Indigo Portrait Gallery on View Until March 14

The Multicultural Center (MC) is honored to present Indigo — From Labor to Liberation: Wearing the Past and Celebrating the Future of Black Voices, a portrait gallery of Black students wearing denim in honor of Black History Month. The gallery will be on view in the Anne Kittrell Gallery on the fourth floor of the Arkansas Union until March 14.

"Indigo celebrates the strength, creativity and contributions of our community while reflecting on the enduring impact of Black history and Black present," says AnReckez K. Daniels, assistant director of the MC and the creative director of Indigo. "Through these images, we weave together past and present, creating a tapestry of remembrance and pride." 

The gallery is composed of portraits taken by photographers LaQuan Williams and Nicholas Harper. In recognition of the brilliant futures of Black students at the U of A, the cover photo for Indigo is a portrait of freshman students inside Bud Walton Arena, where they will return to graduate. Denim, a heavy-duty fabric carrying the weight of the history of the African diaspora, is a significant dress choice for the models in Indigo. 

"Denim honors our ancestors, those who, during enslavement, cultivated indigo and processed it into dye and who wore denim in the fields. Denim became a uniform of Black civil rights activists who wore it in symbolism and protest in the 1960s," Daniels says. "Denim has been iconic among Black artists — think Michael Jackson in the 1980s, TLC in the 1990s and Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter today — all of whom have been builders of our community and keepers of our culture. The fabric of denim as workwear-turned-style-bearer speaks to struggle, endurance, culture and art." 

Indigo — From Labor to Liberation: Wearing the Past and Celebrating the Future of Black Voices is the third annual Black History Month portrait gallery from the Multicultural Center. For more ways to celebrate Black History Month on campus, click here to view the campus calendar.