Spelman students instruct art-goers to ‘move’ with the ancestors in exhibit

Images based on multiple definitions of Black freedom, according to Spelman College students, are on display at Atlanta Contemporary.

“Rejoice, Resist, Rest: Images of Black Liberation From the Johnson Publishing Company Archive” is a collection of photographs, collages, zines — short for a visually artistic form of “magazines” — and texts to commemorate old footage that once belonged to the family publication that was the home of Ebony and Jet magazines, now part of the Getty Research Institute after the closure of the Black-owned Johnson Publishing Company.

Chad Dawkins, Spelman College’s visiting assistant professor of Art and Curatorial Studies, and Photography Art and Visual Culture assistant professor Nydia Blas helped facilitate the students with the project.

Chad Dawkins, visiting assistant professor of Art and Curatorial Studies at Spelman College, helped oversee the “Rejoice, Resist, Rest: Images of Black Liberation From the Johnson Publishing Company Archive” exhibit at Atlanta Contemporary. (Courtesy of Nydia Blas)

Photography Art and Visual Culture assistant professor Nydia Blas also worked on the “Rejoice, Resist, Rest: Images of Black Liberation From the Johnson Publishing Company Archive” exhibit at Atlanta Contemporary. (Courtesy of Vernell Dunhams)

“Every year, we sort of explore different topics about curatorial practices, exhibitions and histories,” Dawkins explained. “It’s about the way things are put into context with the language that’s around them. It’s about thinking about who you’re putting together in different situations.”

Blas added that the exhibit was about the focus students had created and the content of which they paired with the images.

“I … wanted students to create new artworks in response to the archive,” Blas said.

Students from Dawkins’ and Blas’ two fall semester classes created the exhibit that culminated in a variety of meanings to liberation.

“(The project) began with us sort of being given free range to explore the archive in our own time and investigate all of the images that the archives held, and sort of be drawn in different directions based on what we were attracted to and what interested it and what interested us personally,” said Spelman College fall 2024 graduate and art history major Robyn Simpson.

Robyn Simpson participated in the “Rejoice, Resist, Rest: Images of Black Liberation From the Johnson Publishing Company Archive” exhibit at Atlanta Contemporary. (Courtesy of Robyn Simpson)

Taryn Edgar participated in the “Rejoice, Resist, Rest: Images of Black Liberation From the Johnson Publishing Company Archive” exhibit at Atlanta Contemporary. (Courtesy of Taryn Edgar)

Ashli Clark participated in the “Rejoice, Resist, Rest: Images of Black Liberation From the Johnson Publishing Company Archive” exhibit at Atlanta Contemporary. (Courtesy of Ashli Clark)

“As a collective with the entire class, we collaborated on deciding what the title would be, what the main themes were.”

Small art booklets covered a table central to the exhibit. They gave visuals and short texts of Black protests, homegoing celebrations and social gatherings.

“Freedom is the soul breathing without chains and to me it is the body moving without fear,” read a zine labeled “Freedom Unbound.” “It is the spirit flowing and its own rhythm, untouched by walls built from control or silence. It is flesh and spirit, walking together, unbound, whole, and true.”

Zines from the “Rejoice, Resist, Rest” exhibit curated by Spelman students are on display at the Atlanta Contemporary on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. Students used historical photos and other ephemera symbolic of the 20th century Black experience to create interpretations showcased in the exhibit. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

A photograph shows a Black woman grounding herself back to nature — even if nature was just the floral print on her living room sofa where her feet could rest.

Ripped magazine pieces splurged from the mouth of a photographed face and cascaded to the floor to highlight a variety of global human rights issues.

“Rejoice, Resist, Rest: Images of Black Liberation From the Johnson Publishing Company Archive” is a collection of photographs, collages, zines and texts. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

A black-and-white photo of a man standing in a military uniform next to his young son holding a toy gun toward the sky in front of a high-rise apartment. The towering New York housing project juxtaposes the dream of Black American freedom versus the reality. The gun confuses the viewer on whether it’s meant to fight for freedom or if it stands as a form of protection and a symptom of perpetual oppression.

A collage of Black celebrities over several decades was joined together to illustrate the various forms of creating and maintaining culture, hope, the desire to thrive — even while oppressed.

Black musicians jam together on saxophones, sweethearts take it easy by the water on a bridge and a couple gets married.

An attendee looks at art from the “Rejoice, Resist, Rest” exhibit curated by Spelman students at the Atlanta Contemporary on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

“What was really beautiful about (the project) was the just diverse range of scenes,” said Simpson, who selected the image of the woman with the floral sofa. “There are scenes of domestic life, people sitting in their homes for gatherings or celebrations together. I saw images of protests and marches. There was a lot of images focused around performance, whether that be musical performance or dance, which was also really beautiful.”

Black musicians jam together on saxophones in one of the “Rejoice, Resist, Rest” exhibit's pieces, curated by Spelman students and on display at the Atlanta Contemporary. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

Ashli Clark, a psychology major and photography minor at Spelman who was also part of the project, said she gravitated toward archived images of dancers in remembrance of her late grandmother, who introduced her to the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater in New York.

“(My grandmother) took me to my first Alvin Ailey performance when I was around seven years old, and that has stuck with me since then. I’ve been very interested in dance since then and just movement to honor the ancestors,” Clark explained. “Photography is a tool of resistance, and photography is a tool of just overall documentation of change or life.”

Spelman College psychology major and photography minor Taryn Edgar said she chose to honor Black love as an act of systemic defiance.

“Black people, we came here, and we had to overcome so many struggles,” she said. “All the odds were not in our favor, and the fact that Black love has progressed and been able to hold on … it’s one of the most powerful things.”

A view of a collage from the “Rejoice, Resist, Rest” exhibit curated by Spelman students. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

The Getty Research Institute provided the program through a grant-funded initiative with Spelman College. Dawkins and Blas were optimistic the partnership allowed the students to go deeper into their artistic ambitions and use history as a tool.

The students, while also excited for the opportunity, showed particular enthusiasm for the historical elements and uplifting Black legacies.

Steven Maye, an artist who goes by Drmr, and Ty Filomeno look at art from the “Rejoice, Resist, Rest” exhibit at the Atlanta Contemporary. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

“Honor your ancestors by just being great, whether that’s through releasing emotional tension that may be tearing you down, or whether that be through moving when the spirit tells you to move,” said Clark. “Move, honor your ancestors and make them proud and do the things that are their wildest dreams.”

IF YOU GO

“Rejoice, Resist, Rest: Images of Black Liberation From the Johnson Publishing Company Archive”