Cultural Arts

The NCCU Art Museum turned the spotlight on works by faculty in a featured exhibit mounted for in-person visitors and offered through a virtual experience online.

Featured artists included Brenda Faison Ph.D., director of the NCCU Art Museum and interim chair of the Art and Design Department, as well as professors Troy Brown, Myongsin Choi, Kwame Hawkins, Connie Floyd and Chad Hughes. 

Works in the exhibit included drawing, painting, graphic design, printmaking, collage and sculpture. 

Faison’s paintings were created using an array of digital tools that translate the physical elements of the environment onto print. Brown showed a series of diverse African American figures in varying forms. The works explore rich narratives hidden within layers of images.

The political and social aspects of human life were addressed in the works of Choi and Hawkins. Choi provided a collection of captivating sculptures that illustrate the unpredictability of society and the role of human suffering in the healing process. Hawkins examined key issues facing the African American community through a set of striking digital prints.

Floyd showed an African-inspired 3D collage composed of hair picks that were individually carved out of pieces of wood. Hughes’ oil paintings provided a look into self-expression and an inventive take on painting construction.

By Ayana D. Hernandez

Novelist John Grisham is well known for his best-selling legal tales, including “The Client” and “The Pelican Brief.” But in his latest book, “Sooley,” the attorney-turned-storyteller takes on South Sudan and the NCCU Eagles.

“I grew up with athletics in Mississippi and am a fan of college basketball,” said Grisham, who watches with his wife and daughter, both graduates of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “It so much part of our lives from December through March.”

The fast-paced novel published in April 2021 captures the journey of South Sudanese athlete Samuel Sooleymon as he travels to the United States for a basketball tournament and winds up with a scholarship offer from NCCU.

“As the story develops, NCCU plays the ‘other’ school in Durham; I thought that it was fun to mix that in, too,” said Grisham, of a NCCU-Duke matchup in the plot.

Grisham discusses the book’s NCCU setting, gives advice for budding writers, and recalls his background conversations with Eagles Coach LeVelle Moton in an exclusive interview.