Forum

Radical imagination and speculative futures animate this third and final emergency session of Art • Work • Place on Tuesday, June 16, 7–9 PM.

In the first hour of this forum, Kemi Ilesanmi, Tavia Nyong’o, Shani Peters, and Michael Rakowitz will discuss how to build an art world that centers BIPOC voices, tears down racist structures, and works toward decolonization. In the second hour, a town hall will begin with responses from M. Carmen Lane and Anni Pullagura, before opening to audience discussion.

Speakers:

Kemi Ilesanmi is the executive director of the Laundromat Project, in New York, a POC-centered organization that connects artists and communities.

Tavia Nyong’o is a professor of African-American Studies, American Studies, and Theater and Performance Studies at Yale University. He is the author of Afro-Fabulations: The Queer Drama of Black Life (2018).

Shani Peters is an artist and educator based in New York who also teaches at Parsons. She co-founded the Black School, an experimental art school that teaches radical Black history and art through workshops, public projects, design services, and exhibitions.

Michael Rakowitz is an artist based in Chicago. He is an associate professor in the Department of Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University.

Respondents:

M. Carmen Lane is an artist and facilitator based in Cleveland. They are the founder of ATNSC: Center for Healing & Creative Leadership, an artist-run space that offers workshops, residencies, and a gallery.

Anni Pullagura is a PhD candidate in the department of American Studies and an MA candidate in the department of the History of Art and Architecture at Brown University. She is currently a curatorial assistant at the ICA Boston.

A description and video documentation of the first two Emergency Sessions can be found here and here.

Organized by Nikki Columbus and Michelle Millar Fisher, with the PhD Program in Art History (CUNY Graduate Center), in collaboration with the James Gallery/Center for the Humanities (CUNY Graduate Center) and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics (The New School), where it is sponsored in part by the Helen Shapiro Lectureship.