Weeksville Heritage Center, Brooklyn
September 20 – October 20, 2014
Weeksville Heritage Center presents in collaboration with Creative Time “Funk, God, Jazz & Medicine: Black Radical Brooklyn.” funkgodjazz&medicine is a walkable month-long art exhibition of four community-based art commissions by Xenobia Bailey, Simone Leigh, Otabenga Jones & Associates, and Bradford Young. Black Radical Brooklyn launches from the site of Weeksville, a Brooklyn community established by free and formerly enslaved Black citizens 11 years after abolition in New York State. Black Radical Brooklyn draws inspiration not only from this story-achieving self-determination through the claiming and holding of a neighborhood- but also from radical local battles for land and dignity from the 1960s to today.
Award-winning cinematographer Bradford Young will create a three channel video installation titled Bynum Cutler. Inspired by late playwright August Wilson, the film will feature velvet monuments set against the backdrop of Weeksville’s historic Bethel Tabernacle African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in a tribute to the pioneering Black women, men, and children who embarked on countless journeys in search of refuge.
An Opening Party will take place on Saturday, September 20th at Weeksville from 2-6pm. The exhibit will be accessible Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 12-6pm until October 12th.
