the young people's professor

"February 1968 saw 1,300 African American Sanitation workers strike to demand their basic rights to organize a union, to gain a living wag e, and to garner the respect and dignity deserving of all working men and women. The Civil Rights Leader, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., eventually came to Memphis to support the strikers and was subsequently assassinated. From those dramatic events, one phrase emerged that continues to inspire community activists forty years later, "I AM A MAN."

With this theme, twelve artists have been selected to create new work that immortalizes the 1968 workers strike as well as offer interpretations of what it means to be an African American Man in America in 2008. The goal of the exhibition is to also draw greater attention to the role and responsibility of the artist to serve as an agent of change. Ernest Withers, who not only photographed and captured the historic I AM A MAN march also created the bold signs that expressed the intellect and drive of African American males in America to reclaim their manhood and their right to be respected and treated as equals in America and all over the world.

This thought provoking exhibition comes at a time when the perception of a Black man in America is most under introspection ranging from Barack Obama securing the Democratic nomination to the controversial not-guilty verdict in the Sean Bell trial. We hope that you will share the experience of this exhibition with a child."

On View Until Jan. 18, 2009 @

MoCADA

80 Hanson Place (corner of South Portland)

Brooklyn, New York 11217