NOW ON EXHIBIT: Houston Museum of African American Culture (HMAAC) | 4807 Caroline | Houston, TX 77004

Title: ROUX [ROO} A mixture of flour and fat that, after being slowly cooked over low heat, is used to thicken mixtures such as soups and sauces. This dark nutty-flavored base is indispensable for specialties like GUMBO, ETOUFFEE, and BECHAMEL.

Great-Grandma made a good roux. Or did she? This and other similar questions fascinate visual artists, Ann ‘Sole Sister’ Johnson, Delita Martin Rabea Ballin, and Lovie Olivia and are also ...the fuel that burns their creativity for the body of work being produced for ROUX. “ No good soup starts without a good roux, and like roux is the base of traditional American sauces, the African American Matrilineal story is an integral base to American culture more specifically the base of our own families. We are detailing our identity through our interpretations of the information provided about our ‘Fore-mothers’ in hopes that the missing fragments will produce something magical. Our belief is that within these ‘vacancies’ resides the substance of the roux. Much of what is innate or inherited, known or unknown, offers a ghostly mystique to an already rich roux. Like recipes and stories are inherited, altered and passed down from generation to generation by granny-to-auntie-to-daughter-to-cousin-to-sister, so are traditional craft techniques, beauty codes, symbols, beliefs, rituals and practices. We wish to offer a contemporary take on the hand-made and the art of storytelling through Printmaking, both traditional and non traditional. In the interest of honoring our ancestors, we bend, stir, mix and alter that that has been given to us. - Lovie Olivia