Black Diaspora Art in Our Global Contemporary Moment: Some Reflections

Kobena Mercer, professor, history of art and African American studies, Yale University. Kobena Mercer’s art criticism has illuminated the aesthetic innovations of African American, Black British, and Caribbean artists. In his new book, Travel and See: Black Diaspora Art Practices Since the 1980s, he reflects on the transformative impact of artists such as Renée Green, Isaac Julien, Kerry James Marshall, and Yinka Shonibare. In this lecture, recorded on June 5, 2016 at the National Gallery of Art, Mercer discusses his publication and the future prospects of the critical discourse of hybridity and transculturation that diaspora artists have brought to debates on identity and diversity in our time.