Invisible: Slavery Today – National Underground Railroad Freedom Center – Cincinnati, Ohio

Greetings exhibitophiles! It is great to be back at the keyboard after a long and unplanned hiatus from bringing you the inside scoop on great exhibits around the country! My time away has given me some great opportunities to travel all over the Midwest to see more great exhibits to tell you about.

But first…

I’ll start with a new permanent installation right here in Cincinnati, Ohio. In early October, my friends at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center unveiled its newest exhibition Invisible: Slavery Today, which is an exhibit, dedicated to exposing to all that slavery and human trafficking isn’t something that ended after the American Civil War and no longer exists.

The exhibit looks like an abandoned warehouse with many facts and figures regarding human trafficking on the boxes and crates in the exhibit. You learn that slavery still exists and that today slavery is divided into five categories – Forced Labor, Child Labor, Sex Trafficking, Bonded Labor, and Domestic Servitude. Each type of slavery is artistically represented in the beginning of the exhibit as sculptures of individuals. The exhibit goes on to define modern day slavery and discusses the four key factors that lure people into slave situations – Deception, Poverty, Naïveté, and Illiteracy.

The examples provided for each type of slavery are all heartbreaking, and powerful stories. Such as the box with a filthy mattress in a small dirty room in the middle of the exhibit that tells the story of Margo who is sold into sex slavery. The visual with the handprints on the walls and the disgusting mattress drive the story straight to your soul.

Or the story of the wait staff at the country club; serving a robust four course menu to affluent members of the club above, but the staff being held in deplorable conditions below eating rancid meat, moldy bread, and half-eaten burgers.

Is the exhibition all negative? No – Early in the exhibit you meet Kumar who is forced to carry heavy bricks on his head in a brick factory that you later learn becomes free of his bondage and is active in exposing forced labor around the world. The end of the exhibit even tells you how to become involved in how to educate, advocate, and support ending slavery everywhere for good.

IMHO (In my humble opinion)

This exhibit is gripping, heart wrenching, and powerful – which is not unlike the Lynching in America exhibit – but it is educational, eye opening, and real. Much like the lessons taught through Lynching in America, Invisible: Slavery Today brings to light something that the public-at-large needs to know about, understand, and put a stop to even as local news today talks about a woman held for 10 days against her will right here in Greater Cincinnati.

“Together, we must hold a light to every corner of the globe and help build a world in which no one is enslaved.”

– Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton

Credits:

I again have to thank Rhonda, Dina, Katie, and the entire crew at THE National Underground Railroad Freedom Center for making me feel welcomed as always, and special thanks to Jamie for keeping me in mind to come to the preview.

For more information:

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

Website: http://www.freedomcenter.org Twitter: @freedomcenter

Story from Hamilton, OH of woman held captive:

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20101129/NEWS010701/311290015/Raped-18-times-woman-held-captive-for-10-days-talks-about-terrifying-ordeal

 

Textural Rhythms: Constructing the Jazz Tradition – National Underground Railroad Freedom Center – Cincinnati, Ohio

If you were looking for a post on the newest exhibit to open at Cincinnati Museum Center, America I AM: The African American Imprint, well, you have to either come see it yourself, or wait until August. This week, I want to highlight another new exhibit that recently opened in Cincinnati at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

On June 15, 2010 the NURFC opened Textural Rhythms: Constructing the Jazz Tradition, Contemporary African American Quilts. This makes my second visit to the NURFC, and to be invited to write about an exhibit is really a big deal to me.

Textural Rhythms Banner

So, I put on a brand new shirt, sport coat, and drove over to the beautiful riverfront facility. When I arrived not only did I have a pre-printed nametag, but also it actually identified me as a blogger, and came with a lapel pin. Stoked? Absolutely! I headed upstairs just in time to hear Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi the exhibit’s curator share her thoughts about the exhibit. Her passion about the exhibit and viewpoint of the quilts as “cultural documents” is evident when she is speaking. The exhibition has been traveling for two and a half years, and is an interpretation in fabric of a jazz group, song, or artist. The quilts were made by the Women of Color Quilters Network, a group founded by Dr. Mazloomi. Their mission is “to foster and preserve the art of quilt making among women of color.” So I knew before stepping into the exhibit that this wasn’t going to be any run-of-the-mill quilt exhibit.

The first thing I noticed when entering the gallery is the familiar video introduction done by the Interpretive Services Manager and the Museum’s Curator. The video, like the one for Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America set the tone for the exhibition. The first few quilts I encountered supported my theory that these weren’t the traditional Amish quilts I was familiar with exhibiting. Many of the quilts throughout the exhibition are made from not just one or two media, but many! Some have cotton, rayon, and silk, but many have three-dimensional attributes like beads, and small antique items that help visually communicate the artist’s vision.

While the 3000 square foot floor plan remained the same from Without Sanctuary, when I reached the former breathing room I realized that it had been transformed! Gone were the tissues and sparse walls, they have been replaced by more amazing artwork, and instead of a quiet experience, upbeat music fills your ears as you make your way through the exhibition.

Linda Gray's "Tribal Melody"

Out of the 68 quilts in the exhibition, some of the most awesome quilts in the exhibition are Rosalyn Thomas’ “Cotton Club” and, Indianapolis artist Linda Gray’s “Tribal Melody” is vibrant, full of color, and does not follow the traditional square or rectangle quilt formula. The advancements in jazz by women such as Etta James and Billie Holiday are articulated in a piece entitled “Thirty-Eight Women in Jazz.” All of the pieces articulate a different element. While some project rhythm, others mood, others promote celebration. Looking for local connections? Of course! Many of the quilts were created by members of the WCQN living and working right here in Cincinnati!

My professional opinion –

After seeing such a powerful exhibit months before, and returning to see this, I urge you to check it out! Having had an exhibit in my career on Amish quilts from the great Amish Communities of Northern Indiana, and now seeing this, this exhibit is not you’re mother’s quilt exhibit! As Dr. Mazloomi said, the “Quilts have jumped off the bed and onto the wall.” The exhibit is exciting, well laid out, and well worth the ticket price. The exhibit is currently open to the public until August 14, 2010 so you don’t have a lot of time to see it, and the new riverfront parking garage is open so parking to visit the Freedom Center is easy!

"Satchmo"

Credits:

I would like to thank Rhonda, Dina, Katie, Richard, and the entire crew at THE National Underground Railroad Freedom Center for making me feel welcomed, and special thanks to Jamie for the invite! I look forward to working with you all soon!

For more information:

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

Website: http://www.freedomcenter.org Twitter: @freedomcenter

Women of Color Quilter’s Network

http://www.wcqn.org/index.html

Dr. Carolyn L. Mazloomi

http://www.carolynlmazloomi.com/index.html

 

Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America – National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati, Ohio

An American soldier returns home from the European theater of World War I. His family anxiously awaits his return. The soldier returns to the southern United States, and never returns home to his family…

After discussing my own special exhibit, Gold: The Exhibition in my last installment, I thought I would keep it here in Cincinnati and write about the current special exhibit over at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

So to be fair I have to admit, I had never been to the NURFC prior to my visit to see Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America. Was it the exhibit that made me want to go? No, not specifically, but when a museum has a provocative special exhibit is generally the best time to visit! So, my brother Micah and I had lunch and went down to the Freedom Center. To be even more fair, we were hoping to see a specific picture that we knew would be a part of any lynching exhibit. One cannot be born and raised in Marion, Indiana and not have heard about the infamous 1930 lynching. We knew if nothing else that picture would be there.

So we entered the exhibit and were greeted by a very good video about some of the reasons behind the exhibit and some fair warning about the graphic pictures that were just around the corner. The initial galleries were full of dozens and dozens upon dozens of pictures and postcards of lynchings around the country. In the middle of the exhibit was a breathing room. A place where there were no pictures, only words of inspiration and a box of tissues. I highly underestimated the need for those tissues as we continued.

We moved into the local story gallery, and wouldn’t you know it, Marion, Indiana. On August 7, 1930 Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith were lynched on the courthouse lawn for a crime that they were not convicted for (A third man, James Cameron was miraculously saved). As I said, we knew we would see something about it, but to be a focus in the gallery complete with 2D and 3D artifacts was extremely sobering. We completed the remainder of the exhibit which discusses even more contemporary racially motivated murders, and found a place to sit and reflect.

My brother and I were greeted by a gentleman who I recognized from the introductory video. It was Richard Cooper, Manager of Interpretive Services for NURFC. He asked if we had any questions or wanted to talk. As a museum professional, I know it isn’t easy to engage visitors after such an emotionally powerful exhibit. We explained that we were from Marion, and seeing it all together really made us feel oddly embarrassed for our home town.

My Professional Opinion-

We can discuss my personal opinion all day long. The exhibit really hit home for me in a way not many exhibits have the distinct privilege to do. Professionally, the exhibit was, simple, clean, well laid out, the breathing room was a masterful idea for such powerful and emotionally disturbing images and content. The way that these lynchings were such important social gatherings was particularly disturbing, BUT at the end of the day, there is a valid reason for everyone to see the exhibit. What we learn from the exhibit is that we do not want to treat people this way. We learn that even today there are groups that are targeted for oppression and intimidation because of their lifestyles, color of their skin, or religion. Is it about guilt for white people? No. Is it to remind black people of an awful past? No. That’s like saying the Holocaust Museum is to remind Jewish people of concentration camps. This exhibit and many like it serve as not a reminder of our darkest hours for guilt, but rather as a reminder not to repeat these atrocities! This isn’t a glorification of these brutal acts, but a historically accurate, artistically presented, educational exhibit.

So here is the scoop; the exhibit only runs through Memorial Day, Monday, May 31. So you only have a couple of weeks left to go see it here in Cincinnati. For more information please visit:

http://nurfc.org/without-sanctuary/

Follow: http://twitter.com/freedomcenter

The soldier returning from the European front lines of World War I never made it home because he was captured, severely beaten, and lynched. The sobering irony being that a man can survive a world war, but as soon as he returns to his home soil he is savagely murdered.

*A visitor to “Without Sanctuary” told the story of  his father, the WWI soldier, to Richard Cooper during a visit to the exhibit. I would like to personally thank Richard Cooper for sharing this story with me.