“All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that: remembering where we were, what valley we ran through, what the banks were like, the light that was there and the route back to our original place.” —Toni Morrison
Join curator Gee Wesley for a reading group in conjunction with the exhibition Projects: Ufuoma Essi. The featured text will be Toni Morrison’s 1986 essay “The Site of Memory,” which served as inspiration for Essi’s video work Half Memory (2024), currently on view in the exhibition.
No prior preparation or background is necessary to participate. We will read the text together during the session and you will receive advance access to the text as well. There will be time for collective and small group discussions during this program, and time to view the installation.
This session is part of MoMA’s Reading Group series. Our intention is to create space for people to gather to consider a range of perspectives and think critically through guided readings of key texts that can help illuminate new ways of looking at art in MoMA’s galleries. Our priority is to create a space comfortable enough for participants to take risks with their thinking and possibly find a sense of fellowship, community, and camaraderie with the facilitator and their fellow readers. This program is free, open to all, and takes place in the galleries and in the Crown Creativity Lab.
Schedule
6:15 p.m. Check-in begins at the Speyer Entrance
6:30–7:00 Special viewing time in Projects: Ufuoma Essi
7:00–8:00 Reading Group in the Paula Crown Creativity Lab
Gee Wesley is an arts organizer born in Monrovia, Liberia, and based in Brooklyn, NY, and Providence, RI, where he is an incoming PhD student at Brown University in the Department of Modern Culture and Media. His work explores how the aesthetic and cultural practices of Black diasporas inspire liberatory ways of redefining knowledge, transforming value, and restoring the past. Wesley held roles as a curatorial associate at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; program director at Recess, Brooklyn; curatorial fellow at SculptureCenter, Queens; and curatorial fellow at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia. Wesley has been adjunct faculty at Bard College, Bennington College, the Maryland Institute College of Art, and the Yale School of Art. He is a cofounder of Ulises, a nonprofit art bookshop based in Philadelphia, and the founder of Afrophon, a project dedicated to contemporary African artists’ books, art books, and independent art publishing. Wesley received his MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College.
Accessibility
Ufuoma Essi’s Half Memory (2024) is equipped with an induction loop that transmits directly to hearing aids with T-coils.
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.
The nearest restrooms are located in the second-floor landing and the third-floor landing.
Wheelchair accessible seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
For more information on accessibility at MoMA, please visit moma.org/Visit/Accessibility/.
The Adobe Foundation is proud to support equity, learning, and creativity at MoMA.
Access and Community Programs are supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).
Major funding is provided by Volkswagen of America, the Agnes Gund Education Endowment Fund for Public Programs, The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art Endowment for Educational Programs, the Jeanne Thayer Young Scholars Fund, and the Annual Education Fund.