Chicago Artists Illuminate the Power of Art to Advance Racial Justice

New Cohort of U Chicago Artists-in-Residence Span Genres, Share Vision

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 19, 2024
Contact: Anaga Dalal, adalal@uchicago.edu, 201.600.4718 (c)

Chicago, IL. On March 7, the University of Chicago’s Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture (CSRPC) and Arts + Public Life (APL) will welcome three new Artists-in-Residence to the university and south side communities.

"For 13 years, CSRPC has partnered with APL to elevate the visibility of underrepresented artists to advance the Center’s core mission—examining the centrality of race and racism in the systems we inhabit," states CSRPC Executive Director Tracye Matthews. "The Artists-in-Residence (AIRs) collaboration stands out as one of our most impactful initiatives, utilizing the power of art for social and racial justice."

The AIRs program has been a cornerstone of APL programming since 2011, supporting over 39 individual artists and helping them launch their careers.

The 2024 Chicago-based artists are Ayanah Moor, Johnaé Strong, and Candace Hunter.

Moor, a visual artist and educator, addresses contemporary popular culture by interrogating identity and vernacular aesthetics. Much of her work centers on hip-hop culture, American politics, Black vernacular, and gender performance. “The poetics of Blackness and queerness are centered in my approach to painting,” says Moor. “Through a process of social abstraction, I explore multiple legibilities. What makes Blackness renderable, and to whom? And how do its edges shift?”

Johnaé Strong is a writer, filmmaker, and organizer from Cleveland, Ohio who is now based in Chicago. She presents audiences with symbols from the Black experience that are quickly decoded by Black folks and asserted for non-Black audiences. Moving through time, black and white, color, movement, and stillness, Strong creates the effect of a freedom dream sequence. Just as enslaved Africans quilted symbols as a map toward liberation, her work is a codex for collective freedom.

“I’m honored to join this cohort of artists and stretch my artistic practice in relation to form and materiality,” says Strong. “With respect to my film and photography work, I am excited to integrate the rich archival history of the south side of Chicago into my contemporary musings and observation of Black girlhood.”

Candace Hunter’s work includes collage, painting, the written word, and performance. Her art speaks to the wonder and joy of the little brown girl within her and all little girls with whom she meets.

“Doors are at both an entranceway and exit,” says Hunter. “They are magical to me, never quite knowing what is beyond the threshold. I am looking forward to the creation of works that pay homage to the hopes and dreams of the citizens of Chicago who, for a time, dreamed at the intersection of two Black neighborhoods, at the intersection of hope and renewal.”

The artists will be formally welcomed to campus at a reception on Thursday, March 7 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at the Greenline Performing Arts Center (329 E. Garfield Boulevard).

Register to attend: bit.ly/2024AIRS