Community Justice: The Black Panther Party & Other Civil Rights Movements

Ritter Art Gallery: January 20 - March 4, 2017
Opening: Thursday, January 19, 2017, 6pm
Press Release

Community Justice: The Black Panther Party and Other Civil Rights Movements is an exhibition that explores and examines the various social justice movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The exhibition features photography, film/video and vintage and digital print materials that document the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords Party and the American Indian Movement. These still and moving images and printed documents showcase the type of change-provoking programs these movements instituted, such as the Black Panther Party's various survival programs offering education, healthcare, and free food to aid their respective communities.

The “Community Justice” exhibition acknowledges and joins a host of other exhibitions celebrating the 50th anniversary of Huey Newton’s founding of the Black Panther Movement in the fall of 1966. Chris Robé, Ph.D., film scholar and associate professor in FAU’s School of Communication and Multimedia Studies who has collaborated in the project’s organization describes the exhibition as "a timely reminder of how activism and dissent can influence change in our society."

The exhibition presents documents and photographs from several collections including photographs by Bruce Davidson, Pirkle Jones and Ruth-Marion Baruch on loan from the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach; photographs and vintage documents from Ilka Hartmann, a west coast based photographer, activist and educator; photographs by Stephen Shames a photographer who collaborated with Bobby Seale on the recently published book, Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers (Abrams, 2016); oral histories featuring members of the Young Lords, a Latino Civil Rights organization, from a collection founded by Young Lords founder Jose “Cha Cha” Jimenez housed at Grand Valley State University in Michigan; Black Panther Newspapers from Archives/Special Collections, Charles Evans Inniss Memorial Library, Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York; and Young Lords Party Newspapers from Young Lords Newspaper Collections, DePaul University Library Digital Collections. Palante Newspapers from digital scans, collection of william cordova.

Public Programs:
FAU’s Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, along with PJHR,
South Florida Cultural Platform and Student Affairs presents
A series of exhibitions and lectures on the theme of Social Justice

5 pm, January 18, Student Union Grand Palm Room
Diversity Address by Shaun King - Jeffery Shaun King is an American writer and civil rights activist. He is noted for his use of social media to promote religious, charitable, and social causes, including the Black Lives Matter movement. He is the senior justice writer for the New York Daily News. Previously, he was a contributing writer Daily Kos. More info at the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs 561-297-3959 or multiculturalaffairs@fau.edu

6 pm, January 19, Ritter Art Gallery
Community Justice - Exhibition and Opening Reception- January 20 – March 4, 2017 -
Community Justice: The Black Panther Party and Other Civil Rights Movementsis an exhibition that explores and examines the various social justice movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The exhibition features photography, film/video and vintage and digital print materials that highlight various social justice movements, including the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement. These still and moving images and printed documents showcase the type of change-provoking programs these movements instituted, such as the Black Panther Party's various survival programs offering education, healthcare, and free food to aid their respective communities. Chris Robé, Ph.D., film scholar and associate professor in FAU’s School of Communication and Multimedia Studies describes the exhibition as "a timely reminder of how activism and dissent can influence change in our society."

6:30 pm, February 2, Schmidt Center Gallery
Sharon Daniel: Secret Injustices 2007-2016 - Exhibition and Opening Reception – February 3 – April 1, 2017 -
Scholar and artist Sharon Daniel will present a series of interactive and multi-media installation projects that document the secret injustices of the criminal justice system and the prison industrial complex. Daniel creates digital media art that engages the public in a critical dialogue about crime and punishment and challenges the assumption that imprisonment provides a solution to social problems. The exhibition has been developed in collaboration with Wendy Hinshaw from the Department of English and a multi-disciplinary group of college faculty focused on exploring the use of new digital technologies for the presentation of research and scholarship.

8 pm, February 2, University Theatre
Emergency by Daniel Beaty - Performance by award-winning actor, singer, writer and composer Daniel Beaty. A slave ship emerges in front of the Statue of Liberty sending New York into a whirlwind of emotion and exploration in this explosive solo tour de force featuring slam poetry, multi-character transformation and song. Daniel Beaty portrays a cast of 40 characters including a homeless man, a scientist, a republican business executive, a street vendor and an 11-year old boy from the projects who all respond to the unexpected phenomenon. Emergency weaves a stirring commentary on what it is to be human and the longing to be free. Information at www.fau.edu/theatre or 561-297-3810.

7 pm, February 9, Ritter Art Gallery
Film Screening and Panel Discussion with Filmmakers Iris Morales and Andrew Padilla
Faculty: Chris Robe, PhD, Film and Media Studies/Literature, Florida Atlantic University Iris Morales is a New York City filmmaker who came to documentary filmmaking after many years as a community activist, educator and attorney. Andrew Padilla is an Artist, Educator & Independent Journalist born and raised in East Harlem covering displacement in America.

5:30 pm, February 23, University Theatre Lobby and Sculpture Gallery
Social Justice Exchange - Description forthcoming.

7 pm, February 23, University Theatre
Angela Davis - Angela Davis is currently the Distinguished Professor Emerita of History of Consciousness and of Feminist Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz. She is also a founding member of Critical Resistance, a national organization dedicated to the dismantling of the “prison industrial complex,” a term which she helped to popularize. She is most concerned with the range of social problems associated with incarceration and the generalized criminalization of those communities that are most affected by poverty and racial discrimination. Her recent books include Abolition Democracy and Are Prisons Obsolete?, a new edition of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and a collection of essays titled The Meaning of Freedom.

Schedule Subject to Change
All College of Arts & Letters Spring 2017 Social Justice Events