Hateful Things | Resilience

August 26–October 7, 2016

Hateful Things | Resilience is a dual exhibition highlighting the importance of racial healing and equality.

Hateful Things

Hateful Things is a traveling sample from Ferris State University’s Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia that features a collection of racist objects which trace the history of the stereotyping of African Americans. The exhibition contributes to and is in dialogue with the scholarly examination of historical and contemporary expressions of racism and visual culture. It also seeks to promote racial understanding and healing.

The exhibit was created by David Pilgrim, who is a professor of sociology, vice president of diversity and inclusion and museum curator at Ferris State University; and Carrie Stermer, who is director of Ferris State University’s Fine Art Gallery.

Pilgrim originally began by purchasing and disposing of racially insulting items wherever he found them. He began collecting the items when he recognized their historical significance. He views the collection of images and artifacts not as a traditional museum, but as a learning and teaching laboratory, where the images of intolerance are used to teach tolerance.

Resilience

Resilience was curated by Dr. Heidi Kraus and features world-renowned contemporary African-American artists from the Kruizenga Art Museum and Chicago’s Monique Meloche Gallery, including Faith Ringgold, Sanford Biggers and Lorna Simpson.

The works in Resilience, while in conversation with the history of African-American oppression, focus on demonstrating a resilience of spirit and hope for racial equality.

Press release for Hateful Things | Resilience 

Hope College blog post on Hateful Things | Resilience 

Opening Reception

Friday, September 9 | 6–7:30 p.m.
De Pree Art Center and Gallery

Related Events

The college is also hosting multiple campus-wide events in conjunction with the exhibitions between September 9–30. These additional events will begin with a screening of the film From Jim Crow to Barack Obama on Friday, September 9, at 4 p.m. in Cook Auditorium of the De Pree Art Center and Gallery. A discussion led by filmmaker Denise Ward-Brown of Washington University in St. Louis will follow.

The Ebony Road Players will present “A Simple Question” on Tuesday, September 13, at 7:30 p.m. in the DeWitt Center studio theatre. The production celebrates the impact of the 1967 landmark Supreme Court Case Loving v. Virginia, which overturned laws that prevented interracial marriage.

Marcy Sachs of Albion College will present the lecture “The Most Laughable Things I Had Ever Seen: Currier & Ives’ ‘Darktown Comics’” on Wednesday, September 21, at 4 p.m. in the Fried-Hemenway Auditorium of the Martha Miller Center for Global Communication.

In addition, the college’s fall Arts and Humanities Symposium will examine “Am I Not Human? Racial Identities in Modern America” on Friday, September 30, from 1–4 p.m.