A group of CMS students at Olympic High School in southwest Charlotte have created an art exhibit that celebrates and highlights African American resistance and joy through art forms that include poetry and quilting to commemorate Black History Month.
It goes on display today.
Charity Thornton,15, sat in a chair with a pen in her hand. She continually nodded her head as she waited for the right time, for the right beat, then she began singing her poem:
“Free me from my mind; they have my hands in a bind. From the earliest time throughout my bloodline. We’ve been oppressed yet not depressed,” Thornton sang. “They can’t take, if not given, my happiness, my pride, so motivated, so driven. To resent me, for my brand, for how I stand, for how I walk, for how I talk, for that I’m alive, for how I thrive.”
Thornton said her lyrics are inspired by the late rapper Tupac Shakur. She said she wants the poem to reflect how African Americans have used rhythm and sound to express their reaction to inequalities, move people to action and offer hope.
“So, like, the ‘oppressed, yet not depressed,’ it shows that, yeah, we’ve been put down, but we’re also trying to still keep our head above the water,” Thornton said. “Not focused on all the negative and the wrongdoing, but still live happily among each other.”
The art exhibit sprang from a social studies course that includes 16 students, most of whom are African American or Latino. Teacher Ashley Alston said teaching Black history can be challenging at times because it involves a lot of pain. Still, she likes to focus on how Black people have responded to overcoming inequalities.
“I’ve taught the students that their ancestors and Black people have always resisted the systems of oppression, and part of being able to resist things, in the simplest form, is keeping your joy,” Alston said. “And not succumbing to the psychological aspect of what oppression does to you.”
Alston said all her students, regardless of their backgrounds, have embraced the project. She said she was pleased to see one student, Enrique Ruiz, so enthusiastic about pursuing guitarist Jimi Hendrix as an inspiration for his piece.
“He was like, ‘He's great. If you play the guitar, you know who Jimi Hendrix is,'" Alston said. “So, he's challenging himself to learn a few cut chords, or hopefully, he wants to do a cover in his own style to make it his own. So that's been exciting.”
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The students’ projects focus on a range of historic Black people, such as 1960s singer Nina Simone, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jackie Robinson, who became Major League Baseball’s first African American player in 1947. Alston said she wants the students to learn about Black history and embrace it.
“[To] look at themselves as being a beautiful legacy of that history. And just to see that they have so many gifts and talents that have been used for generations to not only express themselves, but to resist common expectations for themselves, or a narrative for them about what they can and can’t do,” Alston said.
Maya Vu,15, quilted together pieces of fabric with images of dogs, cats, bees and footballs. Her quilt is inspired by fiber artist Cynthia Lockhart, specifically her piece called "Created To Be Me," based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Vu said there’s a special meaning behind each image, which is tied to her classmates.
“Just to represent each of us and how we all come from different backgrounds, and we all like different things. But at the end of the day, we are all a family,” Vu said.
She said Lockhart's art inspired her to find a way to come out of her shell and express herself.
"I haven’t really had, like, a place to show myself at school,” Vu said. “So, I thought I can really represent myself in a way and show off what I really like to do.”
The exhibit will be on display at Olympic High School until mid-March.
