12 – 1:30 pm
Join us for a meal prepared by local chefs and curator Niama Safia Sandy to celebrate the closing of In Plain Sight/Site. As we gather and eat together, Sandy will tell us about the geographic origins, migration stories, and cultural conditions that have influenced the foods, drinks and recipes, exploring different styles of preparation, flavoring and presentation. Food contributed by Ninth Square Market II Caribbean Style and Amazing Ackee. Many of the dishes served will be inspired by Indigenous and Black Diasporic cuisine developed through centuries of commercial relationships and cross cultural exchange.
1:45 – 2:45 pm
Following the communal meal, the Artist Talk will feature a screening of artist Coleman Collins’s 2-channel video, distancing, determining, (running time 30 minutes), which depicts the fraught futures created by centuries of transatlantic slave trade and the far-reaching power of “the hold”. Theorized by scholar and cultural critic Dr. Christina Sharpe, “the hold” presents “a way to think about how the semiotics of the slave ship, the hold, the weather — continues to position Black people globally in certain kinds of precarity.” Following the screening, Niama and Coleman will engage in a one-on-one conversation breaking down the film in context of the dialogues of In Plain Sight/Site.
3:00 pm
Performance of Hairpiece/peace by In Plain Sight/Site exhibiting artist James Ari Montford. This performative piece celebrates Indigenous people’s rituals around hair and its connection to the spirit world. It is sacrifice is a form of renewal and serves to create a celebratory blessing for the exhibition.