The Color Block is a New Orleans-based artist collective focused on highlighting and supporting the works of artists of color across media and formats. The Rent is Too Damn High! is an afternoon of visual and performance art, comedy, food, and music, in celebration of the New Orleans tricentennial. The event is a combination of a traditional two-dimensional exhibition of visual art, and a theatrically-performed mock debate in celebration of the city of New Orleans’ tricentennial. Each performance artist will play a historical figure from New Orleans' storied past. In addition to exhibiting works dealing with themes of home and belonging, gentrification, and displacement, visual artists will be paired with performance artists to create a campaign slogan and accompanying poster. Visual artists will also create future travel ads for the city of New Orleans which will punctuate the space and extend the visual art exhibition into the debate space.
The performance exhibition will provide a unique opportunity for everyday people, artists, activists and arts patrons to mix and mingle, and find new inspiration for what can be done to solve the city’s most pressing issues.
The Rent is Too Damn High! is a festival event that creates a platform for Black New Orleanians to use art, history, and culture to make meaning of the city’s tricentennial legacy, and, ultimately, to shape it. The event aims to be generative for the artists involved, and to continue the dialog with organizations and entrepreneurs, while the publication of an exhibition catalog will allow the artwork and ideas to travel farther than the place-based event itself.
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