Program Calendar

A historical dive into the intersections of race, religion, and American identity, from the perspective of two Black Christian men, visual artist Dr. Imo Nse Imeh, and musician and composer Haneef N. Nelson. In this multimedia presentation Dr. Imeh will showcase his developing visual art and will be joined by his collaborator Haneef N. Nelson who will perform a musical selection. Dr. Imeh will discuss how the project’s impetus is the insurrection on the United States Capitol Building on January 6th, 2021; however, this attack is also a point of departure into similar terroristic demonstrations throughout American history.

in his name consists of large-scale drawings and an accompanying musical score that discuss symbols, objects, rhetoric, and rituals of fear and oppression that have taken root within White American “faith communities”—many of which were on display at the Capitol on January 6th—and have functioned as a means of concretizing a “Christian” White identity. The project seeks to make clear the historical frameworks around recurring events and atrocities in the United States in which White fury and violence against non-Whites take place under the guise of Christianity and “patriotism,” and under the auspices of the American Evangelical Church.

Presented by Dr. Imo Nse Imeh, Associate Professor of Art and Art History, Westfield State University, visual artist and scholar, African Diaspora art; Haneef N. Nelson, BA, Hartt School of Art, African-American Music Study, MA, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Jazz Composition and Arranging, PhD candidate Hartt School of Art, Musical Composition

Image courtesy of Imo Imeh

Free admission to the Museums a la Carte lectures for all museum members made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities through the #SHARP program.