ALLENTOWN, Pa. - The Allentown Art Museum honored the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. on Sunday by hosting talks and performances examining and celebrating the Black experience.
In 1965, after his march from Selma to Birmingham, Ala., King delivered a speech commonly called, “How long? Not long.” He spoke from the steps of the Alabama State Capitol in an address perhaps best known for a line near the end: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
- The Allentown Art Museum celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- An exhibition incorporated art, movement and performances
- One piece showcased King's 'How long? Not long' speech in Birmingham, Ala.
“How long? Not long” is also the title of a six-panel painting by Alteronce Gumby on display at the Allentown Art Museum, each 4-foot square bathed in deep, shadowy blues, blacks and purples.
The painting was one of many in the museum’s exhibition of Gumby’s work, “Dark Matter,” looking on at movement, dance and music performances held in honor of Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
The performances ranged from a movement piece by Evan Mosley exploring King’s place in the struggle for Black self-actualization, to a jazz improvisation by musicians Maxamilly, Maca Ville and Figg, as Bekah Elaine ad-libbed lyrics celebrating blackness and Black people.
The performances resonated with the exhibition surrounding them, which shows Gumby’s interest in the complexities of color — both in a literal and a cultural sense.
“The struggle that Martin Luther King fought, and that is continuing, is one that African-American artists have approached in extremely powerful ways.”Elaine Mehalakes, vice president of curatorial affairs at Allentown Art Museum
Most of its pieces were made up of thousands of shards of colorful broken glass so that it might look like a solid color – say, black – is actually made up of at least dozens of other colors, filling the piece the way stars saturate the sky: What may look like a void is actually completely, impossibly full.
“This kind of wonderful coordinating metaphor for Alteronce is, for him, it's very much about looking at color differently, looking at Black differently,” Allentown Art Museum President and CEO Max Weintraub said in a talk. “There's nuance, there's tones, there's gradients in anything that you'd have."
“Alteronce’s show fits right in with our larger mission to always embrace that complexity and that diversity of our culture and society.”
Outside of the Gumby exhibition, curators took the opportunity to highlight works in their permanent collection by prominent Black artists like Faith Ringgold and Kara Walker.
“The struggle that Martin Luther King fought, and that is continuing, is one that African-American artists have approached in extremely powerful ways,” said Elaine Mehalakes, the museum’s vice president of curatorial affairs.
“As we look at all of this history, it seems important to bring in the perspectives of people who have been impacted by this history.”
