Willie Birch, Resident Artist Lecture 1994

African American artist Willie Birch lectures on growing up and his education as a Black artist in the segregated South, his first discovery of museum art when he was a member of the Air Force stationed in Europe, and his subsequent exposure to African American artists on his return to civilian life. Like his artwork, the talk is rich with references to African and African-American political, social and cultural history from Egypt to modern times, and the artist’s interest in the subject matter, symbolism, and layers of meaning which figure in his art is almost contagious. The works shown in the slides are named.