I Was Born Black, I Live Black, and I'ma Die Probably Because I'm Black Featuring Performance By de'Angelo Dia

IMPORTANT NOTE: This event takes place at Skyline Artists in Residence (former Goodyear building), 100 East Stonewall Street, Uptown Charlotte.

Peformance starts at 7:00 PM

I Was Born Black, I Live Black, and I’ma Die Probably Because I'm Black is a performance exploring the universal struggle for liberation, particularly in the case of Black social inequality. The title of the performance comes from a phrase in the 1969 novel The Spook Who Sat by the Door by Sam Greenlee and the Negritude literary movement. The Negritude literary movement was developed by francophone Black intellectuals, writers, and politicians in the 1930s as a means of protesting the social policy of assimilation.

The performance depicts the metaphoric clash with self-acceptance and blind assimilation into a “dominant” culture. It is both a satire of humanity’s historical struggle for liberation and a serious depiction of black militancy. This performance also asks the viewer to consider the idea of self-demise as the cost of laboring for universal equality. It is an invitation to examine collective fears, ambitions, privileges, and insecurities.

The wall installation is a collection of journal entries, poetry, and mind maps, scribed directly on the walls, and on top of the building inspired by the artist’s research into the universal connection of inequalities, theology, and the Gantt Center’s current exhibits organized around the theme Art as Activism.

To learn more about de’Angelo Dia, please visit www.dia1518.com.