About the exhibition:

Of Black Wombhood (OBW) is a narrative portraits project led by emerging independent curator/cultural producer, Tanya Latortue. Featuring auditory and visual renderings of 10 personal narratives, OBW explores the interiority of Black womb-bearing people through stories about culture, health, sexuality, identity, and the politicization of the Black body from the past to the present.

The powerful stories from 10 individuals will be divided into two distinct yet connected exhibitions with the storytellers being featured at TILT and DVAA. Visual artist Kara Mshinda renders each story into a portrait of its narrator through her distinctive fusion of photography and collage. Sound artist JL Simonson blends interview excerpts with ambient sound and audible frequency to adapt the narratives into an experimental soundscape.

The immersive, multimedia and co-institutional project includes public events focused on the project’s intersecting themes (culture, health, sexuality, identity and the politicization of the Black body) to celebrate its narrators and creative community. To learn more about the narrators and their stories, please visit the OBW project website at theblackwombhoodproject.com.

Of Black Wombhood will be on view in Gallery 2 from June 5 - June 22 , 2025 with an opening reception on Saturday, June 7th from 4-7 pm.

ABOUT the Curator:

Tanya Latortue (she/her) is a project management professional and emerging independent cultural producer. Her practice investigates how various socio-political infrastructures can impact core physiology and humanistic psychology within the Black body. Latortue holds a Master of Public Health in Sociomedical Science from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Penn State University. She is the project’s Lead Producer.

ABOUT THE ARtists:

Kara Mshinda (she/her) is a visual anthropologist who creates photo-based artworks about identity, memory, and embodiment in community contexts. Mshinda is an alumna of Temple University (‘07) and is best known for using collage, abstract drawing, collaborative portraiture, and alternative photo processes to document urban landscapes, candid play, social encounters, and the material culture of daily life. Her recent projects include Meta, a collection of abstract ink drawings on photos, canvas, and paper and All Hands Hold, an instant film photography project and visual study about identity expression and hand performance. Mshinda is the Fellowship Director at Da Vinci Art Alliance and is a Principal Collaborator of GrioXArts, a studio-centered art space at Cherry Street Pier that focuses on building community via process-based art education.

JL Simonson (they/them) is an artist who explores transgressive temporalities, acoustic archaeology, and listening in the diaspora. They combine interoceptive recordings, archival media, extrasensory frequencies, and interactive electronics in addition to piano and guitar to create multimedia installations and electroacoustic soundscapes. Drawing from practices in oral history and historiographical cartography, Simonson has collaborated with listeners on streets and sidewalks around the world. Their work has been generously supported by Art Basel Miami, On Air Fest, Roulette Intermedium, the Estate of Pauline Oliveros, the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology, and the Great Lakes Association of Sound Studies among others.