On Community: Thelma Golden in Conversation with Dr. Kenneth Montague, Jamel Shabazz, and Xaviera Simmons

Join Aperture for the first event in an exciting online series celebrating As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic. Drawn from Dr. Kenneth Montague’s Wedge Collection in Toronto—a Black-owned collection dedicated to artists of African descent—As We Rise looks at the multifaceted ideas of Black life through the lenses of community, identity, and power. On the topic of community, artist and curator Liz Ikiriko states in As We Rise, “There is a sense of seeking in photographs of Black subjects by Black photographers; a search for visual cues that, when found, have the power to present the world from a familiar, loving perspective—from within that community.” In this discussion, moderated by Thelma Golden, Dr. Kenneth Montague, Jamel Shabazz, and Xaviera Simmons will consider the ways community plays a key role in their work.

About As We Rise

As We Rise presents an exciting compilation of photographs from African diasporic culture. With over one hundred works by Black artists from Canada, the Caribbean, Great Britain, the United States, South America, as well as throughout the African continent, this volume provides a timely exploration of Black identity on both sides of the Atlantic. Artists such as Stan Douglas, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Barkley L. Hendricks, Liz Johnson Artur, Seydou Keïta, Deana Lawson, Jamel Shabazz, Texas Isaiah, and Carrie Mae Weems touch on themes of agency, beauty, joy, belonging, subjectivity, and self-representation. Writings by Isolde Brielmaier, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi, Mark Sealy, Teka Selman, and Deborah Willis, among others, provide insight and commentary on this monumental collection.

Image: Xaviera Simmons, Denver, 2008, from As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic (Aperture, 2021). Courtesy the artist and David Castillo