Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 2016)
ope flooded me when I heard that the University of Oregon selected Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2015 book, or rather letter to his black teenage son, for its 2016-17 “Common Reading” for incoming freshman. Between the World and Me is a crushing, beautiful piece of work, prompting me to examine some uncomfort- able truths about the hidden-in-plain-sight privileges I have enjoyed because I’m a white A woman — even that sentence is problematic because, as Coates writes, “Race is the child of racism, not the father.” The UO is a predominantly white school, in a predom- inantly white city, in a predominantly white state whose history with sundown laws and the Ku Klux Klan is well documented. Even today, bigotry is alive in Eugene. If thousands of students are reading a book challeng- ing the new status quo, in which militarized police shoot down black men on what seems like a weekly basis, per- haps that’s a sign we can claw ourselves towards some sort of new enlightenment, to a new age of kindness, loos- ening the grip of paranoid nativism. H COLLECTION OF ARLENE AND HAROLD SCHNITZER 12 October 6, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is hosting a “Common Seeing” exhibit, Between the World and Me: African American Artists Re- spond to Ta-Nehisi Coates, open now through March 5, 2017. It’s a small show, but it packs a powerhouse punch including the works of Robert Colescott, Glenn Ligon, Mildred How- ard, Kara Walker and Kehinde Wiley, whose painting “La Source” (pictured on the cover) is the crown jewel. Read more on that piece in the LETTER FROM THE ARTS EDITOR coming pages. By Alex V. Cipolle In EW’s 4th annual visual arts issue, ArtsHound, also read about Anya Kivarkis, who challenges accepted notions of capitalism through her As citizens of a country roiling with hate and violence, jewelry sculpture; Aunia Kahn and the struggles of running and in an atmosphere where facts and decorum are laughed an art gallery when no one is buying art; and DeeDee Cheri- at, it’s time to face some uncomfort- el, a former Eugenean whose dreamy, colorful paintings ex- able truths. I have found no better plore the discomfort of being human. And in the news sec- way to face uncomfortable truths tion you can take a look at local efforts on graffiti removal. than through the arts, because Thank you to all the artists who kick open doors to new art couldn’t care less if you’re ways of seeing, new ways of listening, new ways of being. comfortable. And leaving our Thank you for always challenging the world to be better. comfort zones is when Where there is art, there is hope. we grow. ROBERT COLESCOTT’S 1976 ‘HOMAGE TO DELACROIX: LIBERTY LEADING THE PEOPLE’ ON VIEW IN THE JORDAN SCHNITZER MUSEUM OF ART’S BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME EXHIBIT
