NYUCBVC

Repost from @philipbrookman • Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955-1985, opened with a wonderful party last night at the Getty Museum in LA. I’m here at the preview with co-curator @debwillisphoto and Dr. Kellie Jones. The show here has an added component about photography in LA — thanks to @gettymuseum and @maziemckennaharris for their amazing work to realize this project for California and the West.

Black Rest Episode #6: A Conversation with Dr. Deborah Willis on the Black Body at Rest In this episode of The Black Rest Podcast, Dr. Deborah Willis, a visionary photographer, scholar, and Founding Director of NYU’s Center for Black Visual Culture, joins Esther Armah, CEO of the Armah Institute of Emotional Justice to explore the radical, emotional, historical, and deeply personal meanings of Black rest. Together, they trace how a nation built on the backbreaking labor of enslaved Africans shaped Black people’s relationship to rest, worth, guilt, and exhaustion. From Otis Redding’s quiet rebellion in “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” to photographs of Black domestic workers simply sitting, breathing, being, Willis redefines rest as an active, necessary space of healing. She shares her own struggles with rest, the guilt she carries, the labor she inherited, and the rare places where her body finally exhales—often 30,000 feet in the air. This episode asks: What does rest feel like in a Black body? Who creates rest for Black women? And how do we imagine a future where Black rest is not an interruption of labor—but a birthright? Episode participants: Esther Armah @eaarmah Deborah Willis @debwillisphoto Listen to the podcast episode on www.cbvc.nyu.edu Spotify, and Apple Podcasts Link in bio!

Repost from @eaarmah • MOVING MASCULINITY NEW YORK: a special review ‘Screening the film is a must-see. The story-telling, the narrator, the film-making all embraced captivating moments. Brava Esther! What a beautiful experience for me to witness and to feel the love and the warmth that you presented in this project. I listened and I heard and felt the engagement of all of them [the men]. We need this.’ Dr. Deb Willis - award-winning, critically acclaimed Artist, Photographer, Curator, Historian; Founding Director - NYU’s Center for Black Visual Culture; Winner of the 2026 AIPAD Award. NYU’s Center for Black Visual Culture was a co-sponsor for MOVING MASCULINITY NEW YORK screening, and I’m honored to have been a 2022 CBVC Distinguished Activist in Residence. Thank you! Thank you to the @nyucbvc team: @joanmorgan @kalilaain #MovingMasculinityNYC #EmotionalJustice

Black Rest Episode #5: Dr. Treva B. Lindsey on Rest, Dreaming and Liberation In this powerful and intimate episode, host Dejha Carrington sits down with Dr. Treva B. Lindsey, a scholar, writer, cultural critic, and co-founder of Black Feminist Night School, to explore why rest is not merely restorative but revolutionary for Black people globally. Dr. Lindsey reflects on her childhood in Washington, DC, where chosen kin, community care, and the freedom to try (and fail) shaped her creative spirit. She opens up about witnessing burnout in her educator parents, navigating elite institutions as “the only one,” and the long unlearning required to embrace rest without guilt. Through stories of writing America, Goddamn during the grief and isolation of 2020, Dr. Lindsey reveals how pleasure, naps, communal connection, and deliberate care became essential to her survival—and key to finding her most authentic voice on the page. Together, Lindsey and Dejha examine rest as a political act, a refusal of extraction, and a condition that makes dreaming possible. Episode participants: Treva B. Lindsey @divafeminist Hosted by Dehja Carrington @carringtoner Listen to the podcast episode on www.cbvc.nyu.edu Spotify, and Apple Podcasts Link in bio!

Black Rest Episode #4: Art, Sound, and Finding Rest with James Allister Sprang. On this episode of The Black Rest Podcast, host Dejha Carrington sits down with award-winning artist James Allister Sprang for a rich, sensory conversation about growing up Caribbean American in South Miami, discovering art as a place of calm, and learning to find rest through sound, breath, and presence. The heart of the episode explores Rest Within the Wake, Sprang’s immersive 48-minute musical work composed during a solo trip to an island off the coast of Belize. He talks about learning to scuba dive, discovering that underwater rest requires constant exhalation, and turning those breaths into tones, chords, and eventually an expansive somatic score meant to be experienced lying down, eyes closed, fully tuned inward. Episode participants: James Allister Sprang @jamesallistersprang Hosted by Dehja Carrington @carringtoner Listen to the podcast episode on www.cbvc.nyu.edu Spotify, and Apple Podcasts Link in bio!

Repost from @artphotofilms • Congratulations to @debwillisphoto on receiving the 2026 @aipadphoto Award. Thank you for all that you continue to give to the photography community and the culture. You deserve your flowers. 💐✨👑🎞 . . #historian #author #photographer #educator #greathuman deborahwillis blackacelebrationofaculture evisioningemancipation posingbeauty theblackfemalebody theblackcivilwarsoldier reflectionsinblack aipadaward2026 portraitphotographer photojournalism archivist anthonyartis artphotofilms

Repost from @almacommunications • @AIPADPhoto is thrilled to announce Deborah Willis as the 2026 AIPAD Award Winner! Willis, who chairs the photography department at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and Founding Director for the Center for Black Visual Culture, has spent decades reshaping how we understand photography’s role in documenting and challenging social narratives. Her groundbreaking scholarship on the representation of Black bodies, women and marginalized communities in visual culture has fundamentally altered photography discourse. As AIPAD’s Executive Director Lydia Melamed Johnson eloquently stated, “Willis’s influence extends far beyond her own artistic practice - her mentorship and advocacy have shaped generations of photographers and scholars.” Congratulations, Deb! #ALMA #DeborahWillis #AIPAD

Black Rest Episode #3: Childhood, Education, and the Politics of Ease with Dr. Bettina Love and Khary Lazarre-White On this episode of The Black Rest Podcast, host Dejha Carrington sits down with two extraordinary guests, Dr. Bettina L. Love and Khary-Lazarre White, to talk about what rest looked like in their childhoods, how they learned it (or didn’t), and how they’re reshaping rest and joy for the next generation. Together, the three explore the crisis of rest for Black children today, the generational patterns we inherit, and the radical possibility of joy—the kind of joy where whiteness can’t intrude, where spades tables, kitchen music, and big belly laughs become portals to freedom. White and Love reflect on their life’s work in education, justice, and movement-building, and the tension between urgent struggle and the need for stillness. Episode Participants: Bettina Love blovesoulpower Khary Lazarre-White @klwsees Hosted by Dejha Carrington @carringtoner Listen to the podcast episode on www.cbvc.nyu.edu Spotify, and Apple Podcasts Link in bio!

Black Rest Episode #2: Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs on Black Rest, Water, and the Practice of Freedom In this episode of The Black Rest Podcast, host Dejha Carrington is joined by writer, scholar, poet, and Black feminist love-evangelist Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs for an ancestral and deeply restorative conversation. Together, they explore how water becomes a teacher, metaphor, and sanctuary for Black people across generations. Gumbs reflects on the lessons she learned from her grandfather in the ocean of Anguilla, the ways Black Caribbean cosmologies shape our understanding of rest, and how time bends when we are in a genuine relationship with our ancestors. Drawing from her book Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde, Gumbs expands on Lorde’s legacy of collective self-care as political warfare, and discusses what it means to create daily practices that reconnect us to infinite ancestral love. From weathering and liberation, to cosmic Black feminist science, and surrendering productivity in favor of presence, this episode offers a profound meditation on what it means to rest, to be held, and to live freedom as a repeating practice. Episode Participants: Alexis Pauline Gumbs @alexispauline Hosted by Dejha Carrington @carringtoner Listen to the podcast episode on www.cbvc.nyu.edu Spotify, and Apple Podcasts Link in bio!

Black Rest Episode #1: Black Memory, Rest, and Community with Nadege Green In this episode of The Black Rest Podcast, host Dejha Carrington sits down with Miami-based researcher, writer, and community archivist Nadege Green to explore rest as a radical practice for Black and queer bodies. Together, they journey through the power of movement, the grounding presence of water, and the necessity of slowing down in a world that demands constant output. Nadege shares stories from her groundbreaking project Give Them Their Flowers, reflects on the labor of memory-keeping, and discusses what it means to decentralize history while nurturing community spaces of softness and belonging. This episode invites listeners to reclaim rest, not as a luxury, but as a birthright. Episode Participants: Nadege Green @nadegegreen Hosted by Dejha Carrington @carringtoner Listen to the podcast episode on www.cbvc.nyu.edu Spotify, and Apple Podcasts Link in bio!

Please join the Center for Black Visual Culture and the Asian Pacific American Institute as we host cultural critic Bakari Kitwana and author Jeff Chang next Thursday at NYU for a special discussion of #WaterMirrorEcho, Bruce Lee, hip-hop & Black/Asian solidarities. As the best-known martial artist and one of the most celebrated action stars ever, Bruce Lee is a global icon. During his lifetime, Bruce fought to be seen—from Hong Kong to Hollywood, Asian tenements to American ghettos, the lonely garret to the international screen. Drawing on private letters, rare documents and photos, and interviews with his closest confidants, Water Mirror Echo reveals the Bruce many never saw. April 9, 2026 | 6:00pm to 8:00pm 20 Cooper Square, 3rd Floor Lobby New York, NY 10003 FREE! To register: link in bio

Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Photography & Imaging, is pleased to host Adama Delphine Fawundu’s Book Launch for Praise House. In Conversation: Adama Delphine Fawundu and Curator, Mistura Allison. This book about female figures—grandmothers, mothers, daughters, artists, caregivers, storytellers, and cooks—explores a range of emotions that consume us about family life and history. Tuesday, April 7, 2026 | 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM 📍Department of Photography & Imaging, Tisch School of the Arts 721 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 Riese Lounge, 1st Floor RSVP in Bio. Seating is limited. Co-sponsored by: @nyucbvc , nyuafricahouse, nyucmch @nyutisch @tischphoto @nyuniversity @adamadelphine @mistura.a #NYUtisch #TischDPI #nyuniversity