This exhibition offers a three-dimensional picture of the Black American experience by focusing on moments of joy despite a history of pain and struggle. Guest curator Brigette Janea Jones has selected photographs made throughout Tennessee that depict the enslaved and their descendants during various time periods, including enslavement, Reconstruction, the modern civil rights movement, the crack era, and more. The images capture scenes of family connection, friendship, pride, and resistance that highlight the humanity of each individual and counter the more common focus on trauma.
To connect the past with the present day, Jones and two local artists, TC and Joseph Patrick, selected work made by various Tennessee artists, many still college students, that depict their own interpretations of Black people resisting harm and embarking on the eternal journey to Black joy. Seen together, the works in Black Joy, in Spite of . . . show Black Tennesseans having the audacity to be happy amid and in the aftermath of slavery, an institution that was designed to break them.
Presenting sponsor
Supported in part by our
Benefactors’ Circle
Supported in part by
Supported in part by
Presented in part by
This project is being supported, in whole or in part, by federal award number SLFRP5534 awarded to
the State of Tennessee by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Exhibition gallery
Unknown photographer. Three Boys (Unidentified) at Belle Meade Plantation,
ca. 1865. Courtesy of the archives at Belle Meade Historic Site and Winery
Ernest C. Withers. The WDIA Twins, 1948. Courtesy of the Withers Family Trust. © Dr. Ernest C. Withers, Sr
W.F. Griffin. Ida B. Wells, standing left, with Maurine Moss, widow of Tom Moss, lynched in Memphis March 9, 1892, with Tom Moss Jr., ca. 1894. Courtesy of University of Chicago Library, Special Collections Research Center
Joy Johnson. College Hill Courts, Chattanooga, TN, 1980s. Color photograph. Courtesy of resident Joy Johnson
Unknown photographer. Unidentified family in front of a cabin eating watermelon, ca. 1865. Courtesy of the archives at Belle Meade Historic Site and Winery
Brad Vest. Michael Key, 8, left, Kanard Miller, 6, center, and Donovan Coleman Jr., 11, play basketball on the fence that surrounds Foote Homes, Memphis TN, 2016. © The Commercial Appeal – USA TODAY NETWORK
Tamia Spinks. A Trip to the Beach, 2022. Oil on canvas; 60 x 50 x 1 3/8 in. Courtesy of the artist
Kenyon St. Firmin. Tears of Strength: a self portrait of Saint Key, 2023. Acrylic and silver paint marker; 24 x 33 x 1 1/2 in. Courtesy of the artist
Ashley Mintz. Storyteller, 2021. Mixed media on canvas (acrylic, scrap papers, book pages and lace); 40 x 30 x 1/2 in. Courtesy of the artist
