Note: Ebony Patterson Stamps lecture takes place Feb 1, 5pm, at the Michigan Theater, immediately followed at 6pm by artist reception at the Institute for the Humanities.

“What happens when seventy-two men and one woman die and no one knows who they are?” Jamaican artist Ebony Patterson’s of 72—a mixed media work on fabric with digital imagery, embroidery, rhinestones, trimmings, bandanas, and floral appliques—considers the 2010 “Tivoli Incursion” in Kingston, Jamaica. This armed conflict between the Shower Posse drug cartel and Jamaica's military and police took place when security forces began searching for drug lord Christopher "Dudus" Coke, after the United States requested his extradition. The violence killed at least 73 civilians.

"Of 72" will be in conversation with Patterson's more recent work "...And Babies..." created at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University. The lush tapestry-like floor piece continues where "Of 72" leaves us and serves to honor both the spirit and the loss of so many black bodies...women, little boys, little girls, even babies, subjected to acts of violence and abuse.

Ebony G. Patterson is a Jamaican artist born in Kingston, Jamaica. She studied at Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. An assistant professor in painting at the University of Kentucky, she has shown her artwork in numerous solo and private exhibitions and is represented by Monique Meloche Gallery.