Antoinette Ellis-Williams stands by some of her artwork on display at Astah’s Fine Art Gallery on Springfield Avenue during Maplewood’s Windows for Women event and Women’s History Month. Wednesday, March 16, 2022. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media
Excerpt from NJ.com
The exhibit features art by Dr. Antoinette Ellis-Williams. Dr. Ellis-Williams is an artist, poet, scholar, minister, and activist. Works by the chairwoman and professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at New Jersey City University are on display at Astah’s Fine Art Gallery on Springfield Avenue.
With all of her work — whether as artist, poet, scholar, minister, activist — Ellis-Williams hopes to “give voice to where we don’t have voice and to bring joy.”
Ellis-Williams — who wrote, directed and produced “The Scarf Diaries,” a one-woman play composed of multiethnic, intergenerational vignettes and monologues that tell stories about women, life, resistance and social justice — said, for her, art is about “building bridges, conveying messages, creating opportunity to have conversations.”
She noted that she hopes to lift other women with her art.
“I hope they see themselves in it. I hope they see that what they thought was unimportant is meaningful and essential.”
She elaborated, “things that have been ignored … clothes pins for babies’ diapers, jump ropes …they are powerful, they tell stories. Things that may have been overlooked may be the gem we needed to see.”
“I hope I inspire women to think anything is within their realm of possibility,” she said.