Please join us for an opportunity for tea and conversation with artist Nsenga Knight in the gallery on select Fridays and Saturdays during the run of her exhibition Close to Home.

Please note that tea will be provided first come first served while supplies last. Six visitors will be seated at a time.

To Know One Another: Tea in the Gallery with Nsenga Knight will take place on the following dates at 3pm:

• May 24
• May 31
• June 14
• June 21
• June 28
• July 27
• September 13
• September 20
• September 28

Food culture played a pivotal role in the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair. Close to Home will host a scheduled series of social gatherings by serving tea in this installation. With this act of hospitality, Knight calls on viewers to consider the power of sensorial and experiential engagement to foster understanding, connection, and appreciation among people from various corners of the world.

“I lived in Cairo Egypt for six years, right before I came to the Queens Museum to start my In Situ Artist Fellowship. In Cairo, people served black tea with mint as an act of hospitality and in return, I’d do the same. To Know One Another is an ongoing social practice artwork that takes place with my solo exhibition Close to Home. On select Fridays and Saturdays throughout the exhibition, I serve Egyptian style tea with fresh mint to the public. I invite people to sit down with me and sip tea, talk, and get to know one another.

This project and the title itself is inspired by a verse in the Quran where Allah says that he created people of different races, nations, and tribes so that we can get to know one another. The research I did in the Queens Museum’s archives from the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair played a large role in my thinking for the exhibition. From its most optimistic standpoint, this World’s Fair was also an opportunity for people from different parts of the world to get to know one another. Sharing food allows us to embody this sense of knowing.”  Nsenga Knight

About the Artist:

Nsenga Knight (b. Brooklyn, New York, 1981) is an In Situ Artist Fellow at the Queens Museum. She has exhibited her work internationally, including: Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo, Egypt (2022); Drawing Center, New York, NY (2017, 2016); Project Row Houses, Houston, TX (2015); New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY (2011); among others. Knight is a recipient of grants from Pollock-Krasner Foundation (2019), Foundation for Contemporary Art (2016), Brooklyn Arts Council (2007). She was an artist-in-residence at BRICworkspace, Brooklyn, NY (2019); and Film/Video Arts Center, New York, NY (2005) among others. She earned an MFA from University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Film from Howard University. She lives and works in New York.