(NEWARK, NJ) -- Gallery Aferro and the Clement A. Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience present a major exhibition on Newark’s legendary piece of public art - "Kea's Ark of Newark: A Life In Works" from September 24 through December 17, 2016. Kea Tawana’s Ark, a three-story wooden boat that rose above Newark NJ’s Central Ward, was only extant for five years, from 1982-1987. Yet hundreds of people have come forward during the past year to share their vivid memories of the ark, which was built by one woman out of salvaged pieces of city houses, churches, schools, and factories.
In much the same manner, Gallery Aferro and the Clement A. Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience at Rutgers University – Newark have “built” an exhibit out of the carefully gathered, surviving pieces of an incredible true story: archival press and TV broadcast footage; ephemera from private and public collections; photographs from artists, journalists, and family photo albums; new oral history recordings, public records, maps and geographic data; and previously un-exhibited examples of Kea’s artwork, writings, and objects, including a collection of handmade stained glass windows and a set of blueprints for a utopian city, combine to create an immersive experience deep in a complicated story.
The public is invited to explore the meaning and significance of this quintessential Newark story through the exhibit as well as connected public programming, with additional speakers and activities to be announced throughout the fall:
Saturday September 24, 7-10 PM Opening reception with song and spoken word by Emily Turonis and Kween Moore
October 2, 8 PM: Dance performance by Storyboard P
November 5, 2 PM: Locating the Ark Part 1: Discussion with Sharon Zukin, Caitlin Tucker-Melvin, Torkwase Dyson, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Julia Rabig and others to be announced.
Nov 7, 6:30 PM: Ark of Bones: Reading and Discussion of the late Henry Dumas's short story "Ark of Bones" with writers, critics and poets Evie Shockley and Carter Mathes (Rutgers-New Brunswick) and John Keene (Rutgers-Newark). In collaboration with the Department of African American and African Studies at Rutgers University-Newark. Free, but registration required at eventbrite.com
Nov 12, 5 PM: Locating the Ark Part 2: Screenings and Discussion with Margot Niederland, "Broken Angel", and Tiona McClodden/Harriet’s Gun Media, "KILO | Iba se 99."
December 17, 3 PM: Closing Reception and 8th Annual Potluck, with listening party for radio play, and performances/invocation by special guests
While the exhibit is the culmination of a large-scale research and oral history project, it is generative and interactive in nature. By the December 17th closing reception, new content created by members of the public will have been added to a community archive documenting Kea’s Ark. That content will include a virtual exhibit component created with help from 200 NJ girl scouts; a “radio play,” comprised of Facebook comments about the ark and inspired by Kea’s skill at making and using homemade radios, will be given voice by community actors; and, of course, a diverse and expanding collection of oral histories generated by the ongoing call for memories of the ark.
As a community archive, the project is guided by the way that current and former Newarkers compare memories of the ark in call and response rounds of online and in-person conversation, sometimes working through to consensus, and sometimes not. The exhibit and archive will not lay claim to “a definitive official version” of the story. Instead, they honor a multiplicity of perspectives, the endurance and complications of memory, and the ways in which one individual’s gesture inspired and informed multiple lives.
Kea’s practice of assembling salvaged, disparate, and repaired elements into the ark continued in later artworks, which powerfully evoke continued engagement with loss, memory, protest, and resilience. Objects being publicly exhibited for the first time include more than 30 handmade stained glass windows that extend the vernacular of the black church in Newark, and an extraordinary set of locking cabinets, reminiscent of Joseph Cornell’s works. Using intricate coding systems still being studied and deciphered, and associative combinations of repurposed and original images and texts, Kea’s later works, like the ark, are simultaneously nonlinear autobiographical narrative and cultural commentary on life in urban America.
This fall and winter, join us to talk about art and aesthetics, equity, community self-determination, civic disinvestment, gentrification, shelter, urban planning, beauty, utility and the control of public space, public art, and artist-built and vernacular architecture. Walk up to the hacked payphone in the middle of the gallery, pick up the receiver, and listen to the stories being told: the 1980's are calling.
FREE GROUP TOURS AVAILABLE: Book a free tour for your group to explore Kea’s Ark of Newark: a Life in Works. Gallery Aferro has hosted tours for a wide range of groups, including schools, colleges, senior groups, professional and civic associations, recovery programs, and many others. Contact Gallery Aferro at info@aferro.org to inquire.
CALL FOR VOICES REMAINS OPEN: Anyone wishing to share their own story of the Ark should send a message to keas.ark@gmail.com or call Emma Wilcox at the ark hotline 973-536-0290, we continue to collect stories.
RADIO PLAY VOICE ACTORS SOUGHT: Community members of all ages and timbres are invited to contribute to an original play written by Dr. Mark Krasovic based on Facebook discussion about the ark. To get involved please contact keas.ark@gmail.com
For more information about Gallery Aferro visit http://www.aferro.org/
For more information about the Clement A. Price Institute visit http://ethnicity.rutgers.edu/
This program is funded by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities; the New Jersey Historical Commission; and a generous donation from Warren Grover. We gratefully acknowledge everyone who has and continues to support and contribute to this project, most notably, Up Front Exhibition Space, Port Jervis, NY.
Image: Camille Billops
