“…He [Adams] has spent his career experimenting with form, palette, and scale to get us as close as possible to those moments of Black self-recognition and, in turn, to value those encounters as marks of actual achievement.”  

–Salamishah Tillet 

Derrick Adams’s expansive and vibrant works reframe the ordinary into the extraordinary. Bicyclists, swimmers, musicians, and even television scenes celebrate contemporary Black life and culture by centering leisure, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. Adams, in conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Salamishah Tillet, will revisit his creative practice and his ever-expanding work, including the founding of his influential nonprofit Charm City Cultivation, which aims to support underserved communities in Baltimore. Hear from Adams to learn more about this and his ICA exhibition, Derrick Adams: View Master. 

Make the most of your ICA visit! Explore the galleries and visit the ICA’s featured exhibition, Derek Adams: View Master. Enjoy a drink and light bite in the waterfront Wine + Coffee Bar. 

Derrick Adams

Derrick Adams celebrates and expands the dialogue around contemporary Black life and culture through scenes of normalcy and perseverance. He has developed an iconography of joy, leisure, and the pursuit of happiness with a multidisciplinary practice that encompasses paintings, sculptures, collages, performances, videos, and public projects. Adams lives and works in New York. He has held numerous teaching positions and is currently a tenured assistant professor in the School of Visual, Media and Performing Arts at CUNY Brooklyn College.

Salamishah Tillet

A scholar, writer, and activist, Salamishah Tillet was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2022 for her work as a contributing critic at large for The New York Times. She is the author of In Search of the Color Purple: The Story of an American Masterpiece (2021) and Sites of Slavery: Citizenship and Racial Democracy in the Post-Civil Rights Imagination (2012). She is the Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing and Africana Studies and the executive director of Express Newark, a center for socially engaged art and design at Rutgers University, Newark. Tillet is also the founder of New Arts Justice, a public art studio in Newark.

Accessibility

  • Accessible seating is available first-come first-served and may be selected upon theater entry. Please contact our Visitor Services team at visitorservices@icaboston.org or 617-478-3100 for more information.
  • Assistive listening devices are available for all theater programs at the theater entrance.
  • A link to live captioning will be shared by the day of the event and will be available in the theater.
  • ASL interpretation is available by advance request; please contact our Visitors Services team at 617-478-3100 or visitorservices@icaboston.org to make a request.

Are there other access accommodations that would be useful to help you fully participate in this program? Let us know at accessibility@icaboston.org or learn more about Accessibility at the ICA at icaboston.org/accessibility.