GLOBAL THREADS

By Serena Robinson

During summer 2024, I was invited by Autograph Gallery to chair a panel discussion between Gary Washington and C. Rose Smith for the opening of Smith’s exhibition; Talking Back to Power.

C. Rose Smith is a visual artist who uses photography to reclaim spaces that hold a history of oppression and trauma. The exhibition portrayed black and white images of C. Rose Smith wearing a white cotton shirt whilst standing in front of large cotton plantations in the Southern USA. 

Gary Washington, AKA ‘The Urban Cellist’ hails from New Orleans and uses his musical talent to explore his family history in his own unique sound, interspersing his vocals, beatboxing and layering it all while playing cello simultaneously.

We talked about a range of topics such as the importance of art and music in speaking about and challenging violent histories. We discussed the connections between Manchester, Cotton, and the Southern States, particularly the way the cotton trade was integral to both the economic development of Manchester during the Industrial Revolution and the perpetuation of slavery in the American South.

The biggest impression was the feeling that Gary (the cellist) had built in the room whilst he played. He had performed some of his own composed pieces called ‘A Story of a People Called Black’ which took us on an emotional, scary, violent and eerie journey.

I could feel the pain in the music and that was the point of why Gary composed the piece – he wanted to explore his ancestral history and the wider history of enslaved people through melody. In the moments of purposeful silence, the audience was forced to viscerally feel the legacy of pain and resistance and remember those who endured such pain.

After the performance, Gary got up and went to the back of the room and C. Rose Smith went over to console him. I too joined them and we shared an intimate moment of solidarity and a shared understanding of our history.