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A new exhibition called the Black Matriarchs is on display at the New Britain Museum of Art. Gwen Edwards was joined by J. Elizabeth Nkonoki-Ward, who commissioned the series 40 years ago.

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Our Lives: Black Matriarchs exhibit opens at New Britain Museum of Art

Welcome to our lives. I'm Gwen Edwards. A must see exhibition is now on display at the New Britain Museum of Art and it is all thanks to my guest today, Jay Elizabeth and Knoke Ward. Thank you so much for being a guest today here on our lives. Thank you for inviting me, Quinn. I understand that this work, the Black Matriarch Series was commissioned 40 years ago. Yes, it was just an idea of capturing some of the important people in our community because I was collecting black history at the time and I happened to be friends with an artist, Ken Larson. And I asked Ken, I said, would you be interested in doing some portraits for me? And he said, of course, so that's how it all started. Tell us who these black matriarchs are. These patriarchs are trailblazers from our New Britain community. They are educators from our community. They are women who nurtured me. All of these women are women that I knew as I was growing up. So that's what makes it so very, very important. Of course, my mother and my grandmother are both portrayed in this exhibit as well with each of the women that is portrayed and educated was very, very important to them, extremely important. And they would be very supportive of all of those Children in the community trying to help us to make sure to move forward toward college and into college, helping us to get uh scholarships and all. So it was they were very, very wonderful ladies, beautiful ladies, elegant ladies and I understand the artists captured them using pen and charcoal and other mediums was pen and ink and charcoal. They were very important to all of us, Mrs Bellamy, the way that she would have the different classes for the N AC P education, uh youth education to help us to learn about our culture and to learn about our history. And Hazel Jackson who happens to be one of the ones uh pictured in this series was the teacher for Ken Larson Mrs Mary Diggs, who was one of the, she used to go down into the neighborhood and she would collect the Children to take them to church, to take them for the Bible studies. And all Mrs Mac was a lady that we met and she had daughters and one of those daughters, Carolyn was getting ready to go to college. So I was really, really very interested in, in Carolyn and knowing what she was doing. And then there was Martha Moseley. Martha Moseley is one of the ladies that is portrayed the Black Matriarchs exhibit will be on until December 31st of this year 2023. And we want to thank you for being a guest here on our lives. Thank you, Gwen for allowing me to be your guest today. It was my pleasure and just a reminder if you have a group organization event that you would like me to promote, contact me. My email address is G T Edwards at news 12 dot com for our lives. I'm Gwen Edwards.

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