In commemoration of Juneteenth, Flux Projects will present Remembrance as Resistance: Preserving Black Narratives, a project by artist Charmaine Minniefield created to honor the more than 800 unmarked graves discovered in the African American Grounds of Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery. While the physical installation at Oakland Cemetery has been postponed until 2021, Flux Projects is proud to release a series of virtual programs and events this Friday, June 19.
Through this project, Minniefield celebrates the Ring Shout, a traditional African American worship and gathering practice, whose origins in West African ritual and ceremony predate slavery. Minniefield explores evidence of its survival in contemporary dance, music and spoken word as testament to the resilience of a people.
Remembrance as Resistance: Preserving Black Narratives will launch on Friday, June 19 and will include
the below virtual programs:
We Shall Not Be Moved: A Virtual Exhibition
Charmaine Minniefield
Available on the Flux Projects website beginning Friday, June 19 EST
Preview the site-specific installation and forthcoming work by Charmaine Minniefield, Remembrance as Resistance: Preserving Black Narratives. This virtual exhibition will give audiences a glimpse into Minniefield’s replica of a Praise House, set to be placed in Oakland Cemetery Juneteenth of 2021.
SHOUT: A Global Women’s Cypher
Toni Blackman, hip hop ambassador and artist
LIVE on Zoom: Friday, June 19 at 2 p.m. EST
Those interested in watching the cypher can register here.
The practice of gathering in the circle and improvising gives birth to a collective prayer, whether it’s hip hop or the long-standing Black religious practice of the Ring Shout, and this virtual cypher aims to connect Black women artists from across the world in the spirit of the Ring Shout.
Let Us Come Together: A Virtual Performance of the Ring Shout
Julie B. Johnson, choreographer
Available on the Flux Projects website beginning Friday, June 19 EST
This work will bring women together in a virtual Ring Shout to inspire again connection and community, in spite of separation during this global pandemic.
The collection of movement prayers and meditations performed remotely by women from their homes in different locations contemplates “togetherness” in virtual spaces, and reflects on the ongoing unrest arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, the disproportionate toll it has taken on our black and brown communities, and the racial violence that attempts to silence and erase our communities.
Audiences are encouraged to join the gathering by posting their own Ring Shout to social media using the hashtag #RingShoutFlux.
Support for the Project
Remembrance as Resistance: Preserving Black Narratives and its related programming is sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Black Arts (NBAF). While creating the project, Minniefield has been an artist-in-residence at Emory University’s The Rose Library. Additional support for the upcoming installation in Oakland Cemetery is provided by C. D. Moody Construction Co., Point Office Architecture & Design, and Shear Structural.
About Charmaine Minniefield
Charmaine Minniefield seeks to preserve Black narratives by creating public art in communities affected by gentrification and erasure. She has completed numerous community murals, and she was recently commissioned by the City of Atlanta to create murals honoring the unsung heroines of the Civil Rights Movement. Recent work also includes projection mapping and site-specific installations. With a degree in Fine Art from Agnes Scott College, Minniefield has served the Atlanta area as an arts administrator for nearly 20 years, holding positions with the National Black Arts Festival, the High Museum of Art, and the Fulton County Department of Art and Culture, and producing projects around art and activism with such organizations as Alternate ROOTS, Points of Light, and Flux Projects. She recently served as faculty for the Department of Art and Visual Cultural at Spelman College and currently serves as faculty for Freedom University, an underground university for undocumented students.
