James Pate's 'Kin Killin' Kin' comes to Cincinnati's Freedom Center

It began as a personal protest.

James Pate's works of charcoal and paper were first private petitions in 2000, illustrated occupations of this Cincinnati-raised artist's anguish. Black-and-white renderings of – and a resistance to – what he will call the "blueness."

But in the past four years of display, this once intimate response to violence has emerged, expanded to be a community-wide call to action. Now, a large-scale, public prompt for reflection. Then, perhaps, a revolution.

Pate's traveling exhibit, called "Kin Killin' Kin," will open at The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Saturday. The powerful images feature scenes of young African-American men donned in Ku Klux Klan hoods committing acts of violence, creating an overt comparison between gang violence and the terrorism of the KKK.

It's an arresting approach. One that shocks, designed to stop the viewer.

"Mainly, I want kids to pause and reflect," said Pate, who was a member of the first graduating class of the Cincinnati's School for Creative and Performing Arts.

And he's going to keep creating these pieces as long as people keep dying.

"I just completed one and am going to start another," the Dayton-based artist said.

And it keeps happening in Cincinnati: In 2015, shootings in the city surged dramatically. The Freedom Center is hosting a range of related programming through February that will aim to connect Pate's work to productive, peace-building solutions in this city.

Art holds the power to promote change, curator Willis Bing Davis says. For Davis, that's partly because art is a language that everyone understands.

"It is the universal connection of the art," he said. "Art is one of the things that touches all of us."

Art is also a liberating language, he says. "Sometimes the art can say something that we can't say in words."

Pate became fluent in creativity early in his childhood in the West End and Laurel Homes. The Arts Consortium on Linn Street was his haven, a place that captured his imagination, held on it and to him, never letting go.

"It kept me off the streets," he said. "It was like a home to me."

The first time he felt like he was an artist? That happened all the way back in elementary school when a teacher purchased his watercolor painting of the Union Terminal. He took that $10 and bought brand new socks at a department store, sporting them proudly when he later hit the baseball field.

A number of artists, such as local luminaries like Thom Shaw and Gilbert Young, were also major supporters and influences.

"There is a host of artists that were down in Cincinnati and accepted me as one of their own and nurtured me as an artist," said Pate, who received the 2015 Governor’s Award for the Arts.

Now Pate is the supporter and influence. His "Kin Killin' Kin" has inspired artists with each exhibit stop. A spoken word artist performed at the opening in Atlanta. A dance team in Sarasota, Florida, created an original piece in response to Pate's work, too.

"It was so powerful, you could feel the power of the drawings," Davis said. "It's come through James and it's touched so many."

Davis said they didn't plan on "the response, the healing part."

The healing sounds like a young woman on her cell phone telling her boyfriend that he had to come and see the show. Right now. Or chairs being moved into a circle to have an impromptu discussion in the gallery.

But these responses have also been absorbed by Pate, and by his still very personal work.  While he works and thinks about his work, Pate often considers something he heard a young man say who saw the show in Chicago.

"Hurt people hurt people," the man said.

It's stuck with Pate. It's with him right now, he says.

"I had to pause and think about the poetry that's in that statement," Pate said.

Kin Killin’ Kin opens Saturday at The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in the Skirball Gallery. The center is at 50 East Freedom Way. For more, visit http://www.freedomcenter.org/ 

- 11 a.m. Nov. 14: Kin Killin Kin Opening. This event will feature C.G. Newsome, National Underground Railroad Freedom; James Pilcher, The Enquirer; Anthony Stringer, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio, and artist James Pate. 
- 2 p.m. Nov. 21: Manhood to Brotherhood: An intergenerational discussion on the ideals of manhood and brotherhood from an authentic African American male perspective. This discussion will feature Ozie Davis, Avondale Comprehensive Development Corporation; Saxon Bouldin, Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency; Terrence Sherrer Sr., Greater Cincinnati United Way; Chris Godbey, Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence; and Cincinnati Medical Director, Dr. Odell Owens.   
- 2 p.m. Jan. 16: The Youth Think Tank: In partnership with the Queen City Foundation, this youth leadership forum will discuss matters of youth violence and conflict resolution.  
- 6 p.m. Feb. 4: The Solutions Symposium: Moderated by James Pilcher; The Enquirer, this discussion will reflect on the violence of 2015 and promote positive solutions to build safer communities.