BLAQUE ORBIT Curated by Camm Harrison (Black Revivalist) LACE Screening Room Saturday, July 20, 2024, 3–9 PM Doors open at 2:45 PM, screening begins at 3 PM Philosophical Research Society 3910 Los Feliz Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027 Limited free parking available on site The LACE Screening Room presents BLAQUE ORBIT, an in-person film marathon featuring a diverse selection of shorts, feature-length films, and video art, centered around the themes of Black science fiction and Afrofuturism curated by Camm Harrison (Black Revivalist). The spelling of BLAQUE is inspired by the R&B group of the same name. Throughout their discography in the 1990s and 2000s, the group would regularly incorporate elements of sci-fi and astronomy in their visuals. The cover art used for the 2002 U.S. digital release of their sophomore album Blaque Out resembles images captured by space telescopes at NASA or other renowned space agencies. In the music videos for their hit singles “Bring It All to Me” and “808,” CGI and special effects were used to make the trio appear to levitate, teleport, and ascend into the sky akin to the style of aliens. Besides these visual effects, their videos also highlighted hip-hop dance choreography, Black hairstyles, and popular streetwear fashion of the time. The music group Blaque—similar to the artists and works featured in the program—presented new contexts for the Black body and Black person. The artists’ narratives either predicted impending forms of injustices towards Black people or gave them ultimate versions of liberation, mysticism, and transhumanism—allowing them to journey through space and time with complete and boundless freedom. BLAQUE ORBIT welcomes viewers to observe and imagine what Blackness may look like in the future or in alternate realities; to dream of Black livelihood without constraints or confinements, where the possibilities for Black people are endless; or to consider how Black and brown oppression of the past and present may impact our futures. Each of the works featured in the program creates a world that looks both like and unlike our own. They transcend the normal circumstances of Black people by presenting parables, allegories, and prophecies through a celestial, fantastical, and Black cultural lens. BLAQUE ORBIT is an invitation to reimagine and rethink Black existence and its greater significance in the cosmos. The program includes works by John Akomfrah, Jean-Pierre Bekolo, S. Torriano Berry, Wangechi Mutu, Jabu Nadia Newman, Michelle Parkerson, Tabita Rezaire, Cauleen Smith, Standing on the Corner Art Ensemble and Martine Syms; with performances by Black NASA and BAE BAE. About the Curator Camm Harrison is a Black art historian, programmer and curator based in Los Angeles. He is the founder of Black Revivalist, a screening series project which showcases an array of underrated and overlooked gems within black cinema. Recently, Harrison served as a jury member for the first annual Crenshaw Dairy Mart Film Festival. The festival took place at the historic Miracle Theater in Inglewood, CA, and showcased 19 short films by different LA-based filmmakers of color. Camm has an extensive resume that features prior roles at multiple renowned art institutions and events throughout the Los Angeles area, including: the Museum of Contemporary Art, Frieze Los Angeles, Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles, The Cinefamily, and Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair.