The Studio Museum in Harlem has always been mythical to me. Hailing from Chicago with only Ask Jeeves, Microsoft Encarta, and a library card to transport me to New York, I understood the museum to be at the center of Harlem, Harlem to be at the center of the Harlem Renaissance, and the Harlem Renaissance to be central to Black art. By the time I began sixth grade, Langston Hughes’s Not Without Laughter had landed in my hands, and, while I couldn’t understand its contents, I did understand that Hughes had lived in Harlem, and so had Roy DeCarava, a figure I knew as the photographer from The Sweet Flypaper of Life, a book that opened my eyes to the power of words and pictures together. Which is to say: living in the “Second City,” I knew that New York was the first; I knew from the books in our house that their authors lived in Harlem; and I knew from its name that the Studio Museum did too.
Famous for its Artist-in-Residence program, the Studio Museum has furthered the artistic practices of Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Titus Kaphar, Kerry James Marshall, Mickalene Thomas, and Kehinde Wiley. I only went into the former museum building once, maybe twice, over a decade ago. Entering the building in 2013, I remember Glenn Ligon’s neon sculpture Give Us a Poem under one of architect J. Max Bond Jr.’s skylights. I remember a warm glow and quiet buzz in the museum offices, and I remember walking away invigorated and determined to pursue a career in the arts.
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