Every person in the U.S. feels the weight of race through unprocessed emotions: anxiety, defensiveness, resentment, rage, longing, exhaustion. Too often, these emotions are bottled up, pushed down, or released without relief. Just the idea of race can elicit intense emotions—emotions that can also be triggered by visual or audio cues including an image showing people of different racial appearances, by a social media post where race is mentioned, by an anticipated interaction with someone of another race, or when entering spaces populated by people defined as a certain race. Through art, we find opportunities to interact with and explore the historic roots, range, and diversity of these emotions.  

Engaging with race through the arts allows us to explore the origins of these emotions that we may think we can keep hidden, even as we feel their weight in interactions and relationships. The work of healing requires us to acknowledge our emotions and reconcile with them. 

We invite you take part in this interactive experience.  You will view six at groupings that interactively explore how racial categories were created and/or formed and how identities and communities came to be built around breaking apart, and how our relationships are affected today.