The Fowler’s senior curator of Latin American and Caribbean popular arts, Patrick A. Polk, will explore the history of African American vernacular flags and highlight key aspects of their creation and use. This program accompanies our current exhibition Art, Honor, and Ridicule: Asafo Flags from Southern Ghana. From the era of United States Independence to the present day, Black communities have used a wide variety of banners as symbols of collective identity, political solidarity, resistance to oppression, and religious affiliation, among other concerns. Polk will place special emphasis on the display of African American flags and flag imagery in Southern California.

Curator’s Choice
Join curators for lively conversations about their passions and projects that inspire audiences to engage with different worldviews and find joy in the multiplicity of human experiences.

Image credit: African American Reparations flag display by John Peoples. South Los Angeles, late 1990s. Photograph by Patrick A. Polk