This week, survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre testified before Congress, bringing renewed attention to the long and fraught history of African Americans in Oklahoma. For many, the attention is long overdue, with many of the survivors aging into their hundreds.
For others, the attention is unwanted, especially after the Governor of Oklahoma signed into law a ban on blunt teaching about our fraught past of racial brutality and disharmony including “critical race theory” in schools.
But for Oklahoma City, the attention is perfectly timed to provide its residents with the opportunity to reflect on its own past and its future as the city rapidly evolves.
Oklahoma Contemporary’s much-anticipated new exhibit, “We Believed in the Sun,” distills the lessons of history in highly individualized stories by two Oklahoman artists, providing an approach that’s attached to the lived Black experience of America.
Additional We Believed in the Sun coverage:
Art Exhibits That Are Well Worth the Summer Road Trip
Paper City
Personal artistic reflections on the Black Oklahoma experience
405 Magazine
'We Believed in the Sun' open at OK Contemporary through August
VeloCity
Photographer with local roots awarded Guggenheim Fellowship
Muskogee Phoenix, Tahlequah Daily Press and Yahoo! News
Art exhibit to show perspectives on Black Oklahomans' intergenerational struggle for equality
KOCO News 5 ABC
We Believe in the Sun exhibition celebrates ongoing impact of Civil Rights movement in OKC
Edmond Active
'We Believed in the Sun' sheds light on overlooked aspects of Oklahoma history
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From multimedia exhibits to comics panel, artistic events across Oklahoma mark Tulsa Race Massacre centennial
The Oklahoman
