Sharon Hughes—Mothers in Black and White
From the artist: So much of the discourse around black males in America, especially since the death of George Floyd, has been on social media. I want this gallery to bring people together in person to more or less "sit in the living room" of these mothers and listen, learn and wrestle with how to move forward with racial healing. Ultimately, I want the black person who finds themselves at this gallery to gain a sense of solidarity, feel empowered and heard. I want the white person who finds themself at this gallery to understand racism in a completely different light and be willing to do the hard but necessary work at acknowledging covert/overt racism. I want everyone who comes to remember the love of their mother and use that as a compass for how we are to love the black men in our society. The vision for the in-person gallery is to walk through a black boy's life chronologically. Starting from infancy to manhood, the gallery is intended to bring the viewer through the life of a black male and the themes that mother's wrestle with from day one. Some of the sets portray deep loss- whether the mother to cancer or the loss of a son to police violence. Each woman and her son will have 3-7 presented photographs with corresponding quotes. The body of work will be dedicated to my late friend Courtney, who lost her life to breast cancer. She courageously used her voice in this series to expose the hopes, dreams and fears of her sons in order that we can all fight a little harder to dismantle systemic racism. May her legacy live on.
