Celebrating Five Years: Dignity Manifests in the Black Photographic Image

Date and Time: Saturday, September 7 - 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM EDT

Location: Penumbra Foundation 36 East 30th Street New York, NY 10016

Event Description:

The Darryl Chappell Foundation is thrilled to celebrate its 5th Year anniversary with an enriching event, Artists Talk #9 "Dignity Manifests in the Black Photographic Image: Lola Flash and Aaron R. Turner in Conversation," moderated by Daonne Huff. This event is free and open to the public.

Event Highlights:

• Engaging Conversation: Join renowned artists Lola Flash and Aaron R. Turner as they engage in a dynamic discussion on reclaiming one’s identity through the language we use to describe photography.

• Insightful Topics: Here, we’ll: a) Explore the power of reclaiming one’s identity through the language of photography, b) Delve into themes such as the importance of history, articulating the past, and the relevance of archiving, c) Examine colonialist remnants in phrases like "shoot" and "take a picture" from a modern, conscious perspective, and d) learn how the Darryl Chappell Foundation unites communities to create powerful and transformative local impact.

• Contemporary Perspectives: Lola and Aaron will share reflections of each other's work and its significance.

Register Now & Join Us:

This event is free and open to the public. Space is limited, it’s New York afterall! We look forward to seeing you there!

For more information, please visit darrylchappellfoundation.org or contact Henry Borowczak-Trotman at [email protected].

Daonne Huff is an arts worker, performance centered artist, curator and poet who was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. She is Artist Engagement Manager at the Joan Mitchell Foundation. She was formerly the Director, Public Programs at the Studio Museum in Harlem for almost four years. She has also worked with institutions and organizations including Artadia, ArtTable, The Bronx Museum, Columbia University, Galerie LeLong & Co.,Groundswell, The Laundromat Project, Maysles Documentary Center, Museum of Modern Art, Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership, NADA, NARS Foundation, The National Jazz Museum in Harlem, New York University, Nevada Museum of Art, The New School, Rutgers University, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Visual AIDS. 

Aaron Turner is an artist, educator, and independent curator based in Northwest Arkansas. He uses photography as a transformative process to understand the ideas of home and resilience in two main areas of the U.S., the Arkansas and Mississippi Deltas. Aaron also uses the 4x5 view camera to create still-life studies on identity, history, blackness as material, and abstraction. Aaron received his M.A. from Ohio University and an M.F.A from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. He was a 2018 Light Work Artists-in-Residence at Syracuse University, a 2019 EnFoco Photography Fellow, a 2020 Visual Studies Workshop Project Space Artists-in-Residence, a 2020 Artist 360 Mid-America Arts Alliance Grant Recipient, the 2021 Houston Center for Photography Fellowship Recipient, a 2021 Creators Lab Photo Fund recipient from Google’s Creator Labs & the Aperture Foundation,2022 Darryl Chappell Foundation photographer-in-residence at Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and a 2023 Individual Artist Fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council. 

(Image by Cat Wilson).

Lola Flash’s work challenges stereotypes and gender, sexual, and racial preconceptions. Flash received their bachelor’s degree from Maryland Institute and their Master’s from London College of Printing, in the UK. An active member of ACT UP during the time of the AIDS epidemic in New York City, Flash was notably featured in the 1989 “Kissing Doesn’t K*ll” poster. Their art and activism are profoundly connected, fueling a life-long commitment to visibility and preserving the legacy of LGBTQIA+ and communities of color worldwide. In 2008, they were a resident at Lightwork, and in 2011 Flash was awarded an Art Matters grant, which allowed them to further two projects, in Brazil and London. Flash was nominated for the BOFFO residency, spent part of last summer in Fire Island, NY. In October, Flash will be in residence at AIRIE in the Everglades.

(Image by Ryan Pflunger).

Host or Publisher D. Chappell Foundation