Ashley Morrison, Resonator board member and Equity and Diversity consultant, hangs up art for Zora Child, an exhibit dedicated to the memories of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. The photo was taken by, aspiring photographer, Isaiah Santos. This image was captured the day after a grand jury let the murderers of Breonna Taylor walk free. You can follow her on IG @nile_heala
Dear Friends and Supporters of Resonator,
It doesn’t seem possible, but we celebrated our fourth anniversary on October 1st. Four years of exhibitions, live music, workshops, classes, dance parties, community fundraisers, and whatever else we could think of to provide a forum for local creative communities to express themselves and make Norman a more open and connected place.
Like everyone else, Resonator has had a difficult time these past eight months, but we’ve managed to keep ourselves busy by summoning and producing video content for virtual art walks, printing materials for local BLM demonstrations, sponsoring a mask-wearing poster campaign, hanging and documenting exhibitions, hosting drag-show livecasts, and installing new gallery lights.
One highlight we want to focus on is the Diversity University show “Zora Child”, dedicated to the memory of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. The exhibition is curated by board member Ashley Morrison, who is also Norman Public Art’s first black female Equity and Diversity Consultant. The exhibition features seven black artists from diverse backgrounds and ages: Adriane Baker, Maxwell Breaux, C’Yera Coleman, Carey J. Flack, Janell Hartwell, Adrianee Johnson, and Kerry Robinson Jr. Resonator relied on the support of our September Patreon subscriber base, individual donors from a direct donation campaign, and a grant from the NAC to pay a combined total of $2,300 to Black artists and the Equity and Diversity Consultant. The video portion of this exhibition can be found on our YouTube channel. To set up a socially-distanced, private appointment to view the show by Nov. 30th email: resonator.ok@gmail.com.
Through the end of the year we’ll focus on the completion of the gallery, community, and shop spaces. We will also plan our path forward into 2021 using our mission statement, our anti-racism statement, and our commitment to being a safer space as our guide.
To compliment the end of a powerful year for the Movement for Black Lives and liberation for all, Resonator will release a short documentary film on New Year’s Eve highlighting the recent transformative social justice work of the Norman Collective for Racial Justice, Norman’s leading authority on M4BL mobilization. Stay tuned for more details on this virtual event and other futuristic efforts. Stay well, safe, and rest up for 2021.
All the best,
Team Resonator
Resonator hosted a show, “The Four Elements”, curated by Hoka Skenandore that resulted in a huge mural in our back alley. The artists are: Sega, Destro, Infer, and Perish. You can follow him on IG at @hoka_skenandore
Hoka Skenandore gives a walk through of “The Four Elements.”
Our PSA mask wearing campaign is on going. This poster was submitted by Laura Nelsen (@laurass0 on IG)
Board Member Helen Grant kicking off this year’s Behind the Glass-style art activism with a message on solidarity and raising awareness with the #hateisavirus, a social media campaign that documents hate crimes against Asians following the Covid-19 pandemic and aims to support family-owned, small Asian businesses. You can find her on IG @thehelengrant