The Riot Show
by Michael Faris and Unique Hughley
Feb. 1 – March 15, 2019
The Gallery at The Kranzberg
Dr. Michael Faris is an artist and art instructor. He is an Assistant Professor of Art Education at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. He has also taught at Shawnee Community College (SCC) in Ullin, Illinois, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville (SIUE) and Centralia High School (CHS) in Centralia, Illinois. He has also taught at various community art centers, including the Centralia Cultural Society, the Little Egypt Art Association, the Hartley Art Gallery and Event Center, and Carbondale Community Arts.
Faris has exhibited his paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures at the St. Louis Artists’ Guild, the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, the Indianapolis Art Center, the Springfield Art Association, Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Swope Art Museum (Terre Haute), Carbondale Community Arts, the Centralia Cultural Society, South Suburban College (Chicago), Southeastern Illinois College (Harrisburg), and other locations.
Faris earned his PhD in art education at Indiana University, Bloomington (IUB). He earned his MS and BS in art education at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville (SIUE). He was named SIUE art education student of the year in 1996, and was inducted into the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society the same year. He was awarded the Della Fricke Art Education Scholarship at IUB. His dissertation explores racial inequity in community arts centers in the United States, with part of the study involving a specific arts center in the Midwest.
Unique Hughley is a 22-year-old spoken word artist from Kansas City, Missouri. Originally a Rap artist, Hughley found his calling in the poetry of Saul Williams. Inspired by the work of Williams, Hughley auditioned for The Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts in Kansas City as a poet and was accepted into the school. He majored in creative writing there.
While at Paseo, Hughley joined the school poetry slam team, which competed in the Louder than a Bomb Kansas City (LTABKC) Slam. This was his first major competition, and it led to more work, more poems, and several video performances.
He became a member of Slam Ulit, Kansas City’s only certified team of poets to compete regionally and nationally. He joined the team for the National Poetry Slam in Decatur, Georgia in 2016, his first national competition.
Hughley is driven by the Black stereotypes in American media, which often portray young Black men in negative ways. He prefers to keep his work positive, and tell the truth with his work.
