Marie-Ann Yemsi
Exhibition Curator and Contemporary Art Consultant
January 2025
- Visual Arts
- Washington, DC
“Today, The AFRO-American Newspapers holds one of the best-preserved collections of Black press archives in the United States, comprising approximately three million photographs, thousands of letters, rare audio recordings, and historical documents related to the publishing industry.”
Expanding our knowledge communities and imaginations through exhibitions dedicated to critical dialogue about the pasts and futures, and reinventing possibilities for sharing with artists and audiences in more innovative and inclusive cultural and artistic institutions: These have been the focal points around which I have structured and developed my practice as a curator and contemporary art consultant.
My multicultural experience as a French national of German and Cameroonian origin, along with my academic background in political and social sciences, has inspired and guided my approach to contemporary art. I practice a “traveling thought” approach that explores all narratives, delves into their silent folds, and opens perspectives that question our representations, our relationship to the Other, and the world. I have thus committed myself to the visibility and recognition of the most avant-garde or experimental emerging artists from the Global South, particularly from the African continent, its diasporas, and the Caribbean, whose artistic practices question the effects of colonial history and the legacy of an universalism that struggles to encompass a plural world.
Over the past decade, in my research and curatorial practice, I have paid particular attention to the erasures and silences within hegemonic historical narratives. My research project on the archives of the AFRO-American Newspapers, an important yet underappreciated source of knowledge about the modern history of the African American community, is part of this reflection and approach. Through this residency and the subsequent exhibition and publication, I aim to contribute to weaving new narratives about history that impact and inform the world today.
Marie-Ann Yemsi is an independent curator and contemporary art consultant. With a background in political science, she develops multidisciplinary artistic programs at the intersection of visual arts, performance, dance, music, and writing. Her research and exhibition projects are particularly focused on collaborative artistic practices and experimental forms, especially those developed by artists from various perspectives of the Global South, highlighting themes of memory, history, gender, and identity in relation to current political, social, and ecological issues. As a guest curator for the 2025 MOMENTA Biennale (Montreal, Canada), she has curated numerous international exhibitions both in France and abroad.
Since their founding in 1892 by John Murphy and Martha Elizabeth Howard Murphy, the AFRO-American Newspapers have chronicled world history from the perspective and experience of Black communities. Based in Baltimore, this family-owned press, which has remained in the same family from generation to generation, once had numerous editions and even European offices during World War II. Today, The AFRO-American Newspapers holds one of the best-preserved collections of Black press archives in the United States, comprising approximately three million photographs, thousands of letters, rare audio recordings, and historical documents related to the publishing industry.
My project, which takes various forms—documentary, fictional, speculative—aims to examine the historical impact and influence of the magazine on local, regional, and national history in order to highlight its potential as a repository of languages from which we can draw new perspectives on history and contemporary narratives.
Thus, my research in this exceptional collection seeks to reconstruct and weave together the threads of the newspaper’s historical engagements, delving not only into visual archives but also uncovering letters and texts written by Black literary, political, and artistic figures. Among the journalists employed by the paper were notable figures such as Langston Hughes (who covered the Spanish Civil War), William Worthy (who covered revolutions in Iran, Cuba, and China), and artist Romare Bearden, who was hired by the paper as a cartoonist in 1936.
This documentary research is complemented by a more experimental, fictional, and speculative approach to the archives, in collaboration with invited artists who will create works inspired by the AFRO News archives.
The first focus of my research is on the archives of AFRO News in Baltimore, where they were established and are maintained by AFRO Charities, as well as in Washington and New York, where I will be searching for the archives of other Black magazines, such as the Frederick Douglass Voice, published in Rochester and circulated from 1933 to 1996.
The management and preservation of the collection of photographs, writings, editorials, and audio documents have been entrusted to AFRO Charities, a nonprofit organization led by Savannah Wood, the great-great-granddaughter of the founders of AFRO News. With her help, that of her team, and the archivist of this collection, I will conduct in-depth research in the various archives and select photographs, writings, and different documents that will enrich my exhibition project and the accompanying publication. I also plan to conduct interviews with “historical” members of the magazine’s founding family, as well as meetings with local actors and cultural activists involved in social and community activities related to the magazine since its inception. Finally, I aim to engage with scholars whose work focuses on the history of Black archives.
The second focus of my research involves curatorial work with visual artists primarily in Baltimore and New York who have previously worked with or will work on the magazine’s archives in 2024, in order to develop and structure the exhibition project planned for the Rencontres d’Arles in 2025, with a possible subsequent tour under consideration.