Texas Folklife invites you to the exhibit opening of “The Upshaws of County Line.” This exhibit features photographs and oral history collected by documentary photographer Richard Orton between the years of 1988 and 2009. This collection follows the Upshaws, an African-American family in the rural East Texas Community of County Line. The exhibit couples photographs with quotations form Upshaw family about their experiences living in a “freedom colony.” Orton’s book by the same name serves both today’s reader and posterity well by creating these turn-of-the-twenty-first-century images of an American family, still influenced by the initiative of their nineteenth-century ancestors.
Texas Folklife is also pleased to announce that the photographer/author Richard Orton and community member Elia Ali will be in attendance at this event to discuss the photographs.
Come out to see this exhibit and experience the Upshaws story at the gallery opening May 10th, 2018 from 6:00PM to 7:30PM!
To learn more about this exhibit and Orton’s work, please visit
this article from the Southwestern Historical Quarterly.
Parking Information:
Parking is available in Texas Folklife’s gravel driveway, on street immediately in front of building, and Asterra Properties (located next door). Overflow parking available at Recycled Reads (5335 Burnet Rd). Please use spaces in the back or on the south side of the Recycled Reads building.
This event and exhibit are made possible in part by the board and members of Texas Folklife, and by grants from the Texas Commission on the Arts with an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art, and the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department. Exhibit courtesy of Stephen F Austin State University and Richard Orton. Installation by Rebecca Bingman.
