Left: Rashad, Patrice, and Jerimiah, 2021
Right: One Love, 2021
Kansas City, MO, January 21, 2022: Located at 125 Southwest Boulevard in the heart of the Crossroads, viewers can catch a glimpse of the newly installed Crossroads Artboards featuring artists Sundiata Moon and Chico Sierra. The Artboards capture the creative spirit of the Crossroads neighborhood, serving as an alternative outdoor platform where artists’ work can be viewed during all hours of the day. The Artboards are sponsored by CBIZ and Humana Associates, via a collaboration with the Crossroads Community Association. The new work will be on display through the end of March 2022.
Left: Our Lady of Labor. 2021
Right: We Bite The Hands, 2021
CHICO SIERRA speaking about Our Lady of Labor (left), “A symbol of the many migrant hands that produce so much of what we consume here in the United States. Within the piece there are images of different facets of agriculture, to amplify the presence of our fellow citizens.”
On We Bite The Hands (right), “Here I use a deified figure to represent migrant workers, and on the other end a monster representing the citizenry of a capitalist state. Intertwined within the mechanical beast is a white snake representing Euro-centrism. The black hole from which the machine is fed represents the ignorance that folks have about where their food comes from.”
Left: Rashad, Patrice, and Jerimiah, 2021
Right: One Love, 2021
Sundiata Moon talking about Rashad, Patrice, and Jerimiah, (left) “This image was taken outside of a mutual aid action at Wild Woody’s grocery store on East 31st Street. Black Rainbow, the police and prison-industrial-complex abolitionist group based in Kansas City, was attempting to redistribute wealth into underfunded communities. They recognized that the majority of crimes could be prevented through community investment, which would bring about conditions where police and prisons were no longer necessary.”
On One Love,(right) “I think photography has the power to be a catalyst for change. Mamie Till-Mobley, for example, understood how the image of her maimed son Emmett Till depicted the brutality of white supremacy in America. Her decision to have those images published added fuel to the civil rights movement and helped bring about the world we know today. It is through empathy and feeling that we bring about liberation, and I hope that this work becomes a tool that spurs a dialogue about the human condition.”
ABOUT SUNDIATA MOON
Sundiata Moon is an African-American photographer based in Kansas City, Missouri. Born in 1995 and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, Sundiata arrived in Kansas City, Missouri in 2016. For the past 4 years, Sundiata has been using photography as a medium to explore the complexities of Contemporary Black American life.
ABOUT CHICO SIERRA
Chico Sierra began crossing borders early. Crossing back and forth between Mexico and the United States, and is Mexican-American, Chico learned that borders can be fixed and severe, but also blurry or even non-existent. Chico’s cultural hybridity has played out throughout his life as he has spent time living with people of different classes and cultures in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Germany, and the Philippines. The cultures that Chico experienced in these countries, as well as the theme of blurring borders can be found in Chico’s art, poetry, and music which is heavily influenced by graffiti, pop art, Mexican folk art, and political comics.
ABOUT CROSSROADS ARTBOARDS
The Crossroads ARTBOARDS were launched in fall 2008 as a partnership between Charlotte Street Foundation and Missouri Bank (now BOK Financial). In 2021, Crossroads Community Association assumed sponsorship of the boards. To date, 88 Kansas City area artists have been featured on the Artboards. For a complete listing and more information, visit our website.
ABOUT CHARLOTTE STREET
Charlotte Street centers Kansas City’s most forward-thinking visual artists, writers, and performers—acting as the primary incubator, provocateur, and connector for the region’s contemporary arts community, and its leading advocate on the national stage. Since 1997, Charlotte Street has distributed over $1.85 million in awards and grants to artists and their innovative projects and connected individual artists to each other and to the greater Kansas City community. For more information about Charlotte Street, its awards, programs, and initiatives, visit www.charlottestreet.org.
ABOUT OUR PARTNERSHIP WITH CBIZ / HUMANA / CROSSROADS COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION
Through a serendipitous meeting, CBIZ and Humana associates were introduced to Suzie and the Crossroads Community Association (CCA). After learning more about CCA, Charlotte Street Foundation, and the history behind the artboards – CBIZ, Humana, and CCA decided to jointly sponsor the revival of the boards in 2021. A core value of CBIZ and Humana is to positively engage with our community in which we live, work, and play. The Crossroads is a beloved place by many, and us personally, so we hope that our sponsorship of the boards brings a smile to those that love the tradition and is enjoyed by those just passing by.
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You can read the press release in PDF format here.
