Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), San Francisco, CA Videos

Curator & Artist Talk | UNRULY NAVIGATIONS
Join us for a virtual discussion with UNRULY NAVIGATIONS artists Morel Doucet and M. Scott Johnson in conversation with curator Key Jo Lee.

Art History Crash Course: Art & Artists of the African Diaspora

Art History Crash Course: Art & Artists of the African Diaspora
Join California College of the Arts professor and dean of the Humanities and Sciences division Jacqueline Francis, for this two-session seminar examining the art and artists of the Black Atlantic.

ON VIEW NOW at MUSEUM OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA - Eugene’s Cove by Lishan AZ. In 1919, at a segregated beach on the south side of Chicago, 17-year-old Eugene Williams was stoned to death after floating across the color line in Lake Michigan. His drowned body echoes the millions of Black bodies thrown overboard during the middle passage—a reminder that our relationship with water continues to be shaped by racial violence and greed. Building on the legend of an underwater paradise prevalent throughout the African diaspora, Eugene’s Cove by Lishan AZ imagines an underwater world where victims of racial and colonial violence sank and became something more. Fugitive slaves who escaped by water and victims of police brutality embrace across time. They arrive at Black beaches today to find spaces of joy and affection. The images feature a community of Chicagoans submerged just blocks away from the beach where Eugene took his last breath. The portraits flow through scenes of majesty, surrender, and play to celebrate the ways we reclaim water as a source of freedom. Eugene’s Cove is AZ’s first solo museum exhibition. Learn more today: https://www.moadsf.org/exhibitions/eugenes-cove

Art As We See It | Indigo Kind of Blue

In the Artist's Studio | Bryan Keith Thomas
Bryan Keith Thomas was born in Dyersburg, Tennessee, and he received his Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1996. Thomas currently resides in Oakland, CA.

“In that shift, everything around us can change to. Our relationships change through our own self-definition. If I allow for my fullest expression and expansion, I become a son/sun.” Salimatu Amabebe’s first solo museum exhibition—SON—opens the door to reconsider the relationship between home, memory, and metamorphosis. The deep red interior, reminiscent of blood, invites reflection on the domestic space as one of close kinship ties, yet subject to dynamic change. The pewter casts in the space draw from the artist’s personal archive to preserve but also to probe the inherited lessons from his father including masculinity & movement. We observe how the inexactness of repetition acts as a productive improvisation of self-creation. Such gaps demonstrate how the memories we hold in our bodies enable performative acts of transfiguration & imagination. SON, co-curated by Salimatu Amabebe & Key Jo Lee, Chief of Curatorial Affairs & PublicPrograms at MoAD. Performers: NIC Kay, Gabriele Christian, Naike Swai. Music by: Zekarias Thompson. Custom Couture Outfit: Brandon Blackwood. Archived footage of John Awotongha and Ebinumo Amabebe. Learn more about SON today: https://www.moadsf.org/exhibitions/salimatu-amabebe-grass

In the Artist's Studio | Stephen Hamilton

In the Artist's Studio | Regina Herod
Regina Herod lives and works in Los Angeles. She initially studied theater in college and believes that those early years contribute to constructive forms that evolve within her visual arts practice. She earned her B.F.A at San Diego State University and her M.F.A from The Otis College of Art & Design. Her work examines historized trauma within the context of race, socio-economic disenfranchisement and systemic oppression. In sculpture, she conflates materials such as wood, wax, metal and paper as surrealistic metaphors, in order to re-imagine the relevance between current and colonized history and the emotional terrains and circumstance that remain.

In the Artist's Studio | Simone Bailey
Simone Bailey is an artist who utilizes sculpture, performance, and video in her practice. Her work is an interrogation of disembodied poetics and the impulse to grasp the intangible. Her practice focuses on perception, process, hybridity, ephemerality, desire, violence, and the impossible, all while maintaining an intimate proximity to blackness.

In the Artist's Studio | Sandy Williams IV
Sandy Williams IV is an artist and educator whose work generates moments of communal catharsis. Their conceptual practice uses time itself as a material and aims to unfold the hidden legacies of public spaces. Through ephemeral, malleable, and collaborative public memorials, Williams’ work unsettles popular colonial logics of permanence, uniformity, and displacement. This work creates participatory paths for communal engagement informed by targeted research and site-specificity: holding space for disenfranchised public memories and visualizing frameworks of emancipation and shared agency. While aesthetically Williams’ work flirts with minimalism, the practice is deeply interdisciplinary, and carefully layers contextual research, communal activity, collaboration, civic action, and performance. Their projects expand beyond the limits of the gallery toward public space: places of education and worship, fashion, virtual portals, and even upward to the sky. Williams’ work is guided by generations of freedom fighters who have dared to unsettle global colonial practices and the visible and invisible structures that sustain them.

In the Artist's Studio | Reyah
Reyah is a Los Angeles based, self-taught, emerging artist. Their thought-provoking and visually captivating photos have garnered attention from collectors, the entertainment industry, and art enthusiasts worldwide. As both the artist and subject, Reyah employs cultural references and iconography to create powerful narratives about identity, childhood trauma, religion, and the black body. Their art often features contrasting elements, blending darkness with light, tradition with modernity, and familiar with unfamiliar, as a means of self-expression and healing. Reyah's self-portraits serve as a catalyst for broader conversations about race, representation, societal constructs that shape our understanding of gender, and the human condition. Each introspective artwork prompts viewers to reflect on their own identities and experiences, igniting a profound exploration of self and fostering a deeper understanding of the universal human and the transformative potential of art.

ON VIEW NOW AT MUSEUM OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA — Nimah Gobir: Holding Space. Holding Space unveils a collection of intimate paintings that consider home, interiority, and belonging in the context of diasporic narratives. Through depictions of her family members and loved ones in everyday situations, Holding Space pauses for a poetic reflection on placemaking. Embroidery, pattern, and textile motifs convey the layered expressive textures inherent to family homes. This exhibition is a meditation on how homes are places that hold secrets, histories, and vestiges of loved ones. Join us for an Artist Talk & Reception with EAP awardee Nimah Gobir in conversation with Kija Lucas. Light refreshments and wine will be served. SAT, JUL 15, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM RSVP TODAY: https://www.moadsf.org/event/artist-talk-eap-presents-nimah-gobir-in-conversation-with-kija-lucas

Join us for a 2-part Virtual Symposium with MoAD's Cultural Critic-in-Residence Dr. Artel Great inspired by his recent publication Black Cinema & Visual Culture: Art and Politics in the 21st Century. Playing in the Dark is a two-day virtual symposium that takes an in-depth look at the newly released book Black Cinema & Visual Culture: Art and Politics in the 21st Century (Routledge), edited by Artel Great and Ed Guerrero. This illuminating symposium will feature presentations and panel discussions from key Black film scholars highlighting their vital contributions to the new book and providing timely insights into issues of race, culture, and the politics of contemporary Black cinema and media. Day One features: Dr. Michele Prettyman (Fordham University) and Dr. Adrien Sebro (UT Austin). Day Two features: Dr. Brandy Monk-Payton (Fordham University) and author Ytasha Womack. Each event will be moderated by MoAD's Cultural Critic-in-Residence Dr. Artel Great (SF State University). Get your tickets today: https://www.moadsf.org/event/moads-cultural-critic-in-residence-presents-playing-in-the-dark-exploring-black-cinema-visual-culture Your ticket will provide access to Parts One & Two in the evening on May 31st & June 1st. Both programs will be on Zoom from 6-8pm (PDT).

Ramekon O’Arwisters is a multimedia artist primarily known for his captivating freeform sculptures which experiment with vibrant color, repurposed ceramics, and rich traditions of quilting and weaving. Receiving his Master of Divinity from Duke University Divinity School, O’Arwisters carries a unique lens on spiritual traditions, and incorporates these healing methods within his artistic practice. In this exhibition, we have selected key sculptures from O'Arwisters’ studio that span several years of his formal experimentations and place them in conversation with his additional practice of black-and-white photography. As an extension of his conceptual process, these self-portraits employ a transference of materials from O’Arwisters’ sculptures to create a sharp and intimate dialogue with his own body. By entangling shards of broken clay, shredded fabric, and discarded materials, the artist contemplates the tangible nature of emotional trauma. Experiencing constant vulnerability as a Black and queer man from the American South, O’Arwisters explores dualities of protection and danger through building what he refers to as “cultural totems” in his work. O’Arwisters draws the viewer into his ethereal world, while withholding evident displays of his sorrow or joy. Instead, he insists on abstraction, and encourages the viewer to grapple with their own internal fears and wounds. Through a deeply meditative process, O’Arwisters pieces together what once was abandoned and neglected to reimagine the possibilities of collective liberation. ON VIEW NOW AT MUSEUM OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA — Ramekon O’Arwisters: Freeform and Razor-Sharp (@ramekon).

Art As We See It | Black Venus x Music
This series of conversations by MoAD Docents celebrates the art and rhythms of the African diaspora by pairing visual art with music. This month, our Docents feature works from MoAD’s current exhibition, Black Venus, and pair each piece with its own tune. Join this informal and engaging discussion as they explore the diverse representation of Black women in visual art and music, considering aesthetics, cultural context, and social impact and significance of the selected works.

In the Artist's Studio | Sharif Bey
Sharif Bey is a Syracuse-based artist and educator. Shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, Bey studied sculpture at The Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia. Later, he earned his BFA from Slippery Rock University, his MFA from the UNC Greensboro, and PhD (in art education) from Penn State University. His awards include: The United States Artist Fellowship, The Pollock-Krasner Fellowship, The New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and The J. William Fulbright Scholarship. Bey’s works are featured in several public collections including: The Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, The Carnegie Museum of Art, The Columbus Museum, The Dallas Museum of Art, The Mint Museum, Crocker Museum, The Wichita Museum of Art and The Belger Collection.

FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY—Don’t miss your last chance to catch Hat Matter: Thoughts of a Black Mad Hatter in San Francisco before the show heads to the East Coast! It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before. 7x7 says, “Michael Wayne Turner III is a star, and he is rising.” Hat Matter: Thoughts of a Black Mad Hatter is a one man show of hip-hop theatre, comprised of poems, stories, and monologues. Hat Matter uses movement and dance, accompanied by original classical string music, to explore the headspace of an American Black Dandy. Turner invites the audience into the dressing room of this Dandelion as he frolics about his foxhole making sense out of non-sense. Prepare your minds and hearts for a deeply thoughtful journey into themes of Love, Self-Worth, Community and the nature of our Humanity. This is a spring fundraiser benefitting MoAD’s exhibitions, artists, educational and public programs. March 25, 6:00PM-8:30PM at The Taube Atrium Theatre, San Francisco. BUY YOUR TICKETS TODAY: https://www.moadsf.org/event/hat-matter-thoughts-of-a-black-mad-hatter

In the Artist's Studio | Ayana V. Jackson
Ayana V. Jackson uses extravagant and assertive self-portraits to create counternarratives that respond to the visual representation of the Black body throughout history. By using her lens to deconstruct 19th and early 20th-century portraiture, Jackson questions photography’s authenticity and role in perpetuating socially relevant and stratified identities. Her practice maps the ethical considerations and relationships between the photographer, subject, and viewer, in turn exploring themes around race, gender, and reproduction. Her work examines myths of the Black Diaspora and re-stages colonial archival images as a means to liberate the Black body.

In the Artist's Studio | Aïda Muluneh
Born in Addis Ababa in 1974, Muluneh graduated from Howard University in Washington D.C with a degree from the Communication Department with a major in Film. Her photography has been published widely, and can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, Hood Museum, The RISD Museum of Art, and the Museum of Biblical Art in the United States. She was the 2007 recipient of the European Union Prize in the Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie in Bamako, Mali, the 2010 winner of the CRAF International Award of Photography in Spilimbergo, Italy, and 2018 CatchLight Fellow in San Francisco, USA. In 2019, she became the first black woman to co-curate the Nobel Peace Prize exhibition and in the following year, she returned as a commissioned artist for the prize.