NJPAC celebrated Women’s History Month with a show entitled Women in the World: A Visual Perspective. Curated by artists Gladys B. Grauer and Adrienne Wheeler, Women of the World aimed to amplify the experiences of women across the globe. At the opening ceremony, a panel was held to address to the moral, and perhaps political, role that artists take on. Gallery Aferro resident Dominique Duroseau was one of five panelists chosen to discuss Paul Robeson’s claim that artists are “the gatekeepers of truth.”

Photo courtesy of New Jersey Stage (Keith B. Bratcher, Jr.)

The multi-sited exhibit featured the work of 14 women artists at NJPAC, Monmouth University, and the Paul Robeson Gallery at Rutgers Newark.

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Jo-El Lopez is a contributing artist to CitiCien: an exhibit that explores the complicated relationship between Puerto Rican identity and U.S. citizenship. Lopez’s contribution, “Assimilate Spic,” features a parodic illustration of Uncle Sam, demanding the cultural assimilation of Puerto Ricans under the Jones Act.

Photo courtesy of NBC News (Nicole Acevedo)

Created by the Defend Puerto Rico art collective, CitiCien will be on display until March 26th in the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center in New York City. The exhibit will be traveling through various cities in Puerto Rico throughout June. Defend Puerto Rico hopes to prolong the exhibit and bring it to other places with a strong Puerto Rican community. Some prospective cities include Orlando, Philadelphia, and Chicago.

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Patricia Cazorla and Nancy Saleme are among 17 other artists whose work is displayed in Alien Nations. The exhibit offers artists’ perspectives on modernity and how social issues inform our opinions of ourselves and the world around us.

Photo courtesy of Bronx Times (Miriam Quin)

In Cazorla and Saleme’s installation, DeFence, a hand-painted wooden fence serves as a backdrop for an ornate dining room table. This piece offers their critique of the nonreciprocating nature of migrant labor. Although the reception has already passed, Alien Nations runs until May 6th at the Lehman Gallery in the Bronx.

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Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. We are civilization’s radical voice.

-Paul Robeson