(photo: Sophia Wilson, via Facebook)

The Future Is (Black) Femme
Opening Friday, September 22 at 329 Broome Street, 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm. On view through October 3.

While the rest of our art opening recs for this week correspond with the return of Bushwick Open Studios, this show is happening in Manhattan. Lower Manhattan, so you Brooklyn dwellers don’t have to travel very far, don’t worry. The Future Is (Black) Femme is, unsurprisingly, an art exhibition of work by black femme artists. For the uninformed, “femme” is a term that describes a feminine-presenting person that may but doesn’t necessarily have to conform to the binary identity of “woman.” It can also mean a feminine-presenting lesbian, used as the opposite of “butch.”

Enough about semantics, on to the art. The exhibition is curated by Jessica Pettway, Josette Roberts, and Miranda Barnes, and features the work of 14 artists, including Roberts and Barnes. Though every artist identifies as a black femme and an artist, the show’s content spans a wide variety of artistic disciplines and themes, as every artist has something unique to say about existing in this country as a black femme. These lived experiences can often be painful, but the exhibition’s description notes that “similar themes of kinship, tenderness and rejoicing” are present throughout all the works. More →