|
|
|
Exhibition Review
"America I AM: The African American Imprint," http://www.americaiam.org.
Traveling exhibition through February 2011. 12,000–22,000 sq. ft. John Fleming, executive producer; Nancy Seruto, exhibit producer; Eric Parr, lead exhibition designer. National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, Pa., Jan. 15–May 3, 2009. Atlanta Civic Center, Atlanta, Ga., June 12–Sept. 6, 2009; California Science Center, Los Angeles, Calif., Oct. 28, 2009–May 10, 2010; Cincinnati Museum Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, July 4–Dec. 31, 2010; National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C., beginning Feb. 1, 2011.
|
| Over a century ago, America's foremost scholar of the African American experience posed a question. W. E. B. Du Bois claimed in The Souls of Black Folk (1903) that slave songs and the spiritual heritage they expressed were the nation's singular contribution to the world. "Would America be America," he asked, "without her Negro people?" This question provides the thematic framework for the traveling exhibition "America I AM: The African American Imprint." |
1
|
|
Probably the largest exhibition project on African American history and culture, "America I AM" is also one of the most broadly focused. Envisioned by author and talk show host Tavis Smiley, this traveling exhibition and its companion publication (America I AM Legends: Rare Moments and Inspiring Words, 2008), mobile truck previews, school curricula, and public programs are sponsored by Walmart, Northern Trust Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, and Exxon Mobil Corporation. Smiley's undertaking, a generous commitment to the story of African Americans, opened at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center on January 15, 2009, the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. The Atlanta Civic Center's 22,000 square-foot display, featured in this review, was the second stop of the exhibition tour. |
2
|
|
"America I AM" is a multimedia event that commemorates black achievement through artifacts, photographic images, text, audio, and video. Twelve galleries explore the contributions Du Bois identified as African American gifts to the nation: spirit, sweat and brawn, story and song, and democracy. Half of the twelve galleries trace a broad geographical and chronological narrative from Africa to the United States, from the American Revolution and the Civil War through Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era to the civil rights movement and beyond. Each of these galleries examines the spiritual, economic, cultural, and sociopolitical "imprints" that African Americans have made on the United States as the story of the freedom struggle has unfolded. |
3
|
|
It is difficult to imagine materials more magnificent than some of this exhibition's artifacts, gathered to demonstrate the breadth and depth of African American contributions. Two wooden doors from the Cape Coast Castle slave prison in Ghana heighten the exhibition visitor's sense of place and reinforce the significance of the slaves' separation from their homeland. The heavy weathered doors are protected behind Plexiglas and mounted on re-created dungeon walls. Even so, they powerfully evoke the finality and brutality of slavery. During my visit to the exhibition, a little boy asked, "What is that sound?" The adults, who were absorbed in the sorrowful sight of doors and shackles, paused to listen. The sound was the barely audible tones of dungeon life: moaning, groaning, crying captives; the lashing of a whip; chains clanking; doors slamming; and prisoners' African languages and chants. Perhaps in no other area of the exhibition are the artifacts, props, text, and audio more effectively interwoven than in this dungeon drama. |
4
|
|
The Civil War section of "America I AM" is particularly engaging. A young black Union soldier, appearing larger than life in a photomural, confronts exhibit visitors with his pistol held confidently across his chest. We hear the rhythm of fife and drum and see the flag of the Twenty-sixth New York Regiment of the U.S. Colored Troops: a blue embroidered banner fringed in gold and measuring about eight square feet in size. The impact of the banner is immediate, allowing instant access to the past and capturing the essence of the museum experience. It is a marvel that this banner was preserved and can speak directly to the visitor today of the fight for black freedom nearly 150 years ago. |
. . . |
There are about 1430 more words in this article.
Please log in (or, if you are not yet an
authorized user, please go to the
User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
|
