A Crafting Blackness Exhibition
MAY 31 – AUGUST 2, 2025
Curated by Karlota Contreras-Koterbay and Dr. Cynthia Gadsden
Remembering is the rich currency of memory. A currency that deals solely in story, much like stitched together fragments of a person’s life after they have passed. _Recalling a loved one’s words can help us form a picture of who they were and how they lived. Remembering serves as a connective thread, -linking lineage, legacy, and identity between individuals, families, and communities, reminding us of who we are and where we came from. Remembering is a link to an object or idea, offering comfort, honing our will to persevere, or tapping our mettle. Remembering provides an abundance of knowledge, wisdom, and insight.
“REMEMBERING: Resist, Reveal, ReClaim” is presented by Crafting Blackness initiative, a five-year collaborative research, publication, and exhibition series to advance the visibility of Black Craft and African American artists in Tennessee since 1920 up to present. Exhibiting artists include Omari Booker, Ashley Buchanan, Brittney Boyd Bullock, LaKesha Calvin, Kimberly Dummons, Eric Echols, Genesis The Grey Kid, Barbara Hodges, Leroy Hodges Jr., Edwin Jeffery, Desmond Lewis, Carl Moore, Elisheba Mrozik, Althea Murphy-Price, Ashley Seay, Jamaal Sheats, Lorenzo Swinton, Gary White, and Donna Woodley.
The exhibition is co-curated by Karlota Contreras-Koterbay, Director of Slocumb Galleries at East Tennessee State University and Director of the Crafting Blackness Initiative, and Dr. Cynthia Gadsden, Associate Professor of Art History at Tennessee State University, whose research areas include the visual arts, the lived experience, and the ways knowledge is transferred across generations via culture, relationships, and story.
FIRST FRIDAYS
JUNE 6 | 5-9PM
JULY 11 | 5-9PM*
AUGUST 1 | 5-9PM
First Friday events are free and open to the public. We hope you’ll be able to joins us for one or all of these evenings.
*July’s First Friday reception will take place on the second Friday of the month to accommodate for the 4th of July Holiday.
IN CONVERSATION: DESMOND LEWIS + DR. CYNTHIA GADSDEN
SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1:00PM
UT DOWNTOWN GALLERY | 106 S. Gay Street
Join us for curator Dr. Cynthia Gadsden in conversation with Crafting Blackness featured artist Desmond Lewis.
EKPHRASTIC POETRY PERFORMANCE CURATED BY FORMER KNOXVILLE POET LAUREATE, RHEA CARMON
SATURDAY JULY 19, 1:30-3:00PM
UT DOWNTOWN GALLERY | 106 S. Gay Street
Join us at the UT Downtown Gallery for an afternoon of poetry readings by Rhea Carmon, Natalie Graham, Andrew Drake, Ryan Andrews, UBHE/Marcus Carmon, and Jonathan Clark.
This exhibition and related programming are funded in part by grants from the Tennessee Arts Commission, Arts Fund of East Tennessee Foundation, In These Mountains from South Arts, Bravissima! Women Sponsoring the Arts, Tennessee Craft, and East Tennessee State University
The views expressed by the artists featured in this exhibition are their own, and do not represent the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.