Gallery Opening Reception: Belongings

About this event

Join us as we celebrate National Filipino-American History Month and the opening of the exhibition Belongings.Belongings is a humanistic exhibition that explores the immigrant life of Nelson Baldemor, a Filipino-American resident of Danville, Virginia, whose life was suddenly cut short in 2021. Having no next of kin, Nelson’s things were saved by a caring neighbor, Maria Lourdes Pérez Muñiz. Now a resident of Columbia, South Carolina, Muñiz passed these to Chiara Cox, a local Filipino American cultural advocate who transformed Baldemor’s treasured personal belongings into this exhibit of an immigrant’s memory.The exhibition's title plays with the portmanteau of the word Belongings:Belong-Things: ownership of items that define one’s identity.Be-Longing: an intense, prolonged yearning.Be-Long-Things: possessions that take up space and/or last a long time.Through primary documents, photographs, and original artwork, Belongings invites us to look closely at the remnants of a single life. In doing so, we discover the universal principles of community, resilience, and care that Filipino Americans weave into the local fabric of the neighborhoods they call home. We will enjoy a performance by traditional Filipino dancers and light refreshments.Brought to us by the Filipino-American Association of Greater Columbia and curator/arts advocate Chiara Cox.

Description from richlandlibrary.com