Broadcast: As We Rise: Photography From The Black Atlantic

Broadcast by Joëlle Arianna Staropoli

Print by Julia Gianfelice

Originally Published to Year 2 TMU JRN 270 on October 25, 2022

The As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic art exhibit at the University of Toronto Art Centre is now open.  Learn more below:

Caron Phinney, assistant professor of design and diversity at Toronto Metropolitan University, says she was deeply inspired by the exhibit and the photographs. 

“I think that one thing that struck me is that I could see myself walking into that exhibit,” said Phinney in a Zoom interview.  “I can see myself in so many of those images. But then also I didn't see myself in others, which is exactly right. Because again, we have our own stories and lived experiences. So, some of them we’re going to see ourselves and some of them we’re not.” 

The exhibit displays photography from the 2021 book As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic: Selections from the Wedge Collection. The Wedge Collection is Canada's largest privately owned art collection.

Dr. Kenneth Montague, creator of the exhibit, says his goal for these photographs is to represent black life, by depicting black subjects by black photographers, presented the way they want to be seen. 

Teleica Kirkland, founder of the Costume Institute of the African Diaspora, says the homogenization of black people is dehumanizing and leads to a place where you are unable to determine your own sense of self.

“I think that what's happened within the African diaspora is that because of our global discrimination, because of the homogenization of blackness, everyone who is of African heritage then becomes tarnished with this brush of homogenization,” said Kirkland in a Zoom interview.

The Art Centre is one of the largest visual galleries in the city, and as the population of Toronto is represented by over 270 nationalities, the gallery has made efforts to reflect local, regional, and international knowledge of art and history to the public. 

The exhibit is open to the public from September 7th to November 19th.  More information can be found at artmuseum.utoronto.ca