Sofia Coppola and Miranda Barnes in conversation with Nicole R. Fleetwood

Join Rizzoli Bookstore and MACK Books for a conversation with Miranda Barnes and Sofia Coppola. We are delighted to celebrate Barnes' new book Social Season, an elegant exploration of the history, community, and culture of Black cotillion balls in Detroit. Barnes and Coppola will be in conversation with Nicole R. Fleetwood, followed by a signing.

PLEASE NOTE: RSVPs are encouraged but not required. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served. Doors open at 6:00 pm.

Can't attend? (please specify that you would like it signed in the comments box at checkout).

Debutante balls were once rites reserved for white European nobility with the purpose of introducing young women to polite society and potential suitors. In the wake of emancipation towards the end of the nineteenth century, African Americans adopted this tradition as a means of social upliftment, community building, and education. This debut book by Brooklyn-based photographer Miranda Barnes explores the rich history of Black cotillions in the US through an immersive collection of photographs made at debutante balls in Detroit between 2022 and 2025.

This poignant and elegant body of work documents the community, camaraderie, and anticipation of this custom and the moment of transition it hinges upon. Sensitive portraits of debutantes with their elders and scenes of couples practicing their steps and dancing in formation are interleaved with studies of the distinctive material world of the cotillion: opulent corsages, taffeta ball gowns, morning suits, and tiaras. The resulting sequence harks back to bygone times and dreamworlds of childhood and youth, yet is also grounded firmly and emotively in the present, as young people look with anticipation towards their future. Social Season offers a glimpse of a unique tradition and introduces an exceptional documentarian of Black communities and subcultures in today’s United States.

The book is commissioned by Sofia Coppola and features a text by Dr. Renita Barge Clark, founder of The Cotillion Society of Detroit Educational Foundation, recounting the programme’s roots and its work in the community.

Designed by Anamaria Morris for Joseph Logan Design.

Miranda Barnes is a photo-based artist born in Brooklyn, NY. Her practice borrows from vernacular photography and a fine art tradition of documenting everyday scenes of families and friends, often in communion and celebration. She has photographed across the United States, both for assignments and artistic explorations. Barnes is currently working on a long-form project examining community gatherings and subcultures with an emphasis on gender, style, and coming of age. She resides and works between Brooklyn, NY, and Austin, TX. Her work has been featured in Architectural Digest, T Magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and The Financial Times.

Sofia Coppola is a screenwriter, film director and producer. In 2003 she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation (2003) and also became the third woman (and the first American woman) to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing. Her films include The Virgin Suicides (1999), Marie Antoinette (2006), Somewhere (2010), winner of the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival, The Beguiled (2017), and Priscilla (2023).

Nicole R. Fleetwood is the Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication (NYU Steinhardt) and the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis (NYU College of Arts and Science). A MacArthur Fellow, she is a writer, curator, and art critic interested in Black art and cultural history, aesthetics, photography and documentary studies, and art and activism. She is the author (Harvard University Press, 2020), winner of the National Book Critics Award in Criticism. She is also the curator of the traveling exhibition, , which debuted at MoMA PS1. Most recently, Fleetwood curated Kinship & Community: Selections from the Texas African American Photography Archive at the Center for Photography in Kingston. Her nonfiction book, Between the River and Railroad Tracks—about the black Midwest— will be published by Little, Brown in fall 2026.

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