“Remember What I Told You To Forget”
John L Dart Library
1067 King Street, Charleston, SC
January 17, 2015 at 2:30PM
Anti-slavery Resistance Art Exhibition Opening
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA November 1, 2014 – Gullah Interpretive Realism artist and lecturer, Brother Nizar will exhibit 35 vibrant, richly composed paintings under the title “Remember What I Told You To Forget: Decolonization of Information”, during the month of January 2015 in Charleston, SC. The series is based on events and people omitted from or marginalized in historical records of “Self Liberated Africans”. This omission and marginalization was due to enslavement of African people and suppression of any information about successful resistance to slavery.
One hundred and forty nine years after the Civil War, much of this historic information is still being suppressed by educational and media institutions whose existance predate the Civil War.St. Julian Devine Community Center and John L Dart Branch of the Charleston County Library is making this very important exhibition available to Charleston Art and History enthusiast.
The exhibit is curated by the artist Kelvin Maurice Blufton, Sr., known to the Gullah Community as “Brother Nizar”. This exhibition highlights what is known in Gullah history and oral tradition as the “Self Liberated Africans”. These Africans are referred to as “Runaway Slaves” by Anglo-Carolinians and institutions who have yet to recognize the level of bravery needed to flee an entire geographical region and system of forced captivity.
Beyond the thrill of bold colors and sweeping brush strokes, this exhibit expresses a power rarely exhibited in Gullah and African American cultural art.The power and fearlessness fueled Fierce Resistance to enslavement which began long before the advent of Jamestown Virginia, 1619.
In 1526, in present day South Carolina at Winyah Bay, near present day Georgetown, SC, Lucas Vasquez Ayllon attempted to build a Spanish Colony with one hundred enslaved Africans. The Africans, with the assistance of Native Americans, freed themselves and became noted as the first non-native Americans to peacefully coexist with the Native American People in the Americas. This event is rarely discussed in South Carolina history, except by Gullah Scholars. This event was 93 years before Jamestown, Virginia and 144 years before Charlestowne, SC was founded.
This exhibit proclaims that, “until Gullah and African American scholars liberate “enslaved information”, the people cannot truly be free.”
“Remember What I Told You To Forget”, will be shown at the John L Dart Library 1067 King Street, Charleston, SC on January 17, 2015 at 2:30PM.
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