Building Community Through Cultural Organizing
Two children with their black power fists up, sitting beside a painted sign they just finished, displaying a black panther and reading “free breakfast for children served here. Afro contemporary art class at Dr. M.L.K. Jr. School
Saturday, June 6th, 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm PST
Will be on Zoom. For registration visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/building-community-through-cultural-organizing-vbc-20-tickets-105618917024
For Building Community Through Cultural Organizing, Artist Michael Stevenson Jr. will present about their project Afro Contemporary Art Class which was taught this year at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School. Through the presentation of this work Michael will illustrate the significance of organizing communities around art and culture.
Also featured will be participants and collaborators of the Afro Contemporary Art Class including Kent Ford a former Portland Black Panther!
Sliding scale donations to attend, no one turned away for lack of funds.
The Afro Contemporary Art Class visiting a gallery.
The Afro Contemporary Art Class is a program that Artist Michael Bernard Stevenson Jr. teaches weekly on Fridays after school at the King School Museum of Contemporary Art during the 2019-2020 school year. The objective of the class is to help young people of African descent to learn more about the histories and contemporary contexts that shape their lives, culture, and social contexts. These ideas are explored by studying contemporary artists and creatives as a conduit to (and a lens for) thinking through a range of experiences related to the African diaspora. The investigations begin with presenting an artist's work to the class, teasing out the underlying contexts in the work, and then presenting about the people, events, and outcomes surrounding those contexts.
In the Afro Contemporary Art Class young people reflect on their place and position to the contexts explored. We’re collaborating to develop a publication about what they’ve learned in ways that they’ve chosen to express an understanding of that content. Young people will also participate in the creation of a film, working together to script and perform scenes from the historical contexts we learned about throughout the class.
Some of the artists we’ve explored in depth so far are: Nyame Brown, Emory Douglas, and Hank Willis Thomas with many other artists referenced in-between.
Click here for registration for event.