The Black Embodiments Studio

Summary

This microseminar is for graduate student “residents” of The Black Embodiments Studio, a critical arts writing incubator that explores enactments and criticism of black embodiments in contemporary art. Residents are immersed in models of writing on black embodiments that bridge academic and non-academic audiences, paying particular attention to the genre of exhibition catalogs and reviews. Residents practice their own writing voices, developing and workshopping one piece of their own short-form (600-2,000 words) arts criticism, meant to be published in outlets such as Art Practical, Performa Magazine, Art Lies, or the Jacob Lawrence Gallery publication Monday.

Residents are expected to visit Seattle museums and galleries exhibiting black art throughout the quarter. Residents also gain critical, intimate contact with artists, curators, and scholars whose work on black embodiments models the innovation, accessibility, and criticality that residents strive for in their own writing. One of the Winter Quarter guest residents is Chicago-based artist Danny Giles, whose performance, video, and sculptural practice addresses the dilemmas of representing and performing identity while interrogating histories of oppression and creative resistance.

Interested students should submit a two-page letter of inquiry as a PDF to Kemi Adeyemi (kadeyemi@uw.edu) by December 15, 2018. This letter should detail the applicant’s critical practice, how thinking through black embodiments may be generative to it, and what they hope to gain through the studio. Ten residents will be notified of their acceptance by December 22.

Meeting Times and Location

Sessions meet 2-4 pm in Communications 202:

• Friday, January 11
• Friday, January 25
• Friday, February 8
• Friday, February 22

Kemi Adeyemi (Assistant Professor of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies) is working on a book manuscript, New Grounds: Black Queer Women’s Geographies of Neoliberalism, that explores the sonic, affective, and embodied methods black queer women have for taking pleasure in the neoliberal city. She is co-editing Queer Nightlife, a collection that documents the diverse expressions of queer nightlife worldwide. Her recent publications span academic and arts audiences and include an essay in QED: A Journal of GLBTQ Worldmaking and exhibition catalog essays for black is a color (Los Angeles), Impractical Weaving Suggestions (Madison), and Endless Flight (Chicago). She earned a PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University in 2016.