scene radiates optimism.

Denise ‘deLaSNP’ Coke’s Where We Stand (2022) digital on canvas with augmented reality capabilities, embodies the strength of Black Womanhood and divine femininity. The work portrays a woman, in a gesture of welcome, regal and dressed elegantly in warm colors. The augmented reality highlights sculptural elements of the scene’s staircase and different vantage points within the piece. Stewart noted that Coke invites viewers into a world of confident self-expression and cultural pride. It is an affirmation of the right to dream freely while releasing societal burdens.

Leslie Dubois-Adkins explores themes of mythology, nostalgia, and collective consciousness in her paintings. Lilith and her Bird (2024) acrylic on canvas, reimagines the story of Lilith, who left the Garden of Eden in pursuit of freedom. Paired with an owl symbolizing wisdom, the painting reflects independence and empowerment. This is a striking piece, wherein Lilith and her feathered companion in deep coloration and majestic stature exude quiet confidence. Stewart said Adkins, who is based in Topanga, connects her work, the background, even the animals that she chooses to wildlife and Topanga. An audio element also captures sounds of the owl. Stewart wanted to include this piece with particular placement. Lilith, in profile view, is placed directly across the gallery from Coke’s Where We Stand.

“Both are connected to this idea of divine feminine, female empowerment, and taking ownership of our own journeys as black individuals,” said Stewart. “Having them in the position that they’re in, part of what they represent, leading us into what I would call [a] more … direct and confrontational discussion surrounding the black experience with the artists in the back (of the gallery) having them here was on purpose.”

Stewart noted, her curatorial statement references poet Phillis Wheatley, one of the first enslaved African poets. “The facade of Lilith’s portrait is connected to how black creators at that time were captured and even prominent, white writers would be captured [in] profile,” Stewart said. “So if you look up Phillis Wheatley and [her] portrait, … I was feeling connected because of that and her poetry was speaking to me as I was putting this show together.

“The subject matter of Lilith and her Bird connects to desire or ancestral indication. Where Adeola Davies-Aiyelo or her Orisa Ibile works of enamel masks are direct calls on the ancestors for covering and guidance, Lilith and its placement leading us out of the gallery, calls on an elder from the perspective of a younger version of them.”

An extensive, rich and profound exhibition, Black In Place, a treatise, holds space for invocation, re-memory, and unbridled Black expression.

Black in Place will be on view through March 29 with free public visiting hours Thursday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Details: angelsgateart.org