Yvette Mayorga 

Ruth Nicole Brown

Cherish: A Love Letter to Gwendolyn Brooks From Ruth Nicole Brown (In the Spirit of SOLHOT), 2019

 

Digital video, sound

7 min 8 sec

Courtesy of the artists 

 

Description: 

Cherish, a visual and audio experience, is a love letter to Gwendolyn Brooks curated with sound, poetry, voice, digital and visual components. Yvette Mayorga (BFA ‘14) uses photography, film, and layering of SOLHOT’s first day of Black Girl Genius Week Chicago (2019) at Metcalfe Academy to create a visual interpretation of Brown’s love letter, creative direction, research, and engagement with  UIUC Rare Books and Manuscript Library’s literary archives of Gwendowlyn Brooks. Dr. Blair Ebony Smith (lovenloops) provides the sonic score and soundtrack for the film using samples of a Gwendolyn Brooks’ interview, Brooks reading her poetry, and Brown reading Brooks. This film project is supported by The Whiting Foundation Public Engagement Fellowship, Training for Digital Methods for Humanists, Rare Book and Manuscript Library (specifically Siobhan McKissic), and Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities.