Block Club Chicago: Artist With Family Connection To Pullman Porters Pays Homage To Their Legacy

PULLMAN — After research led him to discovering a familial connection to the Pullman Porters, Colorado-born artist Shane-Jahi Jackson began working on a collection that explores the visible and invisible legacies within Black labor history and family.

That work will now be highlighted in a PullmanArts gallery show opening this week. PullmanArts and the Block House Gallery are hosting Jackson’s work, with an opening reception and show 6-9 p.m. Friday at 11137 S. Langley Ave.

In “Pullman Porters and Maids: Invisible Labor, Visible Legacies,” attendees can see figurative paintings that reference the lives, histories and untold stories of the primarily Black Pullman porters and maids who worked as service attendants on sleeping car trains manufactured and operated by George Pullman’s Pullman Company in the 19th and 20th centuries.