July 1 2021 - July 30 2022

The New Orleans African American Museum and Afrofuture Society present

Welcome to the Afrofuture:

Matrix of Creativity : Where the River Meets the Sea

Curated by Kristina Kay Robinson, Curatorial Fellow Kennedi Andrus

New Orleans African American Museum co-presents Welcome to the Afrofuture as an annual juried show whose concept was designed by the Afrofuture Society in 2015 includes programming and exhibitions showcasing contemporary work by artists, thinkers, creatives, and designers engaging in the aesthetic of black spatial realities, imaginary spaces, and black meccas. 

“NOAAM is thrilled to partner with Afrofuture Society, whose exhibition Welcome to the Afrofuture premiered during Art Basel Miami in 2018.  The traveling show came to the New Orleans African American Museum in the fall of 2019 and was wildly successful giving emerging and seasoned artists an opportunity to be in conversation with one another centering New Orleans as the centerpiece for the global south in the “Ground Zero” iteration.  This year we are so pleased to work with our first curator in residence Kristina Kay Robinson, who has been featured in both 2018 and 2019 as an artist.  It is this kind of web that most excites me about the museum’s contribution to the field. We are building long-term relationships, creating a pipeline for young emerging curators through our fellowship program, and prioritizing local black and diasporic talent while showcasing national and international artists.” Gia M. Hamilton NOAAM’s Executive Director and Chief Curator (curator of Welcome to the Afrofuture 2018 (Miami) & 2019 (New Orleans)) 

“I’ve always been intrigued by the concept of Afrofuturism / the Afrofuture and the conversations and debates about what and who constitutes such a future. Thinking about New Orleans as both this ancient metropolis and present-day world crossroads, I think further explorations in Afrofuturism have to engage and/or be sited in this specific landscape—this tenuous place at the mouth of the Mississippi River, where nothing, not even group survival, is a given. I think here, where the border between land and water, life and death is so mutable, we find the limitations of the concept, we find a place that can push against those limitations and create new strategies, iterations, and visions for multiple kinds of futures. I’m excited about the use of both figuration and abstraction, textile and texture by the artists featured in this exhibition, and how the works respond to one another and the environment, as home or guest.” Kristina Kay Robinson, Curator in Residence- Welcome to the Afrofuture: Matrix of Creativity: Where the River Meets the Sea, 2021

FEATURING: Khalid Abdelrahman, Langston Allston, Kennedi Andrus, Dianne “Mimi” Baquet, Didier Civil, Rodrecas Davis, Eseosa Edebiri, Sokari Ekine, Ashley Firstley, Myesha Francis, Jacq Francois, Cherise Harrison- Nelson, Cheriyiah Hill, Tatiana Kitchen, Soraya Jean Louis, Gael Jean Louis, Lance Minto-Strouse, Steven Montinar, John Jahni Moore, Jameel Paulin, Schetauna Powell, Nik Richard, Ryann Sterling, Khalid Thompson, Bianca Walker, Sly Watts

Kristina Kay Robinson is a writer, independent curator, and visual artist born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her written, visual and curatorial practice centers and interrogates the modern and ancient connections between world communities. Robinson’s work both at home and abroad focuses on the impact of globalization, militarism, and surveillance on society and their intersections with contemporary art and pop culture.