Alexis Pauline Gumbs — Primary: Alma Thomas, Sisterhood and the Revolutionary Quality of Light
A poetic, participatory lecture exploring Black women's creativity through the legacy of groundbreaking abstract artist Alma Thomas.
Why we picked this
Visionary writer-activist illuminates how an overlooked artist cultivated Black community and revolutionary aesthetics in segregated Washington DC.
Alma Thomas was the first graduate of Howard University’s art department, and she went on to become one of the most important abstract painters of the twentieth century — yet her name remains far less known than it should be. Alexis Pauline Gumbs uses Thomas’s life and work as a lens for understanding something larger: how Black women have built creative communities and aesthetic movements even under conditions designed to make that impossible.
This isn’t a standard art history lecture. Gumbs is a poet and activist, and her approach is participatory — expect to be drawn into the conversation, not just spoken to. Pay-what-you-will admission at Town Hall Seattle.