Celebrating Black Futures at the Vancouver Art Gallery

Led by cultural producer Hafiz Akinlusi and presented in partnership with Space Lab, the Gallery will host its first interactive hi-fi listening session that responds to the themes explored in the work of Firelei Báez, including identity, migration and Afro-Caribbean heritage.

The session will feature high-fidelity sound, experimental music and a guided reflection, offering a new way to engage with Báez’s richly layered work. The session offers participants the opportunity to explore the intersection of sound, culture and art in a deeply immersive environment.

Firelei Báez’s powerful paintings and installations will also inspire a Sound Bath: In Drexciya, held within the heart of the exhibition, led by artist and designer Courtenay Mayes. Participants are invited to connect deeply with themes of identity, resilience and transformation present in Báez’s art. 

The Gallery has also partnered with the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) to screen two feature films and one documentary short that speak to the vibrancy of Black and African cinema.

The first screening presents Mami Wata (2023), a black-and-white fantasy thriller film, written and directed by CJ Obasi, based on West African folklore. The evening will also include the short documentary Drexciya (2010), a portrait of an abandoned public swimming facility located in Accra, Ghana, directed and produced by Akosua Adoma Owusu. The second screening presents The Inheritance (2020), the inventive first feature from Ephraim Asili that weaves together the history of the MOVE liberation group, the Black Arts Movement and the filmmaker’s own formative experiences in a Black Marxist collective. 

In partnership with Artspeak and the Vancouver Black Library, the Gallery will host a special conversation between critic and educator Erica Cardwell and writer, curator, and Director of Artspeak Gallery, and Curator in Residence at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Nya Lewis. The two will discuss Cardwell’s book Wrong Is Not My Name: Notes on (Black) Art (2024), offering new perspectives on the writing that inspire dialogue and reflection. This intimate, interactive conversation will be held inside the Gallery’s Library & Archives.