Join The Black Embodiments Studio for The (Printed) Matter of Black Arts Writing: Archives for the Future, a panel discussion on the practice of collecting, preserving, and circulating Black arts writing ephemera. Featuring archivists and publishers of printed matter like flyers, zines, pamphlets, notebooks, and books, the program explores the significance of gathering around materials that are fragile and prone to disappearance—and reflects on what contemporary practices of preserving and circulating Black arts writing ephemera can tell us about the futures of the art world in general.
This is the second of two programs for Public Scholarship + Practice: Black Futures + Archives, a new series highlighting University of Washington-led research and practice at the intersections of visual art and culture.
Bio
Holly A. Smith is the College Archivist at Spelman College. She co-authored the article “This [Black] Woman’s Work: Exploring Archival Projects that Embrace the Identity of the Memory Worker” (KULA Journal, 2018:2), and authored the piece and “Wholeness is No Trifling Matter: Black Feminist Archival Practice and The Spelman College Archives” (The Black Scholar 52:2). She is passionate about Black feminist archival practice and archival advocacy related to collections for historically under documented communities.
Kandis Williams (b. 1985, Baltimore, Maryland) is a visual artist whose practice spans collage, sculpture, film, performance, writing, publishing, and curating. She explores and deconstructs critical theory around race, nationalism, authority, and eroticism. Her work examines the body as a site of experience while drawing upon her background in dramaturgy to envision spaces that accommodate the varied biopolitical economies, which inform how form and movement might be read. Williams establishes indices that network parts of the anatomy, regions of Black diaspora, as well as communication and obfuscation, relaying how popular culture and myth are interconnected. The artist is also the founder and editor-at-large of Cassandra Press, an artist-run publishing and educational platform producing lo-fi printed matter, classrooms, projects, artist books, and exhibitions. The platform’s intention is to disseminate ideas, distribute new language, propagate dialogue-centering ethics, aesthetics, femme driven activism, and black scholarship.
Amarie Gipson is a Houston-born writer, editor, and founder of The Reading Room HTX, an independent reference library anchored by a collection of more than 800 books on Black visual art, culture and history. Located in Downtown Houston, the library hosts free educational programs all designed to promote literacy and critical thinking. Gipson has held curatorial and editorial positions at numerous art institutions and publications. In 2024, she was awarded the AICA-USA's Irving Sandler Award for New Voices in Art Criticism. Gipson is currently working on her debut collection of essays on Black contemporary artists from Texas.
Yusuf Hassan is the founder of BlackMass Publishing. His work centers on research into books and printed matter as physical and conceptual forms, with particular attention to presentation as an integral part of meaning. Through ongoing study, experimentation, and making, Hassan explores how design, structure, and presentation shape interpretation in publications. Working primarily with print and publishing, his practice treats the book as a tool for investigation rather than display. His projects reflect a sustained interest in how material choices influence reading and experience.
CREDITS
Generous support for this program is provided by the Terra Foundation.
