In a time where we are encouraged to focus on the individual and be the first and the best, how can we remember that we are in a constant state of dialogue with what came before and what will come after us?

How can we create images that speak to the idea of honoring ancestral lineages, while also nurturing possibilities for future generations?

These are the questions we asked at the Black Image Center during the residency inspired by the exhibition Dawoud Bey & Carrie Mae Weems: In Dialogue at the Getty. 

Our teaching artist Nesanet Teshager Abegaze developed a curriculum with texts and prompts from Toni Cade Bambara, Greg Tate, Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, Milford mGraves, and Teshome Gabriel. 35mm and 120 film was eco-processed with coffee, a meditation on rethinking toxic darkroom chemistry and toxic approaches to image making. All of this was rooted in the Ethiopian coffee ceremony, which served as a storytelling technology and community building ritual. 

We are grateful to Carrie Mae Weems and Dawoud Bey for their precision and insistence on rigor, but most importantly for showing us what it means to make art while nurturing friendships and maintaining a radical commitment to community.

Thank you to the Getty for creating space for this residency.

The work that the residents created will be on view at Band of Vices from June 3-17, with an opening reception on the evening of June 3. We are delighted invite you to join us and see the work they created during this time. RSVP for the opening at the link below!