This series of dialogues lead up to the 2026 exhibition The Condition of Being Near (CoBN), co-curated by Zairong Xiang, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Director of Arts (Duke Kunshan University) and Denise Ryner, Andrea B. Laporte Curator (ICA Philadelphia). The exhibition will examine the nuanced conditions and operations of south-south solidarity through the lens of a series of global acupuncture points of Afro-Asian culture, history and relationships.

CoBN invites artists, writers and community organizers to consider the wide breadth of political and social solidarities connecting Black, African, and Asian diasporas across North America, the Caribbean, and Asian and African regions. What can historical and contemporary visual cultures tell us about transracial and trans-regional Afro-Asian “stand-ins”; or networked exchanges built on astute pragmatism, community proximity, or survival economies under colonial and post-colonial re-ordering, marginalization, and erasure?

These dialogues draw together the perspectives of a range of writers, curators and artists to think broadly about known and lesser-known south-south community and regional ecologies, influences, and networks across industry, mass culture, the arts, and political thought.

This event will take place at Performance Space NYC. The address is below:

150 1st Avenue #4th floor

New York, NY 10009 United States

Schedule-At-A-Glance

Friday, May 9, 2025 from 12:00 – 8:00 PM

12:50 – Opening Remarks by Denise Ryner Andrea B. Laporte Curator (ICA Philadelphia), and Denise Ferreira Da Silva, Samuel Rudin Professor in the Humanities, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures (NYU)

1:00-2:00pm – Open Research Session with Zifeng Liu (HKBU, Hong Kong), Christian Nyampeta (artist based in New York), Lee Xie (NYU)

2:15-3:50pm – Roundtable Discussion: Afro-Asian Political Economy and Artistic Ecologies Across the Americas and the Caribbean with Michaeline A. Crichlow (Duke University, Durham), Richard Drayton (Kings College London), and Aaron Kamugisha (Smith College, Massachusetts), moderated by Denise Ferreira Da Silva.

4:00-5:30pm – Roundtable Discussion: Curating Afro-Asia Roundtable Discussion with Nikita Yingqian Cai (Times Museum, Guangzhou), Michelle Yeonho Hyun (ICA Shanghai) and Tao Leigh Goffe (Hunter College, CUNY ), moderated by Denise Ryner (ICA Philadelphia/CRACS Co-Lab Curatorial Fellow)

6:00-7:00pm – Joan Kee and Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons in Conversation

7:15 – 8:00 PM – Performance: Nothing #9: Yes + No by Autumn Knight

More details on the sessions and speaker bios can be found here.

Accessibility

Performance Space New York is located at 150 First Avenue at the corner of 9th Street in Manhattan. The courtyard is step-free; the ground is a wheelchair accessible ecofloor system (grid of tightly packed gravel). ADA all-gender bathrooms are located inside Performance Space on the 4th and 5th floors. On the 1st floor are gender-segregated, ADA, multi-stall bathrooms.

If you or a friend require a particular form of support or translation not listed here or in the event descriptions, email boxoffice@PerformanceSpaceNewYork.org.

Image Credit

Image Description: The Dixieland Steel Band (1951), Port-of-Spain, Trinidad
Courtesy of Dr. Robert Lee
Photo Credit: Ace Studio (Trinidad)