Talking Stick Artist Talk with Amber Robles-Gordon Set April 16

SALISBURY, MD---Talking sticks have been used in indigenous cultures throughout history to designate the authority to speak within a group and promote democracy.

Washington, D.C.-based artist Amber Robles-Gordon hosts a beginners’-level talking stick workshop during her residency at Salisbury University 6-8:30 p.m. Thursday, April 12, in the Patricia R. Guerrieri Academic Commons Assembly Hall.

During the workshop, participants create their own colorful talking sticks, which will be included in a public art installation that will hang through January 2019 in the Atrium of the Guerrieri Student Union (GSU). An artist talk with Robles-Gordon and reception for the installation are 6 p.m. Monday, April 16, in the Nanticoke Room of the GSU.

A textile and mixed-media artist, Robles-Gordon has worked with art-based talking sticks to address the story of Henrietta Lacks, an African American Maryland woman whose cells, harvested for research without her knowledge or permission during treatment for cervical cancer in the 1950s, have led to breakthroughs in modern medicine.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a New York Times bestselling book based on author Rebecca Skloot’s research and interviews with Lacks’ family, was SU’s New Student Reader book in 2014.

Robles-Gordon has exhibited nationally, as well as in Germany, Italy, Malaysia, London and Spain. She has been commissioned to create public art installations for the D.C. Creates Public Arts Program, D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association, Howard University, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Washington Projects for the Arts, among others. Robles-Gordon also has offered her Talking Stick Workshop at the Anacostia Smithsonian Museum and National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Her work has been reviewed or featured in publications including The Washington Post, Miami Herald, Huffington Post, Washington City Paper, Washington Informer, Washington Examiner and Bmore Art Magazine.

Sponsored by the Fulton School of Liberal Arts Dean’s Office in collaboration with the Guerrieri Student Union Associate Dean of Students’ Office, and organized by SU Art Galleries, “The Talking Stick Project” is offered as part of “SU Is US,” an initiative promoting diversity and inclusion on campus. Admission to the workshop and artist talk are free and the public is invited.

Advance registration is required for the workshop. To RSVP email Tara Gladden, SU Art Galleries Manager, at tcgladden@salisbury.edu or sign up online at www.eventbrite.com/e/talking-stick-workshop-with-amber-robles-gordon-tickets-44207345360.

For more information call 410-548-2547 or visit the SU Art Galleries website at www.salisbury.edu/universitygalleries.