Upcoming Programs

Layers: Defining Our Relationship with African American Hair

February 3rd at 5pm

Join the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) San José on Friday, February 3rd at 5pm for a conversation with artists and poet: Tachiya Byrant, Stardust, and Venus Jones on the topic of hair for black history month. Each artist will discuss their relationship to hair, how they use it to express themselves, and how it becomes a form of resistance to the pressures Black women continue to face. 

Black women often have a complex history with their hair. To assimilate to Eurocentric beauty, we are taught to contain it, tame it, or mask our real hair. Our physical features determine where we rank in our community. There is a liberation in taking back the power in our self-expression and accepting who we are. There is power in casting aside the preconceived notion of what it means to have “good” or acceptable hair. 

Join us as these artists discuss how they utilize hair in their self-expression and how that impacts their art practice. The conversation will end with a poetry reading of “Good Hair” by Venus Jones. Stay after for our First Friday event with music and drinks!

New Strategies of Display: Asian American Art, Technology & Storytelling

Zoom discussion panel

Installation View: New Mythologies at Cult Aimee Friberg Exhibition in San Francisco, 2021

Artists’ Workshop

TBD