fall 2022 studio update
Hey fam!
At long last I am launching a newsletter for the growing community of folks who are interested in following my art practice! Thank you so much for signing up. I am looking forward to sharing my work with you. Don’t worry, I won’t be flooding your inboxes. You can expect to hear from me 3-4 times each year as I share updates on recent and upcoming exhibitions, performances, publications, and collaborations. As my creative community continues to grow I also look forward to using this newsletter as a space to also talk about the artists whose work inspires me and amplifying the interventions they are making in the culture.
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Coming soon: Exhibitions in SF, Berkeley, and Cordoba
The end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 are looking as busy as ever, with four new shows opening on two continents. More information will be available soon on gallery websites, my website and IG, and upcoming editions of the newsletter, but for now please save the dates!
Salt to Catch Ghosts, a new group show curated by Ashara Ekundayo, is open now at Slash Art in San Francisco! The show features 8 other incredible artists who you should definitely check out: JOJO ABOT, April Bey, Kenturah Davis, Shanequa Gay, Adebunmi Gbadebo, Alexis McGrigg, Sabrina Nelson and brontë velez. It runs through December 17, 2022.
The Indigo Project, curated by Bushmama Africa and Isha Rosemond, will be up at SOMArts December 10, 2022-February 5, 2023. More details soon!
Remedios: Repair, Remediation, Healing opens in April 2023 at the Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía in Cordoba, Spain.
Rabbit Hole curated by Adrienne Ramsey will be opening at the Berkeley Art Center in August 2023. More details soon!
Recent performances / exhibitions
I recently conducted bone black, a ritual performance for the late black feminist writer and theorist, bell hooks/Gloria Jean Watkins (1952-2021). The piece featured fourteen live ritual readers reciting hooks’ prolific body of work, dancing, singing, crying, and ringing bells at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco, CA. Additional virtual readers were featured alongside videos of bell hooks. The event was sold out and 150 witnesses joined us as read hooks’ work, sang gospel music, prayed, meditated and celebrated the life and work of our black feminist ancestor. You can learn more and check out the photos on my website— and watch out! A video piece is forthcoming soon.
I have so much love and gratitude for all of the live and virtual readers who participated in bone black. I encourage you to check out their work and keep an eye on their future projects.
Live Readers: Amara Tabor-Smith, Channing Richmond, Sandra Richmond, Lauren Wheeler, Kiara Sample, Alie Jones, Carol Hedgspeth, Brandi Summers, Dayonna Tucker, Takiyah Franklin, Devon Lodge, Nadia Ellis, Sonia Whittle and Kiara Brown.
Virtual Readers: Jacqueline Francis, Angela Wellman, Crystal Wilkinson, Anima Adjepong, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Ashanté Reese, Traci-Ann Wint-Hayles, Gabrielle Civil, Rachel Chapman, Ayana Flewellen, Ra/Malika Imhotep, Lisa E. Harris, Erin Michelle Washington, Ashara Ekundayo, Danielle Mason, Natasha Gordon-Chipembere
Many thanks to the production crew: Khalil Anthony Peebles (creative director), Haldun Morgan (film crew lead), Arianne Benford (director of photography), Mateo Hinojosa (film crew), Josue Perez (film crew), Kesi Benford (production assistant) and my amazing art assistant, Sam McGinnis. Sound design for bone black was provided by my partner, Martín Perna, who recently finished scoring a forthcoming PBS American Masters documentary on Roberta Flack!
Endless thanks to each of bone black’s co-sponsors again and again for their support: MOAD, the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, the UC Berkeley African American Studies and African Diaspora Studies Department, the UC Berkeley Gender and Women’s Studies Department, and Bluma Flower Farms.
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This spring and summer, I had new solo and group exhibitions in Oakland and Havana. My Oakland solo show, Origins, ran April 10th-May 28th at the Black Music Incubator and featured a selection of photographs from my series, Soil and Solastalgia. Many thanks to Black Owned Spaces and the Black Music Incubator for their support.
Utopías Caribes, a group show exploring various visions of Caribbean “paradise” in the wake of colonialism, ran from June 3rd to July 29th at the Fototeca de Havana in Cuba. Many thanks to curators David Suárez and Alejandro Jiménez for inviting me to be part of this incredible exhibition. Check out the work of the other artists featured in the show: Albert Chong, Cedrik Isham, Dany del Pino Rodríguez, Edna Martínez, Ira Kononenko, Jennifer Rico, La Vulcanizadora, Luis Fernando Ramirez Celis, María Isabel Rueda, and Maximilian Julía.
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Just-in: Collaborations with Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens
In July, I had the pleasure of performing with the mighty Dragonfly in an eco-wedding organized by Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle. Over the last decade, Beth and Annie have curated a series of irreverent and radical eco-weddings that merge feminist performance art, queer theory, and environmental justice to consider how human beings might reorient our relationship to the earth through a politics of what they term “ecosexuality.” This year’s ceremony honored the element of fire. As our offering, Dragonfly and I performed Orisha Wedding, a performance that explores the relationship between Shango, the orisha of thunder, lightning, and fire and Oya, the orisha of wind, storms, and the guardian of the cemetery. Special thanks to Martín Perna for creating a beautiful soundscape for our performance! Please look out for more photos from the wedding soon; Orisha Wedding will be featured in Beth and Annie’s upcoming documentary film, Playing with Fire.
In related news, I’ve joined the board of directors at E.A.R.T.H. Lab SF, a new project dreamed up by Annie and Beth to produce Environmental Art, Research, Theory, and Happenings in collaboration with the Earth. We will be organizing lots of eco-sexy performances, gatherings, and events so stay tuned! It is such an honor to be part of the E.A.R.T.H. Lab and I look forward to sharing more of our work with you soon!
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That’s all I got for now! Thanks so much for following my work. I will have lots of new updates coming soon. Until then, be well and go make some art.
Peace.
c
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