Torrents: 2023
Photos courtesy of Louie Global
Run of Show 2023
Thursday, November 9, 2023
TORRENTS Art in Transit Digital Exhibition - Presented in partnership with Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and Art in Transit (1140 Connecticut Ave NW and Farragut North, NoMa-Gallaudet U, Gallery Place - Chinatown, L'Enfant Plaza, and Metro Center stations)
November 9, 2023 - March 30, 2024
Curated by TORRENTS: New Links to Black Futures Creative Director, Jamal Gray and Good Black Art Founder, Phillip Collins.
5pm - TORRENTS Kick Off (1140 Connecticut Ave NW)
Kick off our week with the opening of the TORRENTS Art in Transit Digital Exhibition presented in partnership with Metro’s Art in Transit.
Friday, November 10th, 2023
12pm - Singular Views: 25 Artists (Rubell Museum DC, 65 I St SW)
Guided tour of Singular Views: 25 Artists highlights the work of 25 contemporary artists from across the U.S. and worldwide through solo presentations. Singular Views: 25 Artists is drawn entirely from the Rubells’ unparalleled and ever-growing collection of contemporary art of more than 7,700 works.
1pm - We Who Believe in Freedom: Black Feminist DC - Presented in partnership with the National Women’s History Museum (Martin Luther King Jr. Library, 901 G St NW)
Exhibition tour of We Who Believe in Freedom: Black Feminist DC, exploring 100 years of Black feminist activism in DC.
2pm - Women in Tech Panel - Presented in partnership with Shiso, an Intersectional Equity Consulting Firm (Martin Luther King Jr. Library, 901 G St NW)
An impactful panel on the future of tech will be held with Kim Tignor, Gabrielle Rejouis, Dr. Tao Leigh Goffe, and Georgiana Wright and moderated by Aerica Banks, Founder of Shiso.
4pm - Bring Down the Walls - Presented in partnership with The Kennedy Center’s Office of Social Impact (The Kennedy Center, Studio K, 2700 F St NW)
From its origins to the clubs, warehouses, and basements of Chicago & Detroit, and other Black urban centers, modern dance music has long been a tool of artistic expression, affirming identity, community building, resistance, and protest. A conversation about the intersections of music and culture with Adrian Loving and Suzi Analogue, moderated by Thomas Stanley, Ph.D.
6pm - The Cartography Project: New Artists Showcase - Presented by The Kennedy Center’s Office of Social Impact (The Kennedy Center, Millenium Stage) - Video
Led by the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, and Kennedy Center's Social Impact department, The Cartography Project is a multi-year commissioning project engaging artists from around the nation to map Black dignity.
7pm - Portals - Presented in partnership with The Kennedy Center’s Office of Social Impact (The Kennedy Center, Studio K, 2700 F St NW)
This keen selection of performers explores the multiverse of black music, including house, techno, amapiano, funk, and soul. Music curator and DJ Adrian Loving invites Shavaun XX, an international festival choreographer and dancer, and our headliner, the legendary hip hop and house producer GE-OLOGY, to take us on a musical journey with global sounds and technological rhythms - from digital to vinyl.
Saturday, November 11th, 2023
11am - Rising Tide by Célia Rakotondrainy- Presented in partnership with Chela Mitchell Gallery (Chela Mitchel Gallery, 300 Morse St NE Suite #8)
In-depth tour of Chela Mitchell Gallery's latest solo exhibition, Rising Tide by Célia Rakotondrainy.
12:30pm - Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise Screening (Eaton Hotel, Cinema, 1201 K St NW)
Intimate screening of Sun Ra's Afro-futuristic mythology and his adventures with his Intergalactic Omniverse Arkestra with a keynote presentation from George Mason Professor and author of The Execution of Sun Ra, Thomas Stanley, Ph.D.
3pm - BPMplus Art & Tech Showcase, followed by mixer, Presented in partnership with Black Public Media (Eaton Hotel, Cinema, 1201 K St NW)
Artists, filmmakers, and creative technologists present their experimental game and generative fiction projects. Artists from New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Alabama, New York, California, the DMV, and Rio de Janeiro. Moderated by Lisa Osborne, participants include Dominick Rabrun - Creator of the experimental game Ki Es Ou Ye?; Georgiana Wright- Creator of the PaperAI platform; Leonardo Souza - 2022 PitchBLACK winner; and Johannes Barfield - Creator of the experimental game Ancestral Plane. Video presentations from Eboni Zamani, LaJuné McMillian, and Damien McDuffie.
7pm - Sun Ra: Space is the Place Screening (Eaton Hotel, Cinema, 1201 K St NW)
Avant-jazz mystic Sun Ra brought his pioneering Afrofuturist vision to the screen with this film version of his concept album. It’s a wild, kaleidoscopic whirl of science fiction, sharp social commentary, goofy pseudo-blaxploitation stylistics, and thrilling concert performance, in which the pharaonic Ra and his Arkestra lead an intergalactic movement to resettle the Black race on their utopian space colony. Introduction from Sun Ra scholar, Thomas Stanley, Ph.D.
Sunday, November 12th, 2023
12pm - Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies (Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), G Street NW & 8th Street NW Washington, DC 20001
Guided tour of Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies. This exhibition explores the powerful resonances between recent video art and popular music. The exhibition focuses on video art that employs the strategies of musical creation — scores, improvisation, and interpretation — as well as its styles, structures, and lyrics to speak to personal as well as shared aspects of American life.
2pm - Who’s Behind Black Art Screening and Panel- Presented in partnership with Good Black Art (Martin Luther King Jr. Library, 901 G St NW)
Screening of Who's Behind Black Art, followed by a discussion with award-winning director and writer John Campbell, producer Thomas E. Moore III, curator Jenée Daria Strand, artists Mario Joyce and Jewel Ham and special contributor Larry Ossei-Mensah. Moderated by Phillip Collins, Founder of Good Black Art.
