“Into the sixties a word was born . . . BLACK.” The poet Haki R. Madhubuti composed this line for a poem he wrote decades ago, but when he read it aloud at the South Side Community Art Center recently, the words still reverberated. Madhubuti was the keynote speaker at the opening of “AfriCOBRA: Prologue—The 1960s and the Black Arts Movement,” the first of three exhibitions on AfriCOBRA’s history, aesthetic philosophy, and cultural impact that together make up “AfriCOBRA in Chicago,” a series jointly organized by the SSCAC, the Logan Center for the Arts, and the DuSable Museum of African American History.
Strong black figures recur throughout the exhibition: in Robert Black’s black-and-white photograph of an impassioned Martin Luther King Jr., for instance, and in John Sibley’s impressionistic portrait of Malcolm X, titled Third World Man in recognition of Malcolm’s support for liberation movements across the globe. Among the show’s most arresting works is Alonzo Parham’s abstract painting of Olympic athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos, their fists raised in the Black Power salute during the medal ceremony at the 1968 Mexico City games. Smith and Carlos stand alongside a third figure, the Australian Peter Norman. Parham portrays the three men in silhouette, without their Olympic uniforms. It’s a stunningly concise evocation of power as a moral and spiritual force that goes beyond physical prowess.
5/10-7/7
South Side Community Art Center
3831 S. Michigan
africobra.uchicago.edu
free
