Big news! The Gallery invites you to join us on Tuesday, March 3rd for a "Gallery After Hours" lecture and presentation, brought to us by Dr. Len Lawson!
This dynamic program will explore the imaginative world of Afrofuturism—a cultural aesthetic and intellectual movement that blends African diasporic history with speculative visions of the future across visual art, literature, film, music, and media. The program will highlight how artists and storytellers use futuristic motifs, mythology, technology, and narrative innovation to reframe identity, challenge historical narratives, and envision liberated futures. Through engaging discussion and multimedia examples, audiences will discover how Afrofuturism connects artistic expression with cultural empowerment and imagines new possibilities.
This presentation will also mark the closing of the gallery’s winter exhibitions—Dominique Hodge: The Art of Afro-Alchemy and Patrick Mahoney: Worlds Seen and Unseen—which will be on view through March 6. Hodge’s vibrant, afro-futuristic work weaves cosmology, mythology, and Black consciousness into dynamic visual narratives, while Mahoney’s compelling explorations of imagination and perception expand our sense of the seen and unseen in art.
Len Lawson is author of New Names for Stars, winner of the Lit Fox Award (Lit Fox Books, forthcoming 2026), Negro Asylum for the Lunatic Insane (Main Street Rag, 2023), and Chime (Get Fresh Books, 2019). He is also editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry (Blair Press, 2021) and Hand in Hand: Poets Respond to Race (Muddy Ford Press, 2017). He has received fellowships from Tin House Summer Workshop, Palm Beach Poetry Festival, Callaloo Barbados, Vermont Studio Center, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts among others. His poetry appears in African American Review, Callaloo, Mississippi Review, Ninth Letter, Verse Daily, and has been translated internationally. Len earned a PhD in English Literature and Criticism at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in Creative Writing at Queens University of Charlotte. Born and living in South Carolina, he is Director of African American Studies and Assistant Professor of English at Newberry College.
This event couldn't be possible without our sponsor, South Carolina Humanities. South Carolina Humanities (SC Humanities) uplifts the stories of South Carolina—past, present, and future—to foster understanding, spark dialogue, and strengthen communities statewide. Guided by a vision of an informed, connected, and engaged South Carolina, SC Humanities increases public understanding of and support for cultural humanities through educational programming and advocacy. SC Humanities is a state nonprofit organization that presents and supports literary initiatives, lectures, exhibits, festivals, oral history projects, and other humanities-based programs throughout South Carolina. SC Humanities receives support from the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as corporate, foundation, and individual donors. For more information, visit schumanities.org
For more information on Dr. Lawson, check out our link:
https://www.sumtergallery.com/events/gallery-after-hours-dr-len-lawson-lecture
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