SouthTalks: “What Endures”
On Feb. 10 at 5:30 p.m. in Barnard Observatory’s Gammill Gallery, Nadia Alexis presents “What Endures.” The artwork of Nadia Alexis—photographer, poet, and creative-writing-concentration doctoral student at the University of Mississippi—will be shown in the Gammill Gallery in Barnard Observatory this spring. The photographs in her series “What Endures” focus on the enduring spirit of Black women and contribute to the conversation on how Black women exist in photography.
The photographs in this series began as an independent study course that Alexis took in the UM Department of Art and Art History, where she was inspired to make photographs informed by her personal experiences and those of other Black women survivors of trauma. The images in her exhibition are of Alexis and her mother, all of which were taken outdoors in Oxford, Mississippi. The images explore themes of survival, freedom, and transcendence.
Alexis says that “What Endures” is a body of work that tells the story of returning to self and explores what it means to be a Black woman in the world. “As a poet and photographer of Haitian heritage navigating the American landscape,” she said, “I am a descendant of women survivors whose traumas I grapple with as I make photographs. Using my body and my mother’s body as the ‘Woman in White,’ I perform a relationship between the Black female subject and the natural landscape, asserting that the natural world is a place of freedom and communion, as well as a place of haunting and alienation.”
“What Endures” will exhibit in Gammill Gallery from Jan. 10 to Feb. 18. During this Gamill Gallery walk and reception, Alexis will speak briefly about her exhibition and take questions.
SouthTalks is a series of events (including lectures, performances, film screenings, and panel discussions) that explores the interdisciplinary nature of Southern Studies. This series is free and open to the public, and typically takes place in the Tupelo Room of Barnard Observatory. However, as a result of the ongoing health crisis, some events will be virtual, free, and accessible on the Center’s YouTube channel after each live event. Visit the Center’s website at southernstudies.olemiss.edu for more details. Locations listed here are subject to change, and more events may be added throughout the semester. Registration will be required for all virtual events in order to receive the webinar link.