For over a decade Gillian Laub has documented a southern community’s struggle to confront longstanding issues of race and equality. In May 2009, The New York Times Magazine published her photo-essay and multimedia piece entitled, “A Prom Divided,” which revealed Montgomery County High School’s racially segregated prom rituals. Laub’s photographs ignited a firestorm of national outrage and led the Georgia community to finally integrate. One year later, the murder of a young black man—portrayed in the earlier prom series—by a white town patriarch, reopened old wounds. Through her intimate portraits and first-hand testimony, Laub reveals in vivid color the horror and humanity of these complex, intertwined narratives.
Southern Rites is a multi-platform project that includes an exhibition with an accompanying catalogue and feature-length documentary film. The film Southern Rites was directed and produced by Gillian Laub and debuted on HBO in May 2015. The film was released the same week as the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision 61 years ago. It was executive produced by John Legend, Troy Carter and Mike Jackson and was written and produced by Josh Alexander. The film has been part of school curriculum, screened in prisons and universities.
The traveling museum exhibition, organized by The International Center of Photography, will begin touring nationally in October 2018. The exhibition includes over thirty fine art prints and original documents, such as yearbooks and handwritten notes, from the proms segregation and eventual integration. The short filmed entitled "Just a Black Boy," will be shown alongside Laub's prints. The exhibition will also include screenings of the Southern Rites film and educational outreach to provide a teaching curriculum around the exhibition’s issues.
Learn More: http://www.southernritesproject.com