Lowell Lecture

STEREOTYPES: A Conscious Look at Race, Faith, Gender and Sexual Orientation

Date & Time

Dec. 7, 2015 at 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Location

USES Harriet Tubman Gallery
566 Columbus Avenue Boston, MA 02118
Driving Directions

Speaker(s)

Presenting Organization

United South End Settlements

Topics

The Arts Current Affairs Humanities

Contact

Evan Gray (egray@uses.org, 617-375-8109)

Join us for the opening reception and artist’s discussion for photographer Kevin Briggs’ exhibit STEREOTYPES: A Conscious Look at Race, Faith, Gender and Sexual Orientation on December 7, 2015 in the Harriet Tubman Gallery at 566 Columbus Avenue.

The opening reception offers an opportunity to hear directly from the artist about his motivation and experiences, participate in open Q&A, and interact in person with the subjects of his portraits. Mr. Briggs’ work has been featured in a number of publications including The Boston Globe and Art New England.

As an African American male, Mr. Briggs experienced several episodes throughout his life that deeply affected him and left him with the acute realization that in these instances he was not being seen as an individual, but rather as a racial stereotype. Seen above, the initial image that became the catalyst for this series is a deeply moving self portrait where Mr. Briggs stands in his 2-piece business suit in front of a black backdrop with racial slurs projected across his face, body, and background. After living with this image for sometime Mr. Briggs realized that this powerful statement could be applied to many different groups of people.

STEREOTYPES focuses on Race, Faith, Gender, and Sexual Orientation illuminating the continued push for social awareness and acceptance. In Race the artist focuses the viewer’s gaze on African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans. Gender looks solely at Women, and Faith directs the viewer to look at Judaism and Islam. In Sexual Orientation, the artist looks at Gay women and men, Gay marriage, and Transgender. The artist focuses his attention on the groups that on a global perspective are still subjected to persecution, negative views and/or bigotry in the media and in everyday general society. For each of the subject groups, the catalog of slurs that are assigned or cast upon a community represent the conscious and unconscious bias that the people in these communities are subjected to. The artist hopes to awaken the viewer’s mind to their own implicit and explicit bias that they may or may not be aware of.