Artist Bayete Ross Smith brings Apollo-commissioned The Boombox Project, New Sculpture Works to Harlem
Featuring freedom songs, oral histories, snippets from the Apollo archives and interludes from historians discussing the role of the sugar and cotton industries in shaping the contemporary societal landscape
Opens October 8 in the Apollo’s Frank and Laura Baker Gallery at the Victoria Theater
NY-based artist Bayete Ross Smith will illustrate how music and culture have been fundamental tools in global liberation movements through two site-specific sculptural monuments constructed out of sugarcane and cotton boomboxes. Installed at the Frank and Laura Baker Gallery in The Apollo’s recently opened Stages at the Victoria, The Boombox Project opens October 8and will be open to the public through December 18. Ross Smith’s installations in The Boombox Project exist as public art installations that engage the public in music and narratives related to their daily lives. The work includes a soundscape of hip-hop music, freedom songs and oral histories, snippets from the Apollo archives, along with interludes from historians discussing the role the sugar and cotton industries played in the extraction of wealth during colonialism and in shaping the contemporary societal landscape. The Apollo sculptures are unique to Harlem and New York City but are envisioned to be in conversation with similar projects the artist is developing in France for the Saint-Denis Hip Hop Festival and Urban Cultures of Saint-Denis this year.
On the night of the opening, a talk back featuring the artist will expand on the themes in his work.
This exhibition is the second to take place in the inaugural year of The Apollo’s gallery space, following a showcase of photographer Alex Harsley at the building’s opening this spring.
About The Apollo
The Apollo is an American cultural treasure. It is a vibrant non-profit organization rooted in the Harlem community that engages people from around New York, the nation, and the world. Since 1934, The Apollo has celebrated, created, and presented work that centers Black artists and voices from across the African Diaspora. It has also been a catalyst for social and civic advocacy. Today, The Apollo is the largest performing arts institution committed to Black culture and creativity.
The Apollo is a commissioner and presenter; catalyst for new artists, audiences, and creative workforce; and partner in the projection of the African American narrative and its role in the development of American and global culture.
The Apollo envisions a new American canon centered on contributions to the performing arts by artists of the African diaspora, in America and beyond.
