ARTIST STATEMENT
“All Negroes who can do so purchase an automobile as soon as possible in order to be free of discomfort, discrimination, segregation and insult\.”
—George Schuyler, 1930
This Way to Freedom takes its cue from the historic Green Books, which helped African Americans travel more freely and safely during the Jim Crow era, as automobile ownership offered the emerging Black middle class a measure of independence.
The work also riffs on street signs layered with graffiti and stickers—public surfaces that often become carriers of memory, identity, resistance, and social commentary. Stickers featuring historic African American figures, created from original artwork by Courtney Nzeribe, are “slapped” onto a retro directional sign. Together, they transform it into a contemporary guidepost offering direction, protection, and a way forward.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Courtney Nzeribe is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago, working across fiber, painting, printmaking, and mixed media. Her practice explores diasporic memory, feminine autonomy, spirituality, and material storytelling through tactile processes such as felting, beading, embroidery, and print.
Her work has been exhibited at Woman Made Gallery, Bridgeport Art Center, Zhou B Art Center, Art Barn (Valparaiso, IN), and in multiple curated exhibitions throughout Chicago.
Nzeribe studied at Parsons Paris at The American University in Paris and has been published in Gastronomica (University of California Press) and other literary and culinary journals.
© Courtney Nzeribe