About
About
The Hemispheric Institute invites you to “In the Gallery,” a series of conversations with artists, scholars, and art institutions whose work and archival collections are featured in the exhibition, In the Dark: Scenes from a Moving Archive. Currently on view through October 15, In the Dark features works from seventeen collections that form part of the Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library.
These dialogues will offer artists, scholars, and archive makers an opportunity to reflect on individual works, the making of collections, and the importance of documentation and preservation.
Week 1
Week One
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
| Title: |
In the Gallery with Carlos Martiel
|
| Date: |
September 15, 2026 |
| Time: |
6:00 PM |
| Venue: |
20 Cooper Square, First Floor Gallery |
| Language: |
English and Spanish |
|
Join us for a conversation with artist Carlos Martiel, who will discuss the past and present significance of his work Ruinas (2015), his HIDVL collection, and his current projects. |
| About: |
In Ruinas, artist Carlos Martiel lies naked in a fetal position on the floor of a gallery. We watch as two white men cover him with rocks until his body can no longer be seen. For the artist, this piece thematizes the extermination of indigenous populations and the violent colonization of indigenous land by dominant industrialized European culture. Martiel states, “Progressivism [has] buried native traditions, folklore, and wisdom. This work proposes the body as a seed on which a possible new society is built. My body is made invisible [by the performance] but is not displaced.” |
| Carlos Martiel Bio: |
Carlos Martiel lives and works in New York. He graduated in 2009 from the National Academy of Fine Arts, the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro, in Havana. Between 2008 and 2010, he studied in the Cátedra Arte de Conducta, directed by the artist Tania Bruguera. Martiel’s works have been included in numerous international biennials and exhibited in museums worldwide. His works are in public and private collections such as The Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami; the Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro. He was an Artist in Residence at the Hemispheric Institute in 2022. |
Week 2
Week Two
Wednesday, September 23, 2026
| Title: |
In the Gallery with National Black Theatre
|
| Date: |
September 23, 2026 |
| Time: |
6:00 PM |
| Venue: |
20 Cooper Square, First Floor Gallery |
| Language: |
English |
|
Join us for a conversation with Jonathan McCrory, Executive Artistic Director of National Black Theatre, and Abisola Faison, a member of NBT’s original company, who will reflect on Me and My Song (1969). They will also address the preservation of NBT’s legacy, the power of Black theater, and the importance of collective memory. |
| About: |
Me and My Song is a tribute to the poets who shaped the Harlem Renaissance. The film, created by National Black Theatre, aired as part of “Black Heritage: A History of Afro-Americans,” a 1969 educational film and television series produced by WCBS and Columbia University. It celebrates Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Sterling Brown, Jean Toomer, Franke Horne, William Waring Cuney, and Arna Bontemps. Their poetry expressed a new social posture and attitude towards segregation, discrimination, and racism. This film demonstrates Dr. Barbara Ann Teer’s “choreopoem” performance genre. |
| National Black Theatre: |
National Black Theatre (NBT) was founded in 1968 in the heart of Harlem by the late Dr. Barbara Ann Teer, an award-winning visionary artist and entrepreneur. NBT is among the oldest Black Theaters in the country and among the longest owned and operated by a woman of color. NBT’s core mission is to produce transformational theatrical experiences that enhance African American cultural identity by telling authentic stories of the Black experience. Since its founding, it has produced over 300 original theatre works that have toured the United States and the world. NBT was the Arts Institution in Residence at the Hemispheric Institute during Fall 2025. |
Week 3
Week Three
Thursday, October 1, 2026
| Title: |
In the Gallery with Arthur Avilés and Charles Rice-González
|
| Date: |
October 1, 2026 |
| Time: |
6:00 PM |
| Venue: |
20 Cooper Square, First Floor Gallery |
| Language: |
English and Spanish |
|
Join us for a conversation with Arthur Avilés and Charles Rice González, who will discuss A Jamaican Battybwoy in America (2021), in which Nikolai McKenzie reinterprets Arthur Avilés’ signal work A Puerto Rican Faggot from America (1996). The conversation will touch on archival creation and the work of the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!) 25 years after the original piece was performed. |
| About: |
In A Jamaican Battybwoy in America, McKenzie dances before footage of the original performance of A Puerto Rican Faggot from America that is preserved in the Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library (HIDVL). The performance was part of “Legacy in Motion: Arthur Avilés Live,” a dance-theater medley that formed part of the Naked Vanguard: The Arthur Avilés Archive in Motion series. This production of A Jamaican Battybwoy in America received 2 Bessie Award nominations in 2022, one in the Outstanding Performer category (Nikolai McKenzie) and another in the Outstanding Revival category (Hemispheric Institute and the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance!). |
| Arthur Avilés: |
Arthur Avilés is an internationally renowned gay New York-Rican dancer/choreographer. Avilés was born in 1963 in Jamaica, Queens and raised in Long Island and the Bronx. In December 1998, he co-founded The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!) with Charles Rice-González. Avilés was an Artist in Residence at the Hemispheric Institute in 2021-2022. |
| Charles Rice-González: |
Charles Rice-González is a writer, long-time Bronx LGBTQ+ activist, co-founder of The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!), and an Assistant Professor at Hostos Community College. His debut novel, Chulito has received awards and recognitions from American Library Association (ALA) and the National Book Critics Circle. |
Week 4
Week Four
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
| Title: |
In the Gallery with Charlotte Brathwaite
|
| Date: |
October 6, 2026 |
| Time: |
6:00 PM |
| Venue: |
20 Cooper Square, First Floor Gallery |
| Language: |
English and Spanish |
|
Join us for a conversation with Charlotte Brathwaite, who will discuss the making of Forgotten Paradise: Dream the Other Side of the River (2022), addressing the video’s significance as an ongoing artistic project. The conversation will also touch on Brathwaite’s other works between the U.S. and Senegal and the importance of archiving and preservation for her creative practice. |
| About: |
Charlotte Brathwaite’s video art aims to imagine the dreams and nightmares of forcibly enslaved Muslim scholar Omar ibn Said in shifting projections and large form photographs. Ibn Said was born around 1770 in Futa Tooro in West Africa and trained as an Islamic scholar before being kidnapped and enslaved in the Carolinas. In the piece, the dream-images of Ibn Said show the ocean and Senegal. As Brathwaite explains it, “The work unfolds as a cinematic ghost song that connects Said’s stolen spirit back to the living presence of his ancestors across the oceans, across time and space.” |
| Charlotte Brathwaite: |
Charlotte Brathwaite is an artist and director whose creative practice spans immersive theater, gatherings, film, installations, and music-driven performance. She has received major awards and fellowships, including the Doris Duke Artist Award, United States Artists Fellowship, and the Princess Grace Award. She was an Artist in Residence at the Hemispheric Institute in 2025. |
Week 5
Week Five
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
| Title: |
In the Gallery with Dr. Karen Jaime
|
| Date: |
October 13, 2026 |
| Time: |
6:00 PM |
| Venue: |
20 Cooper Square, First Floor Gallery |
| Language: |
English and Spanish |
|
Join us for a conversation with Dr. Karen Jaime, Associate Professor at Cornell and Co-curator of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Founders Project Collection in HIDVL, who will discuss the creation of the collection in collaboration with Nuyorican Poet elders and the key role of the archive in her research and teaching. |
| Dr. Karen Jaime: |
Dr. Karen Jaime is an Associate Professor of Performing and Media Arts and Latina/o Studies at Cornell University and the author of the award-winning book The Queer Nuyorican: Racialized Sexualities and Aesthetics in Loisaida (NYU Press, 2021). Dr. Jaime is also a celebrated spoken word artist and former curator for the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. During her tenure as Scholar in Residence at the Hemispheric Institute, she co-edited Memorias de Miguel: The Hard Work of Love, honoring the legacy of Miguel Algarín. |
