Stepping off the elevator to the 6th floor of Bird Library, the sound of saxophonist Gil Scott-Heron softly plays in his powerful, post-bop style. But this performance, which was recorded at Hendricks Chapel in 1973, is not just a sound to appreciate — for Jessica Terry-Elliott, it is something bigger.

“This space comes alive,” said Terry-Elliott, one of the exhibition’s curators. “And just knowing that is something that was performed on this campus — that’s something … very powerful that students can be proud of.”

The recording is part of the much larger exhibition on the top floor of Bird Library, named “A Love Supreme: Black Cultural Expression and Political Activism of the 1960s and 1970s.” Research for the exhibit started in May of 2022 with Terry-Elliott, and curator Caroline Charles joined her in June.

The exhibition brings viewers through the artistic, social and political changes for Black culture of the ‘60s and ‘70s, referred to as the Black Arts Movement. This movement was championed by impactful political speakers, like Malcolm X, and revolutionary musicians, like Scott-Heron and John Coltrane, whose novel 1965 album “A Love Supreme” inspired the title of the exhibition.

Terry-Elliott sees this period as one of the most important for Black creatives and politicians to redefine and establish what “Black” is.

“The 1960s is truly a reconstruction of a modern age. And I say that primarily because this is a moment where, what we see all throughout this exhibition, you see Black people reclaiming their Blackness,” Terry-Elliott said. “They are not negotiating with anybody, what those things are. They are very clear about … what ‘Black’ is.”

The exhibition takes up the whole of Bird’s 6th floor, with each room showing aspects of Black art and culture. Titles of different displays, like “An Eternal Love” and “Absence of the Abstract,” give viewers the chance to consider different facets of Black culture and how it impacted U.S. culture at the time.

Leanne Rivera| Staff Photographer

The two curators put months of research into putting together “A Love Supreme,” as they had to decide both what works would be displayed and how they would be seen. The entirety of the exhibition was organized by the duo — even the cover art was conceptualized by Charles. As the curators found their favorite works in the archives, some went on to become focal points of the entire exhibition, like Jerry Wilson and Masood Ali-Wilbert Warren’s paintings in the “SOUL” section of the exhibition.

While the whole exhibition is made up of materials and art from SU’s Special Collections Research Center, there is still a personal touch to the exhibition, Terry-Elliott said. As both her and Charles are Black women, Terry-Elliott believes that their personalities and identities are woven into the exhibition.

“It’s not going to be lost on anybody that chooses to visit this exhibition,” Terry-Elliot said. “You’re gonna walk away knowing who curated it, even if you don’t know us.”

In “Absence of the Abstract,” Terry-Elliott and Charles displayed works from Black creators that emphasized the realities of what they were asking for. For many of the creatives in this display, concepts like freedom and safety were not abstract— they were concrete things that were not given to them.

The display compares artists’ works that revealed their lived realities, as their works reimagine what life would be like if they were given these “abstract” rights. Pictures of imagined Black presidents, like “Cleaver for President” by the Black Panther Party, are directly next to “Panther Mother and Child” by Emory Douglas, a painting of a Black mother teaching a naked young child how to shoot a gun.

“When you see this case, you have to contend with what it means to be fighting for your freedom,” Terry-Elliott said. “What does it mean to be denied justice? All of those things are not abstract words. These are words with a real meaning.”

The exhibition, which is open every weekday, will run until the end of the semester, giving students the chance to find material they would want to interact with. This was one of the most important parts of the exhibition for Courtney Hicks, who supervised the exhibition for the SCRC.

“My favorite aspect of the exhibition is how it teaches, shares and gathers visitors to honor, discover and learn from Black voices,” Hicks said.

Beyond the works of the exhibition itself, Charles said one of the most important things about the exhibition is the ability for students to do their own research on the items and works on display. Because all the works came from the SCRC, SU students can have hands-on experience with all the works, which is a unique appeal to the exhibit, Charles said.

“These are things that (students) can go and look at themselves,” Charles said. “I think that having it here lets people know that ‘Oh, I could get the call number for this particular item. And I can look at it myself, I could do more research into it.’”

Outside of the artistic progression shown in the exhibition, there is also a strong emphasis on the social changes that happened in the U.S., and even on SU’s campus.

A photo of Black and Latino students protesting in front of 119 Euclid sits in a back corner of the exhibition. About 150 students attended the protest, and Terry-Elliott said finding that image was one of the most emotional parts of her research.

“119 Euclid Ave. right now is this space for Black and African American students to just be right. So to see that, it brought tears to my eyes,” Terry-Elliot said. “That was the past speaking to a present moment, in telling us that we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing.”

Published on February 1, 2023 at 11:16 pm