Black Lunch Table’s (BLT) primary aim is the production of discursive sites, wherein artists and local community members engage in dialogue on a variety of critical issues. BLT mobilizes a democratic rewriting of contemporary cultural history by animating discourse around and among the people living it. First staged in 2005 at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture artist residency, the project has grown by way of contributions from and collaborations with artists, digital humanities researchers, and Wikipedians. BLT currently includes two roundtable series’, an online oral history archive, and a Wikipedia initiative. Much like its creation of physical spaces that foster community and generate critical dialogue, BLT creates a digital space for art, Black studies and social justice issues.
Black Lunch Table
Black Lunch Table Wikimedia edit-a-thon at 2019 Nashville REAL Symposium, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 2019.
Black Lunch Table Wikimedia edit-a-thon at The New School Centennial Festival, The New School, New York, NY 2019.
Black Lunch Table at the Black Artists Retreat, Chicago, 2014.
Black Lunch Table’s First Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY 2015
1964
Philip Johnson commissioned Warhol to make a large-scale work for the exterior for his pavilion for the New York World’s Fair, along with other artists. Warhol’s provocative response, a multiple portrait of ‘Most Wanted Men’ was installed a few days before the opening but was deemed too inflammatory and contrary to the upbeat image of the World’s Fair and the work was taken down.