Community
Hear from some of Austin’s ‘everyday activists’
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A panel and reception will be held Sunday starting at 2 p.m. at the Austin library branch, 5615 W. Race Ave.
AustinTalks (http://austintalks.org/tag/photography/)
A panel and reception will be held Sunday starting at 2 p.m. at the Austin library branch, 5615 W. Race Ave.
The reception and panel discussion was to be held at the Austin library branch but had to be postponed because the library is closed due to the number of staff who’ve tested positive for COVID. The exhibit, which opened in December at the library, highlights the work of 19 Austin and Oak Park residents.
The portrait and interview collection opens May 4th at the Oak Park Art League. The exhibit, which celebrates the work of West Side activists, ends May 26th. There will be a reception May 14th and an online panel discussion May 20th. There are plans for the exhibit to be featured in Austin this summer.
The “Everyday Activists” project entails interviewing and taking photos of West Side heroes who are too often unheard and overlooked. Once the pandemic has subsided, organizers plan to hold two in-person exhibits – one in Austin and the other in Oak Park. Another project titled “Austin has the Mic” also aims to empower Austin residents to share their stories and help depict the community in a more authentic and positive light.
An online, interactive exhibit called The Sisterhood explores ideas of grief, justice and healing through photographs and vignettes written by mothers who have lost a son to gun violence. The stories of 11 Chicago area women are shared in the free exhibit created by Unsilence.
Photographer Sasha Phyars-Burgess recently discussed her work “UNTITLED,” a photographic exploration of race, class and space in Austin, at the Oak Park Public Library. The project was supported by a short-term summer fellowship from the Black Metropolis Research Consortium.