Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica at The Art Institute of Chicago

This show couldn't have come to the Art Institute of Chicago at a better time. Since my social media is so scattered now, I had no idea that Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica had begun. I just happened to see the banners on the building when I was walking by. 

I've had a lot on my mind since the election, and have been thinking about Black history a lot. The day I decided to go to the Art Institute and see the show, I had just finished re-watching the Henry Louis Gates PBS documentary Reconstruction: America After the Civil War. Chronologically, this show picks up where the documentary ends, in the early 20th century. It was incredible to see how the notion of Pan-Africanism inspired so many Black artists around the world.

Left: David Hammons, African-American Flag
Right: Chris Ofili, Union Black

Adrian Piper, The Mythic Being: I Embody Everything You Most Hate and Fear

Emanoel Araújo, Oxalá

Daniel Baker, Survival Blanket

Margaret Burroughs, Self-Portrait

James Amos Porter, Soldado Senegales

Yto Barrada, Tectonic Plate

Malcolm Bailey, Untitled

Batoul S'Himi, Untitled from the series World Under Pressure

Walter T. Bailey, National Pythian Temple Masonry Fragment

Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, Ethiopia

Walery, François "Féral" Benga

Tavares Strachan, Kojo

Lubaina Himid, Toussaint L'Ouverture

This song was playing in one of the galleries.

Kiluanji Kia Henda, The Merchant of Venice

Betye Saar, Eshu (The Trickster)

Benny Andrews, Revival Meeting

Fred Wilson, After Caspar Mayer, Ota Benga

Ibrahim El-Salahi, Funeral and the Crescent

El Anatsui, The Ancestors Converged Again

Melvin Edwards, Afrophoenix No. 1

Abraham Gebre, Next in Line

Ben Enwonwu, Storm over Biafra

Glenn Ligon, Stranger in the Village #13

Meleko Mokgosi, Acts of Resistance III

The show even includes books and magazines.

I'm not sure if seeing a couple CDs I enjoyed listening to in college in a museum means that I'm old, or that I just have good taste.

The seating in the exhibition was designed by Norman Teague.

The show is on view until March 30th and I would encourage all my fellow Black Chicagoans to see it while you can. It's an antidote to what's about to go down in Washington.