A yearlong writing residency querying how definitions of blackness are produced and expressed through visual, aural, and affective realms—engaging three domains that underwrite the physical and metaphysical dimensions of inhabiting black skin. In focusing on embodiments, The Studio highlights the term as a verb that invokes activity and movement, as well as the temporary and fleeting; as a dynamic category of analysis that is accessible across disciplines, the language of embodiment clears space to consider the repeated, performative constitution of blackness while remaining attuned to the material consequences of being black.
The Black Embodiments Studio accepts up to 10 University of Washington graduate students per year to be in residence.
Organized as a year-long residency, the studio immerses residents in models of writing that bridge academic and non-academic audiences and chart a theory and ethics of arts criticism surrounding questions of race, aesthetics, and embodiments. Residents simultaneously develop and workshop short pieces of writing on black embodiments in the contemporary, post-1970s moment for outlets that press against the boundaries of academic writing, such as Performa Magazine, Art Lies, and Artforum.
The studio also hosts artists, scholars, critics, and curators invested in black embodiments as guest residents for several days each quarter, during which time they conduct intimate, engaged workshops with residents and participate in public programming surrounding their practice.
The Studio is run by Kemi Adeyemi in collaboration with The Jacob Lawrence Gallery, and is generously supported by the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities.
For more information, visit: http://blackembodiments.org/people.html
