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A Look at ‘Question Bridge: Black Males,’ the New Video Installation at Photo Center Northwest

By Seattle Mag January 8, 2014

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This article originally appeared in the January 2014 issue of Seattle magazine.

!–paging_filter–p“What do black men have in common?” “Who are you and what is your purpose?” “Do you really feel free?” In emQuestion Bridge: Black Males/em, the new video installation at Photo Center Northwest (PCNW), African-American men pose such questions, and African-American men answer, in straight-on, close-up, unadorned video recordings. Produced by actors Delroy Lindo and Jesse Williams and photographic historian Deborah Willis, and collected over four years from more than 150 black men in cities across America, the 1,500 exchanges add up to a fascinating documentary that blows apart the notion of a monolithic identity. To augment the installation with local perspectives, PCNW issued an open call for photo submissions, asking black men of all ages and backgrounds in the Northwest, “In one photograph, what would you say?” A selection of these photos will serve as a concurrent exhibition, emSeen: An Exploration of the Inside and the Out, the Then and the Now, By the (Still) Invisible Men/em. Together, the displays serve as a powerful reminder that the shorthand concept of “diversity” often masks the actual, limitless diversity that exists within the confines of demography. 1/16–3/8. Hours vary. Free. Photo Center Northwest, 900 12th Ave.; 206.720.7222; a href=”http://www.pcnw.org” target=”_blank”pcnw.org /a/p

 

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