African Past: Migrant Present

This program accompanied a wide-ranging gallery show created by the Geneseo Migrant Center's Folk Arts Program in 1986. Its focus was that seasonal farm workers from the American South, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica "share common roots, a journey begun long ago in the passage from Africa. But the journey continues." The exhibition, comprised of nearly a hundred objects, divided them into "These Voices, These Faces" (about African Americans and focusing upon verbal arts) and "The Journey Continues" (about more recent immigrants and focusing upon the visual arts).

Perhaps these decisions were driven by the available materials, but there also was an anthropological framing: "The artists themselves are not necessarily aware of these influences in their work. They often practice their art simply because they love it, or for pragmatic reasons such as making needed bed covers."

Yale University art professor Robert Farris Thompson delivered a lecture in conjunction with the gallery show. "African Past: Migrant Present" later went on to exhibition at Museum of African and African-American Art (Buffalo, 1986), the Diego Rivera Museum (Buffalo, 1986), and the 17th Eastern Stream Conference on the Education of Migrant Children (Philadelphia, 1987).

Twining, Mary Arnold

Roark-Calnek, Sue

Printed program

24 pp, 5.5 x 8.5 in