The Migration Back =photos from gallery talk

*photography courtesy of Mr. Kim Love, Director of Vaughn Cultural Center

Upcoming Exhibition!

The Migration Back
A Collaborative Exhibition by Dail Chambers & Carl Moore

Vaughn Cultural Center at the Urban League
3701 Grandel Square
St. Louis, MO 63108

Opening Reception: January 22, 2011 from 3-5pm
Exhibition January 22, 2011- February 28, 2011

The Great Migration was the movement of over 7 million African Americans out of the Southern United States to the Midwest, Northeast and West. In contemporary culture we find that many African Americans have moved back to the southern states of the U.S. for various reasons. Consistent to that of the generations before us, is the need for better economic, cultural and social environments, which many African Americans have reclaimed in states such as Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi. Both artists will explore their experiences, and understanding of this occurrence in our culture.

The migration series is a surreal contemporary look at a migration that has taken place the last 20 years where families and descendants of families that left the south almost half a century ago are returning in search of a better life, identity and history.

Dail Chambers is a community based, studio artist working in various mediums. She studied photography at St. Louis Community College Florissant Valley and received her BFA from Memphis College of Art in Clay, with a minor in Art History. Her artwork is centered on African art, women's issues and social constructs. She shows the process of each work, as a telling history to the viewer.

Chambers has curated numerous exhibitions, and founded the AIDS Project in Memphis Tn. She completed CAT (Community Arts Training) Institute fellowship while building and facilitating programs in the St. Louis area, many of which are located in the surrounding area of her art studio. Most recently she has founded Yeyo Arts Collective, a small collective that operates a gallery with fine crafts and hosts community arts programming.

www.dailchambers1.blogspot.com

Everything is A Circle

I moved back to the mainland almost (but not quite) ten years ago. First & 3rd stop: St. Louis! Because of the rich culture I grew up idealizing, such as the ville, the old courthouse, etc. I knew the Lou would either make me or break me. Through time, it has done both.

I came here believing that I could springboard my career as a young black socio political photographer (i.e. the new gordon parks) and make $$ doing so. Not! Yet, I gained a strong community college program experience, a beautiful daughter, and many learned lessons.

Taking these experiences with me away (and back) to St. Louis has not only shedded me of my ego, but also gave me more insight into how to link personal and political experience... and then, how to link all of that into my art(work.)

One thing that has remained is my drive. One of the most rewarding happenings for me in 2010 was finding a single page of my old journal. Not much to the eye, but what was most fulfilling: looking into my past and seeing my goals, before being a mother, before being an artist.

Wow! Who am I??? I am still creating her, yet I am already she who I wish to create. It is funny, in one part of the list I recall my desperation for survival so much that I considered joining the reserves. (Sike! on that one!)

Fresh out of high school, I had minimal immediate family support, my mother still lived in Hawaii, other family I knew mostly as distant handwritten correspondence... and the world was still moving.

I had no clue at that time that all my lists, big ideas and images were only the beginning. I was too worried about working to be able to afford a semester's worth of classes. That goes to show (me) to not worry about the now but to keep moving forward despite it all.

After ten years, I am proud to say that almost all of the list was accomplished!!! What I thought would only take me a week has turned into a decade and I am grateful for that time. I would have never guessed at that moment I was writing my own history and manifesting my livelihood into fruition.


The Migration Series, a collaborative exhibition by Carl Moore and Dail Chambers will be opening at the Vaughn Cultural Center January 22nd from 3-5, with a meet & mingle at Gya directly thereafter, please come celebrate with us. I will be posting a formal invite on the blog soon!