‘Driving While Black’ exhibit includes ‘Green Books’
Page 4 • Wednesday, April 3, 2019 • The Hammonton Gazette
NOYES, from Page 1
exhibition focused on the racist
attitudes that black motorists
encountered on the road while
traveling across the segregated
U.S. during the time of the Jim
Crow laws (late-19th century to
1965), which led to the 1936
publication of The Negro Motorist
Green Book, a guidebook that
listed tourist destinations that
African Americans could safely
use as they traveled throughout
the country.
After researching historical
information about The Negro
Motorist Green Book, Noyes
Museum of Art of Stockton
University Director Michael
Cagno was inspired to assemble
the “Driving While Black”
exhibition, which he said provides
an important opportunity to learn
about the racial strife that took
place throughout the late-19th and
early-20th
centuries,
while
connecting it to the racial
injustices that are still occurring to
this day.
“Some, as expected, were taken
aback. But many think it’s very
exciting to have that story told on
the history and the context of
Green Book, and by that same
time, provide a platform for the
continuing story that still occurs
day after day,” Cagno said.
Among those in attendance
during the reception were several
of the artists whose works are
featured in the exhibition,
including Lavett Ballard, of
Willingboro, whose mixed-media
collage “Greenbook Diaries”
consists of a repurposed piece of
wooden fencing (a symbol of
segregation) that depicts imagery
visualizing the displacement of
African Americans throughout
various historical periods and
geographic areas.
Ballard said she hopes the
universality of her visual art will
allow everyone who sees it—
regardless of their own race—to
empathize with the struggles that
so many African Americans faced
throughout history and continue to
face throughout present-day
America.
“My goal would be for people
to be able to relate to the work, to
be able to understand that, ‘Listen,
it may be talking about a certain
time period that we want to
forget,’ but it’s really relevant
today. It’s still going on—not as
overtly—but it’s still there and, in
some ways, it is overtly,” Ballard
said.
Artist Kelley Prevard, of
Atlantic City, also had her artwork
featured in the exhibition. Her
colorful acrylic painting titled
“Not on My Watch” depicts an
elderly black woman sitting in a
plastic lawn chair while looking
down the scope of a rifle in order
to depict the idea of protecting
oneself and his/her property.
Prevard said that, in her
experiences, she discovered art’s
ability to effectively convey the
stories and depict the essence of
individuals unlike any other
medium.
“I think art has a kind of magic
that has the ability to penetrate the
soul that sometimes words can’t.
When you can see something
visually, it breaks through that
wall; it breaks through that
barrier,” Prevard said.
Cagno said he is hopeful that
the “Driving While Black”
exhibition will serve as a
springboard for educated dialogue
and discourse about race relations
in America, both past- and
present-day.
THG/Stephen Pistone. To purchase photos in The Gazette, call (609) 704-1940.
Health Coalition mixer
On March 21 visitors toured the “Driving While Black” exhibit at the Noyes Museum as part of the downtown’s Third
Thursday activities.
“Yes, this is powerful stuff.
Let’s talk about it, let’s learn and
let’s respect each other’s beliefs.
It may not change anything, but COALITION, from Page 3
we can have that conversation in like Atlantic City, where they can demonstrate a bigger need, or tell a
an intelligent, civil way,” Cagno more compelling story. So, seeing that kind of interest in a smaller com-
munity that you don’t normally get into is really what sparked our in-
said.
The “Driving While Black” terest,” Hagerman said.
By continuing to foster cross-sector community relationships as a
exhibition will be on display
through Sunday, May 26 at the means to promote its mission statement, Hagerman said she hopes to
Noyes Museum of Art’s two use the HHC’s efforts as a model for the rest of New Jersey to follow.
“We are hoping to take what we see here in Hammonton, keep build-
galleries, located on the first floor
ing
on it and learn from it so that we can spread it out to other commu-
of Stockton University’s Kramer
nities,
small and big, across New Jersey,” Hagerman said.
Hall.
For more information about NJHI and the organizations it has funded,
such as the HHC, visit www.njhi.org.
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