This retiree found his artistic purpose by reclaiming Black narratives
Artist J. Stacey Grayson believes in exploring multiple lives within one lifetime. After retirement from higher education and now at the age of 64, he has embraced his next phase as a blossoming artist.
He now focuses on the retelling of Black American stories in a creative visual format.
Grayson’s new solo, mixed-media exhibition “Ancestral Remix: Rhythms, Reflections and Fragments” premiered Nov. 6 at the Fulton County Central Library.
“I always liked doing art that represented Black people: Black women, Black family, the colors, the rhythms and the patterns,” he said. “As I was trying to put this show together, I was trying to look for what the common thread was. The common thread, to me, spoke to the African influence.”
Grayson grew up in Orangeburg, South Carolina, but he was pulled to Atlanta when he decided to attend Morehouse College. After graduating, Grayson said he wanted to stay in the area because he liked its “big city charm, but small town ways.”
Grayson always had a creative edge that hadn’t fully been pursued. In his youth and throughout college, he explored drama and the performing arts. After graduating from Morehouse, he dabbled in the Atlanta film scene, but mostly worked on the administrative side of the industry. Eventually, he found his way into education after considering it to be a more stable career option.
Grayson tiptoed into the visual art scene by taking classes at the Harriett G. Darnell Senior Multipurpose Center. He was able to explore pen and ink and collaging. Once he retired from event planning at the School of Computer Science at Georgia Institute of Technology, he fully dove into becoming an artist.
“I’m starting over, but it was all fun because I was waking up in the morning and doing what I really enjoy doing,” Grayson reminisced.
At the age of 62, he had his first solo show, a Black History Month event through the DeKalb County Library that stretched through multiple branch locations.
“After that, opportunities just started coming,” Grayson said.
The current show, “Ancestral Remix,” features dozens of hypnotic paintings and textured collages looped through the Fulton County Central Library basement. Vibrant earthy colors and jewel tones mesh together to create a warm environment, synonymous to a family reunion. Central figures boast their rich melanin and proudly display cultural customs through gravity-defying hair designs. A Black power fist hides behind a curtain of copper pennies. Raised images shift depending on the angle the viewer takes.
Grayson says uplifting Black American heritage is a way of reclaiming the history and dispelling myths that Black people needed to be saved.
“It really means a lot to me when I see movements that are helping us learn our history and reclaim our roots and get us back to some of the things that help us as a community suffer through Jim Crow, slavery, the Trump era because we have to,” he said. “We can’t give up. We haven’t given up all this time.”
Grayson added the efforts to erase Black history are rooted in intimidation.
“There’s a rich history that I think people have never been exposed to about our ancestral roots. And I think some people know it more than we know it, which is why they do a lot to try to suppress it.”
On the fabric collage “Sunday in Kazembe,” Black people are seen strolling down a city street, decorated with colorful skyscrapers wrapped in various prints. A drop-top Cadillac-inspired car rolls down the street, implying wealth and pride. Children are hand-in-hand with their parents, and shoppers saunter with multiple bags as a plane takes off into the horizon.
Grayson’s artwork pushes to reinforce Black American history that he feels has been politically minimized and displaced.
“The birthplace of civilization is in Africa. So, certain people knew where to go to get the most creative, the most industrious,” Grayson said. “That’s why we were chosen, if you will. Some other folk couldn’t do what we did and still can.”
Then, Grayson touches on the humanity and familial ties of Black American culture.
In the canvas piece “Grandma Passing the Torch,” a little girl sits in a garden with an elderly woman who attempts to give the girl direction. Flowers on vines drape over a white picket fence and luscious trees canopy the duo.
“The Village” showcases the diversity of Black people within one town. Various outfit prints cohesively wash together in a whirlwind of colors.
“This looks like the village, and the village is family,” Grayson said.
“Ancestral Remix: Rhythms, Reflections & Fragments” will be featured as part of an artist meet-and-greet at the Fulton County Central Library on Saturday, Dec. 13, and on display until February 2026.
IF YOU GO
“Ancestral Remix: Rhythms, Reflections and Fragments” Artist Meet and Greet
2-4 p.m. Sat., Dec. 13. Fulton County Central Library. fulcolibrary.com
About the Author
Brooke Leigh Howard is a reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Black culture team, UATL.
