Art + Activism: On Miami, 1980 - Today
Join us for the third and final iteration of the Art + Activism series this season, moderated by Bakehouse Executive Director, Cathy Leff, featuring journalist and author Nicholas Griffin, visual artist Robert McKnight, and visual artist, activist, and current Artist-in-Residence at the Community Justice Project, Chire VantaBlack Regans.
Griffin’s most recently published book The Year of Dangerous Days: Riots, Refugees, and Cocaine in Miami 1980 (Simon & Schuster, 2020) provides the historical and contextual framework for this discussion, centering on the role artists have played in the city, then and now. Responding to Miami’s unique position in the national stage, Griffin, McKnight, and Regans speak about the racial tensions, gun violence, and immigration policies, among other things, that have shaped and continue to define the city today. McKnight and Regans also address how the city’s cultural and socio-political landscape has influenced their practices and their role as Black visual artists living and working in Miami.
We encourage the audience to read Griffin’s book prior to the session, which is available from the public library, for purchase from Books & Books, or from an online bookseller.
To register for this session, please access the following link.
About the participants
Nicholas Griffin is a journalist and author of four novels and three works of nonfiction. His writing has appeared in The Times (UK), The Financial Times, Foreign Policy, and other publications. His last book, Ping Pong Diplomacy, was shortlisted for awards in both the United States and the UK. His critically-acclaimed new book, The Year of Dangerous Days, was reviewed by the New York Times as "utterly absorbing ... it's impossible to read Griffin's timely and searing account without thinking about its implications for our current moment." Griffin lives in Miami with his wife, two children and a one-hundred-year old dog.
Robert McKnight was raised in Miami in the 1950s. He studied Fine Arts at Syracuse University, receiving a BFA in Painting in 1974, and studying sculpture in London at the Sir John Cass School of Art from 1971 - 1972. Upon returning to Miami, he became a member of the Miami Black Artist Workshop and KUUMBA Artist Association. McKnight has realized various public art commissions and has participated in exhibitions at the Lowe Art Museum, Miami-Dade College North Campus Art Gallery, Art Gallery at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Gallery Antigua, Amdalozi Gallery, Green Light Art Space, The Bakehouse Art Complex, and Farside Gallery.
Chire Regans, aka VantaBlack, a proud mother, visual artist, truth-teller, and community advocate, was born in Saint Louis, Missouri and relocated to Miami in the late 1980s. After graduating from Florida A&M University, Chire’s artistic practice focused primarily on portraiture. As societal issues began to weigh heavily on her conscience, the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement pushed Chire's art in the direction of social awareness and change. Chire serves on the Community Relations Board's Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Committee, works as a Teaching Artist at the Perez Art Museum Miami, and is the Fall 2020 Artist-in-Residence with the Community Justice Project, based at Bakehouse Art Complex. She recently completed a commemorative mural at Bakehouse, honoring the memory of victims of gun violence.