Fall 2023-Spring/Summer 2024
Irmandade
Ashé Market
The Community Artists’ Collective kicked off its 16th Annual Ashé Market December 9.
The market featured a curated selection of unique gifts items made by local artisans. Additional items included African fabric, masks and other art pieces from various African nations.
“Irmandade,” an exhibition opening September 23, at the Community Artists’ Collective, represents artist Ibraim Nascimento’s search for the community and brotherhood/sisterhood which was disconnected in the Afro-diaspora during slavery.
Nascimento is an Afro-Brazilian artist from the Recôncavo region of Bahia, who has moved to Houston and continues his artist-activist links to the defense of indigenous rights in Brazil. His work has been exhibited in Brazil and the United States.
This exhibition illustrates the bond of kinship between brothers, sisters and the deeper connection between diverse people. Irmandade is the Portuguese word for brotherhood, the bond of kinship.
Using the lines of thread as an analogy for connection and reconnection, the artist connects each canvas with red thread. On the canvases are images of Black people connected to each other by blood and ancestry. Sometimes these threads signify a search for something deeper, perhaps belonging, self, a lost connection or a confirmation of the existence of this concept.
During the period of slavery Black people were connected to each other by chains and taken from their homeland, and today they reconnect in a shared gaze, customs, stories and in their collectivities and spirit. This reunion is the possibility of rebuilding the notion of “irmandade.”
The exhibition will continue at The Collective, 4101 San Jacinto, Suite 116, through November 25. The opening reception on Saturday, September 23, is from 2 to 5 p.m. with a performance by Nascimento.
The artist will deliver a talk October 14 at 2 p.m., and he and performance artist Victor Givens will collaborate on a presentation in November, date to be announced
Here and Now: Cultural Expressions
The Legacy Project and Black Stereo
“Here and Now: Cultural Expressions,” an exhibition celebrating Black History Month, opened Thursday, February 1, at the Community Artists’ Collective.
The exhibition showcases art from The Collective’s permanent collection and included works by contemporary artists Ann Johnson, Gail P. Mallory, Shani Crowe, Earlie Hudnall, Delita P. Martin, Aesha Lee, Mark Francis, Dominic Clay, Ricardo Francis, Latonia Allen, Jo El Mercer, Ibraim Nascimento and Bert Long. The Museum of Fine Arts Houston Black Art Crawl in mid-February included the exhibition.
The exhibition was up at The Collective through February 29. The opening reception was on February 1 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Familial Landscapes (Re)Imagined
▪ Exhibition Title: Familial Landscapes (Re)imagined
▪ On View: March 16 – April 30, 2024
▪ Opening Reception: Saturday, March 16, 2024, 2 to 5 p.m.
▪ Artist Talk and Workshop: March 28, 2024, 6 to 8 p.m.
▪ Venue: JourneyHTX, 3219 Almeda Genoa Rd., Houston, TX 77047
Familial Landscapes (Re)imagined brings together the past, present, and future, within April M. Frazier’s ancestrally connected landscapes of Fayette and Wharton counties, Texas. Archived photographs of her grand, great grand and second great grandparents are juxtaposed against portraits of herself, as she acknowledges her past while looking toward the future. Familial Landscapes is an introspective journey of remembrance of what came before on those lands, while (re)imagining the meaning of being present now, in place and time.
April is a photographic based artist and native Houstonian. She creatively combines ancestral photographs and decades of research tracing her roots in Texas to create environmental portraits on lands with familial connection from the time of enslavement to the present. Pairing artifacts left behind like jewelry, bricks and inherent knowledge, with visions of the current landscape, April weaves together her story of becoming the black woman she is. Her art practice converges at the four-way intersection of inherent memory, tethered connection to the landscape, ancestral and historical investigation and lived experience.
In Familial Landscapes (Re)imagined, April shifts the traditional environmental gaze to (re)focus on the seven generations of her people which inhabited the rural lands Texas long before and aims to celebrate their stories through that lens. From discovering her second great grandfather Emanuel Roberts acquired over 200 acres of land in Wharton in 1893, to finding the final resting place in Muldoon of her fourth great grandmother Amanda, April strives to (re)imagine and (re)write the visual narrative of the African American in Texas. Familial Landscapes also intersects the work of The Witness Series, a female led and curated art experience which explores the profound historical connection that communities of color have with land and invites the (re)turn of those communities to the bounty of green spaces across Texas.
For More Information - Familial Landscapes (Re)imagined Website
Third Ward Unity in Faith: Backbone of Our Souls
Photos, top row, by Earlie Hudnall, Ray Carrington, Tamirah Collins, Tamirah Collins; second row: Earlie Hudnall, Ray Carrington, Tamirah Collins, photo by Earlie Hudnall
▪ On View: March 23 – May 18, 2024
▪ Opening Reception: Saturday, March 23, 2024, 2 to 5 p.m.
▪ Artist Talk and Workshop: April 27, 2024, 3 p.m.
▪ Venue: Community Artists’ Collective, 4101 San Jacinto, Suite 116
Early African American settlers in Houston’s Third Ward area established small worship places, reminiscent of the praise houses attended during slavery in the Jim Crow era. The intimate and personal size of the congregations created bonds in the community that would last for more than 90 years.
Images of the still-standing small houses of worship, captured by art photographers Earlie Hudnall, Ray Carrington and Tamirah Collins, will be shared at the exhibition “Third Ward Unity in Faith: Backbone of Our Souls,” opening March 23 at the Community Artists’ Collective, 4101 San Jacinto, Suite 116.
Kathleen Coleman, a fourth generation Third Ward resident, curated the exhibition.
These small churches resembled rural structures like those in many sharecropping communities near Houston. A few of these small congregations linger and tell the story of the Third Ward’s ever-changing landscape. Because of its proximity to downtown Houston, the churches are often sold and inhabited by a younger demographic.
Hudnall and Carrington, who attended Texas Southern University, have been cataloging the Third Ward area for more than 30 years, telling a story with their photos of the community block by block, from past to present. Hudnall’s mentor, Dr. John Biggers, saw the shotgun houses as urban pyramids. Carrington’s mentor, veteran photographer and teacher Herbert Provost, instilled a love of photography and of the community in him as a student at Jack Yates High School.
Collins, a mentee of Carrington and the exhibition coordinator at The Collective, will continue documenting the area from a new generational perspective.
The exhibition, which continues through May 18, is part of the FotoFest Biennial and is free to attend. An opening reception will be held Saturday, March 23, at 2 p.m. and an artists’ talk Saturday, April 27, at 3 p.m.
▪ Exhibition Title: The Legacy Project and Black Stereo
▪ On View: June 9-August 11, 2024
▪ Opening Reception: June 9, Sunday, 3 to 5:30 p.m.
▪ Artist Talk and Workshop: June 24, Saturday, 2 to 4 p.m.
▪ Venue: Hogan Brown Gallery, Eldorado Ballroom, 2310 Elgin
Community Artists’ Collective, Community Music Center of Houston and Hogan Brown Gallery are proud to announce the Annual Legacy Project, a month-long celebration of Black Music Month. The Legacy Project honors local and national individuals' contributions to music.
“BLACK STEREO,” a collaboration between artist Tierney Malone, Community Artists’ Collective, and Community Music Center of Houston (CMCH), opens Sunday, June 9, 3:00 P.M. at Hogan Brown Gallery, 2310 Elgin. After the reception music of the Third Ward will be performed by H-Town Orchestra in the Eldorado Ballroom. June is Black Music Month, celebrating the contributions of African American musicians, composers, singers and songwriters in American culture.
The event celebrates the many musical artists, educators, and facilitators who have come from or have ties to Houston’s Third Ward. The Legacy Project celebrates musicians and music educators.
For more information on the Legacy Project and its honorees, please visit: https://cmchouston.org/legacyproject
Robert Hodge, curator at Hogan Brown Gallery, and Michelle Barnes, executive director of the Community Artists’ Collective, are co-curators of the exhibit, which will be open to the public through August 11.
About Tierney Malone and BLACK STEREO
Malone is a visual artist and modern-day storyteller who blends African American history and pop culture to create mixed media works that challenge contemporary culture and politics. He is the host of “Houston Jazz Spotlight,” a weekly program on Radio KPFT.
Malone describes Black music as the soundtrack to the struggle for self-determination and liberation of Black people in the New World.
“It is the musical history of our evolution in this country,” he explained.
“Black music has been key to shaping American culture. Africans stolen from their homeland were forced to give up their languages, rituals, names and the drum, yet they retained the essence of these things and created spirituals, gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, and hip hop, musical forms whose powerful influence is undeniable on the cultural fabric of this country and beyond. Black music is a connection to our past and a source of inspiration, a space-creating force that encourages and seeds dreams for the future.
“In 1968, when singer Archie Bell said, ‘Hi, everybody. I’m Archie Bell of the Drells of Houston, Texas,’ on the hit record ‘Tighten Up,’ he helped to put Houston’s music scene on the world map. The music for this song was created and performed by the TSU Toronadoes, a group formed by students from Texas Southern University in the heart of Third Ward, aka ‘The Tre.’
“In the exhibition, ‘BLACK STEREO,’ I am continuing my creative practice of telling the stories and connections that African American artists and institutions of the Third Ward have with the city and the country. The works presented take the form of concert posters, showbills, and album covers, infographics meant to highlight, educate and entertain like music. The message is in the music.”
An opening reception will be held Sunday, June 9, from 3 to 5:30 p.m., followed by a concert featuring H-Town Orchestra in the Eldorado Ballroom from 6 to 8 p.m. An artist talk and musical performance will be held Saturday, June 22, from 2 to 4 p.m. All events are free.