Social Justice at Nativity
Nativity’s Social Justice Committee shares the following announcements, events and recommended resources to the Nativity community as we continue our pursuit of racial justice and reconciliation.
Announcements & Events
Black Farmers’ Market – Raleigh, 2nd and 4th Sundays, 1–4 pm
Southeast Raleigh YMCA, 1436 Rock Quarry Rd, Raleigh, NC
Remembering Warren County: North Carolina and the Continuing Struggle for Environmental Justice, April 20, 2023, 7–8 pm
North Carolina Museum of History, 5 East Edenton Street, Raleigh
Tickets are free. A panel discussion of environmental leaders and activists, reflect on NC’s role in the origins of the environmental justice movement by way of the 1982 PCB protests in Warren County and efforts to address the ongoing issues regarding environmental justice nationwide.
The Color Purple, April 22-30, 2023
Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts (f.k.a. Duke Energy), 2 East South Street, Raleigh
Tickets start at $40. A teenage Celie is torn from her beloved sister and forced into an abusive marriage. Over the next forty years, while Celie encounters repression, despair, and heartbreak, she also discovers hope in a group of friends who inspire her to find her voice, discover her beauty and change her life.
Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1, April 28 – 29, 2023
Meymandi Concert Hall, Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts (fka Duke Energy), 2 E. South St., Raleigh
Tickets start @ $21.50. Sterling Elliot, cello soloist.
The Face of Emmett Till, May 12 – 21, 2023
Pure Life Theatre, 3801 Hillsborough St. Suite 100, Raleigh, NC
Tickets start at $28. The Face of Emmett Till is a true-to-life dramatization of the death of 14-year old Emmett Till, a Chicago teenager who, while visiting relatives in Money, Miss., in August 1955, was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by two white men who claimed they wanted to teach him a lesson for “allegedly” whistling at a local white woman.
Michael Richards Are You Down? Exhibit, Open through July 23, 2023
North Carolina Museum of Art, 2110 Blue Ridge Road, Raleigh, NC
Registration not required. Michael Richards’s visionary sculptures and drawings, created between 1990 and 2001, engage Blackness, flight, diaspora, spirituality, police brutality, and monuments in his largest retrospective to date. Michael Richards: Are You Down? takes its name from one of the last artworks the artist created. In his sculptures and installations, Richards gestures toward both repression and reprieve from social injustices and the simultaneous possibilities of uplift and downfall, often in the context of the historic and ongoing oppression of Black people. Flight and aviation were central themes for Richards as an exploration of freedom and escape, ascendance and descent. These themes are especially evident in Richards’s engagement with the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen, including his well-known sculpture Tar Baby vs. St. Sebastian (1999)—a version of which has been on continuous display at the NCMA since 2003.
Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design Exhibit, Open through August 6, 2023
North Carolina Museum of Art, 2110 Blue Ridge Road, Raleigh, NC
Tickets: $23.60. Academy Award–winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter has defined generations through her work in film and TV. Her art adds dimensionality, flair, and culture to the characters she envisions, giving power to the incredible actors who wear her designs. Her vibrancy and attention to detail in costuming is integral to translating stories of race, politics, and culture to the big screen. From humble roots in Massachusetts, Carter has helped style the Afrofuturism movement for almost 40 years. Creating pieces for films such as Black Panther, Malcom X, Selma, and Do the Right Thing, Carter has designed costumes for legends like Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington, Chadwick Boseman, Eddie Murphy, Angela Bassett, and Forest Whitaker. In this exhibition the NCMA displays more than 60 of Carter’s original garments while also showcasing her immersive process, historical research, and the attention to detail that imbues every project she brings to life.
Recommended Resources
Racial Reconciliation and Social Justice (Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina)
This website is updated regularly with social justice resources recommended by the Diocese.