Holding Lightning The Life, Loves, and Art of Whitney Houston The Center for Black Visual Culture welcomes author and cultural critic Emily Lordi for a talk and signing of her new biography, Holding Lightning: The Life, Loves, and Art of Whitney Houston, in conversation with ethnomusicologist Dr. Fredara Hadley. Drawing on unprecedented access to Houston’s inner circle, Lordi reframes the icon known as “The Voice” as a serious artist and woman of conviction who insisted on being the architect of her own career. Join us for an evening that places Whitney Houston’s life and legacy within the larger history of Black celebrity. Holding Lightning: The Life, Loves, and Art of Whitney Houston is the first major biography of an artist whose soaring voice defined a generation and helped open the door for Black women in pop music. Lordi moves beyond the familiar narrative of Houston as a tragic figure shaped by others, instead revealing...

On Collecting and Memory Work with Dejha Carrington and Damien Davis The Center for Black Visual Culture's 2026–27 Distinguished Artist-Scholar-in-Residence Dejha Carrington is joined in conversation by Brooklyn-based artist and curator Damien Davis. Carrington, co-founder of the collective art-collecting model Commissioner, and Davis, whose work reimagines cultural symbols to interrogate identity and history, will explore how art collecting practices and artistic production intersect as forms of memory work.  Dejha Carrington is an arts leader. In 2017, she co-founded Commissioner, a collaborative model and social practice that brings locals together to support contemporary artists and collect art in their cities. As Executive Director, she has cultivated a community of over 850 members to date, collectively funding more than 50 curated artist commissions in Miami, Detroit, Montréal, and Mexico City. From 2015 to 2022, she served as Vice President of Strategic Communications for YoungArts. She is CBVC’s 2026–27 Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence and teaches the Business...