Getting stuck at the airport is often an interminable experience. It’s enough to pass through the welter of airport security, losing shoes and sometimes dignity to an impassive TSA crew, only to find oneself with few options for food aside from boiled-in-a-bag offal or questionable, plastic-entombed sandwiches.
     The culturally bereft limbo that exists between security’s point of no return and one’s boarding gate is a difficult terrain to navigate. It can be quite restorative, then, to discover something of value in that liminal space. Enter the art exhibit.
     LAX has Ball-Nogue Studios’ Air Garden, an installation of multicolor, metallic chains that reminded this writer of knitting or weaving done on a grand scale. The stars look very different at Miami International, where artist Ken Nintzel has sculpted a mixed-media experience with You Are Here—human and animal sculptures, studded with lights to represent the constellations of the night sky, hang overhead in a life-size stellarium.
     Today being Martin Luther King Day in America, FlyingTypers has decided to highlight an airport exhibit dedicated to the man who changed the face of America. Since the mid-1980s, Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, has hosted an art exhibit at Concourse E honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Titled Legacy of a Dream…Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the exhibit features—among other things—imagery from the famous Montgomery bus boycott, which launched a series of boycotts throughout the southern United States, fueling the Civil Rights Movement in America.
     Provided by the nonprofit King Center, formed in 1968 by Mrs. Coretta Scott King to memorialize Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and educate future generations about his contributions, the Legacy of a Dream exhibit at Concourse E is steeped in history. The permit for Dr. King’s March on Washington and a photo of President Ronald Reagan declaring MLK Day as a national holiday are on display, as well as the suit Dr. King wore to his meeting with President Lyndon B. Johnson. It’s also personal, with touches of the human throughout: visitors can see objects like Dr. King’s glasses and wristwatch, and the transistor radio that accompanied him on rallies and allowed him to listen to the news on the go. There are also family photos—Dr. King playing football with his sons, and images of his family at dinner together. Viewers will feel the exaltation of his greatest deeds while also glimpsing the pedestrian activities in which we all partake—a trip up to the firmament of change, and then back down to the grounded and familial.
     If you find yourself stuck in the purgatory between security and your next flight at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, head over to Concourse E and drink in a little history. The Legacy of a Dream exhibit is due for some updates and may even have something new to offer.
    Visit http://www.thekingcenter.org for more information about the King Center and its exhibits.
Flossie