Deborah Willis: Meditations on Civil War

Created in 2018 and 2020, Deborah Willis’ series of photographs, Meditation On Joan Baez’s Civil War, Sundays in Harlem and the Clothesline Series, are timely visual frameworks for understanding America’s past, present and future. In these works, Willis captures a past collective memory of conflict that reflects the present day, where the contemporary American political climate holds up a grim resemblance to the ills that gave rise to the Civil War.

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Ann Elizabeth Bennett

March 16, 1963 – November 15, 2024. Ann Elizabeth Bennett was an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker, multimedia producer, and devoted community advocate. Ann’s distinguished career in film and media was marked by her deep commitment to exploring the intersections of history, culture, disability, and technology within diverse communities. As a producer, she made significant contributions to projects such as the NAACP Image Award-winning PBS feature documentary, Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People, and the innovative multi-platform initiative Digital Diaspora Family Reunion (DDFR).

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Dr. Clifton R. Wharton Jr.

September 13, 1926 – November 16, 2024. The Honorable Dr. Clifton R. Wharton Jr. was a Black pioneer in four different fields: Foreign economic development, higher education, philanthropy and business. The first Black person to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company, Dr. Wharton was Chairman and CEO of TIAA-CREF, the nation’s largest pension fund with assets over $390 billion. When elected president of Michigan State University from 1970-78, he became the first Black person to lead a major predominantly white university in the United States.

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Ella Jenkins

August 6, 1924 – November 9, 2024. Ella Louise Jenkins, “the first lady of children’s folk song,” was born on August 6, 1924, in St. Louis, Missouri. Growing up on Chicago’s South Side, Jenkins loved all kinds of games, but adored those involving rhythm, movement and music. Despite never having any formal musical training. Jenkins became a first-rate composer and musician who plays the ukulele, the pipe organ, the harmonica and a wide variety of percussion instruments, in addition to singing.

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What Can Public Art Do? A Conversation with Kate Gilbert, Dr. Deborah Willis and Kimberly Bradley

In recent decades, art in the public space has become far more dynamic in its presentation, as well as increasingly visible, accessible, and sometimes provocative. What role does public art play in facing the challenges of our times? How can art best aid in building communities, affecting social change, or even resisting oppression? What could be, or should be, the future of public art?

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ARTnews Awards 2024 Lifetime Achievement: María Magdalena Campos-Pons

For more than three decades, María Magdalena Campos-Pons has used her body as a vessel in performances, photographs, sculptural installations, collages, and videos. A 2023 winner of the MacArthur “genius” fellowship, the artist has variously addressed motherhood, her family’s transnational heritage, and the hidden histories all around her, using objects and sites in her home country of Cuba to speak to painful generational memories of enslavement that linger on today. Across her multifarious body of work, she shows how the past is embedded in us, the people we hold dear, and the objects we collect.

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Kamala Her Historic, Joyful, and Auspicious Sprint to the White House

by Deborah Willis and Kevin Merida. Kamala is a beautiful tribute to Kamala Harris’s remarkable rise from District Attorney in California to her historic presidential run in 2024. Curated by Deborah Willis and Kevin Merida, this visually captivating book features nearly 150 vibrant photographs that capture the joy, challenges, and triumphs of Harris’s campaign. Rather than following a strict timeline, the book is thematically arranged into sections like “Family & Early Life,” “The Ascent,” and “Powerful Rooms.” Each section offers a unique perspective on Harris’s multifaceted life and career, complemented by insightful essays that place this pivotal election in context.

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Koyo Kouoh appointed curator of 2026 Venice Biennale

The Venice Biennale has for the first time appointed an African woman as the curator of its contemporary art festival. Swiss-Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh has been put in charge of the 61st edition of the Biennale Arte, which will take place in Venice from April to November 2026. Born in 1967 in Cameroon but educated through her teens and twenties in Zurich, Switzerland, Kouoh has since 2019 been executive director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) in Cape Town, South Africa, which holds the continent’s largest collection of contemporary art. A self-described “fundamental pan-Africanist”, she was previously the founding artistic director of Raw Material Company, an art centre in Dakar, Senegal.

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Glenn Ligon + Solange at the Edge of Reason…

What is artistic freedom for? How can we express our full selves in times of danger? Hear Glenn Ligon and Solange Knowles discuss their work and their many selves, the expansiveness of the artist, and the multiplicity in us all. In the second season of the podcast with Hauser & Wirth, explore the line where left-brain meets right-brain; where logic ends and creativity begins—beyond the edge of reason. Hosted by Jeff Chang.

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Afro Charities Archives

The AFRO American Newspaper emerged in 1892 in a post-Reconstruction era America, founded, financed and operated by entrepreneurs who had once been enslaved. Afro Charities — the organization that stewards the AFRO Archives, is proud to have first-hand access to the blueprints for our survival. The AFRO has persevered through Jim Crow, two World Wars, the Civil Rights Movement, and more. Afro Charities’ teacher and student trainings provide guidance on how to access the AFRO Archives remotely.

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