Black Joy, in Spite of. . . - Frist Art Museum

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.

Curator Brigette Janea Jones talks about the exhibition.

Introduction, Curator, and Juror Information

Presenting sponsor

Supported in part by our

Benefactors’ Circle

Supported in part by

Presented in part by

Frist Foundation, Metro Arts, Tennessee Arts Commission, and National Endowment for the Arts logos

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

Sepia tone photograph of three young Black boys dressed in overalls and hats and smiling at the camera.

Unknown photographer. Three Boys (Unidentified) at Belle Meade Plantation,
ca. 1865. Courtesy of the archives at Belle Meade Historic Site and Winery

Two Black twin boys singing exuberantly into a microphone

Ernest C. Withers. The WDIA Twins, 1948. Courtesy of the Withers Family Trust. © Dr. Ernest C. Withers, Sr

Old black and white photograph of two women dressed up and looking solemn with two younger children in dresses posing for the camera.

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

African American children of varying ages playing and riding bikes and scooters and men are sitting on the front porch of a housing complex.

Joy Johnson. College Hill Courts, Chattanooga, TN, 1980s. Color photograph. Courtesy of resident Joy Johnson

Black family standing outside their old wood house eating watermelon

Unknown photographer. Unidentified family in front of a cabin eating watermelon, ca. 1865. Courtesy of the archives at Belle Meade Historic Site and Winery

Three Black boys playing with a basketball on a grass lawn with a plastic bin attached to a fence acting as a basket.

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

Black woman in a bathing suit sitting on a beach with her young son sitting in front of her

Tamia Spinks. A Trip to the Beach, 2022. Oil on canvas; 60 x 50 x 1 3/8 in. Courtesy of the artist

Young black woman with a purple dress on and white pearls with her eyes closed and white tears coming down her ce.

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

Mother sitting down wearing a red and other colored dress with two young children holding books.

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

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