Black History Month 2022

Students’ class mural pays visual homage to influential members of the black community.

The Art for Social Change (HUMN 3000) class chose a collection of inspiring people for students and the public to see as they pass by their downtown Fredericton campus.

Students Edyn Albert, Samantha Cameron, Olivia Chenier, Noah Claremont, Bethany Kerr, and Isabella Lapointe selected portraits of notable individuals and quotes, included below.

Images of the influential individuals will be wheat-pasted to the college on Monday, February 14, 2022, to the right of the main entrance doors. Wheat pasting involves creating a glue of flour and water and painting images onto exterior walls. If you’re new to wheat pasting, check out this TED Talk from one of the most famous wheat-pasting artists, JR, in his goal to “use art to turn the world inside out.”

Wheat pasting is ephemeral—temporary and non-weatherproof. The public is encouraged to visit and reflect on the mural while the installation is up.

Selected Quotes

“Children, who made your skin white? Was it not God? Who made mine Black? Was it not the same God? Am I to blame, therefore, because my skin is Black? …. Does not God love colored children as well as white children? And did not the same Savior die to save the one as well as the other?” —Sojourner Truth

“If I can create the minimum of my plans and desires, there shall be no regrets.” —Bessie Colman

 

“It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.” —Frederick Douglas

 

“You should likewise be willing to occasionally be discomforted by the racialized reality of our world for me.” —Ben Philippe

 

“..and I prayed to God to make me strong and able to fight, and that’s what I’ve always prayed for ever since.” —Harriet Tubman to Ednah Dow Cheney, SC, 1865

 

“So much of life, it seems to me is determined  by pure Randomness.” —Sydney Porter

 

“You pardon me Gentlemen if I make this fight short. I have a train to catch.” —Sam Langford

 

“History isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable, it happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.” —Marsha P. Johnson

 

“No greater glory, no greater honor, is the lot of man departing than a feeling possessed deep in his heart that the world is a better place for his having lived” —Robert Abbott