THE EMOTIONAL FORCE OF RACE: 

AN EXHIBITION AND  

CALL FOR CREATIVE RESPONSE 

CURATED IN TRUE COLLABORATION 

BY 

JOAN FERRANTE (SOCIOLOGY) AND INDIA Sada HACKLE (ENGLISH-CREATIVE WRITING) 

The Exhibition: Every person in the U.S. feels the weight of race through unprocessed emotions: anxiety, defensiveness, resentment, rage, longing, exhaustion. Too often these emotions are bottled up, pushed down, or released without relief. The Mourning the Creation of Racial Categories (MCRC) Project and the School of the Arts (SOTA) collaborate to explore the roots of these emotions, which have entangled us for over 400 years and still weigh us down. This exhibition invites us to wrestle with them; to reflect on what to do with them. We know that wrestling and reflection can energize and bring new responses.

Call for Creative Response: The MCRC Project invites visual, performing and literary artists to submit proposals describing something they will create that will inspire audiences to engage with the emotions of race—their historical roots and contemporary manifestations.  To qualify for funding, the proposals must align with the mission of the MCRC Project. For more information see application.