“Opening Passages” : a discussion with zakkiyyah najeebah dumas-o’neal and Elizabeth Cummings, proposed by Ladies Who Lit

Join Ladies Who Lit at the Chicago Cultural Center for a panel discussion with photographer zakkiyyah najeebah dumas-o’neal and Elizabeth Cummings, Director of Public Engagement at the Richard H. Driehaus Museum, moderated by LWL founder Kaylen Ralph, and inspired by Ruth Reichl’s “The Paris Novel”. Reichl’s novel, and its main character’s personal evolution, takes place in 1980s Paris, while “Opening Passages” stands as a survey of the contemporary social landscapes of Paris and Chicago. dumas-o’neal’s contributions to the exhibition, a multi-media reflection on what it means to deepen definitions of self and place through environments that have offered her the most peace and fullness, and Cumming’s extensive knowledge of art and French history will help bridge this work of fiction with reality. 

Reichl’s use of Édouard Manet’s famous “Olympia” painting will factor prominently in this discussion, but be prepared to take the author’s clever plot device even further, addressing themes such as bodily and artistic autonomy, and the representation of womens bodies and black bodies in art history and today. An audience Q&A will follow the panel discussion. 

RSVP is requested, but not required for this free event. Please register here, and note that this event will be filmed. Entering the space will be considered acceptance to be filmed.

About Opening Passages:

Organized by Villa Albertine in Chicago, “Opening Passages” brings together ten photographic series by French and American artists such as Marzena Abrahamik, Jonathan Michael Castillo, zakkiyyah najeebah dumas o’neal, Tonika Johnson, and Sasha Phyars-Burgess for the United States, and Gilberto Guiza-Rojas, Karim Kal, Assia Labbas, Marion Poussier, and Rebecca Topakian for France. Curated by Carl Fuldner in association with Pascal Beausse from the Centre national des arts plastiques and Clément Postec from the Ateliers Médicis, it is supported by the Terra Foundation for the American Arts, Albertine Foundation chapter in Chicago, the Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Chicago and the Institut Français.

About the Panel:

zakkiyah najeebah dumas-o’neal is a Chicago-based visual artist, recipient in 2023 of the Chicagoland Seen grant commission funded by the Chicago chapter of the Albertine Foundation. Her work engages a more nuanced understanding of selfhood and Black femme existentialism, navigating the intricacies and complications of belonging and aliveness across time, location, and space. Her work has been presented in various forms at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, NADA, The Art Institute of Chicago, Centre Pompidou, The August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Chicago Humanities Festival, DePaul University, EXPO Chicago, and Harvard Graduate School of Design to name a few. She has held research forward artist residencies at the University of Chicago, Indiana University, and was a 2022 3Arts Awardee. Her work is represented in both private and public collections, including the Block Museum of Art and The Eskenazi Museum of Art.

Elizabeth Cummings is currently the Director of Public Engagement at the Richard H. Driehaus Museum in Chicago, a role she has held since November 2021. Previously, she served as Public Programs Manager at the Newberry Library from August 2017 to October 2021. With extensive experience in the cultural and museum sectors, Elizabeth has also worked as an exhibitions, collections, and programs consultant, and held positions at the Design Museum of Chicago, GfK, Conifer Research, and the Art Institute of Chicago. She holds a Master’s degree in the History of Design from the Royal College of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum. She is fluent in French, has an extensive knowledge of art and French history  and is involved with the Paris Committee of Sister Cities International and the French-American Chamber of Commerce in Chicago.

Kaylen Ralph is a writer and publicist working at the intersection of arts, culture and commerce in Chicago. She is the founder and moderator of Ladies Who Lit, a multi-platform, events-focused book club celebrating writing by women. In 2013, she graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism and co-founded The Riveter magazine, a longform women’s print and digital magazine, which was in print circulation and online through 2018. She is the co-editor of New Stories We Tell: True Tales By America’s New Generation of Great Women Journalists, an anthology of longform journalism featuring contemporary writing, published by The Sager Group in October 2019.

About Ladies Who Lit:

Ladies Who Lit is a Chicago-based book club celebrating women’s writing. Open to all, it fosters nuanced conversations about the female experience in literature and contemporary culture at large.