“…embrace a radical praxis of sharing what we know, how we know it, and what we can do with that knowing.”

This quote is from my book chapter “To risk the sovereignty of our own stories,” in The Routledge Companion to African Diaspora Art History.

In art history, the terms “African American” and “African Diasporic” are commonly used to describe art by and about Black life. These genres, though, are imperfectly defined. I hope to show that, even with all their messiness, the genres of “African American” and “African Diasporic” art are always and already connected. This chapter engages art by Vladimir Cybil Charlier and Texas Isaiah; as well as writings by Katherine McKittrick, Krista Thompson, Jessica Lynne and others. It is an effort to do what Black geographer Katherine McKittrick asks: to risk “the sovereignty of our own stories.”

Image [icon]: Texas Isaiah. Taj. 2020. photograph.

Image [banner]: Vladimir Cybil Charlier. Marissa Andy and Basquiat. 2017. digital print on archival paper.