SYRACUSE, NY (WSYR-TV) – The Syracuse University Libraries Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) has announced the opening of a new exhibition entitled A Love Supreme: Black Cultural Expression and Political Activism of the 1960s and 1970s.
The exhibit opens on Thursday, January 19 with a reception beginning at 4:30 p.m. on the sixth floor of the Bird Library on the Syracuse University campus and runs through July 2023.
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According to Syracuse University Media Relations Manager Keither Kobland, “A Love Supreme” reinvents the Black Power and Black Arts movements by intentionally silencing a multitude of Black writers, leaders and artists from the SCRC’s manuscript and archival collections as well as the rare books and books picks up collection of printed matter.
A Love Supreme is the title of John Coltrane’s groundbreaking 1964 album, which Kobland says amplifies the intimacy of the black community, its visions of liberation, and its expression of supreme, everyday love.
The exhibition is curated as a snapshot of the movements, containing materials that expand on dominant narratives of black pride, love, strength, philosophy and power.
On display are chapbooks from well-known black publishers such as Broadside Press and Third World Press, as well as a diverse selection of magazines and periodicals by various creators from the period.
Also featured are works by both well-known and little-known black visual artists such as Emory Douglas, Masood Ali-Wilbert Warren, Carole Byard and the young students of black nationalist educators.
Larry Neal, African-American theater scholar, cultural critic, and playwright, shaped the Black Arts movement of the 1960s and 1970s as the “aesthetic and spiritual sister” of the Black Power movement.
Creators and activists of this movement understood that political activism and cultural expression were inseparable, and drew equal parts from the teachings of black nationalist leaders like el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz (Malcolm X) and the improvisational performance of black free-jazz Musicians like Coltrane.
Black identity was reclaimed, re-centered, and affirmed in writing, theater, music, education, visual arts, and more during this period.
The exhibition is co-curated by Caroline Charles, Assistant Curator at the SCRC and Ph.D. Candidate in English at the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), and Jessica Terry-Elliott, Assistant Curator at the SCRC and Ph.D. Candidate in History at Maxwell School and A&S, in association with SCRC staff. Syracuse University Library Associates sponsored portions of the physical exhibit.
“This exhibition ‘A Love Supreme’ is named after the mantra Coltrane repeated 19 times in his groundbreaking jazz suite of the same title. Our own call to ‘A Love Supreme’ is dedicated to the Black people who have struggled, created, lived and improvised since we arrived in this hemisphere,” said co-curators Charles and Terry-Elliott. “Curating ‘A Love Supreme’ was a collaborative improvisation. While respecting our respective educations in English and History, we represented an interdisciplinary spirit of collaboration and honored the collaborative improvisation of the Black Arts movement. Historically, institutional archives have ensured the preservation of white supremacy. ‘A Love Supreme’ recognizes that archives have incredible potential to realign us towards social justice.”
Interested parties can register by sending an email to [email protected].
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