Kevin D. Dumouchelle — African Art Works: Artists Creating Change / The Jack Faxon Collection & The Here Project Pride and Belonging in African Art - with Mark Auslander — at Union Market

This event will be celebrating the release of two books for Kevin D. Dumouchelle; African Art Works & The Here Project.-African Art Works: Artists Creating Change / The Jack Faxon CollectionThis stunning tribute to African art features more than 200 photos, paintings, sculptures, and textiles from the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art's collections.This marvelous volume features the African art collection of Michigan state legislator Jack Faxon (1936–2020) bequeathed to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art. African Art Works looks at how artists, communities, and collectors have sought to make change in their own personal lives, in their social interactions, and in their relationships to the world and beyond, through art.Essays reflect on the role of art as a call to action, the act of collecting African art, and Jack Faxon's legacy driven by his work in the arts, education, and public service. African Art Works is a stunning and enlightening tribute to art that works to transform the world.-The Here Project: Pride and Belonging in African Art200 stunning images in this companion book to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art exhibition celebrates more than 60 LGBTQ+ African artistsWe are here. This powerful volume platforms artists whose work reflects their identities and experiences as African LGBTQ+ individuals. Its very existence challenges homophobia by centering queer voices and visions amidst historical legacies of erasure and repression. At the same time, the LGBTQ+ experience in Africa is not monolithic. Political, social, and cultural freedoms and limits vary widely across both the continent and the wider diaspora, and the artists represented here have also been selected to help readers recognize that diversity.More than 200 stunning images represent a range of media, including painting, photography, digital art, fashion, installation, and performance. The empowering and evocative imagery makes visible marginalized bodies and lives: Athi-Patra Ruga’s tapestry Versatile Queen presents himself in drag to confront normative ideas of Blackness and masculinity; Zanele Muholi’s self-portrait Muholi Muholi, Parktown uses makeup and saturation to highlight the blackness of their skin tone in contrast to prevailing representations of Black women; Mehdi-Georges Lahlou’s sculpture of a man with rainbow blown glass bananas atop his head recalls exoticized colonial imagery.In its continental and diasporic survey of queer African art and artists, The Here Project is rare in its scope and scale and pays beautiful tribute to contemporary artists making essential work.-The SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN ART is uniquely focused on collecting, caring for, and connecting visitors with art from Africa across media, geography, and time—from the 10th century to today. -Kevin D. Dumouchelle leads the curatorial department at the National Museum of African Art, where he has developed exhibitions that include Heroes: Principles of African Greatness and Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa’s Arts, which won an Association of Art Museums Curators Award for Excellence. He has written books and articles on a wide range of topics and curated exhibitions on both contemporary and historical African art.Dumouchelle will be joined in conversation with Mark Auslander PhD, a sociocultural and historical anthropologist, currently teaches at American University in Washington DC. He has published extensively on art, ritual, race, and the politics of difference. He is author of the award-winning book, The Accidental Slaveowner: Revisiting a Myth of Race and Finding an American Family.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.