Lorraine O'Grady

Lorraine O'Grady's retrospective Both/And at the Weatherspoon will have a virtual interactive engagement led by poet, independent scholar, and activist Alexis Pauline.

Acclaimed Durham-based poet, independent scholar, and activist Alexis Pauline Gumbs will share reflections on the exhibition Lorraine O’Grady: Both/And, then lead attendees through an interactive engagement highlighting threads between the themes and artworks in the exhibition and the questions on our minds today. Join us as an active participant or a listener for this oracle-style event. Bring your curiosity and your questions.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Lorraine O’Grady is unable to participate in this program. 

Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a Queer Black Troublemaker and Black Feminist Love Evangelist and an aspirational cousin to all sentient beings. Her work in this lifetime is to facilitate infinite, unstoppable ancestral love in practice. Her poetic work in response to the needs of her cherished communities has held space for multitudes in mourning and movement. Alexis’s co-edited volume Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines (PM Press, 2016) has shifted the conversation on mothering, parenting and queer transformation. Alexis has transformed the scope of intellectual, creative and oracular writing with her triptych of experimental works published by Duke University Press (Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity in 2016, M Archive: After the End of the World in 2018 and Dub: Finding Ceremony, 2020.) Unlike most academic texts, Alexis’s work has inspired artists across form to create dance works, installation work, paintings, processionals, divination practices, operas, quilts and more.