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Deborah Roberts Explores The Fragility of Black Masculinity in Native Sons
Native Sons: Many thousands gone
at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects (through June 8)
Reviewed by Lita Barrie
Deborah Roberts’ impassioned exhibition memorializes Black boys who lost their lives from the social injustices of false accusations for murders they did not commit. This solemn exhibition is predicated on African American literature and takes its title from James Baldwin’s non fiction essay, “Many Thousands Gone” (Notes of a Native Son, 1955).
Roberts uses mixed media collage to create a new narrative on the fragility of Black masculinity. Fragility is not usually associated with masculinity but Roberts shows how Black boys are constantly in danger of being relegated to a pre-criminal status — without even doing anything wrong. Over the last three years Roberts has changed the face of Black girlhood in collages that associated Black femininity with beauty and power. Although she is a painter at heart, she became interested in collage as a medium for exploring the duality in blackness and changing racial stereotypes.
When I spoke to the artist she explained that she accidentally found the mug shot of George Junius Stinney Jr., while she was searching for a mug shot of Dr. Martin Luther King. “It spoke…
