Visual artist Carrie Mae Weems on grace and inclusion

Within seriousness, there's little room for play, but within play there's tremendous room for seriousness. It's through the act of serious play that wonderful ideas are born. 

Carrie Mae Weems is one of today’s most influential and generous contemporary American artists, as devoted to her own craft as she is to introducing other artists into the world. Her photography and diverse visual media has won her numerous awards including the Rome Prize, a MacArthur genius grant, and four honorary doctorates, and she was even named one of the 100 most influential women of all time by Ebony magazine. 

 

In this episode, Weems explores the struggles artists must maintain to find balance and reach an audience, how the field cannot advance without the deep and profound inclusion of Black artists, and what the concept of “grace” means to her and her mother.

 

References:

Dawoud Bey

The Black Photographers Annual

Joe Crawford

Roy DeCarava

Anthony Barboza

Ming Smith

Langston Hughes's ‘Black Nativity’

Cassandra Myth