The Black Arts and Power movements are the focus of a new exhibit at Syracuse University.
The display from the Special Collections Research Center features journals, periodicals and artwork from Black creators during the 1960s and 1970s. The exhibit, titled “A Love Supreme” after John Coltrane’s 1964 album, aims to highlight the connection between political activism and art in Black spaces during the time, and how that connection remains relevant in activism and art today.
Jessica Terry-Elliott, co-curator and PhD candidate in English, said the timeframe is a key period of Black expression and activism.
“I think that particular moment in time gives us kind of a flash point into not only the past—everything prior to 1960,—but definitely everything after 1970," Jessica Terry-Elliott said. "So it’s a good place to just land. And it’s a good space to allow people to kind of familiarize themselves with kind of what words mean, and how Black people love and how Black people define themselves.”
Pieces for the exhibit were selected by how they reflected Black people’s pride for their identities and definitions of what it means to love, especially as a Black person struggling with their identity in the 1960s and 1970s and beyond.
“A Love Supreme” runs through July at the Bird Library on the Syracuse University campus.
