Panel

Held in conjunction with The Bronx Museum of the Arts’ exhibitions Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1968 and After 1968: Contemporary Artists and the Civil Rights Legacy, the Vera List Center and the Bronx Museum present a panel discussion with photographer Julian Cox, curator of African American culture and of the exhibition Road to Freedom; Doris Derby, a Bronx-born, Atlanta-based photographer of the movement whose work is included in this exhibition; photographer Eric Etheridge; artist LeRoy Henderson; curator and gallery owner Steven Kasher, and artist Nadine Robinson. Moderated by Deborah Willis, Chair and Professor of the Photography and Imaging Department at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

During the span of twelve years, a series of events, later hailed as the Civil Rights Movement, forever changed the social and political course of America. The two Bronx Museum exhibitions chronicle both these pivotal moments in the nation’s history and their legacy through the works of young African-American artists. The first, Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1968, features 150 vintage photographs, images that not only exposed rampant acts of discrimination in America’s past, but also revealed shinning glimpses of equality and unity amongst its citizens. The second, smaller exhibition, After 1968: Contemporary Artists and the Civil Rights Legacy, includes works by seven African-American emerging artists and collectives—all born in or after 1968—who have created new work examining the heritage of the Civil Rights Movement and its affect on the lives of this new generation. Both exhibitions were organized by The High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

Moderator
Deborah Willis, Chair and Professor, Photography and Imaging Department, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University

Participants
Julian Cox, exhibition curator, Road to Freedom
Doris Derby, Bronx-born, Atlanta-based photographer whose work is included in this exhibition
Eric Etheridge, photographer
LeRoy Henderson, artist
Steven Kasher, curator and gallery owner
Nadine Robinson, artist