Babette Thomas is searching for artistic Black utopias.
Thomas is the host of the latest season of SFMOMA’s Raw Material podcast. In their series, “Visions of Black Futurity,” they look at representation, identity and different historical through-lines in Black Art. Woven into the podcast is the story of curator Evangeline “EJ” Montgomery, a major player in the Black Arts scene. And EJ began her storied career in the 60s, right here in California, creating influential exhibits in the East Bay.
This week on Rightnowish, we’re featuring an episode that also dives into the stories of the famed Sci-Fi author Octavia Butler, landscape painter Richard Mayhew, and local visual artist Sydney Cain aka sage stargate (who has also been featured on Rightnowish). Throughout, Thomas hones in on the question, “Where will we host our Black art spaces of the future?”
Listen to the full series on the “Raw Material” page.
Rightnowish is an arts and culture podcast produced at KQED. Listen to it wherever you get your podcasts or click the play button at the top of this page and subscribe to the show on NPR One, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
