Ruby Aiyo Gerber (pictured above)
Writer and librettist, Prospect Heights
How do you like the show?
Everything is so intentional. There’s often this polite silence when it comes to Black art — an unwillingness to speak deeply about what the work evokes or disrupts. In Johnson’s show, it’s impossible to be silent. Everyone here has to engage with the work in some way.
Are you here with anyone?
I’m with my boyfriend. When I see art, I always like to go with a buddy. We’ll meet up before the show for a drink and kind of check in on our relationship to the work: What do we want to take away from the show? Are we going to think critically about the pieces, or are we there to talk to the people? It’s also nice being able to make eye contact with your art buddy and be like, Okay, time to go.
Where did you grow up?
Downtown Brooklyn, in the same house that my mom, the playwright Lynn Nottage, grew up in. It’s special to be able to touch a wall and know my mother had touched it and feel the presence of my grandparents. There’s so much that changes in this city so rapidly. It’s nice to have that one thing — this kind of inner world — that is still old Brooklyn.
Naomi Beckwith
Deputy director and chief curator, Midtown East
Rashid Johnson
Artist, Gramercy Park
How does it feel to have your pieces from across different decades next to one another tonight?
It’s like reuniting a bunch of my children, and it’s a family reunion at this point. I really do feel like the chorus of all of the work singing together is a story that I’m deeply proud of and extremely excited to see.
Nazy Nazhand
Art consultant, Alphabet City
Racquel Chevremont
Art adviser, Hudson Yards
Peter McGough
Artist, West Village
Is there one artwork you’ve made that’s especially important to you?
I made a temple to Oscar Wilde. It was my song to the queer community. It’s my most important work because it’s not about me.
Jamel Robinson
Artist, Harlem
Kevin Young
Writer, Washington, D.C.
Sophie Treharne Nurse
Artist liaison, Fort Greene
Kambui Olujimi
Artist, Queens
Any advice on how to interpret art?
Take your time. There are paintings and sculptures I couldn’t stand when I was 7 but fell in love with at 10; when I was 12, I thought they were pretty good, and I forgot about them until I was 22. You’re just starting a relationship with a piece of work, so there’s no pressure.
Ferguson Amo
Artist, Sunset Park
What inspired your look tonight?
The pants are particularly inspired by Japanese style, and the cropped jacket has a matador’s look. I’ve been seeing a lot of Japanese style pop up on my social media, and I was inspired by Kendrick Lamar’s outfit for the Big Steppers tour.
Lavon Kellner
Entrepreneur, Financial District
Thomas Strauss
Investment banker, Upper West Side
Angel Otero
Artist, Bushwick
Rujeko Hockley
Curator, Prospect–Lefferts Gardens
Cheryl Johnson-Odim
Professor emeritus, Evanston, Illinois
Congratulations on your son’s show. Was he drawn to art as a child?
He was a curious child — always curious about how things worked, what they did aesthetically, how they looked. He was also a generous, kind, and compassionate child. And I think all that comes out in his work.
Belinda Luscombe
Journalist, Chelsea
I love your orange top.
I love New Yorkers, but I have developed an allergy to the color black. And it seems to me every time you go to any of these events, everybody’s wearing a supersharp black outfit with one absolutely killer detail that makes it pop. And I’m just so done with that look — I can’t do it anymore.
Alberto Cribiore
Executive, Upper East Side
Jordyn Woods
Creator and entrepreneur, West Side
Photographs by Frankie Alduino
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