Celebrating the Legacy of Alma Thomas and Black Artistry
“Not Unlike Sunlight”: Celebrating the Legacy of Alma Thomas and Black Artistry Though Primary and Colorstruck!
Join acclaimed writers Alexis Pauline Gumbs and Richard J. Powell for a conversation celebrating the legacy of pioneering artist Alma Thomas and the enduring influence of Black artistry.
Hosted on the closing day of All American: Contemporary Perspectives from HBCU Artists, the program brings Gumbs and Powell together in celebration of their new books, Primary and Colorstruck!. In Primary, Gumbs writes as a spiritual student of Thomas, offering a poetic response to Thomas’s life and work, while Colorstruck! draws upon Powell’s expansive scholarship on color, Black art, and visual culture, with Thomas among the artists considered throughout the book.
As the first graduate of Howard University’s art department, Thomas holds an important place within the history of HBCU arts education and American abstraction. Through readings and conversation, Gumbs and Powell will reflect on her creative legacy, the possibilities of writing alongside visual art, and the many shades of Black artistic expression that continue to emerge in her wake.
About the Authors
Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of Survival is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde is a queer Black feminist love evangelist and an aspirational cousin to all life. Publisher’s Weekly calls her writing “groundbreaking.” She is also the author of four earlier books aka portable textual ceremonies, including Undrowned which won the 2022 Whiting Award in Non-Fiction. A recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize in Poetry, the National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship and a National Humanities Center Fellowship, Dr. Gumbs lives and loves in Durham, North Carolina.
Dr. Richard J. Powell is the John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art & Art History at Duke University, where he has taught since 1989. Powell, an authority on African American art, has organized numerous art exhibitions, most notably: The Blues Aesthetic: Black Culture and Modernism (1989); Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance (1997); To Conserve A Legacy: American Art at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (1999); Back to Black: Art, Cinema, and the Racial Imaginary (2005); and Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist (2014). Powell has published books on numerous topics, including Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson (1991), Black Art: A Cultural History (1997, 2002 & 2021), Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture (2008), Going There: Black Visual Satire (2020), and Colorstruck! Painting, Pigment, Affect (2026). From 2007 until 2010, Powell was Editor-in-Chief of The Art Bulletin, the world’s leading English language journal in art history.
About Artspace
Artspace is a non-profit visual arts center located in Downtown Raleigh. Visit Artspace to explore exhibitions featuring national and community artists, engage with more than 30 artists working in their studios, and enjoy art classes and community events for all ages and abilities. To learn more about Artspace, visit artspacenc.org
Parking and Accessibility
Free street parking is available on Davie Street. Free parking is available at the following parking decks:
City Center Deck, 429 S. Wilmington St.
Moore Square Deck, 233 S. Wilmington St.
Municipal Complex Deck, 201 W. Morgan St.
Wilmington Street Station Deck, 117 S. Wilmington St.
There are also several pay lots nearby: City Market parking lot and several Secure P lots for night + weekend parking (314 E Davie St, 415 S Person St, 417 S Person St).
Explore accessibility information with our Know Before You Go Guide.
