Writer's Talk hosted in collaboration with Galerie Myrtis and in celebration of the exhibition The Textures of Us: A Retrospective by Devin Allen, on view at Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, October 25, 2024 through January 11, 2025.
Moderated by Dr. Myrtis Bedolla, the Chief Curator and Founding Director of Galerie Myrtis, the program features a conversation with photographer Devin Allen and select contributors from his forthcoming book, Devin Allen: Baltimore. Joining them will be distinguished speakers, including scholar and award-winning author D. Watkins, as well as Michal Raz-Russo, the Programs Director of The Gordon Parks Foundation.
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Devin Allen, a self-taught artist hailing from Baltimore, embarked on a remarkable journey that led him to prominence. His breakthrough came when his powerful photograph from the Baltimore Uprising graced the cover of Time magazine in May 2015, a distinction achieved by only a handful of amateur photographers. In 2017, he was appointed the inaugural fellow of the Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for his debut book, A Beautiful Ghetto (Haymarket Books). Allen's commitment to social justice was further recognized when he was named a 2020 Ambassador for Leica Camera AG. Following the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Tony McDade, and Breonna Taylor, his work once again took center stage. TIME featured his poignant photograph from a Black Trans Lives Matter protest on their June 2020 cover, a testament to the power of his lens in capturing the spirit of the moment and the urgency of the cause. Allen’s evocative portrayals of Black life have not only captivated the hearts of many but have also been showcased in major publications such as New York Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Aperture. His photographs, a testament to his unique perspective and artistic prowess, are held in high regard and are part of the permanent collections at prestigious institutions, including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, the Jule Collins Smith Museum, and The Studio Museum in Harlem. Allen is a 2017 Gordon Parks Foundation Fellow in Art, and a recipient of The Gordon Parks Foundation/Steidl Book Prize for Devin Allen: Baltimore.
D. Watkins is The New York Times bestselling author of The Beast Side, The Cook Up, Where Tomorrows Aren’t Promised, Black Boy Smile, and other books. His book We Speak for Ourselves was Enoch Pratt Free Library’s 2020 One Book Baltimore selection. Some of Watkins’ awards include the James Beard Media Award, Gordon Park Fellowship, Pratt Library Hackerman Writer Fellowship, Vernon Jarrett “Medal of Journalistic Excellence, Society of Professional Journalists “Dateline Award for Commentary,” Gold Signal Award, Johns Hopkins University “Society of Scholars,” Johns Hopkins University “Distinguished Alumnus Award,” City Lit “Dambach Award for Service to the Literary Arts,” and the Maryland Library Association’s “William Wilson Maryland Author Award. Watkins is Editor-at-Large for Salon. Additionally, he is a writer on the HBO mini-series We Own This City and host of the show’s companion podcast. He was also featured in the HBO documentary The Slow Hustle. His work has been published in the New York Times, Esquire, New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, and other publications. Watkins is a professor at the University of Baltimore, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing. He also holds a Master of Education degree from Johns Hopkins University. He is also a 2023 Gordon Parks Foundation Genevieve Young Fellow in Writing. Watkins lives in Baltimore with his wife and daughter.
Michal Raz-Russo is programs director at The Gordon Parks Foundation and editor of Gordon Parks Foundation / Steidl Book Prize publications. In addition to directing the Foundation’s programming including fellowships and exhibitions at The Gordon Parks Foundation’s gallery, she is editor and contributor to Devin Allen: Baltimore; Jamel Shabazz: Albums; Ralph Ellison: Photographer; and LaToya Ruby Frazier: Flint Is Family In Three Acts. Raz-Russo has been involved in other recent Foundation publications, including Gordon Parks: Born Black (expanded edition) and Gordon Parks: Segregation Story (expanded edition). Previously she was the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Associate Curator of Photography and Media at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she curated exhibitions such as Subscribe: Artists and Alternative Magazines, 1970–1995; Never a Lovely So Real: Photography and Film in Chicago, 1950–1980; Leigh Ledare: The Plot; and Invisible Man: Gordon Parks and Ralph Ellison in Harlem.
Dr. Myrtis Bedolla is both the proprietor and the visionary founder of Galerie Myrtis, an emerging blue-chip gallery specializing in work created by African American and African Diasporic artists. Bedolla’s career spans over three decades as a gallerist, art advisor, and curator. In 2022, she made history by becoming the inaugural African American curator to the award-winning exhibition "The Afro-Futurist Manifesto: Reimagining Blackness," showcased during the 59th Venice Biennale as part of the European Cultural Centre's Personal Structures art fair. Bedolla partnered with Christies' Auction House to bring equity and inclusion to the art world. She gained national press in the New York Times article "Christie's and a Baltimore Gallery to Sell Work by Black Artists" and Artnet's "A Black-Owned Baltimore Gallery Aims to Change the Game by Partnering Directly with Christie's" in Sept. 2022. Highlighting the challenges faced by African American gallery owners, Bedolla was featured in the New York Times editorial “Black Gallerists Press Forward Despite a Market That Holds Them Back” in June 2020 and authored “Why My Blackness is Not a Threat to your Whiteness” in Cultured Magazine in July 2020. In 2023, Bedolla’s curatorial work and scholarly contributions earned her an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She also received a Governor’s Citation from Governor Wes Moore, underscoring her profound influence in the art and culture realm and establishing her as a distinguished curator and scholar. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland, University College, received her curatorial training at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, and earned online certificates in Cultural Theory for Curators and Curatorial Procedures from the Node Center for Curatorial Studies, Berlin, Germany. Professional memberships include AAAM, ArtTable, and IFPDA. Bedolla serves as the board chair for the UMGC’s Arts Program and is a member of the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore. Photographer: Grace Roselli, Pandora's BoxX Project