Camika Spencer – South Dallas Cultural Center https://sdcc.dallasculture.org Sat, 18 Mar 2023 17:34:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.7.12 https://oca-media.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2022/06/cropped-SDCC-LOGO_Updated_Sankofa-32x32.png Camika Spencer – South Dallas Cultural Center https://sdcc.dallasculture.org 32 32 Black Legend Heirloom Workshop https://sdcc.dallasculture.org/2023/01/12/black-legend-heirloom-workshop/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=black-legend-heirloom-workshop Thu, 12 Jan 2023 22:25:13 +0000 https://sdcc.dallasculture.org/?p=6763 + Read More]]> Black Legend Heirloom Workshop was a four-week hands on art experience with making your own Black Legend Heirloom led by 2022 Juanita J. Craft Artist-in-Residence, Camika C. Spencer. Participants were provided with all supplies as they learned the value of how heritage and legacy can influence art. The theme of the workshop was “Crafting Ms. Craft” – using Juanita J. Craft as the teaching model. The final heirlooms will be on exhibit at the South Dallas Cultural Center on a future date.

(Photos: SDCC Staff / Imani Chet Lytle)
Camika C. Spencer
Camika C. Spencer

Camika Spencer M.A, M.F.A, is an Oak Cliff native of Dallas, Texas. She is the author of three best-selling novels, an award-winning playwright, noted educator, former rock band background singer, and she recently completed a teaching year in Al Giza, Egypt where she taught English as a second language.
 
She is a company member of Soul Rep Theatre, a 2019 Lee Daniels Creative Select, and curator of the podcast, One Year in Egypt, which is currently in development as a one-woman show in conjunction with Bishop Arts Theatre. Camika also crotchets, knits, paints, and refurbishing antique furniture. Interior design and global trading are where she finds herself most settled using her artistic gifts.
 
Her revival of Black Legend Heirlooms as an art installation begins with Camika being able to discuss, teach, and curate shows in African-American neighborhoods throughout the United States and the globe, where she hopes to begin in her home of Dallas, Texas

Click here for upcoming New Year, New Skills workshops

]]> Black Legend Heirloom | Camika Spencer https://sdcc.dallasculture.org/2022/11/19/black-legend-heirloom-camika-spencer/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=black-legend-heirloom-camika-spencer Sat, 19 Nov 2022 02:26:00 +0000 https://sdcc.dallasculture.org/?p=6254 + Read More]]> As a 2022 component of the Juanita J. Craft Artist Residency, the Black Legend Heirloom, created by Camika Spencer, is as project that fosters artistic growth for adults by teaching the process of creating through the technical use of acrylic painting, collage, and design on 6-inch paper Mache boxes. The project focuses on South Dallas, Juanita J. Craft, and the history of Dallas as it pertains to themes such as civil rights, family, social justice, and legacy. The heirlooms were showcased at the South Dallas Cultural Center and then donated to contribute to the artistic cannon and legacy of the Black Dallas artist movement.

(Photo: SDCC Staff / Imani Chet Lytle)

“Black Legend Heirloom is the first whole whisper of skill I have been able to express as a visual creator. I am making solid my voice. I put painting, collage, design, Decoupage and paper mache to use in a way that captures memory in alter form to house memory, legacy, heritage, and inheritance.”

Camika Spencer

About the artist: Camika Spencer M.A., M.F.A is an Oak Cliff native of Dallas, Texas. She is a best-selling author, award-winning playwright, and educator. In 2019 she was announced as a Lee Daniels/Represent OMV creatives winner, and she is currently scripting a one-woman show titled, One Year in Egypt. The Black Legend Heirloom Project is a first for Ms. Spencer and she hopes to continue evolving the art as a teaching practice beyond the borders of Dallas, Texas.

This exhibition was free and open for public viewing from Oct. 25 – Nov. 10, 2022 at the South Dallas Cultural Center. Click here to learn more about the Juanita J. Craft Artist Residency.

]]> Generation X and Beyond: Let’s Talk About | The Accommodation https://sdcc.dallasculture.org/2022/11/12/generation-x-and-beyond-lets-talk-about-the-accommodation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=generation-x-and-beyond-lets-talk-about-the-accommodation https://sdcc.dallasculture.org/2022/11/12/generation-x-and-beyond-lets-talk-about-the-accommodation/#respond Sat, 12 Nov 2022 22:53:57 +0000 https://sdcc.dallasculture.org/?p=6188 + Read More]]> On Nov. 4 and 5, Camika Spencer hosted a two-day conversation and fellowship over information, transformation and healing at the South Dallas Cultural Center. The Generation X and Beyond: Let’s Talk About | The Accommodation event allowed members of the generation X community to discuss Jim Shultze’s book The Accommodation and view two short films, Bonton + Ideal and Out of Deep Wood, to shed light on and uncover information that until now, has been vaulted and racially-biased. The purpose of this conversation was to simply discuss what we didn’t know and how this lack of knowledge affected the communities presence in Dallas. Participants walked away with the awareness of how to identify when and where Dallas is being relegated to systemic dispositioning and have voices of the marginalized rectified through fair action in whatever ways they can as global citizens and Texans. Special guest panelists included Daniel Keeling, Kendra Nichols, Aisha Willis, Jonathan ‘GNO’ White, King Shakur, and food was provided by Sunny South Dallas Food Park.

(Photos by Nitashia Johnson and SDCC Staff)

Below are resources that were shared during the two-day conversation:

Books:

  • The Accommodation: Politics or Race in an American City by Jim Shutze
  • White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Dallas 1841 – 2001 by Michael Phillips
  • Our Stories: Black Families in Early Dallas by George Keaton Jr. and Judith Garrett Segura

Website and organizations:

  • Meetup.com
  • Byp100.org
  • Dallas Police Oversight Coalition
  • Faith in Texas
  • Mothers Against Police Brutality
  • North Texas Team
  • Project Unity
  • Volunteering While Black
  • Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation
  • Black Futures Lab
  • Campaign Zero
  • Movement for Black Lives
  • Art Inspired Healing

Films:

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