The University of Memphis will host one of the nation's most provocative artists on Feb. 20.
Arist damali ayo, who stylizes her name with lowercase letters, will be coming to the University Center Theatre to present "Race-girl: How an Artist Tackled a Touchy Subject, and How It Tackled Her," a lecture on her experiences as a black artist.
In "Race-girl", ayo explains how the very same institutions that fund and promote the arts can also stifle artistic creation by pigeonholing black artists into making only art that deals with race.
The lecture was opportunistically timed-February is Black History Month and March is Women's History Month.
Robert Marczynski, assistant director of Interdisciplinary Studies, said that ayo could bridge the gap and reach a wide audience.
"She would really like people to take a look at the whole notion of race and ethnicity, not just how we define other people but how we define ourselves," Marczynski said.
The lecture is part of a larger exhibit entitled "Race: Are We So Different?", currently featured at the Pink Palace Museum. The exhibit explores race relations using photographs, multimedia presentations and historical artifacts.
The lecture is co-presented by the Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities and the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change. The Program in African and African American Studies is also sponsoring the event.
Ayo rose to national prominence after the 2005 debut of rent-a-negro.com, a satirical website which grew out of the artist's feelings that she was a "professional black person," and advertised a fictional company that allowed people to rent a black person.
Prospective renters were told that this was a great way to seem more multicultural and interesting without, as the website puts it, "the commitment of learning about racism, challenging your own white privilege, or being labeled 'radical.'" Ayo shut the website down in 2012 amid a flurry of racist hate mail.
Ayo is also the author of a number of books, including the book version of rent-a-negro.com, "How to Rent a Negro," which won an honorable mention from Gustavus Meyers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in 2005 and "Obamistan! Land without Racism: Your Guide to the New America" in 2010, a book that seeks to debunk the idea that America has moved beyond race in the wake of the election of Barack Obama by providing a satirical look at a nation where racism truly was defeated in 2008 and how it would change our national identity.
Though ayo's most prominent and popular works have focused on race relations, her work covers everything from gender and sexual orientation to music, spirituality and the creative process.
Her visual art, focusing on such subjects as family secrets, sexual assault and public image versus private feelings has been exhibited in museums in New York, Portland, Ore. and other museums across the globe. She is also one of the cofounders of Portland's Defunkt Theater and served as a set designer, winning Drammy awards for set design in 2001 and 2003.
A reception will begin at 5:30 p.m. followed by ayo's lecture at 6 p.m. Admission is free.
