SPSCC gallery’s new show celebrates the work of local Black artists

South Puget Sound Community College’s Leonor R. Fuller Gallery has re-opened with Futures Rising, a wide-ranging show celebrating the work of Olympia’s Black artists.

The show, which can be seen both online and in person by appointment, features work by a dozen artists — but there’s a 13th artist involved: Thresea “Mama Tee” Yost.

Yost is a poet, a painter and a woman of great determination, and she’s been moving toward this show for more than two years, not stopping when people told her that Olympia had no Black artists, not stopping when she had a stroke in February 2019, not stopping when the pandemic changed the details of daily life.

The results of her effort now fill the gallery: paintings, sculptures, collages, photographs of the aftermath of the fires that devastated swaths of Southern Oregon, and installations, including a powerful one by the Black Well Red Thread Collective, with 4,094 braided threads hanging from the gallery ceiling, forming a column that descends into a rock-rimmed black expanse suggesting a well.

The piece — inspired by a social media post that stated, “For you to be born today from 12 previous generations, you needed a total of 4,094 ancestors over the past 400 years” — is a collaboration among Aisha Harrison, Cholee Gladney and Shameka Gagnier, who also created “Starbridge at Your Door,” on view at 403 Capitol Way S., Olympia, as part of The Olympia Artspace Alliance’s Art in Olympia Storefronts project.

Also featured in the show are works by Sandra Bocas, Javoen Byrd, Travis Johnson, Sun Jordyn, Mskahe, Rhian Parker, Rene Westbrook, Yitagesu and David Yost, as well as individual works by Gladney and Harrison.

“It’s a really strong show,” said gallery coordinator Sean Barnes. “There’s a strong presence to all of the work and a thread of spirituality.”

It all began with Yost and her determination to prove that those who said there weren’t Black artists here simply hadn’t looked.

“I said, ‘I know there are Black artists here, because I’m a Black artist,’ ” she told The Olympian. “I didn’t believe it to be true, so I decided to find the Black artists, and I did. I found beautiful people, wonderful people with talent like you wouldn’t believe.”

In early 2018, Yost began working toward an Olympia African American Artists Gala scheduled for February 2019. She’d planned a multifaceted event with food, fashion, jewelry, drumming, dancing and even hair-braiding.

Just a few weeks before the gala was scheduled to happen, Yost suffered a stroke. But for her, that was just one more obstacle to overcome.

“When I was in intensive care, all that I was interested in was the show,” she said. “I wasn’t interested in whether I lived or died. I was interested in the show.”

Just a few days after the stroke, she called Sean Barnes, who manages the Fuller Gallery, to let him know that she wouldn’t need the plinths and easels the college had planned to lend her for the event.

Barnes kept in touch with Yost’s family, and as she began to recover, he asked the gallery committee if the college would be willing to host a show that would allow Yost to achieve at least part of her vision, and the committee agreed.

“Mama Tee has been a patron of the gallery and a contributor to the postcard show,” Barnes said. “She’s an amazing individual.”

Futures Rising

• What: South Puget Sound Community College’s Leonor R. Fuller Gallery reopens with a hybrid virtual and in-person show of the work of local Black artists.
• When: Through Dec. 11, with in-person viewing available by appointment from 2 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday
• Where: 2011 Mottman Road SW, Olympia, and online
• More information and appointments: 360-596-5527, sbarnes2@spscc.edu
• Opening reception, with performances by poet/artist Rhian Parker and drummer Javoen Byrd: 4:30-6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9 on Zoom.

This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 5:45 AM.