Brief: Create a moment of nostalgia to reconnect the brotherhood of the Alpha Beta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., at Talladega College, through their archives of images that span 101 years of African American History.
Images: 39 inches x 65.5 inches
Materials: Water Proof Ink Jet Film and ten repurposed COVID-19 social distancing panels.
Location: Talladega College (Swayne Hall), Talladega, Alabama.
The Alpha Beta Archives, 100 Year of Black American History
The Black American male experience inside the American experiment is one of contradictions regarding his representation. He is an invention in the American psyche and exists as a series of projections maintained by the dominant cultural narrative of a life filled with trauma and crime. He is invisible and yet highly invisible while also holding the position of being a myth. And still, he is a cultural artifact that is both an object and a subject. However, through fraternity life on HBCU campuses across America, Black men have thrived and persisted in our own cultural narratives of academic excellence, community service, and brotherhood while not tending to the imaginations of the dominant cultural narratives.
The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, Alpha Beta Chapter Archives present one hundred years of Black American History. A collective of Black male academic progression and joy at the historic Talladega College from 1921 to 2021. All while living into our fraternity motto of, First of All, Servants of All, We Shall Transcend All.
These archives also make room to include the current chapter brothers of 2022, as they are the men inheriting and simultaneously building the future of Alpha Beta. Through over sixty Sunday phone calls throughout 2020 - 2022, the Alpha Beta Alumni brothers made a vested interest in strengthening the chapter’s brotherhood at the undergraduate level through mentoring, financial assistance, and brotherhood building, assuring a continued legacy of manly deeds, scholarship, and love for all mankind.
The Alpha Beta archives of images further affirm the existence of Black men and confirm this exhibition’s theme, ‘There are Black Men in the Future,’ no matter what is being projected, imagined, rendered visible or invisible as it relates to the Black American male. The theme of this exhibition reinterprets interdisciplinary artist Alisha B. Wormsley’s ‘There Are Black People in the Future,’ is inspired by afro-futurist artists and writers that highlight the need for Black people to claim their space. These images, by their nature, present a clear refusal not to exist and to persist, no matter what the dominant cultural narrative communicates. These images also highlight the importance of fraternal life as a space where young males on HBCU campuses can commune and develop into tomorrow’s leaders. My sincere desire is that these images serve as a catalyst for the transformation of a witnessing that is necessary for Black American males to claim their space unapologetically without any permission required.