A bustling crowd filled the New Deal Café Sunday afternoon, February 5 to meet and greet the artists behind a vibrant art show, Resistance and Resilience in the African Diaspora. The show was sponsored by the Greenbelt Black History and Culture Committee, chaired by Lois Rosado and Leeann Irwin, and curated by Greenbelt’s 2021 Outstanding Citizen Shaymar Higgs, executive director of The SPACE Free Art For All. The show includes three dozen pieces by 15 artists, with about a third of the pieces on display in the lobby of the Greenbelt Arts Center. Additional sponsors of the show include Greenbelt Recreation and the Greenbelt Co-op Supermarket.
Mayor Emmett Jordan congratulated the committee for organizing an exciting lineup of events in celebration of Black History Month, beginning with this art show featuring Black and Brown artists. Coming events include a poetry event at the Community Center featuring Chris Haley, Sainey Cessay and Francis Stedman; a free screening of Wakanda Forever at the Old Greenbelt Theatre; mural making with art therapist Lindsey Vance at The SPACE; and more.
Higgs took the stage with several of the artists, encouraging them to say a few words about their art. “Artists have been the storytellers of history; we are the ones that move and make change,” Higgs said, “inspiring people worldwide to overcome systematic injustice and oppression with our rich cultural heritage. There are things [in this show] that will wake you up.”
One artist named herself Greatness, because, she said, “What matters is that we all have the power to wake up every day and choose greatness.” A collector of textiles, Greatness crafted an elaborate fabric headwrap featuring a vivid pattern of black-and-white triangles, along with sunny yellow, emerging from her piece, titled, The Ancestors Carried Me in their Thoughts by Greatness. “In African culture women wrapped their heads, or wore their babies on their back, and used fabric to keep the load from off their shoulders,” Greatness explained.
Many powerful pieces stand out in this breathtaking show. In the front room, a fauvist portrait of a woman in shades of brilliant orange and magenta, along with the stenciled words “Look at me, see my face, see theirs in mines,” is titled Reflected, by artist Kay Lee. Nearby, several pieces by Ryan Mista astound with their amazing colors and meticulous draftsmanship. A spray-paint artist, Mista has a practice wall in Mount Rainier. The building owner opposed his paintings at first, but the neighbors came together to support him. Now, the alley has been transformed by his art and the neighbors are granted a revolving display of amazing art. One of Mista’s works, Living in my Shadow, caught the eye of attendee Temisan Shebi, who felt compelled to learn more: “I had to learn the backstory, and dive deeper. I hate that I had to walk away. It evokes conversation. You can find a personal connection, even while you wonder, do you want that story.”
In the back room, artist Ellen Cort has three pieces on display. She took up art after retiring and began to study at Prince George’s Community College. Getting started was hard, but she said, “I’m for adventure. Working through my difficulties, coming out with success in the end.”
Her art has appeared in numerous shows at the New Deal and other locations around Prince George’s County.
At the Arts Center, a plexiglass piece by Shaymar Higgs features geometric imagery like a quilt. Peggy Martin said, “The thing I noticed was the static dynamic tension in the quilt pattern. You see what you expect to see and then there’s something that doesn’t fit.” Higgs explained that the piece is influenced by the idea of escape maps that are “hidden in plain sight,” with arrows pointing the way to freedom. Another artist, Floyd Roberts, thinks about his friends and paints portraits out of what he thinks up: Miss Patient, a nurse from West Africa in her home, surrounded by greenery, and Daniel Patrick, an artist in his studio, with artworks and masks behind him. A young artist, Indalyn McCaskill, created the piece Purple Rain out of a mistake, when she accidentally got water on the canvas. “It was nice to enjoy myself,” she commented. “I felt as though art was so much anxiety for me for a while, just to create and have something beautiful come out was really nice.”
