Project Row Houses and Center for Art and Social Engagement Host Final Lectures and Performances by 2018 Fellows

Mounds at St. Charles 2600, 2018 by Eyakem Gulilat (Photo courtesy of Project Row Houses) 

Project Row Houses (PRH) and the Center for Art and Social Engagement (CASE) in the Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts (KGMCA) will host the culminating lectures and performances by the 2018 KGMCA-PRH Fellows on Tuesday, Nov. 27 at the University of Houston Fine Arts Building. The 2018 fellows, Regina Agu and Eyakem Gulilat, will present their to-date responses to the questions that guided their year of research.

Regina Agu’s work, titled “A Psychogeography of Emancipation Park,” is a multimedia performative lecture that draws from archival and original photographs, text, moving image, and sound. Throughout her fellowship, Agu investigated the history of mass congregation and activism in public green spaces and parks in Houston, with a particular emphasis on Emancipation Park. Her year centered on developing an understanding of the opportunities and challenges of establishing and maintaining safe, healthy, public spaces for residents of color across the city and researching a feminist history of Emancipation Park and Third Ward.

Eyakem Gulilat’s work, titled “Black Place-Making and Informality,” explores Black place-making practice and uses photography as a tool for documentation as well as an interactive exchange. Throughout his fellowship, Gulilat’s research centered on these questions: How do the narratives contained in Third Ward create a sense of place, and what type of stories do these places tell us about Third Ward and the African American community? His talk and accompanying exhibition explore the ideas of informal urbanism and landscape as metaphor.

The KGMCA-PRH fellowship program was created in 2016 by the Center for Art and Social Engagement at the University of Houston Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts and Project Row Houses. The fellowship invites two artists and cultural practitioners to Houston’s Historic Third Ward to work alongside urban planners, educators and policy makers. Each year the fellows engage in creative collaborations that involve the Historic Third Ward community and address issues important to its residences. Agu and Gulilat have worked under the guidance of Sixto Wagan, director of the UH Center for Art and Social Engagement, and Ryan N. Dennis, PRH's Curator and Programs Director.

The fellows’ exhibitions will be on-display at Project Row Houses (2521 Holman St.) from Thursday, Nov. 27, 2018 through Sunday, Feb. 17, 2019.