Emmett Till’s 85th Birthday To Bring ‘Radical Joy’ At Closing Of Bronzeville Art Exhibition

BRONZEVILLE — There’s no space for joy in the story of the brutal, unpunished lynching of Emmett Till, a child killed for being Black.

But Till’s story neither begins nor ends with that 1955 lynching — and it’s a radical act to celebrate the story’s many layers, said locals working to preserve his legacy.

That legacy includes many joys worth celebrating: those of hard-won and now-endangered civil rights, of Black boyhood, of familial and community bonds, and of creative inspiration, they said.

“We use radical joy as our superpower,” said Raymond A. Thomas, creative director for the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley Institute.

In that spirit, the group exhibition “From Memory to Movement: Emmett at 85” — on display since June at Blanc Gallery in Bronzeville — closes this weekend with a “Radical Joy Celebration” on what would have been Till’s 85th birthday.

The free celebration, which allows attendees to take in music, spoken word pieces and dancing as they view the exhibition for a final time, takes place 6-9 p.m. Saturday at the gallery, 4445 S. King Drive.

“From Memory to Movement” has aimed throughout its run to “humanize Emmett beyond martyrdom and show him as a boy — a kid from Chicago with hopes and dreams that were tragically taken away,” said Thomas, who curated and created artworks for the exhibition.

Saturday’s lineup includes performances by Discopoet Khari B, DJ Sean Alvarez, Leslé Honoré, Lawrence “Binkey” Tolefree, Teh’Ray “Phenom” Hale and Yaw Agyeman. To register for the event, click here.

The Till Institute will also honor Till’s birthday July 31 with a commemorative dinner at the Obama Presidential Center’s Home Court athletics facility in Woodlawn. The event includes conversations with Wheeler Parker, Jr., Till’s cousin who was in the house when Till was abducted.

‘Artivism In Action’

“From Memory to Movement” collects works from celebrated Chicago artists who in their own ways portray a series of “layered conversations” on Till’s life and death, Thomas said.

MacArthur Genius Grant winner Tonika Lewis Johnson depicts Black boys embracing and playing in a fountain, while Bernard Williams created a series of works using soil from various sites related to Till’s lynching.

Gerald Griffin shows Till drenched in water from the Tallahatchie River in which his body was disposed, yet instead depicted full of life and a light “which could not be extinguished.”

Paul Branton depicts Black children reclaiming the cotton gin fan used to sink Till’s body in the river as an object of play — communicating how Black people “adapt, improve and transform every obstacle placed before us.”

Participating artists also include Thomas, Norman Teague, Candace Hunter, Max Sansing, Paul Branton, Roger Carter, Bryant Lamont, John Caleb Pendleton, Bernard Williams and Kevin “WAK” Williams.

“When I put this group together, I was thinking the Wu-Tang Clan, the Black Avengers, the baddest jazz group ever assembled,” Thomas said. “I thought the artists, who all work in different media and different styles, speak to this legacy in a very powerful way. I’m just humbled by their execution and their dedication.”

Thomas’ own contributions to the show include “Peace Over Penance,” in which an arm covered in a tattered American flag writes “I will not kill Black people” while Kente cloth-draped arms draw a Black power fist.

He also submitted “We Love You Paw Paw,” a mixed media collage establishing an alternate history where Till grew old enough to share in the love of his two grandchildren.

“We Love You Paw Paw” speaks to the complexity of grappling with Till’s legacy, Thomas said.

Closer inspection of the warm, familial scene unveils a “Whites Only” parking sign outside the window.

It reads as a challenge to consider both the joys and the downstream effects of Till’s survival and personal fulfillment, considering his death and the public display of his brutalized body are credited with galvanizing the Civil Rights movement.

“Even though this image exudes joy and happiness, you’ll see that sign showing that we probably would still be in segregated spaces, would still be fighting for our basic human rights,” Thomas said.

“From Memory to Movement’s” development was a “full-circle moment” for Thomas, who was introduced to Till’s story as a child when his mother showed him Jet Magazine’s reprints of Till’s open-casket funeral.

“When she showed it to me, I was 10. It didn’t register to me that [Till’s corpse] was even a human being,” Thomas said. “My mother’s tears as she told the story resonated with me.”

About 20 years later, Thomas met Till-Mobley and they pursued a film project together, though she died only a few months after their meeting, Thomas said. The gallery show continues a promise Thomas made to Till-Mobley that he would do his part to keep her son’s legacy alive, he said.

Till’s Story Teaches A New Generation

The exhibition was also inspired by the young people of the Till Institute’s Summer Academy, held at the Chicago History Museum, Thomas said. The six-week, paid “immersive educational program” allows Chicago-area teens to explore history, civil rights and social justice through storytelling.

About half of last year’s 45-person inaugural class — a diverse group of students from around the Chicago area — have returned this summer, said Christopher Benson, a professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism who facilitates the academy’s curriculum.

Till’s story is shared with students “in its full context, to demonstrate to them how identity is formed in this country in a purposeful way in order to establish place, purpose, power in this country,” said Benson, who has co-authored books with Till-Mobley and Parker.

Benson will participate in a conversation with Parker during a July 31 85th birthday commemoration dinner for Till at the Obama Presidential Center, 6001 S. Stony Island Ave.

Earlier this month, academy students took a field trip that included stops at Till’s childhood home, Blacks in Green’s Forgiveness Garden dedicated to Till-Mobley and the “From Memory to Movement” exhibit.

“We’ve been able to draw together a narrative that brings us into a conversation with a critical assessment of some of the values of this country that have not always been shared equally,” Benson said.

July commemorates what would have been Till’s 85th birthday, as well as the Declaration of Independence’s 250th anniversary. The convergence sparks conversations around how the stated values of this country have not always been shared equally, Benson said.

Just as Till’s killing represented a backlash to desegregation in 1955, Benson sees a present backlash to a future demographic reality in which white people are no longer in the majority.

Benson said the academy seeks to counter one such backlash, the so-called “parental rights movement” that has pushed to censor history lessons on some of the nation’s darkest chapters — such as Till’s killing and the lack of justice that followed.

“We love this country. We love what it’s supposed to be and we want to help it become what it’s supposed to be,” Benson said.

The summer academy and the Blanc Gallery exhibition have sought to inspire participants to take action, said Thomas, who leads “Artivism in Action” breakout sessions at the academy. The sessions combine practical artmaking instruction with lessons on the role of art in social progress.

As President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to wipe Black history from federal records, and as some state and local governments follow suit in educational curricula, there’s a pressing need for such inspiration, Thomas said.

“They are erasing it, tearing it out of spaces, because they want propaganda to reign and control our mindset,” he said. “We have to create counternarratives to that in our art and our storytelling.”