New Labor Movements - McEvoy Foundation for the Arts

Image Gallery

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Charlotte Brathwaite Only When It’s Dark Enough Can You See The Stars (still), 2017 Digital video Color, sound 9 mins. Courtesy the artist — Charlotte Brathwaite, *Only When It’s Dark Enough Can You See The Stars* (still), 2017, Digital video, Color, sound. 9 mins. Courtesy the artist

Garrett Bradley Installation view of the Whitney Biennial 2019 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, May 17–September 22, 2019) Garrett Bradley, AKA, 2019 Photograph by Ron Amstutz Courtesy the artist — Installation view of the Whitney Biennial 2019 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, May 17–September 22, 2019). Garrett Bradley, *AKA*, 2019. Photograph by Ron Amstutz. Courtesy the artist

Elegance Bratton, Jovan James Buck (still), 2020 Digital video Color, sound 14 mins. Courtesy the artists — Elegance Bratton, Jovan James, *Buck* (still), 2020, Digital video, Color, sound. 14 mins. Courtesy the artists

Eden Tinto Collins, Adrien Gystere Peskine Womxn (still), 2018 Courtesy the artists — Eden Tinto Collins, Adrien Gystere Peskine, *Womxn* (still), 2018. Courtesy the artists

Terrance Daye Cherish (still), 2018 Digital video Color, sound 6 mins. Courtesy the artist — Terrance Daye, *Cherish* (still), 2018, Digital video, Color, sound, 6 mins. Courtesy the artist

Kevin Jerome Everson, Claudrena N. Harold, Hampton (still), 2019. 16mm transferred to digital. Black-and-white, sound. 6:33 min. © Kevin Jerome Everson & Claudrena N. Harold; courtesy the artists; Trilobite-Arts DAC; Black Fire UVA; Picture Palace Pictures — Kevin Jerome Everson, Claudrena N. Harold, *Hampton* (still), 2019. 16mm transferred to digital. Black-and-white, sound. 6:33 min. © Kevin Jerome Everson & Claudrena N. Harold; courtesy the artists; Trilobite-Arts DAC; Black Fire UVA; Picture Palace Pictures

Christopher Harris, Halimuhfack (still), 2016, 16mm-to-HD, color, sound, 4 mins. Courtesy the artist — Christopher Harris, *Halimuhfack* (still), 2016, 16mm-to-HD, color, sound, 4 mins. Courtesy the artist

Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich Black Composer Trilogy Part I: A Quality of Light (still), 2019 Digital video Color, sound 8 mins. Courtesy the artist — Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, *Black Composer Trilogy Part I: A Quality of Light* (still), 2019, Digital video, color, sound. 8 mins. Courtesy the artist

Onyeka Igwe Specialised Technique (still), 2018 HD Video black-and-white, sound 6 min. Courtesy of the artist and BFI National Archive — Onyeka Igwe, *Specialised Technique* (still), 2018, HD Video, black-and-white, sound. 6 min. Courtesy of the artist and BFI National Archive

Mitch McCabe Civil War Surveillance Poems (Part 1) (still), 2019 Digital Video Color, sound 15 min. Courtesy the artist — Mitch McCabe, *Civil War Surveillance Poems (Part 1)* (still), 2019, Digital Video, Color, sound. 15 min. Courtesy the artist

Darol Olu Kae I ran from it and I was still in it (still), 2019 Filmmaker and his children (from left to right: Miale and Malakhi) Digital video Color, sound 8 mins. Courtesy the artist — Darol Olu Kae, *I ran from it and I was still in it* (still), 2019. Filmmaker and his children (from left to right: Miale and Malakhi). Digital video, Color, sound. 8 mins. Courtesy the artist

Morgan Quaintance South (still), 2020 16mm transferred to HD video Black-and-white, color, sound 28min. Courtesy of Morgan Quaintance and LUX, London — Morgan Quaintance, *South* (still), 2020, 16mm transferred to HD video, Black-and-white, color, sound. 28min. Courtesy of Morgan Quaintance and LUX, London

Keisha Rae Witherspoon, T, Third Horizon, 2019. Courtesy of the artist — Keisha Rae Witherspoon, *T, Third Horizon*, 2019. Courtesy of the artist

Jenn Nkiru, Rebirth is Necessary, 2017. Courtesy of the artist. — Jenn Nkiru, *REBIRTH IS NECESSARY*, 2017. Courtesy of the artist

New Labor Movements is a collection of short films that explore contemporary visions of America and concepts of transnational Blackness. Through a compositional discourse that extends across four hour-long “movements,” the program navigates the philosophical, psychological, and emotional landscapes that manifest in the lives of slavery’s descendants and those living in the aftermath of slavery’s indirect, proximal effects.

Curator Leila Weefur organizes the program to consider the question of “What is America today?” as inspired by Lessons of the Hour, Isaac Julien’s immersive film and photographic exhibition on the life and legacy of Frederick Douglass. Evidenced in the selection of films are thoughtful articulations of movement that reveal the nuance of global political critique and a profound broadness of Black life across borders. The act of movement is a structurally fluid principle that shapes the program and its explorations of film construction and narrative; the distribution of labor and power; the trans-Atlantic movements of goods, capital, and people; and one’s movement through a gallery or in a theater. Taken together with the multi-sensorial, meditative qualities of Lessons, the program engineers a gender diverse, intergenerational dialogue amongst Black filmmakers that explores the creation of cinematic narrative and Black political history.

Movements I and II are on view continuously in 2020. Movement III is on view in the Screening Room in 2021. Movement IV is screened as an online-only presentation in February 2021.

PROGRAM RUNNING ORDER

Movement I. Assembly

Kevin Jerome Everson, Claudrena N. Harold
Hampton, 2019

Garrett Bradley
AKA, 2019

Mitch McCabe
Civil War Surveillance Poems (Part 1), 2019

Christopher Harris
Halimuhfack, 2016

Onyeka Igwe
Specialised Technique, 2018

Movement II. Resistance/Selfhood

Lonnie Holley, Cyrus Moussavi
I Snuck Off the Slave Ship, 2019

Morgan Quaintance
South, 2020

Eden Tinto Collins, Adrien Gystere Peskine
Womxn, 2018

Movement III. Freedom/Liberation

Darol Olu Kae
I ran from it and was still in it, 2019

Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich
Black Composer Trilogy Part I: A Quality of Light, 2019

Terrance Daye
Cherish, 2018

Elegance Bratton, Jovan James
Buck, 2020

Charlotte Brathwaite
Only When It’s Dark Enough Can You See The Stars, 2017

Movement IV. Creation/Emergence

Jenn Nkiru
REBIRTH IS NECESSARY, 2017

Terrance Daye
Cherish, 2018

Keisha Rae Witherspoon
T, 2019

Onyeka Igwe
Specialised Technique, 2018

Elegance Bratton, Jovan James
Buck, 2020

FEATURED ARTISTS

Garrett Bradley
Charlotte Brathwaite
Elegance Bratton
Terrance Daye
Adrien Gystere Peskine
Claudrena Harold
Christopher Harris
Lonnie Holley
Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich

Onyeka Igwe
Jovan James
Kevin Jerome Everson
Mitch McCabe
Cyrus Moussavi
Jenn Nkiru
Darol Olu Kae
Keisha Rae Witherspoon
Eden Tinto Collins
Morgan Quaintance

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Leila Weefur (She/They/He) is a trans-gender-nonconforming artist, writer, and curator whose work in video and installation brings together concepts of the sensorial memory, abject Blackness, hyper surveillance, and the erotic. Weefur has worked with local and national institutions including the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Smack Mellon, New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and The Wattis Institute, San Francisco. Weefur is a recipient of the Hung Liu award, the Murphy & Cadogan award, and the Walter & Elise Haas Creative Work Fund. They are a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, and a member of The Black Aesthetic. Weefur received their MFA from Mills College and is based in Oakland, CA.

New Labor Movements is guest curated by Leila Weefur. The program was commissioned on the occasion of the West Coast premiere of Lessons of the Hour at McEvoy Arts.

Media Partner: frieze Magazine