About the Exhibit

In February 2021, the Swearer Center invited members of the Greater Providence and Rhode Island community to submit pieces of art that address the topics of systemic anti-Black racism and anti-racist resistance. These exhibition pieces represent the multifaceted histories, current realities, as well as the impact of systemic anti-Black racism on the local community and their global diasporas. The pieces also capture powerful messages and imagery related to anti-racist organizing and imagining an anti-racist future.

We are pleased to open this exhibit in time for Juneteenth celebrations this year. Our hope that the subject matter will contribute positively to recognition, celebration and discussion about what Juneteenth represents to the community and to the country.

If you are moved by the exhibit and this conversation, the Swearer Center would like to invite additional submissions from community members until Friday, July 30. Accepted submissions will be added to the exhibit, and there will be opportunities to participate in panel discussions and workshops later in the summer and fall. Selected exhibit participants will receive compensation both for development and use of their piece in this exhibit as well as for participation in Swearer Center events. Questions about the exhibit and submissions can be directed to swearer-partnership@brown.edu.

This project is supported by the Office of the Provost at Brown University through its Addressing Systemic Racism Fund.

Black Lives Matter by Alton Stuckey

My 'Black Lives Matter' piece is about Black human beings from all over the world. I came up with the idea because of was thinking that Black Lives Matter is not just in the United States, but all over the world. Black Lives are from all over the world, all different styles, all different disabilities, and all different cultures. That is what I wanted to show in my piece.

Can I be a princess? By Elisabeth DeAndrade-Phillips

I am submitting this piece on behalf of all little girls, who don't believe that they are beautiful or a queen. Because of their skin tone, their hair texture, or even their voice. I was inspired to write this story because of my niece. She questioned me on her beauty and I had this conversation with her. All women are beautiful and strong in their own way. From the darkest of skin tones and to the whitest tones. We are different and unique.

She questioned how beautiful she was, because another child wasn’t used to seeing that type of hair. It Made me sad in so many ways. I want all children of all walks of life to see beauty within each other. Black, brown, white, or yellow. We are all beautiful in so many ways. This is what has inspired me to share my ART with the world.

The portrait shows any skin tone, hair type or age can shine as a princess.

The poem defines a conversation between myself and a child who was confused about her inner beauty & culture.

I think this piece shows culture and resilience. Hoping to change the thought process of many, and to shine some light to continue the fight against racism and to help us educate one another.

Every Little girl's dream is to be like a princess. “They say” “I want to be adventurous, I want to look like that Princess”. Titi, “Why don’t I have hair like a princess?”

All princesses have different types of hair.

Why does my voice sound different from that princess?

Your voice is beautiful, not all princesses sound the same. That’s what makes us all so special.

Your sound is different and unique.

Can I be a princess? Of course, you can. “Do I have to live in a castle”?

No, a princess doesn’t have to live in a castle. A Princess is a strong young lady, who is a leader and never a follower. She is kind, she is strong, she is adventurous, and she can be of any color or race.

She is a person who takes chances and is not afraid to change the game... I say forget being a princess, stand out and be a Queen.

THE MOMENT X THE MOVEMENT by Naya Lee Chang

With a protest art grant from the Brown Arts Initiative, I created a series of six mixed media paintings about the recent resurgence of the movement for Black lives and national demands for action against anti-Black racism.

When social movements naturally shift and evolve, their foundational moments become blurred in personal and collective memory. What started as an outcry over the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police has already expanded into a worldwide reckoning over race and justice. I chose to paint facets and themes of this movement’s early weeks in order to capture the energy of a moment when protests for Black lives mobilized Americans and demanded continual coverage by news media and social media. Creating and viewing my series is an exercise in remembering and analyzing life as an American in the early 2020s, when true strides toward racial equality seem to be in motion, if only we remain determined and unyielding.

THE MOMENT X THE MOVEMENT draws on the traditions of both journalists and activists. A journalistic approach to art entails rendering concrete events with fact and complexity as they happen, without the lens of time. My paintings, which evoke protest imagery and signs, are accessible, if not easily digestible, like news stories should be. An activist approach to art entails recognizing and harnessing the potential of public energy. Many Americans are currently engaging with issues of racism and injustice, and I want to prolong this reckoning. Artists become activists when their work ensures stories continue to be told and change continues to be demanded.

RHODE ISLAND SLAVERY COMPLICITY: FROM MARITIME TRADE TO TEXTILE MANUFACTORIES: "NEGRO CLOTH"

Artifact provided by 1696 Heritage Group.

RHODE ISLAND SLAVERY COMPLICITY: FROM MARITIME TRADE TO TEXTILE MANUFACTORIES, “Negro Cloth” was cheap but coarse solid cloth used in making clothes for enslaved African heritage men, women, and children in the American South. During the early 19th century, Rhode Island textile manufacturers specialized in Negro cloth production. At least 84 Rhode Island mills produced the material during that era, the highest in New England. Rhode Island’s economic makeover from a maritime-based slave system to a textile-based slave system was a swift and convenient transformation. As the operator of most of the 19th century America’s textile mills, Rhode Island—aided by favorable federal tariffs—was well-positioned to enter the slave cloth market. Many of the leading families of Commerce in Providence, Newport, and Narragansett County profited from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade would also dominate the textile market. The Hazard, Rodman, Babcock, Aldrich, Nichols, Brown, and Slater families were all tied to the production of Negro Cloth. Many of these mill structures and their physical landscapes still stand across Rhode Island, with little knowledge of their complicit past. As noted by historian Christy Clark-Pujara, “And while Rhode Islanders were willing to accept the elimination of slaveholding in their midst, they remained complicit in slaveholding outside their state.” Keith Stokes family slave doll dates back c. 1830 from Richmond, Virginia. The doll belonged to my great, great grandmother and was made for her by an enslaved woman from her own clothing. The doll embodies an authentic representation of the “Negro Cloth” worn by enslaved women in the Antebellum South. Many women, reflecting West African traditions, often wore cloth headwraps as seen on the doll. A passage in one of the most celebrated autobiographies of an enslaved woman, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” by Harriet Jacobs and a friend of my ancestor, includes her calling to mind, “I have a vivid recollection of the linsey-woolsey dress given me every winter by Mrs. Flint. How I hated it! It was one of the badges of slavery.” These items are a visceral reminder that the starting point to achieve an “Anti-Racist” society is reconciliation, and healing starts with education and learning, and we will learn more when we learn together.

When I Dream by Paige Rahn

I wrote this poem and read it out loud during a Black Lives Matter peaceful vigil for a neighbor who had received hate messages. I wanted to convey that as a white person, I understood my white privilege and that growing up with racism around me, it is important to educate others and stand up against hate. I had spent so much time being quiet and not saying anything and I knew in my heart it wasn’t right. Silence is complicity. I was deeply disturbed by my neighbor’s suffering, and I wanted to write something that came directly from my heart to say, “I hear you. I see you. And it’s not right what’s happening.”

I also wanted to convey that my purpose in life as a mother is to teach my children to be good citizens, good humans, and hopefully change the future so that future generations don’t have to endure so much hate. Good thoughts, good words, good deeds. It’s our family motto.

Black by Miche'le "MEesh" Fontes

This piece was created out of pure love and admiration for the women/femmes of color in my life who very loudly and unapologetically disrupt the negative stereotypes that media and society place on women of color. I opened the spoken word bringing awareness to what media and society tell you women of color are and shift to what I KNOW women of color are. Specifically the women of color in my life. From family to friends to leaders in my many communities. As the spoken word shifts the pictures go from images found on the internet or in movies that depict the negativity placed on us to pictures and videos of actual women of color who I know who contradict those very stereotypes. In order to bring awareness to anti-black racism, I think it’s important to know who I am, what my story is, and my “Why”. Why I do what I do and how I do it. And a large part of that is the many women of color whose shoulders I stand on to give the next generation of us a higher ladder to reach their goals.

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About the Exhibit

Black Lives Matter by Alton Stuckey

THE MOMENT X THE MOVEMENT by Naya Lee Chang

Questions about the exhibit can be directed to swearer-partnership@brown.edu