In an extensive story, The New York Times connects the work and theory of the Black Arts movement to the still-relevant social issues that they tackled in the 1960s and 70s through The Time Is Now!: Art Worlds of Chicago’s South Side, 1960-1980, the Smart Museum of Art’s current retrospective on South Side contributions during that era.

The article interviews Chicago artists Gerald Williams, Jae Jarrell, Carolyn Mims Lawrence, and Dr. Yaoundé Olu, as well as the show’s curator, Rebecca Zorach, and touches on the legacy of the AfriCOBRA collective, of which several of the artists showcased in The Time is Now! were members.

“[The Time is Now!] started as a broad survey of the South Side, but then inescapable themes emerged like politics, unity, struggle, displacement, gentrification, and we decided to start focus on some of those.” – Rebecca Zorach

Read the full article here. The Time Is Now!: Art Worlds of Chicago’s South Side, 1960-1980 is presented as part of Art Design Chicago, and on view through December 30 at the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art.