The SUNY Oswego artist-in-residence program presents Ellen M. Blalock's exhibition  ". . . While Black." ". . . While Black" turns a gallery into a quiet sacred space to meditate and to recognize the magic, the miracle, of the African American experience and also to acknowledge the truths, the horrors, of “Living While Black” in America.

This site base installation of photographs, quilts and words uses the bird as a metaphor to embody the experience of Black people in relationship to their freedom, past, present and future. 

SUNY Oswego students, faculty and staff and several community members helped build The Ancestor Tree quilt. Each participant worked on one or more 12-inch square blocks of the pattern of the 9-foot-by-8-foot quilt. This quilt represents the life force the souls of Black people and the ancestral wisdom of the many enslaved Africans.

". . . While Black" reflects on the fragility of Blacks living in a high alert systematic state designed to cage and kill them, it also reflects on the relentless thriving force of being Black in America with no apologies.

Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 9am-4pm or by appointment.

Reception: Feb. 11, 5-7pm