50 years of Hip: The Process of Change
October 6 - November 24
Jerome Sloan
50 years of Hip: The Process of Change
Hip Hop is 50 years old… just like me. I wanted to show how hip hop has been my gospel throughout my life and has grown with me. From the first album that I ever owned; LL cool J, “I’m Bad” on into what I listen to today. Each new cover has my alter ego character “INK” somewhere in it. The show is also about the process of change. I would take a positive line out of certain songs considered “Gangster” and I would use it as my motivation to keep pushing forward. The lines have been like gospel that has played in my ears throughout my life.
Sloan is an African American artist from Portland, Oregon. “I started out as a spray painter in the 1980s when I was a kid. Art has helped me through personal struggles to make sense of and find meaning in my life.”
“I was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in 1994. I was only 19 years old when I was sentenced to spend the rest of my life in prison. In 2022, Governor Kate Brown commuted my sentence. I was released because of the social work that I have done for over a decade. I taught art and facilitated cognitive programing for people in prison that were trying to make the same changes that I had made.”
