Truth. Memory. Joy. Resistance: Black Expressions In New Mexico

n View: January 19, 2026 – February 28, 2026
Guest Co-Curators: Jakia Fuller & Aaron Payne
Location: Santa Fe Community Gallery
Attendance: 2000+ Visitors!!!!

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Exhibition Participants
Artists
Alison Morgan
Arlene Kemp
b. brown
Booker Wright
Brandee C. Crawford
Carolyn Mae Lassiter
Danielle Reddick
Gwen Triay Samuels
hana kostis
Kamaria Umi
Karen Hampton
Karsten Creightney
Kim Fowler
Latasha Hagan
Louie Perea
Lila Adeyemo
Nikesha Breeze
Oneida Brooks
Oriana Lee
Paula Wilson
Robert Washington-Vaughns
Sheldon McClendon
Te’yana Pugh
Tintawi Kaigziabiher
Traer Price
Tyrone Clemons
Yenaa Leon
Zero Bey

Public Program Facilitators
Chantell Murphy
Mayowa Tomori

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Exhibition Overview

Exhibition Background Context

Truth. Memory. Joy. Resistance: Black Expressions In New Mexico highlights the diverse experiences and creative voices of Black artists in New Mexico, while also responding to the urgent political and cultural moment in our nation and in Santa Fe.

Across the country, leaders are actively working to erase Black history—minimizing or
denying the realities of slavery, Jim Crow, dehumanizing and violent language, and their
ongoing impacts on Black communities. At the same time, we recognize the inspiration of historic milestones in representation, the backlash and division such progress has
revealed, and the enduring struggle for justice that continues to shape our present.

In the face of disappointment and loss, and refusing to be defined by struggle, Black
resilience emerges through practices of everyday joy—gathering with family and
community, nurturing traditions, innovating new forms of cultural expression, and
centering rest as a right rather than a privilege. These practices demonstrate that survival is not enough; thriving, dreaming, and creating beauty are equally vital. The assertion of joy, care, and belonging amidst ongoing inequities is a declaration that Black life is sacred, abundant, and uncontainable.

This exhibition will honor that vision: the ways Black artists use their voices, hands, and imaginations to turn pain into power, memory into movement, and ordinary moments into extraordinary testaments to resilience and beauty. Through art, the fullness of Black existence—struggles, triumphs, and boundless creativity—can be seen, felt, and shared.

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Public Programming

• Truth. Memory. Joy. Resistance: Black Expression In New Mexico Opening Reception, January 19, 2026
  Over 500+ attendees!

• Curator & Artist Talks, Weekly on Wednesdays
  • Curator & Artist Talk w/ Aaron Payne, January 28, 2026
    Artists: Te’yana Pugh, Zero Bey, Booker Wright, and Oneida Brooks
  • Curator & Artist Talk w/ Aaron Payne, February 4, 2026
    Artists: Alison Morgan, Karen Hampton, Danielle Reddick, and Traer Price
  • Curator & Artist Talk w/ Aaron Payne, February 11, 2026
  • Curator & Artist Talk w/ Jakia Fuller, February 18, 2026
    Artists: Danielle Reddick and Traer Price
  • Curator & Artist Talk w/ Jakia Fuller, February 25, 2026
    Artists: Oneida Brooks and Booker Wright

• Poetry Recital & Tiny Desk DJ Party, February 6, 2026
  Artists: Alison Morgan, Kim Fowler, and Te’yana Pugh
  DJ: DJ Dynamite

• Panel Discussion | Archiving Black Expression Across Mediums
  Currently, across the country, there is an active, intentional effort to erase Black History through minimization, rewriting of narratives, and denial. Co-curators, Jakia Fuller and Aaron Payne, believe in the words of Nina Simone, who said that an artist’s duty is to reflect the times. Tapping into the wise words of Nina Simone, Faith Ringgold, and James Baldwin, we’re seeing art making that reflects the times through a lens of archiving and preservation. In a two-part conversation, Archiving Black Expression Across Mediums, Fuller and Payne will be in dialogue with eight artists from the exhibition. In this conversation, the artists will share their thoughts on archiving and preserving Black Expression through their practice, what inspires them to do so, the importance, and what is at stake with respect to the current social and political climate
  • Archiving Black Expression Across Mediums Pt. 1, February 12, 2026
    Panelists: Zero Bey, Louie Perea, Karsten Creightney, and Gwen Samuels
    
  • Archiving Black Expression Across Mediums Pt. 2, February 19, 2026
    Panelists: Carol Mae Lassiter, Tintawi Kaigziabiher, Sheldon McClendon, and Yenaa Leon
    

• Truth, Memory, & Mixtapes: The Sounds of Black Albuquerque (1985–1988),
  February 21, 2026
  Facilitator: Mayowa Tomori
  A community program, listening party, and historical event that transports you back to 1980s Albuquerque using archival recordings of the sounds, songs, and speeches you would have heard at African American gatherings. It’s a bold celebration of Black history and culture in New Mexico that remixes original source material recorded by Shirley Ann Griffin, an African American Studies student at the University of New Mexico.

• Truth and Memory In the Age of A.I, February, 25, 2026
  Facilitator: Chantell Murphy
  Panelists: Arlene Kemp, Danielle Reddick, and Latasha Hagan
  
  Truth and Memory In the Age of A.I. will explore the complex relationship between artistic expression, the construction of truth and memory, and the disruptive role of A.I. in this creative and philosophical space.
  
  

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