Black Brilliance: Growing Black Artistic & Cultural Futures
An intimate gathering designed to inspire connection and investment in Black artists and culture workers.
Imagine what would happen if Black artists had no barriers to sharing their brilliance. If their gifts and talents were lauded and supported, as they should be? Black Brilliance, curated by Yodit Mesfin Johnson, builds on the celebration of Black artists and communities in connection with the exhibition “Silver Linings: Celebrating the Spelman Art Collection.”
Omari Rush, Executive Director of CultureSource, will facilitate an illuminating discussion featuring artists Ash Arder, Ashara Ekundayo, Gabrielle Ione Hickmon, Morgan Cecille Hutson (aka Supercoolwicked), and Paige Wood. The aim of the roundtable is to hear firsthand about the ways the community can nourish the local network of Black artists while deepening collective understanding of the barriers they face. Join this curated conversation among motivated artists, curators, funders, and regional organizations both small and large. Let’s work together to consider ways to amplify the names and work of these brilliant artists. Free and open to the public, registration required.
Program schedule: 4:00-5:30 pm — Artist Roundtable, moderated by CultureSource Executive Director Omari Rush 5:30-6:30 pm — Happy Hour & Connecting
Guests are also encouraged to stay or return for a phenomenal performance of “Negro, Spiritual” by Supercoolwicked, beginning at 8pm!
Artist Roundtable Bios
Ash Arder (she/they) is a transdisciplinary artist whose research-based approach works to expose, deconstruct or reconfigure physical and conceptual systems – especially those related to ecology and/or industry. Ash manipulates physical and virtual environments to explore materials, mark making, mechanical portraiture and sound design as tools for complicating dynamics of power between humans, machines and the lands they occupy. Ash lives and works in Detroit, MI about an hour south of her hometown of Flint.
Ashara Ekundayo is a Detroit and Oakland, CA based culture worker and independent curator, and the founder of the international platform Artist As First Responder. Her interdisciplinary creative practice is rooted in joy-informed pedagogies and the study and creation of Black archives, site-responsive ceremony, and artist-based strategies that illuminate the specific expertise of Black women and femmes of the African Diaspora.
Gabrielle Ione Hickmon is a Black woman from a middle place—Ypsilanti, MI. As an artist and History PhD student at the University of Michigan, Gabrielle’s transdisciplinary practice is concerned with African American Midwestern histories, presents, and futures taking shape beyond major urban centers and dominant cultural narratives about African American history in the Midwest. Gabrielle lives, works, and studies in her hometown, Ypsilanti, MI.
Morgan Cecille Hutson (aka Supercoolwicked) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Detroit, MI. Rooted in music creation as a primary practice, she crafts live performances, film concepts, scripts, choreography, and education programming with intentions of honoring her inner child, finding collective freedom, and preserving and honoring the traditions, historical narratives, and genealogies of African American peoples. Supercoolwicked’s practice is heavily collaborative, citing work with artists like Esperanza Spalding, Tunde Olaniran, Gisela McDaniel and Susannah Pilar, Ian Finkelstein, DAAY, SALAKASTAR, Cousin Mouth, and ZDBT.
Omari Rush engages the arts as a passion and profession, and in each mode, he enjoys discovery and deepening impacts. As executive director of CultureSource in Detroit, he advances efforts to have creative expression thrive in communities. His complementary civic service ranges from recently completing an appointment to the State of Michigan Arts and Culture Council (serving three governors, two as their council chair) and a term as chair of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, to currently working as a board member of SeaChange Capital Partners and the Ann Arbor Treeline Conservancy. A lapsed clarinetist, Omari primarily plays on a Rivendell Clem-L bicycle, which he rides daily on streets and trails.
Paige Wood is an award-winning filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer working across narrative and documentary film, animation, and video games — her work recognized by the likes of BlackStar Film Festival, Tribeca Festival, and Apple. Most recently, Paige served as the Supervising Producer for the Rise-Home Stories Project, which brought together artists and advocates to reimagine the stories told about land and home. Currently, Paige serves as the Supervising Producer for the Detroit Narrative Agency’s 2024-2025 Emerging Filmmaker Fellowship. In addition to her collaborative work, Paige is currently developing a series project for television, two features, and her directorial short film debut.
About the Silver Linings Event Series
Each event within this series is a love letter to Blackness, an homage to the lineage, spirit, and inner worlds of Black women and femmes, artists and cultural workers, and my ancestors, who prayed for me to have moments and opportunities like this one. The program series draws upon the histories of Black women freedom fighters; of making and building community power; and celebrates the bonds forged in struggle within our families, communities and the institutions we created to honor, educate, and restore ourselves amid the brutalities of this nation’s original sins.
From Yodit Mesfin Johnson
I cherish Black creatives and cultural workers who help us recount, mourn and remember our histories, radically imagine new Black futures, and who mirror our longings back to us. In this series, I also call forward the necessity that we amplify and invest in their works. This is about taking up space too—space that reveals the multiplicities of Blackness, our many intersecting identities, and our creative expressions. Each program recognizes the divine essence within each of us, and calls forward our collective liberation.
By honoring the legacy of our ancestors and the creativity of contemporary artists, we affirm our place in the broader narrative of art and culture. Celebrate with me every conception of art, every moment of connection, and every shared experience as a testament to the enduring spirit of my people.Gather with us to reflect and celebrate together, creating new memories and forging deeper connections through the universal experience of art. Let us embrace this journey of remembrance and creation, where each event is a tribute to our resilience, brilliance, and unwavering spirits.
— Yodit Mesfin Johnson is a Black momma, poet, visionary strategist and racial justice activist/organizer.
SUPPORT
This program was curated by Yodit Mesfin Johnson. The Silver Linings event series is generously supported by Art Bridges with additional program support provided by the Dr. Albert R. Bennett Museum Fund.