Article
As an art professor and curator, Asha focuses on exploring and challenging public discourses on the lived realities of race. She believes that it is possible to question and portray the image of a nation to itself and to audiences abroad. She has also formally studied narrative nonfiction practices for many years, seeking creative examples that deepen an understanding of contemporary multiculturalism.
Now as a Landecker Democracy Fellow, her project explores cross-cultural solidarity across communities that are often kept apart by geographic or political distance. She is the organizer for a contemporary art exhibition that explores and reactivates global interpretations of the classic story A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry.
Her project explores cross-cultural solidarity across communities that are often kept apart by geographic or political distance.
In 1959, the stage play A Raisin in the Sun originally debuted in New York on Broadway. The historic play told the story of a fictitious Black American family in Chicago, the Youngers. Their patriarch has passed away and bequeathed a life insurance payout that the family could use to purchase their first home and, thus, enter the American middle class. There is an unexpected yet archetypal challenge for this Black family when multiple generations gather at their mother’s tiny apartment to debate the possibilities of self-determination within a race-biased society, and whether or not they should move into a non-integrated neighborhood where they won’t be welcome.
This project transcends national borders and brings together various interpretations of a story that is shared by many people in various countries and contexts
Today, the play remains significant for many reasons. Playwright Lorraine Hansberry became the first Black woman to have a show produced on Broadway. A Raisin in the Sun won the New York Drama Critics Circle award that year and was eventually translated into thirty languages. This Black American story has been produced globally for sixty years, particularly across Europe, as an arts-based format to produce a dialogue on migration and immigration histories.
Now, Asha’s 2021 exhibition–simply titled “Raisin”–will bring together global, multicultural, multidisciplinary artworks inspired by the legacy of this play. This project transcends national borders and brings together various interpretations of a story that is shared by many people in various countries and contexts. From politically driven integration in the United States in the 1960s to migration and integration across Europe over the past decades.
Raisin brings together a global network of artists who are thinking about and creating public conversations around identity and migration in many different places and ways. It additionally builds an artistic network and virtual community that is in constant conversation about the Black experience as global and relatable, as opposed to the isolation and lack of value that racism would prefer us to believe and feel.
After the initial exhibition, the show will travel to arts venues and cities around the world, creating unique opportunities for public engagement in each place.
Choosing to base the exhibition on film, video, and photography is especially crucial during this moment of COVID-19. It enables artists and creative works to come together virtually.
Asha will primarily open this exhibition at the 6018 North experimental art space; a three-story house on a residential block in a formerly all-white, now integrated neighborhood in Chicago. The “Raisin” exhibition is 6018North’s presentation for the Chicago Architecture Biennial Fall in 2021. After the initial exhibition, the show will travel to arts venues and cities around the world, creating unique opportunities for public engagement in each place.
Further Resources
-
Asha Iman in conversation with Marina Cavadini
Istituto Italiano di Cultura Chicago invited Landecker Senior Fellow Asha Iman Veal to be a guest panelist for their visual and performance series.
-
RAISIN Artist Talk with Delilah Salgado, Kioto Aoki & Jared Brown
Asha Iman Veal is hosting an Artist Talk with RAISIN exhibiting artists Delilah Salgado, Kioto Aoki, and Jared Brown. This event is part of the RAISIN exhibit, which runs from September 17th to December 18th, 2021.
-
RAISIN Artist Talk with Kiki King, Alessia Petrolito & Marina Cavadini
Asha Iman Veal is hosting an Artist Intervention with artists Kiki King, Alessia Petrolito, and Marina Cavadini. This event is part of the RAISIN exhibit, which runs from September 17th to December 18th, 2021.
-
RAISIN Talk at the San Diego State University
In September 2021, Asha Iman Veal was a guest speaker at the San Diego State University's "Amplify: Guest Artist Series" sponsored by SDSU School of Art + Design and the Michele Schlecht Visiting Artist Fund.
-
RAISIN Artist Talk with Tran Tran, Unyimeabasi Udoh & Diya Khurana
Asha Iman Veal is hosting an Artist Talk with RAISIN exhibition artists. This event is part of the RAISIN exhibit, which runs from September 17th to December 18th, 2021.
-
Asha Iman Veal moderator of Placemaking & Community Live Conversations
As part of her RAISIN exhibition, Asha Iman Veal hosts Placemaking & Community Live Conversations. This conversation about approaches to community-building through art and education takes place on October 15, 2021.
-
RAISIN Artist Talk with Tintin Wulia
Asha Iman Veal is hosting an Artist Talk with Tintin Wulia. This event is part of the RAISIN exhibit, which runs from September 17th to December 18th, 2021.
-
RAISIN Placemaking & Community Live Conversations with Asha Iman Veal
As part of her RAISIN exhibition, Asha Iman Veal is organizing Placemaking & Community Live Conversations. The event on October 8th features several Landecker Democracy Fellows.
-
RAISIN Artist Talk with Zhiyuan Yang, Kyle Bellucci Johanson & Maryam Taghavi
Asha Iman Veal is hosting an Artist Talk with RAISIN exhibiting artists Zhiyuan Yang, Kyle Bellucci Johanson, and Maryam Taghavi. This event is part of the RAISIN exhibit, which runs from September 17th to December 18th, 2021.
-
RAISIN Artist Talk with Gloria Talamantes
Asha Iman Veal is hosting an Artist Talk with Gloria Talamantes. This event is part of the RAISIN exhibit, which runs from September 17th to December 18th, 2021.
-
RAISIN exhibition featured in WBEZ CHICAGO article
Asha Iman Veal's new exhibition, Raisin, explores themes of home from "A Raisin in the Sun"
-
RAISIN Artist Talk with Brett Swinney
As part of her Landecker Project, Asha Iman Veal is hosting an Artist Talk with Brett Swinney, a RAISIN exhibiting artist.
-
RAISIN Artist Intervention with Joseph Mora
Asha Iman Veal is hosting an Artist Intervention with Joseph Mora. This event is part of the RAISIN exhibition, which runs from September 17th to December 18th, 2021.
-
RAISIN Artist Intervention with Cog•Nate Collective
Asha Iman Veal is hosting an Artist Intervention with Cog•Nate Collective. This event is part of the RAISIN exhibit, which runs from September 17th to December 18th, 2021.
-
RAISIN Sunday Exhibition Tours
Join Asha Iman Veal on a weekly guided tour of RAISIN. The exhibition runs from September 17th to December 18th, 2021.
-
RAISIN Community Conversation around Diasporic Theater & the Power of Black Narratives
As part of her Landecker Project, Asha Iman Veal is organizing a Community Conversation moderated by Tracie Hall, Executive Director of the American Library Association.
-
Landecker Fellow Asha Iman Veal - Promoting Solidarity Through Art
Humanity in Action spoke to Landecker Fellow Asha Iman Veal to check in on her Fellowship project.
-
Landecker Fellow Asha Iman Veal quoted in the New York Times
Landecker Fellow Asha Iman Veal recently provided a comment for the New York Times discussing the art of Martine Gutierrez.
-
Landecker Fellow Asha Iman Veal's RAISIN Exhibition featured in Chicago Architecture Biennial
Landecker Fellow Asha Iman Veal's Fall 2021 RAISIN Exhibition was featured in Chicago Architecture Biennial.
-
Landecker Fellow Asha Iman Veal announces new RAISIN exhibition
Landecker Fellow Asha Iman Veal announces new RAISIN exhibition, opening on September 17, 2021.
-
Martine Gutierrez Exhibition
Landecker Democracy Fellow Asha Iman Veal opened an exhibition last week at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, featuring selections from the Indigenous Woman body of work by visual artist Martine Gutierrez.
-
Livecast 'Reinventing Democratic Spaces': Amsterdam Action Academy
Humanity in Action hosted a discussion on the issue of "Reinventing Democratic Spaces" as a part of the Amsterdam Action Academy.
-
Livecast 'Reinventing Democratic Spaces': Amsterdam Action Academy
May 5th is Dutch Liberation Day. Every year, we remind ourselves that we need to protect our freedom as well as our democracy and that – regardless of how strong a democratic society seems – it cannot be taken for granted. In light of this, Humanity in Action hosted a discussion on the issue of "Reinventing Democratic Spaces" as a part of the Amsterdam Action Academy.
-
Landecker Fellow Asha Iman Veal Announces Participating Artists for Upcoming Raisin Exhibition
Landecker Democracy Fellow Asha Iman Veal has spent the past several weekends on-site at the 6018 North experimental arts and culture space in Chicago, planning with the tremendous artists who will participate in this fall's Raisin exhibition. This exhibition, which will take place at 6018 North, is a partner project of the Chicago Architecture Biennial 2021.
-
A Photo History of Reproductive Justice
Landecker Democracy Fellow Asha Iman Veal will moderate an event on February 10th, 2021 at 6 p.m. CST / 1 a.m. CET. This event is called "A Photo History of Reproductive Justice: Special Presentation by Loretta J. Ross, Visiting Associate Professor of the Study of Women & Gender at Smith College."
-
Curator's Walk-Through Ahead of Chicago Architecture Biennial
Landecker Democracy Fellow Asha Iman Veal visited 6018 North experimental arts and culture space in Chicago earlier this month for a curator's walk-through in advance of her Chicago Architecture Biennial project this September. The "Raisin" exhibition brings together a global network of artists who are creating public conversations around justice, class, identity, migration, immigration, and residence, in many different places and ways.
