The Herndon Gallery at Antioch College is opening a group exhibition titled 'Rightstarter: Resistance, Rap and the Golden Era,' curated by artist Joshua Whitaker. The show, launching with a reception on May 9, explores the rap counterculture of the late 1980s and early 1990s, featuring works by artists from Dayton and beyond. It includes drawings, paintings, sculpture, installations, video, and performance, with a live jazz performance by G. Scott Jones and the Freedom Ensemble. The exhibition highlights how hip-hop served as a platform for social commentary against the backdrop of Reaganomics, the crack epidemic, the war on drugs, and the AIDS crisis.
The exhibition matters because it reframes hip-hop's golden era as a vital cultural and political force that empowered Black youth and fostered Afro-centric academic identity. By connecting music, film, television, and visual art, 'Rightstarter' offers a contextualized, intergenerational look at how counterculture movements shaped a generation. It also underscores the role of regional artists in preserving and interpreting this history, making the show both a local community event and a contribution to broader conversations about art, race, and resistance.