The paintings that line several walls at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center show people whose stories are buried in the past - and those living now whose stories need to be heard.
The exhibit is called The Problem with Archives. It's the work of 2018 TCU graduate Lillian Young, a historical artist who enjoys learning from the past and discovering pockets of Black history.
"I started digging deeper into archives and the further I got, I saw how Black people are portrayed in these archives historically. In keeping up with our history, we become less human and more of an object which makes sense since our nation was built with slavery," Young said.
The Problem with Archives is in two parts.
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A Portrait Worth Our Words focuses on rehumanizing enslaved Black people whose stories will never be fully known.
Portraits of runaway slaves are based on the language in wanted posters in the 18th and 19th centuries.
"I took the entire words of the advertisement and used them to create a portrait of the person it's talking about because I started to think about that these descriptions are essentially the only pictures I have of these people, and they're not even good pictures because they're biased and racist descriptions provided by people who did not see these figures, these human beings as people. So I'm trying to rehumanize these racist words and give a face to a name, said Young who now works at the Brooklyn Museum in New York," Young said.
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In a companion exhibit called The Black Elder Archives, Young painted and interviewed Black elders who lived through Jim Crow and segregation. They include the grandmother of Juneteenth Opal Lee and journalist, commentator, and author Bob Ray Sanders along with family members.
A sound dome above the paintings plays recordings of each elder answering seven questions about their lives during the civil rights movement.
"And as you're looking at the portrait, you get to hear them but you don't know whose speaking when," Young said. "They can tell us so many things about what they experienced and how these things happened. It was not that long ago."
Young hopes her exhibit exposes the problem with archives. Some stories like those of the runaway slaves are missing, yet in the elders come stories that need to be documented. Her solution to the problem is in the exhibit. She wants to encourage others to have conversations with and learn from those who've lived through history.
"They're still around and kickin' and doin' a lot of things but they are also leaving us, "she said.
The exhibit The Problem with Archives is at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center through July 22nd.
