Open Stu: Proofs of Black Life

Friday, Jun 20, 2025

6:00pm – 11:00pm

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114/650 spots left

Listen to the Open Stu playlist on Spotify!

Learn more on NCMA’s website

This Juneteenth weekend, join artists Derrick Beasley and Marcella Zigbuo Camara for Proofs of Black Life, a special edition of their ongoing community documentary series, Open Stu. Drawing inspiration from their foundational ethos of documenting Black creative community, Open Stu: Proofs of Black Life is an invitation to North Carolina's creative community to create archival memory that centers Blackness. With NCMA’s current exhibition The Time Is Always Now: Artist Reframe the Black Figure, as a backdrop, attendees are invited to contribute to the expansive canon of Black cultural memory through portraiture and archival practice. Attendees will have the opportunity to sit for portraits with Derrick, as well as explore a selection of archival ephemera curated by Marcella from both their personal collections and NCMA’s archive. Derrick and Marcella also invite their creative community into the process of documenting and storytelling through an archive station where visitors can scan and print personal photos. Sounds by BlackAsTheCosmos. Cash bar and small plates. Childcare available. Masks encouraged. RSVP to attend. ________________________________ Open Stu is a living documentary project that began in 2019 as a space to cultivate and document Durham’s creative community. We center documenting experiences of Black folks and all of their intersections. The initial offerings of Open Stu were inspired by the Studio portrait practice of Addison N. Scurlock of Washington DC, Jamel Shabazz, the Harlem Renaissance era pop-up events of Carl Van Vechten, the work of Kamoinge Collective in Brooklyn and others.