February 10, 2025

Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876–Now

“For generations, ancient Egypt has inspired peoples of the African diaspora. Flight into Egypt examines how Black artists and other cultural figures have engaged with ancient Egypt through visual, literary, musical, scientific, scholarly, religious, political, and performative pursuits. The exhibition explores nearly 150 years of artistic and cultural production in a range of media. While most of the work presented here is by Black Americans, works by artists from the Caribbean and by Egyptian and other African-born artists active in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere indicate the global diasporic resonance of ancient Egypt.” – The Met

“There was so much to love about this exhibit. Number one, was just the subject matter. It was fascinating to reflect on how Egypt has been both misrepresented, and the many ways it has been represented, as a source of inspiration for so many Black artists of the African diaspora. I loved the range of media in the show, from paintings and sculpture to album covers and music videos. It presented a wonderfully broad spectrum of the different ways that Black artists find expression and inspiration from Egypt.

One work in particular that was really lovely to see was by Lois Mailou Jones. I get so excited when I see her work now because I only learned of her recently through working with the National Museum of African American History and Culture on a project called the History and Culture Access Consortium, a pilot with five HBCUs.

Through that work I learned about the really important role that HBCUs historically played in furthering the careers of Black artists such as Jones. (Learn more here, including how the Atlanta Annual, a national juried exhibition, came to be.)

The exhibit runs until February 17th – I hope you can see it. If you can’t see it in person, I recommend learning more about it here.”