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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261002T180000
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SUMMARY:Holding Lightning The Life\, Loves\, and Art of Whitney Houston
DESCRIPTION:Holding Lightning The Life\, Loves\, and Art of Whitney Houston\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe 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. \n\n\nHolding 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 a fiercely self-possessed musician\, a woman of fluid sexuality\, and a tireless advocate for Black female talent across the entertainment industry. Kirkus Reviews called it a top-tier biography of a once-in-a-generation artist. In this conversation\, Lordi and Hadley will discuss Houston’s artistry\, her complicated relationship with fame\, and her rightful place in the long history of Black celebrity. \n\n\nEmily Lordi is a writer\, cultural critic\, and professor of English at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of three books on Black literature and popular music\, a writer-at-large for T: The New York Times Style Magazine\, and a contributor to NewYorker.com\, The Washington Post\, and others. She lives in Nashville\, TN. \nFredara Mareva Hadley\, Ph.D.\, is an ethnomusicology professor in the music history department at The Juilliard School\, where she teaches courses on ethnomusicology and African American music. Her work has been featured in academic journals and press including The New York Times\, The Washington Post\, and Billboard. Her commentary has appeared in documentaries including the PBS docuseries Gospel\, Little Richard: I Am Everything\, and the Emmy Award–winning docuseries The 1619 Project. Hadley’s upcoming book\, I’ll Make Me a World\, centers on the musical culture of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and its impact on Black music and beyond. \n\nRSVP \nDates:  October 2\, 2026 \nTime:  6:00 – 8:00 pm \nLocation: 20 Cooper Square 3rd Floor Lobby\, New York\, NY\, 10003 \n 
URL:https://cbvc.nyu.edu/events/holding-lightning-the-life-loves-and-art-of-whitney-houston
LOCATION:20 Cooper Square\, New York\, NY\, 10003\, 20 Cooper Square\, New York\, NY\, 10003\, United States
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DTSTAMP:20260824T000939
CREATED:20260818T153702Z
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SUMMARY:On Collecting and Memory Work with Dejha Carrington and Damien Davis
DESCRIPTION:On Collecting and Memory Work with Dejha Carrington and Damien Davis\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe 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.  \nDejha 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 of Art at New World School of the Arts at Miami-Dade College\, dividing her time between Miami\, Montréal\, and New York. \nDamien Davis is a Brooklyn-based artist and curator\, born in Crowley\, Louisiana and raised in Phoenix\, Arizona. His practice explores historical representations of Blackness\, unpacking the visual language of different cultures and questioning how those societies code and decode representations of race through craft\, design\, and digital modes of production. Using digital tools to shape layers of natural and synthetic materials\, Davis composes stories through a lexicon of graphic figures and shapes that move between personal memory and chapters of human history\, using color as both aesthetic and metaphor to create space for confronting bias and dehumanization in contemporary society. His work has appeared at the Metropolitan Museum of Art\, the Museum of Arts and Design\, The Whitney Museum\, and the Museum of Modern Art\, as well as METHOD Gallery in Seattle and Biagiotti Progetto Arte in Italy. He holds a Master’s degree in Visual Arts Administration from NYU and is the recipient of the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Community Engagement Grant\, with residencies at the Museum of Arts and Design\, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council\, and Pilchuck Glass School. Davis is a former fellow and current advisor for the Art & Law Program in New York City. His work has been featured in The New York Times\, Frieze Magazine\, The Guardian\, Hyperallergic\, and Vulture. \n\nRSVP \nDates:  October 20\, 2026 \nTime:  6:00 – 8:00 pm \nLocation: 20 Cooper Square 3rd Floor Lobby\, New York\, NY\, 10003 \n 
URL:https://cbvc.nyu.edu/events/on-collecting-and-memory-work-with-dejha-carrington-and-damien-davis
LOCATION:20 Cooper Square\, New York\, NY\, 10003\, 20 Cooper Square\, New York\, NY\, 10003\, United States
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