IN CONVERSATION: sonia louise davis & Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts

We are delighted to celebrate sonia louise davis’s solo exhibition, a promise, a portal, possibility, with a new installment of our In Conversation series, featuring the artist in conversation with Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, author of Harlem Is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America. The program will include a special performance by davis.

Please join us on Saturday, November 14, at 2:00 PM at our Tribeca location.

Born and raised in New York City, sonia louise davis is a visual artist, writer and performer. In 2026 she joined the Board of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and participated in “Chimera” by Denniston Hill, at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia – In Minor Keys, curated by Koyo Kouoh. davis is deeply invested in improvisation. She makes tufted soft paintings, wall-based graphic scores and steel sculptural instruments, which are activated by invited musicians. She has presented her work at the Studio Museum in Harlem, MoMA PS1, Queens Museum, Whitney Museum, Baker Museum (Naples, FL), Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, Ortega y Gasset, and Artists Space, among other venues. Residencies and fellowships include the Laundromat Project’s Create Change Fellowship, Civitella Ranieri (Italy), New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowship at the International Studio & Curatorial Program, Culture Push Fellowship for Utopian Practice, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace Artist in Residence Program, Studio Immersion Project Fellowship at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop and Stoneleaf Retreat. Her work is included in the collections of the Studio Museum in Harlem, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, Mellon Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Yageo Foundation, and 7G Foundation. Her book, “slow and soft and righteous, improvising at the end of the world (and how we make a new one)” was published in 2021 by Co—Conspirator Press, which operates out of the Feminist Center for Creative Work in Los Angeles. She is an honors graduate of Wesleyan University (B.A. African American Studies) and alumna of the Whitney Independent Study Program.

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts has published widely on African-American history, politics and culture. Her book Harlem Is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America, was a New York Times Notable Book of 2011, a National Book Critics Circle Finalist and cited by BOOKFORUM as the “Best New York Book” written in the twenty years since the magazine’s founding. Her 2015 book for young readers “Jake Makes a World: Jacob Lawrence a Young Artist in Harlem” (commissioned by MoMA and illustrated by Christopher Myers) was named by Booklist among the year’s top books about art for children. Rhodes-Pitts organizes collaborative public projects through The Freedwomen’s Bureau.