All posts tagged: the Blackivists

Ebony Magazine Editorial Meeting, Freda DeKnight, Publisher John Johnson, Editor Ben Burns, Leroy Wimbush, taken in their offices in a converted funeral parlor, Chicago, Illinois.

Loss/Capture: Love Letters to Our Archives, Collections, and Culture

Through a series of writings, conversations, and archive digs, this project explores and uplifts archives and collections that speak to Sixty’s communities, starting with a look into the state of Black cultural archives in and beyond Chicago.

Featured Image: A digital illustration by Kiki Dupont that shows two figures embracing, a mother and child, against a solid dark rose background. The mother figure faces away from the viewer as the child presses into the mother's chest, eyes closed and facing the viewer.

Tracy Drake, a testimony on Black Motherhood

Published by Tempestt Hazel

A first-hand account from mother and archivist Tracy Drake on the challenges of caring for Black children and the conversations she recently had with her daughter, as part of a series of testimonies by Black trans, Black women and girls, Black femme, and Black non-binary artists and cultural workers.

Image: “Chicago Spring,” curated by Lauren Iacoponi featuring various artists. Six small windows have works of several artists hanging. In the top left window, Sarah Genematas, colored pencil drawing and David Stonehouse, mixed media drawing. Bottom left window exhibits MyLinh Mac, canvas painting, Ata Berkol, hand marbled fabric, Marcy Thomas-Burns and Amy Shelton collaboration, sculpture by Thomas-Burns, and print by Shelton, The top middle window exhibits a fine art photo print on cotton paper by Darryll Schiff. Bottom middle window exhibits an exhibition poster by Gordon Hall, a polyhedron wooden sculpture by John Heinze, and a plastic primary colored house by Shistine Peterson. The top right window has work by Tabor Shiles, which is a screenprint on silk, and a screenprint on paper by Trashformal (Charlotte Gasparetti Ribar and Spiros Loukopoulos). The bottom right window exhibits botany illustrations by S. Curtis Glazenwood Essex and Millicent Kennedy’s colored pencil and ink drawing. Photo by Amy Shelton.

August (Virtual) Art Picks

Published by Sixty Inches From Center

If you’ve followed us for a while, you know that our Art Picks offer a wide scope of events that are relevant to our audiences because we and the artists, cultural workers, curators, spaces, and projects we support live full lives that know no boundaries. We maintain expansive practices and work toward justice for BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and disability communities in Chicago and the Midwest. If this is your first time coming across this list, welcome. We’re glad you’re here and we hope this list sparks discovery, curiosity, and a demand for justice if you weren’t openly demanding that already. Created in collaboration with The Visualist and adapted for social-distancing due to COVID-19, this list offers online exhibitions, streaming events, a list of online collections from Black and LGBTQIA+ archives, and other ways to spend time in the virtual space. Also, in support of our friends, our communities, ourselves, and abolition/liberation efforts, we’re prioritizing events that uplift and fight for Black Lives and celebrate Black Queer Lives because the fight for Black Lives is the fight for Black artists, our …

University of Chicago Photographic Archive, [apf2-09786], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. Photo shows about a dozen adults and children outdoors in Chicago's Hyde Park-Kenwood neighborhood, many of them sweeping the streets with brooms.

The Blackivists’ Five Tips for Donating Your Materials

Published by The Blackivists

The Blackivists offer 5 quick tips if you’re considering donating your collection to an archives, museum, or other cultural heritage organization.