Leah Gipson and Black Eutopia
10-16-2014
The Marissa Alexander painting by Leah Gipson from the Black Eutopia event will be auctioned off at the Set the Captives Free event where McCormick President Frank Yamada will be speaking. Click here for the auction information. Opening bid is $500.
To see a higher resolution photo of the painting, please click the image on the right below the photo of Leah Gipson.
Black Eutopia, a performance art program is being featured by Chicago Artist Month in its annual, five-week celebration of over 300 creative events. Black Eutopia is the brainchild of artist Ramara Taylor and Leah's Gipson's organization West Side Art Chicago (WSAC). In partnership with Ramara "Rae" Taylor, WSAC has created a program called Black Eutopia. The program center on experiences of Black labor and art through a panel discussion, performance, visual art, and hair styling at Carter's Barbershop, Friday, October 24, 2014, from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Leah Gipson, a Junior at McCormick, is an artist and art therapist. She enjoys creating ways to collaborate with her neighbors, people she might pass on Madison Street or people she runs into at the park. Her creation, West Side Art Chicago, is her way of establishing a hub for projects that expand the way we view certain people and places in the city. She is working with other artists to develop "generative projects" which are micro-business installations that engage social development.
Leah says, "I created WSAC as a way to highlight and cultivate the work of artists and resident on the west side of Chicago. Austin, North Lawndale, Garfield, and Humbold Park are neighborhoods in Chicago seldom known for the creative and resourceful people who live here. WSAC's generative projects are financial opportunities for local "makers" who invest in the health of their neighborhoods through creativity."
She continues, "My engagement in the city of Chicago has placed women and girls at the center of service. My work as a professional art therapist has allowed me to walk with survivors of sexual violence, addiction, and HIV. In other ways, my community art practice has been an investigation of greater social realities which impact the people I work with at the intersections of oppression. In my studies here, I hope to engage womanist theology and ethics to find answers to individual and social problems faced by women and girls of color. I am interested in the role of art and faith in creating healing and resistance."
Black Eutopia activates the barbershop as site for business and art practice and allows for a complex dialogue that conceptualizes a unique marriage of the two. The event crosses borders by initiating critical conversation between the worlds of art and work. The participating artists contemplate ideas about art form, social class, and Black labor. Black Eutopia crosses genres by presenting an interdisciplinary perspective from artists with backgrounds in socially engaged art practice, musical performance, visual art, hair styling, art education, arts administration, and art therapy.
Leah has her own website at West Side Art.
For more information on Black Eutopia, which will be held on Friday, October 24, 2014, from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. visit Chicago Artists Month.
If you'd like to support Black Eutopia, click here for a fundraising opportunity.
