Photo Credit: Paul Hester/Akbar Baloch
By: Amanda Hart
Voices Breaking Boundaries, a local grassroots nonprofit arts organization, is putting on a “Homes and Histories” walkable art show this Saturday in Houston’s historic Freedmen’s Town. The show will begin at 2pm and end at 4pm on Saturday, December 1st. Artists will include Akbar Baloch, Tina Dismukes, Amanda Hart, Paul Hester, Jibran Jawaid, Autumn Knight, Babette Niemel, Robert Pruit, Sehba Sarwar, Kaneem Smith, Koumankele African Dance & Drum Ensemble and many more.
Voices Breaking Boundaries (VBB) had this to say about the event:
VBB invites you to cross borders in a journey of art and culture to explore the streets of Freedmen’s Town, Houston with digital links to Lyari, Karachi (Pakistan). Freedmen’s Town, located just west of the downtown skyline, was founded and built by enslaved peoples immediately after Emancipation in the1860s, while Lyari is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Karachi and home to a large Baloch community whose roots are in East Africa. From the 1300 block of Andrews Street and the African American Library at the Gregory School on the 1300 block of Victor, guests will experience VBB’s dome-tent packed with visual, digital, and interactive art created for the afternoon, as well as other spaces including The African American Library at the Gregory School, the Rutherford B. H. Yates Museum, Freedmen’s Town churches, and more.
The production includes performances, exhibitions and opportunities for audience members to share their stories and engage with artists. Most importantly, VBB’s living room art production Homes and Histories will give visitors, local organizations and Freedmen’s Town residents opportunities to share stories of life, survival, and identity as VBB explores issues of human migration and movement in Houston and Karachi, raising questions about “home”.
Snacks served courtesy of Whole Foods Montrose and Central Market. Bring your friends, curiosity, and appetite!
The event is cosponsored by African American Library at the Gregory School, Boat People, SOS, Coalition of Pastoral Leaders-Freedmen’s Town, Cynthis Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts (UH), Free Press Summer Fest, Houston Area Women’s Center, Houston Institute for Culture, KPFT Pacifica Radio 90.1 FM, Rutherford B. H. Yates Museum, Inc. and Geo TV (Pakistan).
So come out this Saturday and enjoy our great spring (but it should be winter) weather by walking the streets of Freedmen’s Town and learning about some of Houston’s richest history.
