Exhibitions

ZAIRE LOVE: GHETTO GIRLS DESERVE GOOD THINGS

Beverly and Sam Ross Gallery / 650 East Pkwy S. October 23 - December 15th

Zaire Love

EXHIBITION STATEMENT:

GHETTO GIRLS DESERVE GOOD THINGS is an ode to the originators of carefree expressive style and culture that influences contemporary culture. There is a demand for ghetto aesthetics and ingenuity but often the creators are erased while the “pseudo-innovators” write a new story with stolen culture. Will we ever talk to the ghetto girl about her dreams, desires, and hopes for her future? And if we do, what would we hear?

In this moment of advocating for Black representation, Black excellence, and Black equity in America, we must keep in mind that radical activism means radical representation. GHETTO GIRLS DESERVE GOOD THINGS exists to ensure ghetto girls have a chance to pull their seats up to the table and tell their stories.

BIO:

Zaire Love is an award-winning filmmaker, music maker, writer, and educator whose mission is to honor, amplify, and immortalize the stories and voices of the Black South focusing most of her work in Memphis and Mississippi. Bringing honor to the Black South, its people, its traditions, and its cultures in the past, present, and future is her life’s work.

As an emerging artist, Zaire has been awarded honors at multiple film festivals, created work for PBS, and granted the If/Then and HULU grant to produce her award-winning short documentary, SLICE. Her artistry is an ode to being Black and Southern in America because the Black South has always had meaningful “cornbread” to share. Zaire calls her work creative cornbread because it is Black Southern sustenance filled with knowledge, discovery, imagination, and authentic artistry that nourishes those who partake.

Zaire Love is a graduate of Spelman College [BA], Houston Baptist University [M. Ed], and the University of Mississippi [MFA]. She directs the Southern Foodways Alliance film program and is the Creative Director at Scalawag Magazine. She is writing new narrative scripts and exploring new documentary ideas with her studio, Creative Cornbread.

https://zairelove.com/