I’ve Known Rivers draws its title from a line in a 1920 poem by Langston Hughes that speaks of diaspora and lineage through the metaphor of rivers. This project looks to the artist Jems Kokobi reworking traditions and connecting his artistic practice to the sustainability of the natural environment through the material of wood and a response to deforestation’s impact on rivers, natural processes that have since been industrialized and a reflection on the reclaiming of the spiritual dimensions of this work. The artist, engaged in Afrocentric meditations on history and the bridging of the contemporary art world to activist tactics, is placed in dialogue with a local representative of the trade unions around tanneries connected to the Arno river and engaged in sustainability through technological processes and the rights of workers. The conversation is an interdisciplinary one placing practice and poetry side by side.

Curated by BHMF With the partnership of MAD Murate Art District

In collaboration with: Boomker Sound Studios Syracuse University Florence SRISA Vivaio Il Giardiniere Antonella Bundu Chris Norcross

And we can no longer breathe And we can no longer see But, in the escape compagno In the fear, compagno Like in the fight, compagno I will be forever by your side

Collettivo Victor Jara, Le Murate

These were the words written and sung by the musical collective Victor Jara days after the 1974 revolt at le Murate jails. Protest against unfit living conditions and oppressive forces are frequent in sites which separate, either willingly or by force, social groups from the world that surrounds them. The socio-spiritual nature of what is just and human worth is at the root of contemplation in isolation. These feelings originated from the artist’s encounter with Le Murate. Progetti Arte Contemporanea, they led the project. For the occasion of the fourth edition of Black History Month Florence current Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome Karyn Olivier presents Because Time In This Place Does Not Obey An Order, a series of site specific installations that grapple with the relationship between justice and spirituality. The works engage the history of Le Murate and its transition from a site of spiritual recluse to a carceral space sifting through the continuity and contrast that these histories evoke. Mental health, social critique, isolation, the closeting of history and the conflation of senses set cloistered gardens in dialogue with the steady words of Martin Luther King Jr. writing from a jail cell and reveal traces of life behind closed doors which claims universal rights.

Miles Davis is one of the most iconic figures of Jazz history. His biography is one of complex evolution and artistic persistance. In many ways jazz is often far removed from the appreciation of younger generations and the magic of its expansion of sound and cultural impact are hence too frequently lost. This exhibition takes on the form of the comic book in order to narrate the life and times of Davis and the impulses behind some of his compositions which have gone on to become jazz standards. Lucio Ruvidotti transformed a love for jazz into a comic book that invites the viewer to an intimate look at this artist and celebrates the impact that he has had on the world of music. These works engage an audience that spans generations bringing this figure to the forefront, as Ruvidotti explains himself:

“I tried to tell story of this figure, the prince of darkness, the great artist, taking advantage of some episodes of his exuberant exaggerated life. But above all the goal was to show, through the language of comics, his music, incredibly evolved from the forties to the nineties.”

The comic strip released in 2018 by Edizioni BD tells the story through eight chapters entitled with the names of some of his most important compositions. Each part of the book is also distinguished by a different use of the color and composition of the table. Alongside the original drawings made by the artist, the exhibition shows a series of cartoon prints, accompanied by the music of Miles Davis that pervades the Emeroteca delle Murate room.