Heather Marks

🔎 BTS of my residency workshop, 'Exploring Global Majority Sitters in 16th - 19th Century Portraiture' at @nationalportraitgallery Earlier in Feb I ran this research workshop as part of my ongoing residency at NPG working with the Archive Survey Project which aims to surface visual representations of the Global Majority in 16th - mid 19th century portraiture in Britain. Everyone who came brought such thoughtfulness to the portraits we studied as we worked through ideas of decolonial care and repair and how these could be applied to the sitters of colour found in NPG's archive. Big thanks to my amazing workshop group, to @seth_taylorrrr for being my right hand on the AV, to Sarah Okpokam and Charlotte Bolland at NPG for helping make this happen and to @aceagrams for supporting the development of my creative practice. More to come...🎶 Portrait credits: NPG L269 Lord Byron's Decoupage Screen by Henry Charles William Angelo, probably by John Jackson, circa 1814 © National Portrait Gallery, London. Lent by John Murray NPG 3249 Munnoo (William Munnoo or Munnew); William Hickey by William Thomas, 1819 © National Portrait Gallery, London NPG 5856 Catharine Macaulay (née Sawbridge) by Robert Edge Pine, circa 1775 © National Portrait Gallery, London NPG 6946 Thomas Hollis by Joseph Wilton, circa 1762 © National Portrait Gallery, London NPG L288 Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) by Gilbert Stuart, 1785 © The Trustees of the British Museum. Used under the CC BY NC SA 4.0 licence NPG 5572 Augustus Keppel, Viscount Keppel by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1764 - 1765 © National Portrait Gallery, London NPG 150 Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst by Thomas Gainsborough, circa 1780 © National Portrait Gallery, London NPG D31315 Mary Butler (née Somerset), Duchess of Ormonde and an unknown boy by and published by John Smith, after Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt, 1702 © National Portrait Gallery, London NPG D34973 Mary Grimston and an unknown boy by Isaac Beckett, after Willem Wissing, 1681-1688 © National Portrait Gallery, London #artistandthearchive #archivesurveyproject #nationalportraitgallery #research #art #history #fabulation #artist #archive #acefunded

🌟 Pleased to say I'm The Box's new researcher 🌟 I'm joining @theboxplymouth as one of their Reimagining the Film Archive 2026 researchers. I'll be investigating the Devon Education Library Collection, surfacing archive material of the Global Majority on film. I was curious to see what this collection - mostly spanning the 1960s - 1980s - would hold, how Britain would be narrating itself and the world at this time of anticolonial upheaval, and there's already been some interesting finds which I look forward to sharing this Spring. Shout out @_zahrakhanum_ for showing me, amongst many things, how to use this diva of a film scanner! And finally, so much love for Beryl Cook. The aptly named Beryl Cook: Pride and Joy exhibition opens today and it is just that 😁 Girls down the pub, lads out for walkies and all the big bodies enjoying life! 🐆🐆🐆 Lead photo: @central.duplicating.services #theboxplymouth #archive #heritage #film #movingimage

I said more announcements were coming, and this one's a biggie. I am very pleased to announce that from September, I will be artist in residence at the @nationalportraitgallery , working alongside staff and volunteers in the Heinz Archive and Image Library on the Archive Survey Project. The Archive Survey Project aims to surface visual representations of people of the Global Majority in portraiture produced in Britain between the 16th – mid-19th centuries through a systematic survey of the British portraits records collection, held in the National Portrait Gallery's Heinz Archive and Library. Over the next 7 months, I will be in the archive participating in the survey's process, researching Global Majority sitters and creating work in response to the survey's findings. Decolonial interventions like this are a huge but necessary undertaking - they recover histories and lives that open up conversations about Britain's local and global story, and make these collections a greater resource to the public they serve. I'm excited to be part of this transformative process @nationalportraitgallery and look forward to sharing the fruits of my residency with you over the months to come. This residency is supported using public funding from Arts Council England @aceagrams . The Archive Survey Project has been made possible through generous support received from Samuel H Kress Foundation @kressfdn and the Pilgrim Trust. #artistandthearchive #artistinresidence #nationalportraitgallery #archivesurveyproject #heinzarchiveandimagelibrary #britishportraiture #globalmajority #history #art #visualart #writer #acefunded #decolonial #heritage #archivalrepair #criticalfabulation

A rare evening bringing together two internationally acclaimed writers whose work reshapes the possibilities in contemporary poetry and fiction. Join @canisia.lubrin and @nick.makoha for an intimate evening of readings and conversation exploring poetics, Black aesthetics, migration, memory and the radical possibilities of language. The event will include readings from Lubrin’s radiant new collection The World After Rain and Makoha’s T.S. Eliot Prize shortlisted collection The New Carthaginians, followed by a book signing with books available to purchase on the night from @roundtablebooks . Wine, cocktails and soft drinks will be available throughout the night from @thestudiotwelve_ . WED 20 MAY Studio 12, London Doors 6.30pm / Starts 7pm 🎟️ Tickets from £8 ✨ 2-for-1 general admission tickets available until Sunday 17 May 📚 Admission + £10 book voucher tickets also available 🔗 Booking link in bio #canisialubrin #theworldafterrain #nickmakoha #thenewcarthaginians #poetry #literature

Join award-winning writers Canisia Lubrin and Nick Makoha at the intimate Studio 12 for a special evening of conversation and readings exploring poetics, Black aesthetics, migration, memory and visual art as a site of imaginative renewal. Canisia Lubrin is a poet, writer, editor and professor. Author of  Code Noir, The Dyzgraphxst, Voodoo Hypothesis, The World After Rain and Bright Machine (2026), Lubrin is the recipient of, among other distinctions, a Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, Griffin Poetry Prize, Danuta Gleed Award, and Carol Shields Prize for Fiction.  Poet, playwright and founder of the Obsidian Foundation, Nick Makoha is one of the UK’s most compelling contemporary poets. His new collection, The New Carthaginians (Penguin, 2025), was shortlisted for the 2025 T.S. Eliot Prize. He has won the 2021 Ivan Juritz Prize and Poetry London Prize, and his debut collection, Kingdom of Gravity (2017), was shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Prize and named one of The Guardian’s best books of the year. This rare evening brings together two internationally acclaimed writers whose work reshapes the possibilities in contemporary poetry and fiction. The evening will include readings from Lubrin’s radiant new collection The World After Rain, as well as selections from Makoha’s T.S. Eliot Prize shortlisted collection The New Carthaginians. Books by both authors will be available to purchase on the night from Round Table Books. Studio 12’s bar will be open throughout the evening. Guests are welcome to stay after the conversation for drinks and book signings. Tickets: £8 = General Admission £18 = Admission + £10 Book Voucher redeemable with Round Table Books 2 for 1 tickets are available for general admission until midnight on Sunday 17th and there is 25% off tickets with @roundtablebooks £10 book voucher with the code 1/2+BOOKVOUCHER Ticket link is in bio Slide 1: Video Clip of Canisia Lubrin reading from Code Noir courtesy @loopholeofretreatvenice in October 2022

CANISIA LUBRIN In Conversation with Nick Makoha, Wed 20 May 6.30pm @thestudiotwelve_ Fresh from her OCM Bocas Prize win for her latest poetry collection The World After Rain, @canisia.lubrin will be here in London for a far-reaching meditation with @nick.makoha on poetics, Black aesthetics, migration and visual art as a site of imaginative renewal. ⭐️ Canisia Lubrin is a poet, writer, editor and professor. The author of Code Noir, The Dyzgraphxst, Bright Machine (2026), and The World After Rain (2025), Lubrin is the recipient of a Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, Griffin Poetry Prize, Derek Walcott Prize, and Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, Danuta Gleed Award, among other distinctions. She was born in St. Lucia and lives in Whitby. ⭐️ Dr Nick Makoha is a Ugandan poet, playwright and founder of the @obsidianfoundation . His new collection, The New Carthaginians (Penguin, 2025), was shortlisted for the 2025 T.S. Eliot Prize. He has won the 2021 Ivan Juritz Prize and Poetry London Prize, and his debut collection, Kingdom of Gravity (2017), was shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Prize and named one of The Guardian’s best books of the year. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and one of the 100 Most Influential Africans of 2025. This is a POWERHOUSE duo and I am thrilled to present this event in collaboration with @barby_as 📅 WED 20 MAY 6.30PM 📍 Studio 12, 1 Addington Square, London SE5 7JZ 🎟 Tickets from £8 OR ✨️ Limited 2-for-1 deal on tickets till midnight Sunday ✨️ Link in bio 🔗 #canisialubrin #theworldafterrain #codenoir #nickmakoha #thenewcarthaginians

Join us @thestudiotwelve_ for a special evening of readings with award-winning writer Canisia Lubrin in conversation with Nick Makhoa. Award-winning writer Canisia Lubrin will read from her new and incandescent poetry collection The World After Rain, followed by discussion with Nick Makhoa exploring a far-reaching meditation on Black artistry, visual art as a site of memory and imaginative renewal, time, love and loss Books by both authors will be available to purchase from @roundtablebooks About the Authors Canisia Lubrin is the author of five books, Voodoo Hypothesis, The Dyzgraphxst, The World After Rain (2025), Code Noir and Bright Machine (2026). Her honours include a 2021 Windham-Campbell Prize, OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, Griffin Poetry Prize, Derek Walcott Prize, and the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. She has been twice a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award. The World After Rain earned Lubrin her second OCM Bocas Prize for poetry. She is associate professor and coordinator of the University of Guelph’s Creative Writing MFA and the poetry editor at McClelland & Stewart. Code Noir, Lubrin’s fiction debut and winner of the 2025 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, has 59 drawings by celebrated visual artist Torkwase Dyson. Born in St. Lucia, Lubrin lives in Whitby. Dr Nick Makoha is a Ugandan poet and playwright based in London and founder of the Obsidian Foundation. His new collection, The New Carthaginians (Penguin, 2025), was shortlisted for the 2025 T.S. Eliot Prize. He has won the 2021 Ivan Juritz Prize and Poetry London Prize, and his debut collection, Kingdom of Gravity (2017), was shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Prize and named one of The Guardian’s best books of the year. His work has appeared in leading international journals, and he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and one of the 100 Most Influential Africans of 2025. For tickets see link in bio Presented in collaboration with @iamheathermarks @canisia.lubrin @nick.makoha

Happy book anniversary to this mighty pamphlet by @tjdema . an/other pastoral has stayed with me since it was published by @nobindingsproject four years ago today. As I look back on that time I am blown away by the sheer ambition to bring such a singular book into the world. A blackity black ecopoetry collection, fearlessly and wonderfully made by a group of African and African diaspora women. The heft and cadence of your lines are etched into my mind TJ. Tebogo, your illustrations are things of beauty. And Lil, who gave me my first 'Head of...' role - I've said it all and more before, but thank you for the trust, and for all I learned at your side along the way. Happy Earth Day. #earthday #anotherpastoral #tjdema #nobindings

Birthday Bimble pt.2

Birthday week 🌸💖✨️ bougie bimbles, sauna, swimming and good good food. Big love to my friends who loved on me HARD. My heart is full and Spring keeps on giving.

Cover stars coming thru! ✨️ Big up the team at @bristolrefugeerights , big up my fellow volunteers, big up the community who keep on and look after each other through this hostile environment 💛 Thank you @eastside_bristol for recognising BRR and many others in the city doing brilliant, beautiful work💪🏽🫶🏽 #eastsideawards #upourstreet

✨️ Sneak peak of new archive material I've added to tomorrow's Fugitives in the Archive: Curator's Tour Wed 26 Nov 12.30 - 13.30 Bristol Central Library @bristollibraries FREE #fugitivesinthearchive #blackatlantic #braikenridge #history #libraries #Bristol #archives #curator