# Press Items Please create LOP for all the Press Releases Nine Moments Antiquities Across Times and Place i once knew a girl Harlem ReSignifications Art of Jazz: Form/Performance/Notes THE WOVEN ARC Black Chronicles II Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present Luminós/C/ity.Ordinary Joy ## Nine Moments ## Press [### Boston Globe: 'Searing images in a sweeping show about race and democracy' ](https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/art/2018/12/05/searing-images-sweeping-show-about-race-and-democracy/jwLV0X2V5QX5NeAVQobMUK/story.html) December 05, 2018 The operatic opening notes in “Nine Moments for Now,” a sweeping exhibition about democracy, race, and society at Harvard’s Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African and African American Art, are grounded in violence and grief. ![cooper_ninemoments_press_melissablakall_-11-2.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/cooper_ninemoments_press_melissablakall_-11-2.jpg?itok=jdM-HJNB) [### Boston Globe: 'The Ticket: What’s happening in the local arts world' ](https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2018/11/01/the-ticket-what-happening-local-arts-world/6lwsB9Nf3WsGbNJjee5tQK/story.html) November 01, 2018 Dell Marie Hamilton curates this examination of art’s intersection with politics. The show is part of For Freedoms, a nationwide campaign exploring Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s four tenets of human rights, famously depicted by Norman Rockwell. ![The Ticket](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/gua5xrgyqqi6rcvlxzcmm2cugq.jpg?itok=wSOpYl1-) [### DigBoston: 'FEATURE: NINE MOMENTS FOR NOW' ](https://issuu.com/digboston/docs/2048final) November 29, 2018 We're Boston's only weekly alternative newspaper. #news #nightlife #music #art #film #food #comics digboston.com ![9 Moments](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/9mo.jpg?itok=oWbg_sYR) [### Harvard Gazette: 'Cooper Gallery and Busch-Reisinger Museum among best exhibitions in U.S.' ](/news/harvard-gazette-cooper-gallery-and-busch-reisinger-museum-among-best-exhibitions) December 21, 2018 “Inventur—Art in Germany, 1943–55” at the Harvard Art Museums and “Nine Moments for Now” at the Cooper Gallery were both among Hyperallergic’s top 20 exhibitions across the United States this year. ![9 Moments](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/120518_hamilton_dell_207.jpg?itok=IQpSONE3) [### Harvard Gazette: '‘Nine Moments for Now’ offers timely inspiration' ](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/12/harvards-cooper-gallery-exhibition-explores-art-in-the-age-of-political-uncertainty/) December 13, 2018 In a time when talk of losing — losing lives, losing political battles, losing rights — can overwhelm the national conversation, “Nine Moments for Now,” an exhibition at Harvard’s Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art at the Hutchins... ![9 Moments for Now](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/new_103118_ninemoments_of03a_2500.jpg?itok=TboqM-kH) [### HUBweek: 'Announcing the HUBweek Art Awards' ](http://go.hubweek.org/blog/announcing-the-hubweek-art-awards) February 07, 2019 'Nine Moments for Now' nominated for 2019 HUBweek Award in 'Curiatorial Gems' category. ![placeholder alt text](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/cooper_ninemoments_press_melissablakall_-10_01_0.jpg?itok=UJ15vkCi) [### Hyperallergic: 'Best of 2018: Our Top 20 Exhibitions Across the United States' ](https://hyperallergic.com/475412/best-of-2018-our-top-20-exhibitions-across-the-united-states/) December 20, 2018 (#17) Nine Moments for Now, curated by Dell Marie Hamilton, was an unexpected whammy of a show — a broad investigation of predominately Boston-based artists responding to, resisting, coping with, and exposing the violence of structural and outright racism... ![c1.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/c1.jpg?itok=RRaW7Cbv) [### Wonderland: '‘What Does Winning Look Like?’—Cooper Gallery’s Riveting Look At Blackness During Trump, #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo' ](https://gregcookland.com/wonderland/2018/11/27/nine-moments/) November 27, 2018 Near the start of “Nine Moments for Now,” the riveting exhibition at the Cooper Gallery at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center in Cambridge through Jan. 21, is a hall of black and white photos of the dead. ![9 Moments for Now](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/picninemomentsopeningw-1170x530.jpg?itok=toONflhL) ## Antiquities Across Times and Place ## Press [### Artslant Magazine: 'Mint Tea, Gossip, and Celebration' ](https://www.artslant.com/ew/articles/show/48740-mint-tea-gossip-celebration) November 07, 2018 Wole Soyinka is someone to celebrate. Africa's most acclaimed writer, dramatist, poet, novelist, "writer of genius", politico activist who spent 22 months as prisoner of conscience and, for the most part has transcended negativity in a host of camps. He’s... ![Soyinka](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/wole-landingpage_01.jpg?itok=H-8d2PuZ) [### Bay State Banner: 'An archive of their own: Wole Soyinka collection takes back African representation' ](https://www.baystatebanner.com/2017/11/03/an-archive-of-their-own/) November 03, 2017 “WOLE SOYINKA: Antiquities Across Times and Place,” on view at the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African and African American Art in Harvard Square, features nearly three dozen objects from the famous African playwright’s personal collection. Contemporary... ![Wole Soyinka exhibit](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/img_8254.jpg?itok=gzoWBedo) [### Big Red & Shiny: Feeling Continuity’s Embrace In: Wole Soyinka, Antiquities Across Times and Place ](http://bigredandshiny.org/37038/feeling-continuitys-embrace-in-wole-soyinka-antiquities-across-times-and-place/) November 06, 2017 Curated by Awam Amkpa, Professor, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, WOLE SOYINKA: Antiquities Across Times and Place is the first exhibition composed of African art since the Cooper Gallery first opened its doors in 2014. What started as an idea generated... ![Soyinka](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/woman-looking-at-igbo-and-yoruba-items-photo-melissa-blackall-1-702x336.jpg?itok=o9RxA_7a) [### Boston Globe: 'At Harvard, Wole Soyinka’s collection of African traditional art' ](https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/style/2017/11/21/harvard-wole-soyinka-collection-african-traditional-art/ROo4LpzBtS9iDa0ZILnzvN/story.html) November 21, 2017 Nigerian playwright and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka’s collection of African traditional art includes bold, expressive masks, vessels, and figures — carved in wood, cast in bronze, sometimes adorned with beads or feathers. We don’t know who made them. We... ![Soyinka](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/6nv7zgwoaei6pcctl7h3xnbv4m.jpg?itok=E9xaaVLE) [### Harvard Crimson: 'Cooper Gallery Imbues Collecting with Storytelling' ](https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/11/26/wole-soyinka/) November 26, 2017 Bathed in warm light, the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery’s newest exhibition, “Wole Soyinka: Antiquities Across Times and Place,” provides a critical take on a collector’s purpose. Slated to run through December 21, the show provides the setting for a series of... ![Soyinka](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/wole-landingpage_01.jpg?itok=H-8d2PuZ) [### Wicked Local: 'What inspires an artist? Playwright Wole Soyinka's collection on exhibit at Harvard' ](https://www.wickedlocal.com/entertainment/20171130/what-inspires-artist-playwright-wole-soyinkas-collection-on-exhibit-at-harvard) November 30, 2017 Like visiting a new land, viewers of Wole Soyinka’s collection of African sculpture and art in Cambridge will likely encounter works of stunning craft and power that make them want to know more about the artisans who made them and the Nobel laureate who... ![Soyinka](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/cooper_wole_exhibition_melissablackall_-122_01.jpg?itok=k3ed1UP5) ## i once knew a girl [### Artslant: 'Carrie Mae Weems: I once knew a girl...' ](https://www.artslant.com/global/events/show/432330-i-once-knew-a-girl) September 20, 2016 In the sometime satin and velvet lined world of the visual arts, the impact of the socio-political affairs transmit messages against war, poverty, racism, injustice and imbalance. Some mimic, "art for art sake" in avoidance. Others charge in. Few peal... ![Weems](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/weems-grace-still-116-450x450.jpg?itok=u4FlzRGQ) [### Artslant: 'Doxology: Dell M. Hamilton's BLUES/BLANK/BLACK' ](https://www.artslant.com/ew/articles/show/47138-doxology-dell-m-hamiltons-bluesblankblack) January 07, 2017 With the Christmas holiday rapidly approaching, a limited audience gathered at the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African and African American Art at Harvard University for a riveting performance of a work challenging issues of race, gender, violence and... ![I ONCE KNEW A GIRL...](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/20170112121745-Cooper_online_BBB__MelissaBlackall__-36.jpg?itok=zSA9gxVR) [### Bay State Banner: 'The photos of Carrie Mae Weems are on display at the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery through Jan. 7' ](https://www.baystatebanner.com/2016/10/12/the-photos-of-carrie-mae-weems-are-on-display-at-the-ethelbert-cooper-gallery-through-jan-7/) October 12, 2016 A good story can recast the familiar and reveal something new. Artist Carrie Mae Weems tells a good story. With text, photographs and videos, she recasts the familiar into new stories in which people excluded from power claim their ground. ![Weems](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/the-considered-see-bergman.jpg?itok=sDoMW5oY) [### Big Red & Shiny: 'Art and Accountability: Carrie Mae Weems and Dell Hamilton Share Space at Harvard ' ](http://bigredandshiny.org/30266/art-and-accountability-carrie-mae-weems-and-dell-hamilton-share-space-at-harvard/?mc_cid=05028c42c8&mc_eid=76690d35f1) January 12, 2017 For decades, Carrie Mae Weems’s staged photographs and videos have served as aids for processing the legacies of slavery, racism, and sexism in the United States. The elegant solutions in Weems’s compositions, their gravitas and narrative content, appear... ![Art and Accountability: Carrie Mae Weems and Dell Hamilton Share Space at Harvard](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/BBB-2-1078x516.jpg?itok=7KltjyfC) [### Big Red & Shiny: 'See It Before It’s Gone: Carrie Mae Weems' ](http://bigredandshiny.org/30036/see-it-before-its-gone-carrie-mae-weems/) January 04, 2017 A Zeus, a Jesus, a jester… or is it an evil clown? Actually, it’s President Barack Obama (yes, we can still call him that for a few more precious days)—seen through the lens (literally) of artist Carrie Mae Weems. “The Obama Project” (2016, video... ![Weems](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/the-shape-of-thing-702x336.jpg?itok=UDOhEEDd) [### Big Red & Shiny: 'STAND UP, Silvi Naci in Conversation with Dell M. Hamilton' ](http://bigredandshiny.org/30412/stand-up-silvi-naci-in-conversation-with-dell-m-hamilton/) January 18, 2017 Dell M. Hamilton’s work draws on not only the historical conventions of photography and performance art but also on the history of black theater, the written and oral traditions of black & Latina women writers as well as the contradiction & exuberance of... ![Dell M. Hamilton](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/bbb-fivemiles-2-credit-tiph-browne-385x257.jpg?itok=B0tiRG3O) [### Boston Globe: 'Harvard, BU photography exhibits take a deep look at race' ](https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/art/2016/12/01/two-photography-exhibits-take-deep-look-race/PzND3LP5P3Vru6nZg3gj0L/story.html) December 01, 2016 “Carrie Mae Weems: I once knew a girl . . .” comes in three parts: “Beauty,” “Legacies,” and “Landscapes.” Each is a variation on an inexhaustible theme: the tangled past and no less tangled present of race and gender. The show runs through Jan. 7 at... ![Weems](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/sshfj3vqfei6niuvyyjnioqpkq.jpg?itok=yWcPgj1A) [### Harvard Gazette: 'Art of the self, but not just' ](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/10/art-of-the-self-but-not-just/) October 12, 2016 At a recent reception, an eager crowd followed MacArthur “genius” and 2015 W.E.B. Du Bois Medalist Carrie Mae Weems as she wound her way through the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, stopping frequently to explain the thinking or... ![Weems](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/092916_weems_carrie_070main.jpg?itok=bRjLO33Y) [### Harvard Magazine: “Getting Out of the Way of the Work” ](https://harvardmagazine.com/2016/10/weems-once-knew-a-girl) October 17, 2016 There’s a line out the Cooper Gallery’s doors, wrapping back around Peet’s. We’re queuing between those old-style red-velvet aisle markers, printed tickets in hand. When we finally make it inside, they make it worth our while: I sample some kind of... ![Weems](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/hm_10.13.2016_weems_portrait.jpg?itok=L_oJ_zZR) [### Hyperallergic: 'On Election Day, Revisiting Carrie Mae Weems’s Endorsement of Hillary Clinton' ](https://hyperallergic.com/336350/on-election-day-revisiting-carrie-mae-weemss-endorsement-of-hillary-clinton/) November 08, 2016 On Election Day, it may be worth taking a second look at Carrie Mae Weems’s “The Power of Your Vote,” a video a little over three minutes long intended to galvanize voters. ![Carrie Mae Weems, “The Power of Your Vote”](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/Photo-One.jpg?itok=7IkC-aEs) ## Harlem [### Bay State Banner: 'When Construction Comes: Cooper Gallery exhibit highlights Harlem gentrification' ](https://www.baystatebanner.com/2017/05/31/when-construction-comes-cooper-gallery-exhibit-highlights-harlem-gentrification/) May 31, 2017 Through July 15, Harvard’s Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African and African American Art analyzes the history and changes in a historic neighborhood in “Harlem: Found Ways.” Anchored by two photo series by Dawoud Bey, created 40 years apart, the exhibit... ![“Young Man, West 127th Street,”](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/Dawoud_Bey_-_Young_Man_2.jpg?itok=HWItxWTd) [### Color Magazine: 'Harlem: Found Ways' ](https://colormagazine.com/harlem-found-ways/) July 09, 2017 With the exhibition Harlem: Found Ways, the Cooper Gallery presents artistic visions and engagements specific to Harlem, New York City, in the last decades. Each artwork employs a distinct set of inquiries and innovative strategies to explore the Harlem... ![Harlem](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/harlem.png?itok=GSfBLrp_) [### Harvard Gazette: 'Images of Harlem, then and now' ](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/06/dawoud-beys-harlem-photographs-part-of-harvard-cooper-gallery-exhibit/) June 01, 2017 For photographer Dawoud Bey, activism and art have long been linked. Bey, whose portraits of Harlem form the centerpiece of the exhibit “Harlem: Found Ways” now at the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African and African American Art, first connected with his... ![Gazette image](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/dawoud-bey-photo-jason-smikle-1_605_main.jpg?itok=2cFtNHdK) [### Harvard Magazine: Finding Harlem ](http://harvardmagazine.com/2017/06/harlem) June 27, 2017 Vera Ingrid Grant, director of Harvard’s Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African-American Art, notes that the name “Harlem” evokes many different visions. Some people recall the landmarks central to the Harlem Renaissance, like the Apollo Theater... ![Abigail DeVille’s New York at Dawn](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/Cooper_Harlem_Install_0.jpg?itok=wtp1CRhB) [### Huffington Post: 'Harlem at Harvard' ](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/harlem-at-harvard_b_5a307c06e4b0b73dde46a86e) December 14, 2017 Finally, there is the Ligon — a canvas that reminds one of nothing so much as a monolith tipped on its side, set grayly against a wall that barely abides it. That the 20-foot long painting is the terminus of Harlem: Found Ways, a recent presentation at... ![Harlem](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/h2.png?itok=0EEj9qQV) ## ReSignifications ## Press [### Bay State Banner: 'Blackamoor no more: Contemporary artworks shatter oppressive colonial narrative' ](https://www.baystatebanner.com/2018/03/21/blackamoor-no-more/) March 21, 2018 Through May 5, the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art presents “ReSignifications,” a reimagined slice of a 2015 exhibit staged at New York University’s Villa La Pietra in Florence, Italy. Guest curator Awam Amkpa has whittled down... ![ReSignifications](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/img_4159.jpg?itok=qpEZXpHK) [### Boston Globe: 'Harvard's Cooper Gallery updates the blackamoor' ](https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/art/2018/04/18/harvard-cooper-gallery-updates-blackamoor/xFQXL3lXRbdYvMt4xeM7oN/story.html) April 18, 2018 ‘ReSignifications,” at the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, is a pointed object lesson. What can we learn from blackamoors, the servile black figures in art history? Thirty-six blackamoor statues, mostly made in the 18th and... ![ReSignifications](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/cooper_resignifications_install_melissablackall_28.jpg?itok=snYEANZd) [### Boston Globe: 'The Ticket: What’s happening in the arts world' ](https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2018/03/08/the-ticket-what-happening-arts-world/qBs9xl5D9bjPoTtWCpbukL/story.html) March 08, 2018 RESIGNIFICATIONS Curator Awam Amkpa asked several contemporary artists to interrogate and respond to the Western art history trope of the blackamoor, an African depicted as servile or decorative. Through May 5. ![ReSignifications](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/cooper_resignifications_install_melissablackall_8_01.jpg?itok=41OjXAsN) [### Wicked Local Cambridge: 'Around Cambridge' ](https://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/news/20180327/around-cambridge) March 27, 2018 The Cooper Gallery’s spring 2018 exhibition “ReSignifications” links classical and popular representations of African bodies in European art, culture and history as it interprets and interrogates the “Blackamoor” trope in Western culture that emerged at... ![ReSignifications](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/cooper_resignifications_install_melissablackall_28.jpg?itok=snYEANZd) ## Art of Jazz: Form/Performance/Notes ## Press [### Art New England: 'Blue Notes and Whole-Tones: Reviewing Jazz at the Cooper Gallery' ](http://artnewengland.com/blogs/blue-notes-and-whole-tones-reviewing-jazz-at-the-cooper-gallery/) March 01, 2016 This spring in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA, the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art is putting on a show-stopping performance with Art of Jazz: Form/Performance/Notes, an exhibition that delves as deep into jazz and art as it does... ![Image Art of Jazz](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/pub_artofjazz.jpg?itok=ARih9SyH) [### Artslant: 'Race, Art, and all that Jazz at Harvard' ](https://www.artslant.com/ew/articles/show/45522) March 23, 2016 Jazz is disobedient. Let’s start there. Born in America, long before being considered, "cool", or perhaps “hip”, it was something to be picked up with fingers, to be eaten by hand. Only later it worked its way into the global fabric, leaping across oceans... ![Artslant](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/cover_image_2.jpg?itok=JyCplwUN) [### Boston Globe: 'Harvard Show Looks at Art in the Key of Jazz' ](https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-art/2016/02/21/harvard-show-looks-art-key-jazz/tbt5a48OAxgvgB5iELePNK/story.html) February 22, 2016 It’s a sensory paradox. Music is an aural art, yet the richer its sounds the more they can conjure up images. This relationship between seeing and hearing is central to “Art of Jazz: Form/Performance/Notes” at Harvard’s Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African... ![Art of Jazz](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/p7in4tgz4ei6lflveidkuuju5a.jpg?itok=_cyQZAcd) [### Gartenberg Media: RECAP: Opening of "Art of Jazz: Form/Performance/Notes" – Featuring the Photographs of Hugh Bell. ](https://www.gartenbergmedia.com/news/2016/2/3/recap-opening-of-art-of-jazz-formperformancenotes-featuring-the-photographs-of-hugh-bell) February 03, 2016 Last night was the public opening reception for "Art of Jazz: Form/Performance/Notes," at the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery, Harvard University, featuring the photographs of Hugh Bell. The exhibition is now running through May 8th. ![BC2](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/image-asset.jpeg?itok=P43P_zul) [### Harvard Art Museums, INDEX: 'Variations on a Theme' ](https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/article/variations-on-a-theme) March 25, 2016 When it comes to the Art of Jazz: Form exhibition, on view in the Harvard Art Museums’ University Teaching Gallery, there’s much more than meets the eye. That’s because there are two other components to the show , both on view in the Ethelbert Cooper... ![Art of Jazz](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/index-art-of-jazz-01_2.jpg?itok=35_u-6-V) [### Harvard Gazette: 'Jazz Made Visible' ](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/03/jazz-made-visible/) March 15, 2016 Crammed into a corner made by padded walls, hunched under a low tin ceiling, Max Roach smacked and rattled the drums while his feet rapidly tapped the pedals of the kick and hi-hat. A photographer captured the scene, at the Three Deuces, one of many small... ![Art of Jazz](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/artofjazz.jpg?itok=7obnnLAT) [### Harvard Magazine: 'In Art of Jazz, A Multivocal Exhibit' ](http://harvardmagazine.com/2016/02/art-of-jazz-opens) February 08, 2016 In the front hall of the Cooper Gallery on Mount Auburn Street, what appear to be two bubble-shaped lanterns hang from the ceiling—but instead of beaming down light to illuminate the art, they pipe in music for visitors standing beneath. In the rooms... ![Art of Jazz](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/milesdavis.jpeg?itok=1H2diF1a) [### Jazziz.com: '“Art of Jazz” exhibition at The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art' ](https://www.jazziz.com/art-of-jazz-exhibition-at-the-ethelbert-cooper-gallery-of-african-african-american-art/) February 01, 2016 With more than 70 pieces ranging from early jazz age objects and mid-century jazz ephemera to contemporary works by established African American artists, the exhibition explores the beginnings of jazz and traces how it was embraced internationally as an... ![Art of Jazz](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/artofjazz.jpg?itok=7obnnLAT) [### Luhring Augustine: Jason Moran in " Art of Jazz: Form / Performance / Notes ](https://www.luhringaugustine.com/news/jason-moran-in-art-of-jazz-form-performance-notes) February 13, 2016 Art of Jazz: Form/Performance/Notes, a stunning new three-part exhibition at The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art held in collaboration with the Harvard Art Museums explores the interaction between jazz music and the visual arts... ![Art of Jazz](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/c5a822939b3d59788c568dec2383c5ec.jpeg?itok=CYNNCAwe) [### The Root: '10 Female Artists of Color on the Rise' ](https://www.theroot.com/10-female-artists-of-color-on-the-rise-1790854732) March 22, 2016 A Liberian conceptual painter, Lina Iris Viktor grew up in London. She is known for working with 24-karat gold and using only the colors blue, black and white. Her work consists of simple geometric shapes that repeat throughout the canvas, and in many... ![Lina](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/uj5kkzzd9uh97fft50kb.jpg?itok=Q5keB1Je) [### Wicked Local Cambridge: 'Five Upcoming Exhibits to Visit in Cambridge' ](https://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/news/20160205/five-upcoming-exhibits-to-visit-in-cambridge) February 05, 2016 Art of Jazz at the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery for African and African American Art: now through May 8, featuring award-winning jazz pianist Jason Moran, collage artist Cullen Washington, conceptual painter Lina Viktor, photographer Ming Smith and... ![Art of Jazz](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/artofjazz.jpg?itok=7obnnLAT) ## THE WOVEN ARC ## Press [### Arts Fuse: 'Fuse Visual Arts Feature: “The Woven Arc” at the Cooper Gallery' ](http://artsfuse.org/146722/fuse-visual-arts-feature-the-woven-arc-at-the-cooper-gallery/) June 17, 2016 The revolution will not be televised, nor is it over. This is the premise of Grant’s Woven Arc exhibition, an intriguing mix of historic African textile-pieces and decorative arts, juxtaposed with 18 works of contemporary African and African-American art... ![Sacks](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/square-six-by-six-peter-sacks-photo-marcus-halevi.jpeg?itok=rEfquIUr) [### Bay State Banner: ‘The Woven Arc’ on exhibit at Cooper Gallery through July 1 ](https://www.baystatebanner.com/2016/06/17/the-woven-arc-on-exhibit-at-cooper-gallery-through-july-16/) June 17, 2016 Bursting with compressed energy, Yinka Shonibare’s 2010 sculpture “Food Faerie” is poised to take flight from its perch in the lobby of the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art in Harvard Square. Its child-size, headless brown body... ![Woven Arc](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/horiz-food-fairy-yinka-shonibare-photo-melissa-blackall.jpg?itok=i5PV1ZaK) [### Big Red and Shiny: 'THE WOVEN ARC: Art and Life Converge Through Textiles' ](http://bigredandshiny.org/25217/the-woven-arc-art-and-life-converge-through-textiles/) June 02, 2016 The Woven Arc, an exhibition at Harvard University’s Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African and African American Art, demonstrates the important role that textiles have played in the history of art and continue to play in the contemporary art world. Director... ![Woven Arc](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/horiz-metas-ii-el-anatsui-photo-melissa-blackall-702x336.jpeg?itok=MdKg2YVo) [### Black Boston: 'Black fine art. “THE WOVEN ARC” at Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art – 5/20 – July 16th, Cambridge' ](https://blackboston.com/black-fine-art-the-woven-arc-at-ethelbert-cooper-gallery-of-african-african-american-art-520-july-16th-cambridge/) May 19, 2016 For its inaugural summer exhibition, the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art presents THE WOVEN ARC, curated by Gallery Director Vera Ingrid Grant, with a special installation of legacy textiles and hats by David Adjaye. ![Woven Arc](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/art-gates.jpg?itok=y8GkmqYe) [### New Boston Post: 'African art show opens at Harvard's Cooper Gallery' ](https://newbostonpost.com/2016/05/20/african-art-show-opens-at-harvards-cooper-gallery/) May 20, 2016 Walking into the gallery located off Brattle Square in Cambridge, a visitor immediately confronts a doll-like female figurine, but one that sports wings and is missing a head. Yinka Shonibare’s Food Faerie, adorned in brightly colored fabric and holding a... ![Woven Arc](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/wovenarc-3-780x439.jpg?itok=SvgEe0HG) [### WCVB5 Cityline: 'Summer's Here: THE WOVEN ARC at the Cooper Gallery' ](https://www.wcvb.com/article/cityline-summers-here-segment-1/8105209) July 05, 2016 Watch the television segment. ![YINKA SHONIBARE. FOOD FAERIE, 2010,](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/cooper_wa_install_melissablackall_-8.jpg?itok=47kx3qXP) ## Black Chronicles II ## Press [### Artnet: '‘Black Chronicles II' Reveals a History Rarely Seen' ](https://news.artnet.com/market/black-chronicles-ii-reveals-history-rarely-seen-327659) September 14, 2015 A collection of archival photographs (all taken prior to 1938) has surfaced as the result of a British research project called the Missing Chapter, which aims to “redress persistent ‘absence’ within the historical record.” ![WCVB](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/09horizon-articlelarge.jpg?itok=SqbUO4qk) [### Artscope: A Critical Look at Black Photographic History ](https://artscopemagazine.com/2015/09/black-chronicles-ii/) September 01, 2015 When the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art opened last fall in Harvard Square, just behind Peet’s Coffee, I was overjoyed, since there’s now somewhere in the square one can enter and leave with rich takings without being followed... ![BC2](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/peterjacksonphotohi.jpg?itok=JS2lCW6M) [### Atlanta Black Star: 'New Exhibit Highlights Black Presence in Victorian England' ](https://atlantablackstar.com/2015/09/01/new-exhibit-highlights-black-presence-victorian-england/) September 01, 2015 An exhibit debuting Wednesday at the Cooper Gallery of African & African-American Art at Harvard University features photographs of Blacks living in Victoria-era England. ![Black Chronicles II](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/blackjonas-and-xiniwe-photo-hi_605.jpg?itok=l_uIqpBy) [### Boston Globe: 'Black and white photographs of Victorian England' ](https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-art/2015/09/05/black-and-white-photographs-victorian-england/CsiuE9TIjj3IycAsRxTLGP/story.html) September 05, 2015 Not all of these images are of the everyday sort, but the fact that so many are seems far more exotic than the subjects’ skin color. We see married couples, men in uniform, a black butler and white maid (with their white employers), two bishops, a... ![Black Chronicles II](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/bc2.jpg?itok=V5rKxeZb) [### Colorlines: 'New Exhibit Features Never-Before-Seen Photos of 19th Century Free Blacks' ](https://www.colorlines.com/articles/new-exhibit-features-never-seen-photos-19th-century-free-blacks) September 03, 2015 A thousand words are cool and all, but the creators behind a new exhibit at Harvard University’s Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African and African-American Art in Cambridge, Mass., are hoping that visitors walk away with even more to ruminate on. ![Black Chronicles II](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/blackjonas-and-xiniwe-photo-hi_605.jpg?itok=l_uIqpBy) [### Culture Type: 'Fall Exhibitions: 42 Must-See Museum Shows Featuring Black Artists' ](https://www.culturetype.com/2015/10/15/fall-exhibitions-42-must-see-museum-shows-featuring-black-artists/) October 15, 2015 19. “Black Chronicles II” @ The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery, Harvard University | Cambridge, Mass. First shown in London at Autograph ABP, this exhibition examines images of blacks in 19th and 20th century Britain and features a recently discovered cache of... ![Black Chronicles II](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/blackjonas-and-xiniwe-photo-hi_605.jpg?itok=l_uIqpBy) [### Everett Potter: 'Exploring Britain’s Black Victorians at Harvard’s Cooper Gallery' ](https://www.everettpotter.com/2015/09/exploring-britains-black-victorians-at-harvards-cooper-gallery/) September 01, 2015 With the U.S. premiere of “Black Chronicles II,” Americans get a rare and intriguing glimpse into the lives of blacks in Victorian England. At Harvard University’s Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, September 2-December 11, the... ![BC2](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/peterjacksonphotohi.jpg?itok=JS2lCW6M) [### Good Black News: 'Black Victorian Photos Exhibit "Black Chronicles II" at Harvard University's Cooper Gallery Through December' ](/news/good-black-news-black-victorian-photos-exhibit-black-chronicles-ii-harvard) September 06, 2015 “We are not what we seem.” When the iconic novelist Richard Wright wrote those words, in 1940, he was describing the African-American experience. As a stunning new exhibit at Harvard University’s Ethelbert Cooper Gallery shows, the complexity of seeing... ![BC2](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/peterjacksonphotohi.jpg?itok=JS2lCW6M) [### Harvard Crimson: 'Artist Spotlight, Jay Calderin' ](https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/11/24/artist-spotlight-jay-calderin/) November 24, 2015 As an author, designer, and professor, Calderin was invited to speak on 19th-century black fashion as part of the Cooper Gallery’s new exhibit, “Black Chronicles II,” which feature photographs of various subjects from artists to royalty. Prior to his Nov... ![Calderin](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/003516_1311135.jpg.1500x996_q95_crop-smart_upscale.jpg?itok=r2121h4m) [### Harvard Crimson: 'Hutchins Center Showcases ‘Black Chronicles’ Photo Exhibit' ](https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/11/5/black-chronicles-at-hutchins/) September 17, 2015 The Hutchins Center for African and African American Research is hosting this fall a photography exhibition that displays previously buried archival photographs of black subjects in late 19th century Britain. “Black Chronicles II,” as the exhibition is... ![BC2](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/210619_1310131.jpg.1500x993_q95_crop-smart_upscale.jpg?itok=1EH0zxdr) [### Harvard Gazette: 'Life behind the Pose' ](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/09/life-behind-the-pose/) September 02, 2015 “We are not what we seem.” When the iconic novelist Richard Wright wrote those words, in 1940, he was describing the African-American experience. As a stunning new exhibit at the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery shows, the complexity of seeing and identity took... ![Black Chronicles II](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/blackjonas-and-xiniwe-photo-hi_605.jpg?itok=l_uIqpBy) [### Harvard Magazine: 'Existence as Resistance' ](http://harvardmagazine.com/2015/09/black-chronicles-ii-cooper-gallery-photo-exhibit) September 17, 2015 “Guess who was the most photographed American of the nineteenth century.” Fletcher University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the Hutchins Center for African and African-American Studies, prepares for the surprise on my face. ![BC2](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/peterjacksonphotohi.jpg?itok=JS2lCW6M) [### International Review of African American Art: 'All Too Human, Victorian Swag in Tow' ](http://iraaa.museum.hamptonu.edu/page/All-Too-Human%2C-Victorian-Swag-in-Tow) September 01, 2015 If we close our eyes and recall images of black people from earlier centuries, what is imprinted in our memories? Do we see elegance, dignity, refinement, beauty, intelligence—all facets of human subjectivity—among those used to tell the story of history... ![Black Chronicles II](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/blackjonas-and-xiniwe-photo-hi_605.jpg?itok=l_uIqpBy) [### New York Times: '‘Black Chronicles II’ Exhibition in Cambridge Set for September' ](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/10/travel/black-chronicles-ii-exhibition-in-cambridge-set-for-september.html) August 10, 2015 “Black Chronicles II,” an exhibition of photographs of black subjects in Britain in the late 1800s to early 1900s, will be shown to an American audience for the first time starting Sept. 2 at the new Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African American Art in... ![Black Chronicles II](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/blackjonas-and-xiniwe-photo-hi_605.jpg?itok=l_uIqpBy) [### NewBostonPost: 'Rare photos of 19th-century blacks speak to modern Americans' ](https://newbostonpost.com/2015/08/31/rare-photos-of-19th-century-blacks-speak-to-modern-americans/) August 21, 2015 Rare, striking and never-before-seen portraits of black citizens in Victorian-era England are going on display for the first time in the U.S., and organizers say the photographs have a powerful message for contemporary Americans riven by racism. “There’s... ![Black Chronicles II](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/victorian-780x439.jpg?itok=BXYiFBx8) [### okayafrica.: 'Long Lost Victorian-Era Portraits Of Black British Citizens Revealed In A New Exhibition ' ](https://www.okayafrica.com/black-chronicles-ii-ethelbert-cooper-gallery-for-african-african-american-art-harvard/) September 04, 2015 This fall, Black Chronicles II, an exhibition showcasing never-before-seen portraits of 19th and early 20th century Black British citizens, makes its U.S. premiere at Harvard's The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery for African & African-American Art. The show is... ![BC2](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/img.jpg?itok=6lca8DIn) [### WCVB5 CityLine: 'The Cooper Gallery exhibit 'Black Chronicles II'' ](https://www.wcvb.com/article/cityline-november-8-segment-two/8076704) November 09, 2015 Watch the News Segment ![WCVB](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/09horizon-articlelarge.jpg?itok=SqbUO4qk) [### WGBH: 'Arts This Week: Back To Fall, Back To The Theater' ](https://www.wgbh.org/news/post/arts-week-back-fall-back-theater) September 11, 2015 "You see black men and women depicted as they wanted to be and … it’s such a stark contrast to what we know is happening in this country at the time, that it’s very, very poignant." ![Black Chronicles II](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/wgbh.brightspotcdn.com_.jpg?itok=jwQXpz5x) ## Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present ## Press [### Africanah.org: 'Juan Roberto Diago' ](https://africanah.org/juan-roberto-diago/) March 02, 2017 Slavery is in Cuba’s past, but, as in the United States, its legacy continues. That is the ongoing career theme of mixed-media artist Juan Roberto Diago, who will exhibit 25 pieces in “Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present,” a career retrospective... ![My Race My History](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/AlejandroAutorretrato-768x513.jpg?itok=wqYCcbi-) [### ARC Magazine: 'Harvard University presents ‘Diago: The Pasts of this Afro-Cuban Present’' ](http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2017/02/harvard-university-presents-diago-the-pasts-of-this-afro-cuban-present/) February 10, 2017 The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African and African American Art at Harvard University presents the exhibition ‘Diago: The Pasts of this Afro-Cuban Present’, curated by Harvard University professor Alejandro de la Fuente. The show opens to the public on... ![Juan Roberto Diago, Untitled, 2013.](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/9780674977068-lg.jpg?itok=4inYC3nt) [### Art on Cuba: 'Los pasados de este presente afrocubano' ](https://artoncuba.com/blog-es/diago-los-pasados-de-este-presente-afrocubano/) January 20, 2017 La exposición reúne unas 25 obras en técnica mixta e instalaciones que trazan la trayectoria de Juan Roberto Diago desde mediados de la década de 1990, cuando comenzó a construir, a través de su arte, una historia alternativa de Cuba, desde una... ![Picture By: Alejandro de la Fuente](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/Diago.-Alejandro-755x450_0.jpg?itok=qdcI4Eni) [### Bay State Banner: 'Diago exhibit at the Cooper Gallery rewrites Afro-Cuban history' ](https://www.baystatebanner.com/2017/02/08/diago-exhibit-at-the-cooper-gallery-rewrites-afro-cuban-history/) February 08, 2017 Through May 5 at the Cooper Gallery, “Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present” confronts the Cuban racial narrative, rewriting history to include the slavery and shame the country has tried to forget. This is artist Juan Roberto Diago’s first... ![Diago](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/sin-titulo-untitled-diago-icon-image.jpg?itok=LuZfDFsV) [### Big Red & Shiny: 'Issues of Power: Resilience and Healing' ](http://bigredandshiny.org/31158/issues-of-power-resilience-and-healing/) February 21, 2017 Curated by Alejandro de la Fuente, Diago: The Past of This Afro-Cuban Present at The Cooper Gallery presents Juan Roberto Diago Durruthy’s first retrospective. Diago’s work is expository; a knowledge producer, Diago reconstructs a new history of the Afro... ![ISSUES OF POWER: Resilience and Healing](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/Cooper_Diago_Exhibit_MelissaBlackall_-11-702x336_0.jpg?itok=lzwz9Om-) [### Cuban Art News: '2017 Preview: Cuban Art in US Museums' ](https://cubanartnews.org/2017/01/03/2017-preview-cuban-art-in-us-museums/5827/) January 03, 2017 Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present. Some 25 mixed-media and installation works trace the career of Juan Roberto Diago from the mid-1990s, when he began to construct, through his art, a history of Cuba from an Afro-Cuban perspective. ![Diago](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/sin-titulo-untitled-diago-icon-image.jpg?itok=LuZfDFsV) [### Cuban Art News: 'Preview: Juan Roberto Diago at Harvard' ](https://cubanartnews.org/2017/01/31/preview-juan-roberto-diago-at-harvard/5885/) January 31, 2017 Tomorrow evening, the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art at Harvard University welcomes Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present. Juan Roberto Diago and the show’s curator, Alejandro de la Fuente, spoke about the exhibition with... ![Diago](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/visual_arts_013117b.jpg?itok=zSizc93d) [### Cuban Art News: 'Update: Capote in New York, Diago at Harvard, and Barroso’s Pinball Headed to the Armory Show' ](https://cubanartnews.org/2017/01/17/update-capote-in-new-york-diago-at-harvard-and-barrosos-pinball-headed-to-the-armory-show/5855/) January 17, 2017 At Harvard’s Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, roughly two dozen mixed-media and installation works by Juan Roberto Diago explore Cuban history from an Afro-Cuban perspective. Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present opens... ![Yoan Capote, Isla (Punto de Fuga), 2015 Courtesy yoan-capote.com](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/visual_arts_011717a.jpg?itok=WzDfim39) [### El Planeta: 'Exposición de arte contra el racismo y la discriminación' ](http://elplaneta.com/news/2017/mar/01/arteracismo/) March 01, 2017 Diago: Los pasados de este presente afrocubano es la primera mirada seria y sistemática de Estados Unidos al artista contemporáneo más destacado de Cuba, Juan Roberto Diago, y su prolífico trabajo. Diago es miembro destacado del nuevo movimiento cultural... ![Diago](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/diago_t640x360.jpg?itok=ufVtCHyB) [### Harvard Gazette: 'Shadows of Cuba’s past' ](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/01/juan-robert-diago-artwork-shadows-of-cubas-past/) February 27, 2017 Slavery is in Cuba’s past, but, as in the United States, its legacy continues. That is the ongoing career theme of mixed-media artist Juan Roberto Diago, who will exhibit 25 pieces in “Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present,” a career retrospective... ![Diago](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/diago-photo-credit-alain-gutiecc81rrez_605.jpg?itok=bQMRlxbN) [### Improper Bostonian: 'Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present' ](https://www.improper.com/event/24885/) May 05, 2017 After it appeared in the Cooper Gallery’s 2015 group exhibition Drapetomanía, Juan Roberto Diago saw his mixed-media piece Yo soy monte (I Am the Mountain) enter the Museum of Fine Arts’ permanent collection. A few years later, the 45-year-old Cuban... ![Yo soy monte](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/0201Art_Un-Pedrazo-de-Mi-Historia-copy-2_0.jpg?itok=L6pF8pbX) [### La Jiribilla: 'Roberto Diago expone en Harvard: un acontecimiento sobresaliente para la cultura cubana' ](http://www.lajiribilla.cu/articulo/roberto-diago-expone-en-harvard-un-acontecimiento-sobresaliente-para-la-cultura-cubana) November 08, 2017 La galería Ethelbert Cooper de Arte Africano y Afroamericano, espacio expositivo de la prestigiosa universidad de Harvard, acoge, por primera vez en su historia, la muestra personal de un artista cubano, Juan Roberto Diago, quien expone 25 obras... ![Diago%20reducido%205.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/Diago%2520reducido%25205.jpg?itok=lO3TTfwG) [### On Cuba Magazine: 'Roberto Diago: «Yo soy mi raza, mi historia»' ](https://oncubanews.com/cultura/roberto-diago-yo-soy-mi-raza-mi-historia/) February 20, 2017 El curador Alejandro de La Fuente y el artista plástico Juan Roberto Diago han logrado un acontecimiento sin precedentes: presentar en los predios de la Universidad de Harvard la muestra «Diago: Los pasados de este presente afrocubano» , una retrospectiva... ![Roberto Diago: “Yo soy mi raza, mi historia”](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/unspecified-6.jpg?itok=7oqOpum2) [### Repeating Islands: 'Art Exhibition—“Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present”' ](https://repeatingislands.com/2017/02/06/art-exhibition-diago-the-pasts-of-this-afro-cuban-present/) February 06, 2017 This exhibition includes 25 artworks of mixed media and installation art that span Diago’s vibrant career, since the mid-1990s, when he began to construct a revisionist history of the Cuban nation from the experience of a person of African descent. It is... ![Untitled](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/diago.jpg?itok=HdYYm7YD) [### WGBH: 'Arts This Week: 'The Beauty Queen of Leenane,' Juan Roberto Diago, 'Toni Erdmann'' ](https://www.wgbh.org/news/2017/02/16/arts/arts-week-beauty-queen-leenane-juan-roberto-diago-toni-erdmann) February 16, 2017 Juan Roberto Diago is a leading member of the new Afro-Cuban cultural movement, which has valiantly denounced the persistence of racism and discrimination in Cuban society. This exhibition of twenty-five mixed-media and installation artworks trace Diago’s... ![Black Chronicles II](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/wgbh.brightspotcdn.com_.jpg?itok=jwQXpz5x) ## Luminós/C/ity.Ordinary Joy [### CAAC Art: 'Luminós/C/ity.Ordinary Joy: From the Pigozzi Contemporary African Art Collection' ](http://www.caacart.com/pigozzi-exhibition.php?m=118) October 21, 2014 "We are pleased to announce that the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery’s inaugural exhibition will comprise selections from the Jean Pigozzi Collection of Contemporary African Art (CAAC). David Adjaye, the renowned British-Ghanaian architect and the designer of... ![photo of an african car-shaped coffin](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/luminos_square.png?itok=yM-99ZcT) [### Harvard Gazette: 'Cooper Gallery makes an entrance' ](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/10/cooper-gallery-opens-wide/) October 21, 2014 Four years in the making, the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art opens its doors this week. ![Cooper](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/102014_cooper_605.jpg?itok=jjUALjhL) [### Huffington Post: 'Luminós/C/ity.Ordinary Joy: African Art in a New Environment' ](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/luminoscityordinary-joy-a_b_6497748) January 19, 2015 ate 2014 and we are in a space of reflection, the subject of which is everyday life in the African metropolis, that cultural ‘elsewhere’ which the discipline of art history usually shrouds in mystery and myth. We see a giant bicycle, fashioned out of... ![Luminosity](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/2015-01-19-kaufman1411047_0097kingelezsmall-thumb.jpg?itok=7JdlmnbH) [### New York Times: 'A New Destination for African Art' ](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/21/arts/design/lumins-c-ityordinary-joy-opens-the-cooper-gallery-at-harvard.html) November 20, 2014 A few weeks before the revamped Harvard Art Museums reopened here, a new university-affiliated art space, the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, made its debut in modest quarters, two former storefront offices off Harvard Square... ![Luminosity](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/sidebarharvard-jumbo.jpg?itok=vnATH_ub) [### SLOG: 'Seattle Art Dealer Mariane Lenhardt and Great Architect David Adjaye Work Together on the Very First Exhibition at Harvard's New Black Galleries' ](https://www.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/12/30/seattle-art-dealer-mariane-lenhardt-and-great-architect-david-adjaye-work-together-on-the-very-first-exhibition-at-harvards-new-black-galleri) December 30, 2014 It was only three years ago that Mariane Lenhardt opened her first art gallery, on Second Avenue in Seattle, called M.I.A. Gallery—and today, she's the co-curator of the big inaugural exhibition at the first African and African American art center at a... ![Luminosity](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/lum1.jpg?itok=usx--neQ) [### The Root: 'Exploring the City of the Mind Through African Art' ](https://www.theroot.com/exploring-the-city-of-the-mind-through-african-art-1790878041) December 10, 2014 The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African and African American Art opened in late October 2014 in Cambridge, Mass., its exterior walls serving as both real and metaphoric grounding for the Hutchins Center for African and American Research at Harvard... ![The Root Image](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/yguwults7kzmssofdmif.jpg?itok=09Hmqg89)