In Memoriam: Camille Billops, An Avant-garde Artist to be Recognized and Reckoned With

Every creative, cultural and racial experience has to do with my work.  I sift and look and taste. Camille Billops (1977) The passing of Camille Billops (1933-2019) comes as a shock to the system.  She will forever be remembered as a force in the art world, especially as an advocate for the preservation of the Read More …

Talking back: bringing Beat counterculture into the modern era through dance

Author William S. Burroughs said, “In the U.S. you have to be a deviant or die of boredom.” Burroughs was certainly the former. He was a lifelong heroin addict, who wrote explicitly and affectionately of his drug use. He was openly queer at a time in American history when you could be arrested simply for Read More …

The Beautiful is Political: The Dianora Niccolini Papers at MARBL

Emory’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library recently acquired the papers of New York photographer Dianora Niccolini. Niccolini is best known for her fine art portraits of male models and athletes. Her photographs have been featured in numerous anthologies and are today housed in museums and private collections throughout the United States. The Dianora Niccolini Read More …

New Exhibition for “Revealing Her Story: Documenting African American Women Intellectuals”

“Revealing Her Story: Documenting African American Women Intellectuals” is a two-year project funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to arrange and describe the personal papers of nine African American women writers, artists and musicians. Collections included in the project are the Pearl Cleage papers; additions to the Delilah Jackson papers; the Samella Read More …

Realism, Symbolism, and Identity: The John Biggers Papers

In the late 1990s, as the long career of painter, sculptor, and university professor John Biggers was drawing to a close, the artist received letters from admirers commenting on his life’s work. A native of Gastonia, North Carolina, Biggers spent most of his career in Houston, Texas. There, he founded the Art Department at Texas Read More …

The Samella S. Lewis Papers

We are pleased to announce that the processing of the Samella S. Lewis papers is now complete. Samella Lewis is an artist, educator, filmmaker and author from New Orleans. She attended Dillard University, Hampton University and Ohio State University and has taught at many American universities. She is the founder of the International Review of Read More …

“Revealing Her Story” Exhibition for Women’s History Month

 “Revealing Her Story: Documenting African American Women Intellectuals” is a two-year project funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to arrange and describe the personal papers of nine African American women writers, artists and musicians. Collections included in the project are the Pearl Cleage papers; additions to the Delilah Jackson papers; the Samella Read More …

Three Little Words

Valentine’s Day has a reputation for being shallow. It is ridiculed for its materiality (the flowers! the expensive gifts! the obligatory chocolate boxes and sentimental notes!) and vilified as a poorly-concealed corporate moneygrubbing scam. Beyond our suspicion of Hallmark, though, is a more instinctual conviction about the holiday dedicated to love – we feel it Read More …

Struggle Against Disease and Discrimination: The Jesse Peel Papers

MARBL is pairing with Southern Spaces, a peer-reviewed, multimedia, open-access journal published in collaboration with the Robert W. Woodruff Library of Emory University, to publish short features on MARBL collections, events, and exhibits that tell the history of spaces and places in the US South. These posts investigate the geographical, historical, and cultural study of Read More …

Processing Fun: Samella Lewis’ Subject Files

“Revealing Her Story: Documenting African American Women Intellectuals” is a two-year project funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to arrange and describe the personal papers of nine African American women writers, artists and musicians. Collections included in the project are the Pearl Cleage papers; additions to the Delilah Jackson papers; the Samella Read More …

Processing Fun: Graduate Student Introduction

  “Revealing Her Story: Documenting African American Women Intellectuals” is a two-year project funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to arrange and describe the personal papers of nine African American women writers, artists and musicians. Collections included in the project are the Pearl Cleage papers; additions to the Delilah Jackson papers; the Read More …