Creative Minds: Erasure Art Collective
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February 28 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
BLACKOUT is an interdisciplinary art project that recreates historical slave ads using ‘erasure’ or ‘blackout’—a form of poetry created by erasing words from an existing text to create a visual poem.
The project uncovers messages in ads that appeared in local newspapers during slavery—a legal practice of buying and selling human beings that saw millions of Africans and people of African descent enslaved over hundreds of years. BLACKOUT reworks slaveholder’s texts to reveal new narratives honouring those who challenged one of history’s most inhumane systems, and championing their bold acts of resistance.
Presenting the art of erasure poetry in non-traditional form, this presentation of BLACKOUT combines poetry with visual art, short film, and live performance collaboration with African Nova Scotian musicians.
This event is offered in recognition of African Heritage Month and is presented in partnership with Halifax Public Libraries.
Location: Paul O’Regan Hall, Halifax Public Library, 5440 Spring Garden Road
Hosted by Portia Clark
This event is free to the public.
About Erasure Art Collective:
Erasure Art Collective (EAC) is an interdisciplinary arts group committed to researching and reinterpreting archival texts using visual, poetic, and performative erasure. Co-founders Shauntay Grant and Tyshan Wright have been collaborating and exhibiting together since 2017 when they created the multimedia artwork ‘Abeng’ for Canada: Day 1, a national group exhibition presented by the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. EAC’s inaugural project, called BLACKOUT, has been presented at Nocturne (2022), Atlantic Arts Symposium (2022), the Canadian Association for Theatre Research Conference (2023), and Nocturne (2023). As artists with ancestral ties to the arrival of Black Loyalists, Jamaican Maroons, and Black Refugees to Nova Scotia in the late 1700s and early 1800s, creating art that illuminates African Nova Scotian and African diasporic histories and experiences is a vital part of EAC’s research and creative work. The collective’s work is multilayered and highlights a research-creation approach to interpreting archival texts, with BLACKOUT championing a multidisciplinary creative approach to the study and presentation of slavery in Atlantic Canada and beyond. erasureart.com
About Creative Minds:
The Creative Minds series hosts community leaders and creatives to respond to current events, exhibitions on view, or artworks in the Gallery. Through conversation, music, poetry, or movement, these events aim to provoke new ideas, explore the unexpected and create more understanding for everyone involved.
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