Public Programs

For her ongoing series The Beautyful Ones, artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby paints portraits of children, including members of her own family, derived from personal photographs. More recently, the series has focused on images taken during her frequent visits to Nigeria, where she lived until the age of sixteen.

On the occasion of the publication of a monograph on The Beautyful Ones, Akunyili Crosby is joined in conversation by writer Siddhartha Mitter, who authored a new essay for the book. They will reflect on the series’ complex history and weave together the social, cultural, personal, and political strands of its making. The discussion is followed by a book signing.

The event is co-organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art and The Studio Museum in Harlem. The Beautyful Ones is published by Victoria Miro. 

Tickets are required ($10 adults; $8 for members, students, seniors, and visitors with disabilities).

In a companion performance to her video Sensus Plenior, on view in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Jemison draws on the work of Étienne Decroux, who popularized mime in the mid-twentieth century and pitted physical movement against language. Jemison connects this history to mime ministry, which combines physical theater with gospel recordings and has become a fixture in churches with African-American congregations over the past two decades. Ultimately, Jemison asks: How we can use our bodies to amplify and extend the reach of speech?

Tickets are required ($10 adults; $8 members, students, seniors, and visitors with a disability).

Drawing on research for her recent paintings on view in the 2019 Biennial, Tomashi Jackson convenes this conversation about the long history of displacement and gentrification in New York City. Jackson’s project examines the destruction of Seneca Village, a free Black community that was razed in the 1850s for the creation of Central Park. The artist draws a parallel between this history and contemporary practices of redevelopment that rely on the targeted dispossession of Black and Brown property owners through the Third Party Transfer Program. 

This event is free but registration is required.