Wednesday, January 11, 2012

"Cash Crop" Examines Dynamics of Slavery, Race


“Cash Crop,” an exhibition related to American slavery, will be displayed through June 30 at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture. As part of this event, core and affiliated faculty members from the Department of Africana Studies will participate in public presentations on slavery, labor and globalization.

The first event, “The Artist as Story Teller: Conversation with Stephen Hayes,” will be at 2 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 14. Tanure Ojaide will moderate.

English Department faculty members Janaka Lewis and Malin Pereira will participate in the discussion “Bearing Witness, Redeeming Memory – Biographies and other Representations of Enslavement in African-American Literature” on Thursday, Feb. 2.

Christopher Cameron and Gregory Mixon, history, and Erika Edwards, Africana studies, will discuss “Pioneers of Freedom: Slave Revolt, Rebellion and Revolution in the Atlantic World” on Thursday, March 22.

College of Education faculty members Charles Hutchison and Greg Wiggan will talk about “From Slavery to the Prison Industrial Complex: Race and the African-American Experience” on Thursday, April 19.

Eddy Souffrant, philosophy, will lead the panel “Capitalism, Globalization and Human Rights” on Thursday, May 24.

With the exception of the first event, forums will be at 6 p.m. in the Gantt Center, 551 South Tryon Street.

“Cash Crop” artist Stephen Hayes is a native of Durham. He completed a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from North Carolina Central University and an MFA from the Savannah College of Arts and Design. Comprised of 15 life-size relief sculptures, “Cash Crop” is a symbolic representation of Africans imported to the New World between 1540 to 1850. Atkins Library Special Collections contributed additional images for the exhibit.
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Phillip Brown is internal communication manager at UNC Charlotte.

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