TODAY:Dirty Sensibilities: A 21st Century Exploration of the New American Black South

Dirty Sensibilities: A 21st Century Exploration of the New American Black South from MVMT on Vimeo.

This unprecedented, multi-media exhibition presents work by a group of intergenerational Southern artists of African descent that have examined contemporaneous realities of life in the South from a cultural, political, cosmological and sociological perspective.  America’s southern states are often viewed monolithically, through a narrow and stereotypical lens of a romanticized antebellum past, post Civil War unrest, and 20th Century Civil Rights politics. Dirty Sensibilities explores current issues such as race relations in the Age of Obama, the survival of Southern folk traditions, post-Civil Rights realities, the significance of relationships with elders and the creation of a new Southern aesthetic. “Much of what is known about the Black experience in the South focuses on a historical period often directly related to the oppression of enslaved Africans, their struggle for liberation and their struggles for Civil Rights after the brief period of progress experienced during Reconstruction. However, the Southern narrative includes a history rich in culture, spirituality and Africanisms that have thrived over the past four hundred plus years,” states the exhibition’s curator Shantrelle P. Lewis. “This exhibition seeks to explore those idiosyncrasies that are unique to the region of the United States situated below the Mason Dixon Line.”

For more info visit cccadi.org

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 13, 2011 6 – 9 pm // Artist Talk: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 6 – 8:30pm // On View: October 14 through December 16, 2011
Curated by Shantrelle P. Lewis