Come Sunday (I’m Crossing Over)
Lauren Cross

Lord, dear Lord of love
God almighty, God up above
Please, look down and see my people through

--Come Sunday by Duke Ellington with Mahalia Jackson, 1958

Come Sunday is an exhibition featuring the works of interdisciplinary artist Lauren Cross, which are inspired by narratives of Black migration, emancipation, and freedom. Heavily influenced by the lyrics of spirituals, jazz, and others songs of freedom, Cross uses her multi-dimensional practice in this series as a solemn prayer of liberation for one’s community.

Through the use of digitally fabricated fibers, installations, videos, and prints, Cross’ work connects to stories of the historic journey to Juneteenth that occurred on June 19, 1865-- the day that General Gordon Granger issued General Order No 3 and informed the people of Texas that all enslaved people were free. As a native Texan, Cross reimagines these historic images and scenes through the lens of her own ancestors who existed across five generations in the state. While her tracings of their steps to freedom are intentionally imaginary, she proposes these memories and images as the circulation of celebrations past, present, and future.

The exhibition title comes from Duke Ellington’s highly popular and yet spiritual composition, Come Sunday, whose lyrics sung by gospel singer Mahalia Jackson create a melancholy yet inspirational expression of hope in the midst of ongoing struggle. The artist relates these lyrics to the upcoming celebration of Juneteenth on Sunday, June 19th 2022--where it’s annual marking as a Federal Holiday is juxtaposed by reminders that ongoing issues of race in America continue to frame our contemporary aspirations for freedom.

Lauren Cross is an artist, curator, and scholar, who holds an M.F.A. in Visual Arts from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA (2010), and a Ph.D. in Multicultural Women's and Gender Studies from Texas Woman's University, Denton (2017). She is also the founder of the arts non-profit, WoCA Projects, in Fort Worth, Texas.

Cross is recognized nationally and internationally for her interdisciplinary art practice, site-specific installations, and community work, including featured works in museums and galleries across the U.S. and the 2015 Edinburgh Art Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. She received the Third Annual Visionary Award by Fort Worth Weekly magazine in 2013 and was named one of Dallas' "100 Creatives" by the Dallas Observer in 2015. In 2018, Cross was selected as a Visiting Artist for the Center for Creative Connections at the Dallas Museum of Art, and an inaugural Carter Community Artist for the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. In 2021, she was a Nasher Public artist for the Nasher Sculpture Center in collaboration with the organization For Oak Cliff in Dallas, featuring the interactive project A Moment of Silence/Let Freedom Ring.

Cross also is Assistant Professor at the University of North Texas College of Visual Arts and Design and serves as the program coordinator and for the Interdisciplinary Art and Design Studies program.  Her research addresses critical multicultural approaches in arts practice, arts entrepreneurship, curatorial studies, museum studies, and art history. Cross has been a frequent presenter at academic and public conferences across the country and internationally, and is the director of the award-winning documentary, The Skin Quilt Project, which was produced in 2010 and was an official selection at the 2010 International Black Women's Film Festival in Berkeley, California.

laurenecross.com