Category Archives: BOOKS/PERIODICALS

PAUL MPAGI SEPUYA IN CONVERSATION

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The subjects in [my] early portraits were friends or acquaintances I was just getting to know, some of whom would become good friends, some with whom I would eventually lose touch. Some I have reconnected with. It was important in deciding to make portraits that they be of people with whom I desired friendship, platonic or romantic relationships. It was also a conscious decision that, regardless of the nature of our connection, the photographs would depict them as if they were, could be, or had been a lover. I wanted that kind of desire to be the foundation, to go all the way and then negotiate back. — Paul Mpagi Sepuya*

PAUL MPAGI SEPUYA—the artist’s first institutional monograph—is out now. Co-published by the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and Aperture, the book surveys Sepuya’s various photographic series over the last ten years, and features essays by Malik Gaines, Lucy Gallun, Ariel Goldberg, Lisa Melandri, Evan Moffitt, and Grace Wales Bonner, with an artist interview by curator Wassan Al-Khudhairi.

For a discussion presented by Printed Matter in anticipation of its forthcoming virtual book fair, Sepuya will join Al-Khudhairi in conversation. See link below to register for this online event.

PAUL MPAGI SEPUYA IN CONVERSATION

Printed Matter

Monday, December 14.

5 pm on the West Coast; 8 pm East Coast.

*“Interview with Paul Mpagi Sepuya by Wassan Al-Khudhairi,” in PAUL MPAGI SEPUYA (St. Louis: Contemporary Art Museum; New York: Aperture, 2020).

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, May 17, 2019–August 18, 2019; Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston, October 19, 2019–March 14, 2020. Organized by Wassan Al-Khudhaiti, chief curator, with Misa Jeffereis, assistant curator.

Paul Mpagi Sepuya, from top: Darkroom Mirror (_2070386), 2017; Self Portrait Holding Joshua’s Hand, 2006; A Portrait (0X5A6109), 2017; Mirror Study (4R2A0857), 2016; Studio Wall (_1000021), 2018; A Portrait (File0085), 2015 [Evan Moffitt]; Paul Mpagi Sepuya exhibition catalog cover courtesy and © Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and Aperture, image—Darkroom Mirror (_2060999), 2017 (detail)—© the artist; Paul Mpagi Sepuya, The Conditions, Team Gallery, New York, installation view—Sepuya’s Model Study (0X5A3973), 2017 at left—photograph by Jason Mandella, image courtesy the artist and Team Gallery; A Portrait (0X5A8325), 2018; Orifice (0X5A6982), 2018; Aperture (_2140020), 2018. Images © Paul Mpagi Sepuya, courtesy of the artist.

RACHEL MADDOW IN CONVERSATION

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Prior to 2016, Nixon’s vice president Spiro Agnew was perhaps the most corrupt member of a White House administration in American history. In Bag Man, Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz tell the story of a “criminal [who} spewed firebrand rhetoric to rile up his partisan base, branded the press as an enemy and dismissed investigations into his antics as ‘witch hunts,’ all to distract from a tawdry corruption scandal.”*

Maddow joins Michael Beschloss for an online discussion of the American polity—past, present, and future. See link below to register.

RACHEL MADDOW and MICHAEL BESCHLOSS IN CONVERSATION

Temple Emanu-el Streicker Center

Tuesday, December 15.

8:30 am on the West Coast; 11:30 am East Coast.

From top: Rachel Maddow, courtesy and © MSNBC: Maddow, Bag Man (2020) cover image courtesy and © Crown; Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew the day after their landslide re-election in November 1972, Bettmann Archive via Getty Images; Michael Beschloss, courtesy of the author.

ETEL ADNAN — SEASONS

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Yes. The shifting, after the return of the tide, and my own. A question rushes out of the stillness, and then advances an inch at a time: has this day ever been before, or has it risen from the shallows, from a line, a sound?

When we name things simply, with words preceding their meaning, a cosmic narration takes place. Does the discovery of origins remove the dust? The horizon’s shimmering slows down all other perceptions. It reminds me of a childhood of emptiness which seems to have taken me near the beginnings of space and time… — Etel Adnan*

ETEL ADNAN—SEASONS brings together new wool tapestries, leporellos, and paintings by the artist. These visual poems by the renowned colorist are on view in Manhattan in conjunction with the publication of Adnan’s new book Shifting the Silence.

See link below for details.

ETEL ADNAN—SEASONS

Through December 23.

Galerie Lelong & Co

528 West 26th Street, New York City.

See Lynne Tillman on Etel Adnan.

*Etel Adnan, Shifting the Silence (Brooklyn: Nightboat Books, 2020). Text © Etel Adnan, courtesy of the author and the publisher.

Etel Adnan, Seasons, Galerie Lelong & Co., October 29, 2020–December 23, 2020, from top: Liberté, 2017–18, wool tapestry; Terre de Feu, 2018, wool carpet; Planète 16, 2020, oil on canvas; Planète 17, 2020, oil on canvas; L’Olivier, 2019, wool tapestry; Danse Nocturne, 2019, wool tapestry; Planète 12, 2020, oil on canvas; Planète 8, 2019, oil on canvas; Au matin, 2017, wool tapestry. Images © Etel Adnan, courtesy of the artist and Galerie Lelong & Co.

THULANI DAVIS — NOTHING BUT THE MUSIC

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To celebrate the publication of Thulani Davis’ NOTHING BUT THE MUSIC, the poet, librettist, novelist, playwright, and scholar will join Tobi Haslett in conversation.

The book launch will also include musical performances by Roscoe Mitchell and Anthony Davis—joined by Thulani Davis—as well as readings by Daphne A. Brooks, Jessica Hagedorn, Fred Moten, and Greg Tate from NOTHING BUT THE MUSIC.

See link below to register for the online event..

THULANI DAVIS—NOTHING BUT THE MUSIC BOOK LAUNCH

Blank Forms

Thursday, December 3.

4:30 pm on the West Coast; 7:30 pm East Coast.

From top: Thulani Davis, photograph by Bastienne Schmidt, image © 1990 Bastienne Schmidt, courtesy of the photographer; Thulani Davis, Nothing But the Music (2020) cover image courtesy and © Blank Forms; Daphne A. Brooks, courtesy of the author; Jessica Hagedorn, photograph by Kate Simon, image © 1990 Kate Simon, courtesy of the photographer.

A NIGHT OF NATIVE NATIONS POETRY

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A poem opens up time, it opens up memory, it opens up place, the meaning of place, the meaning of … our place in history… At one point in the editing, we decided to read the whole manuscript aloud. That’s how I revise, so that’s what we did—we took it into our mouths and took it to our bodies. — Joy Harjo

To celebrate the publication of the Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, WHEN THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD WAS SUBDUED, OUR SONGS CAME THROUGH—edited by United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo—Santa Fe Poet Laureate Elizabeth Jacobson will host a reading from the volume.

Participants include Jennifer Elise Foerster, Layli Long Soldier, dg nanouk okpika, and Cedar Sigo. See link below for webinar details.

A NIGHT OF NATIVE NATIONS POETRY

Center for Contemporary Arts—Santa Fe

Thursday, December 3.

5 pm on the West Coast; 6 pm Mountain Standard Time; 8 pm East Coast.

From top: Joy Harjo, photograph by Shawn Miller, image courtesy and © the photographer and the Library of Congress; Jennifer Elise Foerster, photograph by Richard Blue Cloud Castaneda, image courtesy and © the author and the photographer; When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through (2020)—edited by Joy Harjo, with Leanne Howe and Jennifer Foerster—cover image courtesy and © W. W. Norton; Layli Long Soldier, image courtesy of the author; dg nanouk okpik, photograph by Bill Hess, image courtesy and © the author and the photographer; Elizabeth Jacobson, photograph courtesy of the author.