The Black photo exhibit As We Rise: Photography From the Black Atlantic takes over The Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver from February 24 to May 14.
Although we all descend from Africa with its many countries, tribes and languages, the flavour of “Black-ness” is as diverse as ever thanks to colonialism and the slave trade. There’s African, Caribbean and Latin America culture. Here in Canada, there are Black communities in Nova Scotia and border towns like Windsor, Ontario and St. Catharines tracing back to the underground railroad. Of course, there are African Americans across the United States who have diverse cultural and historical experience based on regions.
This diverse expression of Black culture is captured in the travelling photo exhibit As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic which will make its home at The Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver from February 24 to May 14.
Curated by Elliott Ramsey and organized by Aperture, the exhibit features more than 100 photographs from the Wedge Collection — Canada’s largest privately owned collection committed to championing Black artists. From the rise of hip-hop in Brooklyn to civil rights era Detroit, it’s a celebration of Black community, identity, and power featuring scenes of love, leisure, and resistance from the perspective of Black photographers. It features images selected from Aperture’s recently published book by the same name depicting African diasporic culture from both sides of the Atlantic.
“The Wedge Collection brings together rare images, iconic photographs, and new works that reach across continents and over decades,” says Ramsey. “From the 1930s’ Harlem Renaissance, through post-colonial Bamako, to contemporary Toronto, As We Rise celebrates the polyphony of Black life — and the nuanced approaches of Black photographers in representing these scenes of love, leisure, and resistance.”
The Wedge Collection was founded in 1997 by Dr. Kenneth Montague who hopes the exhibition will show visitors the beauty, complexity, and diversity of Black life. The exhibition’s title was inspired by phrase invoked by Montague’s father: “Lifting as we rise.”
The exhibition first opened at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto in fall 2022. After its run at The Polygon Gallery it will travel to the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts in June 2023.
For information about the exhibit visit thepolygon.ca. or wedgecollection.org. In the meantime, visit the header above for a quick look at what you can expect.
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