Caught in the Act: Desire, Womanhood, and the “Good Woman” in Nollywood Programmed by Gallatin MA Candidate Eliel Peterson, join NYU’s Center for Black Visual Culture for a screening of the 2008 Nollywood film Caught in the Act, directed by Charles Inojie and co-presented by Nolly Babes. The film follows separated twin sisters, played by Genevieve Nnaji, whose lives collide as one sister deals with an abusive mother-in-law, and the other, a life of crime. The screening will be followed by a conversation featuring Venessa Appiah, Jediael Peterson, and Baaba Annan, current doctoral scholars whose work engages questions of gender, identity, and visual culture. Together, the panelists will consider how Nollywood has represented women’s desire and agency, the cultural expectations attached to the figure of the “good woman,” and the ways African filmmakers use popular cinema to negotiate, and challenge, ideas of respectability, w...

Black Portraiture: Los Angeles The Black Built Environment Black Portraiture: Los Angeles: The Black Built Environment will examine the historicity and rich panoply encompassing the Black built environment, both physical and imagined. Exploring the concept and its relationship to photography, architecture, urban planning, and visual culture, artists have reconceived and reconstructed visions of our built environment while exploring themes conversant with the spiritual and ritualistic continuities of the African diaspora. Moreover, this convening will explore the artistic contributions to forms of memory, visual legacies of Black townships, and the charges of conceived spaces therein. The conference will present and encourage research and scholarship on continuities between modern and contemporary visual and structural approaches, centering the audacity of Black-built environments from within the Diaspora’s politics, architecture, art,...

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...

Where is the Care? In an art world characterized by transactional relationships, it can sometimes feel as though the demand for care arises from a moment of crisis rather than from a commitment to systemic change. In the conversation “Where is the Care?”, Dejha Carrington and Damien Davis will explore the processes through which care is rendered, interrogating the barriers and pathways that lead to a more interconnected and compassionate art environment. Carrington is the 2026–27 CBVC Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence and Co-Founder of Commissioner—a dynamic art program that runs on cooperative economics to fund artist commissions and collect art. Davis is a writer, educator, and artist whose current exhibition, “Hedges and Edges,” engages with identity, ritual, business, and community. Join us as we explore the structural frameworks fostering genuine support during these complicated times. Dejha Carrington is an arts leade...

Claude McKay, Wanderings of a Rebllious Poet Film Screening Virtual post-screening discussion and Q&A with French director Matthieu Verdeil and distinguished scholar Dr. Robert Reid-Pharr. This program is organized by the Center for Black Visual Culture and co-sponsored by NYU Institute of French Studies and NYU Department of Social and Cultural Analysis.Claude McKay, Wanderings of a Rebellious Poet (52’ - 2025 - english subtitles) film will be shared to all registrants via link to view in advance of the program. This film link will be available for 48 hours only.Claude McKay, Wanderings of a Rebellious Poet is a captivating voyage through the 1920s — from Harlem to Marseille, via Jamaica, Russia and Morocco — in the footsteps of Jamaican American writer Claude McKay. A rebellious voice of the Harlem Renaissance, Claude McKay spent two decades traveling the world, immersing himself in artistic and political avant-gardes whil...