On Gratitude

Visitors voiced their gratitude to exhibition organizers and curators for taking on this topic and the care that was built around audience experience.

This exhibit was extremely powerful. I am so grateful I got a chance to see it.

This exhibit was extremely powerful. I am so grateful I got a chance to see it.

Thank you for this exhibition, for all the careful work that Janet Dees and other curatorial stewards put in. As we are reminded at the exhibition’s entrance, this material in indeed difficult to look at, but necessary to see. I am very thankful to be a part of Prof. Tretheway’s course that will be engaging with these histories and artistic works this quarter.

Learn more about the courses that both Dees and Tretheway offered for Northwestern students connected to the exhibition here.

Thank you for this exhibition, for all the careful work that Janet Dees [The Block's Steven and Lisa Munster Tananbaum Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art] and other curatorial stewards put in. As we are reminded at the exhibition's entrance, this material in indeed difficult to look at, but necessary to see. I am very thankful to be a part of Prof. Tretheway's course that will be engaging with these histories and artistic works this quarter.
Thank you for sharing this incredibly powerful exhibit. I learned so much and I'm grateful that I was in Chicago to see stories, photographs and art that I never came across. It is with me now. I will share with friends and family. Thank you.

Thank you for sharing this incredibly powerful exhibit. I learned so much and I’m grateful that I was in Chicago to see stories, photographs, and art that I never came across. It is with me now. I will share with friends and family. Thank you.

Very powerful —experienced a range of emotions. Will be processing on it for some time period. Wow.

Thank you for your work.

Very powerful —experienced a range of emotions. Will be processing on it for some time period. Wow. Thank you for your work.
Thank you for putting this exhibit together. It was transformative to me in that it allowed me to process the pain / and struggle that my ancestors have experienced through art as advocator. 

Thank you for putting this exhibit together. It was transformative to me in that it allowed me to process the pain / and struggle that my ancestors have experienced. Art as an Advocacy!

Powerful, important, thank you.

Powerful, important, thank you.
Thank you for this exhibit. It was emotional, heartbreaking, but also exhilarating to demonstrate how Black resistance to anti-Black violence exists in various forms. It was also refreshing to see how terrors against Black bodies motivates and speaks necessary to continue to challenge dilution of history, resistance to the dehumanization of Black life and call for the acknowledgment of Black citizenship. I leave this exhibit with a fervor to continue in my research interests on the political and social activistm of Black people.

Thank you for this exhibit. It was emotional, heartbreaking, but also exhilarating to demonstrate how Black resistance to anti-Black violence exists in various forms. It was also refreshing to see how terrors against Black bodies motivates and speaks resiliency to continue to challenge dilution of history, resistance to the dehumanization of Black life and call for the acknowledgment of Black citizenship. I leave this exhibit with a fervor to continue in my research interests on the political and social activism of Black people.

Thank you for allowing us to be a part of this process. I cannot imagine how emotionally intense it must have been. I am honored to have heard you present some of the art.

Thank you for allowing us to be a part of this process. I cannot imagine how emotionally intense it must have been. I am honored to have heard you present some of the art.
Thank you! —thoughtfulness —context —time to view and think.

Thank you!

—Thoughtfulness
—Context
—Time to view and think.

Unique and immersive exhibit. Thank you for creating space for it. It was challenging and amazing work.

Unique and immersive exhibit. Thank you for creating space for it. It was challenging and amazing work.
Thank You.

Thank You.

This exhibition must have been emotionally devastating for those who put it together. My heart goes out to them. But the true victims are the subjects of the exhibited works and the survivors.

Powerful

Brought me to tears

Angry.

Want people to see it.

Thank you, it must have been difficult to sit with this & do this work.

Grateful for the opportunity to see and ponder the concepts brutality / beauty of this exhibit. Thank you.

Thank you for this important show.  I’m moved beyond measure.  Thank you Block Museum for always leaning into this work – the work of lifting marginalized stories and exposing white supremacy.  Other institutions attempt to do so, but only incidentally and only when they feel pressured to do so.  But with you, it’s who you are. Thank you.

I appreciate the careful curation of this exhibit that highlights the trauma and pain of anti-Blackness, but also to provide the humanity of the victims, families, and ongoing legacy of the anti-Blackness in America.  I appreciated though difficult to view, it was not trauma porn – so I thank you for that.  Thank you again for offering this exhibit to our Northwestern/ Evanston community

My god. My god. I am bereft. Thank you, Block and NU and artists for your work and advocacy.

Thank you for this powerful and important exhibition. The works of art are eloquent and allowed me to absorb the shocking realities of violence with a degree of remove that ushered them into my heart. The cushioning of the art does not deny the violence but ushers it into the heart and brain.