Vibe.com, March 30th, 2005
Black History Month has come and gone. As usual we heard about Martin and Malcolm, Sojourner and Harriet. But maybe we should have taken a moment to reflect on the Motherland? After all, all black studies should begin there. Ask just about any African-American on the street to explain all you know about Africa, and you'll likely hear crickets chirping in the background.
Kerry Stuart-Coppin decided to change that through the lens of his camera. He raised $3,000 and purchased 26 photographs taken by child survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide to display in an art gallery near the University of Miami campus. He could have easily gone somewhere else, but he decided that he wanted Generation Y to understand the beauty, mystery and social circumstances of Africa. Although Kerry will admit that he wanted to host the event in March to avoid the whole Black History Month cliché, he's just glad to get the work out there.
"The reality is that crises in countries like Sudan and Rwanda are overlooked in comparison to Iraq or Iran," says Stuart-Coppin. And of the connection we're missing out on? "Hip hop culture is just as big in Africa as it is in America, but the average person doesn't know that. Society envisions Africa as a totally primitive land, which is not true."
This photography exhibition ties together a five-part lecture series from many prominent speakers from the black Diaspora, and helps offer a three-dimensional experience. The lecture series on the "Myths & Realities of the Rwandan Genocide" kicked off the event on January 25, 2005.
"I never knew that more people were killed in Rwanda in six weeks than from the tsunami that took place a few weeks agoÂ…we're talking about one country in comparison to many," Monique Faggans, a spectator, exclaimed.
The display was available to the public from January 18-February 12, 2005 at The New Gallery in Coral Gables, FL.
Astin Hayes is a student at the University of Miami. Hayes is a writer for VIBE magazine's College Advisory Board, a volunteer nationwide network of campus-based editorial stringers.
