Open Stu: Proofs of Black Life

This Juneteenth weekend, join artists Derrick Beasley and Marcella Zigbuo Camara for Proofs of Black Life, a special edition of their ongoing community series, Open Stu.

Open Stu: Proofs of Black Life is an invitation to the North Carolina creative community to create archival memory that centers Blackness. With the NCMA’s current exhibition The Time Is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure as a backdrop, attendees are invited to contribute to the expansive canon of Black cultural memory through portraiture and archiving.

Attendees have the opportunity to sit for portraits with Beasley as well as explore a selection of archival ephemera curated by Camara from both their personal collections and the NCMA’s archive. Derrick and Marcella also invite their creative community into the process of documenting and storytelling through an archive station where visitors can scan prints and print digital images of family and community photos.

Childcare is available.
Cash bar and refreshments.
Please RSVP.

About Open Stu
Open Stu is a living documentary project that began in 2019 as a space to cultivate and document Durham’s creative community. We center documenting experiences of Black folks and all of their intersections. The initial offerings of Open Stu were inspired by the studio portrait practice of Addison N. Scurlock of Washington, DC; Jamel Shabazz; the Harlem Renaissance–era pop-up events of Carl Van Vechten; the work of Kamoinge Collective in Brooklyn, and others.