Join Cameron A. Granger and Yvonne Chireau as they delve into topics about Black belief systems explored in the exhibition Cameron A. Granger: 9999. Granger and Chireau will explore invisible institutions, the transition of conjuring practices from plantation communities in the Reconstruction Era, the development of urban magic and spiritual merchants, and the blurred lines between religion and stage magic.

RSVP is required. RSVP here.

About the Speakers:

Yvonne Chireau is the Peggy Chan Professor of Black Studies and Religion at Swarthmore College, where she teaches courses on Africana and American religions. She is the author of Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition and the co-editor of Black Zion: African American Religions and Judaism. Her forthcoming book on religion and comics is tentatively titled Comics, Graphic Voodoo, and the Imagining of Black Religion. Her writings on the intersections of magic, religion, and the Voodoo imaginary can be found online at the research blog The Academic Hoodoo.

Cameron A. Granger (b. Cleveland, OH, 1993) is an In Situ Artist Fellow at the Queens Museum. He attended Euclid, OH public schools and Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture. Granger has exhibited his work in solo exhibitions at No Place Gallery, Columbus, OH (2022); Ortega y Gasset Projects, Brooklyn, NY (2019), and Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA (2018), among others. He has shown in group exhibitions at MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY (2022), Jack Shainman The School, Kinderhook, NY (2022), and The Bemis Center for the Arts, Omaha, NE (2021), among others. Granger was an artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem, NY (2022). His film, Before I Let Go, was awarded Best Experimental Film and the Audience Award at the 2023 BlackStar Film Festival. Granger’s work can be found in the collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH. He is a member of MINT Collective & ACRE Residency. Granger lives and works between Columbus, OH and Queens, NY.