The Creative Process | Graduate Student Panel

In March of 1924, Charles Sturgeon Johnson held a meeting of minds in Harlem, NY that sparked what we now know as the Harlem Renaissance. Five months later, James Baldwin, acclaimed writer and Civil Rights activist was born in Harlem Hospital. His proximity to the emergence of distinct African American art forms in the 20th century fueled his critical perspectives of classic and emerging art, creative approach to detailing life in and outside of America, and resistance to white hegemony and discrimination against African Americans. 100 years after his birth, artists and scholars evoke Baldwin’s legacy as a muse for their creative process and critical approach. "Free as they want to be:" Artists Committed to Memory uses a Baldwin quote from the 1960 Esquire Symposium on writers and writing in America today as a theoretical grounding of their visual interrogation of the afterlives of slavery. In the exhibition, Dr. Deborah Willis and Dr. Cheryl Finley curate an exhibit that illustrates, interrogates, protests and subverts the past. Baldwin often shared his critique of classic, contemporary and emerging art, particularly in regard to the representation of Black people and culture.

In his essay, “The Creative Process,” Baldwin positions the artist as an outsider of society responsible for challenging dominant hegemony and motivating new perspectives. His profound influence on other scholars and writers both in his time and afterward, and his role in the larger context of the development of what has come to be known as African American literature, all suggest that it might be fitting to use the occasion of the one-hundredth anniversary of his birth to examine his work and legacy. The panel hopes, in this anniversary year, to encourage a diverse conversation about Baldwin, his work and his role in influencing Dr. Willis and Dr. Finley to ground their exhibition in his words and the implications of the aforementioned in contemporary literature and popular culture.

“If Black Art Isn't Art, Then Tell Me, What Is?”

Chris Colvin, 5th Year Humanities Doctoral Candidate, CAU

If the words “English” and “language” were replaced with “art” in James Balwin’s essay, “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” nothing would be any different contextually. Black art reveals our place in the world and evolves with us. It is immortal and universal. It is an identification marker and a byproduct of middle passage epistemology. That is because Black art, like Black language, is a remix. And much of the art in the "Free As they want to be" exhibit exemplifies this perfectly.

Chris will apply his theory of remixing to five pieces of art from the "Free As They Want to Be" exhibition. With this application, he will attempt to highlight how these artists are practicing Sankofic, symbiotic, and speculative remixing through their reinterpretations and reexaminations of famous Black figures and moments in history. In doing so, he will connect their work to James Baldwin’s essay to showcase how Black art is not only interdiscursive but also inherently dependent on remixing.

“Monuments: The Role of Collective Memory in Baldwin Aesthetics”

Candice Thornton, 4th Year Humanities Doctoral Student, CAU

Candice will be examining how Baldwin uses memory as a narrative element of Black aesthetics. She will be discussing pieces from "Free As They Want to Be," like Sheila Pree Bright's the Invisible Empire, that reflect Baldwin aesthetics. Further, she will be engaging in discourse surrounding the intersection of collective memory, public history and identity development through a Black Southern lens

"Finding Zamani: Examining Uses of the Archive in Speculative Parafiction” 

Shyheim Williams,  5th year Humanities Doctoral Candidate, CAU

Shyheim will discuss the uses of archival material in the creation of multidisciplinary art as a response to Baldwin’s Everybody’s Protest Novel. His talk will illuminate the importance of Wake Work and the use of archival material in Black art forms as a way to challenge dominant hegemony, expand perspectives of history to include marginalized peoples (Black femmes and queer folx), and how speculative artists can use archival material to create Speculative Paraficiton that challenge and expands the American myth. His theory is grounded in the Bantu concept of Sasa,  the conceivable past and near future, and Zamani, time that looks back to the past for meaning and understanding in the present, and Sadiya Hartman’s concept of Critical Fabulation. His research will center on the work of Sadie Barnette, Adama Delphine Fawndu, Carrie Mae Weems and Dr. Finley’s portrait book"in Free As They Want to Be," and La Vaughn Belle’s Sovereign.

Host or Publisher Clark Atlanta University Art Museum