Moving Word & Image

Neta Bomani, Bryant Wells, sadé powell, Tash Nikol

September 9, 2023, 7pm
Postponed from 6pm to 7pm
What happens when words roam between the aural and the projected realms? Could this experience conjure spirits that animate words and so potentially add meanings in tongue? In this participatory event, learner and educator Neta Bomani pairs poets with image-makers and live coders to extend a tradition of expressive formlessness within the Black Arts Movement. Through this process, Neta emphasizes oration (the spoken word) and oscillation (uncertainty and ambiguity) while also nurturing contemporary forms of Négritude. Neta will be joined by Bryant Wells, sadé powell, and Tash Nikol.

Moving Word & Image with Neta Bomani is part of Heat Waves, our annual summer series dedicated to acoustic practices. Heat Waves 2023 brings together artists and audiences to activate and perform on and with Whoop House, a solar-powered sculpture and sound amplification hub developed by Detroit-based artist, DJ, and organizer Ash Arder.

Entry is free, and we welcome all ages and music preferences. Prior registration is recommended.

About the Artists

Neta Bomani is a learner and educator who is interested in understanding the practice of reading and parsing information as a collaborative process between human and non-human computers. Neta’s work combines social practices, workshops, archives, oral histories, computation, printmaking, zines, and publishing to create artifacts that engage abolitionist, Black feminist, and do-it-yourself philosophies.

Neta received a graduate degree in Interactive Telecommunications from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Neta has taught at the School for Poetic Computation, the New School, New York University, Princeton University, the University of Texas, and in the afterschool program at P.S. 15 Magnet School of the Arts in Brooklyn, NY. Neta has studied under American Artist, Fred Moten, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Mariame Kaba, Ruha Benjamin, Simone Browne, and many others who inform Neta’s work. Neta’s work has appeared at the Queens Museum, the Barnard Zine Library, The Kitchen, and the Met Library. Neta is one of seven co-directors at the School for Poetic Computation, and one of two co-directors at Sojourners for Justice Press, an imprint of Haymarket Books.

sadé powell is a visual and concrete poet from nyc, exploring black feminist poethics through her 1940s royal typewriter.
Bryant Wells is an artist and designer in New York, NY. He works independently and in collaboration with writers, musicians, artists and cultural institutions.
Tash Nikol is a writer, editor, and book artist from the South. Her writing explores reflections on Black and Indigenous ancestral narratives and experiences with themes of alternate realities, examining the symbolic interplay between our bodies and energy, and the healing power of plant medicine. A current Center for Book Arts resident, Tash’s work has appeared in Epoch Review, No Dear, the Poetry Project, PIN-UP magazine, High Tech, 032c, and elsewhere. She’s a realm splitter, currently based in Crown Heights, NY with her poodle Leo.