Time & Location
Jan 14, 2023, 12:00 PM – Jan 15, 2023, 5:00 PM
Oakland, 3718 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland, CA 94619, USA
About the event
Our artist member, Ajuan Mance, is celebrating the launch of her new book, Living While Black.
Laughing. Grieving. Being a kid. Even the purest expression of pleasure, the most human display of sorrow, or the simplest delight of childhood is an act of resistance if you happen to be Black. This immersive hardcover book features forty defiantly joyful illustrations by artist and educator Ajuan Mance, each artwork depicting a person of African descent going about their everyday business. Begun as Mance's personal response to the groundswell of Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, LIVING WHILE BLACK denounces the excessive surveillance, harassment, and violence aimed at Black folks engaged in the activities of everyday life-and celebrates the courage and resilience of the Black community. Fittingly, the book also features a foreword from Alicia Garza, BLM founder and principal at the Black Futures Lab. Mance's thoughtful meditation on what it's like to be Black in America makes a wonderful tool for teachers, students, activists, and parents navigating conversations about racism and resistance.
Ajuan will read from her book and have a Q&A session at 2pm. Don’t miss your chance to chat with Ajuan and purchase a signed copy of the book.
This will also be the closing reception for our guest artist, Karin Turner. Karin Turner of karinsArt is all about JOY! Her art is a reclamation of the watermelon as an iconic present-day metaphor for Life. Titles and subject matter encourage the viewer to be introspective and are tools for self-development as an uplifting practice for JOY. These stylized self-portraits are purposely glamorized images that boast idealized femininity; autonomous, buoyant, tolerant, happy, sexual, and joyously self-loving. She takes her JOY seriously....Yours too.
Celebrate with Karin, Ajuan and all of our member artists: Latisha Baker (pyrography), Renata Gray (ceramics), Brianna Mills (photography), Michelle Tompkins (abstract), and Orlonda Uffre (acrylic paintings).
See you this Saturday, January 14th, at our Second Saturday Celebration
3718 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland 12pm to 5pm