[NEohioPAL]Oberlin College Student Art Exhibition Opens at Here Here Gallery

[Betty Gabrielli]

LEGACY: THEY SPEAK IN DREAMS
ON VIEW AT THE OBERLIN COLLEGE
GALLERY & PERFORMANCE SPACE AT HERE HERE

Oberlin, Ohio--Tai Collins' "Legacy: They Speak in Dreams" the first senior 
student installation at the Oberlin College Gallery & Performance Space at 
Here Here in Cleveland?opens tomorrow at   8 p.m. with a cabaret concert 
performed by a group of student artists, musicians and dancers.

The exhibition will be on view May 4-May 13. Oberlin College Gallery & 
Performance Space at Here Here is located at 1305 Euclid Avenue. Exhibition 
hours are Fridays 5-9 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays 12-5 p.m. The show is 
free and open to the public.

"My story is one of self-discovery and affirmation, a story about the 
acceptance of my traits by finding their genesis within my family's history 
and my dreams," says Collins, who created and developed the 
installation/performance event.

An African American Studies major at Oberlin with a concentration in fine 
arts, she is a member of the famed Oberlin touring dance troupe Dance 
Diaspora and the lead singer of Ilu Aiye, a West African/Afro-Caribbean 
music group.

Drawn from Collin's life and heritage the eight art installations--titled 
Old Soul, Running; Mama Dora; Congo Square; Billye: A Letter for My 
Mothers; Sentimental Reasons; Mama Eva; Yemaya; and Solitude-- evoke such 
scenes as a Congo graveyard, a wooden porch, a market square in Haiti, and 
a family yard and kitchen.

During the concert, the evocations will be amplified with songs, taped 
voices and sounds and movement choreographed by Collins, who also has 
studied dance in Cuba with acclaimed folkloric groups and with the Marie 
Brooks? Pan Caribbean Dancers in Harlem.

"Through these art forms, I have discovered my African, Caribbean and 
Native American heritage to be the foundation of whom I am," says Collins, 
who is from New Orleans.

"The music and dance, the voice and the body connect me to the silent past, 
the strength of my ancestors and the knowledge that is innate. They are a 
source of healing and a method of resistance, a way or survival. I found 
the family I could not name through Music."

A member of the Teenage Girls' Documentary Project in New Orleans, Collins, 
while at Oberlin has conducted dance and black history workshops in schools 
throughout Lorain County and at the Elyria YWCA, worked as a counselor at 
Common Ground's Earth Camp and as a teacher at the Oberlin Seventh Day 
Adventist School.

"Legacy: They Speak in Dreams" is sponsored by two Oberlin student 
organizations: the American Indian Council and the Black Student Union 
(Abusua).

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Media Contact:
Betty Gabrielli 440 775 8474
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