Photos: Melvin McCray\Kenkelba House
Award-winning journalist Melvin McCray’s photography will appear in ‘Long Journey Forward: Black Men In Passage’ at the Wilmer Jennings Gallery at Kenkeleba from January 24 to March 9, 2024.
The exhibition includes photographs and supplemental video footage from McCray’s private archives. The images were collected over his 50 years as a journalist while pursuing his life’s mission to chronicle Black life across the diaspora. McCray is a photographer, educator, and broadcast journalist whose work has appeared in People Magazine, Time Magazine, Life Magazine, the Amsterdam News, and Our Times Press.
For 28 years, he edited the evening news at World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and taught broadcast journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism for over a decade. McCray’s photographs and video (accessible by scanning QR codes) of Presidents Nelson Mandela, Julius Nyerere, Barack Obama, and Congressman John Lewis create an immersive experience for the gallery-goer. “They walk away with a rare glimpse into the lives of the world’s great statesmen,” says McCray. Much of the footage has never been broadcast.
The exhibition features a selection of photographs by forty-three other emerging and well-known Black artists made between 1960 and 2023, including Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Tau Battice, Rain Bermudez, Brian Branch-Price, John Brathwaite, Kwame Brathwaite, Kamel Brown, Larry Brown, Spencer Burnett, Howard Cash, Barron Claiborne, Rudy Collins, Christopher Cook, Adger Cowans, Malik Cumbo, Dee Dwyer, Donjai Gilmore, Malik James Glover, Bob Gore, Leroy Henderson, Kay Hickman, Melanie Hill, Raymond Holman Jr., Steven Irby, Debi Jackson, Glenda Jones, Lauri Lyons, Lamar Metcalf, Elijah Mogoli, Bill Moore, Ace Murray, Mansa Mussa, Hakim Mutlaq, Malique Payne, Douglas Pierce, Herb Robinson, Jamel Shabazz, Coreen Simpson, Idris Solomon, Chuck Stewart, Crystal WileyBrown, Marcia Wilson, and Michael Young.
The exhibit honors cultural heroes from the 1960s to the present day. Many photographs connect Black society and community, especially in ceremonies and spiritual gatherings. This exhibition features significant images that reference and carry a profound reading of African and African American experiences.
Opening Reception: Sunday, January 28, 2024, 3-6 pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, February 17, 2024, 2-4 pm
Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Saturday, 1 to 6 pm
Location: 219 East Second Street at Avenue B
