The Burns-Belfry Museum and Multicultural Center sponsored a riveting tribute to historic and contemporary African American artists by hosting a quilt show and multimedia art exhibit on Saturday, Feb. 17. Inspired by the 2024 Black History Month theme “African Americans & The Arts,” the exhibit celebrated culinary, visual, performing and textile arts presented by local chefs, artists and students.
Built in 1910 as an African American church, the Burns-Belfry has been the property of the city of Oxford since 2002. The building’s rich history set the stage for creativity, innovation and resilience that was displayed in the multimedia art exhibit on Saturday.
Program Committee Chairman Pat Brassel shared the mission of the exhibit.
“I wanted to take all of the aspects of the arts and combine it into an awesome program that informed young children and some of the seniors,” Brassel said.
Starting off the exhibit strong with a taste of the culinary arts, the event was catered by the owner of Little Easy Catering, Timothy Woodard. Woodard provided the attendees with a plethora of soul food, a mix of fresh and familiar traditional Southern dishes, including chicken feet, beef tongue and turkey neck for audiences to taste. Following the culinary art were passionate vocal tributes to gospel music, blues and jazz artists such as B.B. King, Louis Armstrong and Mahalia Jackson. The powerful performances often called for the audience to join in, filling the room with reverberating voices, while others called for silence, allowing each performer to shine.
Additional performing arts were presented, including a contemporary dance choreographed by senior elementary education major Joy Madkins. Attributed to dancer and social activist Katherine Mary Durnham, Madkins danced to a mix of songs including “This Bitter Earth” and “On the Nature of Daylight.” where she portrayed an enslaved woman who eventually finds freedom.
Madkins shared what her part in the exhibit meant to her.
“(I liked) getting to be a part of all of this culture,” Madkins said. “But the most important thing to me was that it was performing arts, that it wasn’t just like a Black history program, it was specifically the arts, and that’s what I do.”
Roy Deberry, author of the book, “Voices from the Mississippi Hill Country,” followed Madkins’ dance by sharing the importance of finding local voices and documenting their stories.
Deberry expressed his enjoyment of the rest of the performances.
“The level of the program was equal to anything I’ve seen in New York or Boston,” Deberry said.
The exhibit closed with Sheila Howard Baker presenting the Atlanta Quilting group, “Sewing Threads of Memory,” which was led by Jean Freeman.
Multiple quilts were displayed around the room for the public to observe how each stitch retold African American stories of the past, while weaving in the personal stories of the artists that created it — a symbolic way to wrap up the art exhibit in a beautiful, resilient and complex blanket.
