Artist Talk: First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

🎉✨ You’re invited! ✨🎉

Join The Children’s Art Carnival + The Colored Girls Museum on Saturday, October 4, 2025, from 4–6 PM for an inspiring conversation with Harlem artists about creating powerful, intimate portraits that honor Black girlhood—its brilliance, vulnerability, and unstoppable power.

Featuring commissioned works by:

• Moses Harper
• Kephera Ife
• Gwendolyn Black

Moderated by artist J. Jwahir Hawkins with an open audience Q&A.

Come ready to celebrate art, community, and the beauty of Black girlhood!

First Time Ever I Saw Your Face is a traveling group exhibition commissioned by The Colored Girls Museum (TCGM). The exhibition’s title—drawn from Roberta Flack’s iconic 1972 vocal rendition—was chosen by TCGM Founder Vashti DuBois as a love song to Black girlhood.

Tasked with creating portraits of Black girls ages 10–18, the series originally featured six artist-muse pairs:

• Misha McGlown & Madison Proctor
• Nile Livingston & Tyjanae Williams
• Chanell Phillips & Christen Harvey
• Serena Saunders & Myka Ollison
• Aysha Ray Walker & Haley Ray
• Tara Pearson (aka Misty Sol) & Ayah Pearson

In partnership with TCGM, The Children’s Art Carnival (CAC) has commissioned three additional Harlem-based artists to contribute new portraits to the series:

• Moses Harper & Cayla McTair
• Kephera Ife & Shiloh Lecky
• Gwendolyn Black & Zoe Browner

Together, these works form a collection of ten powerful portraits celebrating Black girlhood.

On View: September 12 – November 2, 2025

Opening Reception: Friday, September 26 | 6:00–8:00 PM

Location: The Children’s Art Carnival, 62 Hamilton Terrace, Harlem

Gallery Hours: Saturday & Sunday, 12:00–5:00 PM

Weekday visits by appointment only

Email: [email protected]

About the exhibition:

First Time Ever I Saw Your Face is a traveling group exhibition commissioned by The Colored Girls Museum (TCGM). The title of the exhibition, inspired by Roberta Flack’s iconic 1972 vocal rendition, was chosen as a love song to black girlhood by TCGM’s Founder, Vashti Dubois. Tasked with creating portraits of Black girls ages 10 - 18, the series to-date features six paintings by artists and their muses: Misha McGlowen and Madison Proctor, Nile Livingston and Tyjanae Williams, Chanell Phillips and Christen Harvey, Serena Saunders and Myka Ollison, Aysha Ray Walker and Haley Ray, and Tara Pearson aka Misty Sol and Ayah Pearson.

The Children’s Art Carnival (CAC), in partnership with The Colored Girls Museum, has commissioned three additional artists, all from Harlem, to create new portraits to contribute to the traveling series. The artists and their muses are Moses Harper and Cayla McTair, Kephera Ife and Shiloh Lecky, and Gwendolyn Black and Zoe Browner. All nine portraits, which includes the original six, will be on display at CAC from September 12, 2025 through November 2, 2025. The opening reception is on Friday, September 12, 2025 from 6:00 - 8:00pm.

About The Colored Girls Museum: The Colored Girls Museum is a Black-women founded, collectively-led house museum whose mission emerges out of our sincere duty to African Diasporic histories, cultural traditions, and political commitments. The museum is located at 4613 Newhall St, Philadelphia, PA 19144. Please visit thecoloredgirlsmuseum.com to book an appointment and for more information.

About the Children’s Art Carnival: Since 1969, The Children’s Art Carnival has provided arts programs for young people and families in West Harlem and the broader Harlem community. Understanding that the arts are a bridge to learning and to overall competency, CAC’s long-standing objective has been to support the development and growth of participants from early ages through adulthood and to provide creative experiences that will engage young people, their families, and community members. We are equally committed to providing professional development opportunities and resources to early-career and emerging artists from Harlem, New York City, and throughout the region.

About the Moderator:
Jannette Jwahir Hawkins is an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in Harlem, New York City. Her practice blends juxtaposed compositions and improvisation as a pathway to personal and collective healing.

An award-winning alumnus of the City College of New York, where she earned both her BA and MFA in Studio Art, Jwahir studied closely with sculptor Colin Chase for ten years. She also served as an artist-educator with the Whitney Museum of American Art until the pandemic.

Her recent exhibitions and residencies span from Dakar, Senegal to Wassaic, New York, with her work also highlighted in Architectural Digest (architecturaldigest.com/story/this-harlem-brownstone-takes-design-notes-from-italy).

A citizen-artist deeply rooted in her Harlem community, Jwahir often creates spontaneous in-situ assemblage sculptures using natural media in the neighborhood’s historic parks. She is also a creative partner for a long-running live music series and recently served as interim director of a Harlem-based nonprofit arts organization.

As founding artist-in-residence of The Artists Way—a Harlem speakeasy gallery—she presented a yearlong solo exhibition, AfreeFuture: A Retrospective of Select Works 2014–2024. Jwahir, whose life is always better when she dances, has walked the path of shaman for more than half her life.

Host or Publisher The Children's Art Carnival