Picturing Black Girlhood: Moments of Possibility (Group Exhibition)




Exhibition Dates: February 17- July 2, 2022
Venue(s) Paul Robeson Galleries (PRG), Rutgers University – Newark (RU-N)
Express Newark (EN), Rutgers University – Newark (RU-N)

Two images from The Black Doll series by Qiana Mestrich will be on view in the group show, Picturing Black Girlhood: Moments of Possibility. Opening on February 17th, this exhibition will coincide with the start of Black Portraiture[s]: Play and Performance, the seventh annual Black Portraiture[s] Conference.

Picturing Black Girlhood: Moments of Possibility is an exhibition that focuses on the concept of Black girlhood in over 150 works by 70 Black women, girls, and genderqueer photographers and filmmakers who range in age from 8 to 94 years old.

Bringing pioneering Black photographers such as Carrie Mae Weems, Doris Derby, Lorraine O’Grady, Deborah Roberts, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Lola Flash, Tawny Champion, Sophia Nahli Allison, and others in conversation with over 30 Black girl photographers, Picturing Black Girlhood is curated by Scheherazade Tillet and Zoraida Lopez-Diago and is supported by the Express Newark curatorial team of Alliyah Allen and Anonda Bell.

First appearing at Columbia University in 2016, “Picturing Black Girlhood” explores the meaning of race, gender, sexuality, and the complex ways that Black cis, queer, and gender-expansive girls, function as creatives, intellectuals, activists, caregivers, and children within our communities and American life.