…be, not allowed, but embraced
- The Black Cultural Studies Collective (Amber Rose Johnson and taylor manigoult)
- Black Cultural Studies Collective, School of Arts & Sciences, Weitzman School of Design (PennDesign)
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Student Creative Production Grant
taylor manigoult, it was written, 2021.
“…be, not allowed, but embraced” is an installation that gathers a small group of Black artists and art-curious individuals within Philadelphia to occupy a shared space intended to foster the safety necessary to experiment and create. “…be, not allowed, but embraced” is inspired by Malcolm Peacock’s “The insistent desire for and impossibility of being,” presented at the 58th Carnegie International in October 2022. The work is both performance and installation: over two days, a small group of Black artists and art-curious individuals will occupy a space curated for creative exploration, improvisational collaboration, and rest. The room will be outfitted with instruments, art supplies, various forms of literature and media, and comfort items, which the individuals are invited to use however they see fit. Visitors are invited into the space one-by-one, for a limited time and participants/activators will be compensated for their time occupying the space. The urgent question posed by this work is: under what conditions is it possible to convene and maintain spaces for Black communal and creative exploration toward deepening our inter-relation and sense of intimacy with those we know and don’t know?