![Black Portraiture[s]](https://www.blackportraitures.info/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Black_Portraitures_Logo_full_color_light_type-2.svg){kind=logo}
What is called the imagination (from image, magi, magic, magician, etc.) is a practical vector from the soul. It stores all data, and can be called on to solve all our “problems.” The imagination is the projection of ourselves past our sense of ourselves as “things.” Imagination (image) is all possibility, because from the image, the initial circumscribed energy, any use (idea) is possible. And so begins that image’s use in the world. Possibility is what moves us.
—Amiri Baraka, “The Revolutionary Theatre”, Liberator, July 1965
Save the Date for Black Portraiture[s]: TULSA STORIES
Bayeté Ross Smith.
Archival image is courtesy of the Library of Congress.
The next iteration of Black Portraiture[s] will be held at NYU Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma on October 3, 2025!
Black Portraiture[s]: TULSA STORIES seeks to continue the robust scholarship and art conversations of our Black Portraiture[s] conferences by convening an intergenerational group of participating scholars, artists, activists, storytellers, educators, gallerists, and photographers to explore cultural memories and resistance.
All day programming will include panels with themes such as: “REIMAGINING TULSA”, “BLACK WALL STREET”, “THE ARCHIVE” and “ART, WRITING & MUSIC”, and feature short presentations from a variety of speakers sharing their respective works/practice, moderated conversation, audience Q&A and final wrap-up.
More information regarding speakers and schedules will be available soon. Be sure to sign up for our mailing list to get updates!