Raisin
at 6018North
an exhibition inspired by A Raisin in the Sun and radical playwright Lorraine Hansberry
as a partner project of the Chicago Architecture Biennial 2021
Opens September 17, 2021
at 6018North
an exhibition inspired by A Raisin in the Sun and radical playwright Lorraine Hansberry
as a partner project of the Chicago Architecture Biennial 2021
Opens September 17, 2021
“A radical Black woman playwright found her excellent work embraced as an arts-based format to encourage dialogue on inclusion and justice in cities across the world. Even after Lorraine Hansberry’s death, the span of her narrative has grown over the past sixty years...” Asha Iman Veal, curator
Featured artists:
Kioto Aoki (Chicago) / Coletivo Anastácia Berlin (Berlin) / Jared Brown (Chicago)
Marina Viola Cavadini (Milan) / Amy Sanchez Arteaga + Misael Diaz (Cog•nate Collective) (So. California) Jory Drew (Chicago) / Işıl Eğrikavuk (Berlin) / Max Guy (Chicago) / Kyle Bellucci Johanson (Chicago) Kierah “Kiki” King (Chicago) / Diya Khurana (Mumbai) / Kat Liu (Chicago) / AJ McClenon (Chicago)
Clemens Melzer (Berlin) / Joelle Mercedes (Chicago) / Chip Moody (Chicago) / Joseph Mora (Chicago) Nahum, Ale de la Puente, Juan José Díaz Infante, and Tania Candiani (Mexico City and Berlin)
Zakkiyyah Najeebah Dumas-O'Neal (Chicago) / Alessia Petrolito (Turin)
Delilah Salgado (Chicago) / Aaron Samuels (Los Angeles) / Rohan Ayinde Smith (London)
Brett Swinney (Chicago) / Maryam Taghavi (Chicago) / Gloria Talamantes (Chicago)
Tran Tran (Chicago) / Unyimeabasi Udoh (Chicago) / Nayeli Vega (Berlin)
Jakob Wirth (Berlin) / Tintin Wulia (Australia) / Zhiyuan Yang (New York)
Curator: Asha Iman Veal
Curatorial Assistants: Shannon Lin and Esraa Youssef
Kioto Aoki (Chicago) / Coletivo Anastácia Berlin (Berlin) / Jared Brown (Chicago)
Marina Viola Cavadini (Milan) / Amy Sanchez Arteaga + Misael Diaz (Cog•nate Collective) (So. California) Jory Drew (Chicago) / Işıl Eğrikavuk (Berlin) / Max Guy (Chicago) / Kyle Bellucci Johanson (Chicago) Kierah “Kiki” King (Chicago) / Diya Khurana (Mumbai) / Kat Liu (Chicago) / AJ McClenon (Chicago)
Clemens Melzer (Berlin) / Joelle Mercedes (Chicago) / Chip Moody (Chicago) / Joseph Mora (Chicago) Nahum, Ale de la Puente, Juan José Díaz Infante, and Tania Candiani (Mexico City and Berlin)
Zakkiyyah Najeebah Dumas-O'Neal (Chicago) / Alessia Petrolito (Turin)
Delilah Salgado (Chicago) / Aaron Samuels (Los Angeles) / Rohan Ayinde Smith (London)
Brett Swinney (Chicago) / Maryam Taghavi (Chicago) / Gloria Talamantes (Chicago)
Tran Tran (Chicago) / Unyimeabasi Udoh (Chicago) / Nayeli Vega (Berlin)
Jakob Wirth (Berlin) / Tintin Wulia (Australia) / Zhiyuan Yang (New York)
Curator: Asha Iman Veal
Curatorial Assistants: Shannon Lin and Esraa Youssef
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CHICAGO (Fall 2021)—6018North is pleased to announce Raisin, an exhibition exploring themes from the classic play A Raisin in the Sun (1959) by Lorraine Hansberry. Through over 25 artworks created by Chicago and international artists, the exhibition offers local and global perspectives on ‘home.’ Raisin opens September 17 as a partner project of the Chicago Architecture Biennial 2021.
In 1959, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun debuted on Broadway. In this seminal work, Hansberry wrote about the Youngers, a fictional Black American family in Chicago whose late patriarch has left behind a life insurance policy that the family can use to purchase a home and enter the American middle class. Many challenges block this family’s path, and the four adult Youngers debate their options for self-determination within a race-biased country, and whether to move to an affordable yet segregated neighborhood, where they will not be welcome. In the 1960s, A Raisin in the Sun was translated into 30 languages, and won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle award in its debut year. Produced in cities around the world, the play has been bringing solidarity to various struggles against injustice; from residential segregation within the United States, migration politics across Europe, class inequality in China, and apartheid in South Africa. Now, this exhibition presents multidisciplinary artworks inspired by the local importance and global reach of the narrative. Artists include Zakkiyyah Najeebah Dumas-O'Neal (Chicago); AJ McClenon (Chicago); Nahum, Ale de la Puente, Juan José Díaz Infante, and Tania Candiani (Mexico City and Berlin); Tintin Wulia (Australia); Işıl Eğrikavuk (Berlin); and many more. Asha Iman Veal, a guest curator at 6018North this year, has developed the Raisin exhibition as a partner project of the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Asha Iman’s visual critical research began in 2016 with the play’s global productions. She has been interested in Hansberry’s play’s long endurance and wide reach. “A radical Black woman playwright,” she says, “found her excellent work embraced as an arts-based format to encourage dialogue on inclusion and justice in cities across the world. Even after Hansberry’s death, the span of her narrative has grown over the past sixty years.” 6018North, a house museum within a multicultural neighborhood in a historically segregated city, often explores ideas of home. Its Director says, “The play and the exhibition ask, ‘Who gets to live where and why? Hansberry’s question, over 60 years old, sadly remains relevant as we are still seeing and experiencing the lasting effects of segregation—especially amplified during Covid-19.” David Brown, this year’s artistic director of Chicago’s Architecture Biennale, has stated one of his goals of The Available City is “broadening the conversation—as amplified by current issues—about the role that collective space can have in cities around the world today.” The Raisin exhibition opens this fall at 6018North, a three-story house on a residential block in a formerly all-white, now integrated, neighborhood in Chicago. The exhibition presents a selection of multidisciplinary artworks inspired by A Raisin in the Sun’s themes; from first-time homeownership, to gender dynamics within communities of color, to generational dreams, and more. Public programming includes conversations with visual artists, theater scholars, fair-housing advocates, global migration advocates, as well as live performances. In addition, visitors can check into a room (with COVID restrictions) to stay overnight in the 6018North home and exhibition. Please visit 6018north.org/raisin for a full list of this exhibition’s events and programs. *** About the Curator: Asha Iman Veal is a Democracy Fellow with the Alfred Landecker Foundation and Humanity in Action (Berlin), and is the Curatorial Fellow at the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago. She was recently curator for The Tokyo Show: Black & Brown Are Beautiful at Hyde Park Art Center and Preview 9: A Boldness to Dare and Try at Chicago Artists Coalition (2019). Asha Iman is Assistant Professor Adj. in the Department of Arts Administration & Policy at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where amongst her other courses she founded and leads the Being a Woman of Color in the Arts undergraduate course. She is a member of the BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network (Germany/Global Table), as a voice for nonprofit arts and education. Over the years Asha Iman has worked on research and projects in Chicago, New York, Edinburgh, Vietnam, Juárez, Tokyo, Cuba, Berlin, and more. Funding support to-date for Raisin has been provided by: The Alfred Landecker Democracy Fellowship and Humanity in Action. The Alfred Landecker Democracy Fellowship supports rising activists, community leaders and young professionals in turning innovative ideas into tangible solutions for the disruptions to democratic spaces in times of Covid-19. The City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events. This project is partially supported by an Individual Artist Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, as well as a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Faculty Enrichment Grants. About 6018North: 6018North is an artist‐centered, sustainable, non-profit platform and dynamic venue for innovative art and culture in Chicago. We challenge what art is, whom it’s for, and where and how it’s created. 6018North champions the creation of adventurous work that connects multiple disciplines and audiences while promoting artistic excellence. We support emerging and established local and international artists to create innovative, multidisciplinary work that connects artists and audiences in transformative ways. As a nimble lab for incubating, modeling, and experimenting, we leverage new ways of connecting artists and audiences to advance and sustain artists and Illinois’ creative ecosystem. 6018North projects are partially supported by 3Arts, the AD3 Innovation Bootcamp Grant, an anonymous donor advised fund at The Chicago Community Foundation, a CityArts Innovation Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, the Gen Ops Plus Grant from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Field Foundation of Illinois, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, IL Humanities, the Illinois Arts Council, the Illinois Arts Council Youth Employment Grant, the Joyce Foundation, The MacArthur Funds for Culture, Equity, and the Arts at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Terra Foundation for American Art, and individual donations. For more info visit us at 6018North.org. Led by Asha Iman Veal, curator. Curatorial assistants, Shannon Lin and Esraa Youssef. ROLE: curator EXHIBITION: Opens at 6018 North, for presentation at the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Fall 2021. Supported in part by a generous grant from the 2020 Alfred Landecker Democracy Fellowship and Humanity in Action. 
exhibition support:
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