Name: Member Roundtable: Looking for Langston
Start: 2025-03-13T18:00
End: 2025-03-13T19:30
Location: Floor 5

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Held on Thu, Mar 13, 6:00–7:30 p.m.

MoMA, Floor 5

Isaac Julien. Looking for Langston. 1989. 16mm film transferred to high-definition video (black and white, sound), 46:29 min. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist. © Isaac Julien

Member eligibility

Not eligible Annual Pass

Not eligible Access

Eligible: Explore

Eligible: Supporting

Eligible: Patron

For any questions, contact us.

Looking for Langston, a 1989 film by British artist and filmmaker Sir Isaac Julien, meditates on the life and legacy of African American writer and activist Langston Hughes. Hughes was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, a movement of the 1920s and ’30s in which artists and intellectuals centered around New York’s Harlem neighborhood fostered new forms of Black cultural expression.

Julien’s film layers archival footage from the period with fictional sequences of a community of queer men. This gallery, including works by Robert Mapplethorpe, E. McKnight Kauffer, and more, explores how image-makers of different identities and backgrounds have shaped the representation of Black and queer life across time.

Join us for a private viewing of Gallery 510: Looking for Langston from 6:00 to 6:15 p.m., followed by a viewing of the Looking for Langston film from 6:15 to 7:00 p.m. Then enjoy a facilitated in-gallery discussion with Caitlin Ryan, assistant curator in the Department of Photography.

Questions? Please contact [email protected].

Accessibility
Assisted listening capabilities available
FM assistive-listening devices (headsets and neck loops for T-coil compatibility) are available for sound amplification.

Sign language interpretation available
American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation is available for public programs upon request with two weeks’ advance notice. MoMA will make every effort to provide accommodation for requests made with less than two weeks’ notice. Please contact [email protected] to make a request for these accommodations.

This event is part of Member Roundtable.

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