“Studying for Opticality” Virtual Teach-In
Introduction | About the Portfolio | Opticality Research Project (2026) | Support
Introduction
On Thursday, September 10 at 7 pm, join liquid blackness’s research fellow, Dr. Daren Fowler, as they lead a virtual presentation and Q&A on liquid blackness’s research portfolio for Opticality: Seeing in the Ways of Things (Spring 2026 event).
This Teach-In invites you into how liquid blackness studies and prepares for our artists and events. It will put the filmmaking practices of cinematographers Jomo Fray, Shabier Kirchner, and Autumn Durald Arkapaw, and production designer Akin McKenzie in conversation with cultural and political theorists such as R.A. Judy, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Julian Henriques, Katherine McKittrick, and Clyde Woods. It will focus on RaMell Ross’s Nickel Boys (2024), Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock (2020), Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (2025), and Mati Diop’s Dahomey (2024).
Following the presentation, liquid blackness is excited to have a dialogue about the films and artists we study, our research practices, and ongoing work and projects.
If you are interested in joining us for this conversation, please RSVP for the Teach-In here for Zoom link.
Event Schedule
Thursday, September 10 7 pm - 8:15 pm EST
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC! RSVP HERE FOR ZOOM LINK.
About the Portfolio
View the OPTICALITY: SEEING IN THE WAY OF THINGS READING GROUP PORTFOLIO
liquid blackness portfolios are pedagogical tools for each year-long research project and artist event. Portfolios are built out of reading and screening groups where the liquid blackness team and our surrounding community of scholars and artists engage the aesthetic, conceptual, and disciplinary questions and concerns provoked by the artists, films, and theories of each research project.
Each portfolio is a rigorous expression of how we are thinking, preparing, and conceptualizing each event. Our hope is for them to be a guide and tool for those who wish to follow our work and practice more deeply.
Support
Encounters with the Black Arts”—designed for scholars, curators, artists, and the broader public to engage with liquid blackness’s research on the visual arts of the Black diaspora—is a three-year programming and pedagogical initiative of Liquid Blackness, Limited, supported by funding from the Mellon Foundation.