Location: Virtual The kitchen is the hearth of the home; a convening space laden with memories that spring beyond the physical location, because the smells and flavors created there can themselves come to symbolize home. For Von Diaz, migration from the Caribbean coupled with family instability led to a life in transition; many homes, many kitchens; shifting tectonic plates of adaptation where meaning and identity were formed. In this talk, she’ll explore the 28 kitchens she’s had in her life—how tools, recipes, and techniques are archives of culture, and how kitchens are liminal spaces that enable us to bring home with us wherever we go. This event is part of our year-long exploration on the theme of “Home, What does it look like now?” How can we reconsider home in the 21st century as we cross states and borders seeking comfort, safety and identity? Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, state...

With Author Travis Atria joined by James Briggs Murray and Barbara Pierrat-Briggs  Location: Virtual Arthur Briggs is the most important name in jazz history you’ve probably never heard. Known as “The Louis Armstrong of France,” Briggs was among the most important musicians to bring jazz to Europe. Indeed, he had an uncanny ability to be where history was happening: from Harlem during the renaissance, to Paris during the Jazz Age, to a Nazi prison camp during WWII. He interacted with, and influenced, everyone from Django Reinhardt to the Prince of Wales. But Briggs’s life was about so much more than just music. His unbending sense of dignity led him to heroic acts during his imprisonment in the Nazi stalag at St. Denis, and his lifelong pursuit of racial justice make him a beacon for our age. In Better Days Will Come Again, this incredible story is told for the first time. Join...

A Conversation with Artists Sadie Barnette, Zalika Azim and Tyler Mitchell Home is a place of memory and belonging, but it is also a place of migration and instability.  Each of these artists' practices illuminate the reimagining of historical narratives as a means of interrogating colonial landscapes, family history, repression, and resistance, whether it be in an effort to understand or expand possibilities, or explore a new aesthetic of Blackness. We are so excited to have these three artists join us, first by presenting their work and then in conversation to explore the ways in which the very notion of seeking home is problematized. There will also be time for audience Q&A. This event is part of our year-long exploration on the theme of “Home, What does it look like now?” Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, state sanctioned violence against black bodies, the CBVC will explore the significant ways black...