Yeah, I know a long time…but I have been working…I have a book coming out this year…I just moderated a panel at The Ackland for the closing day of The Outwin…still pushing myself into a healthier lifestyle…

But I have some cool stuff planned..so stay tuned…

Today in my surfing. I came across another dope project and exhibit by artist Cauleen Smith. The exhibition is called The Wanda Coleman Songbook. That title alone should be enough to get your Black Ekphrastic mind going, but I will discuss that in another post…

I love that Smith is collaborating and working with poets; she also recently just put out a book project on Unicorn Press, with poet A.Van Jordan, called I WANT TO SEE MY SKIRT, I will be posting about that too because it ticks a lot of boxes for me because the narrative thrust of the images and poems is a young woman named Rokia who lives in Bamako…soon come

As dope as all of that is that is not what got me to sit down and write this post because I was surfing around, I came across David Zwirner Books site again… not sure how I got there this time, but I was looking through their selections and came across something they are calling the ekphrasis series.  As I looked through the 25 titles on the landing page, I notice something…Not 1 Black writer or subject among the 25 titles not 1. It was until I kept poking around on their website on another page that I found out that they FINALLY  are going to add Any Day Now: Toward a Black Aesthetic By Larry Neal. Introduction by Allie Biswas: Looking at the site, you can tell it was a late addition…dare I say an afterthought because, in the original post and image about the series, the Neal/Biswas book was not included.

As of today on the site Neal/Biswas title is the only contribution to the series that centers Black creative work/thikning and commissions a writer of color…Biswas may be Black I am not sure how (she? they?) might identify.

This is why I started Black Ekphrastic in the first place, to be a place to try to gather up how Black creative writers and artists are in community with one another and are producing work that demonstrates this fact.I have a lot more to say, but I will leave it there for now…Looking forward.