Niagara Reporter
The Niagara Arts & Cultural Center (NACC) is holding an art exhibition entitled Artists of Color: Freedom through March 19 at their Townsend Gallery.
The works of African American artists of Western New York, including Niagara Falls, Buffalo and Rochester are on display, according to exhibit curator Ray Robertson. Artists of Color: Freedom is envisioned as a comprehensive representation of the African American experience from the historical, contemporary and personal perspective.
Highlighting the display is an artistic representation “Freedom Crossing” by Rochester artist Richmond Futch, Jr., enabling visitors to explore the story of the Underground Railroad Movement in this region and the people who risked their lives in the name of freedom.
Also exhibiting in Artists of Color: Freedom are Betty Pitts Foster, Markenzy Cesar, Ron Wofford, Edna Overton, Michelle Agosto, Ernst Hobbs, Phyllis L. Thompson, Jarall Adams, Niia Bishop, and Youssou Lo, Valaria Cray and Sandra Ray.
On February 24 at 6 pm., there will be a live stage reading of “The Green Book” by local performers. Written by author and playwright Calvin L. Ramsey, The Green Book is a play that sheds light on a time when Jim Crow and separate but equal was the law of the land. Travel and accommodations for African Americans was complex and full of uncertainties. Where a person or family could eat, sleep, buy gasoline or use restrooms was never without tension and, in some cases was a life and death struggle. The play allows those who were born after the landmark civil rights bills were passed to look back in time in American History, and see a people who looked out for one another and provided a safe harbor in a swirling storm.
Artists of Color: Freedom is open on weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm and 12-4 pm on Weekends. The NACC is located at 1201 Pine Avenue, Niagara Falls, NY (thenacc.org).
