In seiner Serie Afro-Iran stellt der deutsch-iranische Fotograf Mahdi Ehsaei (*1989) eine Facette des Iran vor, die selbst Einheimischen weitgehend unbekannt ist: Im Süden des Landes gibt es eine ethnische Minderheit, die das Erbe ihrer afrikanischen Herkunft in Kleidungsstil, Musik und Tanz sowie in ihren mündlichen Überlieferungen und Ritualen bis heute aufrecht erhält und so die Kultur der gesamten Region beeinflusst hat. Für sein Projekt reiste Ehsaei in die südiranische Provinz Hormozgan am Persischen Golf, der Heimat der Nachfahren von Sklaven und Händlern aus Afrika. In dieser Gegend, reich and Traditionen und Geschichte, lebt einer der ethnisch vielfältigsten Bevölkerungsanteile in einer einzigartigen Landschaft. In seinem Buch präsentiert Ehsaei zahlreiche überraschende Porträts, die dem landläufigen Bild vom Iran nicht entsprechen. "Afro-Iran" zeigt vielmehr Details, die die Jahrhunderte alte Geschichte einer Bevölkerungsgruppe dokumentieren, die in der Geschichtschreibung des Iran häufig vergessen wird und die doch die Kultur des Südens entscheidend geprägt hat.

PRE-ORDER: On Sale Date: August 6, 2024

Learn more about Brujería, the set of practices and rituals found in traditional Latin American mysticism with this mini guide.

Developed over centuries and influenced by Indigenous, Caribbean, African, Latin, and European culture, Brujería has a unique history. This beautifully illustrated introduction will outline the primary methods, practices, rituals, tools, and terms used in Brujería. Learn about limpias, mal de ojo, crystals, cleanses, astrology, and so much more in this enchanting guide.

Fifteen contemporary artists engage with the notion of space within Black culture

Following the eponymous exhibition at Gray Gallery, this publication gathers a selection of multimedia works by 15 artists exploring historical and emergent instances of Black space, including contributions by Dawoud Bey, McArthur Binion, Nick Cave, Coco Fusco, Theaster Gates and Rashid Johnson.

An affordable, compact primer on the artist who drastically shifted the course of late 20th-century art

This reader provides a concise introduction to the widely popular yet oft-misunderstood artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Guided by the steady hand of Basquiat scholar Larry Warsh, it is one of the few books of this kind to be directly approved by the artist’s estate and family: a notable distinction amid all of the buzz.
Jean-Michel Basquiat Handbook begins with a portrait of the young Basquiat, from his years as a precocious child in Brooklyn, to his rebellious teenagedom, to his meteoric rise in fame, to his tragic early death. The book then discusses the development of his groundbreaking style through the recurrent themes of his practice: urban life, the human figure, music and sports, to name just a few. The backend of the book provides a sampling of sketches from Basquiat’s notebooks, a chronology and incisive essays from scholars Henry Geldzahler and Henry Louis Gates Jr.
One of the first African American artists to reach international stature and wealth in the art world, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–88) was celebrated for his fusion of multicultural symbols, social commentary and distinctive graphic style. He has been the subject of numerous exhibitions across the globe, and his work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, among many others.

PRE-ORDER ONLY. Will ship on April 23, 2024.

A comprehensive look at the early career of a rising star in contemporary Black portraiture

This is the first monograph on the practice of young American painter Khalif Tahir Thompson (born 1995), who will receive an MFA from the Yale School of Art in the spring of 2024. With several solo exhibitions and artwork in museum permanent collections, Thompson is already prolific. His paintings are populated by Black figures set in colorful, shimmering environments that sometimes resemble patchworks verging on abstraction. They incorporate multiple materials apart from oil and acrylic, including handmade paper, pearls, fabric, velvet, newspaper and leather. Whether isolated or in a group, candid or posed, each figure is imbued with an innate identity. Says Thompson of his work: "I believe painting can be a tool in considering the emotional, psychological complexity of an individual's story and identity ... I alter perception and invoke empathy towards my subjects, depicting their reality across a visceral lens."

A lively and gift-worthy introduction to the biggest names and works in Black figuration

This visual gift book introduces readers to the field of Black figuration by highlighting key works from the National Portrait Gallery exhibition The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure. The selections included in this brief introduction are beautiful, urgent works by 22 contemporary Black figurative artists that present the Black form with nuance and depth. Each artwork illustrated is accompanied by a short biography of the artist and quotes about their own creative proccess. Their quotes about their own creative process are juxtaposed with excerpts from influential Black writers such as Langston Hughes and W.E.B. DuBois.
This publication offers an opportunity for readers to experience some of the most exciting artworks by Black artists depicting the Black form. Within this context, the book takes on a dual role: as the accomplished work of individual artists on the one hand, and as a collective assertion of Black presence on the other.
Artists include: Hurvin Anderson, Michael Armitage, Jordan Casteel, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Noah Davis, Godfried Donkor, Kimathi Donkor, Denzil Forrester, Lubaina Himid, Claudette Johnson, Titus Kaphar, Kerry James Marshall, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Chris Ofili, Jennifer Packer, Thomas J. Price, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Lorna Simpson, Amy Sherald, Henry Taylor and Barbara Walker.

PRE-ORDER ONLY. Will ship on July 16, 2024.

Both personal and universal, Harris’ multimedia works weave together legacies of family dynamics, racial discrimination and queer histories

Gathering photographs and installations from both his celebrated and lesser-known series, Our First and Last Love charts new connections across the artistic practice of New York–based artist Lyle Ashton Harris (born 1965). Inspired by his adolescence divided between New York City and Dar es Salaam, Harris explores the complexities of African and African American collective identity while forging his own personal narrative as a queer Black man. The retrospective exhibition chronicles Harris’ approach to representation and self-portraiture while tracing central themes and formal techniques in his work over the last 35 years. Central to this collection are Harris’ most recently completed pieces. Titled Shadow Works, these multimedia assemblages set photographic prints amid Ghanaian funerary textiles, shells, pottery and locks of the artist’s hair. In the exhibition and the corresponding catalog, the pieces function as starting points for thematic groups of Harris’ other works. Juxtaposed with handwritten notes and family photographs, these arrangements underscore Harris’ layered approach to his practice.

Black figuration and portraiture as realized in the works of Amy Sherald, Jordan Casteel and other contemporary artists

“There is never a time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment, the time is always now,” wrote James Baldwin. Published in conjunction with the eponymous exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London, The Time is Always Now is edited by curator Ekow Eshun, former director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. The book brings together 22 contemporary African diasporic artists working primarily in the United Kingdom and the United States, whose practices―whether through painting, drawing or sculpture―foreground the Black figure. Acknowledging the paradox of race as both a “socially constructed fiction” and a “lived reality,” as Eshun writes, The Time is Always Now celebrates these Black figurative artworks against a background of heightened cultural visibility. Through a three-part structure, this book examines Black figuration as a means to address the absence and distortion of Black presence within Western art history. Each artist receives a detailed biographical profile alongside reproductions of their included works. The catalog is also supplemented by three original essays from Dorothy Price, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Critical Race Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art; Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize–winning author of Girl, Woman, Other; and Esi Edugyan, two-time Giller Prize winner for her novels Half-Blood Blues and Washington Black.

Artists include: Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Hurvin Anderson, Michael Armitage, Jordan Casteel, Noah Davis, Godfried Donkor, Kimathi Donkor, Denzil Forrester, Lubaina Himid, Claudette Johnson, Titus Kaphar, Kerry James Marshall, Wangechi Mutu, Chris Ofili, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Jennifer Packer, Thomas J. Price, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Lorna Simpson, Amy Sherald, Henry Taylor, Barbara Walker.

PRE-ORDER ONLY. Will ship on August 27, 2024.

Updated documentation of The Theater of Refusal on the exhibition's 30th anniversary

In 1993, at the University of California, Irvine, Charles Gaines and Catherine Lord mounted a category-breaking exhibition of Black artists from different generations, working across Fluxus, Conceptualism, assemblage, photography and installation. Challenging the racializing of Black artists’ work, the exhibition confronted the discourse around race difference in the United States by including excerpts of writing by art critics who had discussed the featured artists. On the 30th anniversary of this event, this publication reprints the eponymous 1993 volume documenting the show, which contained essays by Gaines, Lord and Berger, and the transcript of a roundtable of artists and writers. Reproducing images of the exhibition in color for the first time, this new edition augments the original publication with an essay by poet and scholar Fred Moten; recent conversations between Lord and Gaines; an interview with Gaines by Moten; and a new roundtable discussion moderated and edited by curator Jamillah James and Thomas (T.) Jean Lax.
Artists include: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Renée Green, David Hammons, Ben Patterson, Sandra Rowe, Gary Simmons, Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems.

PRE-ORDER ONLY.  Will ship on May 7, 2024.

Twenty years after its first release, and a decade since the most recent edition, this timeless, definitive volume on sneaker culture is finally back in print. Lavishly illustrated and remarkably comprehensive, Where'd You Get Those? is an insider's account that traces New York City's sneaker culture back to its earliest days. Describing how a small and dedicated group of sneaker consumers in the 1970s and early '80s proved instrumental in establishing current corporate giants such as Nike and Adidas, sneaker aficionado Bobbito Garcia writes with exactitude and affection.

Chronicling the rise of sneakers through the lean years of the '60s, the bulk of the book examines nearly 400 sneakers released in the golden years of 1970-87, via information-packed entries for each model, including all color combinations available, nicknames of particular shoe models, relevant athlete endorsements, and running commentary and stories from a rogues' gallery of fanatics who weigh in on the pros and cons of each sneaker. Through lifestyle chapters such as "Arts and Crafts" (which details the process of customizing sneakers) and "Thou Shalt Not" ("The No-Nos of New York Sneakers"), Where'd You Get Those? interrogates this enduring subculture from every angle. This 20th anniversary classic edition features the cover artwork from the first edition, as well as essays collected from the 10th anniversary edition.

New York City native Bobbito Garcia (born 1966) is a writer, DJ, photographer, filmmaker and basketball player. Often credited as the first sneaker journalist, Garcia penned his landmark Source article "Confessions of a Sneaker Addict" in 1990 and has been documenting the culture ever since.

PRE-ORDER ONLY. Will ship on June 18, 2024.

A major survey chronicling Thomas’ vibrant, rhinestone-adorned paintings

New York–based artist Mickalene Thomas’ critically acclaimed and extensive body of work spans painting, collage, print, photography, video and immersive installations. With influences ranging from 19th-century painting to popular culture, Thomas’ art articulates a complex and empowering vision of womanhood while expanding on and subverting common definitions of beauty, sexuality, celebrity and politics. This major survey publication further affirms Thomas’ status as a key figure of contemporary art. It features notable works that are arranged in thematic chapters throughout the book.
The book also features an interview with the artist by Rachel Thomas, and is followed by essays from Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Darnell L. Moore, Claudia Rankine, Ed Schad, T.K. Smith and Christine Y. Kim, which cover her distinct visual vocabulary, drawing on themes of intergenerational female empowerment, autobiography, memory and tenets of Black feminist theory. In particular, they explore how Thomas subverts art history to reclaim the notions of repose, rest and leisure in works that celebrate self-expression and joy. For the artist, repose is a radical act, pointing to "what is able to happen once you have the agency."
Mickalene Thomas (born 1971) is an international, award-winning, multidisciplinary artist whose work has yielded instantly recognizable and widely celebrated aesthetic languages within contemporary visual culture. She is known for her elaborate portraits of Black women composed of rhinestones, acrylic and enamel.

How modern and contemporary artists across the African and Caribbean diasporas transformed European Surrealism into a tool for Black expression

On the centennial anniversary of André Breton’s first Surrealist Manifesto, Surrealism and Us shines new light on how Surrealism was consumed and transformed in the Caribbean and the United States. It brings together more than 50 works from the 1940s to the present that convey how Caribbean and African diasporic artists reclaimed a European avant-garde for their own purposes.
Since its inception, the Surrealist movement―and many other European art movements of the early 20th century―embraced and transformed African art, poetry and music traditions. Concurrently, artists in the Americas proposed subsets of Surrealism more closely tied to African diasporic culture. In Martinique, Aimé and Suzanne Césaire proposed a Caribbean Surrealism that challenged principles of order and reason and embraced African spiritualities. Meanwhile, artists in the United States such as Romare Bearden and Ted Joans engaged deeply with Surrealist ideas. These trends lasted far beyond those of their European counterparts. Indeed, the term “Afro-surrealism” was created by poet Amiri Baraka in 1974; today the movement still flourishes in tandem with Afrofuturism. The Surrealism and Us catalog is divided into three themes: “To Dare,” “Invisibility” and “Super/Reality”. These sections, galvanized by scholarly essays, create transnational and multi-generational connections between Black life and artistic practice over the past 100 years.
Artists include: Firelei Báez, Agustin Cárdenas, Myrlande Constant, Rafael Ferrer, Ja’Tovia Gary, Hector Hyppolite, Ted Joans, Wifredo Lam, Simone Leigh, Kerry James Marshall.

PRE-ORDER: On Sale Date: September 10, 2024

Growing up in Seale, Alabama as a Black Queer kid, then attending the Rhode Island School of Design as an undergraduate, Jon Key hungered to see himself in the fields of Art and Design. But in lectures, critiques, and in the books he read, he struggled to see and learn about people who intersected with his identity or who GOT him. So he started asking himself questions:

What did it mean to be a graphic designer with his point of view? What did it mean to be a Black graphic designer? A Queer graphic designer? Someone from the South? Could his identity be communicated through a poster or a book? How could identity be archived in a design canon that has consistently erased contributions by designers who were not white, straight, and male?

In Black, Queer, & Untold, acclaimed designer and artist Jon Key answers these questions and manifests the book he and so many others wish they had when they were coming up. He pays tribute to the incredible designers, artists, and people who came before and provides them an enduring, reverential stage – and in so doing, gifts us a book that takes its place among the creative arts canon. 

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Camo, by photographer Thandiwe Muriu, is the first publication to chronicle the work of this international artist, celebrating the vibrant portraits she creates that combine cultural textiles and beauty ideologies. Muriu takes us on a colorful, reflective journey through her world as a woman living in modern Kenya as she reinterprets contemporary African portraiture. 

As the sole woman operating in the male-dominated advertising photography industry in Kenya, Thandiwe Muriu has repeatedly confronted questions around the role of women in society, the place of tradition, and her own self-perception. These experiences inspired her personal project of cultural reflection: the Camo series. Camo was the catalyst for her to push new boundaries in her photography, leading her into a deeply personal artistic journey.

The compelling, fully saturated photographs in this collection confront issues surrounding identity while seeking to redefine female empowerment through Muriu’s choice of materials. These constructed images are not digital manipulations but physical sets that incorporate African Ankara wax textiles as backdrops and custom-tailored clothing and headdresses. At the forefront of her practice is using textiles to make her subjects disappear and serve as a canvas for reflection on the question of identity and its evolution over time. Muriu also consistently reimagines common objects associated with the daily lives of Kenyans into bold accessories donned by her subjects. These objects range from hairpins to the mosquito-repellent coils she grew up using. In Kenya, an object can have multiple uses beyond its original purpose; as Muriu explains, “When you have little, you transform and reuse it.”

Throughout the book, each image is paired with an inspirational African proverb in both English and Swahili, expressing the collected wisdom of generations that continue to inspire. Proverbs such as "With a little seed of imagination, you can grow a field of hope" convey the uplifting spirit of Muriu's work that empowers women, preserves tradition, and celebrates African beauty and culture. 

A visually stunning art book and cultural touchstone, Camo is a collectible treasure as the first book to showcase the work of a rising star in the worlds of photography and art.

With detailed how-tos, evocative stories, and expert advice, this curated collection of 30 beautiful, easily reproducible designs by henna expert Azra Khamissa captures the past, present, and future of henna. 

Applied intricately to hands before celebrations, spread thickly on the soles of feet to protect the skin, or drawn in loose lines and shapes as a form of creative expression: Henna is all these things and more. Using her deep love for henna and tapping into her years of hosting henna workshops, designer and chiropractor Azra Khamissa fuses her own unique designs with historical and traditional inspiration to create The Henna Archive, a guide with 30 approachable designs that you can create at home.

Inside you’ll find historical designs from Libya, Algeria, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and more, as well as designs of Khamissa’s own creation: leopard prints, crescent moons, Japanese knots, and flowers. Touching stories from people around the world sharing their personal connections to henna pair with the designs and illuminate the intimate nature of this ancient body art. Included are detailed how-tos to take your henna practice to the next level and tips, like how to get the perfect stain, what to look for when shopping for the best quality henna products, and how to host your own henna party.

UNIQUE DESIGNS: Included among the historical designs are 20 of Azra's own creation, designs that her many followers and fans have loved re-creating on their own and that will inspire you to explore henna for yourself. 

A CELEBRATION OF HENNA: No other book has explored the stories and people behind the art form of henna in such a beautiful way. The designs inside uniquely capture the diverse applications, places, and people who love henna. 

BEAUTIFUL GIFT: Filled with striking photography and detailed instructions, this book is the perfect gift for both beginners and henna experts alike or anyone looking to explore this art form.

Perfect for:
* Engagement party, bridal shower, wedding, or Eid al-Fitr gift 
* Fans of henna, mendhi, or temporary tattooing looking for DIY design ideas
* Great art activity for a girls’ night, bachelorette party, slumber parties, and more
* Those who enjoy calligraphy, hand lettering, drawing, or anyone looking for a new art practice

In Listening to Images Tina M. Campt explores a way of listening closely to photography, engaging with lost archives of historically dismissed photographs of black subjects taken throughout the black diaspora. Engaging with photographs through sound, Campt looks beyond what one usually sees and attunes her senses to the other affective frequencies through which these photographs register. She hears in these photos—which range from late nineteenth-century ethnographic photographs of rural African women and photographs taken in an early twentieth-century Cape Town prison to postwar passport photographs in Birmingham, England and 1960s mug shots of the Freedom Riders—a quiet intensity and quotidian practices of refusal. Originally intended to dehumanize, police, and restrict their subjects, these photographs convey the softly buzzing tension of colonialism, the low hum of resistance and subversion, and the anticipation and performance of a future that has yet to happen. Engaging with discourses of fugitivity, black futurity, and black feminist theory, Campt takes these tools of colonialism and repurposes them, hearing and sharing their moments of refusal, rupture, and imagination.

In Image Matters, Tina M. Campt traces the emergence of a black European subject by examining how specific black European communities used family photography to create forms of identification and community. At the heart of Campt's study are two photographic archives, one composed primarily of snapshots of black German families taken between 1900 and 1945, and the other assembled from studio portraits of West Indian migrants to Birmingham, England, taken between 1948 and 1960. Campt shows how these photographs conveyed profound aspirations to forms of national and cultural belonging. In the process, she engages a host of contemporary issues, including the recoverability of non-stereotypical life stories of black people, especially in Europe, and their impact on our understanding of difference within diaspora; the relevance and theoretical approachability of domestic, vernacular photography; and the relationship between affect and photography. Campt places special emphasis on the tactile and sonic registers of family photographs, and she uses them to read the complexity of "race" in visual signs and to highlight the inseparability of gender and sexuality from any analysis of race and class. Image Matters is an extraordinary reflection on what vernacular photography enabled black Europeans to say about themselves and their communities.

Guest-edited by Sarah Elizabeth
Lewis, Vision & Justice addresses
the role of photography in the
African American experience.

As the United States navigates a political moment defined by the close of the Obama era and the rise of #BlackLivesMatter activism, Aperture magazine releases “Vision & Justice,” a special issue guest edited by Sarah Lewis, the distinguished author and art historian, addressing the role of photography in the African American experience.

“Vision & Justice” includes a wide span of photographic projects by such luminaries as Lyle Ashton Harris, Annie Leibovitz, Sally Mann, Jamel Shabazz, Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems and Deborah Willis, as well as the brilliant voices of an emerging generation―Devin Allen, Awol Erizku, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Deana Lawson and Hank Willis Thomas, among many others. These portfolios are complemented by essays from some of the most influential voices in American culture including contributions by celebrated writers, historians, and artists such as Vince Aletti, Teju Cole, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Margo Jefferson, Wynton Marsalis and Claudia Rankine.

"Vision & Justice” features two covers. This issue comes with an image by Awol Erizku, Untitled (Forces of Nature #1), 2014.

PRE-ORDER: On Sale Date: June 11, 2024

Hip-Hop Is History is a book only Questlove could have written: a perceptive and personal reflection on the first half-century of hip-hop.

When hip-hop first emerged in the 1970s, it wasn’t expected to become the cultural force it is today. But for a young Black kid growing up in a musical family in Philadelphia, it was everything. He stayed up late to hear the newest songs on the radio. He saved his money to buy vinyl as soon as it landed. He even started to try to make his own songs. That kid was Questlove, and decades later, he is a six-time Grammy Award–winning musician, an Academy Award–winning filmmaker, a New York Times bestselling author, a producer, an entrepreneur, a cofounder of one of hip-hop’s defining acts (the Roots), and the genre’s unofficial in-house historian.

In this landmark book, Hip-Hop Is History, Questlove skillfully traces the creative and cultural forces that made and shaped hip-hop, highlighting both the forgotten but influential gems and the undeniable chart-topping hits—and weaves it all together with the stories no one else knows. It is at once an intimate, sharply observed story of a cultural revolution and a sweeping, grand theory of the evolution of the great artistic movement of our time. And Questlove, of course, approaches it with not only the encyclopedic fluency and passion of an obsessive fan but also the expertise and originality of an innovative participant.

Hip-hop is history, and also his history.

This is the first book to dedicate scholarly attention to the work of Tarell Alvin McCraney, one of the most significant writers and theater-makers of the twenty-first century. Featuring essays, interviews, and commentaries by scholars and artists who span generations, geographies, and areas of interest, the volume examines McCraney’s theatrical imagination, his singular writerly voice, his incisive cultural critiques, his stylistic and formal creativity, and his distinct personal and professional trajectories.
 
Contributors consider McCraney’s innovations as a playwright, adapter, director, performer, teacher, and collaborator, bringing fresh and diverse perspectives to their observations and analyses. In so doing, they expand and enrich the conversations on his much-celebrated and deeply resonant body of work, which includes the plays Choir Boy, Head of Passes, Ms. Blakk for President, The Breach, Wig Out!, and the critically acclaimed trilogy The Brother/Sister Plays: In the Red and Brown Water, The Brothers Size, and Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet, as well as the Oscar Award–winning film Moonlight, which was based on his play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue.

How creativity makes its way through feeling—and what we can know and feel through the artistic work of Black women
 
Feeling is not feelin. As the poet, artist, and scholar Bettina Judd argues, feelin, in African American Vernacular English, is how Black women artists approach and produce knowledge as sensation: internal and complex, entangled with pleasure, pain, anger, and joy, and manifesting artistic production itself as the meaning of the work. Through interviews, close readings, and archival research, Judd draws on the fields of affect studies and Black studies to analyze the creative processes and contributions of Black women—from poet Lucille Clifton and musician Avery*Sunshine to visual artists Betye Saar, Joyce J. Scott, and Deana Lawson.
 
Feelin: Creative Practice, Pleasure, and Black Feminist Thought makes a bold and vital intervention in critical theory’s trend toward disembodying feeling as knowledge. Instead, Judd revitalizes current debates in Black studies about the concept of the human and about Black life by considering how discourses on emotion as they are explored by Black women artists offer alternatives to the concept of the human. Judd expands the notions of Black women’s pleasure politics in Black feminist studies that include the erotic, the sexual, the painful, the joyful, the shameful, and the sensations and emotions that yet have no name. In its richly multidisciplinary approach, Feelin calls for the development of research methods that acknowledge creative and emotionally rigorous work as productive by incorporating visual art, narrative, and poetry.

An engaging introduction to contemporary Black American collage brings together art by fifty artists that reflects the breadth and complexity of Black identity
 
“A lavish catalog . . . provides not just beautiful reproductions of the artworks but also commentary on the way these artists, and others, have used collage to address the full range of Black experience.”—Margaret Renkl, New York Times
 
Building on a technique that has roots in European and American traditions, Black artists have turned to collage as a way to convey how the intersecting facets of their lives combine to make whole individuals. Artists have assembled pieces of paper, fabrics, and other, often salvaged, materials to create unified compositions that express the endless possibilities of Black-constructed narratives despite the fragmentation of our times.
 
As artist Deborah Roberts asserts, “With collage, I can create a more expansive and inclusive view of the Black cultural experience.”
 
More than 50 artists are represented in the book’s 140 color images, with some creating original artworks for this project. Featured artists include such well-known figures as Mark Bradford, Lauren Halsey, Kerry James Marshall, Wangechi Mutu, Howardena Pindell, Tschabalala Self, Lorna Simpson, Mickalene Thomas, and Kara Walker. In addition to scholarly essays, the publication contains short biographies of each artist written by Fisk University students.
 
Distributed for the Frist Art Museum
 
Exhibition Schedule:
 
Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN
(September 15–December 31, 2023)
 
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
(February 18–May 12, 2024)
 
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
(July 6–September 22, 2024)

A definitive account of Blaxploitation cinema—the freewheeling, often shameless, and wildly influential genre—from a distinctive voice in film history and criticism

In 1971, two films grabbed the movie business, shook it up, and launched a genre that would help define the decade. Melvin Van Peebles’s Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, an independently produced film about a male sex worker who beats up cops and gets away, and Gordon Parks’s Shaft, a studio-financed film with a killer soundtrack, were huge hits, making millions of dollars. Sweetback upended cultural expectations by having its Black rebel win in the end, and Shaft saved MGM from bankruptcy. Not for the last time did Hollywood discover that Black people went to movies too. The Blaxploitation era was born.

Written by film critic Odie Henderson, Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras is a spirited history of a genre and the movies that he grew up watching, which he loves without irony (but with plenty of self-awareness and humor). Blaxploitation was a major trend, but it was never simple. The films mixed self-empowerment with exploitation, base stereotypes with essential representation that spoke to the lives and fantasies of Black viewers. The time is right for a reappraisal, understanding these films in the context of the time, and exploring their lasting influence.

The long-awaited first work of nonfiction from the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: a deliriously entertaining, wickedly intelligent cinema book as unique and creative as anything by Quentin Tarantino.

In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films. Now, with Cinema Speculation, the time has come, and the results are everything his passionate fans—and all movie lovers—could have hoped for. Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he first saw as a young moviegoer at the time, this book is as intellectually rigorous and insightful as it is rollicking and entertaining. At once film criticism, film theory, a feat of reporting, and wonderful personal history, it is all written in the singular voice recognizable immediately as QT’s and with the rare perspective about cinema possible only from one of the greatest practitioners of the artform ever.

“These feel like images you might have dreamed, both of the kind that slip away and the ones you manage to keep tenuously in your grasp, slippery, otherworldly. . . . Before our eyes, Zanele Muholi transforms into a mother, a domestic worker, an Afrofuturist, an oracle. It’s fiction and it is not.”―Yrsa Daley-Ward, The New York Times Book Review

Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness is the long-awaited monograph from one of the most powerful visual activists of our time. The book features over ninety of Muholi’s evocative self-portraits, each image drafted from material props in Muholi’s immediate environment. A powerfully arresting collection of work, Muholi’s radical statements of identity, race, and resistance are a direct response to contemporary and historical racisms. As Muholi states, “I am producing this photographic document to encourage individuals in my community to be brave enough to occupy spaces―brave enough to create without fear of being vilified. . . . To teach people about our history, to rethink what history is all about, to reclaim it for ourselves―to encourage people to use artistic tools such as cameras as weapons to fight back.”

With more than twenty written contributions from curators, poets, and authors, alongside luxurious tritone reproductions of Muholi’s images, Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness is as much a manifesto of resistance as it is an autobiographical, artistic statement.

Dawoud Bey focuses on the landscape to create a portrait of the early African American presence in the United States.

Renowned for his Harlem street scenes and expressive portraits, Dawoud Bey continues his ongoing series on African American history. Elegy brings together Bey’s three landscape series to date—Night Coming Tenderly, Black  (2017); In This Here Place  (2021); and Stony the Road (2023)—elucidating the deep historical memory still embedded in the geography of the United States. Bey takes viewers to the historic Richmond Slave Trail in Virginia, where Africans were marched onto auction blocks; to the plantations of Louisiana, where they labored; and along the last stages of the Underground Railroad in Ohio, where fugitives sought self-emancipation. Essays by the exhibition’s curator, Valerie Cassel Oliver, and scholars LeRonn P. Brooks, Imani Perry, and Christina Sharpe illuminate the work. By interweaving these bodies of work into an elegy in three movements, Bey doesn’t merely evoke history, he retells it through historically grounded images that challenge viewers to go beyond seeing and imagine lived experiences. 

Copublished by Aperture and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond

PRE-ORDER: On Sale Date: April 30, 2024

The forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas and their fifty-year sisterhood, a legacy erased from history—until now. At the height of the Civil Rights movement, Lydia Abarca was a Black prima ballerina with a major international dance company—the Dance Theatre of Harlem, a troupe of women and men who became each other’s chosen family. She was the first Black company ballerina on the cover of Dance magazine, an Essence cover star; she was cast in The Wiz and in a Bob Fosse production on Broadway. She performed in some of ballet’s most iconic works with other trailblazing ballerinas, including the young women who became her closest friends—founding Dance Theatre of Harlem members Gayle McKinney-Griffith and Sheila Rohan, as well as first-generation dancers Karlya Shelton and Marcia Sells. These Swans of Harlem performed for the Queen of England, Mick Jagger, and Stevie Wonder, on the same bill as Josephine Baker, at the White House, and beyond. But decades later there was almost no record of their groundbreaking history to be found. Out of a sisterhood that had grown even deeper with the years, these Swans joined forces again—to share their story with the world. Captivating, rich in vivid detail and character, and steeped in the glamour and grit of professional ballet, The Swans of Harlem is a riveting account of five extraordinarily accomplished women, a celebration of both their historic careers and the sustaining, grounding power of female friendship, and a window into the robust history of Black ballet, hidden for too long.

"A year and change into father's diagnosis, his nightly calls began to become more frequent. My sister and I, his youngest children, spent countless hours in his room caring for him as his body gave up. Many nights we'd leave his room both knowing his condition was getting much worse, but we chose to say nothing of it."

I can't stand to see you cry is an exploration of Texas and the surrounding states, as well as the people who are fixed within its complex landscape. Fortune analyses relationships between family, friends and strangers, all caught in a flood of health and environmental issues while working to maintain grace. The artist uses his own personal experiences to explore the friction between public and private life, and the unspoken tensions in daily life through an approach rooted in the landscape. Moreover, Fortune’s biographical approach to photography attempts to unpack his own identity and experience in the midst of a pandemic, civil unrest, a cross-country move, a career, and the loss of a parent, thinking about both the future and past.

From its humble origins at house parties in the Bronx, where DJs mixed old records to create new sounds, charismatic MCs let their clever lyrics flow, and B-boys and B-girls pioneered inventive dance moves, hip-hop quickly became a musical and cultural revolution.

In this volume of History Comics, we follow Aaliyah, a hip-hop superfan who is about to get a lesson in all things “old school” courtesy of her dad. The pair take a day trip to the Bronx, where Aaliyah discovers the many unsung
heroes who helped create the foundations of hip-hop. So get ready to drop the beat, bust a move, and get down with some fresh rap knowledge!

Baldwin’s life and legacy as remembered by a pantheon of artists and writers: from Jamaica Kincaid and Barry Jenkins to Richard Avedon and Alice Neel

When author James Baldwin died in 1987, he left behind an extraordinary body of work: novels, poems, film scripts and, perhaps most indelibly, essays. A friend and supporter of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Medgar Evers, Baldwin was a critical voice in the civil rights movement. After reaching acclaim in his early career as a writer, he struggled to retain the author’s “I,” while taking on the “we” of the people.
Edited by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Hilton Als and growing out of his landmark exhibition at David Zwirner in 2019, God Made My Face brings together an impressive assembly of contributors, ranging from Baldwin biographer David Leeming to novelist Jamaica Kincaid and Moonlight director Barry Jenkins, to create a memorial mosaic: one that not only mirrors Baldwin’s various tones but also closely examines his singular contributions to cinema, theater, the essay and Black American critical studies. These essays are illustrated by artwork from modern and contemporary artists who were either personal contemporaries of Baldwin or directly inspired by his work. In each piece assembled here, the authors speak from a personal, informed perspective, illuminating Baldwin’s deeply anguished and enlightened voice and his belief that, ultimately—because we are human—we share the potential to love, connect and live together in all our glory.
Artists include: Diane Arbus, Eugène Atget, Richard Avedon, Don Bachardy, Alvin Baltrop, Anthony Barboza, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Beauford Delaney, Marlene Dumas, Glenn Ligon, George McCalman, Alice Neel, Elle Pérez, Cameron Rowland, Kara Walker, James Welling, Larry Wolhandler.
Authors include:Stephen Best, Daphne A. Brooks, Teju Cole, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Barry Jenkins, Jamaica Kincaid, David Leeming, Darryl Pinckney.

The most comprehensive publication to date on widely celebrated artist Rashid Johnson

‘Johnson is a leading voice of his generation.’ – New York Times

The most comprehensive publication to date on widely celebrated artist Rashid Johnson

Working with a variety of media that includes painting, sculpture, photography, video, and performance, Rashid Johnson has created a nuanced and iconographic body of work that connects literature, music, and art. Personal references and pervasive cultural narratives are interweaved with the legacy of modernist abstraction, producing what critics have labelled ‘conceptual post-black art’. A precocious talent (his work was included in the seminal ‘Freestyle’ exhibition in New York in 2001), Johnson received the High Museum of Art’s David C. Driskell Prize, which honours contributions in the field of African-American art.