Co-curators of In These Truths, Aitina Fareed-Cooke and Edreys Wajed, alongside Curator of Public Art Aaron Ott.
In These Truths is an exhibition of works by Black cultural producers, co-curated by two of Buffalo’s most influential, charismatic, and insightful artists, Edreys Wajed and Aitina Fareed-Cooke, in collaboration with Curator of Public Art Aaron Ott. This invitational exhibition focuses on Black artists, emerging and established, who, through a wide range of mediums, provoke and reconsider, defy and embrace, test and talk about our shared reality. Collectively they create enduring and fertile forms that stand to profoundly challenge white America’s preconceived notions and to proudly present a Black America in all the complexity of its grace, struggle, and accomplishment.
The title of the exhibition arises, in part, from one of our country’s foundational pronouncements in the Declaration of Independence. That document begins with its famous and unforgettable claim that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal—a statement that asserts inclusivity while never delivering it. In the poem she composed for the 2021 presidential inauguration, “The Hill We Climb,” Amanda Gorman wrote, “But while democracy can be periodically delayed / it can never be permanently defeated / In this truth / in this faith we trust.” And so, in our endeavor to demand equality and to expand true democracy for all, we must first honor the fact that Black bodies, Black thought, Black labor, and Black culture are foundational elements on which our nation is constructed.
While Buffalo was once among the last stops on the Underground Railroad, it is now one of the most segregated cities in the United States. This insidious division imposes a wide range of costs disproportionately on people of color, restricting access to healthcare, education, employment, and wealth. This exhibition lays the grounds for meaningful cultural interactions and dialogues necessary to illuminate and advance conversations on race and humanity that are essential to our country and our community.
Our humanity, what is truly central to our lives and livelihoods, to our resistance and joy—this is the lodestar of our exhibition. The selected Black artists all assert, in their own voices and in their own truths, that nothing is more straightforward, and yet more imperative, than affirming our shared humanity. They and their peers working today provide perhaps the most vital means to represent America as it really is: complex, multiracial, and multifaceted. We move forward with them as they lead the way.
This exhibition will include works by: Nina Chanel Abney, Chloë Bass, Julia Bottoms, Raque Ford, Derek Fordjour, vanessa german, LaToya Hobbs, George Hughes, Richard Hunt, Tony Lewis, James Little, Esmaa Mohamoud, Faheem Majeed, Delita Martin, Oluseye, Stacey Robinson & Kamau Grantham, Kellie Romany, Devan Shimoyama, Phyllis Thompson, Rhonda Wheatley, and Yung Yemi.
