Sweet Auburn Rise
PRAISE HOUSE PROJECT
2023 Programming presented by CHARMAINE MINNIEFIELD
Remembrance as Resistance: Preserving Black Narratives
MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact: Olimatta Taal
347-474-8274 direct
Remembrance as Resistance: Sweet Auburn Rise
In anticipation of the Praise House Project in 2023, for February in honor of Black History Month, artist-activist Charmaine Minniefield will present a series of site specific public art installations, exhibitions and programs in downtown Atlanta, along Auburn Avenue and in the King Historic District. The series will activate multiple public spaces to acknowledge the history of the 1906 Race Massacre and the legacy of Black resistance.
As a terrorist mob burned and murdered, they marched for three days (September 22-25, 1906), from Peachtree, down Auburn Avenue, finally ending in Brownsville in South Atlanta. These burgeoning Black business and residential districts were targeted by the mobs' path to intentionally disrupt Black economic potential. In spite of these heinous acts of terror over those three days in our city’s history and in the face of White Supremacy in a Post-Reconstruction and then Jim Crow South, the greatness of Auburn Avenue continued to rise and its legacy remains an example of Black resistance and freedom today.
By establishing institutions of finance, faith, higher learning, civic engagement and community service, the ancestors of Auburn Avenue are as numerous as their impact monumental. Minniefield shares, "My work will honor their stories as the foundation of democracy for the nation and acknowledge their examples of resistance, leadership and faithfulness in the face of injustice as what informs our way forward in this continued march to freedom."
Feb. 3 at Sunset (5:30 p.m.). Creative Media Industries Institute at Georgia State at 25 Park Pl NE. Through funds received from A&E Atlanta, The Praise House Project collaborates with the CMII Lab, located where Peachtree meets Auburn Avenue, to create a new digital media work to acknowledge the 1906 Race Massacre. The work will draw from the archives of the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American History and Culture and community partners in the district. The presentation will mark the beginning of an ongoing collaboration with the CMII Lab to advance the digital media and technology of the Praise House Project.
Feb. 4, 12:00 - 6:00 p.m. Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American History and Culture, 101 Auburn Avenue. The Praise House Project oral histories series continues with a full day of interviews, allowing audience members to listen in and ask questions as the interviews are recorded for the oral histories component of the project. Partners include Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American History and Culture, Emory University Stuart A. Rose Library, Fulton County, the South-View Cemetery Foundation, Culture Centers International and the Coalition to Remember the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre (www.1906ATLRaceMassacre.org).
Feb. 5, 3:00 - 5:00 pm. Historic Haugabrooks Gallery at 364 Auburn, will feature the work of Kimberly Binns as she retells the story of the city through a series of mixed and digital media installations in an exhibition titled, HomeFront and Other Memories. Drawing from archives from each community where the Praise Houses will rest during the 2023 tour, the exhibition will explore memory, place, space and belonging. This exhibition also announces Binns’s 2023 art and technology residency with the Fulton County Futures Lab and her collaboration with the Historic District Development Corporation (HDDC) to design their digital media lab for creatives on the lower level of the newly repurposed historic Haugabrooks.
5:00 - 7:00 p.m. - The Water Tower at Studioplex at 659 Auburn Avenue, Charmaine Minniefield will present a new projection installation titled Ring Shout over Auburn to honor the history of Black resistance in the area. Minniefield will also host a press conference and artist talk on the Praise House Project in her studio, just across from the Water Tower at the Studioplex on Auburn, Studio G6.
Feb. 11, 6-10pm, The Bakery Atlanta, 92 Peachtree St, Atlanta, GA 30303. Through grant funds received from A&E Atlanta, Cienna Minniefield will present their Blaqueer figure drawing project, holding safe space to honor and celebrate the beauty of all Black trans identities.
This series of public projects is made possible by the generous financial support of Fulton County, the Historic District Development Corporation (HDDC), A&E Atlanta, the Stuart A. Rose Library at Emory University and the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History.
ABOUT THE PRAISE HOUSE PROJECT
The Praise House Project is a community-based initiative by visual artist-activist Charmaine Minniefield which places multimedia, site specific public art installations within communities in order to uphold the African American histories and narratives of the area in an effort to address issues of erasure and systemic inequities. The work invites conversations around place and belonging while engaging a global community of scholars, creatives, historians, activists, institutions and audiences to address issues of erasure past and present, to imagine a new freedom today. 2023 Praise House locations include South-View Cemetery in South Atlanta; DeKalb County at Beacon Hill; Emory University’s Atlanta campus.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
CHARMAINE MINNIEFIELD
Charmaine Minniefield is the founder of the Praise House Project. Minniefield recently served as the Stuart A. Rose Library artist-in-residence at Emory University and currently serves as the arts advisor and artist-in-residence in the King Historic District in Atlanta. She was recently awarded the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Our Town Grant to present her Praise House Project at three different locations in the metro area. CharmaineMinniefield.com
KIMBERLY BINNS
Kimberly Binns (b.1973) is a multi-disciplinary artist and producer working in digital media, architectural design, painting, drawing, and photography. Originally from Washington, D.C. she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Georgia State University. Her documentary film and digital media work is featured as the interior collage projection installation within the Praise House. kimbinns.studio
SANTIAGO PÁRAMO
Santiago Páramo is an Atlanta-based musician, composer, audio engineer, music consultant, DJ, multimedia artist and cultural producer. Santiago is also the founder of the Community Music Studio aimed to educate, mentor, inspire and encourage multidisciplinary collaboration with artists and organizations committed to social and economic justice. He designs the sound installations for the Praise Houses Project. www.santiagoparamo.com
CIENNA MINNIEFIELD
Cienna Minniefield, also known as THE COLOR, is a Black trans non-binary, Atlanta-based multidisciplinary artist whose visual artwork examines the Black South through a contemporary lens. Their mediums include acrylic on canvas and paper, photography, sound, digital illustration, collage, and murals. @thecolorcienna
MALESHA JESSIE TAYLOR AND SALAH ANANSE AS WE ARE DJELI
The song featured in this presentation, Rite to Freedom is written and performed by Malesha Jessie Taylor and produced by Salah Anase as We are Djeli.
