Exhibit at Tacoma museum celebrates African American men

The closest the Smithsonian Institution exhibit “Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth.” will get to Vancouver is the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, where it is on display through March 15.

The exhibit profiles 30 revolutionary, iconic African American men, both historical and living, including boxer Muhammad Ali, author James Baldwin, civil-rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois, astronaut Charles Bolden Jr., journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, basketball star LeBron James and movie director Ryan Coogler.

Each biography is paired with original works by noted artists, including Nina Chanel Abney, Derrick Adams, Robert Pruitt, Hank Willis Thomas, Tariku Shiferaw and Devan Shimoyama.

“As of now, we’re one of only two museums on the West Coast that will host this phenomenal exhibition,” said Jennifer Kilmer, Washington State Historical Society’s director, in a press release. “We are honored and thrilled.”

Instead of focusing on, say, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. or former President Barack Obama, the exhibit highlights less well known but very influential African American men.

“For me, the most compelling aspect of this exhibition is the way that it shifts and sheds light on these lesser known narratives in a way that brings them to the forefront where they belong,” added Mary Mikel Stump, the Historical Society’s audience engagement director.

If you plan to make the two-hour drive north, the museum will open another special exhibit, “Unforgiving Waters: Shipwrecks of the Pacific Northwest,” Jan. 25. It will be on display until May 31.