Art creates space for communities to engage in dialogue using creative materials and symbolic devices bridging science and technology with social and cultural experience. The origins of Earth Day are rooted in the intersection of science, society, and art. At the inaugural Earth Day in 1970 a collective environmental movement began, influenced by the ongoing Civil Rights Movement, literary works, such as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, and student-led anti-Vietnam war protests. Over recent decades Earth Day campaigns have increased focus and attention to the legacy of, and ongoing systematic environmental injustices, of extractive behaviors in both urban and rural landscapes, disproportionately affecting Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities.
Fifty-three years later art provides a process to revisit and reflect on Earth Day with a critical lens on history to amplify the stories of those most impacted by environmental injustices and excluded from mainstream narratives of our interactions with land, soil, water, and air. This EPN Signature Earth Day Event features artists, urban farmers, and community organizers who use art as a means of inquiry into the intersection of environmental and social justice issues as well of stories of resilience in the face of historical discrimination. The celebration will feature a dance performance from Orlando Zane Hunter Jr. and Ricarrdo Valentine of Brother(hood) Dance!, an interdisciplinary duo integrating agriculture and technology with dance.
Black on Earth is a multimodal gallery installation and dance performance centering rich ecomemories of Black people on land. The work highlights the 20th century Pigford v Glickman case setting a historical foundation for the struggle toward land sovereignty. Black folx in the 21st century have been reclaiming ancestral environmental and agricultural practices to resist food insecurity and acquire land. Black on Earth is a meditation, a call to action, and an illustration of wealth that has been undervalued and exploited. Through digital and organic interfaces Black On Earth transports participants into green spaces that have served as resistance for Black populations globally. Black gardening practices are gangsta and reveal a resilience that is embodied through practices of wellness and offer wisdom for future generations.
Following the interactive gallery display and dance performance Brother(hood) Dance!, Dr. Tiffany Bourgeois, assistant professor of Arts Management at Ohio State’s Department of Arts, Administration, Education and Policy, will relate Black on Earth to her scholarship, practice of growing food, and the use of creative inquiries into art, racial justice, agriculture, and the creation of green community spaces. Dr. Bourgeois will join Jera Oliver and Adrienne Williams in a conversation about blending the arts, agriculture, and community using culturally relevant and evidence-based programming. Oliver and Williams are co-founders of Growing and Growth Collective, an organization where urban agriculture is used as a means of social action for improved health outcomes, and deepened community engagement and economic empowerment with Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) in mind.
Join us for this free public event in-person at The Fawcett Center in Columbus or virtually through an EPN livestream production.
