DEAR BLACK FUTURE

Large Scale photography featuring Ethnographic documentation of photos, a film installation, and a community engagement sculpture that acts as a reliquary for community letters to the future. DEAR BLACK FUTURE 6 NEWS (click here)

In this exhibition, Fulbright Specialist, Tulsa Artist Fellow, and Visual Anthropologist Marlon Hall is working with a host of local ethnographic creatives to call and respond to the question: What if we honored Black History by inspiring a Black Future? “Dear Black Future” was an ex- hibition of photography, film and community engagement that honors the past of the black community by imagining its future. This whole exhibition is an experiential letter in four words with images and stories captured at John Burroughs Elementary on the day of a balloon release in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King. The walls and floors of the Activity Hall have become a window and a mirror. A mirror that reflects the beauty of Black excellence back to itself through the faces of children and an inclusive widow through which all people of every ethnic story can see and imagine the bounty of Black people’s contribution to the whole of human possibility. Black history is beautiful. In this exhibition, Visual Anthropologist and Artist Marlon Hall along with a host of Tulsa creatives and navigators call and respond to the question: What if we honored Black History by inspiring a black future? What if we leveraged the moment when people openly draw their attention to black excellence and achievement to celebrate the past by speaking words of manifestation to the future of Black Americans? The present era of Black people would not exist without black history, and black presence powerfully broadens the sum total of human flourishing. Black History Month is a time portal that opens up the global consciousness of America every February. The nation reaches through time to highlight the past contributions of black historical figures. Typically when this time portal opens up, we engage it with our faces to the past and our heels to the future. What would happen if we turned around to face the future as a way to honor the past? This exhibition is an experiential letter to the future driven by ethnographic images taken at John Burroughs Elementary (the first school in Tulsa to integrate) with audio-narratives, and programs that invites the visitors to write a “Four Word Letter” to the future of the black community with a verb, noun, a-preposition, and a noun.