Manifesting Love: Prints and Poetry

Exhibit Info

Title:

Manifesting Love: Prints and Poetry

Dates:

January 2 until March 25, 2023

Location:

2nd Floor Reading Room

About:

An exhibition of uplifting imagery created by Terrance Cummings exploring the powerful and transformative force of love in everyday life accompanied by poems of empowerment and passion penned by the legendary Sonia Sanchez.

Terrance Cummings is a designer, illustrator, author, and teacher living in Central New Jersey. He is known for taking on challenging subject matter involving the African-American experience. With this exhibition he tackles the meaning of love and romance illustrating how it brings hope to our lives.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Terrance grew up in New York City and graduated from The High School of Music & Art. He later went on to receive his BFA from Parsons School of Design. He has worked with major book publishers and magazines and his work is also held in private collections. Cummings usually licenses his work to corporations and publishers, but has recently begun creating fine-artist prints, many of which are currently on sale and in this exhibit. As a conceptual artist, he is not afraid of addressing controversial topics and is often called on to interpret complex issues and provide clear and thoughtful solutions. He is an advocate for artist’s rights and speaks regularly about usage rights to encourage artists to explore ways of leveraging their art works beyond the sale of the original.

Sonia Sanchez—poet, activist, scholar—was the Laura Carnell Professor of English and Women’s Studies at Temple University. She is the recipient of dozens of honors, including the Robert Frost Medal for distinguished lifetime service to American poetry, the Langston Hughes Poetry Award and Gish Prize. A founder of the Black Arts movement and, as Maya Angelou dubbed her, “a lion in literature’s forest,” she has been dedicated to the causes of Black liberation, social equality, and women’s rights for more than six decades. Sanchez is the author of sixteen books and continues to write poetry each day. In a tribute to her friend and colleague, Toni Morrison wrote “You have spoken for us . . . Written for us . . . Sung to us . . . How much in your debt we are.”

Terrance Cummings and Princeton Public Library would like to thank Sonia Sanchez for granting permission to use her poetry to accompany the art in this exhibit.