YHS grad’s pictures featured in solo exhibition

A Yukon High School graduate’s pictures will likely be featured in an upcoming solo exhibition hosted by a non-profit arts middle in downtown Oklahoma City.

Artist Jakian Parks’ solo exhibition, “The Black Land”, will open this Thursday, Nov. 6 at Oklahoma Contemporary’s Mary LeFlore Clements Oklahoma Gallery.

The exhibition explores Black equestrian life and the deep historic relationship between Black Oklahomans and the land. Parks, who graduated from YHS in 2020, known as it an honor to convey this story to such a serious arts establishment.

During his time at YHS, he was a part of the yearbook crew and finally turned the top photographer.

“That experience really sparked my love for photography,” Parks stated. “I loved capturing the spirit of the coed physique from pep rallies and Friday evening soccer video games to the quiet moments in between.

“Photography became my way of telling stories and highlighting the people who make a place come alive. Those early experiences laid the foundation for everything I create today, blending culture, storytelling, and real-life emotion through the lens.”

Jakian Parks: The Black Land connects the previous and current, situating the American West as a residing archive and middle stage for Black cattlemen and cowboys alike.

Through Parks’ pictures, The Black Land envisions a layered construction, connecting the historic phases from Black captivity by to modern Black equestrianism.

Within this conceptual framework lies a sacred and congenital agricultural advantage, the place Oklahoma’s Black rodeo tradition turns into each image and setting for survival, resurgence and celebration.

The exhibition highlights the land as a fancy and enduring supply of wrestle and identification throughout the African American expertise.

For Black Americans, farmland evokes a lineage of compelled labor, sharecropping and ongoing challenges round possession and sovereignty. Yet The Black Land additionally affirms the experience and perception which have emerged from this proximity. Through its gestures and imagery, the exhibition means that ancestral spirits maintain the important thing to a deeply rooted data of plantation techniques, gardening traditions and livestock ranching.

Chloe` Flowers, visitor curator for the exhibition, stated, “The Black Land is a ceremonial parade of the admiration and respect we have for ourselves and our ancestors. The overlap between faith and forward action creates a supernatural progression for Black people. I hope viewers are able to see their reflections in the work and implement more advancement into their lives.”

Ritualistic practices — merging African and Christian traditions — kind the muse of cultural therapeutic that continues to maintain Black communities.

The images in The Black Land discover these rituals throughout all facets of Black cowboy tradition: on entrance porches, in gospel choirs, on horseback and in afternoons spent fishing. They embody a quiet grace that redefines historic narratives and contributes to a broader understanding of the American panorama, resisting the stereotypes traditionally imposed upon Black our bodies.

In talking concerning the course of behind creating the exhibition, Parks stated, “A cherished aspect of this process was learning more about the Black towns around Oklahoma. Visiting historical figures and lands to discover more about my own history was very inspiring. This pushed me to dig as deep as possible into Black archives.”

Parks grew up attending rodeos along with his aunt, Shay Nolan, and have become immersed in Black rodeo tradition from a younger age. Parks has beforehand promoted Black rodeo tradition by his work with the nonprofit Oklahoma Cowboys, together with collaborations with Pharrell Williams for the Louis Vuitton Men’s Fall-Winter 2024 Show in Paris, France, and a marketing campaign honoring Black History Month with bootmaker Timberland.

Jakian Parks: The Black Land will likely be on view from Nov. 6, 2025 by June 1, 2026 at Oklahoma Contemporary, 11 NW 11^th St. in Oklahoma City.