About this project

Your donations fund the exhibition. The exhibition funds future YouthBuild, Greensboro projects...

In the heart of the Southeast, there exists a crescent-shaped region where the black, rich soil once produced abundant cotton. Now a shell of its former prosperity, the Southern Black Belt, as it is often referred, contains some of the poorest counties in the United States.

The Black Belt sweeps through seventeen counties in Alabama alone, where common township characteristics include high rates of poverty, unemployment, and low-achieving schools. Yet organizations such as YouthBuild USA, a national youth and community development program that simultaneously addresses core issues facing low-income communities, are refusing to accept these statistics and are working tirelessly to cultivate the incredible wealth of possibility and hope that exists in the people of these forgotten places.

Drawn from two series in RaMell Ross’ Black Belt Project, refuge provides a visual account of the unyielding frustrations and fleeting gratifications experienced by the young adults participating in YouthBuild USA initiatives in the Black Belt community of Greensboro, Alabama. The photographs in the exhibition provide haunting, and sometimes heartbreaking, insight into a world far removed from the everyday conversations of society. The two series on view, But Also Dream, Not Only… and 2nd Chance Kids, are taken with an outsider’s eye, exposing the obvious realities on the surface while inviting viewers to inquire about the resounding failures and silent triumphs that exist underneath.

Your kickstarter donations fund the framing and mounting of the photographs for the exhibition as well the organization of public and educational programming surrounding the show. All the proceeds from photos purchased at the exhibition will benefit future YouthBuild, Greensboro projects.

The exhibit will be on view June 13-24, 2011 at the Wix Lounge, a free work and event space for creative professionals located just north of Union Square in New York City at 10 W 18th St.

The exhibition is organized by For|By|For, a 501(c)3 non profit. Through exhibiting affordable art by new talent, For|By|For is dedicated to bringing awareness and financial aid to charitable organizations working to bring life back to forgotten people and places.