In tandem with the Guggenheim Museum’s new exhibition Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers, AAWW is excited to present Poetry as Solidarity, Art as Constellation, a writing workshop led by Courtney Faye Taylor. This generative poetry workshop will explore multidisciplinary thinking, collaborative writing, and the through lines between Black and Asian experiences, drawing on personal narratives, history, and visual art. Through prompts and in conversation with Rashid Johnson’s exhibition, participants will pull and weave threads of solidarity, creating a new constellation of written and visual work. Following the workshop, participants will be invited to read their work in the Guggenheim Museum’s rotunda. A free day pass to the museum is included with your registration. Please reach out to msaleh@aaww.org for assistance if you are able to join but the registration price is prohibitive.
This workshop is a collaboration between AAWW and the Guggenheim Museum that aims to focalize Black-Asian solidarity through poetry, bringing together writers and artists whose work engages with themes of social alienation, rebirth, and cultural dialogue.
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About the Workshop Leader
Courtney Faye Taylor is the author of Concentrate (Graywolf Press, 2022), winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the T.S. Eliot Four Quartets Prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and a finalist for the NAACP Image Awards, the Lambda Literary Awards, and other honors. Her writing and visual art can be found in Poetry, The Nation, the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art online and elsewhere. Recipient of a 2024 MacDowell Fellowship in fiction and the 92Y Discovery Prize, Courtney lives in Atlanta, GA.
About the Exhibition
For nearly 30 years, artist Rashid Johnson (b. 1977, Chicago) has cultivated a diverse body of work that draws upon an array of disciplines such as history, philosophy, literature, and music. This major solo exhibition highlights Johnson’s role as a scholar of art history, a mediator of Black popular culture, and as a creative force in contemporary art.
Almost 90 works—from black-soap paintings and spray-painted text works to large-scale sculptures, film, and video—will fill the museum’s rotunda, including Sanguine, a monumental site-specific work on the building’s top ramp with an embedded piano for musical performances. Additionally, a dynamic program of events, developed in collaboration with community partners across New York City, will activate a sculptural stage on the rotunda floor.
The exhibition is organized by Naomi Beckwith, the Guggenheim’s Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator, and Andrea Karnes, Chief Curator, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas, with additional support from Faith Hunter, Guggenheim Curatorial Assistant.
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COMMUNITY CARE & ACCESSIBILITY
At AAWW, the safety and comfort of our community is our top priority. We invite you to practice intentionality and care in your behavior and language when engaging with our programs and with each other. Violence of any kind, including but not limited to racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, ageism, class or casteism, bigotry or bias toward religion or faith, or any action or assault against marginalized identities, is not tolerated. Those who bring harm to our community in person or online are not welcome, and will be asked to exit the space. Please reach out to msaleh@aaww.org for additional accessibility requests, including ADA accessible bathrooms, chairs with added back support, and beyond. This space is for YOU!
