#greatmigrationbkm

To stay or to enlist? 

It’s the critical decision that many Black families wrestled with as the armed services could provide economic opportunities and that question is illuminated by Zoë Charlton in A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration. In her installation, Permanent Change of Station, Charlton creates a large-scale, multilayered vignette of deciduous and evergreen trees, Southeast Asian terraced rice fields, and Florida Spanish moss.

By placing together elements that do not naturally coexist, Charlton blurs the boundaries between the real and imagined; the familiar and foreign. In a large-scale drawing, a Black American woman in high-ranking military dress—perhaps a distant relative of or stand-in for the artist—prepares to launch a miniature U.S. Air Force McDonnell F-4C-23 Phantom II fighter plane toward the 1950s-era white suburb of Levittown, Pennsylvania.

Experience the details within Charlton’s work that incorporates landscapes from Vietnam and the Philippines, where her family served in the armed forces as part of #GreatMigrationBkM through June 25.

Hear from three of the artists—Akea Brionne, Leslie Hewitt, and Robert Pruitt—whose work is on view in this story-rich exhibition during Brooklyn Talks on May 18. They'll discuss their individual practices and the profound impact of this movement of millions of Black Americans across the South and the country. 

🎟 https://bit.ly/3M4y8YJ

Carrie Mae Weems pays tribute to her grandfather and calls for justice for her family.  

In A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration, Weems shares the story of the disappearance of her grandfather Frank Weems, who was attacked by a white mob in Earle, Arkansas in 1936. Presumed dead, he narrowly escaped and made his way to Chicago on foot, never again reuniting with his family. By weaving historical events with fragmented family stories, photographs, poetry, music, and interviews, the artist reveals the tragedy of her grandfather’s disappearance and the aftermath of his vanishing, highlighting her family’s ongoing search for answers. 

Experience the work of this trailblazing artist, community-focused activist, and soon-to-be Brooklyn Artists Ball honoree in #GreatMigrationBkM through June 25. 

Get the artists’ perspective on the society-shifting, culture-creating impact of the Great Migration. 

The Virtual Member Coffee Chat on April 19 will make space for conversation surrounding community, connection, and radical hope inspired by A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration. Stick around for a live Q&A with the moderator and artists, including: 

Akea Brionne: Interdisciplinary researcher and artist

Steffani Jemison: artist and fellow Brooklynite 

Indira A. Abiskaroon: Curatorial Assistant, Modern and Contemporary Art

Register for free as a Member (or become a Member) here: http://bit.ly/414Wvf5

Jamea Richmond-Edwards is an artist from Detroit, Michigan who, after two decades away, recently returned to her home city.

The story of her mother’s family being displaced and traveling across four Southern states due to tragic floods and tornadoes is told in an epic multimedia installation, titled “This Water Runs Deep,” composed of a monumental painting and a sound sculpture of jazz instrumentation in A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration. 

See this work that blends mythological imagery and the artist’s family legacy in A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration through June 25.

Akea Brionne is originally from New Orleans, currently based in Detroit. 

In Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration, she pays homage to four important women in her family—her great-grandmother and her three great-aunts, the Phelps sisters. “School Children,” shown here, as part of a series of Jacquard tapestries on view in the exhibition that reproduce images from the artist’s family archive with hand-sewn rhinestone embellishments.

Now Open… A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration.📍

New York City—and particularly Manhattan—became home to hundreds of thousands of Black Americans, who left their homes in the South as a result of racial terror during the post-Reconstruction period between 1915 and 1970. 

This remarkable movement of people caused a radical shift in the demographic, economic, and sociopolitical makeup of the United States. In New York City, for example, this influx of new residents catalyzed the start of the artistic and cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. The extension of the A train line in the 1930s later prompted a mass local migration between Manhattan and Brooklyn, establishing the latter borough as a key site of the Great Migration.

In #GreatMigrationBkM, you’ll find a departure from traditional accounts of the Great Migration, which are often understood through a lens of trauma. Here, the movement is reconceptualized through stories of self-possession, self-determination, as well as critique. While honoring the layered hardships, the exhibition further expands this narrative by introducing those individuals, families, and communities who stayed in the region during this time and created their own legacies.

Discover more and plan your visit through June 25: https://bit.ly/GreatMigrationBkM