Current Exhibitions
Highlights from African American Musicians and Artists
American music history has largely ignored or disregarded the contributions of African Americans. Rose Library contains over 30 archival collections of various sizes that both uncover and recover the critical role African Americans played in the music culture of the United States. Collections include composers, entertainers, and scholars. The variety of materials includes: manuscript letters and scores, photographs, and published music by and about African Americans. This exhibit displays just a few highlights. Clint Fluker, the former curator of Rose Library’s African American collections and now Senior Director of Culture, Community, and Partner Engagement for the Libraries and Museum at Emory, describes the importance of these archival collections:
“The African American music collections are so significant because they enable those who use the materials to engage with history through one of our most enduring artistic mediums. Music has always told a story of African American history that so often cannot be captured using words alone. In fact, at times, it is the sound that grabs our attention, provides new insights, and penetrates the soul.” While African American voices have often been silenced in American (and especially Southern) politics, economics, history, and culture, yet African American music has often found a way to endure.
At the Crossroads with Benny Andrews, Flannery O’Connor, and Alice Walker
This exhibition by the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives & Rare Book Library features three artists whose collections are housed at Emory – Benny Andrews, Flannery O’Connor, and Alice Walker, all of whom grew up in middle Georgia. “Crossroads” focuses on O’Connor’s short story, “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” which Andrews later illustrated. Walker also responded to O’Connor’s work through an essay, “Beyond the Peacock,” and a short story, “Convergence.”
Using rare archival photos, journals, letters, original manuscripts and artwork, and personal artifacts, "At the Crossroads” examines how Andrews, O’Connor and Walker overlap geographically as Georgia natives, chronologically during their lifetimes, and creatively through their work. It reflects on their divergent origins and paths, while acknowledging the accolades and controversies in their lives, and illustrates how these three artists influenced and challenged one another.
