Solomon Fellow Visiting Artist Talk and Reading by Fred Moten: Observance and Observation

This event has reach seating capacity. Pending available seating, walk-in attendees will be accommodated and seated a few minutes before the start of the program. A recording of the program will be made available later in the spring.  

The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts and the Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard University are thrilled to welcome cultural theorist and poet Fred Moten as the 2023 Solomon Fellow. Please join us at 6:00pm EST for an artist talk and reading.

Fred Moten is an alumnus of Harvard College, a recent MacArthur Fellow, and a Professor in the Departments of Performance Studies and Comparative Literature at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Moten teaches courses in Black study, poetics, and critical theory, and creates new conceptual spaces that accommodate emergent forms of Black cultural production, aesthetics, and social life. In his theoretical and critical writing on visual culture, poetics, music, and performance, Moten seeks to move beyond normative categories of analysis, grounded in Western philosophical traditions, that do not account for the Black experience. He is developing a new mode of aesthetic inquiry wherein the conditions of being Black play a central role.

The Solomon Fellowship invites artists, filmmakers, and critics with strong visions and voices, embedding them into the life of the Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies. Fellows interact with students and faculty through class visits, workshops, and a public presentation, deepening the impact of visiting artists through student engagement. The Fellowship, a generous gift of the Solomon Family, extends visiting artists' involvement in the life of the Department and the University at large.