Seton Hall University and the South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) combined efforts to bring a major Americans Who Tell the Truth show to South Orange, New Jersey for the month of October 2025.

This large collection, including fifty portraits, was hung in several venues across the Seton Hall Campus, with multiple special events throughout the month.

The exhibit opened off campus at The Herb + Milly Iris Gallery (SOPAC). This was “an evening of art, truth, and community dialogue,” featuring five AWTT portraits: Langston Hughes, Pete Seeger, John Lewis, César Chávez, and Sojourner Truth. The evening included a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Bryan Crable, Founding Dean of Seton Hall’s College of Human Development, Culture, and Media (CHDCM). Dean Crable was joined by Rev. Dr. Terry Richardson, artist Nette Forné Thomas, and John McEwen, Executive Director of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance. “Together, these dynamic leaders [explored] how truth-telling, civic courage, and creative expression continue to shape the social fabric of our communities.”

The next evening, Seton Hall hosted the on-campus opening at the school’s Walsh Library. A reception was followed by Seton Hall Chamber Choir’s performance of a CHDCM-commissioned composition, “Truth Be Told,” with music by Robert S. Cohen and text by Ronald W. Cadmus.

AWTT artist Robert Shetterly was pleased to be the innaugural guest artist of the university’s new initiative One College, One Exhibition (OCEO). He was in South Orange for both opening events, engaging with students in their classrooms during the day and speaking at that evening’s reception.

Other exhibit-related events included a doctoral-student presentation about their research on trauma and resilience; a lecture by Dr. Enmanuel Mercedes sharing his experience as a child immigrant, challenges faced by his family, and how these experiences influenced his journey as a mental health provider;  and a sports-centered presentation by Amy Rosenfeld about the relationship between live sports production, the Olympic Games, and acts of truth-telling by American athletes (such as Muhammad Ali).

Later in the month, Dionna Dorsey, a creative entrepreneur and nonprofit CEO, spoke about the relationship between art, truth-telling and self-creation. Her talk, inspired by the writer and AWTT protrait subject James Baldwin, was accompanied by a display of CHDCM undergraduate students’ artistic work.

The exhibit closed with a lunch and discussion led by Prof. Edmund Adjapong, discussing his latest book, Teach Like an MC: Hip-Hop Pedagogy in the K-12 Classroom. Adjapong encouraged educators to use different elements of Hip Hop to engage students, have them make meaningful connections and help them become advocates for change in their communities.

The university’s new initiative One College, One Exhibition aims to unite the CHDCM academic community through shared engagement with a curated art exhibition, one that speaks to core values of the College and Seton Hall’s historic Catholic identity and mission. . . . Nearly a year in the making, Bryan Crable, Ph.D., founding dean of the CHDCM, is excited to see this initiative come to life. ‘Our College’s strength is our unity-in-diversity,’ Crable said. ‘And, given the fantastic series of events linked to the exhibition, our community is highlighting critical intersections among the arts, communication, education, leadership and mental health — our key fields.’ He added, ‘I invite the College, University, and surrounding communities to help us celebrate Americans, past and present, who persevere, struggle and sacrifice in order to tell the truth, courageously and faithfully, in compassionate service to their communities, with love and with purpose, and hopeful for a brighter, more just future for all.’”