Express Newark at Rutgers University-Newark is hosting Black Portraiture: Play and Performance, the seventh annual Black Portraiture Conference from Thursday, February 17 to Saturday, February 19, 2022. The three-day conference explores the theme of play and performance in past and contemporary African diasporic art and performance and will conclude with a series of groundbreaking keynote
Rutgers University–Newark and The Newark Museum of Art will host the seventh annual Black Portraiture Conference from Thursday, February 17 to Saturday, February 19, 2022. Our theme for the conference is Play and Performance, which explores the role of “play” in past and contemporary African diasporic art and performance. Thursday, Feb 17 & Friday, Feb
2021-2022 marks the 75th Anniversary of Rutgers University-Newark’s designation as a public institution of higher education. In this 75th anniversary, as our nation reckons with deep racial, political, and ideological fracture, our University is once again called upon, as a public, anchor institution, to provide a space for critical conversation that can lead toward understanding,
Join us this Sunday, July 10th, for THE BLACK GIRL TAKEOVER, a day-long festival full of intimate conversations & immersive workshops inspired by the landmark exhibition, Picturing Black Girlhood: Moments of possibility co-curated by @sherphotographs & @zoraida365 The event is free and open to the public and all are welcome. Black Girl Takeover Sunday, July 10th 9am – 5pm REGISTER
Inspired by scholar Kevin Quashie’s recent book, Black Aliveness, or a Poetics of Being, Express Newark's year-long programming of art installations, immersive films, public lectures, and community classes, reflects how the concept of Aliveness can be an innovative and timely exploration of contemporary art, racial freedom, and environmental justice. On Thursday, February 2nd, as part
"Humanities Action Lab Hosts 2023 National Convening: "Communities Joining Forces" to Address Climate Crisis The Humanities Action Lab is calling upon organizers, scholars, and students from ten communities at the forefront of the climate crisis to unite for the 2023 National Convening, themed "Communities Joining Forces." This event, scheduled for October 26, 2023, from
“Blues People has always meant a great deal to me. It was a dramatic self-confirmation, as a personal intellectual and artistic ‘presence,’ but also as the expression of a set of ideas and measures that I have carried with me for many years. Most, even until today.” —Amiri Baraka Inspired by the 60th anniversary of
Newark Master Plan & Street Views Cesar Melgar Born in Newark, Cesar Melgar presents twenty-five digital c-prints from his series “Newark Master Plan.” With the black-and-white photographs taken between 2018 and 2022, Melgar prompts viewers to consider the frequency of Notice of Public Hearing Banners appearing on homes, commercial spaces, and landmarks throughout the city.
The Holdout II Derrick Adams With “The Holdout II,” Adams revisits a social sculpture that he initially debuted at Alijira: A Center for Contemporary Art in Newark in 2015. Now, using a house-like structure and the format of a pirate radio station, “The Holdout II” is hosted by Sister From Another Planet (Andrea Rose Clarke,
Who We Be Adama Delphine Fawundu Delphine Fawundu revisits her experimental video “Who We Be,” which follows performer James “Biggie Flighter” Benjamin Lewis, through Freetown, Sierra Leone, in West Africa. The film becomes a sonic collage blending verses, instrumentals, and speeches exploring the African Diaspora's linguistic diversity. Here, Fawundu also debuts the wallpaper “Who We
Occupying Wall Street & Covid Journals Accra Shepp Weaved throughout the main floor of Express Newark is Accra Shepp’s “Occupying Wall Street,” an installation that features nineteen black-and-white portraits from his documenting of New York City’s 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement. Using a large-format view camera, this was Shepp’s first foray into documentary photography. Here,
At the Bottom of the Atlantic Ocean There's a Railroad Made of Human Bones Adebunmi Gbadebo After losing her mother, Brenda Ravenell, to COVID-19 in 2020, Adebunmi Gbadebo traveled to the True Blue Plantation, where her ancestors were enslaved in Fort Motte, South Carolina. Connecting with her cousin, Jackie Whitmore, Gbadebo created a memorial for
