Celebrate Juneteenth and drop in to write poetry and learn how to draw on an iPad with the STARGAZERS artists!
\n\;
\nShaya Robinson has been a Champaign Resident since 2007 and serves as an advocate for the underrepresented in a variety of ways. As an artist\, she&rsquo\;s performed for charity events for local groups including for Lupus awareness\, R.A.C.E.S (Rape Advocacy Counseling &\; Education Services)\, Courage Connections (a women's homeless shelter)\, and Cunningham township (homeless assistance agency). As an advocate for t he arts\, she runs a poetry and arts space called S.P.E.A.K Cafe (Song Poe try Expressions Art Knowledge) that focuses on social and political issues . She's won an ACE \; (Arts Culture Education) award for fostering and maintaining a safe space for artists of all ages to weave social justice ideas and the arts to shine light on and uplift the most underserved commu nities. Shaya has been a poet as long as she has been able to write and ha s always loved a variety of art forms from live music to art festivals. Sh e hopes to leave a legacy that shows her love for local raw art and the ne ed for political and social change merging and making a difference. Her pl ans for the future include networking and using all her available resource s to create opportunities for change.
\n\;
\nStacey Robin son is an Assistant Professor of graphic design at the University of Illin ois at Urbana-Champaign. He was a 2019 Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellow at Harva rd University&rsquo\;s Hutchins Center for African &\; African American Research who completed his Masters of Fine Art at the University at Buffa lo. For the last several years he has traveled internationally discussing the complexities decolonized future spaces. As one half of the collaborati ve team &ldquo\;Black Kirby&rdquo\; with artist John Jennings\, Stacey cre ates graphic novels\, gallery exhibitions\, lectures\, and workshops that use world-building strategies to imagine new worlds inspired by Design\, H ip-Hop\, the Arts and Sciences\, and diasporic African belief systems.&nbs p\;His latest graphic novels are\, \;I Am Alfonso Jones \;written by Tony Medina (2017)\, available from Lee &\; Low Books\, and \;Ac ross the Tracks: Remembering Greenwood\, Black Wall Street\, and the Tulsa Race Massacre\, written Alverne Ball (2021)\, available from Abrams Books .
\nThis program is held in collaboration with Kwanzaa 365.
\nThe STARGAZERS exhibit is sponsored by the Urbana Arts and Culture Pro gram and The Urbana Free Library. Funded in part by an Urbana Arts and Cul ture Grant.
\nhttps://urbanafreelibrary.libnet.info/event/5244211 URL;VALUE=URI:https://urbanafreelibrary.libnet.info/event/5244211 ATTACH:https://static.libnet.info/images/events/urbanafreelibrary/Stargaze r_SS21_artist2.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR