ArtCrawl Harlem Presents Black Box

ArtCrawl Harlem presents Black Box Artists Talk with Michael Coppage and facilitated by Jewel Dodson. This Saturday, July 23, 2022 event will take place at 1:00Pm at ArtCrawl Harlem Art House on Governors Island.

Black Box is a community impact and engagement platform aimed at making black men and black women more
accessible and facilitating authentic social and cultural connections with our counterparts
from other races. The flat two-dimensional images serve as a proxy for “real” people to
establish and promote healthy boundaries. There is no physicality. Just a group of images,
videos and warm, therapeutic voices via podcast. The result is a relaxed stress free experience
for both the participants and the viewers. The project was designed to be the juxtaposition of
the uncomfortable interpersonal physical experience of being black in non-black spaces many
of us share. Simultaneously, making connections to American Enculturation and how/what
citizens learn about BLACK as youth and it’s social impact on adults categorized as BLACK. The
project creates natural boundaries that eliminate microaggressions in the participant
experience. Black Box participants offer first-hand accounts without interruption, dismissal,
contention, minimization and/or comparison. It is a listening tool. Viewers are meant to
absorb information

Jewels Dodson is an arts and culture writer and producer. She
started career writing and editing for Mass Appeal and Complex
magazines. She became a content producer for the digital site The
BHOLDR, which featured video content of today's most relevant
contemporary artists. She was a producer on the storied live daily
arts & culture program The Leonard Lopate Show, on WNYC. She
travels around the country covering contemporary art. Her work
can be found in JUXTAPOZ, ART News, Artsy, and the New York
Times. Most recently she has been named the editor of lifestyle
platform Gallerie 88. She lives in New York City where she
ear hustles and people watches, regularly garnering new
perspectives that eventually inform her work.

Michael Coppage is a conceptual artist using an interdisciplinary, dialectical approach to address
social issues surrounding race and language. Originally from Chicago, He has lived and worked in
Cincinnati since 2007. Coppage earned a B.F.A in Sculpture from Memphis College of Art and an
M.F.A in Studio Art from The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Coppage is the recipient of
Artswave’s Truth and Reconciliation grant, Ohio Pretrial Justice grant, and received Awesome
Foundation grants in New York and Philadelphia. He completed a TEDx Talk titled “Everybody’s
Racist....and it’s O.K” and he gained national attention with his recent project “BLACK BOX”: a
community impact project aimed at demystifying black men and creating authentic experiences that
replaces bias and preconceived notions related to the term “Black” This series was exhibited around
the country and in Puerto Rico at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 21c Museum
Hotel and the Ohio Arts Councils Riffe Gallery to name a few. Coppage has gained some attention
recently with a body of work entitled “American+” after depicting white Americans as monkeys in his
paintings. He has several collaborative pieces set for completion this year and also released a podcast
on Spotify appropriately titled Black Box as part of his recent series.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Governors Island, 406B Colonels Row, New York, United States