BOOK EVENT: When Home Is A Photograph w/ Leigh Raiford & Essence Harden

WHO & WHAT: Join Rep Club for a discussion on with author Leigh Raiford in conversation with Essence Harden.

WHEN: Doors at 2:30pm, event promptly at 3pm.

WHERE: Reparations Club, 3054 S. Victoria Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90016

HOW:

TICKET w/ BOOK: This ticket guarantees a seat, including a signed book available for pick up at the event.

FREE RSVP (No Book Included): This Free RSVP DOES NOT include a copy of the book, and entry is based strictly on capacity at the door. Books may be available for purchase in-store.

SIGNED BOOK ONLY: Can't make it IRL but still want a signed copy? Order directly from our site!

Please email us at [email protected] if you have any additional needs, questions, or accessibility concerns.

About the Book:

In When Home Is a Photograph, Leigh Raiford asks how Black people use photography to make home in the world. Raiford focuses on a selection of Black American activists and artists, including Marcus Garvey, James Van Der Zee, Eslanda Goode Robeson, and Kathleen Neal Cleaver to explore the complex relationship between racialized subjects and the medium of photography. As they traveled the world for study, for work, for pleasure, or for survival, these artists and activists took and collected photographs to express their political platforms and personal sense of self.

Raiford considers the everyday image-making practices that these Black Americans employed to improve the condition of Black lives globally by imagining, identifying, inhabiting, leaving, defending, and destroying "home."

When Home Is a Photograph shows how these figures did not merely utilize photography to emplace themselves in the world--they demonstrated how the use of photography is itself a way to mediate one's relationship to the world.

LEIGH RAIFORD is Professor of African American and African Diaspora studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her most recent book is Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography.

ESSENCE HARDEN is the curator of Expo Chicago 2026, the co-curator of Made in LA, 2025, at The Hammer Museum, and curator of the Focus section for Frieze LA, 2024 - 2026. Essence has curated exhibitions at the California African American Museum (CAAM), the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), Art + Practice, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), and the Oakland Museum of California, among others.

Essence is a contributor to Frieze Magazine, Gagosian Quartley, The Los Angeles Times Magazine: Image, Art21, Contemporary Art Review LA (CARLA), Artsy, Cultured Magazine, and has written catalog entries for Made in LA 2025; California Biennial: Pacific Gold; Made in LA: Acts of Living; Prospect 5: Yesterday we said tomorrow;  Brave New Worlds: Exploration of Space: Palm Springs Art Museum; and What Needs to Be Said: Hallie Ford Fellows Exhibition. Essence has also served as an art consultant for film and television.

Essence is a 2025 recipient of the Teiger Foundation research grant, a 2018 recipient of The Creative Capital, Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant, and a 2020 Annenberg Innovation Lab Civic Media Fellow.

Essence previously served as a Visual Arts Curator at the California African American Museum.

Refund Policy: At Rep Club, we are committed to providing a valuable experience for all attendees. However, we understand sometimes plans change. Below is our refund policy for ticket purchases:

Refund Eligibility: Requests for refunds must be made no later than 14 calendar days prior to the event date via Eventbrite only.

- After this deadline, no refunds will be issued, except under extraordinary circumstances (see "Force Majeure" below).

- Refunds will only be issued to the original purchaser via the original method of payment (i.e. Eventbrite).

Non-Refundable Items: Processing fees and service charges are non-refundable, unless the event is canceled by the organizer (i.e. Rep Club).

Event Cancellation or Rescheduling

- If the event is canceled by the organizer, a full refund will be issued to all ticket holders, including any fees paid.

- If the event is rescheduled, your ticket will automatically be valid for the new date. If you are unable to attend the rescheduled date, a refund request can be made within 7 calendar days of the rescheduling notice.

No-Show Policy If you do not attend the event and have not contacted us by the refund deadline, unfortunately no refund will be issued.

Contact Us If you have any questions regarding this refund policy, please contact us at [email protected].

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